SPANISH GLOBALISTS INCLUDE USE OF 'ELECTIONS' TO CRUSH CATALAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT

(UPDATED WITH LATER DEVELOPMENTS)

Elections can be a sham, a fraud as was the case in Venezuela last weekend with the government controlling everything from the vote count to media coverage and most important of all, the national government and the guns.

Elections can also be influenced by business interests with massive campaign contributions plus threats to close down operations and take away people's jobs as was the case in the Scottish independence referendum a few years ago.

Some or all of these elements are in play as options as Spain's major "Uniparties" backed by the big business and banking interests move together to shut down Catalonia's independence movement which recently staged a successful referendum approving independence in the face of repressive measures by the central government.

In recent days just like the totalitarian regime in Venezuela denounced by the Spanish government for jailing opponents has itself put two Catalan independence leaders in jail without bail.

Now a whole set of new measures have been announced today.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced that the leaders of Catalonia will be removed from power and the powers of its parliament will be restricted.

He also says that new elections will be held 'as soon as possible in Catalonia.'.

So the stage is set for a rigged and manipulated election process with government and business propaganda fueled by millions of dollars and threats of Catalonians losing their jobs if they don't vote the right way.

In reaction some 500-thousand people took to the streets of Catalonia, which would be the equivalent of  more than 20 million people on the streets of the United States protesting.

Catalonia's President Carles Puigdemont says Catalonia will not accept the plan for direct rule from Madrid.

He said it is the worst attack on Catalan institutions since the days of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

Puigdemont also said he intends to call a special session of the parliament to respond to Prime Minister Rajoy's crackdown.

This apparently sets the stage for some sort of confrontation as national police would have to again use force like they did at polling stations and government offices before and during the referendum on October 1st.

The head of the police force in Catalonia has already been called before a national court just the like the two independence leaders arrested earlier.   Will he placed under arrest or his police force formally be taken over by the national government?

Will the local police obey orders from the national police?   What will happen if there are confrontations with demonstrators resisting the use of force by the national government to seize Catalan institutions?

I am reminded of the story of the Oregon Standoff protest last year with local police being the supporters of the national police, the FBI.    They were fully involved in the aggressive operations against non violent protestors up to and including the killing of LaVoy Finicum.

When one local lawman, Grant County  Oregon Sheriff Glenn Palmer, suggested talking to the protestors and releasing the ranchers jailed as terrorists for lighting a backfire who were the cause of the protest (Dwight and Steve Hammond)  he came under attack.

Other sheriffs in Oregon issued a statement in support of the FBI operations and some local opponents of Sheriff Palmer made corruption allegations against him leading to a state investigation that found no wrongdoing.

Maybe the local lawmen in Catalonia will have more mettle than the ones in this country who bend their knee to federal power.