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Barcelona: Rally sees hundreds of thousands come out against Catalan independence


RT
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 14:47 UTC
Barcelona rally
© Evening StandardStreets of Barcelona
Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in central Barcelona on Sunday in opposition to any declaration of independence from Spain, waving banners that said "I am Spanish," "Catalonia is Spain," and "Together we are stronger."

Police said around 350,000 people took to the streets of the Spanish capital, though organizers put the figure closer to 930,000. The rally, designed to defend the unity of Spain, was organized by the Catalan Civil Society (SCC) group, with the slogan 'Let's recover our common sense!'


"Everyone has the right to say their opinion. [Until] today I had the impression that [people] who were against independence couldn't speak. Today is a great day when everyone in Catalonia can speak," a French woman living in Barcelona told RT. When asked about the federal police presence in the region, the woman justified the measure saying that "we can't forget that Catalonia is still Spain."

Comment: The issues in Spain and the EU regarding Catalonia are just beginning.

More from RT:
Several protesters could be spotted giving fascist salutes in Barcelona during a rally against Catalan independence on Sunday. The same scenes were captured on camera in Madrid where thousands of people gathered for the same cause on Saturday.

Hundreds of thousands of pro-Spanish unity protesters also took to the streets of Barcelona on Sunday. A group of unionists was filmed eagerly demonstrating the notorious Franco-era fascist salute to the cameras. The people waved Spanish flags and shouted at a group of Catalan police officers, who were sitting in their vehicle. The police were forced to back away from the protesters in reverse.

A man was also filmed sitting on a fence and performing the fascist salute in front of a crowd, which thronged outside national police headquarters on Via Laietana. People waved flags and shouted, "Viva Espana!"



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Arrow Down

When the globalist empire falls

Pål Steigan -Translated by Graham Healey.
steigan.no
Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:45 UTC
18th century Italian landscape painting
© Jan AsselynItalian landscape with the ruins of a Roman bridge and aqueduct.
There is a genre of landscape painting from the 17th and 18th centuries that ought to give us cause for reflection. They are paintings of Italian landscapes where goatherds and their flocks wander amongst the ruins of Roman aqueducts, bridges and temples. The fascinating thing about them is that they depict a European society which, more than 1200 years after the fall of the Roman empire, still had not regained the level of production and infrastructure that the Roman empire had at it's height. It wasn't until the industrial revolution in the 18th century that the productivity and infrastructure in Europe managed to surpass the Roman empire in its heyday.

The paintings of goatherds and farm animals amongst the ruins of infrastructure and temples from classical Rome are like pictures of people moving among the remains of a high-tech civilisation that they no longer have the ability to match. The city of Rome had at its height a population of a million people. That required a very advanced infrastructure for water and food supply, transport, goods delivery, trade and so on. The city was, at the time, the foremost example of a building materials industry, that had the capacity, and level of competency, to deliver the enormous amount of building materials that such a city required.

When the empire collapsed, the infrastructure was no longer maintained. The aqueducts broke down and towns and cities lost their water supply. Roads and bridges deteriorated and were not repaired. Goods transport and trade was reduced from a surging river to a quiet brook. 1200 years after its days of glory Rome was a ruined town with a population of less than 10.000.
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Info

Why wealth inequality persists in America


Urban Institute
Thu, 05 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
wealth inequality USA
Why hasn't wealth inequality improved over the past 50 years? And why, in particular, has the racial wealth gap not closed? These nine charts illustrate how income inequality, earnings gaps, homeownership rates, retirement savings, student loan debt, and lopsided asset-building subsidies have contributed to these growing wealth disparities.
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Snowflake

Dr Seuss 'racist'? Museum set to remove mural by celebrated author amid cries of 'PC gone mad'


RT
Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:29 UTC
Dr. Suess Mural
© Springfield Museums
A Boston museum honoring the popular children's author Dr Seuss has become embroiled in a race row over a mural depicting a "jarring stereotype" of a Chinese man.

The Dr Seuss Museum in Springfield, Massachusetts has agreed to remove the offending image but has now been criticized for kowtowing to political correctness. The illustration in question was taken from Dr Seuss' first book, And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street, from 1937.

