News of the Restless

Wankers of the Week: End of the Ice Age

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Sabina Becker

Crappy weekend, everyone! I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that the Great Lakes are finally, officially ice-free after the Winter That Would Not Die. I’m kind of horrified that it’s taken this long…and no, right-wing morons, it is NOT “proof that global warming is a myth”, it’s actually symptomatic of the problem. Greater temperature extremes (and weather extremes in general) are that. It’s not about warmer weather, but more derangement in the weather patterns. And speaking of derangement, here’s who else was full of it this week:

1. Ruth Fucking Westheimer. Oh, Dr. Ruth. We knew you were an Irgun terrorist back in the day. Must you remind us? Why couldn’t you quit being one and just stick to asking people if they used contraceptives, which is what you did best? This is totally embarrassing.

2. Ryan Kelly Fucking Chamberlain. I know, I know. White guys can’t be terrorists. But this one apparently is, okay? And I’m sure HootSuite doesn’t want him endorsing their product that way, either.

3. Todd Fucking Kincannon, AGAIN. Does anyone else get the impression that he’s trying out for the role of Most Psychopathic Shit-Eating Wanker in the Repug Party? Because that’s sure what it smells like to me. And really: The “Cruz Administration”? Todd, whatever you’re snorting, cut it the fuck out NOW.

4. Jean Fucking Kasem. Holy fucking shit, this woman is off the rails in a bad way. And no, throwing raw meat into the street — or at one’s stepdaughter — won’t improve matters any for poor ol’ Casey Kasem, who hasn’t been seen or heard from in a while, thanks to his even more demented wife.

5. Marjorie Fucking Holsten. Speaking of off the rails, how about this homeskoolin’ “expert”? (Note the quotes, there for a reason.) She thinks kids don’t need “obscene” comprehensive sex-ed when they can just watch guinea pigs boinking. And what, pray tell, are they supposed to do with all the little guinea piglets that result from this oh-so-instructive lesson?

6. Cody Fucking Williams. No, school shootings are not the “price of freedom”. They are the inevitable result of a culture promoted by gun manufacturers, industry lobbyists, and mindless Second Amendment suckers. In countries where gun ownership is restricted, people are plenty free…and one of the things they’re most free from, is gun violence.

7. Tov Fucking Henderson. And speaking of gun violence and gun nuts’ increasingly incoherent positions, how about him? He can’t even bring himself to admit that people walking around toting assault rifles in public might be seen as scary psychopaths or potential robbers, rather than “good guys with guns”. Pathetic!

8. Justin Fucking Bieber. If you thought his chainsaw “joke” was bad, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet. Turns out, he’s more than just that wee bit racist. Considering he was “discovered” by a black guy and has performed with any number of them, you might think he knew better, but…NOPE!

9. Bryan Fucking Fischer. Kindly don’t try to appropriate black people’s history and try to mangle it to fit bigoted people’s current prejudices. Bigotry is not a freedom, it is a character flaw, and should be treated as such. And shunned accordingly.

10 and 11. Paul Fucking Elam and Dean Fucking Esmay. Oh my, what a week these two are having. They’re going to have the umpteenth firstest-ever international “conference” on men’s issues. Agenda: How to call women bitches, cunts and whores, and then claim that’s not hate speech; how to abuse women legally; how to whine endlessly about your poor neglected penis; how to abuse women for neglecting your poor penis; how to sneer at any man who doesn’t share your toxic ideals of masculinity; bullshitting for beginners; and finally, how to make big money as a fucking hatemonger. Guys, do yourselves a favor: Instead of phoning in fake death threats on yourselves and making a big expensive show of hiring off-duty cops for your little fuckheadfest, just rent a broom closet in a run-down motel in Podunk next time. Then, nobody will bother you but yourselves. You’re welcome.

12. Cliven Fucking Bundy. Not only is he the rancher who owes the feds the most money for grazing his cattle on public land, he owes more than all the others COMBINED. And he still has the nerve to “protect” his illegal operation with a gang of armed thugs? Yup, that’s a mega-wank. It’s also a crime, BTW.

13. Tucker Fucking Carlson. Newsflash, Bowtie Boy: Rape isn’t about the gender of the victim, or the career of the assailant. It’s about a POWER IMBALANCE. And yes, a student getting jumped by his female teacher counts as such. But you’re right about one thing: You DO live in a whiny country. And nobody in it whines louder than you right-wing assholes.

