Ça Chauffe! - Turmoil in France [Archive] - The Project Avalon Community Forum

Hervé

26th January 2016, 18:16

Prime Minister Valls Pledges Permanent State of Emergency in France (http://www.globalresearch.ca/prime-minister-valls-pledges-permanent-state-of-emergency-in-france/5503748)

By Stéphane Hugues (http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/stephane-hugues) and Alex Lantier (http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/alex-lantier)
Global Research, January 26, 2016
World Socialist Web Site (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/26/stem-j26.html)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/France-400x266.jpg

On Friday, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reaffirmed initial Socialist Party (PS) statements after the November 13 terror attacks in Paris carried out by the Islamist State (IS, or Daesh), that the current state of emergency in France must be made permanent.

In an interview with the BBC while attending the economic summit in Davos, Switzerland, Valls proclaimed that France is waging all-out war with IS. “As long as the threat is there, we must use all available means,” he said, adding that the state of emergency must stay in place “until we can get rid of Daesh”.

He continued,

“In Africa, in the Middle East, in Asia we must eradicate, eliminate Daesh, it is a total and global war that we face with terrorism. … We will have to live for decades or for many years with this menace or this threat and that’s why it’s a war. There are many generations that will have to live with this and the crisis will have to be managed in north Africa and the Middle East.” The implications of Valls’ statements are staggering. Like Egypt, now ruled as a military dictatorship by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a personal friend of President François Hollande, France is to be run under a permanent state of emergency lasting generations, perhaps forever. According to Valls’ statement, the French people have effectively lost fundamental social and democratic rights guaranteed to them by the French Constitution.

As if in a slow-motion coup d’état, the ruling elite is moving to transform political life in France, creating an authoritarian regime. Under the state of emergency, public protests are banned, there is no guarantee of freedom of the press or freedom of assembly, and no judicial oversight of arbitrary searches and seizures carried out by police. Already, the government banned protests against the COP21 ecological summit in Paris after the November 13 attacks and put the organizers under house arrest.

Police can enter anyone’s house, search without warrants, and arrest people on mere suspicion that they are a threat to public order. The state has sentenced Goodyear workers to prison for striking and struggling to defend their jobs, even after Goodyear itself dropped all charges against them.

The arguments provided by Valls to justify the indefinite suspension of democratic rights are a pack of lies. IS (Daesh) is not an unstoppable foe that poses an existential threat to the French Republic and to the French people, leaving the French state no choice but to suspend democratic rights in order to safeguard the very survival of the French people.

IS is, in fact, a political asset of the ruling class of France and of all the major NATO countries. It is a militia operating in Iraq and Syria, financed and backed by key French allies in the Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey, as part of the regime change operation to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

This organisation emerged from wars launched under Hollande’s predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, who played a central role in pressing for a war, ultimately led by all the NATO powers, against Libya. The NATO powers, led by the United States, France and Britain, encouraged Islamist fighters to come to Libya to act as proxy ground forces whilst they provided aerial bombardments. Many of these Islamist forces were then dispatched from Libya to Syria, as the spearhead of the NATO war for regime in Syria.

Valls’ claim that France and its allies are engaged in total, global war with IS does not hold water. Rather, IS and the reactionary attacks it has carried out in France are being invoked as a pretext to push through vast attacks.

As late as last year, Hollande insisted that France would only attack IS in Iraq—where Paris had joined Washington in bombing IS in 2013 to prevent IS from toppling the US puppet regime in Baghdad—so as to avoid weakening opposition to Assad by attacking IS in Syria.

In his February 5, 2015 press conference after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Hollande explained that France would not bomb IS forces in Syria, but only Iraq. He said, “It is in Iraq that we direct our efforts. Why? Because it is in Iraq that there is a state, sovereignty, and army that can struggle against IS and ensure the reconquest of lost territory.”

That is, Hollande was willing to shield and rely upon IS as a tool of various twists and turns of French and NATO policy against Assad. When IS emerges as a domestic policy issue, however, the PS suddenly insists France is engaged in an all-out war on IS in which no democratic right can be allowed to stand in the way of the assertion of state power.

The claim that the assault on democratic rights is primarily a response to the IS’ terror attacks is a political fraud. This assault is the response of the French ruling class to the worsening class and geo-strategic contradictions of international capitalism, preparing above all for war against the working class.

As a presidential candidate, Hollande said his enemy was “finance”, but once in power, he has pushed for austerity and war on every front. While collaborating with German Chancellor Angela Merkel to impose deeper austerity on the Greek people, he launched wars across Africa and the Middle East and worked closely with the Obama administration to threaten Russia. Social inequality is reaching explosive levels, and Hollande had to admit last year that France now found itself on the brink of “total war” with Russia.

Besides the danger of a major international war waged with nuclear weapons, Hollande fears social anger developing in the working class under conditions where the PS and its political and trade union satellites are thoroughly discredited. The response of the PS has been to dub Hollande a “war president” and a conscious turn towards military and authoritarian forms of rule within France.

During the French invasion of Mali in 2013, French presidential advisors at the Elysée told Le Point that they were hoping for a “Falklands effect.” While the war was presented to the public as part of a struggle against Islamist terrorism, the PS’ main concern was to shift official public opinion far to the right, so as to be able to impose a drastic austerity program.

Pointing to the similarities between the Falkland Island (Malvinas) war and French imperialism’s wars today, Le Point journalist Anna Cabana wrote:

“When the Argentine troops landed on the Falklands in 1982, Margaret Thatcher decided to reply militarily. The Iron Lady [Margaret Thatcher], deeply unpopular at the time due to her drastic free-market reform policies, embarked Britain on a military adventure that ensured her re-election in 1983.” The PS’ incendiary and politically criminal policy of launching wars of aggression in an attempt to anti-democratically impose anti-working class policies at home has failed, however. The looting of much of Africa and the Middle East did not make PS austerity any more popular, and social and international tensions have only grown since 2013.

Unable to win over the masses of working people, the French ruling class is preparing to stake everything on a ruthless attempt to repress them.

The original source of this article is World Socialist Web Site (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/26/stem-j26.html)
Copyright © Stéphane Hugues (http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/stephane-hugues) and Alex Lantier (http://www.globalresearch.ca/author/alex-lantier), World Socialist Web Site (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/26/stem-j26.html), 2016

Hervé

26th January 2016, 18:57

Belgian security was aware of Paris attackers’ terror cell since 2012 - report (https://www.rt.com/news/330165-belgium-aware-paris-attack/)

Published time: 26 Jan, 2016 12:46

https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.01/original/56a76437c3618816768b4572.jpg
Belgian special forces © Reuters

Belgian security services knew about the terrorist cell responsible for the fatal Paris attacks in November 2015 for over three years, local paper reports.

Brussels-based Het Laatste Nieuws (HLN) newspaper claims (http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/957/Binnenland/article/detail/2596155/2016/01/26/Belgie-kent-terreurcel-Parijs-al-vier-jaar.dhtml) to have come in possession of a security service paper dating April 2012, which indicated some suspicious activity in an apartment in the Brussels district of Molenbeek.

The officers recorded residents discussing possible attacks against Western democracy and ways to acquire explosives and weapons. The cell members also traveled to Syria several times, the paper says.

The apartment belonged to Gelel Attar, currently in detention over suspicion of being directly involved in Paris terror attacks on November 13 last year.

Attar was considered to be the right hand of recruiter Khalid Zerkani, who sent two other Paris attackers to Syria, including the assault’s coordinator Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Zerkani is reported to have been present at the Molenbeek apartment meetings in 2012, however Belgian security hesitated to arrest him as it would result in shutting down Zerkani’s network, HLN says.

Attar, a Belgian of Moroccan origin, was apprehended in the town of Mohammedia near Casablanca, Morocco, on January 15, after traveling through Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, media report.

The alleged Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) member was detained on an international arrest warrant, issued after he was convicted in absentia last year and sentenced to five years of prison for participation in the activities of a terrorist group by Belgian court, Eric Van Der Sypt, a spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor, said as cited by local media. However he expressed doubt that Attar will be extradited to Belgium, as Morocco does not normally surrender its nationals.

READ MORE:
Morocco arrests Belgian national 'linked directly' to Paris attackers (https://www.rt.com/news/329316-morocco-arrests-paris-attacks/)
French national Salim Benghalem could be the real mastermind behind Paris attacks (https://www.rt.com/news/330098-salim-benghalem-paris-attacks/)

Tangri

26th January 2016, 23:25

[QUOTE=Hervé;1041033].

What did you do this time to get early retirement Flash?

DeDukshyn

26th January 2016, 23:39

What did you do this time to get early retirement Flash?

Mod action notice thread indicates "retired at her request". I've no idea what happened, and a tad bit surprised ... c'est la vie.

Tangri

26th January 2016, 23:48

What did you do this time to get early retirement Flash?

Mod action notice thread indicates "retired at her request". I've no idea what happened, and a tad bit surprised ... c'est la vie.

Thank you, I saw it .

Probably she was upset that, there was no women at the demonstration.
Here her last words before retirement

" t truly feels like a war zone, those migrants throwing stones to truck drivers and stopping any possible trafic on the highway. This is scary stuff. No women there by the way."

Here the life

Ewan

27th January 2016, 10:23

Related material.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FITkN0hn3wY

Violet

27th January 2016, 11:35

Is there any translation that anyone knows of, of the angry Hungarian trucker's rant?

Michael Moewes

27th January 2016, 20:35

Ça cest typique pour les Parisiens. They prefer to strike and riot instead of working. ;) Just kidding. but I've lived there and the situation is critique. take it with humor and love is the only way. (Y)

Hervé

27th January 2016, 21:35

France justice minister quits over terrorism bill (http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/01/27/447593/France-Christiane-Taubira-Manuel-Valls-Paris-/)

Wed Jan 27, 2016 4:54PM

http://www.sott.net/image/s14/298278/large/f7fba20d_4212_42e7_8ac7_0347e4.jpg

France’s outgoing Justice Minister Christiane Taubira

The French justice minister has stepped down in protest at the government’s controversial plan to strip convicted French-born terrorists of their citizenship if they have a second nationality.

Christiane Taubira announced her resignation in a tweet on Wednesday, saying, "Sometimes to resist means staying, sometimes resisting means leaving.”

The minister from French Guiana became France's most senior black politician when she was named to the portfolio in 2012.

Taubira's resignation came just hours before a parliament commission debate on the contentious proposal, including a range of measures for convicted terrorists that would go from depriving them of the right to vote and the right to become a civil servant, to revoking their citizenship.

French President Francois Hollande called for the measures to be written into the constitution after terror attacks in and around the French capital city of Paris on November 15, 2015. Some 130 people lost their lives and 350 others were injured in the assaults claimed by Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

http://www.presstv.ir/photo/20160127/fe74adbd-4717-40e4-b47a-c2d927a3c5b6.jpgPresenting the bill, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reassured that France would respect its obligations under international law preventing people from becoming stateless.

Taubira had criticized the plan, calling it discriminatory and useless in preventing the radicalization of French citizens.

Jean-Jacques Urvoas, the president of parliamentary committee in charge of reviewing the legislation, was named as the new justice minister.

Following the Paris attacks, France has been under a state of emergency, giving authorities extra powers to keep people in their homes without trial and search houses without judicial approval.

Hervé

28th January 2016, 16:48

Angry farmers wreak havoc in French motorways over low EU agro-prices (https://www.rt.com/in-motion/330475-french-farmers-block-roads/)

Published time: 28 Jan, 2016 15:34

See video here (https://www.rt.com/in-motion/330475-french-farmers-block-roads/) <---

COURTESY: RT's RUPTLY video agency, NO RE-UPLOAD, NO REUSE - FOR LICENSING, PLEASE, CONTACT http://ruptly.tv (http://ruptly.tv/)

Hundreds of farmers blocked several key roads near the cities of Le Mans and Rennes in protest against the falling price of EU agricultural products. The protesters burned tires and blocked the roads with tractors and other agricultural vehicles.

Hervé

29th January 2016, 03:21

...

Next False Flag: Tunisia?

Staff at Paris airport angry after finding fake bombs ordered by American embassy (http://www.thejournal.ie/paris-staff-angry-at-fake-bomb-discovery-2571299-Jan2016/?utm_source=shortlink)

19 hours ago

The exercise was called “irresponsible”.

http://c1.thejournal.ie/media/2016/01/france-pilots-strike-5-390x285.jpg
Air France planes at Charles De Gaulle.Image: AP/Press Association Images

A SECURITY EXERCISE gone wrong saw tempers flare in a Paris airport, after fake explosive devices were discovered by FedEx workers in a ripped package, sources told AFP.

Employees of the American courier service at Charles de Gaulle airport were shocked to find a pressure cooker filled with nuts and bolts inside a package in transit from the US to Tunisia.

On further inspection they discovered a container of other similar devices, along with what appeared to be detonators, said Frederic Petit, who represents the company’s employees for the CGT union.

The staff alerted authorities of “imminent danger,” and officials arrived to test the device using sniffer dogs and X-ray machines.

A security source at the airport said the devices were actually decoys bound for the US embassy in Tunisia that were being used for a training exercise.

“This type of delivery is not common, but sometimes takes place,” the source told AFP. “This is just the first time that a package has been opened.”

But Petit slammed the exercise as “irresponsible,” given the heightened security concerns since the Paris attacks in November, when jihadists killed 130 people.

“Nobody was aware of this cargo,” he said, adding that FedEx employees want to see such parcels banned from transit through France.

==============================

Hmmm... "fake" bombs with real pressure cookers filled with real nuts and real bolts... en route to an American embassy in Tunisia... I guess they needed some "Made-in-somewhere" pressure cookers for their next False Flag?

Hervé

31st January 2016, 13:53

Thousands [20,000] march to protest state of emergency in France (https://www.rt.com/news/330762-protest-emergency-citizenship-paris/)

Published time: 31 Jan, 2016 10:59
Edited time: 31 Jan, 2016 11:16

http://www.sott.net/image/s14/299057/full/56adcf4cc46188ee648b45a3.jpg
© Ruptly

Thousands of people marched in 70 French cities, including Paris, to demand immediate action to stop France's ongoing state of emergency and openly voice outrage over government plans to revoke the French citizenship of dual nationals, many of them Muslims, convicted of terrorism.

Up to 20,000 protesters – many of them members of human rights groups, political parties and trade unions – took part in a peaceful protest in Paris on Saturday, RTL (http://www.rtl.fr/actu/societe-faits-divers/20-000-personnes-defilent-contre-l-etat-d-urgence-a-paris-7781627318) reported the organizers as saying.

According to police estimates, some 5,500 people gathered in the heart of the French capital, between Place de la République and the Palais-Royal, holding banners that read: “State of emergency, police state” and "My France of liberties, where are you?"

7-lpUSBDZNU
"I am here to protest against the state of emergency and against the deprivation of nationality for dual nationals. That's important because we saw a lot of drifts during the state of emergency, some rallies were prohibited, some people were arrested just for protesting peacefully. That shocks me," one activist told RT's Ruptly video agency.

"The state is allowing itself to take absolutely catastrophic decisions for the life and future of liberty of France," Youssef Boussoumah, member of the Indigenes de la Republique party, said.

One woman at the Paris rally, referring to Islamic State, told RTL: “The state of emergency is until when? The end of Daesh? 10 years? Never?”

Another participant, Grenut Louise, a student, told Le Monde (http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2016/01/31/manifestation-contre-l-etat-d-urgence-ce-n-est-pas-tous-les-jours-qu-on-touche-a-notre-constitution_4856665_3224.html):"They impose this state of emergency on us by pure political calculation, the government has no other card to play, except for the security-related one.”

“It is cynical to play on our fears to impose this state of permanent exception when we already have laws and means to fight terrorism," she added.

The state of emergency was meant to be used “in the worst moments of our history,” another protester, Adrien, and his girlfriend, Valentine, told the French daily, adding that this makes it an additional reason to protest against the measure's renewal.

"Democracy is moving backwards ... at the expense of judges and the rule of law, freedom to demonstrate and [freedom] of expression," Jean-Baptiste Eyrault, of the Right to Housing movement, told AP.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/481800682970689537/_OqTeWVS_bigger.jpeg elena comelli ‏@elencomelli (https://twitter.com/elencomelli)

Non à l'#EtatdUrgence (https://twitter.com/hashtag/EtatdUrgence?src=hash)! Nous ne sommes PAS en guerre! #TousBinationaux (https://twitter.com/hashtag/TousBinationaux?src=hash) #Republique (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Republique?src=hash) #Paris (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Paris?src=hash)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZ--HHbWEAAByCm.jpg

Green party lawmaker Noel Mamere, who also took part in the protest, reportedly noted that the state of emergency eventually gives rise to "a society under surveillance."

Up to 3,000 people took part in a similar protest in Bordeaux, the organizers said; 1,800 in Toulouse (1,300 according to police); 1,000 in Nantes (800 according to police), AFP reported. Demonstrations also reportedly occurred in Strasbourg, Auxerre, Bayonne, Metz, Nancy, Nice, Nimes, Montpellier, Limoges, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne and Montauban.

Meanwhile, according to the latest poll for Atlantico (http://www.atlantico.fr/decryptage/79-pourcents-francais-favorables-prolongation-etat-urgence-jerome-fourquet-2568017.html), as many as 79 percent of French people support the prolongation of the state of emergency for three more months.

A report published by two French senators, Alain Fouche and Francois Bonhomme, earlier this month revealed their fears that Islamist jihadists could blend in with the homeless population on the Paris metro to carry out terrorist attacks on the French capital’s transport system.

"Terrorists can get in by blending with the homeless people who sleep in the metro at night, then seize the opportunity to carry out any number of attacks," they wrote, France Bleu (https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/transports/terrorisme-deux-senateurs-demandent-une-meilleure-securite-de-nuit-dans-le-metro-1452797464) reported.

On Wednesday, the Cabinet plans to review a measure to prolong the state of emergency, imposed in France after the November 13 Paris attacks in which Islamic State militants killed 130 people and injured 350 more. Last week, a French high court upheld the measure, saying the danger is “still there.”

The state of emergency gives more power to police and administrative authorities, allowing house arrest and searches without warrants, along with other measures. The current state of emergency runs until February 26.

Opponents of another controversial plan – to revoke citizenship for dual nationals convicted of terrorism – said the move would only boost racism. “It's a racist measure which tells us that some [people] are more French that others,” one protester told RTL.

Many dual nationals are Muslims, who say they have been recently made the scapegoats for IS attacks.

Earlier this week, French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, an outspoken critic of government plans to strip French nationality from dual-citizens convicted of terrorism, resigned. Shortly after her resignation was announced, Taubira wrote on Twitter: "Sometimes you remain in place to resist. Sometimes resisting means you go. Out of loyalty to oneself, to us. For the last word in ethics and law.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/557242395948236801/kGaxuPJA_bigger.jpeg Christiane Taubira Verified account ‏@ChTaubira (https://twitter.com/ChTaubira)

Parfois résister c'est rester, parfois résister c'est partir. Par fidélité à soi, à nous. Pour le dernier mot à l'éthique et au droit. ChT
She told iTele (http://www.itele.fr/chroniques/invite-politique-ferrari-tirs-croises/christiane-taubira-pense-toujours-que-la-decheance-de-nationalite-nest-pas-souhaitable-pour-les-binationaux-149275)news channel in early January that she was strongly against plans to revoke the French citizenship of dual nationals, saying it's “not desirable.”

Related:
20 arrested in French taxi driver, air traffic controller, teacher protests (PHOTOS, VIDEOS) (https://www.rt.com/news/330156-france-protests-taxi-workers/)

Calz

31st January 2016, 16:19

I appreciate those PA members from Europe posting about what is happening.

Serious stuff.

Mainstream in amerika won't touch it and alternative is all over the map.

It will be here soon enough ... open borders, government bussing immigrants deep into the country and (allegedly ... albeit with private vid evidence) UPS flying in undocumented people with no checks whatsoever)

I expect it will be more of a "big event" here as "they" position all the players into place.

Already have the UN pieces after the Jade Helm AI march to dominating the human domain ...

Violet

31st January 2016, 18:26

More news not reported: the effect of the refugee crisis on the settled migrants from earlier generations.

Violet

1st February 2016, 07:56

First plane has departed from Zaventem taking back 100 asylum seekers to Iraq, by their own volition. Apparently they miscalculated the Eldorado of Europe and Belgium*, says the Minister for Asylum and Migration, Mr. Francken.

Yes, Mr. Francken, this is truly an accomplishment, that we, the one and only civilised party in this story, have brought people who were seeking refuge from the terror of war thusfar that they will now accept a return to the same situation they fled but came to deem better than what we could offer them according to our much-prided humanitarian values. Bravo, Monsieur le Ministre!

*Literal translation: They are disappointed in El Dorado Europe en Belgium as the land of milk and honey.
Original article: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/binnenland/2.40548?eid=1.2561468

Hervé

1st February 2016, 15:17

‘Wrong' Maidan: Ukraine demands that France’s Canal+ TV take hard-hitting documentary off air (https://www.rt.com/news/330836-ukraine-france-maidan-documentary/)
(https://www.rt.com/news/330836-ukraine-france-maidan-documentary/)
Published time: 1 Feb, 2016 08:26
Edited time: 1 Feb, 2016 10:40

https://img.rt.com/files/2016.02/original/56af003ac3618851458b45ed.jpg
Police officers and opposition supporters are seen on Maidan Nezalezhnosti square in Kiev, where clashes began between protesters and the police, February 19, 2014. © Andrey Stenin / Sputnik

Ukraine’s authorities have urged a French broadcaster to take a documentary titled “Masks of Revolution” off the air. They claim the movie misrepresents Maidan events, and have a list of their own suggestions for what needs to be shown.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in their facebook statement went as far as to urge Canal+ TV to overhaul their editorial policy.

The film is scheduled to be shown on February 1.

“Paul Moreira strips the masks of modern-day Ukraine and carries out an investigation on the firing line of the new 'Cold War' between the East and the West,” the synopsis posted on the Canal+ website reads.

The film is a special investigation carried out by Paul Moreira, which covers the events in Ukraine over 2014: the far-right radical groups allegedly backed by the US, as well as the deadly violence in the southern Ukrainian town of Odessa.

Ukrainian authorities say that Moreira’s Masks of Revolution is “deception” and not an example of “media pluralism,” as it provides a “misrepresented view on the situation in Ukraine.”

"The version of events in the Ukraine offered in the film is pleasing to the ears of conspiracy theories’ supporters and of pro-Russian propagandists. This pamphlet is a documentary made in the worst tradition of misinformation,” the statement adds.

The diplomats went on to urge Canal+ “to reconsider the possibility of airing the film on TV.”

Also, the embassy gave a list of suggestions about what the French broadcaster should show about 2014 Maidan events, “hoping that one day these movies will be presented on Canal +”

The filmmaker, Paul Moreira, has responded (https://blogs.mediapart.fr/paul-moreira/blog/300116/ukraine-les-masques-de-la-revolution-reponse-aux-critiques) to the accusations, saying his film was “contrary to the commonly accepted narrative” but the reaction still shocked him.

“I knew I was going to meet a strong opposition, would be accused of playing into the hands of Putin, of using elements of propaganda. I didn’t expect to meet such denial, bordering on hysteria… I was called a ‘terrorist’ in the pay of the Russian secret services. [They are] urging that the film be banned.

“Even the Ukrainian ambassador pressured Canal Plus. That is what surprises me the most. For it seems to me that Ukraine must urgently raise the question of these paramilitary groups. They are, as stated in the film, the greatest threat to Ukrainian democracy.”

PurpleLama

1st February 2016, 22:52

Yes, let's practice persecution to the point of causing even the most moderate amongst us to by pushed past the point of becoming radicalized. Then we can easily justify furthering our police powers, so the elites we serve can feel more secure while driving the rest of society to live in fear. Pshaw!

Violet

3rd February 2016, 07:24

Do not feed the pigeons, erm, sorry, I mean the refugees:

http://i64.tinypic.com/34rcfhw.png (http://images.vrt.be/canvas_2015_fit_2560x1440_j75/2016/02/02/f7364b6e-c9f1-11e5-a51e-00163edf48dd.jpg)

Copyright poster: De Ideale Wereld
I don't know if the quote itself has been copyrighted yet; source just in case, governor Decaluwé of West Flanders.

And full text in Dutch (kindly run machine translator for English): http://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20160201_02102837

Hervé

10th February 2016, 19:07

Scared of Truth? France Begins Crackdown on Conspiracy Theories (http://sputniknews.com/art_living/20160209/1034463274/france-crackdown-conspiracy-theories.html)

Sputnik (http://sputniknews.com/art_living/20160209/1034463274/france-crackdown-conspiracy-theories.html) Wed, 17:53 09.02.2016
(updated 17:54 09.02.2016)

http://www.sott.net/image/s15/301212/large/1033853928.jpg
© REUTERS/ Charles Platiau

As more and more French youth are getting hooked on various conspiracy theories, the French Ministry of Education plans to organize a special meeting and bring together 300 teachers, researchers, psychologists and students, Le Figaro reported.

According to the research company Ipsos, one in five among young French citizens believes and supports conspiracy theories (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2015/03/02/01016-20150302ARTFIG00391-ce-site-qui-traque-les-conspirationnistes.php?redirect_premium), which became ever so popular as of recent, especially after last year's Paris terrorist attacks. To combat the spread of disinformation and sometimes outright lunacy, which a few conspiracy theories bring to the table, French Minister of Education Najat Vallaud-Belkacem decided to gather students and educators in a meeting on February 9 and discuss how one could distinguish real and verifiable information from various kinds of unprovable information that many conspiracy theories present.

"Easy access to Internet and a variety of content sources create confusion and it's sometimes difficult to distinguish right from wrong and to exercise critical judgement," Vallaud-Belkacem said, as quoted by Le Figaro (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2016/02/09/01016-20160209ARTFIG00014-l-education-nationale-cherche-la-parade-contre-les-theories-du-complot.php#xtor=AL-201).

After the November 13 terrorist attack in Paris a series of conspiracy theories, which deny the official version of the events and provide their own alternative explanations for what happened, appeared online and quickly became popular among many young French citizens.

There are two kinds of major theories that emerged on the Internet about the Paris attacks (http://sputniknews.com/search/?query=paris+attacks). The first kind of conspiracy theory accuses the French government of orchestrating the attacks. By doing so the government allegedly seeks to tighten security measures, justify the declaration of the state of emergency and carry out a series of anti-Islamic and anti-immigration policies.

The second type of theory is based on the idea that the world is controlled by a tight group of Jewish elites, centered in New York City, Jerusalem and some European capitals, who have their hands on the entire global economy and politics. These theories claim that this secret "Judeo-Masonic" group organized the Paris terrorist attacks for their own benefit.

Related:
Over 30% of French Citizens Fear Int'l Terrorism After Paris Attacks (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160129/1033948297/poll-france-attacks-terrorism.html)
Anti-Assad Conspiracy: Western Fingerprints All Over Syrian Civil War (http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151003/1027969671/assad-us-syria-chemical-weapons.html)
French Media Reveals Conspiracy Theories Over Deadly Paris Attacks (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20151129/1030958701/paris-attacks-conspiracy-theories.html)
New 9/11 Conspiracy? NSA Whistleblowers say Agency Kept Tabs on Attackers (http://sputniknews.com/us/20150803/1025362731.html)
ISIL Complains Recruitment Down Due to ‘Conspiracy Theories’ (http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20150523/1022476385.html)

==================================

I wonder how Najit is going to handle this one:

Now, here is for a most bizarre one:

French police faced with a disturbing lack of evidence after 7-hour firefight in Saint-Denis (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-attacks-no-assault-weapons-found-in-saint-denis-raid-after-police-report-heavy-fire-a6745686.html)

Samuel Osborne The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-attacks-no-assault-weapons-found-in-saint-denis-raid-after-police-report-heavy-fire-a6745686.html) Tue, 24 Nov 2015 01:12 UTC

[...]

... No traces of Kalashnikov rifles or other automatic weapons were recovered in the Saint-Denis flat where police engaged in a seven-hour gunfight with three terror suspects last Wednesday.

Having sifted the rubble and passed it through metal detectors, police were perplexed to find only one handgun, French radio network RTL reported (http://www.rtl.fr/actu/societe-faits-divers/assaut-a-saint-denis-aucune-arme-d-assaut-retrouvee-dans-l-appartement-des-terroristes-7780603005). Forensic scientists found a 9mm pistol and a dozen cartridges, along with fragments of an explosive vest filled with bolts. However, police reported coming under consistent gunfire during the assault, saying they fired 5,000 rounds in retort.

KZ3inuOMgNQ
[^^^ That's only 13 minutes of that sh*t... 7 hours of it!]

"We came under heavy fire, and were up against true professionals," Jean-Michel Fauvergue, head of the elite anti-terrorist force Raid, which led the assault, told Le Parisien.

"They took turns to fire in bursts or single shots, so there was no break in their shooting." [...]

========================================

Going along the idea of a "cleanup" of the St Denis apartment, there is another one for the apartment of the woman (Hasna Aït Boulahcen (http://www.lesoir.be/1049661/article/actualite/fil-info/fil-info-monde/2015-11-20/attentat-paris-hasna-ait-boulhacen-n-est-pas-morte-en-kamikaze-dire)) who died at said apartment and reported here (http://www.msn.com/fr-fr/actualite/attentats-a-paris/des-complices-auraient-nettoy%C3%A9-l%E2%80%99appartement-de-hasna-a%C3%AFt-boulahcen-avant-la-venue-de-la-police/ar-BBnhay4?li=BBiqy8E&ocid=mailsignoutmd) <--- mentioning that near a dozen individuals showed up to "cleanup" Hasna's apartment at her mother's place.

Also reported somewhere I don't recall now, is that, of the alleged 5,000 rounds fired, only 500 were recovered along with SWAT team shields exhibiting that bullets were shot at them from the inside... not from outside...

avid

10th February 2016, 19:49

The truth will out.......

Hervé

12th February 2016, 15:05

800 Greek farmers storm Agriculture Ministry in Athens, police fire tear gas (VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/332243-athens-farmers-clash-police/)

Published time: 12 Feb, 2016 09:40
Edited time: 12 Feb, 2016 11:22
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/74cz)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ca_29GEWEAEuB4p.png
Greek farmers from the region of Crete clash with police during a protest against planned pension reforms outside the Agriculture ministry in Athens, Greece, February 12, 2016.

(see videos at: https://www.rt.com/news/332243-athens-farmers-clash-police/)

Police in Athens have used tear gas to disperse a rally of farmers protesting pension austerity measures as they pelted the Agriculture Ministry with stones. A larger protest demonstration is due to start later Friday.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s formerly left-wing government plans to raise pension contributions and taxes to deal with Greece’s budget deficit. Farmers from across the country flocked to the capital to voice their outrage at the moves.

About 800 farmers from Crete "attempted to push the police in front of the [Agriculture] Ministry's entrance. The police used tear gas to stop them," a law enforcement official said.