Author and illustrator Mo Willems announced Friday that he and two other authors, Lisa Yee and Mike Curato, would boycott an event at the museum on October 14 citing the depiction of a "jarring racial stereotype of a Chinese man who is depicted with chopsticks, a pointed hat and slanted slit eyes."

"We find this caricature of 'the Chinaman' deeply hurtful and have concerns about children's exposure to it," the authors wrote in a joint statement published online. "While this image may have been considered amusing to some when it was published 80 years ago, it is obviously offensive in 2017."
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Gear

No sex on UK census: ONS proposes making question voluntary over claims of transgender discrimination


The Telegraph
Sun, 08 Oct 2017 00:00 UTC
ONS census gender voluntary
Under the proposed move, citizens might not be required to tell officials what sex they are
The "sex" question in the next census could be made voluntary after claims it discriminates against transgender people.

The "tentative" recommendation has been made in an Office for National Statistics (ONS) report on gender identity.

The move would make the UK one of the first countries in the world not to require its citizens to tell officials what sex they are, according to the Sunday Times.

The proposed change for the 2021 census could leave Britain without an accurate figure for the number of men and women living in the country.

Comment: More Transgender Rights? No, It's Only the Death of Meaning, Dear!

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Handcuffs

Student shoots and kills Texas Tech police officer after being caught with drugs - now in custody


RT
Tue, 10 Oct 2017 16:45 UTC
police line tape
© Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
A campus police officer was shot in the head and killed at Texas Tech police headquarters on Monday. The campus was on lockdown for about an hour as SWAT officers arrived on the scene and managed to arrest the suspect.

"A shooting has been reported at the Texas Tech Police Department. At this time, the shooter is still at large. The campus is on lockdown. Take shelter in a safe location," Texas Tech University said in its initial emergency notice.

The shooting happened at around 8pm Central time on Monday night. The Texas Tech campus as well as its neighboring University Medical Center were on lockdown until after 9:30pm.

A SWAT team has responded to support clearing buildings.

Texas Tech Police were searching for Texas Tech freshman student Hollis A. Daniels, 19, in connection with the shooting. A suspect was reported to be driving a silver 2001 BMW SUV.
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Handcuffs

Crime so low in Japan, cops looking for things to do - solving minor crimes, inventing others


The Economist
Thu, 18 May 2017 16:22 UTC
japan police
© Anadolu
THE stake-out lasted a week, but it paid off in the end. The tireless police of Kagoshima, a sleepy city in the far south of the country, watched the unlocked car day and night. It was parked outside a supermarket, and contained a case of malt beer. Finally, a passing middle-aged man decided to help himself. Five policemen instantly pounced, nabbing one of the city's few remaining law-breakers.

Japan's cluttered streets are not always pretty but they are remarkably safe. Crime rates have been falling for 13 years. The murder rate of 0.3 per 100,000 people is among the lowest in the world; in America it is almost 4 (see chart). A single gun slaying was recorded for the whole of 2015. Even yakuza gangsters, once a potent criminal force, have been weakened by tougher laws and old age.

Yet, far from being pensioned off, the police are growing in numbers: beat cops, known colloquially as omawari-san (Mr Walk-around), are a fixture in most neighbourhoods. Japan has over 259,000 uniformed officers - 15,000 more than a decade ago, when crime rates were far higher. The ratio of officers to population is very high, especially in Tokyo, home to the world's biggest metropolitan police force - a quarter bigger than the one protecting New York.

Comment: Everyone's got problems! You'd think low crime would be reward enough, but nope - gotta fill those quotas.

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Take 2

Angelina Jolie was asked to help arrest warlord Joseph Kony in 2012 by acting as 'honeytrap' in bizarre special forces plot and PSYOP

Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail
Sat, 07 Oct 2017 23:22 UTC
Kony
Angelina Jolie was once allegedly asked to participate in a bizarre plot to arrest Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony along with then-husband Brad Pitt.

According to a report published by the Sunday Times of London, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, asked the activist actress act as bait in a 'honeytrap'.

The information was first obtained by French investigative website Mediapart on Friday and made available to the British newspaper.

Moreno Ocampo reportedly approached Jolie in the spring of 2012 and attempted to cast her and her husband at the time, Brad Pitt, as her 'co-star' in a plot to take Kony into custody in the Central African Republic, where he was based.

