01 Sunday Oct 2017
Posted | October 1, 2017 1:10:29 | Economics
Hello prime minister Mariano Rajoy. This is what the world sees of you.
Police Attack Catalan Firefighters
Reflections on Writing the Law
Easy Prediction
Despite constant drivel from Rajoy, the vote largely took place as Catalonia president, Carles Puigdemont, declared all along.
Rajoy has already managed to take down one of the videos I linked to. Not sure how long this collection will last.
Update: close to 800 no reported injured by the police.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
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Sheep meet sheepdogs
The owners of this people ranch are in charge
Never forget it.
This is a huge PR screwup for Rajoy.
Huge is not the word. Had he allowed the referendum it MAY have failed. Had he allowed the referendum while promising Catalonia a better deal it LIKELY would have failed. Had he not undermined the 2010 deal with Catalonia it WOULD have failed.
Please note how huge this is for the EU, what does it say about their ideas?
They TACITLY APPROVE.
They have ignored plebiscite in the past and as one twitter contributor noted they INSTALLED technocratic Govs elsewhere in the past.
Thoroughly disgusting.
The team of “academic” observers declared the referendum valid, they ask EU to punish Spain and intervene on behalf of Cataluña.
Puigdemont has just declared Cataluña has won the right to independence. The results will be taken the Catalan parlament ( presumably tomorrow) from where independence will be presumably be declared.
https://youtu.be/NLfUvtiClGs
This is the real story… the real point. The EU may not have an army, but the state has no problem ordering their paramilitary police goons to physically beat their own people. Nice. Apparently the ‘moral high ground’ is just
Statists are looting their plantations to conjure a perception of solvency.
None of the PIIGS are governed democratically… they are mere serf states serving the grand state (which is led by unelected bureaucrats)… quite a system, that EU.
If you are a citizen of Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, etc., then you are a serf of a serf of a serf… well done, europeans… you’ve voluntarily enslaved yourselves. Europe may have enjoyed 70 of peace, but did so at the expense of sovereignty, both national & personal.
EU makes sure it is never to blame, just pulls strings and waits till people go to it for answers. Most governments in EU are corrupt to that. Citizens are confused or stupid to that, if they complain they complain about their own country, and get swept into answers EU provides. It is a vile system that pits all against all in the name of unity.
It’s not like as if the US is any different. Weren’t in 1861, weren’t in 1996 during the Freemen standoff.
Corrupt too. They swept their own corruption investigation under the carpet.
No surprise with the people they have in charge.
http://www.euronews.com/2017/06/28/why-won-t-brussels-release-report-on-eu-wide-corruption
The EU will order another referendum, until it gets the right result. Worked in the past.
Which best serves world government domination;
1) Peace and prosperity
2) chaos.
These are not stupid people. The seek rule by manipulation and chaos.
There are no unintended consequences.
It doesn’t seem that they left Catalonia any alternative other than to declare Independence. I presume that comes next, and then the bullets will likely not be rubber. There are no winners here.
Guernica in 1937 and Barcelona in 2017.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
How far will Brussels “commissars” go to justify the violence against the civilians ?
They need to protect the bond holders after all ( sarc ).
This comparison is a little over the top, don’t you think? Guernica was flattened to the ground. This looks more like the police reaction to Eastern-European anti-communist demonstrations in 1989. And even that was a much rougher situation than what is happening in Catalonia.
The end result is the same, Spanish government will keep the power, Catalans won’t get their
independence, younger generation will migrate to Germany and ECB will buy Spanish bonds as a reward.
Eighty years ago Joe Stalin took the blame for Spanish Civil War.
Too much at stake to let Catalans to have a say and accidentally blow up the Euro bond market into the monetary fairy tale haven.
The usual boogeyman will have the blame assigned to him and sanctions will follow.
I think it would be wise to wait a few days and see where this will go. I don’t believe the direction is as obvious as you are presenting.
Catalans did not hire Goldman Sachs or Deutsche Bank as advisers to get “The Blessing” from Brussels and ECU and manage the transition period from the upcoming Declaration of Independence to the divorce proceedings with Spain. This is an indication of no consent from the overlords class in Brussels.
In 1989 East – Europeans had the consent, “blessing” and a full support from Western Power Centers. Catalans don’t have Euro oligarchs support for their independence project.
I wish them well, I just don’t see how they gonna succeed.
EU commission says will give opinion Monday. The bond market is owned is not a fair measure as it is there is a lot of ECB & co. control over it.
Madrid just lost its last shred off legitimacy.
Time for King Felip to step in
This going to leave some deep scares in the society. This appart, cops are cops, no mater where you live; they’ll beat the crap out of you upon order and for the pension. Their prime task; protect the government.
