Putin gonna annex Croatia, after he executes his penalty kickers….

Another incredible match in this World Cup.

Even if you don’t give a shit about soccer this tournament has been great

Croatia advances to semi’s vs England

Japan Belgium indeed……

https://www.newyorker.com/sporting-scene/replay/world-cup-2018-iran-vs-portugal-and-the-excruciating-thrill-of-technologically-enabled-meta-bewilderment

World Cup 2018: Iran vs. Portugal and the Excruciating Thrill of Technologically Enabled Meta-Bewilderment
By Brian PhillipsJune 25, 2018

Cristiano Ronaldo, of Portugal, and Ramin Rezaian, of Iran, on a combative final match day for Group B, at the World Cup, on Monday.Photograph by Mladen Antonov / AFP / Getty

Soccer makes very little sense at the best of times, and on Monday, in the dying moments of Iran’s World Cup match against Portugal, it made no sense at all. The game had been combative. It was the third and final match day in Group B, and both teams had a chance to advance to the knockout stage; both teams also knew that a bad result could send them home. Elbows flew on every contested header. Bodies strained in ways that made you think of the word “sinew,” possibly for the first time all year. Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese star, winced so hard after bashing a free kick into the Iranian wall that his neck briefly looked like the Rock’s neck.
Both teams had chances to score. Ronaldo even took a penalty, in the fifty-third minute, but it was saved by the Iranian goalkeeper, Alireza Beiranvand. Both had spent shrill minutes shrieking at and pleading with the referee, who had, from the perspective of the players, committed several of the most unfathomable injustices ever perpetrated by a human being. By the same token, he had also graced the world with many of the fairest and most far-seeing judgments that anyone had ever encountered. They were the same decisions; it only depended from which side you were looking at them. Heading into stoppage time, Portugal led 1–0 thanks to a screaming party trick of a shot by Ricardo Quaresma (also known as “a Ricardo Quaresma shot”). If the results from this match and Spain’s simultaneous game against Morocco held up, Portugal and Spain would advance from Group B.
Now, however, in the ninety-first minute, the referee, Enrique Cáceres, stood huddled under the visor of the video-replay unit on the sideline. He was checking to see whether Portugal’s Cédric Soares had committed a handball in the area, an infraction that would lead to an Iranian penalty. This World Cup is the first to use fifa’s new video-assistant referee system, and this was the first moment in World Cup history when an entire group seemed likely to be decided based on a referee’s encounter with a television. Cáceres stood there for a long time, watching. Universes rose and fell while the footage looped. If Iran could steal a goal here, and Morocco could somehow beat Spain, then it would be Spain, one of the favorites, that would be bumped from the tournament; Iran would advance. Incredibly, Morocco was winning. Everything hung on Cáceres’s decision. Diadems dropped and doges surrendered. Ronaldo unhinged and rehinged his jaw, like a deadly python that loves to wear aviators on a yacht for some reason.
Cáceres watched. And watched. And watched. He stood there for so long I started to wonder if the replay unit got Netflix. Had a new season of “Terrace House” dropped? I am against video replay in soccer, partly because I find it naïve to imagine that television footage could forestall crises of interpretation in a sport whose rulebook often forces the referee to assess other human beings’ inner thoughts (Did he intend to pong the ball away with his fist, or did it just, like, happen to get ponged?), and partly because it is boring to watch the referee watch the match you are watching. I had to admit, however, that there was something fascinating about this moment. A new kind of drama had entered the World Cup: the excruciating thrill of technologically enabled meta-bewilderment. My Twitter timeline filled up with variants of the message “I have no idea what’s going on right now.” I was bored, yet my heart was racing. Welcome to sports in 2018! Finally, Cáceres turned away from the monitor, strode back onto the pitch, and, having taken plenty of time to come to the correct decision, confidently announced what appeared to be a highly incorrect one. Soares’s handball had looked accidental, and in any case it wasn’t entirely clear that the ball had touched his hand. Penalty for Iran!
Karim Ansarifard, a substitute who had entered the match in the seventy-sixth minute, converted the shot. Iran was alive! The World Cup was happening! Fibre-optic cables were carrying “Game of Thrones” under the sea! Mehdi Taremi nearly scored a second for Iran, in the ninety-fifth minute, a result that would have upended civilization on several continents, but the ball whanged into the side of the net and civilization continued its sad march.

zn wrote:

joemad wrote:

what needs to happen to advance to “Round of 16”

Do you follow this Joe?

What are your insights, preferences, opinions?

My parents immigrated to California from Portugal… my dad loved soccer as does and my oldest brother…… In addition, I grew up and still live in an area where we have a decent sized Portuguese community that is very passionate about the sport, but personally I only follow the World Cup and Euro Cup tournaments.

After beating Sweden, I think Germany is destined to win…. either them or the French / Maybe Belgium….. those players are just too big for the Iberian cousins (Spain and Port) to compete with….

I get into it for the World Cup and would love to see Portugal advance, but my passion is Rams football.

BTW, did you know that Cristiano Ronaldo was named after……Ronald Reagan…..

Serbs serve Swiss Cheese defense in the 90th minute…. remarkable……

SWISS 2
Serbia 1

Kronke’s man from Arsenal tied the game for Swiss Miss..