Comment: As we now know, the whole 'Kony 2012' media campaign was a total Psyop front to back. But the Angelina Jolie story just underscores, along with the recent Russiagate campaign, White Helmets documentary, and host of other stories how the Deep State just loves using Hollywood to help shape people's perceptions of reality. Wake up, La La Land!!

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Boat

Chris Colombus descendant pens op-ed defending his ancestor's legacy

Minyvonne Burke
New York Daily News
Mon, 09 Oct 2017 16:09 UTC
Columbus day
One of Christopher Columbus's descendants is sailing the ocean blue because of what people are saying about his ancestor.

In an op-ed for USA Today, Christopher Columbus XX went to bat for the now-controversial explorer, saying criticism of his legacy is "political" and not based on history.

"History has some truly evil people. Columbus is certainly not one of them," Columbus wrote in a piece published Monday - Columbus Day. "Most often, history is not made up of perfect people and evil ones, but of complex people who must be understood in context."

Columbus said it was not easy for two cultures to come together for the first time in 1492, and the blame should not be placed on his ancestor.

"Blaming Columbus for everything that went wrong hides the truth about him and about those who followed him. It also obscures the great things that the countries of the American hemisphere have accomplished," he wrote.

"The fleet's caravels were not warships but explorer vessels. He brought together two continents that didn't know of one another's existence. For the first time in history, the world acquired a truly global perspective."

Columbus argued that his ancestor was not the source of all ills in the Americas.

Comment: Nope, Columbus wasn't the source of all ills in the Americas. He was just a part of many of them. History is complex. Demonizing past figures isn't always the answer. Neither is whitewashing them.

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Take 2

NYT, Matt Damon, Russel Crowe colluded to kill Weinstein story over 10 years ago

Alex Christoforou
Red Pill Times
Tue, 10 Oct 2017 15:01 UTC
weinstein damon
The liberal left New York Times knew what Harvey Weinstein was up to.

Hollywood golden boys, Matt Damon and Russel Crowe, appeared to have known what Harvey Weinstein was up to.

The liberal left media machine thought nothing of it, and decided to silence a story from Sharon Waxman that would have spared many young women from being subjected to Weinstein's sexual power trips.

The Gateway Pundit reports...
The New York Times had the story all the way back in 2004 and squashed it after Weinstein himself appeared at the NYT headquarters and muscled the paper into silence.

Sharon Waxman is the founder of The Wrap and a former New York Times reporter. She said she "gagged" when she read Jim Rutenberg's sanctimonious piece on Saturday about the "media enablers" who kept this story from the public for decades.

Waxman wrote about having the Weinstein scoop when she was a new reporter at the New York Times back in 2004 but after Weinstein, Matt Damon and Russel Crowe pressured her to stop her hit piece, the story was gutted.
Zerohedge reports that Sharon Waxman, the founding editor of The Wrap and formerly an entertainment industry reporter at the Times, revealed in a blog post published Sunday that she had reported out a similar story back in 2004, only for it to be quashed by top editors at the paper, who, instead of encouraging her to pursue the story, questioned its value and relevance after Weinstein had reportedly made a personal appeal demanding that it not be run.

Comment: Before getting fired from his own company, Weinstein apparently reached out to top Hollywood executives for support (including Discovery Networks CEO David Zaslav, former DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, NBCUniversal vice chair Ron Meyer, WME-IMG co-CEO Ari Emanuel and CAA managing partner Kevin Huvane). Here's the letter he sent:
My board is thinking of firing me. All I'm asking, is let me take a leave of absence and get into heavy therapy and counseling. Whether it be in a facility or somewhere else, allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance. A lot of the allegations are false as you know but given therapy and counseling as other people have done, I think I'd be able to get there.

I could really use your support or just your honesty if you can't support me.

But if you can, I need you to send a letter to my private gmail address. The letter would only go to the board and no one else. We believe what the board is trying to do is not only wrong but might be illegal and would destroy the company. If you could write this letter backing me, getting me the help and time away I need, and also stating your opposition to the board firing me, it would help me a lot. I am desperate for your help. Just give me the time to have therapy. Do not let me be fired. If the industry supports me, that is all I need.

