Free Republic

“The Catalans are leftists. True. But that doesn’t lessen their right to be free of a central government that bleeds them to eternally subsidize the rest of the country and the Madrid regime.”

It’s debatable whether Catalunya subsidizes the rest of Spain. The debt markets subsidize Spain, which has a national debt roughly the equivalent of its GDP. Catalunya has long championed loose national fiscal policy. When they reap what they sow (crushing debt and economic stagnation due to, among other things, socialist intervention in markets), they demand a fresh national start, presumably without any of the burdens they hoisted on the “Madrid regime” as you call it.

I would say its not unlike a marriage in which the wife was a profligate spender and while the husband fought it for awhile, in reality, he wasn’t too disciplined either and loved to party, so he went along with the lavish lifestyle. At some point, the wife decides she was out bc he’s holding her back... and, although she has a job too, she demands that as part of the divorce he has to take all of their marital debt with him.

If they could work out a solution on that issue, then so be it. Let the leftists alone. They’re just acknowledging the reality that with the EU, there’s really no good end game for sovereign nations so you might as well go that party single.

I don’t know your background or story, but I’ve lived in Spain for years. I’m not sure where some of you on here get your information, but you are misguided.

Any strategist understands that the best way to win a battle is to divide the enemy bc smaller parts are easier to chew.

Catalans (at least those pushing for independence), are hard core socialists at best. For whomever on here said “yea right, some communists... they’re forming a REPUBLIC.” China, North Korea and Venezuela are republics as well.

Chaos may feel good to some of you, no matter the circumstance. That makes one an anarchist though, nor a patriot.

If you’re on here you should be against Catalan independence as well. That’s the most far left part of Spain. A Catalan country will be another far left country having a say in global bodies at the expense of weakening a relatively centrist one friendly with the US.

I would caution against coming to that conclusion. The city state known as catalunya Has long been the power center of the left in Spain. It was the Soviet union’s bastion in Spain.

the primary drivers of globalization are corporate oligarchists and their socialist drones. The catalans aren’t protesting the EU. They’re saying they want their own seat there. Globalists want Catalan independence. Without the EU, “catalunya” would be impossible. Spain would intervene. The Barcelona city state will owe its existence to the EU and be its most loyal subject. When countries try to exit ithe EU n the future, don’t be surprised when they too develop secessionist cities/regions ... quietly backed by the EU and globalists.

Nation states are the impediments to global government. Not city states. The devolution from nation states to city states greases the way for globalization bc coercion of city states is much easier.

Projection

I don’t understand the title of Allahpundit’s article. “Endgame.” What is he saying the endgame is?

Here’s what I ponder as the endgame: Congressional, though primarily Senate Republicans continuing on the same or more contentious path vis-à-vis Trump. They’re beholden to their egos and masters who hold them up. Some may even truly believe that doing 180s on issues like health care and immigration is the right thing to do. Regardless, they conspire to fall on their collective swords and hold course, knowing either (a) they’ll win re-election and wait Trump out or (b) they’ll lose their seats and get taken care of via the DC revolving door program (but (b) only works for them if they carry water now for the masters than control the revolving doors). So, they perceive that they’ll be fine personally either way if they oppose Trump’s efforts to “break the wheel” and drain the swamp. On the other hand, if they decide to change course and join the Trump effort, they’ll be tied to its success or failure. That’s a more iffy proposition from their personal point of view.

They got to be Senators through personal ambition, by scheming and rising above the class. Human nature being what it is suggests that that ambition, now that it’s rewarded them with lofty perches, outweighs the laurels of iffy propositions. Their nature has and will continue to dictate their path. “Support the system that I reached the top of” will be their internal voice. Just as we all face internal demons, so do they. To get where they are, however, reflects which voice they’ve defaulted to. Personal ambition.

I’ve often wondered how conservative parties were essentially eliminated in Europe. Regardless, I think we’re now seeing it begin here. The size and rewards of big government are so overriding conservatives get caught up in divvying out the largesse (to their masters). Instead of cutting spending, they sell slowing the rate of increase as winning. But the direction never changes. Bigger. More. That’s how conservative parties die, because at some point the charade gets exposed and no one believes the line anymore. At that point, the distinction in voting is which party do you want to pick to divide the spoils of victory. If you’re on government assistance, you care. If you’re a large corporation with lobbyists, you care. If you’re neither on government assistance nor fighting for a large corporation, you don’t really care. As that happens, the corrupted conservative party is left catering to the corporations and leaders thereof that do.

