If you're looking for an example of real fascism I think you have it here.

I had to do some digging to understand what's going on. Interesting long history leading up to this. It's the industrial and financial power region of the country. The costs to Spain to lose it would be dire. Hence, the willingness to use force to keep it.

Yeah, Spain is really afraid, and not without reason in terms of economy and such. The thing is, they have just recently come to an agreement (sort of, at least) with Basque ETA who were a lot more aggressive about separating, while the Catalans were relatively mild, until not too long ago. The way the Spanish government is acting now will only strengthen the Catalan’s wish to separate. Also most Spanish people, and perhaps the Catalans even more so, still have the regime of Franco fresh in mind, and the current situation makes them fear for similar times (although I don’t think it’ll go that fast).

It’s insane that the Catalan police and firefighters have to protect civilians against the Guardia Civil (also very noble imho). I wonder how the rest of Europe will react to this.

The vote was unconstitutional. Period. Tourism and outrageous prices for exported goods are what fuels that economy, not to mention the port. It's just another reflection of individualism. The sum of the parts are no longer important, just the parts.

They were so smart that Las Ramblas was identified as a possible Isis target, and the mayor ignored it after repeated warnings. Proudly.

I have spent around six weeks in Spain on each of two occasions in the past decade. The number of times I heard someone say, "I am [insert regional identity], not Spanish' was fairly high. Walking into Galicia the local government has signs saying 'This is Galicia, not Spain.' The Basque folk you meet would all say the same thing (but they wouldn't say it in Spanish).

Every group in Spain seems to think they put in much more to Spain than they get out of Spain. I'm not sure how maths education is going in Spain, but I have my concerns.

I have no idea how this will play out, and Spain's history is not encouraging on this point, but it is not too hard to imagine that Spain breaks up...somehow...into something. There seems to be bugger all national feeling in the place, and some very strong, very cohesive regional identities.

One thing is certain though, the outfits will be gorgeous and the food fresh and delicious.

My ex inlaws are Catalan and had to flee Spain under Franco and many relatives are still in Catalonia. The Franco regime is still very recent to them, and from my impressions over the years, this kind of police action and the response to it could get very nasty, very fast.

The spanish civil war was a cluster fuck, and everybody thinks their side was right. Not to mention everybody at the time saw it as an experiment for social engineering and a microcosm for what was to come in ww2. Unfortunately, the idea of nationalism that kept the country together was tarnished by hitler, mussolini, and stalin, and franco was labeled as a socialist nationalist strong arm dictator to the west. Effectively isolating Spain from the rest of the world for more than 30 years.

The truth is buried in tens of thousands of perceived injustices, personal stories, and political ideologies.

Not hard to imagine folks in places like Burgos cheering on the Guardia Civil.