They smashed windows with stones before the police pushed them away.

Last week, the police and protesters clashed in front of Syntagma Square in Athens during a general strike. Some youths threw stones and petrol bombs as officers responded with stun grenades and tear gas.

The general strike was declared as part of a larger protest movement against the pension austerity measures.

The Greek government hopes to secure the third round of an international bailout by accepting further cuts and tax hikes demanded by international creditors. The cuts to pensions would be the 11th imposed since 2010.

READ MORE:
Tear gas, Molotov cocktails deployed during general strike in Greece (VIDEOS, PHOTOS) (https://www.rt.com/news/331265-greece-tear-gas-protet/)

Hervé

16th February 2016, 17:21

French farmers protest at prices driven down by Russia sanctions (LIVE) (https://www.rt.com/news/332638-paris-farmers-protest-fire/)

Published time: 16 Feb, 2016 15:43
Edited time: 16 Feb, 2016 17:09
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/74ny)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/3455849932/cd367d8f49d9f5b9fa49fc7477edc003_bigger.jpeg Yann Plantier ‏@Yann_Plantier (https://twitter.com/Yann_Plantier)

Des agriculteurs manifestent en ce moment à Montreuil devant l'ASP. @itele (https://twitter.com/itele)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbWOEODWIAANHuG.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbWOEOfW4AEOLhF.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbWOEO1W8AA8khU.jpg

7:49 AM - 16 Feb 2016

A protest by French farmers is taking place in Paris. Large crowds have gathered to decry the low prices of agricultural produce. Prices are being driven down by the sanctions exchange with Russia, which has caused domestic produce to flood the French market.

RT France (https://francais.rt.com/) is feeding video of the protest through Periscope.

The protest started near the Gare de Lyon railway station, but then moved to the Porte de Vincennes - one of the city gates in Paris.

There are police and fire brigades on the scene, who are ready to intervene, but for the moment, they are standing their ground.

Hundreds of egg crates were fed into a wood cutter, which sprayed them towards a building. Over 100 demonstrators at the spot are waving flags.

Protesters have built make-shift barricades out of straw and have covered the street with shreds of newspaper that they promise to set on fire.

An EU flag was ripped from the building before being buried under a mixture of hay and egg box cuttings, to symbolize the farmer’s opinion of the bloc.

“We have asked the Ministry of Agriculture to hear our arguments, but we are never listened to. That is why we have had to take to the streets of Paris in order to show our grievances,” a farmer who is taking part in the demonstration told an RT France reporter at the scene.

A similar rally against the low prices is taking place in Montreuil, a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris.

The farmers are angry that supermarkets in the country are buying their products at prices which are so low they are unable to make a profit, and are demanding that prices be raised.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/690632183720058881/dR4U_rG6_bigger.jpg Florian ‏@ourgl (https://twitter.com/ourgl)

Manif a montreuil #agriculteurs (https://twitter.com/hashtag/agriculteurs?src=hash)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbWPJN-W8AAtI5j.jpg

7:53 AM - 16 Feb 2016

The protest in the French capital follows similar disturbances on Monday in the north and west of the country. The farmers are demanding an end to EU-imposed sanctions against Russia, which they say are destroying their businesses due to rock-bottom prices, especially for pork and dairy products.

Hervé

17th February 2016, 13:43

France Extends State of Emergency for Three Months - Reports (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160217/1034876984/paris-attacks-emergency.html)

Sputnik (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160217/1034876984/paris-attacks-emergency.html), 05:01 17.02.2016

http://www.sott.net/image/s15/302616/large/1033988623.jpg
© REUTERS/ Philippe Wojazer

The French parliament voted on Tuesday to extend the state of emergency in the country, introduced following the November deadly terror attacks in Paris, for another three months, local media reported.

PARIS (Sputnik) — According to the French BFMTV news channel, 212 lawmakers of the French parliament's lower chamber, the National Assembly, supported the Interior Ministry's draft law on the measures extension up to May 26.

Last week, the upper house of the French Parliament, the Senate, voted for the three-month extension.

On November 13, a series of terrorist attacks across Paris left at least 130 people dead. The Daesh terrorist group, outlawed in Russia and many other countries, claimed responsibility for the tragedy. Following the attacks, a state of emergency was announced in France for three months, and was due to expire on February 26. The government has argued in favor of prolonging the state of emergency as it believes that the threat of terror attacks persists in the country.

Hervé

18th February 2016, 02:31

Is there any translation that anyone knows of, of the angry Hungarian trucker's rant?

Found it as a torrent download here: https://kat.cr/angry-hungarian-truck-driver-vs-migrants-eng-subtitles-mp4-t12097008.html

Hervé

24th February 2016, 14:40

Belgium suspends Schengen in fears of Calais ‘Jungle’ chaos (https://www.rt.com/news/333416-belgium-suspends-schengen-refugees/)

Published time: 24 Feb, 2016 02:13
Edited time: 24 Feb, 2016 13:40

https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.02/original/56ccf777c4618835798b4611.jpg
© Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters

Belgium has temporarily abandoned Schengen rules that allow passport-free travel between some of the EU’s internal borders, as it tries to keep the potential migration flow from France under control.

Belgium’s Interior Minister, Jan Jambon, announced on Tuesday that the decision comes as France is looking into the option of evacuating the Calais “Jungle” refugee camp, which houses around 4,000 people. It is feared the move could trigger a new wave of migrants streaming out of the port city in northern France.

“We have informed the European Commission that we will temporarily depart from Schengen rules,” Jambon said at a press conference in Brussels. The announcement will come into effect on Wednesday.

The Schengen agreement allows ID-free travel between the 26 European countries that are party to it.

Belgium also said it will be increasing the police presence along its borders to maintain control over the situation.

Jambon explained that anywhere between 250 and 290 police officers will be dispatched to various locations along the Belgian border. “We will carry out border controls at different strategic locations, at spots used by smugglers which the police have detected,” he said.

Brussels is afraid that a massive migration wave could come to Belgium from Calais, with refugees intending to use the country as a staging point for a crossing to the UK.

Migrants have long used areas along France’s northern coast as a jump off point for trying to cross the English Channel to the UK, but since border controls have been reinforced there, refugees have been opting for Belgian ports instead.

On Tuesday, a French court located in the northern city of Lille said it was delaying a ruling on closing down the Calais refugee camp after eight NGOs began legal proceedings to halt the evacuation until all unaccompanied minors could be given shelter.

A source in the court said “We will not know today,” adding that a decision could come on Wednesday or Thursday, according to AFP.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/675283352862089216/GE1X4ASz_normal.png RT ✔ ‎@RT_com (https://twitter.com/RT_com)

Clearing out the Jungle: Migrants given until Tuesday to abandon #Calais (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Calais?src=hash) camp http://on.rt.com/751r (https://t.co/wiGBUePAwz)
9:05 PM - 20 Feb 2016 (https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/701135515035181056)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cbrk9heXIAIh5cB.jpg:small (http://twitter.com/RT_com/status/701135515035181056/photo/1)
If evicted, the migrants will be given a week to decide between moving to a €25 million ($28 million) state-built camp nearby capable of accommodating 1,500 refugees, which consists of heated shipping containers with beds and electricity, or to one of France’s other 98 migrant centers located around the country.

On Sunday, a series of prominent British actors, including Jude Law, took part in a performance at the Jungle camp to draw attention to the plight of those facing eviction.

dzqYY5VTE20
Meanwhile, the head of the EU’s border control agency, Frontex, Fabrice Leggeri, pointed out that the Schengen agreement cannot function properly if the external EU border is not properly protected.

“In order to have a well-functioning Schengen free movement area, we need to have a well-functioning external border, which is today apparently not the case,” Leggeri said in a speech to the European Police Congress in Berlin.

He also pointed out the dangers presented by the various terrorist threats facing all EU members. “We also have to face not only migration crisis, but we also have to face terrorist threats. You know what happened in Paris two months ago, other member states are potentially targets.”

Related:French court delays decision on Calais ‘Jungle’ camp eviction (https://www.rt.com/news/333368-calais-jungle-france-eviction/)

Hervé

25th February 2016, 03:03

Riot police fire tear gas at farmers’ demonstration in France (https://www.rt.com/news/333535-farmers-protest-gas-police/)

Published time: 24 Feb, 2016 22:46
Edited time: 24 Feb, 2016 23:34

https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.02/original/56ce3537c36188931c8b458f.jpg
Still from Twitter video

French farmers clashed with riot police in the city of Laval located in the western part of the country, as officers fired tear gas at egg-throwing demonstrators.

Activists began the protest at 9:30 pm local time on the “Europe” bridge in Laval.

Several farmers were taken into custody, according to local media.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CcBAEbdXIAAx3gu.jpg:small (http://twitter.com/OuestFrance53/status/702632001774489600/photo/1)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1597773298/53_normal.JPG Ouest-France 53 ‎@OuestFrance53 (https://twitter.com/OuestFrance53)

Le manifestant va être libéré dans 15-30 minutes. "Après ça, s'arrête là" Jérôme Landais, de la @fdsea53 (https://twitter.com/fdsea53)
12:11 AM - 25 Feb 2016 (https://twitter.com/OuestFrance53/status/702632001774489600)
The demonstration was scheduled prior to the arrival of European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan in Paris on Thursday. Crowds carried a banners saying: “Europe is killing its farmers. Phil Hogan sold himself to the USA.”

Farmers are protesting the low prices of agricultural produce, which are being pressured downward by a glut of domestic supply resulting from the political sanctions exchange with Russia.

French farmers are angry with European politicians who have chosen to impose a sanctions regime on Russia. A ban on exports has resulted in a massive amount of produce flooding local markets. This has allowed French supermarkets to demand lower prices for local products, leaving famers without a profit.

Last week, farmers gathered in protest near the Gare de Lyon railway station in Paris before moving to Porte de Vincennes. A similar rally against low prices took place in Montreuil, a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris.

Other agriculture-related protests were seen in the north and west of the country. In late January, farmers across western France burned tires and blocked a number of major roads connecting cities in the French province of Brittany.

Related:
French farmers protest at prices driven down by Russia sanctions (https://www.rt.com/news/332638-paris-farmers-protest-fire/)

Hervé

12th March 2016, 14:10

600+ tractors in downtown Helsinki as Finnish farmers decry anti-Russian sanctions (https://www.rt.com/news/335353-helsinki-tractors-farmers-protest/)

Published time: 12 Mar, 2016 13:40
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/76rd)

http://www.sott.net/image/s15/307788/large/56e3f2a9c4618852598b45e9.jpg
Farmers from different parts of Finland with their tractors participate in a demonstration over declining agricultural earnings in Helsinki, Finland, March 11, 2016. © Vesa Moilanen / Reuters

Hundreds of tractors disrupted traffic in the Finnish capital on Friday, when thousands of farmers arrived in Helsinki to protest the catastrophic situation in the agricultural sector and ongoing sanctions against Russia.

Finland’s agricultural industry is in financial distress, and farmers lost two-fifths of their income in 2015. The national agricultural sector union MTK wanted make sure the message was well-heard at the very top, and members of the organization drove an estimated 600 tractors to the Finnish capital’s downtown Senate Square early on the morning of March 11.

https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.03/original/56e3f2c4c3618877628b4585.jpg
Farmers from different parts of Finland participate in a demonstration with their tractors over declining agricultural earnings in Helsinki, Finland, March 11, 2016. © Vesa Moilanen / Reuters

The number of participants was estimated at 3,000, with some of the farmers reportedly driving their tractors hundreds of kilometers across the country to reach the capital and take part in the protest rally.

The farmers’ primary aim is “to save domestic food production,” AP reports. They urged the Finnish government to support the agricultural sector, carrying banners reading “no farmers - no food.”

https://img.rt.com/files/2016.03/original/56e3f2dcc4618854358b4584.jpg
Farmers from different parts of Finland with their tractors participate in a demonstration over declining agricultural earnings in Helsinki, Finland, March 11, 2016. © Vesa Moilanen / Reuters

Similar rallies were reportedly organized in other Finnish cities, although on a smaller scale.

EU economic sanctions against Russia, backed by Helsinki, were named by the MTK as the main reason for Finnish agricultural goods being depreciated.

Russia has been the key market for Finnish farmers for the last two decades and joining the EU sanctions against Moscow in 2014 became a “shot in the foot” for the Finnish farming industry.

What’s more, Finnish farmers have endured severe delays in receiving aid, seen as last-resort assistance from the EU, reports Yle Uutiset.

The Helsinki demonstration of farmers and their supporters lasted from 9am until at least 3pm, and caused severe traffic jams as tractors arrived to the rally and later when they were leaving the capital.

According to estimates by Finland’s Natural Resources Institute (LUKE), last year farmers’ incomes shrank by 40 percent, if compared to 2014, with the average farm’s losses estimated at nearly €10,000 (US$11,500). The worst stats were registered in the dairy industry, which dragged down the outcome of the entire national agricultural sector.

Related:
30k Finns protest govt-planned cuts, nationwide strike grinds country to a halt (PHOTOS, VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/315843-finland-nationwide-strike-cuts/)

Hervé

14th March 2016, 14:10

3 million people take to streets in Brazil’s biggest ever anti-govt protest (https://www.rt.com/news/335474-brazil-protest-president-million/)

Published time: 14 Mar, 2016 03:21
Edited time: 14 Mar, 2016 03:28
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/76uq)

http://www.sott.net/image/s15/308128/large/56e61cbac36188ce628b45e7.jpg
Demonstrators attend a protest against Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, part of nationwide protests calling for her impeachment, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 13, 2016. © Nacho Doce / Reuters

Some 3 million people have taken to the streets of Brazilian cities to demonstrate their disapproval of the country’s president, Dilma Rousseff, local media reported.

About 1.4 million people participated in the demonstration in Sao Paulo, and another million in Rio de Janeiro, according to Globo media outlet, citing the event’s organizers and the country’s security forces.

Protests took place in at least 17 regions across Brazil, Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported.

The nation’s capital, Brasilia, saw some 100,000 demonstrators surround the National Congress building in the biggest protest since last March, when about 1 million people took to the streets.

http://www.sott.net/image/s15/308130/large/56e61d3bc461881a318b45f8.jpg
Demonstrators attend a protest against Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff, part of nationwide protests calling for her impeachment, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 13, 2016. © Nacho Doce / Reuters

Protesters blame the country’s president for Brazil’s economic downturn over the past few years, as well as alleged corruption.

“The country is at a standstill and we are fighting to keep our company afloat. We have reached rock bottom,” 49-year-old protester Monica Giana Micheletti told Reuters at the Sao Paulo demonstration.

The Brazilian opposition has called for an investigation into some of Rousseff’s dealings, accusing her of tax violations and allegedly misusing state funds to finance her re-election last year, with the ultimate goal of impeaching her.

http://www.sott.net/image/s15/308132/large/56e61d4ec36188d0138b45e7.jpg
An inflatable doll known as "Pixuleco" of Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seen during a protest against Rousseff, part of nationwide protests calling for her impeachment, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 13, 2016. © Paulo Whitaker / Reuters

Tensions have also been running high since Sao Paulo state prosecutors asked a judge to order the arrest of Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on money-laundering charges a few days ago.

The request is now pending, and the prosecutors will shortly decide whether to proceed.

Rousseff has voiced her support for Lula, who is also viewed as the acting president’s political mentor. The 70-year-old, who came from a poor rural farming family and went on to become a major labor leader and president, is known as a national icon and was still highly popular in Brazil at the time he stepped down.

Related:
'No to coup!' Rousseff supporters hit streets of Brazil following anti-govt protests (https://www.rt.com/news/313031-brazil-protest-rousseff-supporters/)

Hervé

17th March 2016, 14:15

‘Illegal, immoral & inhumane’: Thousands protest in Spain against EU-Turkey refugee deal (https://www.rt.com/news/335882-spain-protest-turkey-refugee/)

Published time: 17 Mar, 2016 01:33
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/7762)

https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.03/original/56ea01c2c461884b718b45c5.jpg
© / Ruptly

Thousands of people have demonstrated in more than 50 cities across Spain in protest against the draft agreement between Brussels and Ankara which could see the bulk of “illegal” immigrants stuck in EU sent back to Turkey in exchange for “genuine” asylum seekers.

“Refugees welcome” and “This agreement is illegal,” were some of the most popular slogans chanted at the rally in central Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square, where some 5,000 attendees gathered to protest against Ankara-Brussels agreement, according to organizers.

Leaders of the European Union are to hold talks in Brussels on Thursday with Turkey’s Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, to try to hammer out a deal to curb the bloc’s worst migrant crisis in more than 60 years.

The most controversial part of the deal entails sending thousands of migrants stuck in Greece back to Turkey, allegedly to deter them from making the dangerous and illegal journey across the Aegean Sea.

Under a provisional agreement reached last week, Turkey is to accept all migrants, in return for more money, faster visa-free travel for Turks and increased pace of EU membership negotiations. In return the EU would accept one Syrian refugee directly from Turkey for each migrant who illegally reached the European shores.

In Madrid, some 16 NGOs and associations gathered in strength to protest the draft agreement.

“We openly and unconditionally oppose what they intend to do in Brussels,” said Esteban Beltran, director of Amnesty International (AI) in who read out a public manifesto in the heart of Madrid, standing before the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

As activists urged the government of Mariano Rajoy to veto the deal, Beltran told the crowd that “human rights are violated” by the agreement.

“We are against decisions that have been taken by the EU and their states; that are unable to find a satisfactory decision compatible with the drama of the situation of those who are living, the millions of people who are gathered in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, at the gates of the EU, where walls and fences are raised to prevent entry,” European Trade Union Confederation president Ignacio Fernandez Toxo told Ruptly.

Ahmed, a refugee who has settled in Spain, addressed protesters, declaring “today we are here to denounce this preliminary agreement as illegal, immoral and inhumane,” adding that “no one chooses to be a refugee, nobody likes to leave home."

“We ask you to be a human; that you treat these people as they deserve, as human beings. To us, all deaths in the world hurt us in the same way,” he added.

eyx3C8hEXxA

In addition to Madrid, more than 120 groups in their thousands joined demonstrations in more than fifty Spanish cities.

In their manifesto, the protest organizers labeled the new agreement illegal, immoral and shameful, claiming that EU initiative violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, and the Geneva Convention for refugees.

Related:
Spanish regions slam Madrid over inaction in refugee crisis (https://www.rt.com/news/335060-madrid-migrant-crisis-letter/)

Hervé

20th March 2016, 15:56

"Don't Take The Public For Fools!": China Hides Millions Of Layoffs, Jails Miners Protesting Unpaid Wages
(http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-20/dont-take-public-fools-china-hides-millions-layoffs-jails-miners-protesting-unpaid-w)
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)Submitted by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) on 03/20/2016 10:14 -0400

When you look out across markets and across the increasingly fraught geopolitical landscape, there are plenty of black swans waiting in the wings (no pun intended). And quite a few of them are Chinese.

China has, among other problems: a massive debt overhang that, all told, amounts to more than 250% of GDP; a decelerating economy that Beijing swears will be able to pull off a miracle and move away from the smokestack and away from export-led growth without slipping into recession; a currency crisis; a new property bubble in Tier-1 cities; and a burgeoning NPL problem in the banking sector.

All of those issues are of course inextricably bound up with one another. They are set like dominoes and once the first one tips, the rest will too as sure as night follows day.

And while twin crises (financial and economic) in China would wreak havoc on markets in both EM and DM - between which China exists in a sort of limbo - the real question is this: what would the consequences be for societal stability in China? That is, if it all falls down, will social upheaval ensue leading to a revolt against the Politburo?

That’s not some attempt to use hyperbole on the way to positing some anarchic future for the world’s engine of global growth and trade. In fact, the possibility for widespread unrest is so real that Chinese officials have begun to address it frequently in discussions of how they plan to deal with the mass layoffs that are bound to result from Beijing’s efforts to restructure the country’s collection of elephantine SOEs and stamp out excess capacity.

After Li Xinchuang, head of China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute told Xinhua (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-25/china-warns-social-stability-threatened-400000-steel-workers-are-about-lose-their-jo) that eliminating excess capacity in the steel industry will cost 400,000 jobs and could fuel “social instability”, the government went into spin mode. National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Xu Shaoshi said in February (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-03/china-takes-aim-zombie-companies-says-soaring-job-losses-wont-lead-popular-revolt) that Beijing's attempts to curb overcapacity will increase unemployment in provinces with high output of steel and coal but will not cause social unrest. Similarly, Xiao Yaqing, who oversees the government commission that looks after state assets, said last week (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-13/there-wont-be-wave-layoffs-no-stimulus-needed-china-insists-no-one-panic) that the country won’t experience a wave of layoffs as a result of SOE restructuring.

But the cracks are already starting to show.

As we reported on Monday (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-14/thousands-angry-unemployed-chinese-coal-miners-take-streets-police-break-enormous-cr), thousands of miners in China's coal-rich (or poor depending on one's perspective) north have gone on strike over months of unpaid wages and fears that government calls to restructure their state-owned employer will lead to mass layoffs. As AFP noted (http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-coal-miners-strike-over-wages-layoffs-034029567--finance.html), protesters were marching through the streets of Shuangyashan city in Heilongjiang province, venting their frustration at Longmay Mining Holding Group, the biggest coal firm in northeast China.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user92183/imageroot/2016/03/06/ChinaPorotests_0.png

Speaking of Longmay, the company is laying off 100,000 workers and in a sign of things to come, around a quarter of them have been reassigned to the agriculture, timber and public service industries.

While that's good news for the unemployment rate, it's bad news for workers. Why? Because those jobs pay around a third (or less) of what mining jobs pay.

"(Changing professions) is not easy," a miner who left Longmay last year told Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-retraining-idUSKCN0WM01B). "All those who are changing professions went to work in sanitation or logging," for less money, he added. Here's more:

The government has earmarked 100 billion yuan ($15 billion) for relocating and retraining state workers over two years, but with up to 6 million coal and steel jobs to be axed those funds could be spread very thin.

Workers laid off from inefficient state-owned coal and steel firms will join those made redundant at private firms in struggling sectors like textiles and apparel, which are shedding an estimated 400,000 employees a year.

That risks creating a cohort of middle-aged blue-collar workers with bleak prospects in an economy growing at its slowest rate in decades.

Slower economic growth means it will be harder to absorb redundant workers. Local governments in distressed regions like the northeast lack the capacity to do much more than hand them a mop or a shovel. Where workers do manage to secure new jobs, many are likely to find themselves demoted, earning less and with bleak career prospects.

"The most likely result from future industrial layoffs is not a sharp increase in unemployment, but a further deceleration in household income growth," Cui Ernan, labor analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics in Beijing, wrote in a research note. And that means you can kiss the dream of a successful transition to a consumption and services-led economy goodbye. Or, as we put it exactly a week ago: It would be a small (actually scratch that, a "very large") miracle if Beijing is able to restructure the economy's collection of elephantine SOEs without creating an employment crisis. And if, as Zhou says, China intends to depend on domestic consumption rather than exports to fuel growth, then the PBoC had better get to explaining how exactly it is that hundreds of thousands of recently jobless factory workers are going to be able to power the hoped-for but still nascent transformation.

"The average annual wage in mining in 2014 was 61,677 yuan ($9,542), compared with 28,356 yuan in farming and forestry, according to official data. Textile workers moving to restaurant and retail jobs can expect to earn around 37,264 yuan, a drop from the 51,369 yuan average pay in manufacturing," Reuters continues. "In Shuangyashan and nearby Hegang, the consumption-driven economy looks a distant goal."

Clearly, handing someone a mop and a 66% pay cut isn't going to be a viable solution for the millions upon millions who are about to be jobless in China. And we don't just mean "viable" in terms of the read through for China's hoped-for transition away from investment-led growth. We mean "viable" in terms of fending off a popular revolt.

But if the masses do rise up, don't expect the Politburo to go down without a fight. In fact, Beijing is already taking steps to discourage public displays of disaffection. On Wednesday, in the country's southwest, eight construction workers tied to a protest held in Langzhong last August were subjected to a 1950's-style public sentencing. Their crime: protesting unpaid wages. Their charge: obstructing official business. The verdict: guilty.

"Many Chinese recoiled from the humiliation of pitiable migrant workers in a much-reviled and largely disused judicial practice," WSJ wrote (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2016/03/18/chinese-city-publicly-shames-migrant-workers-who-protested-unpaid-wages/), earlier this week. "Legal experts, journalists and laymen alike launched into caustic criticism of the Langzhong court, calling its rally barbaric and an egregious violation of due process."

Right. And that's the whole point. Because if you give angry workers the idea that they can protest without suffering severe consequences, well then you might just have yourself a whole lot of protests once the layoffs begin in earnest. The workers shown flanked by police below will be spending the next six to eight months in jail.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user92183/imageroot/2016/03/06/Protests.png

Of course when people can't feed their families they stop worrying about public shaming and even forget about the threat of prison. Which is why China will ultimately be unable to contain the public's collective anger when the proverbial rubber hits the road.

The local government said the public sentencing was an effort to "to educate the public on how to lawfully protect their rights."

The response from one Weibo user: "Don’t take the public for fools. You think the people don’t understand your purpose in using public sentencing?"

The Party had better figure something out quick. Because while you can make an example out of a handful of construction workers, and while you can "disappear (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-17/chinese-coup-rumblings-website-prints-explosive-letter-calling-presidents-resignatio)" dissident journalists, the only thing you can do when millions of furious Chinese descend on Zhongnanhai is start shooting.

Hervé

25th March 2016, 12:38

Sheep and cows hit London streets in farmers’ protest (https://www.rt.com/in-motion/337036-farmers-agricultural-protest-london/)

Published time: 24 Mar, 2016 13:45[see video at: https://www.rt.com/in-motion/337036-farmers-agricultural-protest-london/]

Hundreds of farmers staged a protest in London on Wednesday, to decry the present state of the agriculture industry. Some farmers brought along cows and sheep who marched alongside the protesters. During the march, organized by the Farmers for Action (FFA) group, demonstrators held placards condemning the government’s lack of measures to discourage supermarkets from importing cheap produce from abroad.

Hervé

27th March 2016, 23:51

French Fury Explodes with Echoes of 1968 (http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/03/26/french-fury-explodes-with-echoes-of-1968.html)

By Finian CUNNINGHAM (http://www.strategic-culture.org/authors/finian-cunningham.html) | 26.03.2016

http://www.strategic-culture.org/images/news/2016/03/26/or-37094.jpg

Riot police clashing with striking workers, students shutting down universities, teargas and cars torched in the streets – the mayhem this past week in France evoked memories of 1968, the tumultuous year when mass protests threatened to overthrow a French government back then.

The public fury (http://news.yahoo.com/french-youths-scuffle-police-labour-reform-protest-170130888.html) last week in France boiled over into ugly scenes in several cities, with protests spreading across the country, fanning out from the capital Paris. The French public are furious. And they have right to be.

The uproar mounting over several months now is due to the government’s plan to overhaul the country’s comprehensive labor laws. The essential thrust is to re-write the laws in order to make private businesses and companies hire more workers – by making it easier for them to fire workers!

If that sounds contradictory, then it is a fitting epitome of this French government. President Francois Hollande and his ruling Socialist Party led by Prime Minister Manuel Valls claim, at the risk of sounding tautologous, to be «socialists».

Yet the supposed socialist government is embarking on a ruthless project to smash workers’ rights on behalf of capitalist enterprise.

This week premier Valls presented his so-called labor «reforms» to business representatives and to France’s powerful trade unions. Neither were pleased, with the business groups scoffing (http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/906e3816-e9f5-11e5-888e-2eadd5fbc4a4.html?ftcamp=crm/email//nbe/WorldNews/product#axzz42unCmRmF) that the government had caved into public protests over their much-touted reforms, while unions claimed the proposed changes were still an unacceptable assault on workers.

Students and workers are now pushing ahead with even bigger protests, with more nationwide demonstrations reportedly (http://www.dw.com/en/french-government-braces-for-more-street-protests-despite-amended-labor-bill/a-19120856?maca=en-newsletter_en_Newsline-2356-html-newsletter) planned over the coming weeks. It appears that Valls’ government has ignited a firestorm that it can no longer douse.

Valls’ economy minister, Emmanuel Macron, is the personification of the French government’s widely perceived betrayal, in the eyes of ordinary Socialist Party members and the wider public. Reports (http://www.france24.com/en/20160301-france-socialists-primaries-francois-hollande-valls-macron-2017-election) describe the 38-year-old rising star as being seen as «toxic» by many ordinary French. Macron is a former investment banker who worked at Rothschild before being drafted into government. Yes, that’s right, an investment banker for one of the world’s major capitalist enterprises is given the portfolio of economy minister in an avowedly socialist government. Eh, conflict of interest comes to mind.

It has been Macron’s ministerial brief to push through «business-friendly reforms». Speaking at the Davos summit earlier this year – the annual confab for global capitalists – Macron told his audience that France’s «bloated» labor laws would be stripped. He particularly mocked the country’s statutory limit of a 35-hour working week, vowing that company management would henceforth be allowed to set their own limits.

Macron has also talked about smashing other «glass ceilings», such as relatively strict rules against firing workers and onerous financial compensation for employees who claim they have been unfairly dismissed by bosses. Another target for Macron is to do away with collective bargaining by trade unions, and to permit firms to negotiate terms of pay and conditions with individual workers.

From the capitalists’ point of view – and evidently it is a view shared by premier Valls and his economy minister – the root problem for France’s sluggish growth and high unemployment is that workers have too many rights. By making it easier for private companies to fire workers or make their employees clock up longer hours – so the argument goes – the bosses will be inclined to take on more staff, which it is assumed will result in higher macroeconomic growth for the country.

France wants to follow the Anglo-American model. Britain and the US appear to have better economic performances than France and lower official unemployment rates. The US jobless rate is reported at around 5 per cent, whereas the French unemployment figure is 10 per cent, with the rate rising among youth to 25 per cent. But in Britain and the US, workers are notoriously stressed from much longer working weeks up to 48-60 hours. They also suffer from so-called «in-work poverty» from being underpaid, with less legal protections against hire-and-fire bosses and «zero-hours contracts».

In other words, Britain and the US are more nakedly capitalist models where workers are mere profit-making inputs to be cast aside when no longer required. Britain and the US may be sought after as destinations for unemployed migrants who are desperate for any form of income. But that is no endorsement from a humane viewpoint.

What we have here are fundamental questions of ideology and morality. Are workers and the rights they have won over centuries of labor struggles to be discarded like human chattel?

should be seen as a virtue to be staunchly defended, not sacrificed on the altar of insatiable profit-making.

Another fundamental ideological difference is that the French government is following the official British and American prejudice that scapegoats workers for low economic growth. In this logic, economic growth can only be revived by making workers toil harder and longer. The more insecure the workers are made to feel, then the harder they will work and the more bosses’ profits will be boosted.