URL = https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/sports/world-cup/switzerland-vs-serbia.html

For the second time this World Cup, Switzerland responded well to going down early, and defeated Serbia 2-1 in Kaliningrad. They were put in the hole by a fifth minute Aleksandar Mitrovic header, and for the first 20 minutes the Swiss midfield was absolutely overrun.

But slowly they regained control of the game, and the second half belonged to Switzerland. Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka equalized just seven minutes into the second half with a beautiful belted curler from outside of the box, and Xherdan Shaqiri got the breakaway winner in the 90th minute after some shambolic Serbian defending

.

With the victory, Switzerland joins Brazil at the top of the group, and will advance to the round of 16 with win or draw against already-eliminated Costa Rica. Serbia has the tougher challenge of likely needing to defeat Brazil.

lead.

For the second time this World Cup, Switzerland responded well to going down early, and defeated Serbia 2-1 in Kaliningrad. They were put in the hole by a fifth minute Aleksandar Mitrovic header, and for the first 20 minutes the Swiss midfield was absolutely overrun.

But slowly they regained control of the game, and the second half belonged to Switzerland. Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka equalized just seven minutes into the second half with a beautiful belted curler from outside of the box, and Xherdan Shaqiri got the breakaway winner in the 90th minute after some shambolic Serbian defending.

With the victory, Switzerland joins Brazil at the top of the group, and will advance to the round of 16 with win or draw against already-eliminated Costa Rica. Serbia has the tougher challenge of likely needing to defeat Brazil.

lead.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by joemad.

Spagnulos 1
Persians Nil

Iran had their chances, and a very questionable nullified goal….but Spain is great at ball control

https://youtu.be/irzJZ8yggrM

Varoufakis argues that the entire Western economy has become a massive con game, on a scale thousands or millions of times larger than anything Bernie Madoff could have imagined. Furthermore, in his telling, it’s a con game run by intelligent and not necessarily malevolent people who understand perfectly well that the whole enterprise is a fraud that’s bound to come crashing down eventually.

Capitalism collapsed in 2008, just as communism had collapsed in 1991 — the system we have now is something else

The massive Greek bailout was a hoax that did nothing to help the Greek people — it moved money straight from the pockets of European taxpayers to the coffers of the big banks

It’s a shell game…. even seasoned folks within finance can’t explain ….

this 52 sec Seinfeld bit sums it up nicely at much smaller scale……. no one really knows… … DO YOU?

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by joemad.

Ca voter demographics on wiki:

URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_locations_by_voter_registration

this is old data (2013), but the cities in O.C. that are “blue” the margins are slim, and in the most part are working class cities within O.C., thus these working class voter populations don’t have the time to vote. Similar results apply in other counties in CA.

I think making election days similar to “jury duty”. …. show proof to your employer that you voted to get paid for the “civil service”.

there is hope in “modern music” that is not influenced by Max Martin… these kids sound pretty good…..

BTW, I too don’t have the patience to view 20 min vids on topics like this…… thus, on the youtube screen, note the “sprocket” (settings) on the lower right of the vid and select “speed” to view the video in faster (or slower) speed. (IF viewing from a smart phone, note the 3 dots on the upper right of your screen to adjust vid speed)

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by joemad.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by joemad.

One of the most iconic photos in NFL history….

RIP DC87.

That was a huge play… a changing of the landscape from 1970’s NFL to the 80’s and beyond.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by joemad.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by joemad.

good point by Brian… the culture in the US has rapidly changed because of the lack of communication skills from the current POTUS…. and others mirror that arrogant approach….

Have you ever read tweets from James Woods? now I realize why he always plays a dick character in his movies.

Remember Ficken’s 1st game in Tenn last year?

Missed extra point and missed chip shot to start his NFL career….

There’s an added sense of urgency from the offense when the kicker sucks…. even the GSOT had “money” Wilkens… you need a combat proven kicker…

Let’s hope Greg Z comes back in original form… and with the new kick off rule it’s best to have a kicker that consistently boots it out of the end zone like Zuerlein can.

If Gurley was utilized more vs ATL last season I think the Rams win that playoff game….

Foles has a ring, he played Case in the NFC title game

With McVay as coach and Whiteorth at LT I think i’d make Goff expendable.

But fuck that….I want cake and ice cream and for this msg board some pie too. I want all three….

Ok now I get it…

LINK: https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/05/14/lake-merritt-bbq-confrontation-sparks-protests/

OAKLAND — A confrontation that went viral when someone complained to police about a group of black people barbecuing at Lake Merritt is sparking protests this week and reigniting a new-versus-old residents debate.
Demonstrators plan to gather at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in front of City Hall for a “Grill Your Government” protest and for a “BBQ’N While Black” event Sunday on Lakeshore Avenue, the site of the controversy attracting national attention.
Those planning to attend Tuesday’s protest in Frank Ogawa Plaza are asked to “wear cookout clothes, bring grills, but mostly, demand a response for this abuse of city services,” according to the event flie

protests are in response to a white woman’s April 29 call to Oakland police to report a black family barbecuing on Lakeshore Avenue near Cleveland Cascade. A video of the woman calling and waiting for police to arrive has gone viral and received criticism that it was racially motivated and is another example of gentrification in Oakland.
“People have had enough. The gentleman who was approached at the lake was minding his own business,” said Jhamel Robinson, founder of The Real Oakland and one of the organizers of Sunday’s event. “Whatever laws are in place … that lady had no reason to mess with them.”

