Nessie
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Posts posted by Nessie
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This is madness.
This guy has absolutely no right to self proclaim himself the president of Venezuela. He will definitely be in jail by tomorrow.
The far-right government in Brazil has just announced it stands for the self proclaimed authorities in Venezuela.
Things are very ugly right now. Some people say that the risk of war has just increased by tenfold.
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If anyone cares, here is an alternative point of view of the double standards of what is happening in Paris.
Revolution in Ukraine? Yes, please! Revolution in France? Rule of law!
When violent protests shook Kiev in 2013, Western analysts and leaders quickly threw their support behind the anti-government ‘revolution’ — but after weeks of Yellow Vest protests in France, the reaction has been very different.While Western governments and commentators denounced the Ukrainian government of Viktor Yanukovych and urged that he give in to protesters’ demands five years ago, this time around, they are denouncing the French protesters and urging President Emmanuel Macron, whose popularity stands at about 25 percent, to stand firm against dissatisfied citizens.
Western media coverage has also differed drastically with reports describing French protesters as rioters, while Ukrainian protesters were described as revolutionaries. The contrasting reaction has prompted many to ask the question: If a so-called revolution is allowed to happen (and even applauded) in Ukraine, why not in France?
French police have cracked down on the ‘Yellow Vest’ protesters in bloody clashes, during which water cannons and tear gas were deployed to disperse huge crowds, who responded by throwing stones at officers. The extent of the chaos has even caused officials to mull imposing a state of emergency and prompted concerns that protest movement could spread to countries like Germany and the Netherlands. Worried government officials and French and European political commentators have eagerly called for the “rule of law” to be respected and for violent protesters to respect French institutions.
In Kiev, however, when protesters set fire to cars, defaced public property and attacked police officers, they were held up as heroes. Law and order was of little concern to Western media which wholeheartedly supported the Maidan movement. Similarly, when anti-government protests kicked off in Syria in 2011, Western leaders and commentators advocated the swift overthrow of the government and provided moral (and material) support to anti-government rebels during the subsequent civil war which ripped the country apart.
During a visit to Argentina for the G20 Summit last weekend, Macron vowed that he would “not concede anything” to the “thugs” who want “destruction and disorder.” His unwillingness to cave in the face of a mass protest movement, however, has not prompted any calls for him to step down and respect the will of the people, as happened in Ukraine and Syria.
On Twitter, well-known French political commentator and media personality Bernard-Henri Lévy, lashed out at the Yellow Vest protesters, accusing them of “playing with fire” and saying that all that matters is respect for French institutions and the democratically-election president.
Lévy’s followers, however, were quick to remind him that his reaction to protests in Ukraine were quite different. Lévy, who was in Ukraine during the Euromaidan movement, actively promoted it, giving speeches and tweeting enthusiastically about the protests. When Yanukovych was overthrown, he described it as a “a historical defeat against tyranny.” As the protests raged on for the third week, other Twitter users sarcastically mocked the patronizing Western reaction to anti-government movements in other regions, with one suggesting that perhaps hundreds of Arab experts could get together at fancy conferences to attempt to decipher the causes of this fascinating ‘European Winter’ movement.
Another said it was about time that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on Macron to exercise “restraint” and ensure that the “freedom of expression and demonstration” are respected in France.
Sarcasm aside, it looks very much like violent revolutions and regime change are only a good enough solution to crises in countries far away from the centres of Western power and influence and led by uncooperative governments. When the rumblings of revolution are felt in Paris, where Macron remains committed to upholding a neoliberal, West-centric world order, it's a different story entirely.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/445475-france-protests-hypocrisy-media/
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11 hours ago, karbatal said:
That's what they always say.
Truth is that Macron was presented as the Messiah there and it's a useless neo con.
Exactly.
The farse of Macron didn't last long.
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1 hour ago, Dany Targaryen said:
The writting is on the wall, it's definitely gonna be a dictatorship..
This is a dream of many years from the powers that be. Brazil is too rich, and the people too ignorant.
