Do You Remember Yanis Varoufakis and MH17? Two Huge Hurdles for New Italian Government

Yes, Italy's M5S-League Government = Reprise of Greece 2015. The issue is basically the same. Can a sovereign government engage in deficit spending to stimulate its economy without the eurocrats in Brussels and Frankfurt vetoing it by means of engineering a punishing banking crisis? And if the answer is no, then will the new government be brought to heel or, mixing metaphors, will it collapse in the crib?

Italy is much larger than Greece (like a cruiserweight vs. a middleweight). So it has more punching power at its disposal. Also, France has been allowed to run deficits without punishment. But the problem is that the marriage of the Five Star Movement and the League is one that M5S party fathers appear to have embraced out of fear that their electoral mandate is fast fading. A little counter-punching from Brussels and Luigi Di Maio might very well go down.

When in Doubt, Poke the Bear. Now that Giuseppe Conte has survived Jason Horowitz's smear and been asked by president Sergio Mattarella to form a government, and that government is firmly opposed to continuing EU sanctions on Russia, sanctions that were put in place following the media firestorm that accompanied the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 and the death of all 296 passengers, it is no coincidence that the kangaroo "Joint Investigative Team" would hold a press conference to announce that Russia was responsible.

There is absolutely no new evidence provided.

"Prosecutors showed photos and videos of a truck convoy carrying the system as it crossed the border from Russia to Ukraine. It crossed back several days later with one missile missing. The vehicles had serial numbers and other markings that were unique to the 53rd brigade, an anti-aircraft unit based in the western Russian city of Kursk, they said.

It's the same several-years-old Eliot Higgins chicanery repeatedly debunked by the late Robert Parry. But it needs to be dusted off and spotlighted anew because Italy now poses a threat to continuing EU sanctions on Russia.