Althouse: "A lot of pro-Palestine stuff in Barcelona."

February 19, 2024

"A lot of pro-Palestine stuff in Barcelona."

Chris texts me from Spain, with 4 photographs:

57 comments:

Rusty said...: Sadly.
Are Spanish farmers protesting?; 2/19/24, 11:53 AM
rehajm said...: Good international PR firm they must have…; 2/19/24, 11:54 AM
Rusty said...: Wait.
Isn't that symbol black block? Antifa?; 2/19/24, 11:54 AM
Dave Begley said...: Graffiti is another symptom of lawlessness.

There is very little graffiti in Omaha.; 2/19/24, 11:55 AM
Sebastian said...: "A lot of pro-Palestine stuff in Barcelona."

Not just that. Progs intimidating normies by flooding public spaces with their propaganda.

But it's true that overt support for terrrorists whose very MO is a war crime is a useful tell.; 2/19/24, 11:56 AM
MSOM said...: The "free state" stuff should go over pretty well in Catalonia.; 2/19/24, 11:56 AM
PM said...: It's trendy.; 2/19/24, 12:02 PM
Quaestor said...: Barcelona was the epicenter of the communist/anarcho-syndicalist bullshit that spawned the Franco reaction. Obviously, the stink lingers.; 2/19/24, 12:05 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Graffiti is another symptom of lawlessness."

Those could be authorized murals.; 2/19/24, 12:05 PM
Quaestor said...: Barcelona was the epicenter of the communist/anarcho-syndicalist bullshit that spawned the Franco reaction. Obviously, the stink lingers.; 2/19/24, 12:05 PM
Ampersand said...: If you're supporting the hostage holders, rapists and civilian murderers, please do so publicly, using your real name.; 2/19/24, 12:13 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Welfare leeches of the world UNITE!; 2/19/24, 12:15 PM
Jupiter said...: "Those could be authorized murals."

Like the ones on the plywood in the storefronts of Madison, on St. Floyd's Day?

I was up in Portland, during the riot years. All the restaurants and stores had "Black Lives Matter" signs in their windows. I'm sure those were authorized too.; 2/19/24, 12:18 PM
PM said...: Just more Millennialnihilism.; 2/19/24, 12:19 PM
MadTownGuy said...: Catalán on the mural, as on many local signs.; 2/19/24, 12:22 PM
Joe Smith said...: Fuck the 'Palestinians' and the Arabs in general.

Pre-Islam it was a great culture.

Post-islam, they are a low-IQ death cult.

Kind of like democrats.

Btw, Barcelona is seriously overrated. Even in the '80s it was a crime hub...; 2/19/24, 12:27 PM
Narr said...: Arnold Toynbee nods . . . the public art of a great civilization destroying itself.

My wife has plans to be in Paris in April for a week, but I'm not so sure that travel to Europe is going to be easy or advisable in the near future.; 2/19/24, 12:43 PM
loudogblog said...: Everything you need to know about the far-left is that if conservatives support it, they automatically go on overdrive to oppose it.; 2/19/24, 1:01 PM
Rocco said...: Rusty said...
“Wait… Isn't that symbol black block? Antifa?”

They’re wearing Antifa Burqas.; 2/19/24, 1:05 PM
Howard said...: Gee I wonder why the Jews left Spain so long ago ??

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_of_1391; 2/19/24, 1:15 PM
Quaestor said...: Althouse writes, "Those could be authorized murals."

Authorization takes many forms and manifestations.; 2/19/24, 1:15 PM
mccullough said...: The Islamization of Europe.

NATO is pointless.; 2/19/24, 2:02 PM
Clyde said...: Support for antisemitism, murder, rape and kidnapping are all the rage. All of the cool kids are doing it.

One of my friends was in Barcelona a few weeks ago on an around-the-world trip. Some guy on a motorbike knifed the tire of his car as he was driving and tried to pose as a good Samaritan when the tire went flat so he could steal the luggage when they got it out to get the spare tire. Fortunately, Ed was smart enough that the bad Samaritan couldn't pull off his scheme. Still was out the cost of the tire, though.; 2/19/24, 2:10 PM
Wince said...: "A lot of pro-Palestine stuff in Barcelona."