Every single country that has riches, like oil and metals, gets treated badly because of it. Was just a matter of time. The bad management of PT was the setting piece for an elected dictator to come along. I'm brazilian so I'm very much afraid.. I can't just go live in another country since my whole life is here.
I have a feeling that this is not just a coincidence...
The embryo of this brazilian fascist movement come from June 2013 massive protests, at that very point people took the streets to demonstrate against the political system headed by the left party. The right have hijacked that movement and gradually radicalized the people in hope to win the 2014 ellection, but that effort didn't work as expected and the left won again the presidency that year, so the right intensified even more the propaganda against the left by using a massive scandal of corruption to undermine the government. The president at that time Dilma Rousseff was impeached and the leader of the left workers' party Lula is jailed. This painful process paved the way of the rise of the far-right.
Besides those internal circunstances, the crisis on Venezuela have massively intensified. Trump was ellected on the US and the threat of war is looming South America right now. It can't be just coincidence that Jair Bolsonaro won the presidency with the approval hand of Steve Bannon, the man behind the Trump election. The Trump administration have made some kind of a deal with the brazilian far-right to put in place a military subservient government in Brazil, because they have already foreseen a very likely intervention on Venezuela to remove the dictator Nicolas Maduro from power, and also they want to break Brazil from the BRICS, undermining China and Russia from the global geopolitical sphere.
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22 hours ago, Je5u5 said:
So sorry to hear this from our fellow Brazilian membeed. Lets hope his ideas are not translated into reality.
We can only hope that it's just rhetorical... but even if he doesn't drag our civil rights through the mud like he has said many times over, the damage has already been done because many people are feeling empowered to openly discriminate minorities...
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On 11/7/2018 at 3:00 PM, Jazzy Jan said:
So sorry Nessie. Dreadful that you are feeling like this in your own country due to this frightening fascist regime. So shocking that this government has got in power in Brazil.
@Jazzy Jan its a situation we could never have imagine just a few years ago. Its scary how society can plunge to fascism that quickly and makes me wonder if it has always been there... just waiting for the right time to surface. It seems this is some kind of a world fenomenon happening, people are in search of a saviour and looking for enemies everywhere.
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On 11/7/2018 at 2:50 PM, runa said:
We disagreed many times over the years, @Nessie but I hope you stay safe. Be careful !
Thank you @runa. Its really depressing how things are deteriorating very fast here. I have even considered to move out of this country, but for now i will stay and see what happens when he officially assumes the presidency in January. We can only hope that all his strong words against minorities are just rethorical, but what worries me the most is the people that are composing his government, he is puting in charge a mix of military personal and a lot of religous fundamentalists, its a recipe of a disaster...
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On 10/29/2018 at 8:23 PM, Jazzy Jan said:
Would like to also read the views of our members from Brazil on this thread. Always important to read the views and reactions of people in the country itself that is being discussed.
It is the worst possible situation ever. I feel so depressed that i can’t even talk about it. Have you ever fear for your life? This is how we LGBTQ+ are feeling here with this new tyrannical theocratic regime. Our only hope is that the world be aware that Brazil has fallen into the hands of fascism and we are in grave danger.
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Its disgusting how the american ‘free press' are trying hard to imply that Palestinians are to be blamed for their Genocide...
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Why antagonize North Korea with military drills, when peace is within reach....
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And they call Russia a censoring dictatorship
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11 hours ago, Acediace said:
ok i have to say something about everything becasue i don't think most of you understand the thing right now with israel and Jerusalem.
first i will say this - i think trump is stupid and embarrassment to the u.s (same would've been with hilary btw but whatever)
i think he is stupid and don't act like president BUT i just furious right now that people react to his statement about Jerusalem like "another stupid thing trump has done" or "another evil thing from that man".
anyway, it's not. it's not another stupid thing trump did. Jerusalem IS the capital of Israel whether he "say" it or not
Jerusalem is the capital of israel because it is the capital of israel and israel don't need that permission from anyone.