14. Glenn Fucking Beck. Where, exactly, do schoolkids “play with dildos, but not celebrate Christmas”? Maybe you’re thinking BULLETS. But at a time when that holiday is being jammed down everybody’s throat, you sure have some nerve in claiming it’s been outlawed.

15. Roy Fucking Moore. No, the courts do NOT need your sky-pixie to function. They need competent public officials who know what the hell they’re talking about. And judging by your remarks, I’d say that you most definitely do not qualify.

16. Tony Fucking Perkins. No, bakers are NOT being persecuted like the Jews for refusing to bake wedding cakes for gays. And they’re most certainly not being shoved into crematoria. BTW, the guy who came up with all that…was a devout Christian who hated gay people. Just so you know.

17. Ross Fucking Douthat. No, the so-called golden age of Hollywood was NOT a rape-free zone. If anything, it was a rapey free-for-all, especially on the casting couch…and an awful lot of old movies not-so-subtly reflect that. Too bad he hasn’t seen any of them, or watched the ones he has seen very closely. And no, you don’t get to blame feminism or the Pill for that, either.

18. Steve Fucking Green. And at long last, the Religious Reich’s racist snake bites its rattly fascist tail. The Book of Exodus IS Birth of a Nation! If you need any more reason to stay out of Hobby Lobby, let alone this guy’s church, now you have it.

19. Joseph Fucking Rosa. No man is an island, and neither is he a “sovereign state”. And if you don’t want your daughter to grow up as daft as her old man, you will send her to school like a normal person, instead of inculcating her with all this idiotic “sovereign citizen” nonsense.

20. Bud Fucking Roth. Since when is belief in God a requirement to get married? Marriage is a civil status, not a religious belief. And if you can’t tell the difference, you have no business acting as a court-appointed officiant.

21. John Fucking Murphy. “Sober as a judge” is clearly a phrase that has lost all meaning when a judge starts brawls from his own bench.

22. Whoever the fuck is responsible for this billboard. Stand up and be accountable, you fascist coward.

23. Eric Fucking Schmidt. Once again, one more reason why Google is evil. And why this CEO is a poster child for the need to break up tech monopolies.

24 and 25. Sarah and Bristol Palin. No, Bowe Bergdahl has not forgotten his English. But the Queen of Methville and her Purity-Ball Princess have forgotten their brains. Ha, kidding…they never had one to split between then!

26. Bill Fucking Donohue. Newsflash: Not all priests rape children. Other newsflash: Not all priests who rape children are Catholic. But thanks, all the same, for that interesting slip.

27. Marc Fucking Andreessen. If you think Edward Snowden is a traitor, you might just be a spook. Or an apologist for spying. Either way, no good and very bad. PS: And no, the poor do NOT have it good. Jesus H. Christ, how out of touch with reality does one have to be?

28. Don Fucking Lemon. No, black people are NOT responsible for #8’s racist utterances. HE is, because HE said all that. Any questions?

29. Hillary Fucking Clinton. Backtracking on your criticism of illegal Israeli settlements? You damn betcha that’s a wank. Stop sucking up to Bibi, it’s disgraceful. Stop carrying water for the Likudniks and sanction them already!

30. Christopher Fucking Finlayson. Pro tip: Trying to discipline a crying baby by “giving her something to cry about” doesn’t fucking stop the crying. It does, however, get you some well-earned child abuse charges. Oh Florida Man, when will you ever learn?

And finally, to Babulal Fucking Gaur. When the hell is rape “sometimes right”? When it results in the hanging murders of two barely pubscent girls? When it results in suicide? When? NEVER, that’s when. Sign the petition, folks. You know you want to…

Good night, and get fucked!

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Posted in Wankers of the Week | Comments Off

Future queen’s aunt comes out against Spanish monarchy, calls for referendum

Posted on June 7, 2014 by Sabina Becker

Oh dear. Things are really not looking good for the Spanish crown this week, are they? Because that tweet above comes from the aunt of the future queen, and she’s not exactly thrilled about her niece’s in-laws:

The aunt of Spanish princess Letizia expressed herself against the monarchy on her Twitter account and called for signatures to the petition for a referendum to install the Third Republic in Spain.

