The gathering storm

Little by little, the clouds gather on the horizon, little by little they darken and begin swelling. It might rain, it might not. It could be a storm; it could be a shower. Either way, we’re all looking skywards.

Britain’s Conservatives have decided on a risky mechanism. At a time when the screen is the absolute ruler, holding a referendum is like playing poker with the devil. Last week a Labour MP was murdered; the English woke up wondering if they were Irish. US reactionaries are backing somebody we no longer need to hear speak: one look at him on stage is enough to know that he’s borderline psychotic. Should he become president, he will be a nuclear threat. How has he managed to garner so much support? The dictatorship of the screen prevents us from understanding and remembering what this monster is proposing. It needs to be read on paper to really get to the bottom of the matter.

Here in Spain, millions of us are backing dangerous people, unaware of what Podemos is really up to

Here in Spain, millions of us are backing dangerous people, unaware of what Podemos is really up to. Are they Chavistas, Communists, Socialists, Pope Francisco’s Catholics, church burners, Catalan separatists, Basques, Galicians and Valencians? They don’t know themselves. They’re just media noise. Some mistaken journalists see them as young leaders, unaware that they will silence everybody other than their master’s voice.

The specter returns of former prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and those who would have us forget his female ministers posing for Vogue magazine, his bluster about Spain’s economic miracle just months before we were threatened with expulsion from the EU, and his vile comments about the word nation. Is this the model? The smile of an idiot God darkens the sky.

English version by Nick Lyne.