imagine if someday you will hear on the news "trump have decided that the capital of England is London." or "the capital of u.s.a is Washington, D.C."
same thing!!
just because palestinians people think that israel belong to them or muslim people think it's should not belong to israel is irrelevant. this is just a fact.
not going to get more political about the situation in israel but the ignorance and stupidity of people right now all over the world about that is so annoying and people should really know the facts (or maybe be there?!) in order express their opinion about that. like that stupid bella hadid girl that posted on instagram about that and said how "sad day it is".
no it's not because it's always been that way and i'm sure that the american (so called palestinian) rich model know what's going in the middle east and care about palestinians people. right (so sad her followers will eat her shit)Yeah lets just pretend that Israel never illegally annexed eastern Jerusalem in 1967??
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1 hour ago, jaron said:
Jerusalem is now Israels capital according to Trump administration
He is insane. This will blow the middle east in flames of war. The US has just managed the unthinkable: a declaration of war against all arab nations, uniting traditional enemies at last.
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1 hour ago, karbatal said:
What a mess. Instead of solving problems, both governments are creating havoc. This is uncharted territory, let's see what happens. I cross my fingers that regular people, normal people, don't pay for this mess. That this doesn't affect much economy in Catalonia or the rest of Spain. Because frankly, these absurd politicians always walk free and whistle from the distance.
I hope too that there's no prison for anybody, even though they have broken the law big time. It won't help.
I do wonder too why Rajoy wanted the situation to get this far????? Wouldn't it have been better if elections have been called yesterday????
I really think we miss very important information here.
I hope you are not laughing now. -
32 minutes ago, karbatal said:
It was not personal. It's the fact that the last time you posted you were expecting TANKS INVADING THE CITY or something like that. You know very little about Spain. Do you think this is our first territorial crisis? We had a separatists terrorist group for 30 years and havoc in some cities in the Basque Country EVERY WEEKEND. Yes, 30 years. If you think anything is going to scalate bigger than people demonstrating, then you know very little about Spain.
You really think people are just demonstrating and they will just keep doing that? I don't think so, and not a sign of any dialogue is happening right now! Don't you think a dialogue with madrid is needed rather than just force the catalans a new ellection? What do you think the supposed ellection would be like?
I may not know everything about your country background, but what i know for sure is that the whole world is talking about how the spanish government lost its legitimacy when it shipped in thousands of armed thugs to beat peaceful catalans in their own streets, for the high crime of marking a piece of paper. By doing this horrible act, madrid has just signaled how brutal they can be if they feel like it. I wouldn't be so sure that the situation couldn't escalate to a regional conflict.
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7 minutes ago, karbatal said:
You know so little about Spain and the EU.
I always respected your point of view, i know the topic is very sensitive to you, but let me put this kindly: unless you have anything constructive to reply, please stay on topic and avoid personal attacks. Thank you.
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26 minutes ago, karbatal said:
Well, Rajoy is from Galicia
Well, I expect the Catalan Parliament will declare the independence and then tomorrow starts 155, that is, the autonomy is suspended. Then there will be new elections...
Or maybe the Parliament will call for new elections, as people from Puigdemont's party do not want independence?
Stay tuned!
As if the catalans will sit by, just waiting for the spanish authorities crush their separatists dreams calling for "ellections" to put in place a madrid puppet which they clearly don't want.... please, the situation is escalating more and more as we speak. There will be conflict. No doubt about it.
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7 hours ago, Lolo said:
Im starting to think it's because they have EVERYTHING at their fingertips, they don't care anymore. I remember when I was a kid and went to the library (lol) and found a couple of books that were intriguing, history of architecture or arts or movies, these sorts of things. I knew we had no books like these at home so this would be a chance to get to know something new. And I also thought I was about to discover something that no one of my classmates would know, it would give me a certain advantage, make me special in a way. Maybe kids don't feel like this anymore, because everyone can eat up everything at any time. It's become so arbitrary.