Following the abdication of King Juan Carlos, the “royal” aunt, Henar Ortiz Álvarez, tweeted a message calling for the end of the monarchy, according to British daily The Guardian.

“The king abdicates. Referendum NOW. It’s time for the citizenry to speak,” reads her call to sign the referendum petition and install a republic. There are many similar messages on Twitter, but that of Henar Ortiz Álvarez has caused the greatest furor.

In response to the question as to why she is participating in a campaign that could hurt her niece, Ortiz Álvarez explained: “I’m not against my niece, we don’t mix family relations with politics.”

Meanwhile, among the responses to her tweet, there are some of total disapproval.

It’s not the first time that Henar Ortiz Álvarez expressed her negative attitude toward the Spanish monarchy. In an interview last year with Vanity Fair, she defined herself as “red, secular and republican”, and opined that “due to the history that we are living, I believe [Letizia] will not become queen.”

Translation mine. Here’s one of those negative responses to her tweet:

“Calling for a referendum?? Freedom of expression aside, you’re not doing your niece much of a favor.”

Well, maybe not…but then again, Princess Letizia isn’t all of Spain, either. And even if she doesn’t become queen, it’s very doubtful that she’ll die in penury. Exile, maybe, but penury, no.

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Posted in Isn't It Ironic?, Under the Name of Spain | 1 Comment

Q. What do the Venezuelan opposition and Justin Bourque have in common?

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Sabina Becker

A. Oh, only this:

Yesterday in Moncton, a small city of about 70,000 inhabitants on the east coast of Canada, a young Canadian, 24 years old, carried out a massacre, murdering three police officers and wounding two more. While the police were searching for him — because they hadn’t been able to catch him yet — the people lived in terror, not knowing where or when he would reappear to kill someone else.

The same thing happened during the many weeks in certain cities in Venezuela during the attacks on the part of the opposition between February and May of this year, when young oppositionists took the streets, indiscriminately attacking and killing members of the security forces, and innocent people, terrorizing them.

The similarities are really suprising.

One newspaper says that the 24-year-old Canadian was in the habit of uploading photos and texts related to US militias, armed anticommunist and racist groups of the far right, in the manner of fascist political parties of the Venezuelan opposition and their armed groups. And photos of Sarah Palin, a US political leader, racist and anticommunist, of the extreme right, in the manner of Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

But the most intriguing thing the newspaper says is that the young Canadian had it in his head that Russia was going to invade Canada. This makes no sense. Russia has no interest in invading Canada — that’s a fantasy on the part of those racist, anticommunist groups of the far right, and people like Sarah Palin — and if for any reason, the young man thought that Russia was a communist country, and wanted to invade Canada for that reason, that young man is very much mistaken.

Russia is not a communist country, and most people with half a brain know that, but due to irrational hatred for communism on the part of certain criminal groups, and extremist anticommunist racist militias, the minds of many young people are being filled with fantasies and lies, creating in them fear, panic and paranoia as well, which could change at some time — and has changed — into indiscriminate violence.

In parallel to the above, one of the most important slogans of María Corina Machado, and almost all the Venezuelan opposition, is that Cuba will invade Venezuela, and for that reason they have to get rid of this government, in whatever way they can. That’s totally illogical, it’s a fantasy invented by the Venezuelan opposition. How could a country so small, and with so few weapons, think of invading a country as large as Venezuela, which has many weapons? And why would they want to invade Venezuela if we are collaborators and allies? Could it be that the Venezuelan opposition believe that Cuba will invade Venezuela to turn it into a communist country?

The truth is that neither Chávez, nor Maduro, nor any Chavista I have ever heard speaking, has ever talked of trying to transform Venezuela into a communist state; that would be totally ridiculous. Generally, what we Chavistas want is not communism as such, and much less the Cuban style or that of the old Soviet Union, but rather a state which is more just and equitable, more feminist, and not machista; more humanistic, more empathetic, which is to say, more socialist. That’s all. And that has nothing to do with ay imaginary Cuban communism invented by brain-sick opposition leaders like María Corina Machado, or other misbegotten leaders of the Venezuelan opposition, who keep teaching lies and fantasies to young opposition menbers, creating in them as well hatred, panic and paranoia, which could turn at any moment — and has turned — into indiscriminate violence.

The similarities are truly surprising.

