Look who's paranoid now!

[Hervé]

Lawyers who have too much time on their hands sitting in their mom's basement...

Drone flight lands French teenager in court

A French high schooler is in hot water after he used his drone to film his hometown. Photo: Screengrab/YouTube

Published: 14 Feb 2014 12:46 GMT+01:00, Updated: 14 Feb 2014 12:46 GMT+01:00

VIDEO: A French teenager was flying high after an aerial video he shot of his hometown using a small drone went wild on social media. But he's since been brought back down to earth. In a landmark case prosecutors charged him with "endangering people's lives."

“Nancy seen from the air” (Nancy vu du ciel) a stunning short film put together by 18-year-old Nans Thomas quickly racked up some 400,000 views in a matter of days after it was posted on the online video sharing site Vimeo.

The beautiful images of spires, churches and plazas of the historic north-eastern French town were captured in a unique way by attaching a go-pro camera to a drone.

At one point the video was reportedly even hosted on the social interactive site of the regional council of Lorraine.

But unfortunately for the teenager the success also caught the eye of French civil aviation authorities, who ordered an investigation, TF1 TV reported. It turns out the teenager violated two key provisions of the law according to Nancy’s top prosecutor Thomas Pison.

First, drone operators in a France have to complete a training course similar to the ones pilots must take. Then, a drone flight over an urban area requires specific written approval. Unfortunately for Thomas, he had neither.

“I had no idea you needed permission (to fly it),” Thomas told French paper Est Republican. “Nobody gave me any indication that I needed any special permission when I bought it on the internet.”

The first bad sign came when he got a letter from aviation authorities (Direction Regionale de l’Aviation Civile) which reminded him of the rules.

On Monday things got worse. Thomas got a call from the police who wanted to talk to him as soon as possible about the drone flight and the resulting film. He went to police and left with a court summons on charges of “endangering the lives of others.”
Prosecutors didn’t think Thomas’s little stunt was too funny.

“If the aircraft crashed in a densely populated area, the consequences can be tragic,” prosecutors told Est Republican. “The use of drones also raises the question of respect of people’s privacy.”

Here is the video. It's too bad it was filmed illegally, because its pretty spectacular.

VIDEO: Drone flight lands French teenager in court

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Or_UBTvL5Rw

Don't miss stories about France, join us on Facebook and Twitter
Joshua Melvin (joshua.melvin@thelocal.com)

[araucaria]

Posted by Amzer Zo (here)

“If the aircraft crashed in a densely populated area, the consequences can be tragic,” prosecutors told Est Republican. “The use of drones also raises the question of respect of people’s privacy.”

And if it is sharing airspace with a Boeing, or even a Cessna, that could be tragic too.

As for privacy, that is very true. Let's get serious about this issue. Let's have more privacy: no drones, no surveillance cameras, no more surveillance tout court.

[Hervé]

Here we go... no more kosher nor halal quenelles in Denmark:

Denmark accused of anti-Semitism as it bans religious slaughter of animals for kosher and halal meat
William Turvill Daily Mail Wed, 19 Feb 2014 10:43 CST

© Alamy

The government in Denmark has been accused of anti-Semitism after passing a law banning the religious slaughter of animals for halal and kosher meat.

After years of campaigning in the Scandinavian country, the ban came in to law yesterday.

The change has been described as 'anti-Semitic and 'a clear interference in religious freedom' by a group petitioning against the change.

Under European regulations, animals are required to be stunned before slaughter unless an exemption can be found on religious grounds.

And animals must be conscious when killed for the resultant meat to be kosher under Jewish law and halal under Islamic law.

But, following criticism, the country's Minister for Food, Dan Jorgensen, told Denmark's TV2 that 'animal rights come before religion'.

Campaign group Danish Halal has collected more than 13,000 signatures opposing the law change and plans to present them to Mr Jorgensen this week.

The group said: 'The new order is a clear interference in religious freedom and limits the Muslims and the Jews' right to practise their religion in Denmark.

'It is a procedure that is done under the guise of animal welfare, despite the fact that many scientific studies show that the animal suffers less when properly performed ritual slaughter than when it gets a blow to the head with a nail gun.'

The law change has also drawn criticism because it has been implemented in the same country that a giraffe was brutally slaughtered last week in front of an audience.

Marius, a perfectly healthy animal, was shot, dissected in front of a crowd which included children, and fed to lions last week at Copenhagen Zoo.

Despite more than 20,000 people signing an online petition to save two-year-old Marius, staff at Copenhagen Zoo went ahead and shot the animal with a bolt pistol.

Young children stood at arm's length as his carcass was skinned and dissected before the meat was thrown to the lions.

The Danish zoo said the drastic move was needed to combat inbreeding and insisted the display was educational.


From: http://www.sott.net/article/274168-D...and-halal-meat

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If one thinks that laws and regulations in North America are brainchilds of nutcases, they should check "European laws" and "regulations"....

[Ahnung-quay]

Because stunning them is so much more humane. Really? I'd say that kosher kill, when done correctly, is about the most humane method in a slaughter house situation that there is. It also doesn't fill the meat with adrenaline which is what we're eating when we eat meat from modern slaughter houses. We're eating fear as well as infected meat. If you're a meat eater, try to find a local supplier that practices humane slaughter methods and don't eat meat from restaurants, especially chains. Also, if you're a meat eater, try to limit your intake to 3-4 servings/week. That's a better way for the planet.

[Operator]

Posted by Amzer Zo (here)
Lawyers who have too much time on their hands sitting in their mom's basement...

Drone flight lands French teenager in court
.....

Yes, we can't have civilians with the same spying abilities, can we?
They might look into places previously difficult to access.

Here's another example:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=U2GwJXnDcC0

A guy flew his drone over an amusement park in the Netherlands and is currently
interrogated by the authorities.

Difficult times ahead for keeping secrets?

[Hervé]

Belgian soccer star Omar Rahou becomes second famous sportsman to be banned and fined in Europe for making anti-[establishment] 'quenelle' salute against Official Lies

7sur7.be Tue, 04 Mar 2014 04:12 CST

SOTT.net translation edited [...] par moi.

Omar Rahou

Belgian indoor soccer star of the country's national team, Omar Rahou, was suspended for 10 matches Tuesday by the European football authorities (UEFA) for making a 'quenelle' gesture as he celebrated scoring a goal in late January in a European championship match at an arena in Antwerp.

Omar Rahou, 21 years old, scored the only goal the only goal in Belgium's 6-1 defeat against Romania in the first round of the championship and celebrated his goal with a 'quenelle', which got him banned for 10 matches. This sanction applies to his involvement in both the national team and his professional club, Châtelineau.

The player can appeal. The 'quenelle' - one arm pointing downwards, the other touching the shoulder - is at the heart of a scandal in France and was [deemed] an inverted Nazi salute by LICRA (International Organization Against Racism and Anti-Semitism).

The French soccer striker Nicolas Anelka, who did a 'quenelle' during an English league match in which he scored for his club West Bromwich Albion on December 28, 2013, was suspended for 5 matches last week by the English Football Association.