the video, the unidentified woman is heard saying she called police because the family was using a charcoal grill in an area where only non-charcoal barbecues are allowed. A person who shot the video questioned whether she called authorities because the family is black, which the woman denied. Police later arrived and did not ticket or arrest anyone.
The daytime confrontation is not the first controversy at Lake Merritt, which has become a more popular destination since bond measure money improved it. Anti-cruising signs along Lakeshore Avenue date back to the 1990s. In 2015, another white resident called police on black and Latino people drumming near the pergola and colonnade.
Because of growing crowds and environmental concerns, a committee of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department designed rules involving barbecues, installing charcoal grills on the Grand Avenue side. Stationary grills were placed behind Children’s Fairyland, near the Sailboat House on Bellevue Avenue and a pit farther down Bellevue near Staten Avenue.
Pamela Drake of the Lakeshore Business Improvement District said the city was resistant to putting charcoal barbecues on Lakeshore Avenue and the grassy knoll on Hanover Avenue.
“I understand why you can’t use charcoal on grass,” said Drake, a member of a special committee who toured the lake when the city selected designated areas. “If people are going to barbecue anyway, why make something for people to fight over? Give people the opportunity to do what they want and don’t give people the chance to come down on them.”
Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney, whose district includes Adams Point, said the incident is another example of explicit or implicit bias attracting national headlines.
On April 30 — a day after the Lake Merritt confrontation — a white mother called police on two Native American teenage brothers who had joined a campus tour of Colorado State University, causing outrage. At Yale University, a woman called campus police on a black graduate student who fell asleep in a common area while working on a paper.
Also last month, two African-American men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks for allegedly trespassing after one of the men had asked to use the restroom.
“It’s just unacceptable,” Gibson McElhaney said. “If someone is concerned about enforcement, the appropriate thing to do is file a complaint. What we don’t want is this kind of intimidation or interruption that could escalate in a negative way.”
“It’s a historic pattern and we are tired of it,” added Candice Elder, founder and executive director of East Oakland Collective. “We are slowly losing a large essence of Oakland culture.”
Robinson, who is organizing “BBQ’N While Black” with Logan Cortez, said he was expecting “25 people to barbecue, listen to music and go home.” The event so far has about 1,500 shares on Facebook.
“(I want) everybody, all races to come together and hold space at the lake, have a good time and spread love,” Robinson said Monday. “It’s not about black or white, it’s about one Oakland family, one

Portuguese Revolution:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnation_Revolution

The Carnation Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução dos Cravos), also referred to as the 25th of April (Portuguese: vinte e cinco de Abril), was initially a military coup in Lisbon, Portugal, on 25 April 1974 which overthrew the authoritarian regime of the Estado Novo.[1] The revolution started as a military coup organized by the Armed Forces Movement (Portuguese: Movimento das Forças Armadas, MFA) composed of military officers who opposed the regime, but the movement was soon coupled with an unanticipated and popular campaign of civil resistance. This movement would lead to the fall of the Estado Novo and the withdrawal of Portugal from its African colonies.

The name “Carnation Revolution” comes from the fact that almost no shots were fired and that when the population took to the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship and war in the colonies, carnations were put into the muzzles of rifles and on the uniforms of the army men by Celeste Caeiro.[2] In Portugal, 25 April is a national holiday, known as Freedom Day (Portuguese: Dia da Liberdade), to celebrate the event

Overview[edit]

Portugal had been run by an authoritarian dictatorship (the Estado Novo, or “New State”), which was considered by many to be fascist, for over four decades.[3] The events of the revolution effectively changed the government into a democracy, and produced enormous social, economic, territorial, demographic, and political changes in the country, after two years of a transitional period known as PREC (Processo Revolucionário Em Curso, or On-Going Revolutionary Process), characterized by social turmoil and power disputes between left- and right-wing political forces.[citation needed]

Despite repeated appeals by the revolutionaries, broadcast over the radio, asking the population to stay home, thousands of Portuguese descended on the streets, mixing with the military insurgents.[4]

The military-led coup returned democracy to Portugal, ending the unpopular Colonial War in which thousands of Portuguese citizens had been conscripted into military service, and replacing the Estado Novo regime and its secret police which repressed elemental civil liberties and political freedoms. It started as a professional class[5] protest of Portuguese Armed Forces captains against a decree law: the Dec Lei nº 353/73 of 1973.[6][7]

A group of Portuguese low-ranking officers organised within the Armed Forces Movement (MFA – Movimento das Forças Armadas), including some who had been fighting the pro-independence guerrillas in the Portuguese empire’s territories in Africa,[8] and rose to overthrow the Estado Novo regime that had ruled Portugal since the 1930s. Portugal’s new regime pledged itself to end the colonial wars and began negotiations with the African independence movements. By the end of 1974, Portuguese troops had been withdrawn from Portuguese Guinea and the latter had become a UN member state. This was followed by the independence of Cape Verde, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Angola in 1975. The Carnation Revolution in Portugal also led to Portugal’s withdrawal from East Timor in south-east Asia. These events prompted a mass exodus of Portuguese citizens from Portugal’s African territories (mostly from Angola and Mozambique), creating over a million Portuguese refugees — the retornados.[9][10]