Just as Sarah Palin and other racist, anticommunist groups of the US far right have contaminated the soul of the young Canadian of 24 years, leading to gratuitous violence, María Corina Machado and other racist anticommunist far-right groups of the Venezuelan opposition, who make up the majority of the opposition, also follow the principles responsible for the poisoning of the spirits of many young Venezuelans, bringing them as well to that gratuitous violence.

Translation mine.

That was Oscar Heck talking, BTW. He’s of Canadian extraction himself, so he knows a thing or two about the similarities between fascists here and fascists there. His bio states: “Born to a French-Canadian father and an indigenous mother, he came to Venezuela for the first time during the 1970s, where he worked as a missionary in the barrios of Caracas and Barlovento.” In other words, he’s had four decades to observe the conditions on the ground in that country. And ample cause, considering the poverty he’s seen and worked amid, to support the Bolivarian Revolution.

And yes, I agree with him; Justin Bourque has all the hallmarks of an NRA-influenced fascist. His Facebook page shows him to be quite the paranoid gunsucker. Teaching children to fire guns, as he repeatedly endorses, is just what the Nazis did, too; they had gun-clubs in the Hitler Youth. The irony is that he came of age during the era of Stephen Harper, a head of state who couldn’t be less like Chavecito or Madurito if he tried. And whose holy crusade was to abolish the long-gun registry…thereby making it that much harder for the RCMP to know where Bourque got the guns that killed their officers. To say that the police in this country are sour on Harpo is putting it very mildly. Not because they’re such redder-than-red communists themselves, though; the RCMP has a long history of spying on anything to the left of, well, the Conservatives. Harpo’s party, that is. And for decades, they’ve made a point of infiltrating every leftish group, from environmentalists and Native activists to the various socialist parties, and even spied on Tommy Douglas himself. There’s certainly an authoritarian history in the RCMP, but it leans hard to the right, not the left. So there’s another layer of irony to this madness. The cryptofascist cop-killer wanted RCMP officers dead, but in truth, he has more in common with them, insofar as anticommunist paranoia goes, than he could ever have dreamed of.

Which brings us to the Venezuelan opposition. If you’ve been following this blog, particularly the 50-odd entries detailing their various ironies, you’ll know just how deaf they are to their own ironic fascism, and how much they ARE the very thing they claim to be against. They scream about a lack of free speech on the 95% of the nation’s media that they outright own. They call for putsches and assassinations just about daily, which is illegal here in Canada, BTW. They import paramilitary goons from neighboring Colombia to help them with their coup attempts. Their hooded thugs terrorize the streets with guns imported from the good ol’ US of A (thanks again, NRA gunsuckers!), and they have the gall to claim there’s no public safety or order there. They kill Chavistas, and they have made countless attempts on the lives of their two Bolivarian presidents, not to mention countless lesser politicians who supported them. And they have the temerity to claim they are the ones being repressed? Yeah. Spot the ironies, they are thicker than blackflies on the ass of a New Brunswick moose.

And so are the similarities between them and this guy.

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Posted in Canadian Counterpunch, Cuba, Libre (de los Yanquis), Fascism Without Swastikas, Guns, Guns, Guns, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't It Ironic?, Isn't That Illegal?, Teh Russkies, The United States of Amnesia | Comments Off

Six paramilitaries caught in Venezuelan border state

Posted on June 5, 2014 by Sabina Becker

Putschists and smugglers work hand in glove in Venezuela, but the governor of one western border state isn’t taking their crimes lying down. Here’s what he had to say on the latest incident in Táchira:

The governor of Táchira state, José Gregorio Vielma Mora, informed on Wednesday of the capture of six suspected paramilitaries in the La Popa sector of Ayacucho municipality. The capture was executed by the Venezuelan army.

Vielma Mora stated that the subjects were arrested as part of Operation Secure Border, and that they had four rifles in their possession, as well as fragmentation grenades, two pistols, and bulletproof vests. “There were no deaths,” he added.

“These paramilitaries were highly dangerous, for which reason they were transferred to the Military Processing Centre in Caracas. We are thoroughly searching the terrain of said groups,” Vielma Mora said.

He reiterated that the government is working to protect the border region: “We are intensifying operations day and night to minimize smuggling and combat crime. Yesterday, gasoline-smugglers from the Colombian side were firing at the Venezuelan side, there were no injuries or deaths because the border was closed.”