That's Ba-th-e-lona.; 2/19/24, 2:28 PM
Old and slow said...: "Fuck the 'Palestinians' and the Arabs in general."
This I agree with entirely, but Barcelona overrated? Compared to what? It is a great city.; 2/19/24, 2:30 PM
Dave Begley said...: Ann could be correct and the murals could be authorized. But who in City government would authorize such a political topic about a foreign affairs?; 2/19/24, 2:35 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: It's all a pose. I worked with a bunch of people from Barcelona a few years ago, they were the most trendy and status conscious bunch I ever met.; 2/19/24, 2:44 PM
narciso said...: Qatar owns the local soccer franchise as they do in france they probably underwrote the independence movement some years back; 2/19/24, 2:46 PM
Leland said...: Also in Spain, they had a parade I support of trans rights that included girls as young as 9 marching in lingerie. I wonder what would happen if the pro-Palestine protesters actually met up with the pro trans right protesters.; 2/19/24, 2:49 PM
Drago said...: Over-compensating non-combat "vet" Howitzer Howard: "Gee I wonder why the Jews left Spain so long ago ??"

Another day, another deflection by Howitzer Howie in support of the New Soviet Democratical's islamic supremacist allies.

The lefties aren't even trying to hide it anymore.

FYI, the next time you hear a criticism from Howitzer Howie of the 7th century islamic supremacist death cultists...it will be a first.; 2/19/24, 2:50 PM
Smilin' Jack said...: The Darth Vaderette on the left looks pretty hot. Too bad she’s half of a Siamese twin.; 2/19/24, 3:02 PM
Biff said...: On the slim chance no one has put this in the queue yet:

"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"; 2/19/24, 3:30 PM
Rabel said...: Kasa de la Muntanya; 2/19/24, 3:44 PM
ga6 said...: Homage to Catalonia Orwell

learn something....; 2/19/24, 4:41 PM
Howard said...: Drag-o's been wearing a lobster bib 24/7 because his blue dress is at the he Dry Cleaners. He delights in the advanced rocket technology Reagan sent to Iran so they could develop a program to terrorize Israel and the shipping lanes via their proxies. He loves what Hamas wrought on October 7th because he thinks it makes Trump look good. Same reason he prays for the slaughter of Ukraine. His hatred is All because some LGBT activist group in Santa Cruz threatened his In the Navy Village People Rugby football club with 100 lashes with a wet noodle.; 2/19/24, 4:56 PM
Former Illinois resident said...: Moslem inbound migration made manifest. Spain is said to be the canary of the coalmine formerly known as Western Europe.; 2/19/24, 5:18 PM
Robert Cook said...: "There is very little graffiti in Omaha."

Is there much of anything in Omaha?; 2/19/24, 5:36 PM
gilbar said...: keep in mind..
people like rcocean say: "it's All Right, to rape and torture, kidnap, and murder jews..because
people like rcocean don't consider jews to be human. Right rcocean?
It's not a violation of human rights (to YOU), because YOU SAY:
it Never happened.. and If it Did; it was GOOD that it did. Right rcocean?
i don't want to put words in your mouth; 2/19/24, 5:43 PM
Robert Cook said...: "'Fuck the 'Palestinians' and the Arabs in general.' This I agree with entirely...."

Hmmm...I wonder what comparable term to "anti-semitic" is applicable for hatred of the Arabs.

Oh! It's anti-semitic! They're also a semitic people!!

"Joe Smith" and "Old and slow," you're anti-semites! Disgusting!; 2/19/24, 6:11 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: defensem els nostres barris -- means we defend our neighborhoods.

May I assume there are Muslim enclaves in Barcelona where Sharia is enforced?
And the balaclava look is not a gender neutral statement of modesty but a call for jihad?; 2/19/24, 6:22 PM
Temujin said...: A lot of Moors in Barcelona. The Spanish kicked the Jews outta there in 1492. But we still make a great scapegoat.; 2/19/24, 6:23 PM
Drago said...: Over-compensating non-combat "vet" Howitzer Howie @ 4:56PM offers up precisely what he is capable of...and there isn't anything more.