Anelka pleaded not guilty. He explained that he made the [anti-establishment] gesture as a 'dedication' to his friend Dieudonné, the controversial French comedian.

Quenelle

[Hervé]

Why the "Quenelle" means different things to different people...

The strange fear of symbols

Mar13, 2014, by Jon Rappoport permalink.

www.nomorefakenews.com

Groups use symbols.

But symbols have no inherent power.

None.

They have power only when people believe in them. In which case it’s the belief that is the power.

Just as important, symbols have no inherent meaning. They only have the meaning given to them.

So, for example, the famous eye and pyramid mean zero. Zilch. They only have meaning because Masons and other groups have assigned it.

There is no closed secret world of symbols that has magic in it.

There are no universally good symbols or bad symbols. A symbol is a word, term, sign, shape. It’s injected with meaning by a group. The group adopts a consensus about the symbol.

To a surprising degree, people think in terms of symbols. They operate as if they understand what they’re doing, but they don’t. They fear the power of certain symbols and attach themselves to the power of other “good” symbols. They’re hooked.

You could make a picture of a sun emanating three rays and call it Oobladee, and invent a whole mythology around it. You could claim it comes from Atlantis, or a secret society embedded in the old KGB, or an ancient Babylonian priesthood.

And then some people would react when they saw it. They would feel fear or anger or excitement.

It’s a con.

If you took this even further and created a whole set of symbols, dozens of them, and made up meanings for them, and worked with this game, you would eventually experience an interesting kind of liberation. You would see, to a greater extent, how arbitrary symbols are, how people trap themselves in “internal symbolic spaces.”

The whole point of frozen symbols is to enclose consciousness.

Let’s say you devised a picture of an eyeball hovering in a forest. A tear is dropping from the eye. The literal mind is looking for specific meaning. The literal mind wants an answer. It can’t find one.

The eyeball and the forest and the tear don’t add up. They provoke all sorts of associations, but no particular meaning, and the literal mind is frustrated.

So THEN you come along and assign a meaning. You say, “Well, this symbol was painted on masks in 834BC by the ancient Egyptian founders of a cult of pyramid builders. The eye and the tear stand for the tragedy caused by lack of faith in eternal life…”

And so forth and so on.

Now you’ve assigned specific meaning to the symbol. Now the literal mind breathes a sigh of relief. It has an answer. It can suck up that meaning and take it in and accept it. And now you can embellish the story and sell it to the literal mind. You can make that symbol into an object of fear and repulsion, if that’s the reaction you want to provoke in your audience, or you can make the symbol into an object of victory that stands for redemption.

You can twist and turn the symbol any way you want to.

The literal mind wants an answer to the mystery, a solution, and you provided it.

We’re talking about a very primitive form of art. When people operate at this level, buying symbols and their assigned meanings, it’s an indication they can’t appreciate or fathom more complex art.

They can’t read and fathom a novel or watch a stage play. That’s too much. There isn’t a clear one-to-one connecting pipeline between symbol and meaning, and so they’re confused. They’re frustrated.

I remember sitting in a movie theater watching a crime drama. The cops arrested the wrong man and framed him for a killing. A guy sitting next to me blew his top. He started telling his girl friend about how the cops were railroading this suspect and how bad the cops were, how the suspect was a victim of police brutality.

Well, yes. That was, in fact, the whole point of the movie. The movie was showing the audience how the police operated to create a false scenario and frame an innocent man. That’s what the movie was saying.

But this guy couldn’t get to that level. He thought the movie was actually on the cops’ side. He thought the movie was praising the arrest of the wrong man.

The literal mind at work.

In the same way, people accept the meanings that are assigned to symbols, and they react to those meanings in a reflex fashion.

In truth, symbols are open. They have no intrinsic meaning. People can inject any meaning they want to.

But when they’re trapped in a layer of symbolic thinking, they can’t see that. They’re determined to accept the already-assigned meaning and react to it.

Which is an invitation to propagandists.

Worse yet, it’s a fixation that artificially defines the limits of mind.

Symbols form a matrix-shell inside which minds live. Until they don’t.

In case you hadn’t noticed, lunatic school officials have been punishing students for symbols of guns. Pop tart chewed into the shape of a gun. Screen saver showing a picture of a gun. T-shirt with a message supporting the 2nd Amendment.

Then there are widening definitions of so-called hate speech. People want to ban the word “bossy.” They want to take any bland utterance and analyze it for possible “hate content.”

Among other things, this is puerile symbol-addiction.

A story about someone burning an American flag receives far more coverage and more reaction than a statement that the federal government violates the Constitution in a hundred ways.

Presidents are symbols. That is, the public reacts to the meanings broadly assigned to their images. The last time I looked, Americans in Kansas and Ohio weren’t sitting in the Oval Office having long conversations with Presidents.

Neither, I dare say, are Americans sitting down and talking with Satan. They’re reacting to meanings assigned to images of Satan painted by others.

Artists are in a unique position. They can make and unmake symbols at will. They can imbue symbols with meaning and then change the meanings or destroy the symbols. They don’t have to live under the dome of consensus symbols and their assigned meanings.

There are people who will argue that some symbols have “inherent meaning.” As if “the universe” sits around and writes down descriptions in a book, which is irrefutable.

Even if this were true, why do people have to accept those meanings?

Some symbols point to things that actually exist. Other symbols are fabricated with the intent of referring to fictions as if they were real. In both cases, the symbols are cooked and plumped up with meanings to impart a reaction.

I suppose God is the most widespread symbol on Earth. But instead of standing back and allowing the individual to decide what, if anything, it means to him, priest classes move in and organize religions to tell their stories, to embellish and codify the meaning of that symbol. And then to fight and kill to defend it.

Here is the symbol-maker’s proposition: “I’ll give you a symbol and tell you what it means and what it refers to. Then I want you to accept it, yes, but also to imbue it with feeling and awe and power. Give that power to the symbol. Make that investment. It’s your duty. Don’t vary or quibble.”

This is how humans are made into ciphers. This is mind control.

Jon Rappoport

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

What Jon omitted to include in his essay is that symbols, for eons, have been used as triggers to induce mind-controlled individuals into actions; hence the apparent "power" of the symbol itself over individuals.

The same happens to other people who have imbued meaning and power to symbols during some obscure past lives buried deep in their unconscious and triggered into life, when running into it, giving said symbol an apparency of power...

Then, there are also the "tricksters" who slip into the material bearing the symbol and make it "speak"... and one is all set-up for wild meanings, inferences, explanations, justifications. etc...

Oh, well... hope one gets the "idea"?

[Hervé]

Democrazi: Brussels meeting of dissidents including French comic Dieudonné banned by Belgian Supreme Court under all-purpose pretext of 'anti-Semitism', riot police violently disperse attendees


France 24
Mon, 05 May 2014 04:38 CDT

Citing security risks, a Brussels mayor banned a gathering of far-right figures - including controversial French comic Dieudonné - planned for Sunday after some Jewish groups called the meeting an "anti-Semitic hatefest".

The mayor of the Brussels district of Anderlecht banned both the meeting and any street protests planned in connection with it, the Belga news agency reported.