With all due respect, I need the letter today.
And it wasn't just media and the Hollywood scene running damage control for Weinstein. Apparently the NYPD was ready to arrest Weinstein in 2015 after an Italian model accused him of groping her. Weinstein had invited her to his office. When she arrived, the assistant left, Weinstein asked her if her breasts were real, then groped her, stuck his hand under her skirt, and asked for a kiss, according to the model, Ambra Battilana. She left 31 minutes after arriving in the building, according to surveillance cameras, and a friend took her to the nearest police station. Before she could make a "controlled call" to Weinstein, suggested by the police in the hope that he would incriminate himself, he called her, asking for another meeting. At the detectives' urging, she agreed, but wore a wire. According to an NYPD commander, he "basically apologized", then invited her up to his room - "Just to show you how incorrigible the guy is".
Ambra Battilana excused herself to use the restroom and she was met by a detective from the special victims unit, which had been using two cellphones to record this March 28, 2015, meeting in the bar/restaurant at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in downtown Manhattan. Battilana seemed close to panic. The detective promised her that she would be safely under protective surveillance if she went along with Weinstein's request.


Battilana agreed and headed upstairs with Weinstein. The detectives were close behind, ready to move in immediately if Weinstein tried to grope her again as she alleged he had earlier. He would have been caught in the act.

But Battilana suddenly backed away and departed.

"She got scared," the police commander says.

Battilana returned downstairs. Weinstein joined her. The detectives moved in. They took him away for questioning that immediately ceased when he asked for a lawyer, in particular an attorney from the firm whose partners included former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. A Weinstein spokeswoman would deny the allegations.

The detectives were still able to bring the Manhattan district attorney's office a case that was considerably stronger than is routinely needed to convict less illustrious gropers in the subway.
...
But by several accounts the Manhattan district attorney's office was still feeling the aftershocks of the disastrous Dominique Strauss-Kahn case in 2011. ... Since then, the DA had seemed to knowledgeable observers to be leery of another high-profile debacle. That worry could have only increased as prosecutors learned that Battilana had accused a wealthy elderly boyfriend in Italy of forcing her into sex when she was just 17. She had also figured in the prosecution of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, testifying that she had witnessed one of his "bunga bunga" sex parties when she was 19.

At the prospect of her now figuring as the victim in a case against a high-profile figure such as Harvey Weinstein, the DA's office seemed to hesitate. The DA's office asked the SVU questions and the SVU answered them and the DA's office asked more questions that the SVU also answered.

"They knocked it around about a week, back and forth," the NYPD commander says.

The DA's office finally reached an official determination, following what a spokesman rightly described as "a thorough investigation."

"After analyzing the available evidence, including multiple interviews with both parties, a criminal charge is not supported," the spokeswoman announced.

The NYPD commander offers a different analysis based on long experience.

"When you say no after a week, it's not usually over the facts," he suggests.

Hesitation by prosecutors does not engender confidence in victims. Battilana had initially seemed sure of a speedy resolution, posting on Instagram three days after the alleged groping, "Don't stop dreaming just because you had a nightmare." She seems to have afterward lost faith in the system and is said to have reached a monetary settlement with Weinstein, apparently leaving town so she was unavailable.

"They paid her off," says someone with inside knowledge of the Weinstein response to the incident.
Filmmaker Alex Gibney, who is working on a documentary on Roger Ailes, says this is just the beginning:
"Anybody who's in the entertainment business or in the movie business had heard rumors [about Weinstein], but you know you have to be careful. The trick is proving that the rumors are true, but yeah, this had been one of those stories you kept hearing about and kept wondering," he said.
...
"There are lots of rumors of men in power who abuse that power for sexual favors. And there are a lot of beautiful women in the movie industry," Gibney said. "There are a lot of rumors swirling around a lot of people both in the present and the past."
...
"It's not just Hollywood, I think it's power in general. There's a reason why the powerful escape scrutiny for so long - it's because people want something from them. If you're an actress, you want to get a role, if you're a producer, you want a deal, and along the way people start making little compromises that end up being one big compromise. I don't think it's limited to Hollywood. We're talking about Scientology, we're talking about the Catholic Church. Wherever there's power, there's abuse of power, and there's a kind of collective responsibility for allowing those abuses to continue."


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