This is a fallacious – not to say immoral – way of looking at contemporary economic conditions. Since the global economic crash in 2008, what needs to be understood is that the problem of low growth in France, Europe, and even the seemingly better UK and US, is not really an issue of worker productivity. It is a much bigger question about a fundamental, historic breakdown in the capitalist system. This is reflected in the record level of inequality between a tiny elite and the vast majority of society. Chronic poverty and austerity wages are why consumption and growth have become stagnant. The systematic injustice needs to abolished, not appeased.

The French government, as in so many other Western countries, has become nothing more than a lobby for the capitalists and their financial oligarchy. Bailouts for the bankers and bosses, but buckets of misery for the masses. What governments should be doing is defending the rights of the vast majority and pushing an agenda that radically redistributes justice in the form of much higher taxes on corporations and the rich, while bringing banks under public control. In a word, socialism is required, not more draconian capitalism.

It looks like the French population at large have finally run out of tolerance for the pseudo-socialists ruling in Paris. Shamelessly, this government is attacking basic rights and mocking touchstones of civility, such as a cap of 35 working hours per week. It truly is Orwellian when such a basic benchmark of human decency is blithely despised by those who claim to be «serving the people».

In a more rationale society why shouldn’t workers’ hours be reduced to 25 hours and let the firms take on more staff to maintain output. Oh, it reduces profits and rich dividends for directors, they might say? Well, too bad, let the exploiters take a cut. Better still, let workers and the public take ownership of companies and banks.

One irony in French politics is that Manuel Valls and his de facto capitalist administration have become hysterical about the popular rise of Marine Le Pen’s National Front. Valls and others on the pseudo left deprecate Le Pen’s party as racist, extremist and even fascist. It is arguable that the National Front has gained popular support, as with other similar parties across Europe, precisely because of increasing economic insecurity among workers and society generally. That insecurity, in turn, feeds into anti-immigrant hostility among some sections who see their livelihoods threatened by foreigners.

Ironically, perhaps the biggest recruiting agency for the National Front in France is the pseudo-socialist government of Manuel Valls and his president Francois Hollande. These charlatans are not only attacking workers on behalf of private profit, they are fueling social strife, breakdown, hatred, xenophobia and, in its worst manifestation, fascism.

The danger of a fascist state is not hyperbole. France’s emergency laws deployed since the terror attacks last November in Paris forbid all public demonstrations – in the interest of «national security». As public protests over the coming weeks rightly and legitimately challenge the reactionary French government’s attack on workers, it is only a matter of time before riot-police squads begin to implement mass detention of these same demonstrators, under the pretext that they are threatening national security.

That raises a grim and not inconceivable scenario. French workers and students clubbed off the streets by armed police and thrown into prison without due legal process. Because they oppose an authoritarian government shredding their legal rights? No wonder echoes of 1968 are in the French air.

Hervé

31st March 2016, 13:37

Widespread Protests, Strikes Hit France After Unpopular Labor Reforms (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160331/1037255525/france-nationwide-strikes-protests.html)

Europe (http://sputniknews.com/europe/)13:44 31.03.2016
(updated 13:54 31.03.2016)

http://www.sott.net/image/s15/311254/large/1037255119.jpg
© REUTERS/ Jean-Paul Pelissier

Massive strikes and protests over labor reforms are taking place across France on Thursday, with public transport disruptions and many schools, as well as popular tourist attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, remaining closed, local media reported.

http://cdn4.img.sputniknews.com/images/103600/08/1036000840.jpg
© AP Photo/ Jacques Brinon

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The protests are against a bill that would relax France’s labor laws, permitting employees to work much more than the current statutory 35-hour week, imposing a cap on damages in cases of unfair dismissal as well as removing barriers to firing employees on economic grounds. Over 250 protest rallies are planned across the country with hundreds of thousands of people expected to participate, The Local France reported Thursday.

On March 24, ten police officers were injured and 45 people were detained after students and labor union activists took to the streets of Paris and several other French cities. About 43,000 people participated in the rallies that day.

Related:
France Faces Train Traffic Disruption Over Rail Strike – Reports (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160309/1036001051/strike-trains-france.html)

Hervé

11th May 2016, 16:06

France in Political Crisis as Government Faces No-Confidence Vote (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160511/1039438537/france-crisis-labor-reforms.html)

Sputnik (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160511/1039438537/france-crisis-labor-reforms.html) Europe (http://sputniknews.com/europe/) 17:16 11.05.2016

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© REUTERS/ Philippe Wojazer

France is in the midst of its worst political crisis in decades with the country's beleaguered Socialist government to face a no-confidence vote on Thursday after it bypassed parliament to ram through controversial labor reforms.

The announcement that the labor bill would be pushed through the lower house without a vote triggered widespread protests against the government (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160510/1039397640/paris-labor-protests.html), with police firing tear gas and rubber pellets at demonstrators, who have since called for further protests.

Protesters described the move as "an insult to the people of this country" and the labor bill as an "unprecedented setback for workers' rights in France, a return to the 19th century."

No-Confidence Vote
The government resorted to the rare measure of ruling by decree following concerns internal opposition from Socialist dissidents would defeat the bill, while it did so using a controversial Article in the French constitution that has been used less than 90 times since its inception in 1958. The act led two opposition parties to file a no-confidence vote, scheduled for Thursday.

While the opposition parties hold only 226 of the 288 seats needed to topple Francois Hollande's government, there are worries that an upset vote could trigger new elections, after Christian Paul, the leader of the Socialists rebel group, was hoping to join forces with Green MPs and create a no-confidence motion "of the left".

Blow Over Labor Reforms
The country is deeply divided over the contentious labor bill (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160427/1038704905/france-labor-reform-strikes.html), which would create more flexible working hours and relax current regulations.

The government says reform is needed as existing labor laws are too rigid and have played a part in France's unemployment problem. However, critics say the deal plays into the hands of employers and will make it easier to hire and fire workers.

The crisis is another blow for under-fire President Francois Hollande (https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi95I2OldLMAhXFCpoKHdstDbMQFggiMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsputniknews.com%2Feurope%2F20160315%2F1036341387%2Ffrance-hollande-labor-reforms.html&usg=AFQjCNFrX7wbuXU8a6wBqLyP5LRs9PvzTQ&sig2=2jqUrOcCMI-RDD_5176hzw&bvm=bv.121658157,d.bGs), who has struggled to turn the French economy around, and is facing a serious challenge ahead of next year's presidential elections, with support growing for opposition groups.

Analysts have also pointed out the pressure exerted from Brussels to transform the French economy as a reason behind the French government's insistence on such an unpopular bill.

While the bill goes against many of the traditional principles of the Hollande's Socialist party, commentators have noted how the president has moved to reform the France's labor laws to try and stimulate growth and reduce unemployment.

Related:
Hollande’s Rating Drops to New Low Year Before French Presidential Vote (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160505/1039149237/rating-poll-popularity-hollande.html)

Hervé

13th May 2016, 13:07

Uprising? At Least 50,000 Protest Against Labor Reform in Paris (VIDEO) (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160512/1039521808/protest-france-labor-reform.html)

(http://sputniknews.com/europe/)
Sputnik (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160512/1039521808/protest-france-labor-reform.html) Europe (http://sputniknews.com/europe/)
Fri, 13 May 2016 [/URL]19:51 12.05.2016
(updated 19:53 12.05.2016)

http://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/103951/24/1039512499.jpg
© REUTERS/ Gonzalo Fuentes

Up to 50,000 Parisians protested a labor reform bill pushed through French parliament this week in a show of public discontent that turned violent, French television reported Thursday, citing labor unions.

PARIS (Sputnik) – Police fired tear gas at anti-reform demonstrators outside the parliament building ahead of the no-confidence vote in the lower-house National Assembly.

The protests followed Tuesday’s demonstrations when the Socialist government applied a rarely-used clause to bypass a National Assembly vote on a bill that will relax hiring and firing rules to curb rising unemployment.

stoGzuko_u0
The 50,000 figure compiled by trade union organizations and cited by France’s BFMTV stood in contrast of city police estimates that up to 12,000 people took part in the rally. The unrest led to four arrests on gun possession and attacking police with bottles, rocks and other items. Six similar arrests took place in Cannes and five more in Nantes.

http://cdn4.img.sputniknews.com/images/103881/97/1038819780.jpg
© REUTERS/ Charles Platiau [URL="http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160510/1039397640/paris-labor-protests.html"]Protesters, Police Face Off as France Set to Pass Controversial Labor Reforms (http://sputniknews.com/europe/)

Among the labor reforms proposed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls’ government are highly unpopular attempts to increase daily working hours and simplify firing procedures.

Knowing that the draft law would be rejected by lawmakers, the French government invoked article 49.3 of the constitution allowing the prime minister to pass a bill through the parliament without a vote if necessary. Triggering the clause allows the French parliament to debate a vote of no confidence against the government.

If Thursday's no-confidence vote succeeds, Valls' Cabinet will have to step down and repeal the bill or else it will go before the Senate.

Hervé

23rd May 2016, 15:01

French workers blockade gas stations in new labour reform protests (http://www.france24.com/en/20160522-french-petrol-stations-hit-blockades)

Text by NEWS WIRES (http://www.france24.com/en/author/news-wires/)
Latest update : 2016-05-22

http://scd.france24.com/en/files/imagecache/france24_ct_api_bigger_169/article/image/france_petrol_blockades.jpg © PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP | On A25 highway near Steenvoorde, northern France, a gas station remains closed following the blockades of several oil depots by protesters opposed to the government's proposed labour law reforms

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday France had enough fuel reserves to tackle shortages at hundreds of gas stations caused by workers blocking oil refineries and depots in protest at an unpopular labour reform.

About 820 stations out of a total of 11,500 petrol stations in France were out of all fuel on Sunday and another 800 were lacking at least one type of fuel, Transport Minister Alain Vidalies told Europe 1 radio.

France has been hit by strikes (http://www.france24.com/en/20160518-french-president-won-budge-labour-reforms-despite-day-protests)after President Francois Hollande (http://www.france24.com/en/tag/francois-hollande/)'s Socialist government forced labour reforms through the lower house (http://www.france24.com/en/20160512-french-government-survives-no-confidence-vote-over-divisive-labour-reforms) of parliament on May 10 without a vote. Unions consider the bill unfavourable to workers and want it withdrawn.

"We have the situation fully under control. I think that some of the refineries and depots that were blocked are unblocked or will be in the coming hours and days," Prime Minister Valls told reporters during a visit in Israel.

"In any case, we have the reserves to deal with these blockades."

A prolonged strike at refineries in France in 2010 led to a glut of crude in Europe because it could not be delivered to refineries, a spike in refined products prices due to low output from refineries and shortages at thousands of gas stations.

Protesters have blocked deliveries to gas stations from at least half of France's eight refineries. On Friday workers at three Total refineries voted to halt output by Tuesday. Workers also blocked many fuel depots.

The news of fuel shortages and blockades sent drivers rushing to petrol stations to fill their tanks as a precaution.

Several departments imposed fuel restrictions per vehicle and some banned filling up extra fuel in jerry cans.

"If the situation does not improve and if the government remains deaf to French people's claims, we are heading towards fuel shortage and a significant worsening of our economy," Franck Manchon, coordinator for the union Force Ouvriere (FO) at Total, told Reuters.

Hervé

15th June 2016, 17:50

Hollande threatens to ban demos as French anti-labor law protests grow (https://www.rt.com/news/346804-hollande-ban-demonstrations-france/)

RT
Published time: 15 Jun, 2016 15:16
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/7flg)

https://img.rt.com/files/2016.06/original/57615e92c361887d6d8b45a2.jpg
Police officers detain a demonstrator during clashes near the Invalides during a protest against proposed labour reforms in Paris on June 14, 2016. © Dominique Faget / AFP

President Francois Hollande has proposed to ban demonstrations in France, according to his presidential spokesman, who said that at a time when the country is plagued by terrorism, the conditions are not in place to protect “personal or public property."

"At a time when France is hosting the Euro 2016 [football tournament], when it is faced with terrorism, demonstrations can no longer be authorized if property, people and public property cannot be safeguarded," Hollande told a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, according to his spokesman Stephane Le Foll, AFP reported (https://www.afp.com/fr/infos/334/hollande-plus-dautorisation-de-manifester-si-les-biens-et-les-personnes-sont-menaces).

“The conditions under which a manifestation is authorized is a subject of discussion between the organizers and the authorities representing the state,” Le Foll said.

"If the conditions are not in place to protect personal or public property, and as things stand now they are not, decisions are currently being made case-by-case not to allow the protests," he added.

https://cdn.rt.com/files/2016.06/thumbnail/57600698c36188653b8b457d.jpg (https://www.rt.com/news/346636-paris-protest-injured-violence/)
At least 40 injured, 58 arrested in Paris anti-labor reform protests – police (https://www.rt.com/news/346636-paris-protest-injured-violence/)

On Tuesday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Paris, shouting slogans against the new labor law being imposed by the government and carrying placards that read: “For new rights.” Some protestors torched a police car at the Place de la Republique in the heart of Paris. Staff working at the Eiffel Tower announced the closure of the city’s iconic landmark, saying they “would join the protest.” They also warned that sites near it would be unsafe.

A group of black-clad demonstrators allegedly vandalized the Necker Children's Hospital, where a three-year-old child, whose mother and father, a policeman, were stabbed to death by an Islamic State militant Monday evening outside their home near Paris, is currently staying.

At least 40 people, including 29 officers, were injured as protesters clashed with police in the center of the French capital. Police made at least 58 arrests and deployed tear gas and water cannons against the demonstrators. Health Minister Marisol Touraine called the damage "shameful" and its perpetrators "hooligans."

Similar demonstrations were held across the whole of France. Nearly 20,000 gathered in the city of Toulouse, according to the demonstration’s organizers. In Nantes, protesters gathered in the streets, despite a recently-imposed ban on rallies.

Despite mass protests, Prime Minister Manuel Valls has vowed to stand firm behind the unpopular labor law.

"The government will not change a text which is already the outcome of negotiations with the unions,” Manuel Valls told (https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/le-7-9/le-7-9-15-juin-2016) France Inter radio, adding: “It's a text that is good for employees, for companies that create new rights.”

The unpopular law, initiated by Labor Minister Myriam El Khomri, forces employers to pay only 10 percent of an overtime bonus, instead of the current 25 percent. The bill technically maintains the 35-hour working week, but says that in case of “exceptional circumstances,” employees can be asked to work up to 60 hours a week.

Anti-labor law protests in France have grown into something more far-reaching and long-lasting, with people saying they are rallying against capitalism, intolerance and French government policies on the whole. The protests’ slogans seem very similar to the Occupy movement, which first started in the US and eventually spread globally.

Hervé

15th June 2016, 20:40

Eiffel Tower closed, flights canceled, dozens injured in Paris labor strikes (http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Dozens-Injured-as-French-Strikers-Close-the-Eiffel-Tower-20160614-0030.html)

teleSUR (http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Dozens-Injured-as-French-Strikers-Close-the-Eiffel-Tower-20160614-0030.html) Tue, 14 Jun 2016 19:56 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s16/325510/large/france_nuitdebout_1718483346.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s16/325510/full/france_nuitdebout_1718483346.jpg)
© AFP An injured protester is led away by riot police in Paris on Tuesday.

At least six demonstrators and 20 policemen were injured as several hundred clashed with police in Paris on Tuesday in the latest demonstration against disputed labor reforms (http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/France-Approves-Unpopular-Labor-Reforms-by-Presidential-Decree-20160510-0013.html) in France.

The clashes erupted as the international spotlight was turned on France as the host of the Euro 2016 football championships, which have also been marred by violence between fans.

Strikes closed the Eiffel Tower and disrupted transport links as tens of thousands of fans pour into the country for Europe's showcase football event.

France has mustered up to 90,000 police and private guards to provide security for the month-long tournament.

Authorities made six arrests and at least two people were hurt in the Paris unrest, according to an AFP reporter at the scene, as demonstrators stormed a building site and began to hurl wooden palettes at riot police.

Pictures showed one man being led away by officers in riot gear with blood streaming from a wound above his eye, his white T-shirt splattered with blood.

The strike is the latest in months of industrial action (http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Violent-Anti-Labor-Reform-Protests-Continue-in-France-20160518-0006.html) that has seen air and rail transport severely disrupted, fuel shortages and rubbish pile up (http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Trash-Piles-Up-in-Paris-as-Protests-Continue-Prior-to-Euro-2016-20160608-0041.html) on the streets of Paris.

With France on high alert due to the threat of terrorism during Euro 2016, overstretched security authorities feared the demonstrations could turn violent and have banned 130 known troublemakers from taking part.

The terrorism threat was thrust back into the spotlight after a man claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group killed a policeman and his partner (http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/French-Govt-Claim-2-Police-Officers-Killed-Was-Terror-Attack-20160614-0003.html) at their home in a northwestern Paris suburb late Monday.

The latest in a wave of protests that began in March coincides with a French Senate debate on the reforms, which are aimed at making the job market more flexible and reducing high unemployment but which critics see as too pro-business.

President Francois Hollande's government has voiced hope the latest day of protest will be a last stand for the movement.

But Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT union that spearheaded last month's blockades of fuel depots and an ongoing rail strike, predicted a "very strong mobilization."

The CGT laid on more than 600 buses to transport demonstrators to Paris and said it hoped to attract more support than in March, when it claimed 1.2 million people took to the streets.

============================

From AP (https://www.yahoo.com/news/eiffel-tower-shut-transport-snarled-100428857.html?nhp=1):
Seven unions and student organizations planned the protests against the proposed law to loosen labor rules which saw crowds in central Paris swell into the tens of thousands. Some of the participants later turned violent and vandalized shops and a prominent children's hospital.

Paris police official Johanna Primevert said that in addition to the 26 injured, some 21 people were detained during the day's action against the law that is currently being debated in the Senate.

Protesters set out from southeast Paris heading for the Invalides plaza. On the way, a group of black-clad demonstrators vandalized the Necker Children's Hospital and were dispersed by police with a water cannon.

Health Minister Marisol Touraine called the damage "shameful" and its perpetrators "hooligans."

Street protests also took place in other parts of France and rail workers and taxi drivers were on strike.

In Paris, the Eiffel Tower was closed Tuesday because the operators said they could not guarantee public safety and taxi drivers temporarily blocked some of the city's main access roads in the morning.

In a separate protest, Air France pilots were striking to demand better working conditions. About 20 percent of all Air France's flights were canceled, according to the company.

Violet

16th June 2016, 07:50

We're too busy watching those other riots.

Hervé

16th June 2016, 14:06

Thousands of Greeks ask premier to resign (http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/06/16/470671/Greece-Resign-movemnet-SyrizaTsipras-austerity-protest)

PressTV (http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/06/16/470671/Greece-Resign-movemnet-SyrizaTsipras-austerity-protest)
Thu, 16 Jun 2016 12:48 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s16/325633/large/1326a149_f41b_43de_9a1c_3a227b.jpg
Thousands of Greeks gather in front of the Greek parliament in Athens on June 15, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Thousands of dissatisfied Greeks have staged a protest rally in Athens and another major city to ask the government to resign over continued austerity.

At least 10,000 Greeks gathered outside the parliament in Athens on Wednesday, demanding the resignation of the leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

The protesters were supporters of the “Resign” movement, which perceives Tsipras's policies a failure, driving the country into more poverty.

They addressed the premier in their slogans, chanting “Resign!” and “People don’t want you, take your junta and leave!”

A similar demonstration was held at Thessaloniki, the second largest city in the country and the capital of Greek Macedonia in northern Greece.

https://www.sott.net/image/s16/325634/large/99d67640_5a56_49a6_ad1c_b8fab5.jpg
A protester holds a picture depicting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras behind bars of a prison cell during a demonstration in Athens on June 15, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

The Resign movement was organized through Facebook and other social media a few weeks ago.

It is a bid to allow protesters to vent their anger and discontent against strict austerity measures adopted by the ruling Syriza political party and to force the government to quit.

The movement’s representative Eleni Kritsidima had earlier said that the rally would be a peaceful one and the protests Wednesday went by peacefully.

The protest, however, has sparked fierce reactions from the leftist government which says the movement is instigated by opposition parties, New Democracy and PASOK.

“The ‘Resign’ movement is a cause that does not address the needs of Greek society and which is hostile towards the country at this time,” said government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili on state TV on Tuesday.

“The organizers are trying to hide by saying that no [politicians] are involved and this is all a spontaneous thing,” she said.

https://www.sott.net/image/s16/325635/large/55d816a3_1989_4d21_8fad_0386b5.jpg
People hold a banner reading “Go home Tsipras” in front of the Greek parliament in Athens on June 15, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

For years, Greece has been rocked by riots and industrial action in protest at the government's austerity policies which are dictated by the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund.

Austerity measures are intended to reduce government debt and bring stability to the nation's economy but they have failed to improve Greece's financial situation.

The austerity program has instead compounded Greece's problems because spending cuts have worsened the crisis of lower aggregate demand.

Last July, Greece signed a deal with the three big lenders to receive an EUR 86-billion bailout in exchange for fresh austerity reforms.

The agreement, however, triggered outrage and numerous protests against Tsipras who came to power on an anti-austerity platform.

Greece has already received two bailouts in 2010 and 2012, worth a total of EUR 240 billion from its creditors following the economic crisis which began in 2009.

Hervé

24th June 2016, 00:18

French Cops Claim They’re Too Tired to Keep Policing Massive Protests (http://countercurrentnews.com/2016/06/french-cops-claim-theyre-tired-keep-policing-massive-protests/)

By Counter Current News Editorial Team (http://countercurrentnews.com/author/admin/) June 23, 2016 5:57 pm

http://cdn.countercurrentnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/france-protests-2.jpg (http://cdn.countercurrentnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/france-protests-2.jpg)

Months of mass demonstrations and violence (https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/14/french-police-deporting-russia-fans-euro-2016-violence-alexander-shprygin) linked to the Euro 2016 football tournament have left French police begging for mercy. A heated combination of protests against controversial changes (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/26/why-france-labour-reforms-proved-so-contentious) to France’s employment laws and outbreaks of violence by Russian and British football fans has taken its toll, leading a union leader to beg for a reprieve (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/21/exhausted-french-police-plead-with-unions-to-postpone--fresh-pro/) for French law enforcement.

Protests opposing Francois Hollande’s proposals to relax France’s labour code began in March (http://theantimedia.org/biggest-protests-revolution-france/) and have been called the largest and longest-lasting since the French Revolution.

While the government argues the changes are crucial to lower unemployment, protesters claim they are bad for workers’ rights.

Countrywide protests have included strikes and blockades (http://www.france24.com/en/20160523-france-petrol-stations-run-dry-labour-reform-protests) of oil refineries and hundreds of fuel depots. Workers also downed tools at the state-owned rail company.

On June 14 (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-politics-protests-idUSKCN0Z014E), some masked protesters hurled paving slabs, smashed shop windows, and burned cars on the city streets. Despite relatively little mainstream media coverage of the mass protests, a series of violent images emerged showing police responding brutally (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-politics-protests-idUSKCN0Z014E) with tear gas, batons, and water cannons.

Around 60 people were arrested, and 29 police officers and 11 protesters were injured. Shortly after, workers’ unions and student organisations called for more street protests and strikes, on June 23 and June 28, to reject the new labour laws currently being debated in the Senate.

Earlier this week, France’s main police union, Alliance, pleaded with workers to postpone Thursday’s planned day of demonstrations to give the police time to recover.

“We’re asking for this demonstration to be postponed, along with any other static protests as are colleagues on all fronts are exhausted, worn out and tired,” Frederic Lagache, Alliance deputy secretary general said (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/21/exhausted-french-police-plead-with-unions-to-postpone--fresh-pro/).

Describing the protests as repetitive and very violent, he said the police are too exhausted to cope with them — especially on top of dealing with terrorism and violence linked to the hosting of Euro 2016.

Despite the pleas for respite, the government gave the green light to the demonstrations — but only if they were confined to a small area of the city.

At least 85 people were arrested in the capital as thousands took part in the largely peaceful protests. Union officials said 60,000 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36609307)people attended the march, but police said the number was closer to 20,000.

Violet

24th June 2016, 07:26

Following the May 24th national strike in which all labour unions took part, Belgian socialist labour union returns to strike today, June 24th, in a nation-wide manifestation.

http://deredactie.be/polopoly_fs/1.1967954!image/3956177719.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape670/3956177719.jpg
(http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.2693576)

Motivation:

- unreasonable demands to work longer, harder and evermore flexible*;
- decreasing purchasing power of families;
- destruction of public services;
- incessant government savings;
- richer getting richer with support of government.

http://www.abvv.be/image/image_gallery?uuid=cc3e890a-5df2-4cb3-869f-434756e445d7&groupId=10134&t=1465465086004 (http://www.abvv.be/web/guest/news-nl/-/article/4759487/;jsessionid=5XUHYsC0fN5Ck7gj_rSKTbH&p_l_id=10187)
(Slogan: No more stretch, out of patience)

*Examples of hyperflexibility:
- working weeks ranging from 45h to 50h depending on the employer;
- less pay for overtime;
- night shift starting hour move to 22:00;
- flexijobs and interim contract of indefinite nature increasingly more rule than exception;
- dependency on charity from a colleague to get sick leave if he or she wishes to replace you, rather than correct social provisions to which an employee be entitled;
- stigmatisation of sick employees, fear of becoming sick and job coming under threat.

And you will see from this list right here (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_strikes_in_Belgium) that in terms of strikes, 2015 and 2016 were probably deemed too extravagant to mention.

Hervé

28th June 2016, 22:07

French Police Arrest Some 80 People Amid Mass Rally Against Labour Bill (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160628/1042108685/france-arrests-labour-protests.html)

Sputnik (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160628/1042108685/france-arrests-labour-protests.html) Tue, 28 Jun 2016 21:36 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s16/327973/large/1039756653.jpg
© AFP 2016/ THOMAS SAMSON

French police have arrested 81 people amid Tuesday's mass demonstration against a labour reform bill, local media reported Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, a mass rally took place at 14:00 p.m. local time (15:00 GMT), with hundreds of thousands protesters marching from Bastille to Place d'Italie. Between 64,000 and 200,000 people took part in the demonstration, Europe 1 media outlet said citing its sources in police. Some 2,500 police officers have been deployed to keep order.

Earlier it was reported that some 30 people were detained by police, with 27 detained before the demonstration at inspection points through which all participants of the movements are checked.

Later on Thursday, the upper house of the French parliament adopted a revised version of government’s controversial labor reform bill.

In recent months, France has been hit by massive long-standing nationwide protests and sporadic strikes over a bill on the labor reforms, which seek to extend working hours, impose a cap on damages in cases of unfair dismissal as well as remove barriers to firing employees on economic grounds.

Related:
French Senate Passes Revised Version of Labor Law (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160628/1042104307/france-senate-labor.html)

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

... when one realizes that these labor law reforms are designed to "harmonize" with European legislations and other European countries' codes (Germany, particularly)... Frexit is not that far away...

Violet

30th June 2016, 07:11

We are approaching the UEFA finals. These demonstrations date from before, and have been ongoing. The whole world is looking at France and yet..

What does the revision hold?

Hervé

30th June 2016, 18:16

[...]
What does the revision hold?See this for some infos: Why have France's labour reforms proved so contentious? (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/26/why-france-labour-reforms-proved-so-contentious)

Hervé

18th July 2016, 16:10

France "Is On Verge Of Civil War" Security Chief Warns Feckless Hollande
(http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-18/frances-homeland-security-chief-re-warns-feckless-hollande-nation-verge-civil-war)
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-5.jpg (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)by Tyler Durden (http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) Jul 18, 2016 9:42 AM

Just a week ago (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-13/french-intel-chief-warns-migrant-sex-attacks-push-nation-brink-civil-war), French General Directorate for Internal Security Patrick Calvar told members of the French parliamentary commission that thanks to the increasing frequency of sexual assaults by islamic migrants, "Extremism is growing everywhere... We are on the brink of civil war." Now, in the wake of the Nice terror attacks that left 84 people dead with over 300 others wounded, Calvar is doubling down warning an increasingly questioned Hollande that an inevitable confrontation between the far right and Muslims looms, posing more of a threat than terrorism.

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2016/07/11/20160713_france.jpg

As SputnikNews reports (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160718/1043178514/nice-terror-hollande-civil-war.html?utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2Fc5PEIw7CDN&utm_medium=short_url&utm_content=bGyK&utm_campaign=URL_shortening), French President Francois Hollande faces stern criticism for his feckless response to the growing wave of Islamic migrants and the horrors of terrorism that have followed in their wake leading not only to a resurgence of the far-right nationalism within the country, but also leading members of his own cabinet to question whether he is overseeing the descent of France into a bloody civil war.
That was the warning provided by the nation’s top security official, Patrick Calvar, in the wake of the Nice terror attacks that left 84 people dead with over 300 others wounded when Tunisian born Daesh terrorist Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhel drove a 19-tonne cargo truck into a crowd celebrating Bastille Day – the country’s national holiday of independence and liberation marking the French Revolution.

Yet, this is not the first time that Calvar has made this dreary projection for the future of France. (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-13/french-intel-chief-warns-migrant-sex-attacks-push-nation-brink-civil-war)

Rather the security official has turned out to be quite prescient providing the same warning to the French parliament on July 12, 2015 – months after the Charlie Hebdo shooting, but long before horror descended upon the Bataclan Theater in Paris on November 13, 2015 and the city of Nice in the past week.
The confrontation that he warned of was what he first called “intercommunity confrontations” which he later explained was a politically correct way of saying that the far-right is ramping up for a full-fledged “war against Muslims.”
He cautioned that “one or two more terror attacks and we may well see a civil war.”
Perhaps the people that Calvar has attempted in despair to jolt into action need look only as far as recent presidential polling which shows:
the far-right Nationalist Front leader Marine Le Pen, daughter of the much more bombastic and bigoted Jean-Marie Le Pen, leading all presidential candidates by a healthy margin scoring 28% of the popular vote while former President Nicolas Sarkozy could only must 21% of the vote and the nearly helpless Francois Hollande received support from 14% of the electorate while boasting a historically bad 10% approval rating.
Those results were long before terror once again visited the country – this time in France – but shows a growing resentment among the population for the open borders of the European Union’s Schengen agreement in addition to distrust of the unelected cabal that rules the country from Brussels, Belgium – the European Commission.

As Sputnik concludes (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160718/1043178514/nice-terror-hollande-civil-war.html?utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2Fc5PEIw7CDN&utm_medium=short_url&utm_content=bGyK&utm_campaign=URL_shortening), perhaps Patrick Calvar’s warnings are too late – or perhaps they were never heard at all.

As we noted previously, (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-13/french-intel-chief-warns-migrant-sex-attacks-push-nation-brink-civil-war) it is not just the French who are hitting the panic button:
Mr Calvar's comments have come as the former MI6 boss Richard Dearlove also said that Europe faced a "populist uprising" if Governments do not take control of the migrant crisis.

