-TSS-

To add to the previous: Despite declaring to abide by the referendum-result the region will seek a dialogue with Madrid to achieve common understanding. However, neither side can back off now without losing face.

Catalonia has declared independence! Nobody will recognize it, yet but it is the gesture which counts. How will Madrid react? Will they order the army into catalonia and have the regional politicians arrested?

Today Catalonia could declare independence. If they do that the regional leader of the province is going to be arrested on the orders by the Spanish PM. The situation has reached a point that there is no way out so that both sides of the argument could save their faces.

There could be a lot of athletes staying away from next years winter-olympics in South-Korea because of the fear of the crisis regarding North-Korea.

Regarding the title of the thread: What does Britain have to do with the Las Vegas-shootings?

Kind of gives you perspective reading the op; the same babble goes on years and years. Without looking at the date there is very little which makes you think that can't have been written today.

When the 2nd amendment was originally written the average gun had a precision of hitting a barn-door from 10 metres away.

It appears he was a wealthy man but I havent noticed any details as to where his wealth had come from. Apparently nothing political about the deed; an old man feeling sense of meaninglessness and willingness to show he can do what he wants.

Most central governments tend to regard votes for secession as illegal. In the case of Spain and Catalonia the issue is that Catalonia is the weathiest part of Spain and it contributes far above its weight in terms of GDP.

The guy wanted to get his name in the history-books. That appears to be the main motive.

I don't think white nationalists consider country-music as their primary target of hate.

There is a lot of conflicting speculation; some say he was a regular participant at anti-Trump demonstrations. However, his brother said he never made any political statements or didn't seem to be interested in political matters.

The EU and the UN support an independent Palestine state but both are against independent Kurdistan or Catalonia. Such double standards. What about carving up a state for the Rohingyas? I guess that is out of the question as well.

I spotted brief news about the incident but as it seems that nobody has died the news has not become a major news-story. It is all about Catalonia here at the moment.

Hasn't made international news yet. Let's wait and see.

The right-wing PP-party which is currently the government-party of Spain is the descendant of Franco's falangist-regime. Catalonia has traditionally been very left-leaning. Hence no surprises about the animosities but the behaviour of the Spanish authorities still takes anyone by surprise. Do they think that the harder they beat civilians the less they will want catalonia to be independent?

The EU actively encouraged the break-up of Yugoslavia and the break-up of Serbia by recognizing Kosovo which is a totally dysfunctional state which would collapse without foreign aid. Now the same EU discourage Catalonians. They discouraged the Scots too but I expect after Brexit there will be a different view on the Scots.

I guess 99.9% of Americans couldn't care less about Canada.

This conflict has been going on for years but for reasons we can only guess now is the time to bring it into international attention. There are similar conflicts going on in Thailand and the Philippines as well.

The horrible xenophobic nazi-party which was elected to the German Parliament as the third largest party actually has more immigrant background MPs than Merkel's own party. https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-germany-election-immigration/germanys-far-right-afd-has-more-immigrant-mps-than-merkels-conservatives-idUKKCN1C42GT

The EU may face another crisis if the Catalans vote in their "illegal" referendum to secede from Spain. The Spanish government will never recognize such a vote but ignoring it may lead Spain into turmoil and intensify similar demands by the Basques. The EU loathes all nationalism because it has imperialist ambitions of its own. Therefore they don't welcome any new countries and threaten Catalans that they won't be accepted into the EU if they secede from Spain. There is a joke going around that there will be a new Spanish civil-war so that Spain will avoid taking part in the WW III.

Another example how multiculturalism leads sooner or later to conflict.

I think the two-term limit is a splendid rule. However, it only works in a presidential system like that of the USA. It would simply be too impractical in parliamentary democracy. However, the majesty of the two-term rule came to my mind as Merkel was elected to her fourth term in office. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't there prior to Roosevelt some sort of unwritten rule of two terms only for one President? Roosevelt has been the only President to be elected for more than two terms and after him the rule was included in the Constitution.

German elections ended ina virtual deadlock as both the governing parties(or all three of them to be precise as the CSU is the sister-party of the CDU) suffered losses to the extent that the Social Democrats have announced that they wil not participate the next government. If they keep their word, the only solution to form a majority-government is to have CDU/CSU, FDP(Liberals) and the Greens to form a so-called Jamaica-coalition. Even that is considered unworkable as the German Greens are far more left-leaning than their counterparts in many other European countries. This deadlock follows the success of the Eurosceptic AfD-party which made it to the third place despite being demonised by all others and the media. Or perhaps just because of it. My prediction is new elections within a year.

But isn't your health care-system still way better than across the border in the US? At least nobody in your country will have to choose between death or getting bankrupt because you really can't afford some operation.