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Attention

Dozens injured in Barcelona clashes as thousands protest jailing of Catalan leaders

Barcelona protest
© Pau Barrena / AFP
Riot police officers scuffle with demonstrators in Barcelona on March 23.
At least 24 people have been injured in clashes, after thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona to protest against a Supreme Court decision to prosecute Catalan independence leaders on rebellion charges.

Supreme court judge Pablo Llarena ruled that 13 Catalan leaders be put on trial for their part in last year's Catalonia independence referendum. He ordered that five of the 13 leaders be imprisoned up to their trials. Jordi Turull, the leading candidate to be the next president of Catalonia, was among the group Llarena sent to prison.

The decision sparked a wave of demonstrations in Barcelona and across Catalonia on Friday. Leading Catalan independence groups implored people to take to the streets and three major rallies took place outside government buildings, with perhaps the largest crowd massing in the Plaça de Catalunya.

Comment: See also:


Mr. Potato

Libtards boycott Iowa hair salon for styling Ivanka Trump's hair, posting pic on Instagram in support of women in politics

An Iowa hair salon defended their decision to post a photograph of Ivanka Trump after a public outcry led to a boycott of their services.

Here's what they posted of Ivanka
ivanka instagram
The image included the president's daughter and Governor Kim Reynolds, with the caption, "Our Monday kicked off with styling Ivanka Trump for her visit to Iowa! We [love] supporting women in politics."

Many customers rejected the message and said that they would be boycotting the salon thereafter.

"You respect money over women," read one comment. "Not just women, but humanity. These two featured in your photo are disgraceful."

"This is devastating. I love Salon Spa W so much. It's my place of refuge," read another. "As an incredibly loyal customer, I demand an apology before I book my next appointment, and will be canceling the appointments I have."

A third comment read, "Do you know how much money I spend at Salon Spa W? I get my nails and hair done there exclusively, and literally have my appointments booked till years end. THIS makes me not want to give you another penny, and makes me really REALLY angry for all your amazing LGBTQ staff whose lives these women threaten. Please take this down."

Whistle

Sweden goes mad, plans "total societal mobilization" against Russia

sweden russia
© quora
In yet another sign of what Russia expert Stephen Cohen has described as the escalating New Cold War, non-NATO aligned Sweden is initiating detailed plans to ready itself for total societal mobilization in response to military attack from a major external power. As Aaron Mehta points out in his exclusive for Defense News entitled "Fortress Sweden: Inside the plan to mobilize Swedish society against Russia", that major external power is none other than Russia, whose heavily militarized port of Kaliningrad lies a little over 220 miles across the ocean from Sweden.

During past Cold War decades, Sweden (along with other non-NATO Nordic country Finland) was known for keeping painstakingly detailed survival readiness plans in case of a great power invasion, down to "how parking garages were designed so you could use them as shelters" according to Magnus Nordenman of the Atlantic Council. But the program was left derelict after the collapse of the Soviet Union and a new era of peace meant the end of such "total defense" plans.

But in 2017 a government sponsored commission was formed to investigate and lay the groundwork for plans to resurrect and update plans for total Swedish societal mobilization. Though the commissions findings were not set to be delivered until May 2019, it produced a 6-page preliminary findings report late last year (out of a total working report of 243 pages), likely in response to increased tensions between NATO and Russia in the Baltic region.

Comment: Planning of this sort might actually be helpful in preparation for a natural disaster such as a major meteor bombardment, but the Russian invasion scenario is just hallucinatory madness. It would be far better to simply establish good relations with Russia on mutually beneficial terms, something Russia would be happy to do. But no, the anti-Russian meme is too strong with the Nordic nations. Oh well, let them waste their money.


Megaphone

'March For Our Lives': Thousands expected to attend worldwide gun control demonstrations

gun rally
© Aaron P. Bernstein / Reuters
Demonstrators gather as students and gun control advocates hold the "March for Our Lives" event demanding gun control after recent school shootings at a rally in Washington, U.S.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to take part in the 'March For Our Lives' gun control rally in Washington DC. The rally, organized by student victims of gun violence, is one of 700 events taking place across the US.

The landmark event follows the killing of 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February. The teenage survivors of the massacre have since become prominent voices in the anti-gun violence movement, leading criticism of US President Donald Trump as well as congressional opponents of new gun control legislation. Their activism has now led them to organize March For Our Lives, an event which will feature a majority of teenage speakers.

"Everybody who's speaking is young. We don't have anybody over the age of what I think is 20, because this is our story," Parkland survivor Cameron Kasky told NPR Friday. "Our generation has had to deal with this the whole time. It's our time to talk. You know, you can send your thoughts and prayers. These are our thoughts. You have to listen now."

Comment: See also: Fmr Sheriff David Clarke: Gun control movement by survivors of Florida school shooting 'has Soros fingerprints all over it'


Airplane

Lay down your license: Drunk co-pilot at Stuttgart airport narrowly prevented from taking off

Airplane pilot
© Todd Korol / Reuters
A Lisbon-bound flight with over 100 passengers was severely delayed at Stuttgart airport after a drunk co-pilot was hauled off the plane. He was rumbled due to his "unsteady gait" and a strong smell of alcohol, police said.

