Media Silent as a Record 1 Million Protesters March in Spain to End Gov’t Corruption

The media focused on anything but the unprecedented protest in Spain, in which around 1 million people called for the release of 8 political prisoners.

Caracas Or Catalan - Nightstick Democracy At Its Finest...

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

The last several days in Venezuela have been absolutely mind-blowing.

Pretty much all the stories you’ve heard are true– countless people eating out of garbage cans, the appalling shortages of basic staples like food, medicine, and even soap… and the lines.

Oh boy, the lines.

The longest lines I saw, in fact, were not at grocery stores, but at banks.

Hundreds of people were queuing up, many of them to pull money out of their accounts to exchange cash on the black market.

Lines snaked through a bank’s cavernously large lobby, continued outside, wrapped around the entire building, and terminated at some point down the street.

Making a simple withdrawal can be an all-day affair.

Perhaps most surprising was how much Venezuela deteriorated since the last time I came here. And I’m concerned that it will continue to get worse… perhaps even much worse… until it gets better.

As I mentioned last week, long-term this place is a veritable gold mine. The natural resources, cheap hydropower production, port facilities, low-cost workforce, abundant factories, etc.

Venezuela is a manufacturer’s dream.

But none of those opportunities can come to pass until this government collapses and there’s a complete reset.

Undoubtedly the Venezuelan government will eventually run out of money, probably within the next two years. It’s nearly a mathematical certainty.

And when they’ll no longer be able to pay the scumbag police and military who shoot peaceful protesters in the face, it’ll be game over.

But until then they’re doing everything they can to strengthen their grip.

A few months ago the government held a sham election here, where citizens exercised their ‘democratic’ right to choose among a bunch of puppet candidates hand-selected by the government.

You can still see the billboards up across Caracas telling people to go vote between the choices given to them by the government. Freedom!

You’d think that such oppressive tactics to keep a population under control would only exist in brutal dictatorships like Venezuela or North Korea.

But then we witnessed the events in Spain over the weekend where millions of people in the Catalan region went out to vote on independence for their region.

Caracas? ... or Catalonia...

The Spanish government loves democracy so much that they sent tens of thousands of police around the region to confiscate ballots, shut down polling stations, and beat-up peaceful citizens.

This is ‘Nightstick Democracy’ at its finest.

And in a most Orwellian statement, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told reporters later on Sunday that “there was no referendum in Catalonia today. . .”

It was like some Jedi mind trick trying to hide the fact that more than 2 million Catalans voted for independence.

I’m reminded of that old quote, often attributed to Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, that basically says “It’s not the people who vote that counts, it’s the people who count the votes.”

(According to the memoirs of Stalin’s personal secretary, the actual quote was “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this– who will count the votes, and how.”)

This is pretty pathetic: we are ‘free’, as long as we only vote when they give us permission and choose among the options that they provide us.

A few months ago when writing about Venezuela, I concluded that blockchain technology could fix this.

Think about it– in 2017, it’s pretty ridiculous that people have to go down to a polling station to stuff a paper ballot into a box, all of which will be counted by hand.

Blockchain technology would ensure that everyone registered has exactly one vote, and that every vote is counted once.

No more lost ballots. No more tampering. No more miscounts and recounts. No more voter fraud.

Plus, blockchain voting can be cryptologically hashed to ensure secrecy, as well as provide an easy way for ANY candidate to be nominated.

And compared to the cost of legions of human beings required to supervise and count votes, in addition to the logistical cost of printing and moving all that paper, a Blockchain vote is MUCH cheaper.

A blockchain vote would be a clear, independent, indisputable expression to the world that millions of Venezuelans reject their government… and that millions of Catalans desire independence from Spain.

This isn’t some far-fetched idea. These tools already exist, as do the means to implement them, including identity validation to ensure that every registrant is eligible to vote.

When the game is rigged, there are really only two choices available: stop playing. Or change the game.

And this is absolutely game-changing technology.

Do you have a Plan B?

Spanish Police Storm Government Buildings Trying To Stop Independence Referendum

Spanish national police have stormed ministries and buildings belonging to Catalonia’s regional government to put a stop to the region’s independence referendum.  In the early morning hours, armed officers arrived at various Catalan ministries, including the economics department, foreign affairs department, and social affairs department, and made arrests in an effort to stop Catalan independence.

The Guardia Civil, which acts with the authority of Madrid’s interior ministry, is searching for evidence regarding the planned October 1st referendum on Catalan independence, which Spain’s Constitutional Court has declared illegal. The Catalan president has accused the Spanish government of effectively suspending the region’s autonomy and declaring a de facto state of emergency.

Police officers raided Catalan government offices on Wednesday and arrested 12 senior officials in a bid to stop an independence referendum being held in less than two weeks’ time. Pro-independence crowds have since formed outside the regional ministries in support of the provincial government and in protest against the raids and searches and attempts to stop the independence referendum.