Organisers of the so-called "European Dissidents' Congress" had kept its venue secret until the last moment to try to avoid a ban. The meeting aimed to bring together a string of controversial far-right figures that included comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, who has faced repeated convictions for anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and incitement to racial hatred in France.

The Belgian League against anti-Semitism, LBCA, on Friday filed a complaint before the Brussels prosecutor against what it warned would be "a day of hate, that would serve as a platform for the worst gathering of anti-Semite authors, theorists and propagandists that our country has seen since the end of World War II".

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust studies and human rights rallied behind the calls for a ban.

"The fact that this hatefest is to be held in Brussels, the capital of Europe, the seat of its Parliament ... is a threat to democracy reminiscent of the 1920s Weimar Republic, which brought Europe to the Nazi abyss," the centre's director for international relations, Shimon Samuels, said in a statement.

Several hundred people who had planned to attend the meeting gathered in Anderlecht, watched by a line of riot police, while the organisers appealed to Belgium's top administrative court, which did not immediately rule.

After a standoff lasting several hours, the police moved in with water cannon to disperse the crowd.

"We have seen a total demonstration of anti-democracy... We are in the Soviet Republic of Belgium. All our rights are flouted," Laurent Louis, an independent member of the Belgian parliament who chairs the "Stand up Belgians!" group, told supporters afterwards.

SOTT.net Comment: Strange that Jewish groups should lead the efforts to block this public meeting. Don't they like democracy

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, Reuters)

Date created : 2014-05-04


FRANCE
Anelka blames French PM’s Jewish wife for Dieudonné ban
Read more


FRANCE
Dieudonné cleared of spreading anti-Semitic video online
Read more

[Hervé]

Shh, it got serious! RT accused of anti-Semitism for satire Rap News episode

Published time: May 17, 2014 11:25
Edited time: May 18, 2014 01:14
Get short URL

Still from YouTube video/thejuicemedia

Download video (44.96 MB)

Media views that deviate from the mainstream are more often than not condemned and it seems RT has not been able to escape this trend. A Jewish rights group has branded RT “anti-Semite” over a satirical sketch lampooning Israel’s policy on Palestine.

US President Barack Obama’s former speechwriter Jon Lovett coined the phrase “the culture of shut up” where views that do not conform are silenced by often misplaced moral outrage. To name but a few recent cases, former CEO of Mozilla Brendan Eich was silenced and forced to resign after it hit headlines he had supported California’s Proposition 8 which sought to ban same sex marriages. While Somali activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali fell afoul of the mainstream for her criticism of Islam, which sparked outrage among religious groups.

RT has fallen into the same trap and been branded as anti-Semite by a Jewish rights organization. The Wiesenthal Center has demanded a public apology over a satirical show broadcast on RT they say expressed “raw Jew hatred.”

The channel has denied these claims labeling them as “baseless” and “outrageous” and maintains the show in fact depicts the exact opposite, acknowledging the tragedy of the Holocaust and the right to a Jewish state.

The Wiesenthal Center published a statement on its website on May 12, decrying an Australian-made, satirical show called Juice Rap News which is broadcast on RT. The organization leveled claims of anti-Semitism at RT, pertaining to an installment of Juice News entitled “Israel vs. Palestine” broadcasted three weeks ago.

The episode contains parodied versions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State John Kerry as well as a host of others, and intimates that those who challenge Israel’s policy on the occupied territories are branded as “anti-Semites.”

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=k81p2LCj_cs

“Eight minutes of raw Jew-hatred,” is how the group described the sketch. It went on to demand an apology from the channel and call for the dismissal of “those responsible.” If action is not taken the organization has threatened to raise the matter with “a higher authority” on the grounds that it allegedly violates Russian membership obligations under the 2004 Berlin Declaration on Anti-Semitism of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

In addition, the statement said Shimon Samuels, the Director of International Relations at the Wiesenthal Center, had sent a letter to RT’s Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director – Margarita Simonyan and Aleksey Nikolov.

RT responded to the Wiesenthal Center, saying they had unfortunately received no letter and had learnt about the accusations through media coverage.

“We find these accusations to be baseless, outrageous and defamatory,” wrote RT, stressing the show regularly criticizes political figures from Russia and the US.

“RT does not air or publish hate speech, plain and simple. The video in question never voices anti-Semitic sentiments.”

RT says the sketch is the exact opposite and acknowledges the tragedy of the Holocaust and the right of the Jews to have “sanctuary” in the form of the Jewish state. In this way the channel insists the program “in no way violates the provisions of the Berlin Declaration on Anti-Semitism.”

The channel has demanded an apology for the accusations from the Wiesenthal Center.

“These charges are an affront to the leadership and employees of the network, many of whom have family members who have suffered ethnic persecution – including the network’s editor in chief,” said RT.

‘Silencing debate’
The Wiesenthal Center’s accusations are indicative of a strategy to try and silence debate on the Israeli-Palestinian debate, author and media analyst, Danny Schechter told RT.

“This criticism is ridiculous, it’s obviously written by people who don’t know anything about satire,” said Schechter. He said that the Center fails to make the distinction between news and satire.

“They’re so used to hearing voices that agree with them, it is very hard for them to accept a voice that questions them,” he said.

Schechter also broached the accusations of “self-hatred” leveled at American political scientist Norman Finkelstein who appears in the Juice News episode.

“It suggests that if you’re Jewish and you criticize Israel, somehow you’re a self-hater, a self-hating Jew,” said Schechter, stating that this tactic is used to silence debate that challenges the status quo in current affairs. Any group setting itself up as an “arbiter of truth” is dangerous, said the political analyst.

[Hervé]

Houston stadium security detains soccer fan for waving Palestinian flag as ‘racial slur’

Annie Robbins on June 6, 2014 66

Buthayna Hammad

Last Sunday, Palestinian-American Buthayna Hammad attended a soccer match at BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston’s downtown 22,000-seat soccer-specific stadium, home to the Houston Dynamo. About 15 minutes after the game started Hammad was approached by the head of Compass Stadium’s security Nathan Buchanan. Soon she encountered a total of eight security officials, four from stadium security and the other four, Houston police officers.

Why? because she was waving a Palestinian flag. Stadium security informed her that her Palestinian flag implied a “racial slur” and therefore was in violation of BBVA Compass Stadium rules.

Hammad, a native of Houston, is an avid soccer fan. She attended the match with her “alt family from Honduras” including her Honduran boyfriend. The match was between Israel and Honduras.

The implications of this story are mind-numbing, and we’ll discuss that later. First, in Buthayna Hammad’s own words, cited in Free Press Houston (FPR): “Mere Existence of Palestine Deemed a ‘Threatening Racial Slur’ by the Houston Dynamo Organization.”

I wore a Honduras jersey and was eager to cheer on this team, dressed to represent Honduras. To represent my own heritage as a Palestinian-American, I also brought my Palestinian flag. I made sure my flag was allowed (based on the size, etc.) and I was all ready to go. For the first 15 minutes of the match I stood up and cheered and stomped my feet with the rest of the crowd chanting “HON-DU-RAS” and waving my Palestinian flag, my colors vibrant and loud against a sea of blue and white…and apparently also racist.

