Things Noticeable this week

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by Greenman

Does that mean that James Bond works for MFI? Licensed to upholster Britain!

Mr Bond is an underwriter working for CIA Household Insurance.

[DTravel]

Originally Posted by Greenman

my time here is coming to a natural end...and I won't be talked out of it this time I can assure you - however when that will be I am not sure, perhaps a goal of 200,000 posts will be enough of an incentive.

Greenman, I put back the zero you accidentally left out.

[risen]

Originally Posted by bloke57

I'm sure I bought my sofa from them.

You mean Palo was in the DFS!

[otokonomidori]

Originally Posted by Greenman

palo5 Yes and I thanked yours and others now I am on my laptop(not possible to do so via ipad for some reason)


Otoko my time here is coming to a natural end...and I won't be talked out of it this time I can assure you - however when that will be I am not sure,

"Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Revelation 12:12).

[Greenman]

Originally Posted by DTravel

Greenman, I put back the zero you accidentally left out.

I don't think that would be humanly possible DTravel, I think 20,000 is about possible but I admire your optimism

[Puhbear69]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

IMHO the Madrid government are absolutely correct to refuse dialogue on the issue of Catalan independence. This is not a legitimate demand and should not be tolerated, let alone discussed around a table. It is a bit like demanding Sharia Law or the abolition of a minimum age of consent; not only should it not be granted, but the act of wanting it should be a criminal act and fiercely punished.

A dialogue should never be refused, as there could be solutions in a short or long view.
At least it is a question of the character, how one does react on the question of dialogue. And not "Madrid" was wrong or not good counselled it was only Minister-President Mariano Rajoy who was wrong.

And this Minister-President reacted with a incredible Police violence against peacefully Catalan citizen. Like a said: a question of the character.

He is leading a minority government with his "Partido Popular", renamed from the "Alianza Popular" (founded 1976), an alliance with "Reforma Democrática", "Unión del Pueblo Español", "Acción Democrática Española", "Democracia Social", "Acción Regional", "Unión Social Popular", "Unión Nacional Española" and some very and some smaller groups to a supposedly "Center Right Party".
Six of the seven parties were under leadership of former Minister-Presidents of the former General Franco dictatorship. So the "Alianza Popular" developed to a melting pot of former elites of the Franquismus, as long as they confess themselves to King Juan Carlos I.

With the voices of the "Partitio Popular" confirmed some years ago Franco's honorary citizenship in (I think ) San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

The sepulchral monument of General Franco in San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Since years place of pilgrimage for Old- and Neo-Nazies, while the victims of this time is the appreciation denied.
Well, I'm reflecting abut what would happen in the world, if Germany would have such a Mausoleum for Adolf Hitler ! :LOL:

A country with such a poor accounting for the younger past; no wonder that Catalonia don't want to be a part of it.

[TheBare]

Originally Posted by otokonomidori

I suppose the US will invade Canada when global warming makes things too hot below the International Boundary

Good luck with that, pussies. We have our own wall and it didn't cost us a cent
!!

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by Puhbear69

Six of the seven parties were under leadership of former Minister-Presidents of the former General Franco dictatorship. So the "Alianza Popular" developed to a melting pot of former elites of the Franquismus, as long as they confess themselves to King Juan Carlos I.

With the voices of the "Partitio Popular" confirmed some years ago Franco's honorary citizenship in (I think ) San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

The sepulchral monument of General Franco in San Lorenzo de El Escorial

Since years place of pilgrimage for Old- and Neo-Nazies, while the victims of this time is the appreciation denied.
Well, I'm reflecting abut what would happen in the world, if Germany would have such a Mausoleum for Adolf Hitler ! :LOL:

A country with such a poor accounting for the younger past; no wonder that Catalonia don't want to be a part of it.

Spain was neutral in WW2 but probably the only European neutral which wanted the Axis to win. Yet Franco is slightly unusual to be a neo-Nazi icon, and of course it proves (yet again) how such people are ignorant of true history. Quite a few Jewish fugitives escaped the holocaust via Spain and Franco chose to allow it; also, thousands of European Jews survived WW2 thanks to the private actions of Spanish diplomats and Franco chose not to take action against these men either. Hitler detested Franco, feeling betrayed by Franco's refusal to join the war, but Franco was not prepared to march just because Hitler was beating a drum. Spain looked after Spain under Franco; no doubt this is part of why some Spanish people still admire him, even though he was a blood soaked tyrant.