Vielma Mora added that there was also an attempt to close the border yesterday in Boca de Grita, García de Hevia, due to the fact that “smuggling of gasoline and foods is worsening, [so] we are going to go on intensifying these operations.”

“We also found three cellars full of foods which were being destined for the neighboring country [Colombia]. We are determined to reduce that to its minimal expression, and smuggling of foods, gasoline, energy and more, toward our sister republic, Colombia,” Vielma Mora said.

Seven paratroop, marine and special-unit infantry battalions are stationed in the municipalities of Pedro María Ureña, Bolívar, Junín, Ayacucho, García de Hevia, and Panamericano, he explained.

Vielma Mora added that in the 18 months of his government, there have been no kidnappings in Táchira, “we have been impeccable against kidnappers, criminal bands, and paramilitaries.”

Translation mine.

And meanwhile, the opposition is eternally kvetching about oil going to Cuba and locals not being able to find this, that or the other foodstuff in Venezuela. Gee, maybe all this would be less of a problem if their own weren’t stealing shit and diverting it into Colombia in exchange for terrorist paramilitaries to help them bring down the duly elected government, eh?

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Posted in Economics for Dummies, El NarcoPresidente, Fascism Without Swastikas, Huguito Chavecito, Isn't That Illegal? | Comments Off

Chavecito, the Movie?

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Sabina Becker

Yet another Chavista legacy that’s absolutely huge: the Villa del Cine, the national film studio complex. Without Chavecito, it never would have gotten built.

Chavecito was always larger than life. And now, he’s about to get a major film tribute, as the head of the Venezuelan national film production company has announced:

José Antonio Gómez, the president of the Venezuelan national film production company, Villa del Cine, highlighted the support the revolutionary government has given to the nation’s cinematic production via the state company, which celebrated its eighth anniversary on Tuesday.

“The State has participated with so much force in re-impulsing national production to the point where it has become simply huge, more than any other film-making country,” Gómez said during an interview on the VTV show Zurda Konducta.

On June 3, 2003, President Hugo Chávez ordered the creation of a cinematographic complex which, with government financing, would boost the creations of young filmmakers and creatives throughout the land.

“Chávez made possible the dreams of many people who make films, but with much difficulty. The filmmaker of 15 years ago had to sell his apartment, give up his car, and still not complete the film. Today it’s real, it exists, knock on the door and you can make your movie,” Gómez said.

Gómez also said that now two and a half million moviegoers have enjoyed the national cinema, a figure he expects will double during this year. “This would never have happened, it’s an amazing number. Before, we didn’t have that, because we didn’t have films either,” Gómez emphasized.

Gómez also informed that the production phase of the film “Maisanta” has begun, which will be directed by César Bolívar. “It will show us a Maisanta who, during his lifetime, was being shaped by the politico-social surroundings in which he lived, which brought him to leave the family home to defend the Revolution, as his father had done, as Ezequiel Zamora did,” Gómez said.

[…]

Gómez also said that as of Tuesday, the state production company will begin the process of collecting scripts for a film on Comandante Hugo Chávez.

“You can send your scripts to the Villa del Cine right away, we’ll have our page up until next Monday so you can send them to us in digital form,” Gómez announced.

Translation mine.

Maisanta is Pedro Pérez Delgado, Chavecito’s great-grandfather. He was the son of Colonel Pedro Pérez Pérez, an officer in the army of Ezequiel Zamora during the days of the Federal War. He began his fateful career at the age of 16 after killing an army colonel who had refused to take responsibility for impregnating Petra, his sister. Family honor and his late father’s name avenged, at a cost: He had to run for his life. Along the way, he stumbled across a troop of revolutionary guerrillas, whom he joined, as he had no other way of surviving as a young fugitive. He became a powerful guerrilla leader, famed for his war cry of “Madre Santa” (Holy Mother), which, in his plainsman’s dialect, got crunched into “Maisanta”, his nom de guerre. He died a prisoner in the dungeons of the infamous and brutal dictator, Juan Vicente Gómez…the first of many Venezuelan caudillos to sell out the country and its oilfields to the Yanks.