Although the regime’s political police, PIDE, killed four people before surrendering, the revolution was unusual in that the revolutionaries did not use direct violence to achieve their goals. Holding red carnations (cravos in Portuguese), many people joined revolutionary soldiers on the streets of Lisbon, in apparent joy and audible euphoria.[11] Red is a symbolic colour for socialism and communism, which were the main ideological tendencies of many anti-New State insurgents.[12] It was the end of the Estado Novo, the longest-lived authoritarian regime in Western Europe, and the final dissolution of the Portuguese Empire. In the aftermath of the revolution a new constitution was drafted, censorship was formally prohibited, free speech was declared, political prisoners were released and the Portuguese overseas territories in Sub-Saharan Africa were immediately given their independence. East Timor was also offered independence, shortly before being invaded by Indonesia.

Context[edit]

At the beginning of the 1970s, the authoritarian regime of the Estado Novo (“New State”) continued to weigh heavily on the country, after a half-century of rule under the President of the Council of Ministers António de Oliveira Salazar. After the 28 May 1926 coup d’état, Portugal implemented an authoritarian regime of social-Catholic and Integralist inspiration. In 1933, the regime was recast and renamed Estado Novo (“New State”), and Salazar was named as President of the Council of Ministers until 1968, when he suffered a stroke following a domestic accident. He was replaced in September by Marcello Caetano, who served as President of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) until he was deposed on 25 April 1974.

Under the Estado Novo, Portugal’s undemocratic government was tolerated by its NATO partners due to its anti-communist stance; this attitude changed dramatically during the mid-1960s, under pressure of public opinion and leftwing movements rising in Europe.[citation needed] There were formal elections but they were rarely contested—with the opposition using the limited political freedoms allowed during the brief election period to openly protest against the regime, withdrawing their candidates before the election so as not to provide the regime with any legitimacy. In 1958, General Humberto Delgado—a former member of the regime—stood against the regime’s presidential candidate, Américo Tomás, and refused to allow his name to be withdrawn from the competition.

Tomás won the election, but only amidst claims of widespread electoral fraud that denied Delgado of his ‘legitimate’ victory. Immediately after this election, Salazar’s government abandoned the practice of popularly electing the president, with that task being given thereafter to the regime-loyal National Assembly. During Caetano’s time in office, his attempts at minor political reform were obstructed by the important Salazarist elements within the regime (known as the Bunker). The Estado Novo’s political police—the PIDE (Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado), later to become DGS (Direcção-Geral de Segurança), and originally the PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e Defesa do Estado)—persecuted opponents of the regime, who were often tortured, imprisoned or killed.

The international context was not favourable to the Portuguese regime. The Cold War was near its peak, and both Western and Eastern-bloc states were supporting the guerrillas in the Portuguese colonies, attempting to bring these under, respectively, American and Soviet influence (see Portuguese Colonial War). The overseas policy of the Portuguese Government and the desire of many colonial residents to remain under Portuguese rule would lead to an abrupt decolonisation, which occurred only after the Carnation Revolution of April 1974 and the fall of the regime. For the Portuguese ruling regime, the overseas empire was a matter of national interest.

In the view of many Portuguese, a colonial empire was necessary for continued national power and influence.[citation needed] Despite objections in world forums such as the United Nations, Portugal had long maintained that its African colonies were an integral part of Portugal, and felt obliged to militarily defend them against Communist-inspired armed groups, particularly after India’s annexation of Portuguese exclaves Goa, Daman and Diu (Portuguese India), in 1961 (see Indian Invasion of Goa).[citation needed]

Independence movements in Portugal’s African possessions[edit]

Independence movements started operations in the African colonies of Portuguese Mozambique, Portuguese Angola, and Portuguese Guinea. The various conflicts forced the Salazar and Caetano regimes to spend more of the country’s budget on colonial administration and military expenditures, and Portugal soon found itself increasingly isolated from the rest of the world. Throughout the war period Portugal faced increasing dissent, arms embargoes and other punitive sanctions imposed by most of the international community.[13]

For Portuguese society the war was becoming even more unpopular due to its length and financial costs, the worsening of diplomatic relations with other United Nations members, and the role it had always played as a factor of perpetuation of the Estado Novo regime. It was this escalation that would lead directly to the mutiny of members of the FAP in the Carnation Revolution in 1974 – an event that would lead to the independence of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. Atrocities, such as that at Wiriyamu in Mozambique, undermined the war’s popularity and the government’s diplomatic position – although some details of the Wiriyamu case remain disputed.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19]

After Caetano succeeded to the presidency, colonial war became a major cause of dissent and a focus for anti-government forces in Portuguese society.[citation needed] Many left-wing students and anti-war activists were forced to leave the country so they could escape conscription, imprisonment and torture by government forces. However, between 1945 and 1974, there were also three generations of militants of the radical right at the Portuguese universities and schools, guided by a revolutionary nationalism partly influenced by the political sub-culture of European neofascism. The core of these radical students’ struggle lay in an uncompromising defense of the Portuguese Empire in the days of the authoritarian regime.[20]