I did notice even the black suited federal enforcers hestitated a moment when assaulting little old ladies and 12 year old girls. They need more “ training”
Most individual officers will break down if the protests are sufficiently widespread, relentless and seemingly unending. Faced with the almost certainty of spending the next several decades cracking a thousand peaceful old ladies’ skull daily, cops just won’t do it. That’s largely how the Indians gained independence from the Raj. And how the Christians beat. and then converted, the Romans.
The Nazis were aware that very few has the stomach to terrorize innocents indefinitely, and specifically staffed the SS with hardened, psychopathic thugs from prisons, in an attempt to get around that. Most police officers, despite how scary they may look in riot gear, aren’t like that. They’re just regular guys.
As long as the Catalans behave peacefully, the cops will soon be worn down by the violence. The Israeli security forces are not, but because the Palestinians, at least many of them, are not peaceful. So the Israelis are, rightfully, scared; and feel justified in using their superior armament to inflict brutality. But it is extremely unlikely that a bunch of regular Spanish guys who hoppen to be cops, will for long tolerate being told to act like that, as long as the Catalans remain peaceful.
Thank you Mish for your coverage of Catalonia.
A propaganda arm of the Deep State, the U.S. Media, continues to ignore the most important story in the world and Donald Trump continues to support Rajoy.
It may be a huge event for Catalonia and Spain, but I don’t see any relevance to anyone outside that region. Gold bugs sure seem to obsess over small countries in Europe a lot.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLD6XA7X0AAoSGh.jpg
It supposed to be a liberal democracy inside a liberal supranational state.
It’s huge. Violence against the people by the State. State sanctioned and EU tacitly approved.
The message – don’t act on a mass opinion the State doesn’t agree with or you will be beaten up and no one will give a shit.
Reblogged this on The Most Revolutionary Act and commented:
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According to Al Jazeera, 73% of the polling stations remained open and 27% were closed by national police. Counting has begun.
I HAVE DECIDED TO BOYCOTT CATALONIA I WILL JUST DRIVE TO THE BORDER WITH MY FORD AMERICAN CAR CAUSE I M COOL SEE THAT
GO TO THE SUPERMARKETS TO MAKE ERRANDS AS IT IS CHEAPER THAN IN MY HOME COUNTRY SOUTH OF FRANCE BUT WON T STAY THERE AS I M FED UP OF ALL THOSE RIOTS COMING NEXT TO TERROR ATTACKS FROM ISIS IN BARCELONA
I D RATHER GO IN HOLIDAYS TO PORTUGAL SUNNY BEACHES NEXT YEAR
Sea tends to be colder though being on the Atlantic side.
Free air conditioning.
Gee speaking of police brutality. How come you didn’t write extensible about this?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/07/29/u-s-police-chiefs-blast-trump-for-endorsing-police-brutality/?utm_term=.2844fbb99cf6
Oh yeah you voted for the guy. I guess police brutality has many shades of grey for you and Trump supporters
What a fiasco. Spain is a disgrace. A somber moment for the West. You know I’ve got this feeling of dread, deep in my gut, this is just a preview of what’s to come in the USA, in the fairly near future. Let’s hope not.
to come in america? right now it is antifa that is doing the beat downs, not the police
Tourism is #1 Spanish earner.
This won’t help.
From what i could discern, the large increase in tourism in spain was due to other popular tourist countries being less stable and safe. Rajoy really knocked a few percents off GDP. Unbelievable . He must have got a few pointers from Erdogan .
Yes, Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt all took tourist hits and Spain, Balearics and Canaries all benefitted.
You need some captions like….
We warned you
Your taxpayer dollars at work
Democracy is for others not you
Give me your guns, we will protect you
No safe zone
Subduing terrorists endangering the state
To name a few
Important policing tip: if you’re under orders putting on a stocking black mask while carrying out your official duties like carting away voting containers you might want to think twice about how completely “legal” your actions are.
The world doesn’t care.
The world would only care if the media portrayed this as a fascist act of violence by the state against ordinary people who wanted to vote on their independence.
The American MSM is describing the vote as an illegal act that provoked Spain to intervene.
Nothing to see here.
Besides, it’s NFL Sunday.
A search of MSNBC website for Catalonia brings up two articles. One is a 2011 article about Homer Simpson. The other is a 2016 article about the 80th anniversary of the Spanish Civil war. Other news services I checked are covering the story.
The US media outlets all endorsed, implicitly and sometimes explicitly, the terrorist activities of antifa groups. US media is not a bastion of morality, they are a big part of the problem.
I am happy Trump and Obama are staying out of it. When Rajoy next calls the White House or the State Department, Trump should be too busy to take the call — no official statement necessary or appropriate. Just let Rajoy stand alone and isolated. Refusing to take his call sends a message, even if it denies the media weenies a sound bite.