The Republican Establishment knows they’ve lost their voters to Trump. I surmise they think re-election is becoming more iffy. So, their least-risk plan to preserve their personal stature/ambition is ensure the survival of the largesse which they anticipate will reward them. That means seeing Trump lose his gambit. Frankly, their best bet is seeing to it that they lose Congress so that the Democrats can impeach him. (If they vote to impeach or oppose him too openly, they undermine their ability to try to take his voters back after he’s out of the picture.)

After all, Eric Cantor himself told the Washingtonian that they’re just laying low, waiting Trump out, until business can go back to usual.

So, my “endgame” proposition is Republican establishment characters providing no assistance in Trump’s effort to reverse generations of government expansion ... and as a result undermining the continued existence of a conservative party in the United States. What will emerge on the other side is a party not unlike the Tories or any number of other center-right European parties, each of which asks for votes on the basis of their plan for directing government largesse better than the next guy’s.

And the speed of the wheel will pick up until it breaks in a much more turbulent manner.

The local media is trying to make the story of the night a few canisters of tear gas afterwards. Ha. The story of the night was the 10,000s of Trump supporters who waited in line for hours in the Phoenix heat. But who nevertheless comported themselves exceptionally well.

The much vaunted protest machine barely showed up. There may have been 2,000-3,000 of them in total, but they only filled about 25% of the area the City had cordoned off for them. I had a birds-eye view.

Just got home from the event. We were in line for 2 hours and still about another hour out when we left (midway through Trump’s speech). FAR, FAR more Trump people there than protestors. I’m guessing at least 10X1. The differences between the demeanor and presentation of the 2 groups was stark. There were exceptions of course, but the anti-trumpets were, on the whole, angry, unkept, and linguistically vulgar. Objective observers could have reached no other impression.

I suspect one “defense” Emory and its defenders put up for this program is that “if a student is qualified for entrance, means to pay shouldn’t preclude them from attending.”

So, Hispanic high school students will benefit both from (a) lower entrance requirements and diversity enrollment pushes and (b) heightened money assistance.

Yes, someone is getting the shaft.

Unless I’m misreading the stories, IF this is true, that ought to provide evidence of malfeasance. There’s no rational way to reconcile compilation of communications and “incidental” collection of data. Once compiled, the information is no longer incidental.

Are we going to be reliving the definition of sex? “Incidental” means “accompanying but not a major part of something.” If a compilation is made, the communications become the major part of something, the compilation.

“And sometimes in that context, in order to understand the importance of the report, and assess it’s significance, it was necessary to find out, or request the information as to who the U.S. official was.”

Not the biggest question here, but of interest I think. The law may make some separation between U.S. officials and non-officials. Rice refers to communications with U.S. officials. Whether they were officials after the election I don’t know - they would certainly have not been prior to the election.

I wonder whether mcmasters’ team could run a search to see if rice was requesting unmasking of other republicans through the primary season.

Coupling today’s announcement that Nunes was able to uncover evidence of surveillance on Trump/his team and Comey’s statement to the contrary Monday before Congress, I think it’s time we start talking about investigation of a cover-up.

What about legal non-us citizens? Years ago I remember standing in line at the Virginia DMV when they were aggressively encouraging everyone there to register. Plenty of people in that massive line that day were confused (I know, as it was hours and I speak Spanish). They couldn’t believe that they were being encouraged to vote even though they weren’t us citizens.

If I understand what you’re saying, I respectfully disagree. After the 1st run, she has 40 votes over Trump. After the second run, 80 votes over Trump. Count 3, its 120 votes. So, in just 3 counts, there’s an 80 vote discrepancy in her favor.

Please say a prayer for this hero, his family, and friends.

Makes one wonder if the recent on/off press conference with the alleged underaged victim from 1993 was really nothing more than “getting in front of” what the Left/Establishment/Podesta/Hillary campaign knew was buried in those Podesta emails. In other words, obfuscation by associating Trump with misdeeds than in actuality the facts would suggest they themselves had been engaging in. They’ve been doing this purposeful projection for years ....

I think a person can be that stupid. Remember, this is a guy who wore a Castro t-shirt for his press conference on the suppression of free speech.

The article in question came out nearly 30 hours before the email in question. In a somewhat obscure outlet. Doesn’t seem to have any reasonable connection with talk about assassinations.

If to you the article proves or even reasonably suggests the email means nothing, I want people like you investigating me if I ever decide to commit some serious crime.

Not meant to be personal - without a media doing its job, we’re all pretty much working in the dark in determining how far politicians are willing to go.

How does this article explain the email in your mind?