Thats really all there is...and all there ever will be.

So in that sense, its actually a high water mark for him.

Let that sink in.; 2/19/24, 6:31 PM
Drago said...: "Harvard *faculty* just posted an explicitly antisemitic poster depicting a Jewish hand controlling the black mind. With Professors like these, it’s easy to see why we Jewish students don’t feel safe in class"

https://twitter.com/ShabbosK/status/1759609092782305312?t=IfzZvmhRGGxXFUFZlXHCAQ&s=19

There are lots and lots of Howitzer Howard's in Boston and they are no longer afraid to let their islamic supremacist alliance freak flags fly.; 2/19/24, 6:58 PM
MountainMan said...: "Gee I wonder why the Jews left Spain so long ago ??"

Left??? Many converted to Christianity after that massacre, but Ferdinand and Isabella expelled all that remained in 1492, shortly after they had unified the Iberian Peninsula under Christianity and just before Columbus departed on his trip to the New World. Columbus departure on Aug 3 was affected by all the ships in Spanish harbors that were carrying the Jews out of Spain.

The Spanish Expulsion.; 2/19/24, 7:04 PM
TickTock said...: Spain wishes the Moors were back?; 2/19/24, 7:27 PM
TickTock said...: So much history forgotten.; 2/19/24, 7:35 PM
Rich said...: The US has had a bifurcated policy since the end of the Cold War.
1. A successful private sector led international economic policy that has brought growth, strength, and cohesion to the advanced democracies who have as a group increased greatly advantageous interaction with the Global South, and;
2. A Washington-led, elite supported interventionist policy smacking of neo-imperialism if not neocolonialism focused on the Muslim world and elsewhere in the Global South that is seen as largely a failure.
3. So who is failing? America? Or the establishment headquartered in Washington DC?

One might also say that Iran has seen that as long as Israel tries to annex the West Bank and say no to a two-state solution, Iran will be able to recruit proxies and spot them all across the region, which Iran has done. Iran also understands that as long as creeping annexation is underway, no Arab ally of America can get close to Israel without running the risk of its own internal destabilization. The Israeli ethno-nationalists and their strident irredentism — on display everyday — enable Iran's proxy strategy to get more powerful and broader-based every day. The so-called Arab street will increasingly look to Iran and its proxies for leadership, and it will be there. Meanwhile grinding poverty and deprivation are becoming more prevalent across the Arab and wider Muslim world everyday. Time is on Iran's side. Thomas Friedman said on David Axelrod's podcast this week that he does not see how another Israeli generation will "stay" if the threat of destabilizing violence remains ever present in Israeli daily life. The talented will begin to migrate.; 2/19/24, 8:59 PM
madAsHell said...: "Graffiti is another symptom of lawlessness."

Those could be authorized murals.

Holy shit!
Are you kidding me?
Then who “authorized” the murals on I-5 between Seattle and Portland!; 2/19/24, 10:14 PM
James K said...: One might also say that Iran has seen that as long as Israel tries to annex the West Bank and say no to a two-state solution, Iran will be able to recruit proxies and spot them all across the region

Israel has not tried to annex the West Bank, and it's the Palestinians who said no to a two-state solution multiple times over 30 years. Aside from that you make a great point! /sarc; 2/19/24, 10:54 PM
Bonkti said...: Homage to Catalonia Orwell

learn something....

The chapter about the Communists cynically betraying the socialists has been taken out of the main body of the text in the available edition and relegated to an appendix. The revisions, obviously made after Orwell’s death, are based on a purported letter Orwell purportedly wrote to a translator.

Forget about it, Jake. It’s Orwell.; 2/19/24, 11:33 PM
Christopher B said...: The dark night of anti-Semitism is always descending in the United States but somehow lands in Europe.; 2/20/24, 4:23 AM
Tina Trent said...: Authorized police hatred is even worse.; 2/20/24, 7:38 AM
Drago said...: Christopher B: "The dark night of anti-Semitism is always descending in the United States but somehow lands in Europe."