I was told I had to sit down, which I did, only to be told to get back up again and follow the manager of security away from the stadium seats and into the concession area. I followed, and there waiting for me were three more BBVA security personnel and four police officers. When I asked them what was wrong, the manager of security, Nathan Buchanan, told me I am not allowed to carry this flag because it implies a “racial slur” and it is in BBVA Compass Stadium violation.

I asked him to show me evidence of his accusations and asked him how my flag, a part of my identity as a Palestinian-American, implies a racial slur. He could not answer whether he did not know or could not articulate why he was ordered to remove my flag and me from my seat. I was getting very emotional at this point, I had my flag wrapped around my neck like a scarf, and he said he would take my flag and “check it in” for me, that I was not permitted to return to my seat until I surrendered my flag.

BBVA Compass Stadium, Houston Texas

It’s almost too strange to believe. In a 22,000 seat stadium, security officials concerned themselves over Hammad waving her flag.

Another publication, Houston Press, (Security Didn’t Want Her Waving Palestinian Flag During Israel Game in Houston) attempted to contact the security manager Nathan Buchanan, but he’s not making himself available. A spokeswoman for BBVA Compass Stadium, Gina Rotola, appears to be walking back the inflammatory “racist” allegation. She told Houston Press that “A national flag from any country cannot be a racial slur, so if any statement of that nature were used, it would have been made incorrectly by an individual trying to deescalate a situation.”

Which begs the question, deescalate what situation?

Gina Rotola runs a PR boutique agency in Houston, in part specializing in media management, branding, and crisis communication. So what kind of excuse rationale did she come up with?

“[T]he decision to not allow the Palestinian flag to be displayed during the game was based on the sole intention of maintaining the safety of those in attendance. The flag bearer was instigating the crowd, and we felt it was important to diffuse a potentially volatile situation as emotions began to escalate. We instructed the patron that she could retain her flag but should refrain from waving it in front of fans from the other teams.”

That makes no sense. Fans frequently wave flags at sports games and Hammad said she made sure her Palestinian flag complied with stadium regulations. What does “waving it in front of fans from the other teams” mean in a stadium this size?
FPR’s Harbeer Sandhu asked Rotolo how Hammad was instigating the crowd. Her response? Astoundingly, Rotolo said that Hamad was waving her flag “in front of Israeli supporters” causing “emotions to escalate.”

I have never been to a match at a sports stadium where emotions didn’t escalate, ever. Who contacted security that day? Who complained about the flag?

Sandhu connects the dots any logical person might consider:

It is now considered “racist” for an American of Palestinian descent to wave her flag at fans of the Israeli soccer team. The First Amendment can be suspended in a stadium built with taxpayer money because some Israeli soccer fans might be moved to violence by the mere sight of the Palestinian flag. The good people of the Houston Dynamo Organization think that it is “racist” to merely remind Israeli soccer fans that Palestine exists.

I am trying to imagine what the complaint sounded like. “Excuse me, Mr. Buchanan, that flag over there is really pissing me off–causing emotional distress–and I might have to hurt the lady holding it so you better get four cops to impound that flag or else I’m going to beat her up and it will be all her fault.”

What or who could have overridden Nathan Buchanan’s common sense in the stadium that day and caused eight security personnel to assemble for the purpose of confiscating a national flag from an enthusiastic sports fan? And more importantly, is it enough for BBVA Compass Stadium (parent company the Anschutz Entertainment Group) to issue a statement from a crisis management professional sans any formal apology to Buthayna Hammad?

In her own words:

The Israeli government has banned Palestinians from hanging their flags outside their home, and arrests the occupants of the home for having it on display on their own land. Every day, in Occupied Palestine, Palestinians are denied entry to neighboring villages, to schools or their family’s home and in many cases to hospitals thanks to Israel’s apartheid state. Yes “apartheid,” that word implies racism, yet my flag implies a racial slur? I asked him several times if I could go back to my seat and he would spread his arms out to create a blockade with his body and his arms so I could not pass.

“This is private property,” he said.

I told him I paid for a ticket to enter. I could not keep my eyes from gathering tears, but forced myself from letting them fall.

“What country are we in again?” I asked. “Just because Israel is playing a match, does that mean you should treat me this way? Because of my Palestinian identity? I am a U.S. Citizen!”

Buthayna Hammad was eventually allowed to return to her seat after missing the first half of the game. A compromise was offered whereby Hammad was allowed to keep her flag as long as she didn’t wave it.

Echoing Hammad, What country are we in again? And where’s the national press on this story? Is it fair to ask, had this been an Israeli flag would the NYT be covering it? Everyone would be on it. The ADL, Houston Chronicle, and where is ESPN?

[Hervé]

... (sigh)...

... there we go:

Outrage as France become first country in world to ban pro-Palestine demonstrations

Peter Allen, Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 18 Jul 2014 07:52 CDT

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take to the streets of Paris on Sunday. France's socialist government has sparked uproar after it banned protests against Israeli action in Palestine

* Move follows violence at protests in Paris last weekend

* Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said there was a 'threat to public order'

* Thousands across France were set to march again this weekend

* Anyone who breaks the ban faces a year in prison and a 15,000 euro fine.

* If they hide their faces the sentence can be increased to three years jail, and a 45,000 euro fine

France's Socialist government provoked outrage today by becoming the first in the world to ban protests against Israeli action in Palestine.

In what is viewed as an outrageous attack on democracy, Socialist Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said mass demonstrations planned for the weekend should be halted.

Mr Cazeneuve said there was a 'threat to public order', while opponents said he was 'criminalising' popular support of the Palestinian people.

Thousands were set to march against the ongoing slaughter in Gaza, calling for an immediate end to hostilities in which civilians including many children have been killed.

But Mr Cazeneuve fears there might be a repeat of the fights between 'ultra' Jewish vigilantes and pro-Palestinians which happened after a demonstration last Sunday.

Referring to the main Paris march, Mr Cazeneuve said: 'I consider that the conditions are not right to guarantee security.'

He welcomed a legal procedure instigated by the Paris police prefecture to ban the march, despite it already being widely advertised.

Anyone who turns up to an illegal demonstration now faces up to a year in prison, and a 15,000 euro fine.

A protester wearing a gas mask holds a fake rocket during protests in Paris over the weekend

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator shouts anti Israeli slogans in Paris on Sunday. The French government is attempting to prevent planned marches this weekend from going ahead

If they hide their faces to avoid being identified, this sentence can be increased to three years, and a 45,000 fine.

Even those who publish details of an illegal rally on social media face up to a year in prison, and a 15,000 euro fine.

This can be increased to seven years and a 100,000 fine if the postings lead to violence.

Mr Cazeneuve also advised other prefects across France to examine planned marches on a 'case by case' basis, and to ban 'if appropriate'.

But Michele Sibony, of the Jewish Union for Peace, said: 'By outlawing free speech by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, France puts itself in a unique position in the world and Europe.'

And Youssef Boussoumah, of the Party of the Indigenous of the Republic (PIR) said: 'France is criminalising any show of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

'This is an absolute outrage, it is a continuation of attempts to muzzle the Palestinian people and to get them and their supporters in France to surrender absolutely to Israel's oppression.'

Socialist Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve fears there might be a repeat of the fights between Jewish vigilantes and pro-Palestinians which happened after a demonstration last Sunday

Sylvie Perrot, another pro-Palestine activist from Paris, said: 'Fascist states stop people demonstrating against wars - it is beyond belief that French Socialists are following their example.'

There were false claims made last week that synagogues in Paris had been targeted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

In fact videos showed armed vigilantes from a group called the Jewish Defence League (LDJ) baiting demonstrators into fights.

There were no arrests among the LDJ, despite them fighting and smashing up property in full view of the police.

Six pro-Palestine protestors were arrested for a variety of public order offences, but none had been anywhere near Paris synagogues, which remained undamaged.

A judicial enquiry is set to be launched into the false allegations made about the synagogue attacks - ones which people claim were made up to demonise supporters of Palestine by associating them with anti-Semitism.

On Friday night lawyers for a number of groups hoping to campaign on behalf of Palestine on Saturday lodged an appeal against the ban in a Paris court.

[panopticon]

I've read feeds about a large march in London that evidently(?) hasn't been reported in the MSM (as of yet).

As for Australian politicians/reports it's all about MH17 being a disaster for Australia and "Australia losing its innocence".

I usually understand fairly well what is going on but this is beyond me. It seems Australian PM Abbott is trying to look all Presidential in his response (throwing baseless accusations around like the good little lap dog he is seems to be what passes for "Presidential" in the Abbott household) as a way of getting some form of bounce in the polls.

It's just beyond me that someone would use a tragedy like this in that way... Next will be photo opportunities with bereaved families and the announcement that Australia is at war with Russia... That's what conservative governments in Australia do when they stink like last weeks fish.

-- Pan

--Update--

Protest reports just started to appear (in of all places the Jerusalem Post! oh and the Guardian)

[Hervé]

More good news, this time from France


The French comedian Dieudonne, recently arrested for a tweet under the new French anti-terror laws, has been freed and will play tonight in the city of Metz in a completely overbooked concert hall. Dieudonne's lawyers had to sue the state and the owners of the concert hall. This time, the good guys won.

A victory for freedom and a quenelle for the Fascist French regime!

Posted by VINEYARDSAKER: at 20:32

Amongst the comments:

Lionel said... If Dieudonné was to be sentenced for apology of terrorism, what would be the sentence for the infamous Laurent Fabius who basically said the "Al Nosra Front was doing good job on the front" (in Syria) or who said the Bashar Al Assad "didn't deserve the right to live". These were direct apology to Al-Qeida (trademark) or for the French Muslim Wahaabit indoctrinated youth to go [to] war in Syria (I can't use the word Jihad out of respect for it's meaning of an inner spiritual war).

For those of you who would like to understand better the nature of the National Front, you are advice to read this one:http://jeanmarie-marine-et-les-juifs.fr/

[...]

21 January, 2015 12:39

[Hervé]

Posted by Hervé (here)
[...]
My bet: "Quenelles" sites are soon to follow:

Look who's paranoid now!

How predictable:

French comedian sentenced for ‘condoning terrorism’ in FB post

Published time: March 19, 2015 00:06
Edited time: March 19, 2015 04:57 Get short URL

French controversial comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala (AFP Photo/Loic Venance)

Amid a crackdown on hate speech and “condoning terrorism” online, a French court has handed out a two-month suspended prison sentence to prominent comedian and political activist Dieudonne over a Facebook post in the wake of Charle Hebdo attack.

The 49-year-old Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, or simply Dieudonne has been convicted for being “an apologist for terrorism” over a Facebook post he made following attacks in France that killed 17 people.

“I feel like Charlie Coulibaly,” he wrote in a coined phrase on Facebook on January 11, four days after the Charlie Hebdo attack, allegedly making a mockery of the slogan “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) a global rallying cry against extremism. The second part of the phrase mimicked the name of Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who killed four people at a Paris kosher supermarket.

Prosecutor Annabelle Philippe argued that Dieudonne is guilty of presenting “in a favourable light the acts committed by Amedy Coulibaly.”

“The feeling of hostility towards the Jewish community that Dieudonne kept up in front of a public attracted by his charisma increases his responsibility,” the court argued. The prosecution was seeking a harsher sentence of up to 7 years in prison and a potential 100,000 euro ($106,000) fine.

Dieudonne, who was not present at court during the sentencing on Wednesday, was also fined €30,000 ($35,000), which, if not paid, will result in a prison term.

According to French daily, 20minutes, Dieudonne argued in court on January 28 and February 4 that he has condemned the Charlie Hebdo attacks “without restraint and without any ambiguity.” Dieudonne also claimed at the hearing that he wished to participate in the march in Paris against the extremism, but the Interior Ministry had requested that he be “excluded” and treated as a “terrorist.”

The comic’s case was the most prominent case of several dozen investigated in France in connection to hate speech and allegations of “condoning terrorism.”

The comedian is known for his extreme right views and has been credited with inventing a hand gesture called the “quenelle,” interpreted by many as an inverted Nazi-like salute. He had previously been found guilty seven times for slander or anti-Semitic statements. A Paris court has also recently banned the sale of a DVD featuring Dieudonne on the grounds that it is anti-Semitic, condones the Holocaust and “collaboration with the enemy”.

Amid fierce debates in France over whether the authorities are guilty of double standards on freedom of speech, France blocked five websites suspected of condoning terrorism and spreading hate speech earlier in March. It marked the first usage of new anti-terrorism powers approved by parliament last year that allow such bans without court orders.

France is still on high alert under Operation Sentinel which mobilized over 10,000 troops on French soil to protect 682 sensitive sites across the country including religious sites, railway stations, airports, and tourist attractions in the wake of a rise in religious tensions following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January.


Read more

French authorities accused of double standards over hate speech crackdown

¤=[Post Update]=¤

The Saker interviews Gilad Atzmon

March 19, 2015


It has been already 6 years since I interviewed Gilad for the first time and when a friend recently suggested that it was time for a new conversation, I immediately agreed, as did Gilad who, in spite of his over-booked and hectic lifestyle took the time to reply to my questions. Gilad is, in my opinion, not only the most original and talented jazz musician currently composing and playing (make sure to get his latest CD “The Whistle Blower“), he is also an extremely profound philosopher who has the amazing courage not only to ask the key questions, but to also answer them. His book “The Wandering Who” is, I strongly believe, a must read for anybody wanting to see through the “fog” of modern “Jewish anti-Zionism”. As somebody who has gotten his share of hate mail, I can only begin to imagine the kind of hate-filled poison which Gilad has had to put up with for his courage and even though he will not speak about it, I will say that it takes exceptional courage and moral strength to do what Gilad did and is still doing. So, with no hyperbole at all, but quite literally, I will say that Gilad Atzmon is a modern hero whose courage and phenomenal intellect will, I am sure, eventually be recognized as one of the most brilliant ones of our time. I am deeply honored that he considers me to be a friend.
The Saker

Full interview: http://thesaker.is/the-saker-interviews-gilad-atzmon/

[Hervé]

From the Vineyard of the Saker's

France’s CRIF-run regime has unleashed a vicious persecutions campaign against dissidents


[...]

To illustrate all of the above, I want to share with you a recent press conference of Soral and Dieudonne which Paul Matthews has translated and Marta Begemot subtitled (my most heartfelt thanks to both of them!).

I love France and I have an immense affection and respect for the French people whom I do not blame for what has been done to them. The story of how de Gaulle was “regime changed” by the US CIA in 1968 and replaced by what can only be called an occupation regime spearheaded by a cabal of international bankers has happened to many other countries before and after that date. And I am sure that France will, eventually, come to see the day of her liberation. But before it gets better, it will get worse, much worse. Once the crackdown on dissent becomes as vicious and ruthless, as it has now become in France (just think of the “Charlie” false flag), there is no turning back, things will only get worse. But I am confident that the values of social justice, national tradition, equality and reconciliation will inspire enough young French patriots to eventually overthrow the regime in power and create a new, multi-confessional and multi-ethnic France.

The Saker

(please make sure to click on the ‘cc’ button to see the English captions)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WuKntWdR_Po

[Hervé]

Is there any reason to hope for France?

By Cosimo A March 08, 2016

A few people asked me if there’s any reason to hope for France to get better. This is my 2 cents worth.

I might shock you by commenting that, as things stand, France is in a much better situation that the US.

Let’s start with a nice fun slice of reality, a pleasant truth.

Here’s a 1 minute Youtube of Dieudonné, the humorist, at the Zenith hall in Strasbourg on Feb. 13 where 17,000 people paid about $45 a seat. His tours are a major success and halls usually sell out all the seats. The French government and the Zionist pressure groups such as CRIF have tried to get rid of him for almost 13 years, banishing him from TV, banning shows under the dictatorial power of the Conseil d’État even after courts said it was okay, pursuing him in courts on bogus charges, etc. At his lowest, having been banned from TV in 2003 as an “antisemite”, and with even his private shows cancelled, he was reduced to giving performances to 40 or 50 people at a time on a rented bus. Back then, Gilad Atzmon, an ex-Israeli, helped defend Dieudonné against the bogus charge of “antisemite”, and in the years since, he worked his way back up to become by far the most popular comedian in France. His success proves what Régis Debray once said, « Interdire, c’est répandre. » To forbid is to spread.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7x80ZkK77RY

“Dieudonné In Peace” is the name of his latest performance and tour. In that Youtube, he notes that the day before, the Minister of Culture got booed. He also says there will be a change of government, referring to the April/May 2017 elections. Dieudonné can rightfully claim that people watch his Youtube videos more than they watch French corporate media TV “news.”

Alain Soral, a dissident leader but not a humorist, put up a Youtube saying the November 13 attack n Paris was likely a false flag. 900,000 people have seen it in 3 months. His publishing house, Kontre Kulture, (link: http://www.kontrekulture.com). All 176 of the Kontre Kulture books are in French, although 28 are available in other languages from other publishers. So these dissidents are well-known and thriving, but only in France.

Let’s look at the larger picture in France.

The state persecution of Dieudonné, Soral, and a dozen others shows that there is no freedom of speech in France. Not theoretically, but in fact. And that was before the government passed the French version of America’s “Patriot” Act. The velvet glove is gone and the French public now see the iron fist. They are drawing conclusions about the nature of the society they live in, about their rulers, and about what they need to do in response. I have to note that the loss of freedoms in France is not so different as elsewhere in the states of the empire. Latvia, a NATO ally, is changing their constitution so that merely talking to a foreign news reporter will cost 3 years in prison on the first offense. Erdogan’s Turkey, another NATO “ally”, just pulled the plug on Zaman News and its 650,000 readers, the largest English-language news outlet in Turkey. Zama showed how the Turkish secret service, the MIT, was supplying weapons to ISIS, so Zaman is being shut down for “espionage.”

One thing above all else is required to make sense of all this. It’s absolutely essential to consider the sense of scale. Without that, nothing makes sense, but with it, all the disconnected “dots” form a coherent picture.

What’s at stake is not small policy adjustments the citizens want from their government, but something much larger. In France, it’s a contest for ownership of the nation, and both sides know it. There are still clueless people in the middle of course, but the pool of ignorance is shrinking. If the dissidents win, the elite will have to negotiate with the people for the first time since 1789, and citizens will have recovered some of their sovereignty. They want to get get back to having the prosperous republic of the “Glorious Thirty”, the 1945-1975 era before the French National Bank was given over to Rothschild control and private interest siphoned off the public wealth. (Not an exaggeration: Pompidou was a director of Banc Rothschild before he became French President in 1969 and changed the National Bank.)

If the dissidents lose, it’s prison for anyone who dares to speak out; the legal precedence is being set. So this is epic. It’s pointless to say things like “we are only partway through Act 1,” because there’s no telling how many acts this play will have.

In the long term, I’m pretty sure the French people will win, and the dissidents will have played a crucial role. My optimism is based on fundamentals. On one side of the contest are the truth, the facts, human values and a better future. On the other side are whopping big lies, censorship, subjugation and subservience , and a dismal future. It’s the masses of the people versus a small elite. This epic battle is also going on in other nations, but among the discontent European vassals of the empire, France is further along in its rebellion.

The American superstar economist, Michael Hudson, gave an extremely cogent description of the stakes in this interview, (your choice of transcript or audio): http://michael-hudson.com/2016/02/th...nding-heights/ Yes, Hudson is a superstar; he filled a stadium in Italy and the 77 year-old with suspenders isn’t a rock star.

This is a serious fight; since 2012, it has become more out in the open, and that’s why I’m optimistic. This debate is 102 years overdue, since that’s when the French “Socialist” Party stopped being socialist, and except for the Moscow-dominated French Commies, there was no opposition to the French elites. Since they came to power in 2012, the “Socialist” politicians have become incredibly arrogant and don’t even bother with “code words” or fig leaves anymore. Lots of people, myself included, would like to know if it's due to arrogance, overconfidence … or desperation. Prime Minister Valls said with tremendous anger that Dieudonné “must be put to death” and a minute later he added “put … to a social death.” That’s extremely polarizing language to use against a peaceful and congenial comedian. Madame Taubira, who recently resigned as Justice Minister, is African-French, from the French Caribbean. On TV, she said the slave trade was no big deal, just “forced labor” and implied the slaves were better off as slaves than, you know, running around free in Africa. It’s clear that this government will be swept away in May, 2017. But when you realize that Taubira just got promoted to a seat on the High Court, you can see this will be a long and hard-fought war.

Like any epic battle, it’s about the material conditions of life as much as freedom of speech. The French used to say their heart’s on the left and their wallet is on the right. But now, their wallets are being hit and that’s a game-changer. Stealing from the lower classes was standard for a long time, but at least two things have changed. One is that the economic system is itself morbidly dysfunctional, and now with the internet the dysfunctionality is widely known and explained. The culprits are known and have names.

Another part of the picture in France specifically, are the sanctions. US-imposed sanctions against Russian are wrecking havoc on Main Street France. In response, Russia has been forced to impose its own counter-sanctions. French farmers were selling 4 billion euros a year of produce to Russia, and that’s completely stopped. The resultant oversupply means that French produce prices are in free-fall and the real damage to the farmers is about 10 billion Euros. Farmers are going broke and becoming desperate. On a weekly basis, farmers are blocking highways in protest. The agriculture minister offered some 0.4 billion Euros in relief, so it’s a 1/10 th of a band-aid at best, and otherwise he just ignores the farmers.

Shipyards and the aerospace industry have lost customers because of these sanctions, but in reality they have lost their future markets. When Paris cancelled the sale of two custom-made warships for Russia, high-tech customers worldwide were warned off from buying French high-tech products because France became an unreliable vendor. No buyer ever wants to worry about being able to get spare parts and service in the years to come. India had agreed to buy 124 of France’s latest model jet fighter for 15 billion Euros, but India cancelled the purchase. Soon after, India announced a large purchase of Russian planes in a co-production deal. India later agreed to buy a token 12 French warplanes, but the damage was done and everyone knows it. When the dissidents explain that Washington and Israel plan to turn Europe into second-tier economies, the French understand it’s no exaggeration, and that they are the victims. The larger picture is that the empire sees a unified Eurasia market and 1.5 billion people as a colossus that threatens the empire – so it must be broken up. That means Europe’s best and most competitive industries must be made uncompetitive, and that economic ties between Europe and Russia must be permanently broken up. That was the point of Washington’s imposition of sanctions on their vassals in Europe. Among the French managerial class, the true purpose of the sanctions is well understood. But it can be career-ending to admit to knowing the truth. It’s a common phenomenon seen in other cultures, at other times in history. It’s just a matter of time before the obvious also becomes mentionable “in respectable circles.” When this truth finally becomes mentionable, it will go viral. And, it will have consequences that people have not yet considered … As a culture, the French are bigger on revenge than, say, the Italians. Come 2017, the French will taste some of that revenge. You will not see any of this in the 100% controlled media, but most people in France have some awareness of it by now. Also dimly recognizable in the fog of the information war, is that Russia and China want a strong and independent European industry as part of a huge “Lisbon to Shanghai” common market. The Russian side is getting its message out fairly well, I think, with many French language media sites. French and Russian cooperation has a long history. That friendship survived Napoleon’s invasion, after all.

Back to the big picture. A big U-turn seems to be in the works, but it’s important to recognize this is a short-term U-turn. What U-turn, you ask ?

Many of the most influential individuals behind the Empire, like Soros and Kissinger, are calling for dumping the sanctions against Russia, saying openly that the economic havoc is going to cause the fall of the French and German governments in the next elections. Fixing the damage from the sanctions can’t wait until the last minute. You can hear tires screeching on the pavement with the recent abrupt U-turn by Jean-Claude Juncker. The President of the European Commission (the power behind the European Council; both EC’s being the real but unelected EU power) that Ukraine won’t become an EU member for 20-25 years. Another analogy: it’s a bucket of ice-cold water on the Kiev Nazis. Europe will probably start to remove its sanctions as early as June, but that’s probably already too late to swing the elections. And … Russia is in no hurry to get rid of its counter-sanctions because the European sanctions were actually an opportunity for Russia to rebuild its industry with autarky – just like Iran did. Russia has said it won’t ask for the sanctions to be lifted, but after they are, then Russia will, on its own schedule of course, remove its counter-sanctions. It’s a standard principle that when the other side makes a serious error, you aren’t in a rush to help get them out of the mess they created.

Why the U-turn on the sanctions and Ukraine’s drive to join the EU ? It’s damage control in the face of at least two large failures.

First and most immediately, is to recognize the failure of the Ukraine gamble. American neocons gambled they could overthrow Ukraine’s elected government and then turn that nation of 43 million people into an instrument to threaten Russia, but the gamble has proven to be a colossal failure. Neocons in the US State Department expected the Nazis (real Nazis, Banderistas with an unbroken heritage from the massacres of the 1940’s) and the kleptocratic oligarchs to be puppets of a US leash while the US looted the place. After two years, Ukraine is bankrupt and on the verge of a humanitarian disaster. The military aggression against eastern Ukraine was defeated in the “cauldrons” of Ilovaisk (9/2014) and Debaltsevo (2/2015). In short, the failure of the Ukraine gamble is reason enough for the U turn.

But wait … there’s more ! The European Union itself is in a slow-motion economic collapse, and has been since 2008. Explaining that economic collapse would take far more space and time than we have here. Let me just note the essential point that this collapse has no quick solutions, and any real solution would require great changes in the world.

So the empire needs a U-turn. It needs to buy time to re-think its strategies, time to get its puppets reelected in the US (9-2016), France (5-2017), and Germany (fall 2017), and it needs time to continue its headlong flight (fuite en avant says it more precisely, and the highbrow English newspapers often use this French phrase.) There is no “fix” in sight for this crisis, anywhere on earth, but the empire is still able to buy time.

So we have to look beyond the U-turn and what’s coming up post 2017.

In France, the dissidents seem to be following the basic rules for building a resistance movement. While they have their “super stars”, they are also encouraging new leaders who can replace them, if the need arises. They are calling for people to have courage, and the people are responding. As I said, the government’s attempt to get rid of the dissident leaders has shown all the French people the iron fist under the velvet glove, and that is radicalizing the public. The regional branches of the dissidents have intelligent leaders and in the videos of the forums, you typically see a room of around 200 serious people who are in their 20’s and 30’s.

An American who is familiar with France and the dissidents cautioned me that my optimism isn’t warranted. In the short run of a few years, his caution is certainly accurate. But the longer run may be a different picture. When the US government went into WW2, it quickly realized it could not win a short war, so it prepared for a long war. Something similar is starting up in France. After years on the receiving end of state power and elite domination, they understand what they are up against. That’s why they are far ahead of Americans who don’t have a thriving dissident movement and who still hope against hope that some sort of “win” in the next election will make a big difference. The French know better than that.

Here’s what we know right now. The dissidents number perhaps 300,000 in a nation of 60 million, and the dissidents do not have an outlet in any political party. All the parties which pretend to be “on the left” are warmongers, on record as favoring all the wars of empire, including Libya, Syria, and former colonies you may not have heard of. The dissidents had a dalliance with the FN for many years. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of the FN back in the 1950’s, is the godfather of Dieudonné’s children. The 87 year-old man makes regular appearances on E&R, the main dissident site (http://www.egaliteetreconciliation.fr/). The dissidents pulled the plug on the FN, because Marine Le Pen, the new leader came to a strategic conclusion that the FN could only win the elections if the FN made accommodations with Israel. So she did the obligatory trip to Tel Aviv with all the kow-towing. That was more than the dissidents could accept, so they have taken a well-calculated distance from the new FN.

Overall, the dissidents are still at the stage of de-legitimizing the French establishment, and in that arena, they are successful. It’s the standard Gramsci prescription for the left. The problem, as always throughout history, is how to extend this success into a wider arena.

The dissidents are thorough in their work of de-legitimizing the elites. Ten billionaires own the mass media. Since before WW1, France has had a super-wealthy elite, and they are few in number. Collectively, the 60,000 Jewish supremacists in CRIF (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France) count as part of the ruling elite. Some of the Jews in CRIF count as individual oligarchs, too. The dissidents are careful to not target the 540,000 “everyday Jews” (Juifs quotidiens). When members of the JDL (Jewish Defense League, banned in the US and in Israel, but not in France) killed a French Arab for mere sport, and the ghettoes were on fire with angry mobs, the dissidents made the point of interviewing a French rabbi in his office, who went on record as saying this killing was not condoned nor supported by the Jewish community.

Something that surprised me, is that the dissidents also point the finger at the very top layer, the 33rd Degree, of the Freemasons. In the US, it seemed like only kooks mention the Freemasons. French dissidents have shown their evidence. Freemasonry has always been strongly anti-clerical. In 1738, a Papal encyclical banned Freemasonry but in France the Parliament refused to pass the law – because a majority of delegates were already Masons. Masonry and the “nobility of the robe” (judicial and other government offices became hereditary and a source of corrupt wealth) were shadowy forces behind the French Revolution. A hundred years later, Jules Ferry personified Masonic power; he was fiercely anticlerical. Ferry organized the colonial exploitation of North Africa so his claim to humanism is yet another lie. Parochial schools had been the norm, but as head of the Senate, Ferry passed a law to replace them with pubic schools, smashing the power of the local Catholic parishes. That was in the late 1800’s. More recently, the head of security for Sarkozy and his “minister without portfolio” (meaning he was superior to the other ministers because his portfolio included theirs as well), was also the head of one of the two big Masonic lodges in France. Wearing those two hats of government minister and head of a secret society is remarkable, and it’s remarkable that only the corporate French media never took notice of it.

In France in particular, there is also a religious angle. The Catholic church and Christianity in general, is under attack in many ways. Marriage is one of the seven Christian sacraments, and gay marriage is an attack on it. In 1992, there was a big conference that included the political parties, the French bishops, and even Alain Soral. Absolutely everybody was there and with only one exception, everyone wanted civil unions for gays to be legalized immediately. The lone holdout was the “Socialist” party. The “Socialists” need a carrot, even a fake orange plastic carrot, to put in front of the donkey. This Party hasn’t been socialist, hasn’t offered any socialist takeover of industries, etc., since the murder of Jean Jaurès on the eve of WW1. The Party does not offer anything on the economic front for its followers so it desperately needs “social issues” that don’t touch the power of the banksters. In fact the capitalists fully support these “social issues,” with the billionaire media oligarch, Pierre Bergé, as a poster child.

So what about the upcoming French elections ?

The “Socialist” government doesn’t have a chance to win the elections in April and May of 2017, based on all the polls. The more likely winner will be the Front National, the FN, and that would be something of a game-changer. Or it could be business as usual, with the UMP, rebranded in 2015 as Les Républicains, forming the new government.

While looking for the latest poll numbers, I saw this on a mainstream and thus anti-FN media site, from Dec. 2015. It quotes an Ipsos poll, also a mainstream outfit. The older the voters, the less they like the FN. 35% of 18-24 year-olds would vote for the FN, followed by 29% for the right and center parties, and only 21% for the “Socialists”.

The FN, the first party of France … among the youth (Le FN, premier parti de France… chez les jeunes)
http://www.franceinfo.fr/actu/politi...-jeunes-750209

Come election time, the real issue will be to get the supporters of either establishment parties out to vote. Abstention in the spring, 2014 nation-wide municipal elections and for the French delegation to the European Parliament showed record low levels of turnout. Voters showed their great displeasure with the PS, but were also unhappy with the other parties.

There is one similarity between France and the US. Things are shaping up as establishment versus the people. Here, the Republicrat apparatchiks are closing ranks to defeat Sanders or Trump. In France the UMPS Alternation already closed ranks to defeat the FN.

At the December 6, 2015 Regional elections, the FN was widely expected to win in at least two regions, but in fact the FN didn’t take a single one because on the second round of elections, the “right” and the “left” closed ranks to prevent it. That’s one lesson for the French, but it also gave us two other lessons. One is that the FN can’t yet win, even in their regional strongholds, so triumphalism would be greatly out of place. The other, though, is that the FN has once again increased its percentage of the overall vote, and this was fairly dramatic since European allegiances change slowly.

Conceivably, the right wing party could become more independent. Sarkozy, the CIA-raised agent, the former President of France, currently leads Les Républicains. However, he faces a primary election in November, 2016, and I believe he could lose the party leadership. Sarko L’Américain, as he’s called, isn’t too popular, in part because he’s seen as an American pawn, partly because his economic policies hurt France, and the economy is why voters kicked him out in 2012. As President, his notoriously thin skin and short height made him the butt of jokes and he responded poorly, even threatening to arrest the jokers. So there should be – but maybe won’t be – a battle inside the UMP to get a better candidate.

For the last 20-30 years, there has been what they call an “Alternation” between the PS ( “Socialist” Party) and the UMP, so the dissidents call it the UMPS, like the American duopoly, the Republicrats. I started to hope that either the UDI or the MoDem’s (centrist-right parties) might emerge because some of their leading people dissed the sanctions against Russia and were advocating that France have an independent foreign policy, not made in Washington. Unfortunately, they haven’t pulled ahead of the pack. THe UDI is the only one with enough popularity and that’s not much. The UDI has 29 out of 577 Deputies in the Parliament but a better showing in the Senate with 43 out of 348 Senators. The Greens, the EELV, have exactly 10 Deputies, and the EELV is very lame; it’s a long and sad story. No other party even has 10 Deputies, although the English leftie media is clogged with stories about nearly non-existent parties, such as Melenchon’s “Left Party” (Parti de Gauche, PG) with zero Deputies.

That’s about all I have to say.

Cosimo A.

[Hervé]

Meyssan awarded the “Quenelle d’or special”

Voltaire Network | 20 June 2017

français Español Türkçe italiano Português

Every year, the comedian Dieudonné awards prizes called “Quenelles d’or de la subversion”. The prize giving is a wild ceremony which takes place in the Parisian region before a wide audience (about a 1000 persons).

This prize had been created following a fruitless battle launched by the French government to silence the comedian.

On 17 June 2017, Dieudonné awarded a “Special Quenelle” to Thierry Meyssan for “the entirety of his work”. The recipient had recorded a video of acceptance at Damascus.

The President of the Voltaire Network France received the statuette in his absence.

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa

[Spiral]

Outstanding thread Hervé

What do you make of Macrons rocket like rise to power as an undeniable banksters stooge ?

[Hervé]

Posted by Spiral (here)
Outstanding thread Herve

What do you make of Macrons rocket like rise to power as an undeniable banksters stooge ?

Fueled by the banksters $$ and controlled by Tavistock well honed propaganda campaigns.

See this other thread: Former Soros associate: Wilders and Le Pen elected, then chaos in the EU and global markets

[A Voice from the Mountains]

It's been about 4 years, but look how many of these videos are gone now on the first page of this thread.

YouTube doesn't remove videos for simply being old. This gives an idea of how many videos YouTube has been purging over the past few years for ideological reasons.