Economic conditions[edit]

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The economy of Portugal and its colonies on the eve of the Carnation Revolution was growing well above the European average.[citation needed] Average family purchasing power was rising together with new consumption patterns and trends and this was promoting both investment in new capital equipment and consumption expenditure for durable and nondurable consumer goods.[citation needed] The Estado Novo regime economic policy encouraged and created conditions for the formation of large business conglomerates. The regime maintained a policy of corporatism that resulted in the placement of a big part of the Portuguese economy in the hands of a number of strong conglomerates, including those founded by the families of António Champalimaud (Banco Totta & Açores, Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor, Secil, Cimpor), José Manuel de Mello (CUF – Companhia União Fabril), Américo Amorim (Corticeira Amorim) and the dos Santos family (Jerónimo Martins).

Those Portuguese conglomerates had a business model with similarities to South Korean chaebols and Japanese keiretsus and zaibatsus.[citation needed] The Companhia União Fabril (CUF) was one of the largest and most diversified Portuguese conglomerates with its core businesses (cement, chemicals, petrochemicals, agrochemicals, textiles, beer, beverages, metallurgy, naval engineering, electrical engineering, insurance, banking, paper, tourism, mining, etc.) and corporate headquarters located in mainland Portugal, but also with branches, plants and several developing business projects all around the Portuguese Empire, especially in the Portuguese territories of Angola and Mozambique.

Other medium-sized family companies specialized in textiles (for instance those located in the city of Covilhã and the northwest), ceramics, porcelain, glass and crystal (like those of Alcobaça, Caldas da Rainha and Marinha Grande), engineered wood (like SONAE near Porto), canned fish (like those of Algarve and the northwest), fishing, food and beverages (alcoholic beverages, from liqueurs like Licor Beirão and Ginjinha, to beer like Sagres, were produced across the entire country, but Port Wine was one of its most reputed and exported alcoholic beverages), tourism (well established in Estoril/Cascais/Sintra and growing as an international attraction in the Algarve since the 1960s) and in agriculture (like the ones scattered around the Alentejo – known as the breadbasket of Portugal) completed the panorama of the national economy by the early 1970s. In addition, rural areas’ populations were committed to agrarianism that was of great importance for a majority of the total population, with many families living exclusively from agriculture or complementing their salaries with farming, husbandry and forestry yields.

Portuguese colonies in Africa during the Estado Novo regime: Angola and Mozambique were by far the two largest of those territories.
Besides that, the colonies were also displaying impressive economic growth and development rates from the 1920s onwards.[citation needed] Even during the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974), a counterinsurgency war against independentist guerrilla and terrorism, Portuguese Angola and Portuguese Mozambique (colonies at the time) had continuous economic growth rates and several sectors of its local economies were booming. They were internationally notable centres of production of oil, coffee, cotton, cashew, coconut, timber, minerals (like diamonds), metals (like iron and aluminium), banana, citrus, tea, sisal, beer (Cuca and Laurentina were successful beer brands produced locally), cement, fish and other sea products, beef and textiles. Tourism was also a fast developing activity in Portuguese Africa both by the growing development of and demand for beach resorts and wildlife reserves.[citation needed]

Labour unions were not allowed and a minimum wage policy was not enforced. However, in a context of an expanding economy, bringing better living conditions for the Portuguese population in the 1960s, the outbreak of the colonial wars in Africa set off significant social changes, among them the rapid incorporation of more and more women into the labour market. Marcelo Caetano moved on to foster economic growth and some social improvements, such as the awarding of a monthly pension to rural workers who had never had the chance to pay social security. The objectives of Caetano’s pension reform were threefold: enhancing equity, reducing fiscal and actuarial imbalance, and achieving more efficiency for the economy as a whole, for example, by establishing contributions which distorted labour markets less, or by allowing the savings generated by pension funds to increase the investments in the economy.

After Salazar’s stroke in 1968, Caetano had taken over the office of Prime Minister. His main slogan was “evolution in continuity”, suggesting that there would be a reform of the Salazarist system. His so-called “political spring” (also called Marcelist Spring – Primavera Marcelista) included greater political tolerance and freedom of the press and was regarded as an opportunity by the opposition to gain concessions from the regime. In 1969, the Estado Novo-controlled nation got indeed a very slight taste of democracy and Caetano allowed the establishment of the first democratic labour union movement since the 1920s. Nevertheless, after the elections of 1969 and 1973 it was clear that the past practices of political repression would continue against communists, anti-colonialists and other oppositionists. In 1973, Caetano was pressured by the ultra-right faction inside the Salazarist élite to abandon his reform experiment.[citation needed]

The colonial war had a profound impact on Portugal—thousands of young men avoided conscription by emigrating illegally, mainly to France and the US. In addition, the other revolutionary Armed Forces Movement (MFA)’s goals were not in the strict interest of the people of Portugal or its colonies, since the movement was initiated not only as an attempt to liberate Portugal from the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, but as an attempt of rebellion against the new Military Laws that were to be presented next year.[21][22]

The Revolution and the whole movement were also a way to work against Laws that would reduce military costs and would reformulate the whole Portuguese Military Branch (Decree Law: Decretos-Leis n.os 353, de 13 de Julho de 1973, e 409, de 20 de Agosto). Younger military academy graduates resented a program introduced by Marcello Caetano whereby militia officers who completed a brief training program and had served in the colonies’ defensive campaigns, could be commissioned at the same rank as military academy graduates. As the war in the colonies was becoming increasingly unpopular in Portugal itself with the people becoming weary of war and balking at its ever-rising expense, the military insurgents took advantage of it and got some momentum.