And security experts in Germany have also warned Chancellor Angela Merkel that the middle class was becoming increasingly radicalised because of her open borders migrant policy.

Hervé

15th September 2016, 16:20

Clashes, tear gas in Paris as anti-labor reform protest turns violent (https://www.rt.com/news/359433-paris-clashes-labor-reform/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/359433-paris-clashes-labor-reform/)
Published time: 15 Sep, 2016 13:51
Edited time: 15 Sep, 2016 15:53
Get short URL (http://on.rt.com/7pc9)

https://www.sott.net/image/s17/344711/large/57daaa17c46188f34d8b459e.jpg
© Ruptly

People took to the streets across France on Thursday to once again protest the government’s controversial labor reforms. Violent clashes with police were reported in Paris and Nantes where tear gas was used.

There was a heavy presence of riot police in the French capital where thousands marched against the legislation, which allows employers to hire and fire people more easily, as well as negotiate working times with their staff directly.

Clashes broke out in Paris as groups of young protesters, who had their faces covered, provoked the police by throwing stones and flares. Law enforcement replied with batons and pepper spray.

Five police officers and at least one protestor were injured in clashes in Paris, French broadcaster iTELE reported, adding that 10 people were detained.

Earlier, security officials blocked all entrances and exits at the central Paris-Gare de Lyon train station to avoid an overflow of protestors.

Tensions were also high in the western port of Nantes, where police reportedly used tear gas on the crowd.

Videos posted online also show demonstrators being sprayed with several water hoses by security officials.

Demonstrators also marched through the eastern city of Belfort where 400 are at risk of losing their jobs after train-maker Alstom announced it would close the local plant due to lack of orders.

French airport workers also joined the walkout in protest over labor reform as the country’s civil aviation authority (DGAC) asked airlines operating out of Paris to cancel 15 percent of their flights on Thursday.

According to the DGAC, the disruptions are expected to be felt all across France and elsewhere in Europe. EasyJet and Ryanair carriers have already announced the cancellation of around 140 flights.

Protests against the labor reform continue despite the legislation having already been adopted by Parliament this summer.

The number of demonstrators, however, has been decreasing since it peaked at hundreds of thousands back in March. The previous walkout against the labor reform in July saw just around 35,000 participants.

However, the French regional trade unions CGT, FO, FSU, Solidaires, UNEF, UNL and FIDL, which called for the protest, expressed their eagerness to fight the government.

“We will show them that, law or no law, we will always stand against them,” Francois Roche, a member of the CGT union demonstrating in Marseille, told AFP.

Hervé

22nd October 2016, 17:07

Police crowd Notre Dame square protesting France’s 11-month state of emergency (PHOTOS, VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/363750-paris-protest-police-anger/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/363750-paris-protest-police-anger/)
Published time: 22 Oct, 2016 12:47
Edited time: 22 Oct, 2016 15:12

https://www.sott.net/image/s17/352566/large/580b4d7cc461887b668b459d.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s17/352566/full/580b4d7cc461887b668b459d.jpg)
© RT

Several hundred policemen took to the streets of France, from Paris to Bordeaux, for the fifth night in a row to complain about the unbearable working conditions and fatigue caused by an 11-month state of emergency, saying they're stretched to the limit.

Policemen got together in front of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris singing La Marseillaise, the country's national anthem, while applauding every police siren passing nearby. The officers complain that they are not even well enough equipped to defend themselves and are calling for Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve's resignation, Le Parisien (http://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/policiers-en-colere-cinquieme-nuit-de-mobilisation-sur-le-parvis-de-notre-dame-a-paris-21-10-2016-6237939.php) reported.

"We're asked to do things that have nothing to do with police work, like guarding theaters and synagogues and churches. It's becoming unbearable; we can't do it all," Nathalie, a 12-year veteran of the police force who asked that her last name not be disclosed, told CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/france-police-protest-1.3815716).

"If somebody dials 17 [France's 911], there aren't any cars around to respond. Misdemeanors, felonies... we don't have time for that anymore," another anonymous policeman said.

Previous Tweet (https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine/status/789580543050539008) Next Tweet (https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine/status/789577608996483073)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/729428840947290112/ZIOsBpCR_bigger.jpg Remy Buisine ‏@RemyBuisine (https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine) 20h20 hours ago (https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine/status/789567039090417665)
Rassemblement de plusieurs centaines de policiers devant Notre-Dame de PARIS ce vendredi soir. #ManifPolice (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ManifPolice?src=hash)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvUbCB5XYAIP-fU.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvUbCB4W8AU9-i0.jpg

Remy Buisine ‏@RemyBuisine (https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine) 20h20 hours ago (https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine/status/789577608996483073)
Les policiers partent en manifestation en direction de l'Hotel de Ville en chantant la Marseillaise ! #ManifPolice (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ManifPolice?src=hash)

Remy Buisine Verified account ‏@RemyBuisine (https://twitter.com/RemyBuisine)

Forte mobilisation ce soir encore des policiers à PARIS. 5eme soir consécutif. #ManifPolice (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ManifPolice?src=hash)

French police have been getting angrier since an officer was seriously injured in a Molotov cocktail attack in the suburbs of Paris on October 8, French broadcaster BVM said.

Similar demonstrations attended by hundreds of policemen have taken place in Lille, Marseille, and Grenoble, to name just a few cities.

"This movement is a minority, but there are still so many police in the streets, these are significant numbers who show up every night," Philippe Cavanac from the Unsa Police trade union told Radio Fidélité.

France has been in a state of emergency since the November attacks in Paris, in which 130 people were killed and more than 350 injured. Thousands of police and soldiers have been deployed to boost security at train and bus stations, airports, and schools since the tragedy occurred.

France's interior minister said in Lyon last week that the government has recruited 9,000 police staff since 2012, after a previous drop of 12,000 in the years under ex-president Sarkozy.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/718037659415887872/4dYS1Zi-_bigger.jpg Sam Smith ‏@SamSmithJRI (https://twitter.com/SamSmithJRI)

5eme #manifestation (https://twitter.com/hashtag/manifestation?src=hash) #ManifPolice (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ManifPolice?src=hash) #NotreDame (https://twitter.com/hashtag/NotreDame?src=hash) #Paris (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Paris?src=hash) freestyle

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvUl-jpWYAA3HUd.jpg

On Friday, French President Francois Hollande finally promised to meet with police officers next week.

Sarkozy said violent crime was not caused by insufficient police numbers, but rather the courts letting criminals off easy.

"I understand the anger of the police... I've never seen such an erosion of authority in this country," he told Europe 1 (http://www.europe1.fr/politique/sarkozy-je-comprends-la-colere-des-policiers-2877740) Radio on Thursday.

Sueanne47

26th October 2016, 16:08

French Police warn no-go zones a reality despite PM's denial :

d-01YeHnrAc

Hervé

11th November 2016, 13:25

[...]

============================================

Note: Hollande is at a short arm-length of being impeached and indicted for careless leaks of classified materials to the press... birds of a feather with Hillary, I guess...
'Simply doesn't have right to rule': French MPs bid to impeach Hollande (https://www.rt.com/news/366486-hollande-impeachment-politicians-resolution/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/366486-hollande-impeachment-politicians-resolution/) Fri, 11 Nov 2016 12:56 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s17/356735/large/58258c65c4618817198b4581.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s17/356735/full/58258c65c4618817198b4581.jpg)
© Christian Hartmann / Reuters

Dozens of French politicians have sent a draft resolution calling for the impeachment of President Francois Hollande to the High Court, national media report. The MPs accuse the leader of disclosing confidential information to the press.

"A copy of the draft resolution to the High Court was filed ," the lower house of the French parliament, according to documents seen (http://www.tdg.ch/monde/79-deputes-veulent-destituer-hollande/story/11103957)by AFP.

The High Court is a special jurisdiction responsible for ruling on the impeachment of the president.

The politicians referred to a 2014 legislation (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexteArticle.do?idArticle=LEGIARTI000006527564&cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006071194&dateTexte=vig)which states that a president can be removed from office if there is a "breach of their duties that is clearly incompatible with the exercise of their mandate."

The letter was also reportedly sent to the National Assembly, which will deliver it to President Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

The draft resolution included "79 original signatories" from Republican MPs, with others to be added later, according to the document. It said at least 152 Republicans supported the step.

However, a parliamentary source told AFP that the court will only count the 79 submitted signatures.

The resolution says it is based "on serious breaches of his [Hollande's] duties shown by the President of the Republic, in particular by [B]clear violations of defense secrecy."

"It [the resolution] expresses our deep conviction that a president must not, cannot and simply does not have a right to say anything in relation to his responsibilities as head of state and army chief," the document added.

The document is the initiative of Pierre Lellouche, a member of Les Républicains (the Republicans) party.

Among the politicians who signed the resolution are ex-Prime Minister Francois Fillon, who served in the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. Fillon, however, said that the procedure is unlikely to be a success "because the majority of parliament is necessary" to demand impeachment. The National Assembly currently has 577 members.

An additional impetus for politicians to proceed with the resolution was the release of a new book, 'A President Shouldn't Say That...', in October. It was written by journalists Gerard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme, who have met with Hollande 61 times since he became president. The book contains private conversations with the leader in which he made a number of controversial statements.

In one of the meetings, Hollande reportedly said there is a "problem with Islam, no one doubts it." Referring to Muslim women, the French president said that "the veiled women of today will be the Marianne of tomorrow," referring to a statue which stands in the Place de la Republique in Paris and serves as a symbol of France, liberty, and reason. The French president went on to elaborate on what he meant - that Muslim women can fully integrate into France if they remove their headscarves and veils.

Speaking on immigration - another hot topic in France - Hollande said in one of the cited public speeches that he believes there are "too many immigrant arrivals who should not be there."

With elections looming next year, Hollande is in third place in the race to choose the next head of state, behind former Prime Minister Alain Juppe and Sarkozy. He has already been declared the most unpopular French president in history, according to numerous polls.

An Ipsos poll from October this year showed that 70 percent of the population are "unsatisfied" with Hollande, while another 26 percent are "neither satisfied nor unsatisfied" - meaning just 4 percent of the population support the president.

Hervé

4th December 2016, 11:49

1,000s of Spaniards march against corporations & austerity (VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/369140-spain-austerity-protest-22m/)

Published time: 4 Dec, 2016 11:14
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Thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid on Saturday in the latest Dignity March – a protest against the government’s austerity policies.

Participants in Saturday evening’s demonstration walked about two kilometers from Plaza de España to Plaza de Neptuno carrying banners demanding that the government put an end to budget cuts and act independently from Brussels. They also accused their government of protecting the interests of big multinational corporations at the expense of the Spanish people.

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Organizers from the so-called 22M movement estimated that more than 8,000 people joined the rally, the EFE news agency reported.

The 22M movement, whose name stands for March 22, the date of the first (https://www.rt.com/news/spain-protest-cuts-crisis-509/) Dignity March in 2014, grew out of public disaffection with the rightist government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who came to power in 2011 and adopted a number of austerity measures.

In the midst of an economic crisis and a series of demonstrations against the government’s policies, his cabinet pushed through the so-called ‘gag law’ in 2015, which imposes heavy fines for violating rules during public protests, cracks down on the use of social media to organize them, and introduced new punishments for disobeying police while participating.

The ruling People’s Party has since lost its majority in the parliament and needs support of the opposition Socialist Party to enact policies.

Saturday’s protest was held despite a government pledge to raise the country’s minimum wage by eight percent next year. The wage is to set to rise from €764.4 to €825.5 per month.

Hervé

4th December 2016, 13:28

Italy divided as voters take part in key constitutional referendum on parliamentary powers (https://www.rt.com/news/369130-italy-referndum-parliament-constitution/)

Published time: 4 Dec, 2016 05:15
Edited time: 4 Dec, 2016 11:21
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Italians are having their say on slashing the powers of their upper house of parliament in a referendum proposed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The fate of the Senate has caused heated debate, as Renzi has pledged to quit if the ‘No’ camp wins.

Today, voters are deciding on whether to approve a constitutional amendment put forth by the Italian prime minister that would see a break in the tradition of so-called “perfect bicameralism,” which has prevailed in Italy for decades. Under the 1948 Constitution, the Italian parliament is made up of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate. The institutions are equal in power, and all legislation must be adopted by both chambers to be passed, which has repeatedly caused political deadlock in Italy. The core of Renzi’s reform, first proposed two years ago, envisions cutting the Senate’s powers and reducing the number of its members from 315 to 100. Those remaining would be elected by regional assemblies, and not directly, as is currently the case.

If the referendum passes, most bills would only need approval from the Chamber of Deputies to become law, with the exception of passing constitutional reforms or ratifying EU treaties. During the referendum drive, the prime minister argued that these measures would spare Italy from political gridlock and aid its economic growth. However, critics, including the opposition Five-Star Movement led by Beppe Grillo, fear that, if passed, the amendment will destroy (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/30/italy-referendum-all-you-need-to-know-about-renzis-crunch-vote) political balance and give the government too much power.

Renzi gambles on referendum
The referendum has become critical for current Italian politics, as Renzi has pledged to step down if his opponents get the upper hand. “If the citizens vote ‘No’ and want a decrepit system that does not work, I will not be the one to deal with other parties for a caretaker government,” Renzi said in an interview with Rtl 102.5 radio, as quoted by Italian newspaper Repubblica (http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2016/11/17/news/renzi_rilancia_se_vince_il_no_io_non_galleggio_niente_pasticci_ne_governi_tecnici_-152175422/). In that case, Italy may face a snap election amid growing support for the Euroskeptic Grillo party.

Renzi’s proposals have caused quite a divide in the Italian population, resulting in pro- and anti-government rallies sprouting up across the country. One of the largest protests against the reform, which was staged by the right-wing Liga Nord party, took place in Florence on November 11, where some 12,000 people attended. Similar rallies, some of which resulted in clashes with police, have been seen in Rome, Palermo and other key cities.

However, Matteo Renzi has not been short of supporters either, with numerous demonstrations backing his measure also filling the streets of Italian towns and cities.

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The mood remained divided on the eve of the referendum.

“I will vote yes, a convinced yes, because it is a great opportunity to speed up the political time,” a woman named Laura told RT’s Ruptly news agency in Florence. Her opinion was echoed by another voter, who called the constitutional amendment a step towards a “better democracy.”

However, supporters of the ‘No’ camp say that it is important “to keep the situation” as it is. Others say they see the referendum as an opportunity to get rid of Renzi.

“I am voting no, simply because it is a protest vote against the government of Renzi,” a man named Giovanni said.

On the contrary, many Western media outlets have warned of the dire consequences of the referendum, with many saying it could lead to the end of the eurozone. The Independent went (http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/italian-referendum-constitutional-reform-matteo-renzi-far-right-populism-eurozone-a7443601.html)with the headline: “The Italian referendum result could be the beginning of the end for the Eurozone.”

CNN (http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/01/investing/italy-referendum-eu-matteo-renzi/)echoed the thought, saying that Italy’s referendum vote is a “nightmare scenario” in the heart of Europe, which may lead to the country exiting the EU.

Matteo Renzi is known for criticizing the EU’s austerity policies, particularly those advocated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He has also urged the European Union to develop a closer dialogue with Russia and stood up against imposing further sanctions on Moscow over its backing of the Syrian government’s operation against terrorists and rebel militants in Aleppo.

It is critical that Italy says ‘No,’ believes Cristian Invernizzi from the Lega Nord political party.

“Let’s think about the outgoing US Ambassador, let’s think about Europe, let’s think about the OSCE, let’s think about the big international investment banks. Why do they all side with ‘Yes? Because they all want to keep having an Italy submitted under this international order that cannot decide its own future,” he told RT. “We have to say ‘No' just to have the opportunity to speak on the Constitution and guarantee to the citizens their own rights, that means their sovereignty.”

However, Pierferdinando Casini, chairman of the Italian Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, believes that a ‘No’ victory “would be a lost opportunity.”

“It would mean going backwards, it would mean to defeat all that has been done in this country over this last year by Renzi’s government leap and, first of all, at President Napolitano’s impulse. Afterwards we are not leaving Europe, we are not leaving the euro, but this is cold comfort, because the whole world is asking if Italy is able to change, and I wish I could say for my country ‘Yes, we’ve been able to change,’” he said.

Hervé

8th February 2017, 17:26

Fourth night of violence in Paris suburbs amid allegations of police rape and brutality (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-police-violence-idUSKBN15N0K0?il=0)

Rueters (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-police-violence-idUSKBN15N0K0?il=0) Wed, 08 Feb 2017 17:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s18/376349/large/JS119956048_AFP_A_picture_take.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s18/376349/full/JS119956048_AFP_A_picture_take.jpg)
Rioters burned cars in the Paris suburb amid simmering anger over the alleged rape of a local man during his arrest last week © Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images

Violence spread in Paris's northern suburbs for a fourth night and French police arrested a dozen people, police said on Wednesday, amid accusations that police officers raped and beat a man they were detaining.

Dozens of vehicles and a nursery school were set on fire by youths during standoffs with police in an area of Paris where riots in 2005 drew global attention to the stark contrast between wealthy Paris and the suburbs that surround it.

As well as damaging the nursery school and a car sales outlet, youths had also used a shopping trolley full of petrol bombs, police said.

The trouble began in Aulnay-sous-Bois on Feb. 2 where four police officers were accused of using excessive force while arresting a 22-year-old man, including raping him with a baton.

"For the moment we're talking of very violent but isolated standoffs," said Luc Poignant from the SGP police union.

While much more limited than 12 years ago, the unrest served as a reminder of the simmering tensions in neighborhoods with higher-than-average unemployment and big immigrant populations, as France prepares to elect a new president this year.

The jobless rate in Aulnay-sous-Bois is nearly twice the national average of 10 percent.

"Sadly these neighborhoods have been turned into ghettos," said police representative Yves Lefebvre, who said that police were not sufficiently trained or equipped to deal with the problems in the sprawling suburbs where drug dealing is rife.

The four police officers have been suspended pending an inquiry and one has been placed under formal investigation for suspected rape and three others for unnecessary violence.

The victim, a young black man, has himself called for calm, and he and his family say they trust the justice system will deal properly with the affair.

President Francois Hollande visited the man on Tuesday at the Aulnay hospital.

Police said the skirmishes on Tuesday night were mainly in towns around Aulnay-sous-Bois, which itself was relatively calm.

The unrest is playing out against a backdrop of growing political uncertainty in France, with support growing for far-right leader Marine Le Pen and conservative Francois Fillon hit by accusations his wife was paid by the state for a fake job.

The 2005 riots, in which 10,000 cars and 300 buildings were set on fire, prompted then interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, to declare a state of emergency.

Political opponents say Sarkozy made matters worse when, as president from 2007 to 2012, he scrapped specialized local police teams and cut police staffing by 10,000.

Hervé

15th February 2017, 20:12

Clashes in Paris as protests against police brutality continue (VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/377481-clashes-in-paris-protest/)

RT
Published time: 15 Feb, 2017 18:20
Edited time: 15 Feb, 2017 19:01
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Clashes have erupted in Paris as hundreds of people have once again taken to the streets to protest police brutality. Police used tear gas against the demonstrators.

The protesters once again gathered to express their support for a young black man known as Theo L., who was allegedly raped by police officers on February 2. This incident has already sparked a series of violent protests in Paris and its surrounding suburbs.

[video at link (https://www.rt.com/news/377481-clashes-in-paris-protest/)]

The demonstration is taking place at the Barbes Boulevard in the northern part of the city. It has already been marked by violence as police used tear gas to stop the crowd which tried to break through police cordons.

The protesters began smashing windows of nearby buildings and forced police to intervene. Demonstrators also hurled projectiles at police officers and set fire to trash cans.

The protesters are chanting "no justice, no peace" and "cops are rapists and murders!" They are also singing "everyone hates the police," according to the French Express newspaper.

During previous protests which started two weeks ago, demonstrators used fireworks, burned cars, and shattered shop windows. After several nights of unrest in the suburbs, angry protests shifted to central Paris.

About 254 people have been arrested since the protests flared up on February 4, the Express reports.

Theo himself has urged French youths not to resort to violence.

One of the police officers was charged with rape and three others with aggravated assault. The case is currently under investigation.

Hervé

30th March 2017, 13:11

Nephew of killed Chinese man says 'French police arrived, broke door and pulled trigger' (https://www.rt.com/news/382727-chinese-man-police-paris/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/382727-chinese-man-police-paris/)
Thu, 30 Mar 2017 08:09 UTC

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A man hold a Chinese flag during a protest in front of the police headquarters in the 19th arrondissement of Paris on March 28, 2017 © Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt / AFP

Paris' Asian community is demanding an explanation for the unjustified brutality it has been subject to at the hands of French police, as well as the truth about why officers recently killed a Chinese man in France's capital, the victim's nephew said.

"You have the violence of the police that strikes our Asian community. I have no idea about the reason, but we are here to demand an explanation," Lulu Zheng, the nephew of Shaoyo Liu, who was shot dead by police on Sunday, told RT's Ruptly (https://youtu.be/bB_ZZLlXuX0) news video agency on Tuesday.

The officers were called to Shaoyo Liu's home on Sunday following a family argument and eventually ended up killing the Chinese father of five.

The police said the 56-year-old attacked the officers with a pair of scissors.

The victim's family refutes this explanation, however, saying he was using the scissors to cut the fish he was cooking.

"We want the truth. [We want to find out] why a policeman comes into someone's home, breaks the door, and pulls the trigger," Zheng said in perfect French.

News of the incident led to two days of violent protests against police brutality in Paris' 19th arrondissement, which saw hundreds of members of the Asian community participating.

Police used teargas to break up the crowd during the riots, which resulted in dozens of arrests and injuries to several officers.

French police officer Eddy Sid told Ruptly that using "legitimate violence" to stop the Chinese man was "sadly the only option."

"He (Liu) had psychological problems. He rushed against the police and tried to attack them with large scissors," he explained.

According to the policeman, Liu tried to stab an officer three times before his colleagues opened fire.

During his interview, the officer was interrupted by a woman, who said that the police's new self-defense law was "a killing permit."

"I'm outraged to have this situation in France... We are equal citizens: Chinese, Arabs, Jews, Muslims," she said.

While the woman doubted that Liu had been aggressive, she pointed out that, even if they really had been acting in self-defense, "police had other weapons: a taser, other things."

"I say that we must purge the police; we must clean the police. It has degenerated. I can understand the fact of burning cars; we have to understand our cause too," she stressed.

The French Parliament passed a law in February relaxing self-defense restraints on police officers, who are now allowed to use weapons when "armed persons threaten their lives or their physical integrity or those of others."

Another Chinese woman told Ruptly that if "a policeman was wounded by a poor man with scissors... the policeman must appear in the press and make explanations."

She also blamed police for "not paying attention" to the problems of the Chinese community in Paris, which "is being watched by thugs."

The French capital saw another wave of protests against police brutality in February after an officer was charged with raping and abusing a young black man.

Hervé

14th April 2017, 14:12

HELP! French farmer mows ‘message of despair’ in wheat field

RT
Published time: 14 Apr, 2017 11:47
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© Guillaume Souvant / AFP

A French farmer has mown the giant letters HELP into his wheat field, hoping presidential candidates will handle the agricultural sector crisis. He says the authorities are “deaf” to farmers’ anger, but hopes they won't be blind to his “message of despair.”

“Political leaders do not listen to us,” Jacques Fortin from Athée-sur-Cher commune in central France told (http://www.lepoint.fr/insolite/indre-et-loire-un-agriculteur-dessine-le-mot-help-avec-du-ble-13-04-2017-2119579_48.php)AFP. “They're deaf to our anger. I hope they're not blind and will read this message of despair.”

The 63-year-old farmer says that he now lives in the world where he has “the responsibilities of a chief executive,” but lives “below the poverty threshold.”

https://cdn.rt.com/files/2017.04/original/58f08caac461887f328b4620.jpg
French farmer Jacques Fortin © Guillaume Souvant / AFP

“It's not normal to live with €350 [US$372] a month when you work every day... Some break down. Others commit suicide,” he added. The national poverty threshold in France is €800 per month.

Thus, he has mown a huge message to the authorities – the letters HELP which measure 100 meters long by 48 meters wide in his 5-hectare wheat field. The message comes days before the first round of presidential elections that will take place April 23.

“When they pass overhead, airliners start to descend to Orly [international airport in the south of Paris]. Passengers can see my SOS,” said Fortin, adding that the message is a “collective SOS", expressed on behalf of all farmers.

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'Shame on you, you are lazy': Angry farmers boo #Hollande (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Hollande?src=hash) at agricultural fair (VIDEO) http://on.rt.com/75lo (https://t.co/5xkNAvsvqm)

3:01 PM - 28 Feb 2016 “We have had successive years of bad weather conditions in the past four years. Farmers are at the end of their rope. They are fed up,” he said.

In 2016, the French government admitted (http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/Societe/Insultes-pour-Hollande-et-heurts-au-Salon-de-l-Agriculture-921089)that some 40,000 farms were in a “situation of extreme urgency.”

Farmers have repeatedly staged protests, calling upon the government to improve conditions in the agricultural sector. In March, some 20 farmers drove their tractors to a meeting with presidential candidate Francois Fillon.

“We need support and proposals from the candidates, because so far we haven't had much of either,” dairy farmer Julien Hindre told (https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/35031893/help-french-farmers-desperate-message-in-wheat-field/#page1)AFP at the time.

In January, French farmers joined a mass protest in Brussels and sprayed a ton of powdered milk at the build of the European Union Council in the EU capital.

Numerous farmers’ protests rocked the country in 2014-2016, decrying low prices of agricultural products. The prices were driven down in part by the 2014 Russian import embargo, which caused the domestic products flood the national market.

Some of the demonstrations turned violent with protesters burning tires, blocking roads and dumping tons of manure at government buildings.

Related:
Merde! Protesting French farmers dump tons of manure at govt buildings (VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/202783-france-farmer-protest-manure/)
‘You’re killing us’: French farmers dump manure, block roads to protest low meat & milk prices (https://www.rt.com/news/310392-france-farmers-dump-waste/)

CelineK

14th April 2017, 23:27

pas de protestations pour le demantelenent de l'OTAN?

arent europeans fed up with NATO yet?

Hervé

12th May 2017, 14:46

French workers occupy factory, threaten to blow it up in protest over possible closure (https://www.rt.com/news/388032-french-workers-threaten-blow-factory/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/388032-french-workers-threaten-blow-factory/)
Fri, 12 May 2017 12:19 UTC

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Workers at a car component factory in central France have occupied the plant and are threatening to blow it up in a radical protest against their bosses as the site risks closure.

The workers at the GM&S auto-suppliers plant in the Creuse region, north of Limoges, have told Renault and Peugeot they are ready to blow up the factory if their demands are not met.

Some 280 jobs at the site are under threat after the plant went into receivership back in December, and workers accuse the two car giants of blocking negotiations for a takeover of the factory and of making too few orders.

The protesters have already started destroying machinery at the site. Photos released on social media on Thursday, show them cutting a machine in half with a blowtorch. Trade union representatives say the workers will destroy a machine each day unless their demands are met.

Parts of the factory have been also apparently rigged with explosives, with Twitter images showing gas canisters strung up next to a huge tank of liquid oxygen. It is, however, not clear if the canisters are filled with gas or are empty.

"We did not want it to get here, but we don't have a choice: our average age is 49, what else will we do?" CGT union delegate Vincent Labrousse told Le Parisien. "Since they want to liquidate us, we are not going to leave the factory as it is. It's sad to say, but here we are."

Negotiations with management over the last few weeks have failed and the closure of the factory is likely to be announced on May 23.

The protesters are demanding a meeting with Peugeot and Renault managers as well as newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron.

"We refuse to be taken for a ride anymore," Labrousse told AFP.

"We have been fighting for six months and we are sorry to get to this point but at the moment there is a threat of liquidation and if that happens then the factory will not be returned in one piece."
This would not be the first time workers have threatened to destory an auto part factory in France. In 2000, protesters threatened to blow up the Cellatex plant in the Ardennes over redundancy payments, while in 2001, a similar threat was made over the Moulinex works in Normandy.

Most recently in 2009, workers threatened to destroy the New Fabris parts factory in Vienne if their bonuses were not paid. However, none of the threats were actually carried out.

Related:
Riot police fire tear gas at farmers’ demonstration in France (https://www.rt.com/news/333535-farmers-protest-gas-police/)

Hervé

31st August 2017, 18:26

French activists protest Macron's assault on workers' rights (https://www.rt.com/news/401508-france-labor-reform-protest/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/401508-france-labor-reform-protest/)
Thu, 31 Aug 2017 17:31 UTC

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© Ruptly

Several hundred activists have taken to the streets of a Paris suburb, protesting against new labor reforms which will make it easier for companies to hire and fire workers, and accusing President Emmanuel Macron of failing to represent the people.

The rally, organized (http://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/paris-ile-de-france/yvelines/manifestation-vient-perturber-universite-ete-du-medef-jouy-josas-1318885.html) by a group of trade unions, Solidaires and the CGT as well as associations like Attac France and Members of the Right to Housing (DAL), denounced the reforms of the labor code that is currently under government discussion.

Protesters arrived at the HEC School of Management in the Jouy-en-Josas suburb -where France's largest employer federation MEDEF are hosting their 'Summer University' - to speak out against the perceived influence of the French business lobby over their newly elected business friendly president.

"Mr. Macron represents the big bosses, and those who want to cut public services, social protection and everything achieved by workers," one of the protesters at the rally told RT.

The Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF), has been making their own demands to Macron's government as it works to reform the country's Labor Code. Speaking to Europe 1 radio, the vice-president of MEDEF Thibault Lanxade confirmed (http://www.europe1.fr/politique/reforme-du-code-du-travail-au-medef-on-est-tres-optimiste-dit-lanxade-3422666) that his organization has great "confidence" in the reforms carried out by Macron.

Protesters however believe that MEDEF, which represents over 750,000 companies of all sizes, does not represent the interests of workers.

"It is about ideology. To be able to sack workers more easily and stop work. In fact, he wants to get rid of employee protections altogether. It is a big attack of the hierarchy. Corporate deals will now take over," another protester added.

Reforming the country's strict labor laws has been one of Macron's top priorities. On Tuesday, his government begun (http://en.rfi.fr/france/20170822-macron-faces-hot-autumn-labour-reform-talks-enter-last-leg)the final round of talks with trade unions' representatives on liberalizing the labor laws which the government hopes will reduce the 9.5 percent unemployment rate in France.

Francois Hollande's Socialist government sparked months of protests trying to push through a less ambitious labor bill last year.

Now Macron strives to grant employers more power to negotiate employment conditions with workers, which some believe will diminish the weight of trade unions. The 39-year-old former investment banker also wants to cap the compensation awarded by courts in workers dismissal cases. The final version of the reforms will be presented on 31 August.