Repression on Terrassa city: this is what demonstrators providing support to #1Oct referendum have got from Spanish police pic.twitter.com/QTyhvDTQFD

— Repression@Catalonia (@RepressionAtCAT) September 19, 2017

According to The Guardian, Carles Puigdemont, the president of Catalonia described the raids as a “co-ordinated police assault” that showed that Madrid “has de facto suspended self-government and applied a de facto state of emergency” in Catalonia.

Tensions between Madrid and Barcelona have also escalated in recent days as the government of the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, strives to ensure that the controversial independence vote does not take place on October 1st, while the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, appears to back those hoping to vote for their independence. The mayor tweeted: “Searching public bodies and arresting officials is a democratic scandal. We defend Catalan institutions.”

Es un escàndol democràtic que s"escorcolli institucions i es detinguin càrrecs públics per motius polítics. Defensem institucions catalanes

— Ada Colau (@AdaColau) September 20, 2017

Yet, the Spanish government is using whatever force necessary at this point to prevent the independence referendum.

On Wednesday morning, Spain’s interior ministry announced it was cancelling leave for all the guardia civil and national police officers tasked with preventing the referendum. In a statement, it said the affected officers would have to be available between 20 September and 5 October, but added the period could be extended if necessary.

The raids come a day after the guardia civil confiscated referendum documents from the offices of a private delivery firm in the Catalan city of Terrassa. More than 1.5 million [sic] referendum leaflets and posters have also been seized. –The Guardian

The protesting crowd has grown since word of these arrests broke. Breaking into the Catalan national anthem and waving placards reading “We are voting to be free”, the protestors began by chanting “No tinc por” (I’m not afraid) – the slogan used in response to last month’s terrorist attacks in the city. But the chant was soon replaced by a new cry: “Occupation forces out!”

As people around the world march for more freedom from the oppression of government, many Americans appear to be doing the opposite.  With heads glued to social media, many march for more government control over their lives dragging others down into the tyrannical oppression with them.

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 64 people
Date: September 20th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

Voters Slam Spain's Political Leadership: Are Snap Spanish Presidential Elections Coming Up?

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

Last year, the socialist party (PSOE) leadership ousted Pedro Sánchez as its head when Sánchez refused to allow a minority government of Mariano Rajoy to form. Susana Díaz took over as party head.

Socialist party elections were held yesterday. Sánchez ran again as an outsider and shocked the POSE leadership winning an outright majority of votes in a three-way race. This was a clear smack in the face to the party leadership who backed Susana Díaz.

With Sánchez back at the helm in Parliament, Rajoy has little chance of getting his legislation passed. Rajoy now has his eye on calling snap elections.

The Guardian reports Spanish Socialists Re-Elect Pedro Sánchez to Lead Party.

Pedro Sánchez has regained the leadership of Spain’s bitterly divided socialist party seven months after being ousted in a coup that laid bare the faultlines within the PSOE and left its status as the main opposition party in jeopardy.

On Sunday night, Sánchez took 50% of the vote, sailing past his main rival, Susana Díaz, the president of the PSOE stronghold of Andalusia, who took 40%. The former Basque president Patxi López finished third with 10%.

The PSOE has been in the hands of a caretaker administration since October, when Sánchez stepped down after powerful factions within the party rebelled against his refusal to allow Mariano Rajoy’s conservative People’s party (PP) to form a government.

Following his resignation, the PSOE abstained from Rajoy’s investiture debate, returning the PP to office and ending the 10-month political stalemate that had left Spain without a government after two inconclusive general elections.

Díaz, who was backed by party heavyweights including former PSOE prime ministers Felipe Gónzalez and José Luis Zapatero, had called for a more pragmatic approach to dealing with the PP.

Snap Elections

Eurointelligence fills in the remaining pieces of the story with commentary on snap elections.

The party will now hold its congress over the weekend of June 18 to renew its executive committee and approve its political platform. The danger for the PSOE is that the party may emerge from the congress divided, or that MPs and regional premiers will actively undermine Sánchez’ leadership.

Sánchez, who was never particularly to the left of the PSOE, rode a wave of members’ discontent about the party’s decision to abstain last October to allow Rajoy to form a government, thus avoiding a third round of elections which would have fallen on Christmas Day. Rajoy has indicated that, if the 2017 budget does not pass the parliament next month, he would call early elections.

Spain is likely headed for a third presidential election, but it’s unclear if the results will be any different than the previous two elections that resulted in blocked governments with no party being able to form a coalition.

The problem with dissolving parliament now is the crisis in Catalonia. The region has threatened to declare independence immediately if the Spanish government does not allow a referendum.