So you can see that Chavecito wasn’t just some jumped-up little nobody out of nowhere, as the oligarchy like to paint him, but a revolutionary who literally had it in his blood, and who took very seriously the history lessons too many of his schoolmates were obliged to forget. And who had more than just a passing physical resemblance to his great-grandfather, who was still remembered by the old folks of the great plains where he was born and raised. Maisanta, too, was surrounded by all kinds of oligarchic lies and slander, the main one being that he was nothing more than a common bandit who killed for fun. Chavecito himself pointed out, in my favorite scene from The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, that nothing could have been further from the truth. Maisanta is a national hero, a rebel democrat who took on a dictator…and so is his great-grandson.

A more fitting subject for a movie would be hard to imagine, in either of the two. And there is no doubt that the writerly talents of Venezuela will be more than happy to oblige with all kinds of scripts. There’s only one real problem that I can see: Finding an actor both uniquely handsome and charismatic enough to play Chavecito. It’s the same bugaboo that anyone making a movie about Che Guevara faces: The real guy was invariably better looking than anyone cast in his role (with the possible exception of Omar Sharif). And he always had better lines, too.

Still, I don’t think I’ve been this excited to anticipate a movie since…well, EVER. And I can hardly wait to see what comes next.

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Posted in Artsy-Fartsy Culture Stuff, Huguito Chavecito, Morticia! You Spoke French! | Comments Off

The scandals of King Juan Carlos

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Sabina Becker

Video in Spanish, detailing a lot of things you probably never knew about the soon-to-abdicate king of Spain. That he squandered thousands of euros of public money per day on a canned hunt in Botswana is well known; not so obvious, however, is the fact that his “man of the people” image is a carefully cultivated myth. And that it all began with Generalissimo Franco, who covered up the fact that Juan Carlos killed his own brother, Alfonso, with a revolver as a boy. (The Wikipedia entry on Alfonso perpetuates this myth, claiming it was a gun accident, and that the pistol went off as Alfonso was cleaning it. The article cites only two sources.)

Of course, a killer-king is one thing nobody wants on the throne…and most Spaniards never knew they had one until recently, as Franco-fascism gradually gave way to more press freedom. But, as my most recent entry shows, there is still not nearly enough of that…because the whole damn world doesn’t know about this yet. And because the whole damn world still doesn’t know how badly Spain wants to be a republic again.

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Posted in Crapagandarati, EuroPeons, Fascism Without Swastikas, Under the Name of Spain | Comments Off

Spanish media gloss over demands for “Real Democracy NOW!”

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Sabina Becker

An inconvenient truth is emerging in the public squares of Spain: Demonstrators like those above, demanding a referendum on the monarchy, and the right to a real democracy after eight decades of first dictatorship, and then sham “democracy” (note the quotes, there for a reason). And the media? Well, they find that reality so inconvenient that they choose to gloss over it or ignore it altogether:

On Monday, following the abdication of King Juan Carlos I, thousands of Spaniards took to the streets of the land in favor of the abolition of the monarchy and the installation of a Third Republic by way of a constitutional referendum. The media of the European nation omitted these gatherings, which, in places such as the Puerta del Sol, in Madrid, reached up to 20,000 persons.

The majority of the Spanish press opted to headline their reports with the abdication of the king in favor of his son, Prince Felipe, 46, obviating the gatherings that took place in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, and Seville, among other regions, where the demonstrators expressed their rejection of the monarchy.

Media such as El País, ABC, El Mundo, La Razón, La Vanguardia, El Correo, El Periódico, Heraldo de Áragon, La Voz de Galicia, El Diario Vasco, among others, decided to emphasize headlines such as: “The King abdicates in order to push reforms which the country demands”, “Felipe VI faces ascension amid institutional crisis”, “The hour of Felipe VI”, “Juan Carlos gives way to Felipe VI”, “A new era”, and “New transition”, among others.

Meanwhile, only El Punto Avui, of Barcelona, and El Diario de Mayorca gave headline space to the multitudinous demonstrations demanding “real democracy, now”.

The streets and squares of Coruña, Pontevedra, Ourense, Ferrol, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Oviedo, Gijón, Bilbao, Santander, Burgos, Logroño, Toledo, Ciudad Real, Albacete, Mallorca, Málaga, Granada and Huelva, among others, played host to demonstrations.

Amid all this, the United Left party (IU) has called for the political, social, cultural and citizen forces to maintain demonstrations and demand a referendum “so that the people can decide, and set out on the path toward a more just nation, with more solidarity.”