The CGT union has already called for a massive nationwide rally on September 12. Force Ouvriere (FO), the third largest trade union in France, turned down an invitation to participate. Despite the snub, huge numbers are expected to march through the streets.

Hervé

1st October 2017, 16:42

Barcelona mayor: Over 460 injured, police must stop attacking ‘defenseless population’ (https://www.rt.com/news/405255-barcelona-mayor-460-injured-police-stop/)

RT
Published time: 1 Oct, 2017 14:53
Edited time: 1 Oct, 2017 15:38
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Spanish Guardia Civil guards drag a man outside a polling station in Sant Julia de Ramis, where Catalan president was supposed to vote, on October 1, 2017. © Raymond Roig / AFP

The Mayor of Barcelona urged the Spanish police to immediately end their violence “against the defenseless population.” Spain’s central authorities launched a massive crackdown on the Catalan independence referendum which they say is illegal.

At least 460 people have been injured in clashes between police and voters amid the ongoing independence referendum, Mayor Ada Colau tweeted, urging Spain’s law enforcement to immediately stop using aggressive tactics “against the defenseless population.”

In a separate statement, the Catalan health service reported treating 465 casualties, two of whom are in a serious condition in hospital.

Spain’s Interior Ministry said that nine police officers and three Civil Guards sustained injuries during the clashes.

Sunday’s Catalan independence referendum was marked by violent clashes between voters and the police, which attempted to block Catalans from voting, forcibly removing them from polling stations. The police repeatedly used batons and rubber bullets against civilians, as multiple footage from the scene indicates.

zAAtmxjEzn0

Related:
Catalonia holds independence referendum amid violent attempts to thwart vote Live updates (https://www.rt.com/news/405135-spain-catalonia-independence-referendum/)

Hervé

2nd October 2017, 01:11

90% of voters said ‘Yes’ to independence from Spain – Catalan government (https://www.rt.com/news/405303-catalonia-independence-referendum-results/)

RT
Published time: 1 Oct, 2017 22:42
Edited time: 1 Oct, 2017 23:26
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People react as they gather at Plaza Catalunya after voting ended for the banned independence referendum, in Barcelona, Spain October 1, 2017 © Susana Vera / Reuters

The overwhelming majority of Catalans who participated in the banned referendum have voted in favor of independence from Spain, the Catalan government has announced.

Over two million Catalans, or 90.9 percent of those who voted said ‘Yes’ in Sunday's referendum, regional authorities said. Only 7,87 percent, or 176,565 voters said ‘No’ when asked if they want to attain independence from Madrid.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/899556247757836289/V974l8I0_bigger.jpg Govern. Generalitat‏Verified account @govern (https://twitter.com/govern)

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f4ca.png Resultats del Referèndum de #1OCT (https://twitter.com/hashtag/1OCT?src=hash)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DLFlBtbWkAErTNH.jpg

3:51 PM - 1 Oct 2017
200 replies 2,206 retweets 1,957 likes The Catalan government said the result reflects only the ballots that “were not seized” during police raids on polling stations throughout the day.

“What kind of a democracy steals ballot boxes?” asked Vice President Oriol Junqueras, standing next to government representatives, Raul Romeva and Jordi Turull.

“We will be consistent with the democratic mandate that citizens have given us today,” he added. “Catalonia has won its right to be a new Republic, if this is what the Parliament decides.”

Of Catalonia’s 5.34 million voters, this represents a turnout of around 42.3 percent, excluding those whose ballots were confiscated and people who were prevented from voting by police.

The massive police crackdown “prevented” an estimated 770,000 people from voting, Catalan government board member Turull said during the vote result announcement.
Turull said out of the 844 people that suffered injuries from police brutality during the vote, 74 have already filed official complaints.

Romeva noted that during Sunday's events, “everyone saw that on one side we saw violence and shame, and on the other we had democracy and dignity.”

“All the repression falls absolutely on the side of the government of Rajoy and the police forces that have been brought in for this purpose,” Romeva said, according to La Vanguardia.

The head of the regional government, Carles Puigdemont, earlier praised the courage millions of Catalan people, who, despite a violent police crackdown, took to the polling stations to vote.

At least 844 people were injured on Sunday after being attacked by police as they were exercising their democratic right to vote. At the same time least 33 officers were injured in clashes with voters, the Spanish interior ministry announced.

After polling stations in Catalonia closed, Spain's Prime Minister announced that “no referendum” took place in the country, claiming the majority of Catalans “obeyed the law” and did not want to participate in the independence vote after Madrid branded it “illegal” and issued a poll ban. Rajoy praised officers for “performing their duty,” while the Spanish foreign minister called the police response “proportionate.”

Related:‘Catalonian citizens won the right to statehood’ – regional president (https://www.rt.com/news/405299-catalonia-earned-right-statehood/)

'There was no independence referendum in Catalonia today' – Spain PM (https://www.rt.com/news/405287-spains-pm-says-there-was-no-referendum/)

Hervé

20th January 2018, 14:20

'We’ve had enough!' Protesters demand new agricultural policies in Germany (VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/416495-germany-protest-agriculture-conference/)

RT
Published time: 20 Jan, 2018 12:00 Edited time: 20 Jan, 2018 12:48
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/8xdb)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.01/article/5a63274ffc7e93d5688b4567.jpg
Protesters gather in Berlin calling for changes to Germany's agricultural policies. © Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters

Demonstrators armed with pots and spoons have taken to the streets of Berlin to demand government changes which would benefit small farmers. It coincides with Berlin’s hosting of the world’s largest agricultural fair.

Footage posted online by Ruptly showed the protesters marching through the streets carrying banners, some of which featured a photo of a honeybee. “New agricultural policy,” the signs read.

The protest’s slogan is “Wir haben es satt,” which translates to “We have had enough.” Numerous tractors also rode through the streets as part of the demonstration.

[video at link (https://www.rt.com)]

The demonstrators are rallying for legislation to induce sustainable fair trade and improve the nutritional quality of products, along with benefiting independent farmers. They say the German government and agricultural industry have increased exports by lowering prices and animal protection standards, claiming the moves have negatively impacted German farmers.

The protesters say Germany needs to instead concentrate on fair trade, stop promoting big farming companies, and focus on improving quality. They also say that supermarkets need to use labeling which shows the origin of meat and milk products.

Similar protests take place every year during “Green Week,” when Berlin hosts the largest agricultural fair in the world.

Hervé

7th February 2018, 15:04

French fishermen protest electrical 'pulse' fishing, block Calais and Boulogne (http://en.mercopress.com/2018/01/26/french-fishermen-protest-against-pulse-fishing-and-block-calais-and-boulogne)

Metro Press (http://en.mercopress.com/2018/01/26/french-fishermen-protest-against-pulse-fishing-and-block-calais-and-boulogne)
Fri, 26 Jan 2018 14:22 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449903/medium/france.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449903/full/france.jpg)
Fishermen in Boulogne set pallets and tyres alight on an access road while two French boats blockaded an area of the port where Dutch trawlers unload© Unknown

French fishermen have blocked the ports of Calais and Boulogne in protest at so-called pulse fishing, which uses electrified nets to stun fish. Fishing boats stopped ferries entering or leaving Calais while a roadblock stopped traffic at Boulogne. Calais is a major link between the UK and France used by thousands of tourists and lorries every day.

The European Parliament recently voted to ban pulse fishing which is mainly used by Dutch trawlers.

The head of P&O Ferries, Janette Bell, said the blockade of Calais was "utterly unacceptable". It was lifted at 16:00 GMT, though the ports were expected to take a while to get back to normal. The fishermen said they would meet government officials on Friday to discuss the issue.

The English port of Dover was also hit by the action, with P&O and DFDS Seaways suspending some scheduled services. DFDS later rerouted some services through Dunkirk while P&O advised some customers to use the Channel Tunnel.

Fishermen in Boulogne set pallets and tyres alight on an access road while two French boats blockaded an area of the port where Dutch trawlers unload their catches.

Stéphane Pinto, vice president of the regional fisheries committee, said a small flotilla of boats had sailed to Calais from Boulogne and other boats from Dunkirk had joined them. He said the fishermen faced financial losses because of the use of pulse fishing.
"We're at our wits ends. We feel abandoned," he added.
The controversial technique involves trawlers using nets that generate an electric current, stunning the fish and making them float upwards where they are easier to catch.

The Netherlands is the biggest user of this method in the EU, and argues that it is better for the environment than traditional trawling. However, the practice has inflamed French fishermen who complain it is depleting stocks. The French conservation group Bloom is also campaigning against the method.

Following its vote, the European Parliament will hold long negotiations with the European Commission and member states to agree a package of measures to streamline regulations for fishing. However Dutch trawlers can continue to use pulse fishing until the new legislation comes into force.

Hervé

7th February 2018, 17:55

French farmers' protest against EU subsidy cuts stretches into second week - Travel chaos in Occitanie region (http://en.rfi.fr/20180131-french-farmers-protest-toulouse-EU-subsidies)

Pascal Pavani RFI (http://en.rfi.fr/20180131-french-farmers-protest-toulouse-EU-subsidies)
Wed, 31 Jan 2018 16:25 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449954/large/20180206120108697_1.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449954/full/20180206120108697_1.jpg)
Farmers have blocked highways, national roads and bridges across the southwestern region of Occitanie. © La Dépêche

Protesting farmers brought the ringroad of France's fourth-largest city to a halt in a protest against a possible cut in European Union subsidies on Wednesday. Meanwhile in Paris, the government unveiled proposals to ensure they get a fair price for their produce from big supermarket chains.

There were traffic jams on the ringroad of Toulouse, the south-western city that is home to the headquarters of European planemaker Airbus, from 6.30am as more than 100 tractors blocked commuters.

Farmers from across the region set fire to piles of tyres, palettes and hay and grilled sausages for picnics on the motorway under the watchful eye of the police.

https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449956/large/20180206174339508_2.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449956/full/20180206174339508_2.jpg)
© La Dépêche

In a joint statement, two unions accused the government of "laughing at farmers" because of plans to reduce the number of "less favoured agricultural areas", which are entitled to EU subsidies.

The government has proposed a reduction of 100 such zones in the Haute Garonne département around Toulouse.

Protesters claimed the move could deprive them of as much as 7,000 euros a year.

The new classification is to be decided on 15 February and come into effect in the spring.

https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449957/large/20180206120108697_4.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449957/full/20180206120108697_4.jpg)
© La Dépêche

SOTT Comment (https://www.sott.net/article/376662-French-farmers-protest-against-EU-subsidy-cuts-stretches-into-second-week-Travel-chaos-in-Occitanie-region): 10 days later, the protests are still going strong. Farmers have created so many roadblocks on highways and national roads that it is difficult to leave some towns and cities, much less the region. Train lines in and out of cities are also blocked.

French farmers have been protesting about the terrible prices they get for their produce for years, but little has changed.

In the meantime, President Macron has hinted that he is willing to consider a complete overhaul (https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-breaks-french-taboo-on-farm-subsidies-cap-policy-eu-budget/) of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, something French governments have until now always resisted touching.

Hervé

9th February 2018, 22:38

En bref:

Winter of Discontent in France: Protests, Endless Dark Skies, And Crazy New Laws (https://www.sott.net/article/376907-Winter-of-Discontent-in-France-Protests-Endless-Dark-Skies-And-Crazy-New-Laws#)

Niall Bradley Sott.net (https://www.sott.net/article/376907-Winter-of-Discontent-in-France-Protests-Endless-Dark-Skies-And-Crazy-New-Laws#)
Fri, 09 Feb 2018 21:47 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s22/450398/large/9360899s_french_protest_2.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s22/450398/full/9360899s_french_protest_2.jpg)
© Fred Scheiber/Sipa

Following almost two weeks of intensive protests, the black smoke from huge tire fires is clearing as transport routes open again in Occitanie, France, where farmers had blocked roads, motorways, and railway lines (https://www.sott.net/article/376662-French-farmers-protest-against-EU-subsidy-cuts-stretches-into-second-week-Travel-chaos-in-Occitanie-region) with piles of manure, trash and hundreds of tractors. With Toulouse - France's 4th-largest city - and other cities at times almost completely blockaded, the impact was felt throughout southwestern France, and likened to a 'civil war'.

Already feeling the downward pressure of low prices for their products, local farmers were up in arms over re-zoning plans that would see them effectively made redundant because their farms would no longer be entitled to EU subsidies. But the crisis appears to have been temporarily solved after French Minister of Agriculture committed Thursday (https://actu.fr/occitanie/toulouse_31555/blocages-toulouse-par-agriculteurs-avancees-suite-reunion-ministre_15436992.html) to leaving intact subsidies for most of the affected communes in Midi-Pyrenees and Aquitaine.

Rural colere against Paris and Brussels is sure to flare up again soon because President Macron hinted just last month that he is willing to consider a complete overhaul (https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-breaks-french-taboo-on-farm-subsidies-cap-policy-eu-budget/) of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, something French governments have until now always strongly defended because France's rural communities are particularly dependent on EU subsidies.

French national media largely ignored the farmers' protests - after all, so long as peripheral matters don't directly impact Paris, then tant pis - although they did sit up and take notice when the siege of Toulouse became really serious earlier this week. In the meantime, a number of other protests across France in the last ten days or so have contributed to a pronounced sense of national gloom.

https://www.sott.net/image/s22/450397/large/27788545_10214297324679709_320.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s22/450397/full/27788545_10214297324679709_320.jpg)
The cost of damage to highways by protesting farmers across Occitanie is expected to run into millions of euros © Nicolas Albrand

The atrocious weather of late hasn't helped lift spirits any. Non-stop rain this winter flooded Paris for the second time in 6 months, with the accumulated rainfall in December and January reaching a level not seen there since the winter of 1935-36 (https://www.sott.net/article/376152-France-Winter-2017-18-had-the-most-rain-and-least-sun). Nationally, France saw its wettest January since 1959. Incessant low pressure has brought non-stop storms in from the Atlantic, and with them persistent overcast skies. Swathes of France and Belgium recorded their second-lowest count in sunlight hours (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/19/aint-no-sunshine-winter-darkest-europe) for any month since record-keeping began in 1887, though the endless darkness was at least 'brightened' this week by heavy snowfalls in central and northern France (https://www.sott.net/article/376659-Paris-grinds-to-a-halt-as-snow-blankets-northern-France), bringing Paris is biggest snowfall since 1987 and again seizing up transport networks (https://www.thelocal.fr/20180207/15cm-of-snow-paralyses-transport-in-paris-area).

In late January, La Manche fishermen protesting the use of 'electrical pulse' fishing by large Dutch trawlers - which hits smaller fishing operations financially and depletes stocks for everyone - blockaded Calais and Boulogne (https://www.sott.net/article/376642-French-fishermen-protest-electrical-pulse-fishing-blockade-Calais-and-Boulogne) with more tire-fuelled roadblocks, while trawlers prevented ferries coming in or out of Calais port, the major transport hub between the UK and France.

https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449903/large/france.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s22/449903/full/france.jpg)
Fishermen in Boulogne set pallets and tyres alight on an access road while two French boats blockaded an area of the port where Dutch trawlers unload © Unknown

Also in late January, and also lasting 10 days, French prison guards - en masse - flouted a rule that prohibits them from 'downing keys' by going on strike in 129 out of the country's 188 correctional facilities (https://www.sott.net/article/375272-French-prison-guards-on-strike-in-129-out-of-188-French-facilities-risk-sanctions) until they received guarantees for better pay and working conditions - specifically, the isolation of Muslim radicals from the rest of the prison population.

That protest was sparked by a knife-attack against three prison guards on 11 January by Polish-German 'Muslim' terrorist Christian Ganczarski, convicted for his role in a terror attack in Tunisia in 2002, and who had just that day learned he was up for extradition to the US for suspected involvement in 9/11. Guards' protests then flared into a nationwide strike after a convicted murderer seriously injured 7 guards at a prison in Landes (https://www.sott.net/article/374251-Convicted-murderer-assaults-7-French-prison-guards-amid-protests-for-more-security) on 16 January, followed by an incident two days later at a prison in Corsica when a radicalized inmate screamed 'Allahu akbar' as he knocked two guards unconscious (https://www.sott.net/article/374638-Two-guards-in-French-prison-attacked-by-radicalized-inmate).

Back in Calais, the immigrant 'Jungle' - which officially no longer exists since it was 'cleared' in late 216 - saw the worst outbreak of violence (https://www.sott.net/article/376070-At-least-four-people-shot-dozens-injured-in-violent-clashes-between-rival-gangs-of-migrants-in-Calais-France) in its 19-year existence when hundreds of its denizens armed with iron bars and sticks fought a running battle on 2 February for control of the camp and 'people-smuggling rights'. Firearms have apparently now reached the immigrant complex as 5 of them received bullet wounds that night.

That same day, 5 French army officers were killed after two Gazelle military helicopters crashed mid-air at a flight training school (https://www.sott.net/article/376073-At-least-five-dead-as-French-military-helicopters-collide-near-Marseilles) east of Marseilles. Authorities have provided no information about what caused it.

https://www.sott.net/image/s22/450399/pod/death_of_france_2013.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s22/450399/full/death_of_france_2013.jpg)
Ma pauvre France

French authorities are apparently doing little about all these rolling crises because they're too busy focusing on what really matters, like passing legislation that outlaws 'fake news' about the rolling crises. The French Minister of Culture announced last week (https://www.sott.net/article/376605-No-more-free-press-French-news-law-forces-media-to-cooperate-with-state-in-blocking-fake-news) that a new law will make "different" media platforms "cooperate with the state", while a "judicial procedure" will enable the state to "rapidly block the dissemination of fake news once it is published." It's of course being done under the pretext of 'countering Russian propaganda outlets RT and Sputnik', but the real purpose - as in the US and elsewhere in the West - is to stifle internal dissent. On the bright side, at least France still has a Ministry of Culture: its president infamously said "there is no such thing as French culture (https://theeuropeans.co/2017/02/25/candidate-macron/)" while campaigning last year.

Other recent kafkaesque moves by Macron's government include impending legislation to outlaw 'sexual contempt' (https://www.sott.net/article/375441-Inventing-new-sex-crimes-Whistling-at-women-or-asking-for-their-phone-numbers-now-punishable-with-350-in-France), part of a 5-year-plan to wage 'cultural war' (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/24/french-president-emmanuel-macron-launch-cultural-war-on-sexual-abuse) against... well, in this instance, French men, who could be fined up to €350 if they "follow women in the street, whistle at them, make loud comments about their appearance or ask for their phone numbers." The list of potential transgressions may not end there.

There's no money to subsidize farmers paying the hidden costs of neoliberal globalization, but there apparently is money to roll out an expensive nationwide reduction in the speed limit on national roads from 90 to 80kph. With signs on over 400,000km of roads to replace, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe reckons the price will be worth it because his bean-counters estimate the reduction in speed will save (https://www.connexionfrance.com/French-news/Government-unveils-18-new-road-safety-measures) 350-400 lives a year. This measure is set to come into force on 1 July, and it too prompted mass protests (https://www.sott.net/article/376621-Nanny-state-Thousands-of-motorists-protest-80kph-speed-limit-drop-in-France) that brought traffic to a halt up and down the country.

Every life matters, I guess, especially when your national statistics office announces that the birth rate fell in 2017 for the third year running (https://www.sott.net/article/376646-Geriatric-Europe-French-birth-rate-falls-for-third-straight-year), pulling France down from the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman in 2014 towards the depressed EU birth rate average of 1.58. Julian Assange suggested last year (https://twitter.com/julianassange/status/904006478616551425?lang=en) that "Capitalism + atheism + feminism = sterility = migration." Sounds close enough, though it depends on what is meant by 'capitalism'. France has long prided itself on a healthy birth rate but it looks like Western mania for sexual liberation (https://www.sott.net/article/375427-The-Feminist-Seduction-of-Western-Society) and novel genders (https://www.sott.net/article/279645-Mummy-why-is-Daddy-wearing-a-dress-Daddy-why-does-Mummy-have-a-moustache) has finally caught up with it too.

Hervé

17th March 2018, 19:24

Macron support COLLAPSE: Pensioners REVOLT with France set to grind to a HALT

FRANCE risks grinding to a halt as thousands of furious protesters threaten to wreck French president Emmanuel Macron's controversial reforms while pensioners vow to drop their support for the leader.

By Oli Smith (https://www.express.co.uk/search?s=Oli%20Smith&b=1)
PUBLISHED: 09:05, Sat, Mar 17, 2018 |
UPDATED: 16:23, Sat, Mar 17, 2018

Emmanuel Macron faces showdown with striking French rail staff (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/932838/Emmanuel-Macron-French-President-protests-EU-pensioners)

Emmanuel Macron's reform plans are set to trigger widespread chaos in France, with the country's travel network expected to grind to a standstill for three months.

While the French president has become a leading figure in the European Union (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/932803/angela-merkel-emmanuel-macron-european-union-eurozone-reform), his ambitious reform plans have sparked a domestic backlash.

Yesterday, French rail unions unveiled plans to strike two days out of five for three months starting in April in protest against the state rail operator.

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/590x/Macron-932838.jpg
Emmanuel Macron's reform plans are set to trigger widespread chaos in France GETTY

Mr Macron's train proposals include ending the jobs-for-life status and early retirement age of national rail workers.

Guillaume Pepy, head of the state rail, said that more than 4.5 million people will be affected by the proposed strikes.

Earlier in the week, Mr Macron faced the fury of pensioners, who claimed the French leader had "bled them dry" by raising taxes on the elderly. (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/932803/angela-merkel-emmanuel-macron-european-union-eurozone-reform)

This latest protest has shocked the French government since the majority of older citizens supported Mr Macron's presidential bid last year.

Several political analysts point to this support drop as a reason why Mr Macron's En Marche party suffered a surprise by-election defeat last month.

Thousands of retired French citizens took to the streets in Paris and other cities to voice their anger

Violence erupts in France during riots against Macron's reforms

Thu, November 16, 2017 Violence has erupted in Nantes, France during protests against the President Emmanuel Macron’s business-friendly reform agenda

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/galleries/x701/309701.jpg AFP/Getty Images

Michel Salingue of the FGR-FP union said: "We are not the gilded generation. We've contributed more than our share already."

Mado Gurard, a 75-year-old who voted for Macron last May, added: "“We’ve had enough of being bled dry the whole time. Us retired people, we vote. He has to listen to us."

Mr Macron fired back at the protesters, saying: "If I don’t make an effort for those who work, there’ll be nobody left to pay for your pension.

"We have lowered income taxes by 30 percent so that working people can pay for your pensions."

The French President has also recently faced protests (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/932803/angela-merkel-emmanuel-macron-european-union-eurozone-reform) from truckers, students and farmers.

Related:
Macron under fire as rail workers threaten national strike (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/930218/EU-India-trade-TSUNAMI-Nuclear-Macron-trip-Modi)

Protesters fear EU-India trade risks a TSUNAMI - Macron trip BACKFIRES (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/930218/EU-India-trade-TSUNAMI-Nuclear-Macron-trip-Modi)

Hervé

3rd April 2018, 17:05

Well... La Voie (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?102303-Important-New-forum-criteria-for-unsubscribing-errant-members&p=1217814&viewfull=1#post1217814)... elle 'est plus libre...

Railway Protests in Paris Turn Wild: Masked Men Started Breaking Shop Windows (https://sputniknews.com/europe/201804031063172366-railway-protest-paris/)

Sputnik Europe (https://sputniknews.com/europe/)
17:43 03.04.2018
(updated 19:03 03.04.2018)

https://cdn5.img.sputniknews.com/images/106317/33/1063173316.jpg
© Sputnik/ Irina Kalashnikova

Railway Protests in Paris Turn Wild: Masked Men Started Breaking Shop Windows

On Tuesday afternoon, a demonstration of railroad workers opposing the reform of the National Company of French Railways (SNCF)started in the Gare d'Est Railway Station in Paris. At the very beginning of the column, there was a group of masked men, who later turned the protest into a rampage, Sputnik correspondent reported.

Young people, dressed in black and with masks on their faces, began to smash shop windows and offices along the path of the column's movement, throwing bottles at policemen, turning over the urns. The police used hoses against the rioters.

Garbage collectors and students joined the railway workers' demonstration. Garbage collectors are protesting against difficult working conditions and demanding early retirement. Students are opposed to the planned changes to the university enrollment system.

Reform of the railway company, a monopoly in France, involves, in particular, the introduction of competition in the railway industry, as well as the elimination in the future of the special rights of the railway workers, which included a number of benefits.

Some railroad workers feared that the SNCF reform could lead to its privatization. However, the French government refutes such a plan. On Tuesday, the French Minister of Transport once again assured that the privatization of the company will not be conducted, and stressed that a number of organizers of the strike disseminate incorrect information and are trying to translate the debate into a political plane.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/897433831778680832/m3Bf71BT_bigger.jpg Katy Lee‏Verified account @kjalee (https://twitter.com/kjalee)

Good morning from Paris. Three months of rolling rail strikes, a huge test for @EmmanuelMacron (https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron), off to a good start: platforms are so crowded at Gare de Lyon that this woman fell onto the tracks and had to be helped out #grevesncf (https://twitter.com/hashtag/grevesncf?src=hash)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZ13jr_XcAEL6jV.jpg

12:34 AM - 3 Apr 2018 On Tuesday, about 50% of railway workers took part in this national strike in France, including 77% of train drivers. In this regard, a large number of high-speed trains TGV, regional TER and shuttle trains RER in the Ile-de-France region has been canceled. Many French have had to adapt and choose alternative routes to get to work.

It is expected that the strike, organized by the French unions CGT, Unsa and CFDT, could last for almost three months — until June 28. If it is not possible to reach an agreement with the government, railway workers intend to strike every week on a two-day schedule, a total of 36 days.

Emmanuel Macron, who ran his successful presidential campaign on a "pro-business" platform, has seen his popularity rapidly decline (https://sputniknews.com/europe/201803221062785803-paris-strike-macron-reforms/) in his first year in office as he has sought to introduce measures to weaken the strength of the country's unions and give employers the ability to more easily fire their employees. The president has attempted to sell the measures as necessary to stimulate economic growth.

On top of the rail-strikes, Air France employees have also walked (https://sputniknews.com/europe/201803291063034946-air-france-strike/) off the job over pay rates, causing major air-travel delays in what could collectively amount to the most intense period of industrial action in recent French history.

Followers on social media have generally been supportive of the industrial action, accusing the president, a former investment banker, of serving "the one percent."

Heading to France in April, May or June? French rail unions have called strikes for all of these days so make sure you plan ahead… https://t.co/YqsVru8IMj

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/887036037113028611/DiKPQh6x_bigger.jpg Winter Oak‏ @WinterOakPress (https://twitter.com/WinterOakPress)

Winter Oak Retweeted Charles Baudry
#JeSoutiensLaGreveDesCheminots (https://twitter.com/hashtag/JeSoutiensLaGreveDesCheminots?src=hash) - "I support the rail strike" - says much of France in a massive rejection of President Macron's neoliberal union-busting politics

Winter Oak added,

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZ3Hvy2U8AATTxN.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZ3Hvy0UMAE5nKt.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZ3Hvy2VoAAv62X.jpg

Charles Baudry @CharlesBaudry

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f534.pngProtestations contre les réformes d'Emmanuel Macron à Paris ! Les manifestants débutent la marche en direction de Saint-Lazare. #JesoutienslesCheminots #GreveSNCF #Greve3avril #étudiants #greve #manif

6:28 AM - 3 Apr 2018
0 replies 4 retweets 5 likes

Hervé

10th April 2018, 16:19

This has been going on for 10 years...

Photos and video emerges of tense standoff between police and eco-activists in France as violence flares for 2nd day (https://www.rt.com/news/423688-france-police-eviction-clashes/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/423688-france-police-eviction-clashes/)
Tue, 10 Apr 2018 15:19 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/461252/large/5acc9731dda4c89a1e8b456d.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/461252/full/5acc9731dda4c89a1e8b456d.jpg)
© Stephane Mahe / Reuters

Violence is flaring in western France for the second day as police attempt to raze an anarchist commune on the site of an abandoned airport. Squatters threw Molotov cocktails at officers, who responded with tear gas.

Law enforcement officials were mobilized for evictions in Notre-Dame-des-Landes commune, 20km from the city of Nantes on Monday. Some 250 activists occupied the 1,650-hectare site, once reserved for a proposed airport, calling it their "Zone a Defendre" (Zone to be Defended). The illegal occupants of the anarchist commune demanded the right to stay after creating a so-called "self-governing utopia."

On Tuesday, tensions continued with Molotov cocktails flying through clouds of tear gas, local media reported. The protesters set up barricades made (https://www.ouest-france.fr/environnement/amenagement-du-territoire/nddl/notre-dame-des-landes-deuxieme-jour-d-expulsion-de-plus-en-plus-compliquee-5685723) of tires and electricity poles in an effort to keep the police at bay.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/938518082502516737/vgmXZtoN_bigger.jpg Zone À Défendre‏ @ZAD_NDDL (https://twitter.com/ZAD_NDDL)

#zad (https://twitter.com/hashtag/zad?src=hash) #nddl (https://twitter.com/hashtag/nddl?src=hash) on tient le front dans la foret et la foret nous aide comme toujours

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaaV2cpX4AAlFSi.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaaWHGsXcAAZF2C.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaaXoErWAAAdP5q.jpg

2:38 AM - 10 Apr 2018
5 replies 85 retweets 115 likes "Things are going to be more complicated [on Tuesday], the Pays-de-la-Loire regional prefect said, adding that on Monday police deployed some 2,500 officers to evict the camp residents.

RT's Charlotte Dubenskij and the Ruptly crew were caught up in the action amid the standoff between police officers and eco-squatters.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/930491452504895488/mAto4oFI_bigger.jpg Charlotte Dubenskij‏ @CDubenskij_RT (https://twitter.com/CDubenskij_RT)

The tanks are here #NDDL (https://twitter.com/hashtag/NDDL?src=hash) #ZAD (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ZAD?src=hash)

[video at: https://twitter.com/CDubenskij_RT ]

11:22 PM - 9 Apr 2018
1 reply 7 retweets 5 likes Environmental activists have protested against the construction of the airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes since 2008. Supporters of the project argued it would boost economic development in Pays-de-la-Loire, while opponents claimed it was too environmentally unfriendly.

After long debates, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced in January that France would abandon the project.

"This is the logical decision given the dead-end in which this project has found itself," Philippe stated. Authorities later ordered the activists to evacuate the area by March 31 or otherwise face eviction.

Hervé

18th April 2018, 14:36

Riots in Toulouse, France: Police attacked as woman arrested for refusing to remove Islamic face veil (https://www.rt.com/news/424405-toulouse-riots-woman-niqab/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/424405-toulouse-riots-woman-niqab/)
Wed, 18 Apr 2018 07:42 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/462664/large/Toulouse_riot.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/462664/full/Toulouse_riot.jpg)
Burnt cars in Toulouse, France after a night of clashes between the youth and police on April 17, 2018.© Eric Cabanis / AFP

A deprived district of Toulouse, France has been rocked by two nights of furious riots, triggered by the arrest of a woman who refused to remove her Islamic full-face veil for police. Some 18 people were arrested.