It turns out its not geography based at all but instead political spectrum based.

Thus, the dark night of anti-Semitism is always descending on the right but somehow lands fully and squarely on the western political left.; 2/20/24, 7:59 AM
Rich said...: One can now see that the US has tethered its overall foreign policy to a failed policy of tacitly supporting Israeli annexation of the West Bank for over a generation while apparently fooling itself that a "two-state solution" was somehow going to "solve" Middle East dilemmas. This was elite policy construction at its best. That illusion is being shattered by the day.

The central task of US foreign policy is and has been since the Second World War to create a robust architecture of democracies in tight alliance and maintaining their advanced economic strength to counter the rise of any autocratic power or nexus of powers that could threaten the preeminent geopolitical power of the democracies. The theater was always Eurasia; the Middle East was a sideshow except for the need to secure economical energy supplies to world markets. Building a Greater Israel, the generation-spanning aspiration of the Netanyahu family, undermines fundamental US strategy, not supports it, since the 1.8 billion Muslim community—a key swing global community—is so implacably hostile to it.

So the US policy in the Middle East must undergo realignment. Why has that now become such a system-wide threat to overall policy? The answer is Trump.

If Trump is elected, then the backbone of US foreign policy—the maintenance of the global democratic alliance and its security architecture—will be sundered while shifting the US focus entirely to the Middle East and supporting Israeli territorial aggrandizement while providing Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States military and security alliances to protect them from a resurgent Iran. Saudi's $2 billion bet on Jared Kushner will go bingo!

Where did the Americans who stormed Normandy's beaches go? Gone to flowers sings the Kingston Trio.; 2/20/24, 9:28 AM
Tina Trent said...: Rich: that's one scenario. Another is that by isolating ourselves to protect our own interests for once, we do what we have always done as a nation: present an alternative while sending the message that the rest of our alliance stop destroying their own countries. Nothing is permanent and we are the default vanguard. I agree with you that Eurasia is the crux of the matter. But that doesn't mean that our withdrawal from their problems makes things worse or is the worst diplomatic choice. It's a strategy and a theory, just like your viewpoint is a strategy and a theory. We differ on the message we want to send the rest of the world. But we need to tend to our interests right now, in a dramatically different way than the way we have been doing it.; 2/20/24, 12:31 PM
Rich said...: Then you have a friend in JD Vance. He was recently in Europe promoting the new MAGA GOP orthodoxy regarding US foreign policy. The message was essentially: "Europe must stand on its own two feet on defense"

NATO was formed to safeguard US economic and security interests in Europe after WWII.

Viewing the world and foreign policy in silos is guaranteed to lose when our enemies (China and Russia) are not doing the same. Europe is a piece of an overall mindset/outlook about American influence and control. You give up pieces of that at your peril. Any inch we give in Europe will be seen as weakness.

JD Vance is not the first isolationist from the middle of the country. There were many appeasers before 1941 and they were all discredited once the Japanese blew the newly installed Pacific fleet in Hawaii apart. Vance comes from Ohio, the home of the Taft family, once upon a time the Great Republican family, far more accomplished than the Bush family and other ne'er-do-wells. Senator Robert Taft, the great appeaser and anti-internationalist of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s -- and almost the 1952 Republican presidential candidate -- was nicknamed Mr. Republican.

That is who these people are -- and always have been. The bell tolls for the Eisenhower legacy to the Republican party. The Tafts are back!; 2/20/24, 7:08 PM
Tina Trent said...: Rich: the thing about diplomatic policy is that it is malleable. And the appeaser slur was unnecessary. The isolationists were not a monolith, and as circumstances changed, there is a lot to be said for the outcome of their practicing forbearance while preparing for war, especially in light of the recent modern horrors of WWI.

Nothing is absolute or permanent in politics, or anything else. Once war was declared, isolationist men of age served nobly. It was a very complex and much misrepresented movement, just like the so-called McCarthy hearings -- which were not even in his chamber of the house. The Venona Files proved him right with time.; 2/22/24, 2:36 PM