“They can’t substitute the right of [royal] blood for the rights of the people,” said IU federal co-ordinator Cayo Lara.

The Spanish Congress forecasts that the proclamation of the new king, Felipe VI, will be before the General Courts as of June 18, a date on which the organic law regulating the abdication of King Juan Carlos will be approved, according to Publico.es.

The king has been in power for 37 years, a position he assumed following the death of dictator Francisco Franco on November 22, 1975, after swearing fidelity to him.

Translation mine.

So you can see why the call for a Third Republic is gaining momentum so fast. Who wants an institution put in place by a brutal dictator, and one in which the twit-in-chief swore loyalty to said dictator, to boot?

But don’t expect the Spanish mainstream media to be overly forthcoming about THAT part. Expect, instead, absurd and undeserved praise for the king, the prince, the prince’s fashion-plate wife, and a whole lot of other stupid, superficial crapola.

Expect, also, the real wishes of thousands of fed-up Spaniards to go on being ignored until, inevitably, a riot breaks out. And when that happens, expect that it will have been the army or the police behind it, not the demonstrators themselves. After all, it’s never a riot until the cops show up.

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Posted in Crapagandarati, Fascism Without Swastikas, Under the Name of Spain | Comments Off

Spaniards demand referendum on monarchy

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Sabina Becker

And by “referendum”, they mean the right to decide NOT to have another hereditary twit imposed by a dictator as head of state:

Willy Meyer, recently elected head of the list of the Spanish IU party in the European parliamentary elections, has demanded a referendum so that Spaniards can choose between the current model of parliamentary monarchy, or a republic. This in the context of the surprising abdication of King Juan Carlos.

Meyer spoke to EFE as soon as he had heard of the decision of King Juan Carlos to abdicate in favor of his son, Prince Felipe, announced by the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy.

“21st century democracy demands that a referendum be called for all the people to decide if they want a republic or a monarchy,” Meyer emphasized.

According to the IU representative, the recent European elections have created a “crisis” and “shipwreck” for bipartisanism, of the two parties — PP and PSOE — which, in his opinion, support the monarchy, for which reason there is more sense than ever in calling for a referendum.

Pablo Iglesias, leader of the citizen movement Podemos (“We Can”), which won five Euro-deputies at the polls, joined in the call for a popular consultation as well: “We Spaniards have the right to decide our future; that’s why we want to vote.”

In declarations to Las Mañanas Cuatro from Brussels, where he was picking up his Europarliament credentials, Iglesias also called upon the socialists to join the popular republican demand: “The [socialist] PSOE has an opportunity to demonstrate that they are not just like the [fascist] PP.” But, he added, “the elites are afraid of what the vote might bring.”

“This is a problem between the oligarchy and democracy. Spaniards have to have the ability to decide,” insisted Pablo Iglesias. “We Spaniards are adults, and yet they talk down to us as if we were children.”

Podemos released a communiqué to their circles and to voters upon the abdication of the king, stating: “In a democracy, the people decide. We are not subjects, but citizens.” It emphasizes that “there are no excuses for citizens not to be able to decide the form of State in which they want to live.”

The EQUO political party, for its part, defends the position that following the abdication of the king, it is time to give a voice to the people so that they decide the model of state. In the party’s opinion, this abdication must not be settled with a simple succession, but a democratic exit, beginning with a constitutional process in which a referendum is included to allow a choice between monarchy and republic.

EQUO co-spokesperson Juan López de Uralde says that “it would be a grave error to go on acting as if nothing had happened. The abdication of the king removes the foundations from a model that no longer represents us. It cannot be understood as a 21st-century democracy if the head of state continues to depend on hereditary factors and not on the will of the citizenry. It is urgent to make profound changes.”

López’s co-spokesperson, Carolina López, affirms that EQUO defends a “citizen republic, secular and which upholds the rights that have been trampled during the last years.”

Meanwhile, in Catalonia, the ERC (winning party in the recent European elections), ICV-EUiA, CUP and the Procès Constituent have joined the call for a referendum to reinstate the Republic, and called for demonstrations in all the most important cities and towns.

ICV spokeswoman Dolors Camats said that the abdication of the king could not be resolved with the accession of Prince Felipe, but with a referendum: “It’s not worthwhile for us to trade one king for another.” In a press conference with Joan Josep Nuet (of the EUiA), she stated that “in the same way as the Catalans demand a referendum to decide their future, it is necessary that the citizenry be consulted about the state they want,” and has advocated for interpreting the abdication as an opportunity to change the current model, according to Europa Press.