Hundreds of police units were deployed (https://www.afp.com/fr/infos/334/toulouse-nouvelle-nuit-dechauffourees-18-interpellations-doc-1434y91) after young residents threw stones, torched cars and set fire to garbage cans, police told the AFP. The clashes began on Sunday afternoon in the Toulouse district of Bellefontaine after a woman wearing a full-face veil - which is illegal in France - was stopped by the police for an identity check.

She allegedly showed a poor-quality photocopy of her identity card and refused to lift her veil to let police officers see her face. After several futile attempts to have her lift the veil, the woman began (https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/haute-garonne/toulouse/toulouse-controle-police-femme-portant-niqab-degenere-1459529.html) to scream for help, France Info reports.

She was placed under arrest and moved into a police vehicle. Soon after, a group of about 30 people circled the police and attacked them. Officers attempted to quell the crowd by discharging their weapons and used tear gas launcher.

Along with the disturbances in Bellefontaine, there were also riots in Mirail and the neighboring district of Reynerie, which also began on Sunday evening. It's believed the riots are connected to the suicide of a prisoner incarcerated in Seysses near Toulouse, who was found hanged in his cell on Saturday.

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/462665/large/Toulouse_riot_2.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/462665/full/Toulouse_riot_2.jpg)
© Eric Cabanis / AFP

Hundreds of policemen were mobilised during the clashes in Reynerie with around 15 cars set on fire by rioters and around 300 tear gas grenades launched in the crowd.

"The clashes were extremely violent. My colleagues were very shocked, the events were very complicated to manage but they showed a lot of composure,"said (https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2018/04/15/2780740-vives-tensions-reynerie-affrontements-entre-jeunes-habitants-policiers.html) spokesperson Didier Martinez.

"There was clearly an intention to attack the police," said district police officer Arnaud Bavois describing scenes of "great violence" during the riots. The high-risk districts of Reynerie, Bellefontaine and Mirail in Toulouse, are identified (https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2018/04/15/2780740-vives-tensions-reynerie-affrontements-entre-jeunes-habitants-policiers.html) as priority security areas.

Related:

MEPs protest Syria strikes as Macron calls for unity (https://www.sott.net/article/383138-MEPs-protest-Syria-strikes-as-Macron-calls-for-unity)
'This is not France': Frenchman renounces citizenship in order to protest attack on Syria (https://www.sott.net/article/383176-This-is-not-France-Frenchman-renounces-citizenship-in-order-to-protest-attack-on-Syria)
Photos and video emerges of tense standoff between police and eco-activists in France as violence flares for 2nd day (https://www.sott.net/article/382403-Photos-and-video-emerges-of-tense-standoff-between-police-and-eco-activists-in-France-as-violence-flares-for-2nd-day)
France: Major strikes challenge Macron's right-wing reforms (https://www.sott.net/article/382285-France-Major-strikes-challenge-Macrons-right-wing-reforms)
Why France will implode: Baker fined 3000 euros for working 7 days a week during tourist season (https://www.sott.net/article/381567-Why-France-will-implode-Baker-fined-3000-euros-for-working-7-days-a-week-during-tourist-season)
ISIS-supporting shooter and hostage-taker killed by police in southern France - 4 dead and 16 injured, including police (https://www.sott.net/article/380776-ISIS-supporting-shooter-and-hostage-taker-killed-by-police-in-southern-France-4-dead-and-16-injured-including-police)
Brigitte Bardot speaks out against Islamic influence in France and destructive membership in EU (https://www.sott.net/article/380438-Brigitte-Bardot-speaks-out-against-Islamic-influence-in-France-and-destructive-membership-in-EU)

Hervé

23rd April 2018, 21:27

France: Students, workers protest Macron's austerity, militarism, destruction of social rights and industry (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/04/21/fren-a21.html)

Anthony Torres World Socialist Web Site (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/04/21/fren-a21.html)
Sat, 21 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/463624/large/FRANCE_in_Chaos_Daily_Express_.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/463624/full/FRANCE_in_Chaos_Daily_Express_.jpg)
France in Chaos © Daily Express

The first protest of strikers from multiple professions since November 2017 took place on April 19, organized by the Stalinist-led General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and Pabloite-linked Solidarity unions, as student blockades of universities spread across France to protest President Emmanuel Macron's policies of austerity and militarism.

The CGT claimed 300,000 people (119,000 according to police) had marched in a total of 130 protests across France. Approximately 20,000 people joined the protest in Paris from Montparnasse to Italy Square. In Lyon, 15,000 people according to the CGT (9,200 according to police) marched. The CGT also claimed 13,000 protesters in Nantes and 65,000 in Marseille (6,000 and 5,000, respectively, according to police).

Apart from university and high school students, retirees, rail workers and workers from several industries that have taken strike action against Macron were present. Strike movements are emerging in Air France, Paris regional transport, the energy and electricity industry, the auto industry, hospitals as well as among undocumented workers and school and day care workers.

WSWS reporters joined the protests in Paris, which largely consisted of university and high school students. They were very determined to continue the struggle despite growing sentiment that the union bureaucracies are seeking to strangle the movement with a perspective of negotiating deals with Macron.

Gabriel of Clergy-Pontoise University said he was participating
"above all to protest the free-market policies of the Macron government, which I believe is an extremist government both from the economic and police standpoint. I am here to protest the shock strategy orchestrated by Macron, the French political establishment, and the European and American oligarchy. I think we have to mobilize in struggle not only against one or other reform or law, but against everything this man represents and the forces that support him." Gabriel was aware of the limitations of the April 19 protest, saying he
"thinks the mobilisation only of students is not enough. The working world, the workers, the self-employed, the entire population should be with us. We are no longer negotiating but trying to establish a relationship of forces, with strikes, blockades and occupations; this cannot stop. We have to go on, to harass them on every front. There is a political plan being advanced by the ruling class with a radical project in France and internationally. Macron's goal is to destroy the last bastions of social rights. He wants to devastate the people." On the US-UK-French strikes on Syria, Gabriel said,
"Our government is totally controlled by the pathetic and reactionary imperialist interests of our political establishment. Our diplomacy is behind American interests. If we do not get out of this system, we will not be able to change our foreign policy." Louis, a student at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) also spoke to the WSWS. He denounced the bombing in Syria, stressing that the movement against Macron should also be against war:
"France continues to participate in interventions across the entire world to defend these economic interests. They should be fought, and that is what we are doing." Louis also expressed his doubts regarding the trade unions and Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the Unsubmissive France (LFI) movement:
"The unions are weaker and weaker; we have to develop other forms of opposition. In the longer term, the entire class should be united. Mélenchon is trying to do something new, I'm not sure whether it will work but it does offer something else. The problem of LFI is that they have dangerous patriotic rhetoric, because they are not communists." George, a sales representative at Casino, said he feels
"solidarity for workers who are fighting and for the cancelling of anti-social and regressive laws. The rail workers are not responsible for the railways' debts; it is the fault of the governments. We are the ones they are attacking, but we work and pay our taxes. We are faced with a brutal government that is attacking students and ecological protesters, and we are bombing Syria. All in one week, that is a lot. There are other solutions besides bombing Syria." He added, "In Europe we have the resources to live better and better, but the opposite is taking place. Promises on Europe are being broken, that is done against the populations by governments that are far-right. We have to be more numerous beyond the trade unions; we have to have workers and also the unemployed that are present. It will be difficult, but we can do it." WSWS reporters also spoke in Marseille with students and workers including Lucien, an undergraduate history student. He confirmed that there is a growing movement at Saint Charles University in Marseille, with 300 to 400 people voting for the unlimited blockade of the university to demand the withdrawal of the Macron's higher education "reform", with the support of professors. He explained that
"the goal of Macron's plans to make universities more selective, to introduce tuition fees and make it more elitist. It starts with his Parcoursup program to orient students after their high school degree. According to the high school a student is from, he has different options. If we are in a prestigious high school, there will be more interesting options than in a high school in a poor neighbourhood; the university will choose. With Parcoursup, there will be more of a hierarchy of choices; the government is freeing the system to focus on the best students." In response to the press denunciations and police repression against students blockading universities, Lucien said:
"They cannot discredit us with democratic means, so as a last measure they resort to force. But we have the support of the workers who have promised to help the students if they try to throw us out of the university, like the far-right did at the Tolbiac campus" in Paris. Macron is determined, he is attacking the rail workers, he is launching attacks everywhere. I think he is trying to get as many things through as possible while people are still in shock. Turning on the rail workers is a political attack on one of the revolutionary-minded sections" of the working class.

Hervé

22nd May 2018, 17:01

Police use tear gas, protesters throw stones as anti-Macron rally turns violent in Paris (VIDEOS) (https://www.rt.com/news/427439-violence-paris-macron-protests/)

RT
Published time: 22 May, 2018 15:24
Edited time: 22 May, 2018 16:22
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/95tb)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.05/thumbnail/5af806a6fc7e938a518b4606.jpg (https://www.rt.com/news/426577-macron-year-office-france/)

[video at link (https://www.rt.com/news/427439-violence-paris-macron-protests/)]

Paris demonstrations against President Emmanuel Macron’s social policies turned violent as protesters hurled projectiles at police and broke shop windows. Officers deployed tear gas and detained some protestors.

The gathering of civil servants and their supporters on Tuesday was initially peaceful, but got heated when some protestors targeted police with stones and fireworks, and broke shop windows.

Police responded with tear gas and water cannons in an attempt to disperse the protestors. At least one man was injured, with his head left bloodied.

Over 16,400 people took part in the protests, French media reports, citing independent watchdog Occurrence. At least 17 people were detained during the scuffles, police told (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/greve/greve-des-fonctionnaires/direct-greve-des-fonctionnaires-plus-de-130-manifestations-organisees-dans-toute-la-france_2763813.html) France Info.

The demonstration was staged by major trade unions to protest such policies as job cuts, wage indexation freeze, and new restrictions on higher education admissions. Apart from the Paris demonstration, trade unions held 140 other protests across the country on Tuesday.

Besides the street protests, Macron's policies have also caused his approval ratings to plummet following his first year in office. Only around 40 percent of the population supports Macron, while at least 55 percent are “dissatisfied” with his performance, according to recent polls.

Apart from his rather unpopular domestic policies, which have earned him the title “President of the Rich,” Macron’s foreign endeavors have also drawn criticism, including a controversial trip to Africa, as well as taking part in the US-led strikes on Syria based on a questionable pretext.

Hervé

10th June 2018, 16:11

'One Step to Police State': MPs From Left to Right Slam Macron's Fake News Bill (https://sputniknews.com/europe/201806101065283671-france-fake-news-bill-debate-best-of/)

Sputnik Europe (https://sputniknews.com/europe/)
14:16 10.06.2018
(updated 15:23 10.06.2018)

https://cdn4.img.sputniknews.com/images/101967/23/1019672390.jpg

© Flickr/ Dennis Jarvis (http://bit.ly/1BPD3SC)

Resistance to President Macron's proposed bill to ban 'fake news' on the internet during election campaigns is gathering steam, with National Assembly lawmakers from the left, right and center uniting to reject what they say is a threat to France's constitution. Sputnik presents the most vivid MP reactions to the controversial proposal.

During the National Assembly hearings on the so-called 'fake news law', legislators from the ruling En Marche/Mouvement proposed that the Higher Audiovisual Council (Conseil superieur de l'audiovisuel) broadcasting regulator be given the right to classify media into two categories — 'trustworthy' and 'less reliable'.

'Bill Has Only One Purpose'
Jean-Luc Melenchon, La France Insoumise MP and former left candidate in last year's presidential race, suggested that France had been instructed to take action to curb freedom in its media space by its "North American friends," expressly to counter Russian soft power.
"The issue is simple – will we ban Russia Today and Sputnik, and when? There is no other question at stake," Melenchon said.

"By the way, each of the countries which have tried to follow the directions given by the Americans at the beginning of the year – i.e. France, then Germany and the UK, have gotten hopelessly mired in endless discussions about how to achieve this goal without violating freedoms," he added.

https://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/images/105297/53/1052975397.jpg
Jean-Luc Melenchon during a rally in Lille, France during last year's presidential election. © Sputnik / Kristina Afanasyeva

According to the lawmaker, if Paris starts down the slippery slope of trying to outlaw Russian foreign language media, it may end up having to monitor the BBC, Al Jazeera, and other foreign media as well.
"And perhaps everyone else will monitor France 24 to make sure that it doesn't randomly spread information which meets France's interests," Melenchon quipped.
After all, he recalled,
"President Chirac did not hide the purpose of creating this channel: In his view, it was necessary for a country like France to have the opportunity to broadcast a point of view corresponding to our traditions. Everyone does this!"
Melenchon warned that if the CSA is given the right to determine what is true and what is false, it will wind up determining France's foreign policy.
"I am against the idea of the chairman of the CSA deciding whether Russia will be our partner or our enemy…This for us [France's elected officials] to determine."
Finally, Melanchon stressed that Paris should also be wary of giving companies the authority to determine news content.
"It is proposed that the platforms on which information is based be responsible for this information. That's great, but how? This suggests that they have principles. Are you kidding? The GAFA [Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon] have principles? This is news to me!"

"Ultimately, what we're discussing is a law to help distinguish between truth and lies, and it is here where our opinions differ. We are not engaged in science…but in politics," the lawmaker said.

"The whole beauty of the election campaign lies in its subjective nature. How can you, in a few minutes, determine what the truth is?" Melanchon asked.
'Negligence Toward Constitutional Freedoms'
Marine Le Pen, former presidential candidate and leader of the Rassemblement national Party (formerly the Front national), spoke out in agreement with her ideological opponent.
"Mrs. Information Minister! You are dispassionately playing with our constitutional freedoms, and doing so, I must say, with appalling negligence," Le Pen said.

"You are dangerous people. And what you are doing today you will continue to do until the end of your mandate. This law in particular will become the symbol of your government and, in my opinion, will leave an indelible mark on the careers you are so proud of."

https://cdn2.img.sputniknews.com/images/106528/35/1065283533.jpg

Marine Le Pen of France's far-right National Front (FN) political party at the opening session of the French National Assembly in Paris, France, June 27, 2017 © REUTERS / Charles Platiau

"You speak with such ease about extremely serious issues. You are talking about the immediate removal of internet content. But in fact we are talking about the equivalent of a seizure – the seizure of a newspaper, the confiscation of a book. Let me remind some of you that judges are no longer engaged with this, because it is a very serious encroachment of our freedoms," Le Pen added.
Furthermore, Le Pen suggested that the fake news bill seems hypocritical.
"…Your goal is to create a form of transparency to get to know whether digital platforms have foreign financial influence. It seems to me that this looks very similar to what President Putin decided several months ago; this decision roused the whole political class in France, which demanded transparency, and that NGOs which naturally exert very large influence on public opinion disclose whether they are financed from abroad. I repeat: all of you without exception thought this Russian law encroaches on freedom. Now you are demanding the same thing [for France]."
Fellow Rassemblement national MP Emmanuelle Menard echoed Le Pen's indignation.
"The most recent presidential elections showed, according to some, that a foreign state [presumably Russia] and media controlled by it did everything it could to influence the election results, and even allegedly spread false information to misinform the public…However, if I'm not mistaken, Emmanuel Macron was still elected, and has yet to prove that the information disseminated by Russia Today or Sputnik influenced our fellow citizens, in contrast to the criminal investigation against Francois Fillon in the midst of the election campaign, which helped candidate Macron a great deal…"

"If such a law were debated in a country that's blacklisted by Reporters Without Borders, everyone in this chamber would say that this was a trick whose purpose is to silence the opposition and suppress any criticism. This is the creation of a real thought police," Menard warned.
'This is Not France'
Debout la France MP Nicolas Dupont-Aignan shared in his colleagues' concerns.
"Madam Minister! You love books…If you were to read a book describing our deliberations and explaining how in 21st century France we have come to discuss vague definitions not in order to fight against slander, but to fight fake news, against rumors or false information, you would say 'this cannot be, this is not France!'"

"Our predecessors gave a very precise definition of slander, because they were experienced lawyers who knew that this was not a joke of an issue. They would not have tolerated the kind of surreal debate we are presently engaged in, and with such vague definitions…We are heading toward a situation where dissent is classified as a crime; and this will be decided by a judge in a 48-hour period on the eve of important elections. This is pure madness!" Dupont-Aignan warned.

https://cdn3.img.sputniknews.com/images/106528/36/1065283639.jpg
Gaullist politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan takes part in a TV interview (File) © AP Photo / Thomas Samson, Pool

One Step to a Police State
Finally, Nouvelle gauche lawmaker Hervé Saulignac emphasized that the bill could easily lead to the establishment of a police state.
"When a government plays with the idea of regulating the political force that serves to counterbalance it, this has the potential to threaten freedom, one of the main pillars of our democracy…There is only one step from giving the CSA the right to establish order to the establish of police control over the media," Saulignac warned.
The National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, debated the Macron-proposed fake news law on June 7-8. If passed, it would allow judges to block the publication of information deemed false ahead of elections in 48 hours. The bill pays special focus to "foreign controlled media" and "digital platforms."

Related:
French MPs Assail "Anti-Fake News Law" (https://sputniknews.com/europe/201806081065239145-france-macron-fakenews-freespeech/)
French Initiative on 'Iran Deal 2' Unacceptable to Tehran – Senior Lawmaker (https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201806091065266969-french-iran-deal-2-prospects/)

Hervé

28th June 2018, 19:28

...

'l a perdu l'occasion de se taire:

Mafia, alcoholics & illiterates: Macron’s view of the French mapped insult by insult (https://www.rt.com/news/431179-macron-regional-jibes-map/)

RT
Published time: 28 Jun, 2018 16:56
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/98p7)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.06/article/5b351302fc7e939f3d8b456e.jpg
Placard with an image of French President Emmanuel Macron and the slogan "Clear off, lazy, cynical, radical" during a demonstration against the French government's reform plans in Paris. April 19, 2018 © Philippe Wojazer / Reuters

A map of France shared on social media has swapped the names of the regions with jibes that President Macron has directed at their citizens. And there are few areas left which he didn’t make a dig at.

Macron’s political opponents, Nadine Morano, who currently serves as Member of the European Parliament, and former French politician and the founder of the Christian Democratic Party, Christine Boutin, took to social media to ridicule the president on Tuesday. They posted a map with some of the “unpleasant vocabulary” Macron has used.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/969551936881156096/P_UEbD1M_bigger.jpg Nadine Morano‏ (https://twitter.com/nadine__morano) Verified account @nadine__morano (https://twitter.com/nadine__morano)

La carte de France du vocabulaire désobligeant du Président Macron, en prochaine édition la carte d’Europe de sa vulgarité ... la Lèpre, le cynisme des italiens etc etc ...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgpjNUUXcAEuvjO.jpg 2:57 PM - 26 Jun 2018

70 replies 489 retweets 576 likes The edited map of France emerged on the heels of the leader’s gag about folk from Brittany, who he called “the French mafia,” as he introduced Pope Francis to Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
“He’s a Breton. Bretons are everywhere. Bretons are the French mafia,” Macron told the pontiff.
So Brittany is swapped on the map for “Mafia” and also has “illiterate women” written nearby. That’s in reference to Macron's remark describing employees of the Gad slaughterhouse, also in Brittany. He made that quip in 2014, when he held the office of the Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs.

‘Alcoholics’ is written in place of Hauts-de-France. This comes from Macron’s ill-fated quote about the spread of alcoholism, made when he visited the commune of Nœux-les-Mines as a presidential candidate last January.

The Paris area is dubbed “people who are nothing.” Macron let that remark slip as he visited a hi-tech startup center, located near a train station, in the summer of 2017. Back then, he said train stations are places paths where people “who succeed” and “people who are nothing” cross.

“Slackers” adorns the center of the map. That’s the term used by the president to dismiss those who don’t agree with his reforms. The map was reposted by French-speaking social media users, who rushed to condemn Macron for his lack of respect for his own people.
“There is no more room on the map, so you can stop insulting the people,” one Twitter user wrote.

Hervé

3rd July 2018, 16:09

The following article may be long, but it underlines how matchsticks and powder kegs are put together... Machiavelli sure got modern day "stellar" students who are implementing full usage of fake news mating with false flags:

The Scourge of Modern 'Liberalism' in France (https://www.sott.net/article/389831-The-Scourge-of-Modern-Liberalism-in-France#)

Pierre Lescaudron Sott.net (https://www.sott.net/article/389831-The-Scourge-of-Modern-Liberalism-in-France#)
Mon, 02 Jul 2018 16:00 UTC

In these depressing times marked by lies, fear and nihilism, I would like to brighten your mood by sharing a heart warming story. A real life event that is better than a fairy tale and should restore your faith in humanity and our burgeoning postmodern society.

A Modern Fairy Tale
What happened (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/29/family-saved-boy-thank-malian-spider-man-true-hero-receives/)? In a nutshell, a heroic individual saved a 4 year old boy from a deadly fall.

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475729/medium/mamoudou_gassama.png (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475729/full/mamoudou_gassama.png)
Gassama climbing up to save the boy

On Saturday, May 26th 2018, at 8:00 p.m. in Paris 18th district, the boy was left alone by his white French father who was busy playing Pokemon Go. The boy went to the balcony and fell from the 6th floor over the handrail.

During the fall, the vigorous young boy managed somehow to grab the 4th floor handrail as he hurtled toward the ground. Hanging there precariously, death seemed just a few moments away.

Fortunately, Mamoudou Gassama, a migrant from Mali was in the right place at the right time. He saw the distressed boy and swiftly climbed 4 floors of the building exterior, pulled up the boy over the handrail and safely dropped him on the balcony while the crowd cheered and clapped.

Here is the video made by an eyewitness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=ogHVbf3dEyk

Less than 24 hours after the heroic rescue, French President Macron received Gassama at the presidential palace. The latter was immediately given French citizenship (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5777403/Paris-hero-climbs-four-storey-apartment-block-rescue-boy.html) and a job in a firefighters squad.

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475731/medium/malez_macron.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475731/full/malez_macron.jpg)
Macron receiving Gassama at the presidential palace

Then Gassama was received at Paris town hall and given its highest distinction (https://www.20minutes.fr/paris/2283207-20180604-paris-encore-distinction-mamoudou-gassama-recoit-medaille-ville-paris): the vermeil medal of Paris. Gassama's triumph went international, and a few days later the hero received a BET award (https://africanglitz.com/2018/06/26/mamoudou-gassama-spiderman-who-scaled-building-to-save-child-honoured-at-bet-awards/) in Los Angeles.

So, here you have it, all the ingredients of a good tale : Gassama, the hero from an oppressed minority, the powerless innocent victim, the dramatic tension, a literal cliffhanger and the happy ending. Frankly it was as good as a scene directly extracted from a Spiderman movie.

But like in every fairy tale or superhero movie, there's always a villain. In this case, the villian appeared four days after the heroic rescue, and goes by the name of André Bercoff.

The Evil Witch of Reality

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475549/medium/SIPA_00725123_000004.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475549/full/SIPA_00725123_000004.jpg)
French journalist and writer André Bercoff

Bercoff is a prominent French journalist and writer. He worked for some of the most prestigious French newspapers from Le Monde to Liberation. His career spans over 6 decades during which he wrote about 30 books about politics and society. He is also the chairman of the press club de France, the largest professional organization for journalists in the country.

From the professional career of Bercoff we can safely assume he is not a deviant or a transgressor of the established order, quite the contrary.

However, on May 30th Bercoff crossed the unofficial red line and dared to question the official narrative that was unanimously agreed upon by the mainstream media right after the event and way before the results of any detailed investigation. Well, questioning, finding the truth, is the essence of journalism, right?

Puzzling Questions
Believing in this seemingly outdated and politically incorrect principle of journalism, Bercoff started examining the official story and found some inconsistencies. First he pointed to changes in the official narrative:

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475734/medium/XVM56c94ac8_61e0_11e8_9efd_493.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475734/full/XVM56c94ac8_61e0_11e8_9efd_493.jpg)
The boy fell from the 6th floor and was found at the 4th floor

- the kid was supposedly living on the 4th floor (where he was saved) then on the 5th floor and finally it was the 6th floor since the concierge stated (https://www.bfmtv.com/police-justice/enfant-sauve-le-petit-garcon-a-chute-d-un-etage-avant-de-s-accrocher-au-balcon-1458106.html) that the apartment on the 5th floor is unoccupied and that the boy parents indeed lived on the 6th (last) floor.

- in the video of the rescue the neighbor is relatively stocky and wears a beard, during his interview a few hours after the event the neighbor is slim and has no beard.

Bercoff also asks: knowing that Gassama managed to pull the boy up with only one hand and that at one point the stocky neighbor had both his hands on the kids, why didn't the neighbor pull the kid up? For reference at age 4, a boy weights about 15 kg/33lbs.

Bercoff also wondered how the kid fell since the handrail is taller than him and no furniture is visible through the transparent railing of the 6th floor balcony.

Last but not least, Bercoff wonders how can a 4 year old kid grab a handrail after a 2 storey fall? For reference after a 6m free fall (two floors) a body has already reached about 40km/h.

Any rock climber will tell you that it is impossible for a fit adult to stop themselves by grabbing on to something with their arms when falling at 40km/h. A child is even less likely to be able to manage such a feat given that their high center of gravity - due to a large head to body mass ratio - means children tend to fall head first.

Yet somehow, this boy managed to do it and, in the process, only suffered one torn toenail. This point is so puzzling that even mainstream and website dedicated to debunking 'conspiracy theories' were forced to dismiss this inconvenient fact by describing it as 'miraculous' (https://hoax-net.be/recap-general-mamoudou/).

Questioning is Now a Crime
Bercoff was unanimously labelled a conspiracy theorist, despite the fact that he never mentioned the word "conspiracy" and even dismissed the idea that a conspiracy was involved in the event.

The truth is that Bercoff did not cross any line, but rather the ideological line enforced by the dominant culture that makes asking uncomfortable questions taboo, crossed Bercoff. The very essence of human progress - questioning and the ensuing learning - are now forbidden.

To justify this totalitarian drift that even Orwell couldn't imagine, the media and political elite suggest that such questions are "suggestive". That is the very definition of thought crime, where it's not tangible facts or words that matter, but the thoughts behind them, the intention, the implicit. The problem is that thoughts are intangible and therefore any censor, any inquisitor, can ascribe to his target any deviant thought that can be used to criminalize and silence him. That is the terror of the arbitrary.

The Political Context
Gassama's miraculous rescue raises some obvious questions and doubts. What really occurred during this event may never be known, but we can get a good idea of the validity of the official story by considering how it was politically instrumentalized and the political context in which this instrumentalizing took place. Let's look at French President Macron's recent political moves.
1- April 10th (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-saudi-macron-salman/give-saudi-arabia-a-chance-french-president-tells-critics-idUSKBN1HH3CN): Macron receives Saudi king Salman.

2- April 15th (http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2018/04/15/syrie-macron-frappe-avant-de-discuter_1643598): Macron justifies military strikes against Syria (not EI )

3- May 28th (http://www.liberation.fr/france/2018/05/28/gassama-dans-les-petits-papiers-de-macron_1654849): Macron receives and praises Gassama and gives citizenship and job.

4- June 21th (http://en.rfi.fr/france/20180622-macron-hosts-techno-party-elysee-palace): Macron organizes a LGBT black rap band party at the Presidential palace

5- June 23rd (https://www.thelocal.fr/20180623/macron-backs-sanctions-on-eu-states-that-refuse-migrants): Macron supports financial sanctions against EU countries that refuse to accept migrants.
These five events, occurring over the last two months, might seem benign and unrelated at first sight. However, as you will see below, they are complementary aspects of a single political stance and perfectly summarize the essence of the liberal doctrine in terms of migration. Let's analyze those events and their political, social and cultural implications.

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475587/medium/DadLmRQXUAAbFry.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475587/full/DadLmRQXUAAbFry.jpg)
Smiling Ben Salman and Macron during Saudi official visit

First event: Macron welcomes Saudi king Ben Salman.
Saudia Arabia is the main funder of ISIS. (https://www.sott.net/article/284258-ISIS-The-creation-of-Saudi-money-and-ideology-in-conjunction-with-Obamas-foreign-policy)

Saudi Arabia is also the cradle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism) of Wahabism/Salafism, a form of literal and fundamentalist Islam that preaches Jihad and Sharia law.

For fundamentalists, religious law is the one and only law. Fundamentalist Islam is a theocracy which is, by definition, incompatible with Western nations.

Along with the Muslim brotherhood, which is the other dominant fundamentalist Islam, supported this time by Qatar, wahhabism is the rising form of Islam and shows an increasing presence in France.

Today about 200 (https://muzulmania.wordpress.com/tag/liste-mosquees-salafistes-en-france/) wahabist/salafist mosques and places of prayers are listed in France. Between 2010 and 2016, the number of salafist mosques increased by 170% (http://islamisation.fr/2016/11/25/le-nombre-de-mosquees-salafistes-a-bondi-de-170-entre-2010-et-2016-interview-de-joachim-veliocas/). The Muslim brotherhood controls about 100 mosques (https://www.lerougeetlenoir.org/opinions/les-inquisitoriales/mosquees-radicales-entretien-avec-joachim-veliocas).

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475586/full/Top_5_Country_of_Origin_for_As.png
Country of origin for asylum seekers

Second event: Macron bombs Syria not ISIS.
Like other European countries, France actively participates to the destruction of the Middle East and Africa (including Mali where Gassama is born).

Punitive and arbitrary wars waged by the West are one of the fundamental causes of migratory flows: people escape war.

In addition, Macron supports ISIS by weakening its main opponents: Syria through attacks on the Syrian government and military and Russia through economic sanctions. ISIS terrorizes local populations, increases migration flows and spreads the most extreme form of Islamism.

Unsurprisingly, Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, three countries destroyed by western wars and today the seat of Islamist terror (Taliban in Afghanistan and ISIS in Syria and Iraq) are the three main purveyors of refugees that reach Europe.

Third event: [I]Gassama becomes a national hero.
Macron, like the rest of the political and media sphere, praise Gassama while ignoring that people save others every week. For example, a few days after the Gassama event, a French soldier saved an 18 month kid (https://www.vsd.fr/actualite/lyon-suspendu-a-un-balcon-un-jeune-enfant-est-sauve-par-un-soldat-25638) who was hanging from a balcony. The media barely mentioned it.

The Gassama event encapsulates the liberal doctrine: migrants are heroes, local Europeans are despicable, they are not even able to take care of their own kids and prefer, instead, to play Pokemon Go. As a result of his incompetency the father is being prosecuted (https://fr.news.yahoo.com/pr%C3%A9sent%C3%A9-au-parquet-risque-p%C3%A8re-073708991.html?guccounter=1) for withdrawal of parental custody and risks 2 years in prison and a €30,000 fine.

The Gassama event is not isolated, it is part of the manufacturing of consent in Western nations. Another striking example of a stage-managed event to serve the liberal ideology is the Theo case (https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/baton-rape-case-fuels-anger-over-racist-policing-france). It was all over the French media in 2017.

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475741/medium/9cda7ee0affcb7e468fef5f74a985.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475741/full/9cda7ee0affcb7e468fef5f74a985.jpg)
Hollande visting Theo Luhaka

Allegedly, French cops sodomized an innocent young African (Theo) with a baton. You should have seen the indignation (https://www.bustle.com/p/what-happened-to-theo-the-french-alleged-rape-was-nothing-short-of-horrific-37355), the bashing of the evil French white cops and by the extension the whole French white authority and people. The firing of the racist cops. The gruesome details about Theo's pants being forced down, the 10 cm anal fissure, burst sphincter, racist insults, humiliations. And the overflowing compassion: mass demonstrations supporting Theo, President Hollande vising Theo in hospital.

After months of investigation including analysis of video footage and the input of medical experts, the truth (https://ripostelaique.com/on-sait-maintenant-le-fond-de-laffaire-theo-et-ce-nest-pas-tres-frais.html) finally came to light and it was almost the exact opposite to what was claimed: Theo is part of a family involved in massive fraud, he personally was involved in drug dealing, he resisted arrest, he punched one of the cops, they arrested him. No sodomy or racial insults occurred, his pants were never pulled down.

In contrast to the message that these two overmediatized cases attempted to convey, not all migrants are heroes or victims, not all natives are incompetent or violent. The reality is much more nuanced. By focusing on cherry-picked or manufactured events that put migrants in a good light and local natives in a bad light, the globalist elite attempt to manipulate public opinion.

But a backlash is already occurring.

One by one, European countries (Italy, Hungary, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Slovenia) have begun to claim back their sovereignty and enforcing limits on migration through border control. The European governments and EU central powers that still promote mass migration are becoming more and more isolated and out of touch with with the will of the majority of the people they supposedly represent.

Self-styled liberals and radical leftists want to impose their idyllic multicultural open border vision of the world on everyone, but they are totally disconnected from reality. They claim not to see the destructive consequences of non-integrated mass migration: the rise in crime, in unemployment, the financial costs, the dissolution of culture, the fragmentation of societies and the loss of identity where, in a growing number of enclaves, European people feel like they are crossing the Mediterranean Sea just by opening their door.

Fourth event: Macron organizes a black LGBT party at the Elysee.
Macron could have invited artists that represented French identity, its history and its culture. But according to the French president there is no French culture, as he officially stated: ''there's no French culture, there is a culture in France and it is diverse".

Not only does Macron deny French culture, he has also denounced the barbarity of a French nation that embraces wars, colonialism, patriarchy, white patriarchy. Macron officially declared (https://www.ft.com/content/87d6f430-f521-11e6-95ee-f14e55513608) on February 15th 2017:
[colonialism] is a crime against humanity. It is a real barbarity and it is part of this past that we must face and also apologize to those against whom we have committed these actions. A nation that wallows in guilt, regrets,and shame opens the door to victimhood mentality and victimhood competition. Any individual in France today can feel that the minority he identifies with has been wronged at some point by France. Macron's statement reinforces victimhood and the subsequent drift towards entitlement, reparation and ultimately endless revenge.

So, faithful to his negation of the French identity and condemnation of French historical barbarity, Macron invited a rap band made up of black LGBT activists. Rap is the 'artistic' arm of liberalism, it preaches non-integration, hate of the white nations and white people, disrespect for the law, murder of police officers (among other things)

This celebration of decadence happened in one of the most symbolic places of the French nation, the Presidential palace that hosted De Gaulle, Kennedy, Trump and Putin. Times sure are changing!

The real cherry on the pie here however is that this insult to France was funded by those who were directly insulted: French taxpayers. French government cynicism has no limit, it would seem.

The French government's liberal doctrine has replaced assimilation with multiculturalism in the name of diversity, respect of differences, tolerance and open-mindedness.

Assimilation aims to make individuals truly French, where migrants adopt and embrace French culture, history, customs and language. In the end, assimilated migrants become more French than the French as illustrated, for example, by the over-representation of descendants of Spanish and Italian migrants in French nationalist parties.

The French assimilation model started in 1860, earlier than any other European country It was the antithesis of the multiculturalism that has prevailed in Northern Europe countries like the UK or the Netherlands.

For over 100 years, France successfully assimilated migrants from Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Africa. This assimilated migration was a driving force in the development of France during this period. But assimilation ended in the 60s with the rise of the postmodernist doctrine that negates identity, culture, history. Indeed, if there is no national identity, then how can anyone assimilate into it?.

Fifth event: Macron want to sanction countries like Italy which aim to control mass migration.

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475936/medium/Aquarius_quelles_regles_s_appl.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475936/full/Aquarius_quelles_regles_s_appl.jpg)
The Aquarius carries 629 migrants to Europe

This arrogant and ignorant statement shows that Macron wants mass migration in Europe and in France because he knows very well that the migrants that reach Italy won't stay in Italy. For reference half of the 630 migrants on the Aquarius want asylum in France.

Macron's statement is hypocritical on a domestic level because during his presidential campaign he demanded the reinforcement of European borders and deportation of illegal migrants. It is hypocritical on an international level because Macron wants Italy to accept migrants but doesn't want to open the French ports to migrant boats.

Macron wants mass migration but he doesn't want it to be visible because he knows that a majority of the French people reject it. In a recent survey (https://www.valeursactuelles.com/societe/exclusif-76-des-francais-veulent-un-referendum-sur-limmigration-95057), 76% of the French population want a referendum on immigration. So Macron makes decisions that promote mass migration while multiplying official statements about controlling migration.
Imagine You Were a Migrant
Imagine you're a foreigner, say a Muslim from Mali. Your country has been colonized by France, then your country has been plundered by French multinational corporations (uranium), and then your country has been bombed by France (See point 2 -Macron bombs Syria not ISIS). You might understandably feel some resentment towards France.

You leave your country because of the war and the growing presence of ISIS (See point 2 -Macron bombs Syria not ISIS) and you end up in France because of the open border policy (see point 5 - Macron supports mass migration)

The temporal powers, whether NGOs, politicians, media, administration or artists, all say the same thing : 'do not assimilate to the evil white culture which anyway doesn't exist. Stay true to your roots and stick to your community and traditions' (see point 4 - the presidential party)

https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475949/medium/mosquee_lyon_2_0.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s23/475949/full/mosquee_lyon_2_0.jpg)
The great Mosque of Lyon, funded by Saudi Arabia

If you're worried about the locals' reaction to your non-integration, do not worry, illegal migrants are national heroes and locals are losers (see point 3 - Gassama the superhero)

If you are dissatisfied with this dividing discourse towards the nation that, after all is hosting you, you might turn to the spiritual powers in search for a wiser message. Unfortunately, the mosques controlled by the Salafists, Wahhabis and the Muslim brotherhood carry a similarly dividing message: 'submit to the divine law before the civil law, your nation is the Muslim nation'. In other words: 'be a Muslim, not a citizen'. (see point 1 Macron receives Ben Salman)

The Worst Of The Left Marries The Worst Of The Right
I used the word 'liberalism' several times in this article and the word has different definitions in Europe and the US.

In the US, liberalism is a social ideology promoting freedom, i.e. the destruction of any authority: nations, family, religions. In Europe, liberalism is an economic ideology that promotes freedom too: free market and the subsequent destruction of states, laws and regulations.

Economic liberalism and social liberalism are two sides of the same coin. They work synergetically, the latter producing uprooted, valueless, identity-less individuals that can be economically exploited, while the former produces exhausted dumbed-down individuals that swallow the inanities of postmodernism.

Economic Liberalism and Social liberalism have a fundamental element in common: destruction in the name of freedom. Economic liberalism physically destroys workers and the planet. Social Liberalism destroys the very soul of individuals by annihilating all that feeds it: love, truth, meaning and beauty that were conveyed through 'traditional systems' like family, nation, religion, art.

Historically, the right was the enforcer of economic liberalism while the left was the enforcer of social liberalism. Today those two movements have merged and politicians like Macron (and many others like Obama, Merkel, H. Clinton,...) bring us the worst of the right: predatory capitalism and the worse of the left: postmodernist's nihilism.

Conclusion
The Western world has destroyed the old order in the name of freedom. But individuals and societies have a deep need for order, as French poet Alfred Auguste Pilavoine (https://www.proverbes-francais.fr/citations-alfred-auguste-pilavoine/) wrote in 1845
"Order and freedom, two words perfectly correlative and which have real meaning only in relation to each other; no freedom without order, no order without freedom. Order without freedom is tyranny; freedom without order is obscenity." The french revolution, and its corollary the 1968 revolution, have created a spiritual, social, moral and cultural void. The vacuum of nihilist societies will be filled by a new authority, and for such purposes Islam is a prime candidate:

In Europe the millennial religious order (Christianity) has been destroyed while Islam brings a strong and growing religion.

The patriarchal authority incarnated by the father, the teacher, the priest, has been destroyed, while Islam brings a fundamentally patriarchal model of society.

The sexual revolution has erased any form of sexual restraint, while Islam is very clear and firm about sexual restraint.

Traditional communities, family and nation, have been destroyed, while Islam provides a strong and deep sense of community (Oumma).

The West has replaced legal duties with legal rights, while Islam provides a comprehensive set of legal duties (Sharia).

Any sense of meaningful ideals or purpose has been annihilated in the West while Islam provides a very clear meaning to life (Jihad).

It's more than a little ironic that as postmodernists destroyed the old order, western patriarchal societies, in the name of freedom, opened the way for a new order - Islam - that is decidedly more authoritative and arbitrary.

As if the tensions in Europe were not strong enough, some third party liberals pour oil on the fire with a spate of 'Islamic terrorism': the Bataclan massacre, the Charlie Hebdo attack, the Manchester concert bombing, the Westminster bridge attack (among many others). All of which bear the clear fingerprints not of Islamism but state terrorism.

Obviously some puppet masters want to flood Europe with mass migration and maximize tensions between communities. The desired result is obviously the destruction of Europe.The last remaining question is: will they succeed?

Pierre Lescaudron

Hervé

6th July 2018, 12:54

Clashes continue between French police, protesters for third night in Nantes (https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/07/06/567214/FranceunrestNantespoliceviolence)

PressTV

Fri Jul 6, 2018 09:52AM

https://1452858779.rsc.cdn77.org/photo/20180706/b04d7725-6349-41c1-8e3a-dd711d9715ae.jpg
A ransacked store is pictured in the Breil neighborhood of Nantes, northwestern France, on July 5, 2018. (AFP)

Clashes have continued between French police and protesters in thewestern city of Nantes for the third night running over the killing of a youth by the police.

Protesters came out onto the streets of Nantes shortly after news of the death of a 22-year old man emerged late Tuesday night. An officer shot dead Aboubakar Fofana after, according to police, he “refused to comply” during a traffic stop.

A police officer has reportedly been taken into custody for questioning in relation to the death. The public prosecutor for Nantes Pierre Sennes also said national police were investigating to clarify “the facts and determine in what circumstances the policeman used his weapon.”

http://217.218.67.233//photo/20180706/3a7c6fb9-0b98-4e75-b1c4-32b9ea95abeb.jpg
Anti-riot police officers stand at the Breil neighbourhood in Nantes, as tear gas smoke is seen behind, on July 4, 2018. (AFP)

Fofana’s death set off angry protests and provoked clashes between police and protesters in Malakoff and Dervallières neighborhoods, described by some local news reports as “sensitive”. The term used by the French government to refer to areas in need of social investment, but used by people to refer to areas prone to crime.

Around 50 cars were torched overnight into Friday in Nantes, according to the fire service, which said there were arson attempts on a high school and a petrol station.

More than a dozen protesters were also arrested early Thursday.

http://217.218.67.233//photo/20180706/0e92ef93-e90d-4204-9ce4-d0a16c18c6a9.jpg
People gather for a peaceful rally march in the Breil neighborhood of Nantes, northwestern France on July 5, 2018. Photo by AFP)

Authorities said more reinforcements were expected to be sent to the areas after police warned on Wednesday that they “expect the worst in the coming days," according to the Nantes-based Presse-Ocean newspaper.

Around 1000 protesters took part in a peaceful rally in Nantes on Thursday, calling for "justice for Abou" and demanding that the circumstances of his death be revealed.

Nantes Mayor Johanna Rolland has asked for a transparent investigation into the case. The Nantes shooting comes amid a debate over the use of firearms by French police.

In February 2017, the French parliament passed a bill to increase police use of firearms following a spate of terrorist attacks. In June this year, figures showed a significant increase in French police violence and the use of their weapons.

Hervé

29th August 2018, 14:55

The insane absurdity of legislations and laws, European and others:

Smoke bombs & stones: French and British fishermen stage ‘sea battle’ in scallop war (VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/437134-french-british-fishermen-clash/)

RT
Published time: 29 Aug, 2018 12:19

Edited time: 29 Aug, 2018 13:52
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9dam)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.08/article/5b86875fdda4c87c1d8b45fd.JPG
© Facebook/ Anthony Quenel

Brexit has recently worsened relations between the UK and France but tensions have now increased after French and British fishermen clashed at sea on Tuesday night over a scallop row.

A 35-strong flotilla of French fishing boats on Tuesday night circled five British ones in a row over scallops. The clashes off the coast of Normandy saw angry French fishermen hurling smoke bombs, stones and insults at the Brits, AFP news agency reports. Footage from local media also shows some boats ramming into others, leaving holes in three vessels.

MT9MGtCG-Ac
The clashes happened in the scallop-rich waters of the Baie de Seine area of Normandy, 12 nautical miles out to sea, where the Brits are legally entitled to fish. But as the French are only permitted to fish between October 1 and May 15, they gathered overnight to protest the British “pillaging” of the scallop supply and demanded their competitors face the same restrictions.

Video at: https://www.facebook.com/anthony.quenel.9/videos/10212464054373259/
“The French went to contact the British to stop them working and they clashed with each other. Apparently there was stone-throwing, but no injuries,” said Normandy fishing chief Dimitri Rogoff.
A fishing boat owner from Brixham, however, raised the number of boats confronting the Brits to 40 and said:
“One boat got petrol bombed, others had windows smashed.

“I can’t believe that someone wasn’t killed,” he said, the Daily Mail reports.
He defended the Brits’ position claiming they were in international waters and therefore entitled to fish in the location where they were ambushed.

The two sides have reached annual agreements over the past five years, but this year the French reportedly had had enough of the Brits’ indiscriminate power to deplete the scallop stocks and walked away without a deal.

It comes just a day after news emerged French President Emmanuel Macron rejected PM Theresa May’s Chequers blueprint, which would see the UK abiding by EU rules in return for free trade – effectively slashing her hopes of hammering out a deal with the EU by the October deadline.

Macron said that while he respected Brexit, he would not settle for any compromise that would see the EU “unravel.”

May’s plan, which in June saw two cabinet resignations, would see the UK remaining within the EU single market for goods but not for services. The PM was also recently forced to cave into pressure (https://www.rt.com/uk/416247-france-macron-may-sandhurst/)from France to increase funding to bolster the Calais border as migrants carry on flocking there in hopes of reaching Britain through the Channel Island.

Mark (Star Mariner)

31st August 2018, 16:44

Paris is no more

Hope this isn't out of turn Hervé, posting on your thread, but I recently read an alarming piece on the dreadful state of Paris. I was duly horrified. The last time I was there was in the mid 80's, and it was nothing like this!

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2016/06/06/14/34F9052800000578-3626998-The_tents_and_rubbish_are_left_strewn_across_the_pavement_after_-a-113_1465218909622.jpg

I have every sympathy for these displaced people. It's most important to remember their humanity, even if some of them have forgotten it themselves. But let us neither forget the Parisians. Their proud beautiful city has turned into a hellhole. What the tourist numbers are these days I shudder to think. I can only imagine they've tanked the last couple of years.

Alarmingly, London isn't far behind - it's already well on the way. As is Berlin, and Amsterdam, and Stockholm...

Our globalist politicians, shills of the George Soros machine, have much to answer for - if and when all this is cleared up. Because what we're seeing here is the social and cultural evisceration of Europe, country by country, city by city. From what I have read, Marseilles, Toulon, and Nice on the southern coast are actually worse.

For anyone unaware how severe this situation is, Paul Watson sums it up in this harrowing report:

56b_rmUHUg4

Hervé

3rd September 2018, 21:29

French Farmers Sow Grass in Fields to Protest China Buying Up Thousands of Acres of Countryside (https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/03/french-farmers-sow-grass-fields-protest-china-buying-thousands-acres-countryside/)

https://media.breitbart.com/media/2018/09/French-farmers-640x480.png
GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP/Getty Images

Breitbart
By Jack Montgomery
3 Sep 2018227 (https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/03/french-farmers-sow-grass-fields-protest-china-buying-thousands-acres-countryside/#disqus_thread)

French farmers lit flares and sowed grass seeds on land bought up by firms from China, complaining locals are being squeezed out of the countryside by foreign investors.

Around a hundred farmers converged on land near Châtillon-sur-Indre in the Loire valley, where China’s Hongyang consortium has bought more than 2,000 acres of farmland.

It bought 4,200 acres in the region in 2016, and all told, the Chinese have purchased an estimated €76 billion (£68bn/$88bn) in French land since 2010, including a large number of Bordeaux vineyards — up from 30 châteaux in 2012 to over 160 today, according (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/protests-in-france-as-chinese-buy-countryside-xmltwwh98) to The Times.
“The land is there to provide for farmers’ families and to produce food,” complained Laurent Pinatel, a spokesman for the Small Farmers’ Confederation.

“The [Chinese] owners have come here to make a profit, to speculate on agriculture while monopolising the land,” Mr Pinatel.
Left-wing MP Jean-Paul Dufrègne was supportive, commenting:
“Land prices are being pushed up to three times the market value.”
He added:
“The consequence is simple. It makes land unaffordable to young farmers.”
Dufrègne is pressuring France’s globalist president, Emmanuel Macron, to regulate Chinese land purchases — but his background as a banker at Rothschild & Cie and globalist political views makes him an unlikely champion for such a cause.

Across the English Channel, the United Kingdom is experiencing a similar phenomenon — although it is more pronounced in urban areas than the countryside.

Reporting has focused on how the Qatari dictatorship, in particular, has bought up huge swathes (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4323300/Who-owns-London-Qataris-24-MILLION-square-feet.html) of the British capital, with the Daily Mail noting in 2017 that their 24 million square feet of property puts them ahead of the City of London and even Queen Elizabeth II in terms of total real estate.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/991818020233404416/alrBF_dr_bigger.jpg Bloomberg‏Verified account @business (https://twitter.com/business)

Qatar seals the deal for control of London's Canary Wharf http://bloom.bg/1Ke393D (http://t.co/NMKT47oqdR)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8mpTwfCAAAMgvS.jpg

6:15 AM - 30 Jan 2015
9 replies 97 retweets 41 likes This has not only helped to drive prices in the capital to astronomical heights, but left the British government in a difficult position diplomatically — as the Qatari government is accused of being a major sponsor (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-block-qatar-terrorism-syria-20170609-story.html) of radical Islamic terrorism internationally, and has been increasingly isolated (https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/06/06/trump-praises-middle-east-countries-cutting-ties-qatar/) by the United States and even Saudi Arabia.

Flash

3rd September 2018, 22:02

Same thing is happening in Quebec, lots of land bought by Chinese or large corporation which had nothing to do with farming and are now turning to industrial farming

The government did put a moratorium on land sale to foreigners. But not on corporate take over.

French Farmers Sow Grass in Fields to Protest China Buying Up Thousands of Acres of Countryside (https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/03/french-farmers-sow-grass-fields-protest-china-buying-thousands-acres-countryside/)

https://media.breitbart.com/media/2018/09/French-farmers-640x480.png
GUILLAUME SOUVANT/AFP/Getty Images

Breitbart
By Jack Montgomery
3 Sep 2018227 (https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/03/french-farmers-sow-grass-fields-protest-china-buying-thousands-acres-countryside/#disqus_thread)

French farmers lit flares and sowed grass seeds on land bought up by firms from China, complaining locals are being squeezed out of the countryside by foreign investors.

Around a hundred farmers converged on land near Châtillon-sur-Indre in the Loire valley, where China’s Hongyang consortium has bought more than 2,000 acres of farmland.

It bought 4,200 acres in the region in 2016, and all told, the Chinese have purchased an estimated €76 billion (£68bn/$88bn) in French land since 2010, including a large number of Bordeaux vineyards — up from 30 châteaux in 2012 to over 160 today, according (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/protests-in-france-as-chinese-buy-countryside-xmltwwh98) to The Times.
“The land is there to provide for farmers’ families and to produce food,” complained Laurent Pinatel, a spokesman for the Small Farmers’ Confederation.

“The [Chinese] owners have come here to make a profit, to speculate on agriculture while monopolising the land,” Mr Pinatel.
Left-wing MP Jean-Paul Dufrègne was supportive, commenting:
“Land prices are being pushed up to three times the market value.”
He added:
“The consequence is simple. It makes land unaffordable to young farmers.”
Dufrègne is pressuring France’s globalist president, Emmanuel Macron, to regulate Chinese land purchases — but his background as a banker at Rothschild & Cie and globalist political views makes him an unlikely champion for such a cause.

Across the English Channel, the United Kingdom is experiencing a similar phenomenon — although it is more pronounced in urban areas than the countryside.

Reporting has focused on how the Qatari dictatorship, in particular, has bought up huge swathes (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4323300/Who-owns-London-Qataris-24-MILLION-square-feet.html) of the British capital, with the Daily Mail noting in 2017 that their 24 million square feet of property puts them ahead of the City of London and even Queen Elizabeth II in terms of total real estate.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/991818020233404416/alrBF_dr_bigger.jpg Bloomberg‏Verified account @business (https://twitter.com/business)

Qatar seals the deal for control of London's Canary Wharf http://bloom.bg/1Ke393D (http://t.co/NMKT47oqdR)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8mpTwfCAAAMgvS.jpg

6:15 AM - 30 Jan 2015
9 replies 97 retweets 41 likes This has not only helped to drive prices in the capital to astronomical heights, but left the British government in a difficult position diplomatically — as the Qatari government is accused of being a major sponsor (http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-block-qatar-terrorism-syria-20170609-story.html) of radical Islamic terrorism internationally, and has been increasingly isolated (https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/06/06/trump-praises-middle-east-countries-cutting-ties-qatar/) by the United States and even Saudi Arabia.

Hervé

20th September 2018, 14:39

Court orders psychiatric evaluation for Marine Le Pen, she slams it as ‘hallucination’ (https://www.rt.com/news/438908-marine-lepen-psychiatric-expertise/)

RT
Published time: 20 Sep, 2018 11:25
Edited time: 20 Sep, 2018 13:04
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9enw)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.09/article/5ba38a96fc7e93e52f8b45f3.JPG
Marine Le Pen / Reuters

French politician Marine Le Pen said a court ordered her to undergo psychiatric evaluation over a series of images she posted on Twitter showing Islamic State executions. She slammed the order as ["insane"].

The president of France's National Rally (formerly Front National) has released an order saying it comes from the magistrates in Nanterre near Paris, calling on her to “undergo a psychiatric examination."

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1002622173385756672/RbiW1K3S_bigger.jpg (https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel) Marine Le Pen‏Verified account @MLP_officiel (https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel)

C'est proprement HALLUCINANT. Ce régime commence VRAIMENT à faire peur. MLP

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DnhshNJWwAAFOYB.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DnhsqsrXoAAmGBs.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DnhssPRXgAE5dQE.jpg

2:11 AM - 20 Sep 2018
426 replies 912 retweets 1,084 likes
"For denouncing the horrors of Daesh (Islamic State/IS, formerly ISIS) by tweets the "justice system" has referred [me] to a psychiatric assessment. How far will they go?!" she tweeted (https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel/status/1042684362364473349) in response.
The 2017 presidential candidate denounced the order as “a hallucination,” saying:
“This regime is really starting to .”
French major outlet BMFTV, which also broke the story, said (https://www.bfmtv.com/police-justice/marine-le-pen-soumise-a-une-expertise-psychiatrique-pour-avoir-tweete-des-images-de-daesh-1527164.html) that the procedure was in fact a “common” occurrence. The comment did not go down well with Le Pen though, who branded the claim “a lie.” Such an examination is required of “pedophiles or [those with] sexual deviance,” she argued.

In December of 2015, Le Pen tweeted three pictures of killings carried out by IS terrorists accompanied by the text “Daesh [Arabic term for ISIS] is THIS!” The tweets had been a response to journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin, who compared Le Pen’s nationalist rhetoric to that of the Islamic terrorist group.

One of the pictures showed the body of James Foley, whom the extremists beheaded in August 2014. Back then his family said they had been “deeply disturbed by the unsolicited use of Jim for Le Pen’s political gain.”

Le Pen later deleted the images. Speaking to French media earlier this year she said that she is being charged for “having condemned the horrors of Daesh.”

If convicted, the politician faces a maximum punishment of a €75,000 fine and up to three years in prison.

A number of politicians have lambasted the judges’ decision towards Le Pen. According to (https://twitter.com/GilbertCollard/status/1042721780878778369)National Assembly member Gilbert Collard, the order simply means “the psychiatrization of political opinion.”

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini also took to Twitter to express support for the French politician. “A court orders a psychiatric assessment for Marine Le Pen. Words fail me! Solidarity with her and with the French who love freedom!” he wrote.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/966325945060732928/0Ua5xPMX_bigger.jpg Matteo Salvini‏Verified account @matteosalvinimi (https://twitter.com/matteosalvinimi)

Una procura ordina una #[B]periziapsichiatrica (https://twitter.com/hashtag/periziapsichiatrica?src=hash) per Marine Le Pen. Non ho parole! Solidarietà a lei e ai francesi che amano la libertà! @MLP_officiel (https://twitter.com/MLP_officiel) #LePen (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LePen?src=hash)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DniRp9OW0AI5DDx.jpg

4:53 AM - 20 Sep 2018
344 replies 871 retweets 2,226 likes This is not the first time Marine Le Pen has locked horns with the authorities. In 2017, roughly two months before the presidential election, she was summoned by judges for alleged misuse of EU funds. The court said that Le Pen’s staff was fictitiously employed at the European Parliament as assistants. She denied the allegations.

This July, French judges blocked €2 million of subsidies to Le Pen’s party. Le Pen condemned the move as “a blow to democracy,” since withholding the funding would likely result in her party becoming defunct.

Related:
Marine Le Pen’s ISIS tweets: French politician faces 3yr jail term as formal probe launched (https://www.rt.com/news/420194-le-pen-islamic-state-twitter/)

=========================================

... what's that saying about "paranoia"...

Deux Corbeaux

20th September 2018, 15:29

Again the demonization of a right wing politician the globalists are afraid of.

Bravo Marie. Bravo Matteo Salvini !

Hervé

14th October 2018, 14:01

'You have the right to defend yourself and property': Declares Italy's Salvini amidst surge in self-defence weapons requests (https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/10/italian-interior-minister-prepares-legislature-for-self-defence-no-trial-for-those-who-defend-their-property/)

Ilias Voice of Europe (https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/10/italian-interior-minister-prepares-legislature-for-self-defence-no-trial-for-those-who-defend-their-property/)
Sun, 14 Oct 2018 12:43 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/492523/large/DfabxlFXcAELF57_702x459.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s24/492523/full/DfabxlFXcAELF57_702x459.jpg)
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini

In July, Interior Minister Salvini announced on Twitter that he would be looking at reforming the self-defence laws to allow homeowners to confront intruders and defend themselves with firearms if need be. "A new law that allows the legitimate defence of decent people in their homes is our priority," Salvini said.

In polls over the summer 39 per cent of the Italian people said they would like to see less stringent criteria for the possession of firearms for the purposes of self-defence.

The trend of increased weapons licences is not limited to Italy. Several other European countries have seen a surge in licence requests and firearms sales since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015 including Germany, Belgium and Austria.

Matteo said: "If a burglar breaks into your house, your property or your shop, you will have the right to defend yourself and your property, while the perpetrator and his relatives won't have the right to claim for compensation not even a single euro.

In addition you don't have to go on a trial for years, and you won't have to pay for anything. The state will cover the costs of those who have defended their lives..."

These are some of the points of law about self-defence that we will bring to the senate on 23 October"

SOTT Comment (https://www.sott.net/article/398258-You-have-the-right-to-defend-yourself-and-property-Declares-Italys-Salvini-amidst-surge-in-self-defence-weapons-requests): There have been many high profile (https://metro.co.uk/2018/04/05/happened-tony-martin-case-farmer-now-shooting-fred-barras-brendon-fearon-7442730/) cases throughout Europe where homeowners have been jailed for merely defending their property. In Italy, what with the mass migration crisis, one expects this had a strong effect on people's concerns, but a ruling like this would likely be welcome in many other Western countries, where currently the law seems to favor the criminals:

Crime does pay in Finland: Homeowner sentenced 4 years in jail and ordered to pay damages to 3 burglars who he fought off with knife (https://www.sott.net/article/322628-Crime-does-pay-in-Finland-Homeowner-sentenced-4-years-in-jail-and-ordered-to-pay-damages-to-3-burglars-who-he-fought-off-with-knife)
Innocent homeowner murdered by police after defending his family against an armed intruder (https://www.sott.net/article/392391-Innocent-homeowner-murdered-by-police-after-defending-his-family-against-an-armed-intruder)
Home invasion victim faces assault charges after defending his home against robbers (https://www.sott.net/article/359414-Home-invasion-victim-faces-assault-charges-after-defending-his-home-against-robbers)
'I'm going to defend my life': Homeowner uses AK-47 to kill armed burglars (https://www.sott.net/article/387321-I-m-going-to-defend-my-life-Homeowner-uses-AK-47-to-kill-armed-burglars)

========================================

How insane is that: someone's sane at the helm!

Hervé

16th October 2018, 14:17

France deliberately dropped off migrants in Italian woods, Salvini says (https://www.rt.com/news/441392-france-drops-off-migrants-italy/)

RT
Published time: 16 Oct, 2018 11:43
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9gkw)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.10/article/5bc5cc26fc7e9311058b459a.jpg
© Global Look Press Panoramic/ Mauro Ujetto

Italian anti-immigration leader Matteo Salvini has labeled French President Emmanuel Macron an “international embarrassment” after policemen were spotted dropping off migrants in an Italian forest on the countries’ shared border.

The right-wing Northern League party leader and the country's Interior minister said the French authorities’ drop off of the migrants in Italian territory “is an unprecedented offence against Italy” and said in an Instagram post on Tuesday that “we don’t accept apologies”.

