Referendum

The illusion of democracy

Authored by Aleksandar Pavic via The Strategic Culture Foundation:

Une telle régression démocratique semble à peine croyable…

Lenin Moreno was narrowly elected president on Feb. 19, 2017 with a central campaign promise to further the Citizen’s Revolution political program and changing what needed improvement through a process of open dialogue.
Moreno, the former Vice President under President Rafael Correa’s first (2007-2013), became known for his conciliatory tone and heading a program which provided medical, social and economic support to people with disabilities.

Originally appeared at RussiaFeed.com
On Friday, January 26, Washington DC added 21 Russian and / or Ukrainian national citizens and nine companies to the blacklist of sanctioned people by the US Treasury Department.  The Russian Foreign Ministry opined that this action will only hurt US companies and amounts to just a “show of impotence.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi was in Tehran on Thursday for consultations with the Iranian government (no, Abadi isn’t afraid of Trump.). During his meeting with Iranian vice president Ishaq Jahangiri, his office released a statement replying to Massoud Barzani.
Barzani is the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, an autonomous super-province of Iraq that recently tried to secede. After losing Kirkuk to the Iraqi army last week, Barzani issued a statement that he was suspending the results of the referendum on independence.

One week after Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani held his referendum on Kurdish independence from Iraq (with both the referendum and independence being contrary to the Iraqi constitution), the blowback has been fierce, angry and almost universal.

Guerrilla Jr. and Simonow are political dissidents involved with Disidencia, a right-wing site focused on Spanish politics.

Democracy can be messy. In the northeast corner of Spain this week, democracy was downright chaotic.
Catalans went to the polls on Sunday to vote in a referendum on whether to stay in Spain or go their separate way. The Spanish authorities, however, declared the vote illegitimate and sent in the national police to disrupt the referendum.

Catalan Raimon Castellvi wears a flag with an Estelada (Catalan separatist flag) as he protests outside the European Commission in Brussels after Sunday’s independence referendum in Catalonia, Belgium, Oct. 2, 2017. (Photo: Twitter)
21st Century Wire says…