The politicians who now have a serious problems are Merkel and Macron… is this what “ever closer Europe” means? It doesn’t matter what the media thinks or censors. Both Macron and especially Merkel need to build functioning coalitions in their countries, and this Soviet style crackdown by Rajoy is going to kill any chance of a Merkel coalition.
Does Merkel say the EU must de-recognize Rajoy (damaging the EU), or does Merkel implicitly endorse a Soviet crackdown (damaging the CDU and herself)? Macron has lost popularity already, but if he stays silent he may face an early election.
The “Ever closer Europe” gang was just put in a box.
Thankfully, Trump is staying out of it. Refusing to take Rajoy’s calls is the right thing to do, Rajoy is a thug. Trump has his hands full dealing with domestic issues, and there really isn’t anything the US can do to fix the EU or Spain.
Merkel now has someone keeping an eye on the promise she makes and German tax payer commitments made, AfD.
German tax payers fiscally supporting a broke country “roughing-up” citizens whilst the EU turns a blind eye but points fingers at other non-EU states.
Suppose that’s OK in modern neoliberal Germany so long as it doesn’t damage exports.
Just because Merkel endorses the EU thuggery, does not mean anyone else in Germany does. Its not obvious that she really speaks for CDU never mind the country as a whole; her performance in elections last week was a disaster.
As you mentioned, AfD benefits every time Merkel opines on something. AfD may bring its own set of issues, but for now it is a pretty effective counter weight against Merkel.
And is now a good time to talk about Macron’s calls for a EU controlled SS trooper force? Military thugs to drive around Europe beating up anyone who dares to question Brussels? Ever closer Europe!!! (/sarc)
“The American MSM is describing the vote as an illegal act that provoked Spain to intervene.”
Not interested in their propaganda. They didn’t care about Obama’s illegal acts.
From the early returns that I’ve seen on twitter, the Yes is winning in an overwhelming landslide. No idea how many registered voters actually cast a ballot. Or what the vote counters say at the end.
Rajoy is inviting armed conflict.
spain needs to learn from putin, he got 97% approval to sever Crimea from Ukraine without any ruckus, let everybody turn out to vote but then just control the vote counting.
The Telegraph does tend to have a bias but this is on the money.
EU is useless or, in my opinion, TACITLY APPROVES.
This is the EU future coming to a region near you.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/01/eu-crisis-catalonian-referendum-descends-violence/
This is also big news.
Imagine if Russia pulled this stunt on one of it’s Federal districts that wanted independence.
Putin’s photo would be plastered all over the news complete with a Hitler mustache and 2 horns protruding from the top of his head.
Yep. Hypocrites.
We would be getting images of the corpse of a six year boy washed ashore somewhere in the rugged landlocked mountainous Caucasus region. Hysterical captioning blaming his drowning on Putin.
deep state media has changed its tune
they realize the videos are too compelling
This is the result you urged. You should be celebrating, not scolding:
The US & EU silently approve Spain.
The US & EU loudly disapprove Israel.
They may loudly disapprove Israel.
But just as with Spain, they silently approve Israel, too.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t use protecting Israel, as the number one excuse for obsessing over Iran at every opportunity.
Americans’ disapproval of Israel, goes no further than their “disapproval” of cops in the aftermath of a televised police brutality incidence. Or their disapproval of the military, after US planes are filmed bombing what turns out to be a daycare center.
They’re simply naive enough to believe it is possible to engage in police and military activity, without anyone not wearing an explicit “bad, evil guy” tshirt, ever getting hurt.
rajoy will be be forced to resign over this. and if he doesn’t it still means he should.
And we see how unarmed “citizens” (serfs) are treated.
Little doubt, if Americans allowed D.C. to disarm us, we would quickly live this same picture.
Every US Marine can shoot a pumpkin at one kilometer. The skill can be learned by any who choose to learn. I would not advise Spanish police to keep their jobs in Catalan.
How different is the eu different from deng’s suppression of tian an men students? From erdogan’s crackdown on opponents, from myanmar’s suppression of rakhine? When u agree with me, its democracy. If u disagree its subversion and suppression. You white men are worse than all of us bcos you export yr “values” expecting the world to obey while u break your own “rule of law” when it suits you, and scream injustice when they suppress you. Hypocrites, look into the mirror, you deserve what you sowed.
Some truth there.
Seems quiet now, just police chasing off protestors from a police residence
http://www.ara.cat/politica/Guardia-Civil-carrega-Calella_3_1880241958.html
There were some protests around Spain for/against referendum but not much coverage given to that.
There is expectation that Monday independence will be declared, still talk of strikes Tuesday…which would be contradictory to the first maybe.
The figures given are somewhere @ 44% participation, which orhanisers say would have been 55% if the confiscated ballots/closed premises had been counted.
So I expect that is where the weight will be, Catalan parlament procedure and a background of Spanish/Catalan legal recriminations and international “attention” . After that probably political arrests, strikes, maybe riots.