Its ironic how technology and all that instant acess of information instead of making people smarter it made people lazy and dumber than ever before. Its scary to think what will be of humans in the near future.
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50 minutes ago, Kim said:
Oh now you have friends from Barcelona as well as Madrid? LOL A couple of weeks ago you were wailing about how you knew nothing about this situation and that's why you were in this thread talking complete nonsense and discounting everything people were telling you.
Yes, let's not be intellectual. Let's ignore thousands of years of politics, geography and history. Let's destroy all borders, all link hands, and sing kumbaya. Roll eyes to heaven.
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On 20/10/2017 at 1:39 PM, Kim said:
On one hand you say it's wrong that the state imposes direct rule over an autonomous region, then you say Catalonia would use that to spread fake news about the illusion of oppression. If direct rule happens, then that WILL be oppression - fact.
And Puigdemont did the RIGHT thing by asking for talks and dialogue with Madrid. Why aren't you commenting on the fact that this request has been ignored rather than scornfully dismissing it with "with whom and about what"? And I imagine it would be about coming to some agreement over giving more autonomy to the region, devolving more powers - you know, those powers stripped and reversed from it by the constitutional court in 2010? OR a new and binding independence referendum to decide the issue.
In fact, the ones spreading fake news are those in this thread repeating the lines about "nations should only be independent IF they are 'oppressed' " or that every type of nationalism is bad - equating right-wing nazi-esque nationalism with democratic civic left-wing nationalism, which are the lines that awful article posted a few days ago parroted.
The EU has shown itself as the corrupt self-serving institution that most already suspected it was, but never to such an extent as we've seen with this issue. AS IF it's mouthpieces France and Germany would say any different.
That the echo chamber in this thread just keep on repeating the kind of state-sanctioned propaganda coming straight out of the Francoist Madrid govt. offices is disheartening to say the least (Promise to Try excepted). Now it's being treated as a joke..."oh isn't this over already". Vile. We'll see how "over" it is when/if Spain sends in the thugs (again) to attempt to take over the governance of Catalonia by force and/or setting up a series of farcical elections in the region.
I agree 100%
The government will make a huge mistake imposing a resolution by force. It will be perceived as an act of opression and it will only add fuel to the fire of separatism. Dialogue as proposed by the catalans is the only viable option and shouldn’t be ruled out like that by the spanish authorities.
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Spain gives Catalan leader eight days to drop independence
MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday gave the Catalan government eight days to drop an independence bid, failing which he would suspend the Catalonia’s political autonomy and rule the region directly.
His move could deepen the confrontation between Madrid and the northeastern region but also signals a way out of Spain’s biggest political crisis since a failed military coup in 1981.
Rajoy would probably call a snap regional election after activating Article 155 of the constitution that would allow him to sack the Catalan regional government.
Puigdemont issued a symbolic declaration of independence from Spain on Tuesday night but then immediately suspended it and called for negotiations with the Madrid government.
“The cabinet has agreed this morning to formally request the Catalan government to confirm whether it has declared the independence of Catalonia, regardless of the deliberate confusion created over its implementation,” Rajoy said in a televised address after a cabinet meeting called to consider the government’s response.
He later told Spain’s parliament the Catalan government had until Monday, Oct. 16 at 0800 GMT to answer. If Puigdemont was to confirm he did declare independence, he would be given an additional three days to rectify it, until Thursday, Oct. 19 at 0800 GMT. Failing this, Article 155 would be triggered.
It is not yet clear if the Catalan government will answer the requirement but it now faces a conundrum, analysts say.
If Puigdemont says he did proclaim independence, the central government will step in. If he says he did not declare it, then far-left party CUP would probably withdraw its support for his minority government.
“Rajoy has two objectives: if Puigdemont remains ambiguous, the pro-independence movement will get more fragmented; if Puigdemont insists on defending independence then Rajoy will be able to apply Article 155,” said Antonio Barroso, deputy director of the London-based research firm Teneo Intelligence.
“Either way, Rajoy’s aim would be to first restore the rule of law in Catalonia and this could at some point lead to early elections in the region.”