The short-haul flight from Stuttgart to Lisbon was stopped shortly before take-off when an airport employee discovered that the co-pilot of the Embraer 190 aircraft seemed unsteady on his feet and smelled of alcohol. Officers of Stuttgart police reported that they grabbed hold of the flight officer and led him away from the cockpit.

The 40-year-old co-pilot had already begun preparations for the flight, but it was cancelled as the man was asked to undergo a blood test. The co-pilot was also asked to lay down his license.

Eventually,106 passengers had to be put up in hotels because the airline could not provide a replacement crew at short notice. The name of the airline is unknown, but Die Welt newspaper says the pilot in question was employed by TAP, Portugal's flag carrier airline.

USA

Angry parents fight school board over unconstitutional gun policy and win

school meeting
Parents packed into the Lacey Board of Education meeting in Lacey Township, New Jersey, on Monday to confront board members after three high school students were given multiple days of in-school suspensions for taking a photo of themselves at a gun range.

The school board was "near-silent" as angry parents grilled them about the district's gun policy and whether it violates students' civil rights, Jersey Shore Online reported.

The Lacey Township School District had a policy in place that stated "any student who is reported to be in possession of a weapon of any type for any reason or purpose whether on or off school grounds" is subject to up to a one-year suspension and other penalties.

People

Adult Turpin children from 'house of horrors' released from hospital to start new lives on their own

Turpin children
© ABC News
The adult Turpin siblings have been released from the hospital.
The adult Turpin children who allegedly spent most of their lives in captivity have finally been released from a California hospital.

The siblings, ranging in age from 18 to 29, were quietly released March 15 and taken to their new home in an undisclosed rural area in California, ABC News reported.

Hospital staff and others who've come to know the Turpin siblings said it wasn't easy saying goodbye to them.

"It was emotional for the staff and emotional for them," Mark Uffer, the chief executive officer of the Corona Regional Medical Center, told ABC News. "This has been their home away from wherever they were at before, so it was a little bit tough for them and the staff."

Comment: More on the Turpin family:


Attention

ISIS-supporting shooter and hostage-taker killed by police in southern France - 4 dead and 16 injured, including police

trebes shooting
© Reuters
Earlier today local media in southern France reported a police operation underway after reports of a shooting and hostage-taking in Trebes, in southern France.
At least two people were injured inside the supermarket, Mayor of Trebes Eric Menassi told BFMTV, calling the situation "a terrible drama."

The hostage-taker has claimed allegiance to Islamic State (IS, formerly known as ISIS) AFP cited the prosecutor's office as saying.

The man was shouting "Allahu Akbar" when he entered the supermarket, a witness told Europe 1. According to an AFP source, an unidentified man entered the supermarket at about 11:00 local time. Shots were then heard in the area.

Minutes before the hostage situation began in the supermarket, a police officer was shot by a gunman while jogging in nearby Carcassonne commune, AFP reported. The shooter opened fire from his car. It is unclear whether the two incidents are connected.
Witnesses also report the man shouting that he was "an Islamic State soldier".

Magnify

The Only Reason We're Examining Facebook's Sleazy Behavior Is Because Trump Won

Mark Zuckerberg
Trust me, there's nobody more thrilled to see Facebook's unethical and abusive practices finally getting the attention they deserve from mass media and members of the public who simply didn't want to hear about it previously. I've written multiple articles over the years warning people about the platform (links at the end), but these mostly fell on deaf ears.

That's just the way things go. All sorts of horrible behaviors can continue for a very long time before the corporate media and general public come around to caring. You typically need some sort of external event to change mass psychology. In this case, that event was Trump winning the election.

The more I read about the recent Facebook scandal, it's clear this sort of thing's been going on for a very long time. The major difference is this time the data mining was used by campaign consultants of the person who wasn't supposed to win. Donald Trump.

Mr. Potato

Feminist hysteria: MP Harriet Harman says next Labour leader 'must be a woman'

Harriet Harman

Stephen Chung / Global Look Press
The next Labour leadership contest should have only female candidates, the party's former deputy leader has said. MP Harriet Harman said it is becoming "a bit of a thing" that Labour is yet to have its first female leader.

In an unprecedented intervention, the Camberwell and Peckham MP Harman said that male Labour candidates should sit out of the next leadership contest in order to ensure that a female is elected. The once-acting leader of the party said she was "deadly serious" about her remarks.

"Next time, I think we have to be quite clear about this and basically say there are lots of fantastic men in the Labour Party who would be more than capable of being leader - there's no doubt about that - and there are also lots of women who are more than capable of being leader, and we're going to choose one of the women," she told House magazine.

Comment: So much for 'best person for the job'. Soon we'll just have feminists making those decisions. But then again, that's the point - it's a power grab.

Also see: