Defiant Catalans Block Spain’s Military Boats From Landing; Spain Seizes “.CAT” Domai

Rx_

Nothing In Moderation
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Just an observation: Wow, you can't make this stuff up!

Democracy In The EU - Will this return the Franco dictatorship?
There is a revolution going on this week in Spain. The people vs the government. The people want to vote peacefully, the government hired cruse ships, filled them with military police that intend to prevent voting.

Spain’s plan to send boatloads of military police to Catalonia to prevent its independence referendum have backfired with dockers in two ports staging a boycott and a third refusing access.
Yes, Spanish authorities wanted to house the Guardia Civil officers on four cruise ships – two in Barcelona, one in Tarragona and another in Palamos.
The Assembly of Stevedores of the Port of Barcelona announced that workers would not provide any services to boats carrying security forces, a decision it said was taken “in defense of civil rights”.

More than 40,000 people have gathered in Barcelona to protest over the arrests and the intervention of the Spanish government in organizing peaceful Catalan independence vote.
Many of the angry protesters have been waving Catalonia’s red and yellow flag while chanting “We will vote” and “Hello Democracy!”
Tensions have been further fuelled by reports that those detained are likely to face charges of sedition, which carries a lengthy prison sentence, harshest conditions, and seizure of property.
In an editorial, The Times, a historic British conservative daily, accuses prime minister Mariano Rajoy of “repression.”

Spain's Government Seizes “.CAT” Domain
Most sites with the .cat suffix belong to the Catalan-speaking community. Spain raided the offices.
Does ICANN Support the Government Sponsored Censorship?
In a letter to ICANN, the foundation said that the Spanish authorities had asked it to “block all .cat domain names that may contain any kind of information about the forthcoming independence referendum.”
“We are being requested to censor content and suppress freedom of speech,” the organization added.
Update in Denver Post Sept 24, 2017 - In images that shocked observers around the world, police confiscated election material, including 10 million ballot papers, and arrested 13 officials on a warrant from a Barcelona-based judge.

Wow! You can't make this stuff up!
 
Got to love the international photos of the Catalan firefighters protecting the citizens from the Spanish Federal Police clubbing the voters.
Typical treatment for Tax Slaves that are getting those evil ideas about freedom.
Now the Euro Banks are considering freezing all Catalan accounts since any money in a bank doesn't actually belong to a depositor unless they are in compliance with the beliefs of the Orwellian State.
It use to be the Spanish Church and State, now its the Bank and State.

I told my elected official that we need to pull US Troops for NATO off of the peaceful Russian border and send them to violent Catalonia.
 
Just for people outside of Europe;

There is also a quite large number of Catalans who are not in favour of becoming a separate state, unfortunately they weren't as keen to vote in the face of the viciousness of the response from the Spanish Government, and subsequently weren't as news worthy.

I'm not condoning the actions - I thought it was an appalling abuse of brute force, just making the other side of the actual issues voice a bit more obvious.
 
Back in 1937, Earnest Miller Hemingway agreed to report on the Spanish Civil War for the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA). I wish the US still had reporters like those days.
Our reporters today just check Facebook then ask the censors what they are allowed to print.
 
If delve back into European history, unfortunately an onerous number of conflicts originated out of the Czech / Serbian / Slovakian areas.
I think it was a major central arterial trade route in the past and hence prime for "taking over"
 
If delve back into European history, unfortunately an onerous number of conflicts originated out of the Czech / Serbian / Slovakian areas.
I think it was a major central arterial trade route in the past and hence prime for "taking over"

Yes I'm sure you're right
Out of interest, what's an onerous number? Typo for e.g. enormous?

Of course, UK could be added to the list of countries likely to rip itself apart at some point
 
Yes I'm sure you're right
Out of interest, what's an onerous number? Typo for e.g. enormous?

Of course, UK could be added to the list of countries likely to rip itself apart at some point

Hopefully we (the rest of the UK) will break free from London. Claim a payoff for the "national" infrastructire it ploughs into itself. Then put up huge tarriffs on everything it does.;)
 
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Warning: descriptions of police injuring over 900 citizens

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6tvdxW-wi8

We saw women being dragged out of voting places by their hair, old ladies with gashes in their foreheads, ...
The EU Court of Human Rights won't even talk about the Military Police

Longer video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcxcrxslnYk

Radio Show (video) describing the Spanish incident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGySlS0laSI 44 Minutes
Memories of General Franco. The Rule of Law of the EU "must be enforced".
At no point did Brussels give one word of the violence.
Now, Nigel takes calls from the public - first call is from Spain... who says you are absolutely wrong. I found this very informative.

Today's Chart on Spanish Bond
https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/iHwxNi7VqJyo/v1/800x-1.png
How does this affect the US?
There are many retirement funds (government and private) with investments in the Spanish Bond. Before Catalan started, the bonds were in zombie mode (dead but pretending to be living) due to its debt load.
Now, the Spanish bonds are being dumped.
Retirement funds are slow to react to the market changes and could bear the brunt of the loss.
With the EU failing to take action, the contagion becomes concerning.
 
And yet people wonder about how contentious the USA Civil War was from 150+ years ago.

Yet another case of federalism vs. local rights playing out in modern times.

I don't know the specific issues over which the separatist movement was started. I DO know that the conflict between strict centralized authority and less stringent distributed authority will play itself out YET AGAIN because people don't study history. They don't WANT to believe that there are parallels to other such situations in history because they have their mantras:

It can't happen here!

... and ...

Oh, this is an entirely different situation, not the same thing at all.

To which I will repeat: Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
 
What is Next? The last 24 hours indicates the situation can not be easily resolved. We are all just observers watching how this might play out. The story evolves into a "you can't make up this kind of movie plot".

Rock and a Hard Stone: With Spain having extended the ultimatum given to Catalan leader Puigdemont to definitively clarify his stance on the declaration of independence through Thursday, the separatist leader finds himself increasingly trapped, as a response will either prompt a crackdown by Spain or a blowback from other pro-independence groups inside Catalonia.

US Focused on other things: Common US headlines Is War With Iran Now Inevitable?
The US news coverage of Catalan is way less popular than recent news about Iran. Many sources headlines indicate that the US appears to be focused on a war with Iran. The President's number one advisor on Iran is his Ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley. Ambassador Haley is a “diplomat” who believes war is the best, first option rather than the last, worst option according to a former Wall Street Journal writer. The writer disclosed that "She has no prior foreign policy experience, but her closest mentors John Bolton – the neoconservative who lied us into the Iraq war."

Just hours ago, more than 200,000 people took to the streets in Barcelona, demanding the release of what they consider political prisoners after they were arrested earlier this week on charges of sedition. The crowd was diverse. Some wore suits, while others were in torn jeans. The young helped the old light candles.

While Spain has given a deadline, the federal police might continue to abduct leaders without clear guidance from their constitution. Catalan leaders are imprisonment without bail. Other news stories reported that federal police are free to raid any suspected independence support location. They confiscated anything including signs, paper, and even glue with brushes.

UK Recent Statement on Catalan:
British Prime Minister Theresa May told her Spanish counterpart, Mariano Rajoy, on Tuesday that the Catalan referendum was illegal and the U.K. would not recognize Catalan independence.
Any unilateral declaration from Catalonia “would be inconsistent with the rule of law,” May said in a phone call with Rajoy, according to a statement from Downing Street.

One might suspect the China Communist Party can't publicly support any concept that would support of citizens voting or of independence from a central government.
 

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