The stakes are high - losing Catalonia, which has its own language and culture, would deprive Spain of a fifth of its economic output and more than a quarter of exports.
CALL FOR DIALOGUE DISMISSED
Puigdemont had been widely expected to unilaterally declare Catalonia’s independence on Tuesday after the Catalan government said 90 percent of Catalans had voted for a breakaway in an Oct. 1 referendum. Central authorities in Madrid had declared the referendum illegal and most opponents of independence boycotted it, reducing turnout to around 43 percent.
Madrid responded angrily to Puigdemont’s speech to Catalonia’s parliament, saying his government could not act on the results of the referendum.
“Neither Mr. Puigdemont nor anyone else can claim, without returning to legality and democracy, to impose mediation... Dialogue between democrats takes place within the law,” Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said.
Invoking Article 155 to ease Spain’s worst political crisis in four decades would make prospects of a negotiated solution even more remote.
A spokesman for the Catalan government in Barcelona said earlier on Wednesday that if Madrid went down this road, it would press ahead with steps toward statehood.
“We have given up absolutely nothing...We have taken a time out...which doesn’t mean a step backwards, or a renunciation or anything like that,” Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull told Catalunya Radio.
Spanish Socialist opposition leader Pedro Sanchez said he would back Rajoy if he had to activate Article 155 and that he agreed with the premier to launch constitutional reform within six months to address how Catalonia could fit better in Spain.
It was not clear how the Catalan government would respond to that offer.
MARKET RELIEF
Puigdemont’s speech also disappointed supporters of independence, thousands of whom watched proceedings on giant screens outside parliament before sadly leaving for home.
Financial markets, however, were encouraged that an immediate declaration of independence had been avoided.
After Puigdemont’s speech, Spain’s benchmark IBEX share index rose as much as 1.6 percent, outperforming the pan-European STOXX 600 index. The rally propelled the main world stocks index, the MSCI’s 47-country ‘All-World’ index, to a record high.
Spain’s 10-year government bond yield - which moves inversely to the price - dropped 5 basis points to 1.65 percent in early trade, according to Tradeweb data.
At European Union headquarters in Brussels, there was relief that Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, now had at least bought some time to deal with a crisis that was still far from over.
One EU official said Puigdemont “seems to have listened to advice not to do something irreversible”. The EU has been cool to Puigdemont’s calls for European mediation.
The Catalan crisis has deeply divided the region itself as well as the Spanish nation. Opinion polls conducted before the vote suggested a minority of about 40 percent of residents in Catalonia backed independence.
Some of Catalonia’s largest companies have moved their head offices out of the region and others were set to follow if Puigdemont had declared independence.
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1 hour ago, karbatal said:
Where do you get your sources Nessie? Do you even know where is Spain?
I love you! don't be angry please!
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2 hours ago, karbatal said:
They are not afraid of the army. Will you please stop with the nonsense? We already told you today that this is not the case.
Partition usually leads to civil war...
If they go ahead with their plan, then what else the spanish government could do?
Obviously if they are not willing to have any dialogue and attempt to strip Catalonia of its autonomy, they will have a situation there that cannot be resolved unless they assume control of the parliament, and by the way it seems the catalans are not going to just watch the spanish govenment take over their region without some level of resistance.
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So, did they declare independence or not?
They have to clarify whats going on! It seems they are trying dialogue with Madrid but the answer is negative. If so, why bother to suspend the effects indefinitely? They are obviously afraid to have the spanish army at their door tomorrow... i hope the spanish government doesn't attempt to recover the region by force, that would immediately plunge the country in a civil war.
Venezuela's Dramatic Unfolding Events
in Politics and World Events
Posted
Maduro is the elected president. This guy is not. By the way, just look who says Maduro ellection is illegal.That’s right. The same guy of the National Assembly who just self proclaimed himself president! This is an absurd! Imagine if the same thing happened in the US, the guy would be already in jail facing torture on Guantanamo. This is madness!