Many ethnic Portuguese of the African colonies were also increasingly willing to accept independence if their economic status could be preserved.[citation needed] Following the coup d’état in Portugal in 1974, the new left-wing revolutionary government of Portugal began to negotiate with the African pro-independence guerrillas. The new government in Lisbon was disinclined to prop up Portugal’s convulsing and by now very expensive empire. All the Portuguese territories in Africa were rapidly granted their independence.

Events[edit]

Main article: Timeline of the Carnation Revolution

Portuguese Government poster from the mid-1970s by artist João Abel Manta (it reads: MFA, People – People, MFA) The character on the left is wearing a military cap, fatigues and boots while holding a garden fork and the one on the right is wearing a farmer’s cap and a military shirt and holding a rifle
In February 1974, Caetano determined to remove General António de Spínola in the face of increasing dissent by Spinola over the promotion of military officers and the direction of Portuguese colonial policy. This occurred shortly after the publication of Spínolas’s book Portugal and the Future, which expressed his political and military opinion on the Portuguese Colonial War. At this point, several left-wing military officers who opposed the war formed a conspiracy—the Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA, “Armed Forces Movement”), to overthrow the government by military coup. The MFA was headed by the majors Vitor Alves and Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho and captain Vasco Lourenço and joined by Salgueiro Maia. The movement was significantly aided by other officers in the Portuguese army who supported Spinola and democratic civil and military reform. Some observers have speculated that Costa Gomes actually led the revolution.

There were two secret signals in the military coup: first the airing (at 10:55 pm) by ‘Emissores Associados de Lisboa’ of the song “E Depois do Adeus” by Paulo de Carvalho, Portugal’s entry in 6 April 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, which alerted the rebel captains and soldiers to begin the coup. Next, on 25 April 1974 at 12:20 am, Rádio Renascença broadcast “Grândola, Vila Morena”, a song by Zeca Afonso, an influential folk and political musician-singer banned from Portuguese radio at the time. This was the signal that the MFA gave to take over strategic points of power in the country and “announced” that the revolution had started and nothing would stop it except “the possibility of a regime’s repression”.

Six hours later, the Caetano regime relented. Despite repeated appeals from the “captains of April” (of the MFA) on the radio warning the population to stay safe inside their homes, thousands of Portuguese took to the streets, mingling with the military insurgents and supporting them. One of the central points of those gathering was the Lisbon flower market, then richly stocked with carnations, which were in season. Some military insurgents would put these flowers in their gun-barrels, an image which was shown on television around the world. This would be the origin of the name of this “Carnation Revolution”. Although there were no mass demonstrations by the general population prior to the coup, spontaneous civilian involvement turned the military coup into an event with unexpected popular participation.

Caetano found refuge in the main Lisbon military police station at the Largo do Carmo. This building was surrounded by the MFA, which pressured him to cede power to General Spínola. Both Caetano (the prime minister) and Américo Tomás (the president) fled to Brazil. Caetano spent the rest of his life in Brazil, while Tomás returned to Portugal a few years later.

The revolution was closely watched from neighbouring Spain, where the government and opposition were planning for the succession of Francisco Franco, who died a year and a half later, in 1975.

Aftermath[edit]

A demonstration in Porto on 25 April 1983
After the military coup in Lisbon on 25 April 1974, power was taken by a military junta, the National Salvation Junta, and Portugal went through a turbulent period, commonly called the Continuing Revolutionary Process (Portuguese: Processo Revolucionário em Curso, or PREC).

Initially there was a confrontation, at times open, at other times hidden, between the conservative forces around Spinola and the radicals of the MFA. Spinola was forced to appoint key figures in the MFA to senior security positions and as a result an attempted coup to halt the progress of democratisation failed and Spinola was removed from office. Then there followed a confrontation within the MFA, which itself splintered, between the most leftist forces, often close to the Communist party, and the more moderate groupings, often close to the Socialists.

This phase of the PREC lasted until 25 November 1975, the day of a pro-communist coup followed by a successful counter-coup by pro-democracy moderates, marked by constant friction between liberal-democratic forces and leftist/communist political parties.[23] After a year, the first free election was carried out on 25 April 1975 in order to write a new Constitution that would replace the Constitution of 1933 which prevailed during the Estado Novo period. In 1976, another election was held and the first Constitutional government, led by the centre-left socialist Mário Soares, assumed office.

Decolonisation[edit]

Main articles: Retornados, Angolan Civil War, Mozambican Civil War, Indonesian invasion of East Timor, and Lusophobia

Before April 1974, the war in Africa was consuming as much as 40% of the Portuguese budget and there was no end in sight. At a military level, a part of Guinea-Bissau was de facto independent since 1973, but the capital and the major towns were still under Portuguese control. In Angola and Mozambique, independence movements were only active in a few remote countryside areas from which the Portuguese Army had retreated, and the economies of these two territories were booming.