Camats also called on the Catalans to hang Republican banners and Senyeras on their balconies, as well as to participate in demonstrations called for 8 p.m. on Monday night, in many public squares throughout Catalonia.

Meanwhile, the Procès Constituent, founded by Arcadi Oliveres and Teresa Forcades, released a communiqué titled “Neither Juan Carlos nor Felipe! A Catalan Republic for the 99%! Democratic Constitutional Process NOW!” It states that “all the principal institutions of the state are in question: the Crown, the judicial power, and the bipartisan system. The recent elections of May 25 have demonstrated the profound citizen disaffection toward the current political system.”

BNG spokesman Xavier Vence called for the opening of a “constitutional process” following the abdication, and supports a republican model to “do away with the legacy of Franco”.

Vence said that the king “was named by Franco as his successor”, and considers that the decision to abdicate is only a “cosmetic change” in the face of the “crisis” of the institution.

“The current social crisis requires a broader and deeper change than a washing of the face,” Vence explained, maintaining that the citizenry “demands a real democratic transition.”

Translation mine.

Meanwhile, a deafening silence from Washington about the need for a democratic transition in Spain. I guess it would be different if Spain had oil, eh?

PS: Here’s some more video from last night’s demonstrations. Note the huge crowds and the republican tricolor flags:

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Posted in EuroPeons, Fascism Without Swastikas, Under the Name of Spain | Comments Off

Twit abdicates so junior twit can replace him

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Sabina Becker

A young king with an old dictator, Spain, 40-odd years ago.

Really. How else would YOU title this story?

The king of Spain, Juan Carlos I, has decided to renounce the throne, prime minister Mariano Rajoy announced today.

“King Juan Carlos just communicated his intention to renounce the throne,” Rajoy told journalists, gathered this morning with urgency.

Named by dictator Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos will cede the throne and the leadership of the state to his son, the prince of Asturias.

Once the process for the transfer of the crown, outlined by Article 57 of the Spanish constitution, is completed, he will become King Felipe IV of Spain.

Rajoy did not explain the motives for the monarch’s decision to the nation.

“His Majesty wishes to communicate his motives to the citizens personally this morning.”

The prime minister only indicated that he “met with the king [who is] convinced that this is the moment when the change in the head of state and the transfer of the crown to the prince of Asturias can take place with all normality.”

With respect to this process, Rajoy expressed his certainty that “a process of institutional stability will develop in a climate of normality and as one more show of the maturity of our democracy.”

Meanwhile, in all the squares of Spain, demonstrations were called for 8:00 pm with the slogan: “Let’s throw out the Prince as well!”, according to the republican website, Insurgente.org.

“After a 39-year reign, the same as Franco, the heir of the most criminal Dictator known to the history of the people of the Spanish state abdicates for his son Felipe. They said he did it to salvage a Monarchy sunken in the swamp of discredit and corruption that sit in the dock with the king’s daughter, his son-in-law, and the secretary of the infantas, for money-laundering, fiscal crimes, and embezzling of public funds,” reported the site.

The abdication comes at an especially delicate time for Spain and its monarchy as well, affected by a corruption scandal which taints the king’s daughter, the Infanta Cristina.

Translation mine.

So you can see why I said they’re twits, eh? They think they can pull the wool over the people’s eyes with this show of bogus “normality”. Meanwhile, demos have been called for in every town square in Spain against the transfer of this crooked, corrupt, discredited-before-it-began monarchy. A reign that has its roots in the Franco dictatorship that brought down the Spanish Republic during a brutal civil war where the world’s much-vaunted “democracies” stood aside and twiddled their thumbs while the fascists murdered the only real democracy in Europe.

And yet that other fucking fascist twit, Rajoy, has the nerve to talk about the “maturity of our democracy”. WHAT fucking democracy? demand the Spanish people, and so do I.

I think I’ll just let these Venezuelan guys do the talking for me from here on in:

Oh yeah, that’s right: This is the same fucking twit who had the nerve to tell Chavecito to shut up. A legitimate, popular, clean, democratically-elected head of state…unlike himself.

The irony is just too precious, is it not?

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