Sure, Franco was a very nasty piece of work indeed. But in the Spanish Civil War, about 40,000 foolish people joined the Republican side's International Brigades, thinking that because the Nationalists were so palpably bad people, it followed that the Republicans must be the good guys - not so. The Republicans were increasingly dominated by Communists of a particularly unpleasant type; George Orwell was one among many whom these characters attempted to terminate with extreme prejudice. History is rarely as clear-cut as people would like it to be; the actual Nazis are one of the few exceptions to this rule, so evil and so sick that no one can even attempt to excuse of mitigate their record, justly damned for eternity.

[Puhbear69]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

Spain was neutral in WW2 but probably the only European neutral which wanted the Axis to win. Yet Franco is slightly unusual to be a neo-Nazi icon, and of course it proves (yet again) how such people are ignorant of true history. Quite a few Jewish fugitives escaped the holocaust via Spain and Franco chose to allow it; also, thousands of European Jews survived WW2 thanks to the private actions of Spanish diplomats and Franco chose not to take action against these men either. Hitler detested Franco, feeling betrayed by Franco's refusal to join the war, but Franco was not prepared to march just because Hitler was beating a drum. Spain looked after Spain under Franco; no doubt this is part of why some Spanish people still admire him, even though he was a blood soaked tyrant.

Sure, Franco was a very nasty piece of work indeed. But in the Spanish Civil War, about 40,000 foolish people joined the Republican side's International Brigades, thinking that because the Nationalists were so palpably bad people, it followed that the Republicans must be the good guys - not so. The Republicans were increasingly dominated by Communists of a particularly unpleasant type; George Orwell was one among many whom these characters attempted to terminate with extreme prejudice. History is rarely as clear-cut as people would like it to be; the actual Nazis are one of the few exceptions to this rule, so evil and so sick that no one can even attempt to excuse of mitigate their record, justly damned for eternity.

:LOL: Like I said before: A country with such a poor accounting for the younger past ...

And you confirmed this statement very well with your post, Scound !

Yes, half a Million dead alone in Spain are bagatelle of the about ~35 Million dead in Europe during WWII.

And a countryman of you got a very different view. His name is Paul Preston and he is a historian. On 850 pages he described his different view at the time of 1935 - 1939 in his book.

Also Bernd Rother (also historian) came to a very different view too. As an (impermissible) short version he came to the view, that Spain only at the end of the WWII - from appropriateness reasons - accepted the getaway of Jews.

An for the Spanish Diplomats: in Germany itself it was never a problem with the flight, if you had as a Jew enough money. Of course that was not the way for the "average" Jew.

Do you know the "Legion Condor" ?? And what was behind of that ?

Spain was neutral - this is ridiculous, you know.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by Puhbear69

:LOL: Like I said before: A country with such a poor accounting for the younger past ...

And you confirmed this statement very well with your post, Scound !

Yes, half a Million dead alone in Spain are bagatelle of the about ~35 Million dead in Europe during WWII.

And a countryman of you got a very different view. His name is Paul Preston and he is a historian. On 850 pages he described his different view at the time of 1935 - 1939 in his book.

Also Bernd Rother (also historian) came to a very different view too. As an (impermissible) short version he came to the view, that Spain only at the end of the WWII - from appropriateness reasons - accepted the getaway of Jews.

An for the Spanish Diplomats: in Germany itself it was never a problem with the flight, if you had as a Jew enough money. Of course that was not the way for the "average" Jew.

Do you know the "Legion Condor" ?? And what was behind of that ?

Spain was neutral - this is ridiculous, you know.

Quite often the truth is ridiculous, but Spain was in fact neutral. Franco was unquestionably pro-Axis but he did not choose to join in, showing much more street-wisdom than the incurably vainglorious Mussolini.

Had Spain joined in when Hitler met Franco to negotiate for this in 1940 after the Fall of France, it would have been a terrible disaster for Britain and it was the one thing which could have made invasion of Britain achievable. A determined land assault on Gibraltar would have opened the Atlantic to Italian and Vichy French naval units and changed the naval balance in Hitler's favour. Britain's supply route to North America was already weakly defended and vulnerable; the loss of Gibraltar would have made this situation a lot worse.

Britain's ambassador to Spain during this crucial time was Sir Samuel Hoare; not a very nice chap actually, with a pro-fascist and pro-appeasement peacetime track record. But these very traits made him useful as Britain's ambassador to Franco as he managed to establish quite good relations with Franco and his ministers on a personal level exactly when Franco and the Germans were falling out. Churchill and Hoare were personal enemies and Churchill sent Hoare to Spain mainly to get rid of him; but afterwards Churchill never denied that Hoare gave a really important service to Britain by helping to persuade Franco to stay out of the war.