A direct consequence of the military coup at Lisbon was the sudden withdrawal of Portuguese administrative and military personnel from Portugal’s overseas colonies. Hundreds of thousands of other Portuguese citizens—workers, small business people, and farmers (often with deep roots in the former colonies)—also returned to Portugal as retornados.

Angola would later enter into a decades-long civil war which involved nations like the Soviet Union, Cuba, South Africa, and the United States. Millions of Angolans would die in the aftermath of independence, due either to the violence of the armed conflict or malnutrition and disease. After a short period of stability, Mozambique would also later enter into a devastating civil war that left it as one of the poorest nations in the world. Since the 1990s, its situation has improved after the war ended and multi-party elections were held.

East Timor was invaded by Indonesia and would later be occupied until 1999. There were an estimated 102,800 conflict-related deaths in the period 1974–99 (approximately 18,600 killings and 84,200 ‘excess’ deaths from hunger and illness), the majority of which occurred during the subsequent Indonesian occupation.[24]

After a long period of one-party rule, Guinea-Bissau endured a brief civil war and a difficult transition to civilian rule in the late 1990s.

Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe, on the other hand, were spared civil war during the decolonization period, and by the early 1990s, they have both established multi-party political systems.

Macau remained a Portuguese colony until 1999 when China took control by agreement and went on to pursue a “one country, two systems” policy similar to Hong Kong’s.

Economic issues[edit]

Main article: Economic history of Portugal

The Portuguese economy had changed significantly by 1973 prior to the revolution, compared with its position in 1961. Total output (GDP at factor cost) had grown by 120 percent in real terms. The pre-revolutionary period was characterized by robust annual growth rates for GDP (6.9 percent), industrial production (9 percent), private consumption (6.5 percent), and gross fixed capital formation (7.8 percent). The revolutionary period itself was characterized by a slowly growing economy whose only impetus was the entering of the European Economic Zone. It never reached pre-revolutionary period growth rates. On the other hand, despite the progress in the 1960s and early 1970s, Portugal at the time of the Revolution was still an underdeveloped country with poor infrastructure and inefficient agriculture as well as the worst health and education indicators in Europe.[25]

However, researchers agree that pre-revolution Portugal increasingly accomplished notable social and economic achievements.[26] After a long period of economic divergence before 1914, the Portuguese economy recovered slightly until 1950, entering thereafter on a path of strong economic growth leading to some convergence with Western Europe, of which Portugal was and remained until the 1980s the poorest country. Portuguese economic growth in the period 1960–73 under the Estado Novo regime (and even with the effects of an expensive war effort in African territories against independence guerrilla groups), created an opportunity for real integration with the developed economies of Western Europe. Through emigration, trade, tourism and foreign investment, individuals and firms changed their patterns of production and consumption, bringing about a structural transformation. Simultaneously, the increasing complexity of a growing economy raised new technical and organizational challenges, stimulating the formation of modern professional and management teams.[27][28]

On 13 November 1972, a sovereign wealth fund (Fundo do Ultramar – The Overseas Fund) was enacted through the Decree Law Decreto-Lei n.º 448/ /72 and the Ministry of Defense ordinance Portaria 696/72, in order to finance the counterinsurgency effort in the Portuguese colonies.[29] While the counterinsurgency war was won in Angola, it was less than satisfactorily contained in Mozambique and dangerously stalemated in Portuguese Guinea from the Portuguese point of view, so the Portuguese Government had decided to create sustainability policies in order to allow continuous sources of financing for the war effort in the long run. In addition, new Decree Laws (Decree Law: Decretos-Leis n.os 353, de 13 de Julho de 1973, e 409, de 20 de Agosto) were enforced in order to cut down military expenses and increase the number of officers by incorporating militia and military academy officers in the Army branches as equals.[7][21][30][31][32]

In the agricultural sector, the collective farms, set up in Alentejo after the 1974–75 expropriations due to the leftist military coup of 25 April 1974, proved incapable of modernizing, and their efficiency declined. According to government estimates, about 900,000 hectares (2,200,000 acres) of agricultural land were occupied between April 1974 and December 1975 in the name of land reform; about 32% of the occupations were ruled illegal. In January 1976, the government pledged to restore the illegally occupied land to its owners, and in 1977, it promulgated the Land Reform Review Law. Restoration of illegally occupied land began in 1978.[33][34]

In 1960, at the initiation of Salazar’s more outward-looking economic policy due to the influence of a new wave of technocrats with background in economics (some of whom trained abroad, including in liberal capitalist graduate schools from the USA and the UK), Portugal’s per capita GDP was only 38 percent of the EC-12 average; by the end of the Salazar period, in 1968, it had risen to 48 percent; and in 1973, on the eve of the revolution, Portugal’s per capita GDP had reached 56.4 percent of the EC-12 average (though the figure is necessarily dampened by the 40% of the budget that went to African wars). In 1975, the year of maximum revolutionary turmoil, Portugal’s per capita GDP declined to 52.3 percent of the EC-12 average. Due to the new revolutionary economic policies, oil shocks, recession in Europe, the return of hundreds of thousands of overseas Portuguese from the former colonies, Portugal underwent an economic crisis starting in 1974–75.[35]

Convergence of real GDP growth toward the EC average occurred as a result of Portugal’s economic resurgence since 1985. In 1991 Portugal’s GDP per capita climbed to 54.9 percent of the EC average, exceeding by a fraction the level attained during the worst revolutionary period.[36] After the revolution Portugal’s economy would collapse and it took 16 years for the GDP as percentage of the EC-12 average to climb to 54.9 percent again. Portugal had been one of the founding members of EFTA (European Free Trade Association) in 1960. After the fall of the Estado Novo regime and the loss of its colonies in 1974 and 1975, Portugal left EFTA and entered into the European Economic Community in 1986.

A report published in January 2011 by the Diário de Notícias, a right-wing Portuguese tabloid newspaper, attempted to demonstrate that in the period between the Carnation Revolution in 1974 and 2010, the democratic Portuguese Republic governments have encouraged over expenditure and investment bubbles through unclear public-private partnerships. This has funded numerous ineffective and unnecessary external consultancy and advising committees and firms, allowed considerable slippage in state-managed public works, inflated top management and head officers’ bonuses and wages, causing a persistent and lasting recruitment policy that has boosted the number of redundant public servants. The economy has also been damaged by risky credit, public debt creation and mismanaged European structural and cohesion funds for almost four decades. Apparently, the Prime Minister Sócrates’s cabinet was not able to forecast or prevent any of this when symptoms first appeared in 2005, and later was incapable of doing anything to ameliorate the situation when the country was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2011 and required financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.[37]

Freedom of religion[edit]

The constitution of 1976 guarantees all religions the right to practice their faith. Non-Roman Catholic groups came to be recognized as legal entities with the right to assemble. Portuguese who were both not Roman Catholics and were conscientious objectors had the right to apply for alternative military service. The Roman Catholic Church, however, still sought to place barriers in the way of missionary activities.[38]

The new authorities abolished the ban on activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In December 1976, the religious organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses was registered. In 1978, in Lisbon, they organized their first international convention in Portugal.[39]

Freedom Day[edit]

Freedom Day on 25 April is a national holiday in Portugal, with both state-sponsored and spontaneous commemorations praising the elemental civil liberties and political freedoms achieved after the revolution. It commemorates both 25 April 1974 military coup, and the first free elections on that date in 1975.

Monuments[edit]

Originally named after António de Oliveira Salazar, in honour of the President of the Council of Ministers, the 25 de Abril Bridge (Ponte 25 de Abril) is an icon of Lisbon.
The construction of the 25 de Abril Bridge began on 5 November 1962. Forty-five months later, the bridge was inaugurated on 6 August 1966 as the Salazar Bridge, after the Estado Novo regime’s leader António de Oliveira Salazar. Soon after the Carnation Revolution in 1974, the bridge was renamed the 25 de Abril Bridge, the day the revolution had occurred. A symbol of those times was captured on film, with citizens removing the big brass “Salazar” sign from one of the main pillars of the bridge and painting a provisional “25 de Abril” in its place.

In Portugal, many avenues, squares, and streets are named after the day of the revolution, vinte e cinco de Abril.

The Portuguese Mint chose the 40th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution for its 2014 2 euro commemorative coin.[40]

Evaluations of the revolution’s outcomes[edit]

After an early period of turmoil, Portugal emerged as a democratic country. It took several years to create a strong democratic government due to the radical leftist inclination of some of the leading revolutionaries, and during this period Portugal divested itself of almost all of its colonies and underwent severe economic turmoil, as the old regime had shaped the Portuguese economy with such a stranglehold that it took some time to nationalize and reprivatize businesses. For the Portuguese and their former colonies, this was a very difficult period, but many[who?] felt that the short-term effects of the Carnation Revolution were well worth the trouble when civil rights and political freedoms were achieved. The Portuguese celebrate Freedom Day on 25 April every year, and the day is a national holiday in Portugal.

Most moderate or non-aligned political sectors of the population consider that the core objectives of the revolution were achieved, although there are differing views held by supporters of the former regime and also by supporters of the revolution who felt it did not go far enough.[citation needed]

By refusing to grant independence to its colonies in Africa, the Portuguese ruling regime of Estado Novo was criticized by most of the international community, and its leaders Salazar and Caetano were accused of being deaf to the so-called “winds of change”. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974 and the fall of the incumbent Portuguese authoritarian regime, almost all the Portuguese-ruled territories outside Europe became independent. Several historians have described the stubbornness of the regime as a lack of sensibility to the “winds of change”. For the regime, those overseas possessions were a matter of national interest.

In 2011 during the Portuguese financial crisis when the country was under the right-wing government of Pedro Passos Coelho and had to request international financial assistance, Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho stated that he wouldn’t have made the revolution if he had known what the country would become after it.[41] He also stated that the country would need a man as honest as Salazar to deal with the crisis, but from a non-fascist perspective.[42]. But later he reverted his position and said that the Carnation Revolution was worth it and that he was proud of his role in it.