A French gendarmerie police van last Friday was seen dropping off the two men, believed to be of African origin, in Italy’s Claviere woods. A French official said the incident was a “mistake” at the hands of the officers who were new to patrolling the area.
"Abandoning immigrants in an Italian forest cannot be considered a mistake or an incident," Salvini said.
He went on to question whether international organizations such as the United Nations and Europe “don’t find it ‘sickening’ to leave people in an isolated area with no assistance.

“We are faced with an international shame and Mr (Emmanuel) Macron cannot pretend nothing has happened,” Salvini went on. “We don't accept the apology.”

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1018833905082871808/F7RZerA1_bigger.jpg RT‏Verified account @RT_com (https://twitter.com/RT_com)

‘We'll close our airports!’ Salvini resists Germany’s plans to send migrants back to Italy https://on.rt.com/9fzb (https://t.co/eMtkFo2fOJ)

video at link (https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1049293837909282816) (<---)

6:42 AM - 8 Oct 2018
26 replies 62 retweets 132 likes It is the latest spat in an ongoing war of words between France and Italy over the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

Salvini in July demanded France’s apology after it criticized the Italian government’s “cynical and irresponsible” decision to stop a rescue boat with more than 600 migrants on board from docking in Italy.

After 30 hours of it being stalled in the Mediterranean, the Aquarius ship eventually headed for Spain after it announced it would take in the migrants. Salvini claimed France’s criticism was hypocritical given Paris had failed on its pledge under a 2015 EU redistribution scheme to take in 10,000 refugees as it has only taken in 640 as of June 2018.

Hervé

31st October 2018, 23:27

Echoing the thalidomide scandal, until the real cause is discovered, here is a preamble - to the main article that follows - to the story of a French scientist and whistle blower:

La scientifique qui a alerté sur les bébés nés sans bras en passe de perdre son emploi (https://www.bfmtv.com/sante/la-scientifique-qui-a-alerte-sur-les-bebes-nes-sans-bras-en-passe-de-perdre-son-emploi-1548628.html)

20/10/2018 à 16h51

https://img.bfmtv.com/c/1000/600/cfe/7420be74e0c0c2b5e8794bb9dcd48.jpeg
Illustration - LOIC VENANCE / AFP

Emmanuelle Amar s'est vu notifier mardi 16 octobre, avec cinq autres collaborateurs, son licenciement pour raisons économiques du Registre des malformations en Rhône-Alpes (Remera).

Trois mois après la publication d'un rapport sur des anomalies réductionnelles des membres (https://www.remera.fr/?p=1594) constatées chez des enfants nés dans l'Ain, le Registre des malformations congénitales en Rhône-Alpes a annoncé qu'il fermera ses portes le 31 décembre prochain (https://rmc.bfmtv.com/emission/bebes-nes-sans-bras-l-organisme-qui-avait-lance-l-alerte-va-disparaitre-1542657.html). Faute de subventions suffisantes de la part de l'Etat et du CHU de Lyon, cette structure, dirigée par l'épidémiologiste Emmanuelle Amar, cessera donc ses activités, douze ans après sa création.

Une décision qui passe mal pour la scientifique qui s'est exprimée à plusieurs reprises depuis la rentrée sur les nombreux cas d'enfants nés sans bras (https://www.bfmtv.com/sante/bebes-nes-sans-bras-j-ai-eu-autant-de-causes-possibles-que-de-discussions-avec-les-medecins-1538139.html) dans trois départements français (la Bretagne, l'Ain et les Pays de la Loire) entre 2009 et 2014. Contactée par France Info (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/sante/maladie/bebes-nes-sans-bras-dans-l-ain-la-scientifique-lanceuse-d-alerte-bientot-licenciee_2994307.html), elle explique ne pas croire aux motifs économiques invoqués pour expliquer son licenciement ainsi que celui de ses cinq collaborateurs.
"On veut se débarrasser d'une petite structure qui a des velléités de transparence sur les rapports d'activité, financiers, et sur les alertes", estime-t-elle.
Après des alertes répétées depuis 2014 sur la naissance énigmatique de sept enfants nés sans bras ou sans main (https://www.bfmtv.com/sante/un-nombre-anormalement-eleve-de-bebes-nes-sans-bras-ou-sans-mains-dans-l-ain-1531904.html) dans un rayon de 17km dans l'Ain, Santé Publique France a rendu ses conclusions le 4 octobre dernier. L'organisme, qui remet en cause la méthodologie utilisée par le Remera, a estimé qu'aucun facteur commun ne se distinguait de manière significative pour pouvoir expliquer ces malformations (https://www.bfmtv.com/sante/mystere-des-bebes-nes-sans-bras-les-pesticides-sont-ils-responsables-1539920.html).

Translation:
Emmanuelle Amar was notified Tuesday, October 16, with five other employees, of her dismissal for economic reasons from the Register of malformations in Rhône-Alpes (Remera).

Three months after the publication of a report on abnormalities of limbs reduction observed in children born in the Ain, the Congenital Malformation Registry in Rhône-Alpes announced that it will close its doors on December 31st. In the absence of sufficient subsidies from the State and the University Hospital of Lyon, this structure, led by the epidemiologist Emmanuelle Amar, will cease its activities, twelve years after its creation.

A decision that wrongs the scientist who has expressed her findings several times since the start of the fall on the many cases of children born without arms in three French departments (Brittany, Ain and Pays de la Loire) between 2009 and 2014. Contacted by France Info, she explains that she does not believe in the economic reasons invoked to explain her dismissal as well as that of her five employees.
"They [government] want to get rid of a small structure that has ambitions of transparency on reports of activities, finances and alerts," she said.
After repeated warnings since 2014 about the enigmatic birth of seven children born without arms or hand in a 17km radius in the Ain, Santé Publique France delivered its conclusions on October 4th. The body, questioning the methodology used by the Remera, found that no common factor was significantly different to explain these malformations.

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

In short, they wanted to get rid of her via terminating fundings for the small organization she was heading.

Then, all of a sudden, a 180 degree volte-face occurred:

Pesticides? Genetics? France launches probe after more birth defects cases revealed (https://www.rt.com/news/442783-france-investigation-babies-with-deformities/)

RT
Published time: 31 Oct, 2018 19:24
Edited time: 31 Oct, 2018 19:36
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9hnj)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.10/article/5bd9f715dda4c8830a8b45fe.jpg
© Flickr / Government of Alberta

A nationwide investigation has been launched in France amid growing concern at the increased number of instances of babies being born with birth defects, like missing or malformed arms, sparking a public health scare.

Assuring citizens that nothing “is being hidden from you,” head of Public Health France Francois Bourdillon told RTL radio listeners that an investigation was already underway and that results were expected in about three months.

“We will look at all suspect cases,” he assured.

The condition, a type of agenesis, is where the upper limbs of a fetus fail to form correctly during pregnancy. Those affected can be born with missing upper limbs, forearms, hands, or fingers.

An initial inquiry into rural clusters of babies being born with such defects between 2009 and 2014, concluded in October and said that the cases were not significantly higher than the national average and without a common cause.

However, confidence that the French authorities had a handle on the crisis took another blow on Monday night, after 11 fresh cases of babies born with arm defects were reported to have occurred between 2000 and 2014, this time in the eastern region of Ain, near the Swiss border.

Seven of the babies in Ain had all been born within 17 km of the village of Druillat during the time period.

Two other areas had been previously identified as having statistically “excessive” defects in clusters in north-west France, with four cases in Brittany and a further three in nearby Loire-Atlantique.

Vowing to get to the bottom of the mystery, French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said on Tuesday that no cause was being ruled out.

“It’s maybe something environmental, it’s maybe what [pregnant mothers] ate, it’s perhaps what they breathed in,” she said.

Remera, a public body that looks at malformation, carried out its own investigation in the Ain area. While no exact cause has been found, the body believes the answer “revolves around agriculture,” meaning pesticides.

While no environmental or pharmaceutical cause has yet been linked to the French defects, the scare bears similarities to the Thalidomide scandal.

Marketed in the 1950s and 60s to alleviate morning sickness, the drug’s link to fetal limb malformation only became known after years of marketing and use.

Related:
Epilepsy drug linked to 4,100 severe birth defects – French health authorities

(https://www.rt.com/news/385457-epilepsy-drug-birth-defects/)Bébés sans bras : la lanceuse d’alerte Emmanuelle Amar reçoit une dizaine de lettres par jour de parents concernés (https://www.lelibrepenseur.org/bebes-sans-bras-la-lanceuse-dalerte-emmanuelle-amar-recoit-une-dizaine-de-lettres-par-jour-de-parents-concernes/)

(https://www.rt.com/news/385457-epilepsy-drug-birth-defects/)

Hervé

17th November 2018, 13:35

Protests over fuel prices threaten to bring France to a standstill (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/16/gilet-jaunes-yellow-jackets-protesters-france-standstill)

Kim Willsher The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/16/gilet-jaunes-yellow-jackets-protesters-france-standstill)
Sat, 17 Nov 2018 11:58 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/497622/large/https_3A_2F_2Fmedia_mbst_pub_u.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s24/497622/full/https_3A_2F_2Fmedia_mbst_pub_u.jpg)

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, faces a new challenge this weekend as a motorist protest movement threatens to bring the country to a standstill.

The so-called gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protest movement has no official organisation, no identified leader and no political affiliation. Instead, it has been almost entirely coordinated on social media.

As a result, the French authorities fear the location of the protests is almost impossible to pin down and nobody has a clue how many people will turn up.

On Friday, the prime minister, Édouard Philippe, said the gilets jaunes were free to protest but blocking the country was "obviously not acceptable".

A call to action across France in protest at the rising cost of diesel and petrol, has sparked vigorous support on Facebook, where the Blocage 17 Novembre 2018 page, has almost 25,000 followers. The group states: "We point out that we are not part of any organisation (or political party). This event comes about only from the French people."

The "yellow vests" are named after the hi-vis tops motorists are obliged to carry in their vehicles under French law in case of a breakdown. France has a long history of citizens taking to the streets to force the hands of successive governments over the past 50 years.

Macron has defended the rise in taxes on fuel next year, which comes after a 23% rise in the cost of diesel and 15% in petrol in the past year. Ministers say price increases are mainly due to higher wholesale oil prices globally. But there is anger about taxes on fuel that have risen incrementally since 2014. Diesel is due to be taxed another 6.5 cents per litre and petrol by 2.9 cents in France from January.

The government says its transport policy is aimed at long-term "ecological transition" and encouraging more environment-friendly vehicles.

"I prefer taxing fuel to taxing labour," Macron said last week. "People complaining about rising fuel prices are the same ones who complain about pollution and how their children suffer."

Critics say the rising fuel prices hits workers who depend on cars to get to and from their jobs particularly in the countryside. The dispute has sparked a rift between the city "elite" and the rural poor in France, where Macron has been labelled the president of the rich because of his tax breaks for business.

Laurent Wauquiez, the leader of the opposition centre-right Les Républicains, tweeted: "You have to be completely out of touch with reality not to understand that taxing fuel is taxing those who work."

The economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, has spent recent days promoting the government's financial incentives for drivers to move away from diesel. These include a rebate for owners who trade in vehicles for a more environmentally friendly model.

There is also an "ecological bonus" for drivers who rent or buy new electric vehicles. Protesters struggling to meet the rising cost of fuel say this does not help them in the short term.

While go-slow actions will be tolerated during the demonstration, police have been ordered to break up any protests that bring roads to a standstill.

A poll by Elabe for BFM TV on Wednesday suggested 73% of French people supported the protests and 70% said the government should scrap the fuel price rises.

Hervé

18th November 2018, 15:53

Over 400 People Injured in France in Protests Against Fuel Prices Rise (PHOTO)

Sputnik Europe (https://sputniknews.com/europe/)
15:27 18.11.2018
(updated 15:28 18.11.2018)

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© Sputnik / Julien Mattia

PARIS (Sputnik) - More than 400 people have suffered injuries in France in the protests against fuel prices hikes, French Interior Minister Cristophe Castaner has stated.

"During the protests, 409 people were injured, while 14 of them suffered grave injuries," Castaner was broadcast as saying by French radio station RTL.

He specified that 28 police officers, gendarmes and firefighting units officers had suffered injuries.

Castaner assessed the number of protesters at over 287,000 people, saying that protests had been held in over 2,000 French cities and villages.

HUGO TOULOUSE FM (https://twitter.com/HUGOTOULOUSEFM)✌🏻‏ @HUGOTOULOUSEFM (https://twitter.com/HUGOTOULOUSEFM)
Du monde dans les rues aujourd’hui à Toulouse https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/203c.png #17novembre2018 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/17novembre2018?src=hash) #GiletsJaunes (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GiletsJaunes?src=hash)

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4:42 AM - 17 Nov 2018 from Toulouse, France (https://twitter.com/search?q=place%3A3980fd5d8a818646)
According to the interior minister, 282 people were detained in the course of the protests, while 157 of them were placed in custody.

Large-scale protests were held across the country on November 17, leaving one woman dead in the eastern French Isere department. The rioters, wearing high-visibility yellow waistcoats, were blocking traffic.

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/497690/medium/france_protest.jpg (https://www.sott.net/pic-of-day/497690)

La France En Marche: Mass protests against rising taxes in France, 17 November 2018

The protests have been triggered by a fuel prices hike in France. While the price of diesel has risen by around 23per cent, and the petrol price has seen a 15 percent rise in 2018, and a further rise is set to happen on January 1, 2019, with the petrol price going up by 2.9 cents per liter, and the diesel price rising by 6.5 cents per liter.

Related:
France Protests Recap: 1 Dead, 200+ Injured Over Gas Price Hike (PHOTOS, VIDEOS) (http://sputniknews.com/europe/20181117/1069900065.html)

Hervé

21st November 2018, 02:33

Why Drivers Are Leading a Protest Movement Across France (https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/11/french-protests-gilets-jaunes-emmanuel-macron-gas-diesel-tax/576196/)

Feargus O'Sullivan CityLab (https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/11/french-protests-gilets-jaunes-emmanuel-macron-gas-diesel-tax/576196/)
Mon, 19 Nov 2018 21:23 UTC
SOTT Comment (https://www.sott.net/article/401090-Why-Drivers-Are-Leading-a-Protest-Movement-Across-France): Barely 18 months into his presidency, open rebellion has erupted in France. Now entering its fifth day, hundreds of thousands of people are protesting rising prices and taxes by donning the fluorescent yellow reflective vests all drivers are mandated to store in their vehicles at all times, giving this grassroots movement the name 'Gilets Jaunes' (yellow vests).
Protests occur regularly in France, and strikes of course - nobody does strikes quite like the French - but what stands out about this particular movement is that it's genuinely grassroots. No trade unions, no NGOs, no politicians, and no think-tanks were involved in promoting, leading or sponsoring it. It has no leadership and no spokesman. It doesn't even have a website...

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/498183/large/gilets_jaune.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s24/498183/full/gilets_jaune.jpg)
France may have a tradition of boisterous protest, but this weekend's mass demonstrations against gas tax increases have still managed to take the country by surprise.

On Saturday and Sunday, at least 280,000 protesters (https://www.france24.com/fr/20181117-direct-france-gilets-jaunes-taxe-carburant-pouvoir-achat-manifestation-macron-voiture) took to the streets in urban, suburban, and rural communities across the country, burning cars, blockading highways and fuel depots, and engaging in battles with police and motorists as they demonstrated against planned rises in gas and diesel taxes. So far, over 400 people have been injured in the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement - so named because the protesters are wearing the high-viz vests that French drivers are obliged to carry in case of emergencies. On Saturday, one was even killed (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/transports/mobilisation-du-17-novembre/un-mort-en-savoie-trois-blesses-graves-des-incidents-partout-en-france-la-mobilisation-des-gilets-jaunes-sous-tension_3039139.html) after being run over by a panicked driver. The movement shows no signs of letting up, however, with protests continuing Monday and more major protest days planned for later in the month.

It's not just the protests' fierceness and geographic spread that have taken the country by surprise - French media reported more than 2,000 separate rallies occurring across the country. Unusually, the Yellow Vests is a grassroots mass protest movement with no explicit wider political agenda or links to existing groups. Having organized themselves via social media since May (when the movement was sparked by an online petition (https://actu.fr/societe/gilets-jaunes-petition-contre-hausse-prix-carburants-fait-plein_19547474.html)), the Yellow Vests have arrived somewhat out of the blue.

There is also no clear media consensus as to what they are protesting beyond the cost of gas. To some observers, the protesters are primarily angry about what they see as President Emmanuel Macron's apparent indifference toward tough conditions for working people. To others, the movement is evidence of a middle-class backlash. Meanwhile, it's not automatically easy to say whether the protest cleaves more to the left or the right.

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/498182/large/940.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s24/498182/full/940.jpg)
A man wears a mask with the likeness of French president Emmanuel Macron in Haulchin, France. © Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

The core issue that the Yellow Vests have rallied around is clear enough, at least. Earlier this year, Macron announced tax increases on fuel, due to be introduced in January. If the plans go ahead, gas taxes will rise by €0.029 per liter (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/16/gilet-jaunes-yellow-jackets-protesters-france-standstill) ($0.12 a gallon) and taxes on diesel - a fuel once heavily promoted in France that is now being proactively phased out - will rise to €0.065 a liter ($0.24 a gallon). These taxes come on the heels of already steep rises in fuel costs over the past few years, leaving the government open to accusations that it is squeezing already stretched workers in a way that shows indifference to their living conditions.

The tax rises appear to fit within a pro-Green agenda espoused by Macron's government, in a country where attitudes to road transit and carbon emissions are changing fast. Macron has already pledged to ban all gasoline-fueled cars (https://www.citylab.com/environment/2017/07/france-gasoline-ban-paris-car-free-areas/532656/) by 2040, and it seems that local authorities are getting on board with the changes needed to meet that goal. This month, most of the Paris region (https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/11/ile-de-france-metropole-paris-diesel-car-ban/575710/) pledged to start phasing out all but the newest diesel and gas-fueled vehicles.

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/498185/large/gilets_jaunes_french_flag_arti.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s24/498185/full/gilets_jaunes_french_flag_arti.jpg)

A cross-party consensus seems to be developing on these issues, but in protesting the government's planned tax rises, the Gilets Jaunes have avoided an explicitly anti-Green stance. They have pointed out that, while the rises are being presented partly as a form of carbon tax promoting a shift toward cleaner energy sources, only 20 percent of the tax actually goes toward supporting the country's transition to cleaner energy. The fact that France's fuel taxes are not the highest in Europe (https://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2018/11/14/2906275-carburant-europe-france-est-pays-plus-cher.html), and are actually lower than Germany's, doesn't change the widely felt impression that drivers are being squeezed by a government that is not entirely practicing what it preaches.

Given the scale of the protests and the speed at which the movement has grown, there's still likely more powering the anger of the Gilets Jaunes than just the cost of fuel alone. The group doesn't seem to be an obvious worker's group. It has gained the support of both leftist presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon and some representatives of the right-wing Republican Party, for example, but has not yet been endorsed by any of France's labor unions, or by truck drivers (https://www.liberation.fr/france/2018/11/19/gilets-jaunes-les-routiers-ne-rejoindront-pas-le-mouvement_1692907). And while the protesters have grouped around a single issue, there seems a risk that the movement's lack of explicit politics could place it at risk of being highjacked. Already people taking part in some protests have engaged in ugly racist and homophobic abuse (https://www.liberation.fr/france/2018/11/18/gilets-jaunes-indignations-apres-des-agressions-homophobes-islamophobes-et-racistes_1692849) against passers-by that, while still atypical of the demonstrations as a whole, suggest a whole cauldron of other tensions bubbling under the demonstrations' surface.

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Hervé

24th November 2018, 14:40

Battlefield Paris: Police hit protesters with tear gas as massive fuel rallies grip France (VIDEO) (https://www.rt.com/news/444772-fuel-protest-paris-scuffles/)

RT
Published time: 24 Nov, 2018 10:16
Edited time: 24 Nov, 2018 14:10
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9j6s)

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A truck burns during a "Yellow vest" protest in Paris © Reuters / Benoit Tessier

Police unleashed tear gas and a water cannon at bottle and projectile throwing protesters in Paris. Eight people were reportedly arrested as the ‘Yellow Vest’ rally against fuel price hikes almost had the city center on lockdown.

The tense standoff between riot police and demonstrators – some of them masked – escalated as law enforcement were pelted with bottles. Police fired back with tear gas and water cannon spay.

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At one point some streets in the city center resembled a battlefield, covered with what remained of the barricades, which were set up from fences and trash bins. Even the Arc de Triomphe was barely visible due to the thick smoke. Possible smoke grenades were also used as people walked past the smoking projectiles.

A flipped vehicle was set ablaze at Champs Elysee, with police bringing in a water cannon to extinguish the fire. A nearby café’s outdoor tent was also seen in flames but it is unclear how the fire started.

RT’s correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij has been caught in the midst of the rally and is giving more updates as the demonstration progresses.

AP footage also showed one of the protesters being dragged away by police in riot gear. At least eight protesters were arrested for throwing projectiles around noon, Le Figaro reported (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2018/11/24/01016-20181124LIVWWW00009-en-direct-gilets-jaunes-suivez-la-journee-de-mobilisation-du-samedi-24-novembre.php) citing police.

Apart from putting the city center almost on lockdown, the chaos spilled into the subway and disrupted traffic there as several stations were closed (https://twitter.com/Ligne6_RATP/status/1066303287471890433) after “malicious acts.”

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.11/original/5bf9508ddda4c879548b4674.JPG
Protest in Paris © Reuters / Benoit Tessier

One of the videos from the unrest shows demonstrators chanting behind the improvised barricades before being forced to retreat as they were smashed by thick sprays from the water cannon.

Saturday marks the second week in a row that protests have been held in the French capital and across the country. Some 3,000 security personnel have been deployed to deal with the rally in the city alone.

The unease has been spurred on by rising fuel prices and a planned fuel tax. The ‘Yellow Vest’ movement, as it’s called, is protesting the measure which is due to be in place from January 1, 2019. The government claims the move is aimed at promoting environmentally friendly practices. However, that has been met with a fierce response from the public.

Chaotic scenes emerged during similar rallies last weekend, with one marred by a death. A woman tragically died during a demonstration in the southeastern region of Savoie as a panicked driver hit her after protesters surrounded the vehicle and began kicking at it. The driver then accelerated and knocked the woman down. Around 200 people were injured during the protests and over 100 were arrested.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s policies, including his handling of the economic situation have already triggered (https://www.rt.com/news/424576-france-protests-macron-rating/) multiple protests in France. The French leader also faced plummeting approval ratings (https://www.rt.com/news/437635-macron-approval-rating-low/) amid social discontent with his reforms, such as tax relief for businesses while he plans to cut pensioner benefits.

More videos at: https://www.rt.com/news/444772-fuel-protest-paris-scuffles/

Hervé

28th November 2018, 13:18

The Movement of the Yellow Gilets spreads in France, Belgium and Bulgaria

Voltaire Network | 26 November 2018

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français (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204033.html) Español (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204040.html) italiano (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204041.html) Deutsch (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204045.html) Türkçe (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204046.html) Português (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204098.html) عربي (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204101.html)

http://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH250/arton204090-5a954.jpg

On Saturday 17 November 2018, the “Yellow Gilets” movement sprung to life in metropolitan France and has leapt across waters to the overseas departments and crossed land borders to Belgium and Bulgaria.

The French Minister for Home Affairs thinks that number of demonstrators would have peaked on 18 November at 17.00 at 287 710 people. There is no other available statistic, so we cannot check out this figure. Furthermore, from the time the demonstrators organize guard duty, it takes absolutely no account of mobilization.

While the movement is peaceful, there have been sudden outbursts of violence but we cannot work out who was responsible: the demonstrators or provocateurs. Such incidents have been largely reported by the mainstream media in its attempt to discredit the movement.

In Reunion, a French department and island in the Indian Ocean, curfew had been decreed in 14 out of the 24 communes. The movement is not organized and is building momentum through the Internet. The movement is a revolt against excessive fiscal pressure. It originated in rural areas but has now worked its way into the cities. Most of its members are middle class.

21 November, French National Assembly: former candidate for the 2017 Presidential Election, Jean Lasalle, deliberately violated house rules by wearing a fluorescent yellow gilet during government question time. The President of the Assembly, Richard Ferrand, announced that Jean will be punished for doing so.

Translation: Anoosha Boralessa (http://www.voltairenet.org/auteur126167.html?lang=en)

Hervé

2nd December 2018, 15:49

That should go down well: France considers imposing state of emergency to quell further riots (https://www.euronews.com/2018/12/02/france-to-consider-state-of-emergency-to-prevent-riots-after-yellow-vest-protest)

Alice Tidey Euronews (https://www.euronews.com/2018/12/02/france-to-consider-state-of-emergency-to-prevent-riots-after-yellow-vest-protest)
Sun, 02 Dec 2018 00:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/499899/large/880x495_cmsv2_9976580f_9acd_57.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s24/499899/full/880x495_cmsv2_9976580f_9acd_57.jpg)
© Reuters / Stephanie Mahe

The French government is to consider imposing a state of emergency to prevent riots, government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on Sunday, following the arrest the day before of more than 400 people when a "Yellow Vest" protest turned violent.

"We have to think about the measures that can be taken so that these incidents don't happen again," Griveaux told Europe 1 radio on Sunday morning.

When asked whether a state of emergency could be imposed, Griveaux replied: "Every options will be examined."

Guerilla warfare
This comes after a dozen cars were set on fire, buildings were torched, tear gas was fired and water cannons were deployed in the French capital on Saturday in scenes reminiscent of guerilla warfare.

The heavy clashes started shortly before 09:00 CET on the Place de l'Etoile, at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, when groups of people tried to force their way through a police checkpoint set up to prevent a planned "Yellow Vest" protest from turning violent, like it had the previous week.

The situation escalated quickly with some of the 1,500 protesters ripping cobblestones out of the paved road to throw at police officers.

Protesters, who chanted for Macron to resign, also sat down under the Arc - a significant symbol of the French Republic - to sing the national anthem.

Police wrestled control of the area shortly after lunchtime but groups of men then roamed central Paris, leaving wrecked cars and destruction behind them.

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/499903/large/808x539_cmsv2_3f3ce1f5_86fc_5d.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s24/499903/full/808x539_cmsv2_3f3ce1f5_86fc_5d.jpg)
© REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Police work around the message, "The Yellow Vests will Triumph" written on the Arc de Triomphe, the morning after clashes with protesters wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher diesel taxes, in Paris, France, December 2, 2018.

Overall 412 people were arrested and 133 were wounded including 23 law enforcement officers. According to the Ministry of Interior, firefighters dealt with 190 blazes including six buildings which were set on fire.

Authorities blamed the violence on "thugs" as well as far-right and far-left groups.

'Let's be responsible'
Meanwhile, dozens of peaceful protests got underway throughout the country.

The citizen "Yellow Vest" movement wants Macron to reverse his decision to increase taxes on fuel.

The nationwide protest has been ongoing for more than two weeks with protesters setting up road blockages to significantly slow down traffic and the delivery of goods.

Discussions between the authorities and the "Yellow Vest" protesters have been difficult because the citizen movement is not affiliated to any political group or union and has no leadership structure. Furthermore, what started as a protest over the price of petrol has now mutated into a crisis about spending power and inequalities.

Spokespeople for "Yellow Vest" activists wrote on Sunday that they want the movement to be "the mouthpiece for a constructive anger."

Although they did not explicitly condemn the violence of the previous day, the spokespeople, who include some of the founding members of the movement, urged protesters: "Let's be responsible and offer the government a door to end this crisis."

"Far from any radicalisation and in accord with the 80% of French people who support us, let's build a viable and credible project, in the interest of all," they added in an open letter published on Le Journal Du Dimanche (https://www.lejdd.fr/Politique/exclusif-des-gilets-jaunes-lancent-un-appel-nous-voulons-etre-les-porte-parole-dune-colere-constructive-3811841)
.

https://www.sott.net/image/s24/499902/large/808x539_cmsv2_b286cd35_1d94_5f.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s24/499902/full/808x539_cmsv2_b286cd35_1d94_5f.jpg)
© REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

Workmen place a metal panel on the window of a vandalized bank the morning after clashes with protesters wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers' protest against higher diesel fuel taxes, in Paris, France, December 2, 2018

'Hungover, bruised and sullied'
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner will join President Emmanuel Macron for an emergency meeting later today upon the President's return from Argentina, where he was attending the G20 summit.

Police unions have urged the government to impose a state of emergency.

"This morning, France wakes up hungover, bruised and sullied. Law enforcement forces are exhausted. Alliancepn calls on the state for an urgent state of emergency," the Alliance PN police union tweeted (https://twitter.com/alliancepolice/status/1069135441780199424) this morning.

The state of emergency allows authorities to establish a curfew, close down certain public places, forbid traffic and demonstrations in certain areas and can also enable them to censor the press.

It was last imposed after the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris in which 137 people died. It was extended following the attack in Nice in which 87 people lost their lives. It expired in November 2017.

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Hervé

3rd December 2018, 13:36

...

Watch the video on her Twitter:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/915081489573974016/esP5WVn-_bigger.jpg Katie Hopkins‏Verified account @KTHopkins (https://twitter.com/KTHopkins)

Macron is considering a #stateofemergency (https://twitter.com/hashtag/stateofemergency?src=hash) to respond to protests in Paris. Watch the firefighters he will rely on turn their backs to their elected reps & political elite before walking out. They have had enough too. #pompiers (https://twitter.com/hashtag/pompiers?src=hash) #solidarite (https://twitter.com/hashtag/solidarite?src=hash) #1erDécembre (https://twitter.com/hashtag/1erD%C3%A9cembre?src=hash)

Video at: https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/1069291266754658310?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3AHenryMakow% 7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.henrymakow.com%2F

1,155 replies 9,712 retweets 16,536 likes
These firefighters turned around from facing the officials conducting some ceremony to present them with their backs and then walked out to express their grievance via a banderole.

TargeT

3rd December 2018, 16:09

macron considers martial law??

DsDWD909RCU

Elandiel BernElve

3rd December 2018, 22:50

*hit is about to go down in France, there's talk of mercenary deployments paid by the Rothschild Macron Faction that would if needed be deployed to protect his power.

Many police officers are tired of a 1200 eur/month salary while being hated by the people and always facing its anger. The armed forces are malcontent as well.

French Military is closely watching and will not sit by and watch. There's a bunch of youtube videos spreading with messages from soldiers warning the people. One of them here:

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Translation: Message to the French People:

Patriots, French people, The armed forces are on alert, Following the movements of general malcontent, the yellow vests protests, and multiple expressions of the population in despair And the malcontent of the armed forces the gendarmerie and the police

I want to relay that elements of the (service secret francais de l'exterieure) French Secret Services DGS of ministère of the armed forces Initiates of the DGS better known as 'La Piscine' (the swimming pool) are hence on our side. They are ready to move if necessery

I'm adressing to all police officers, armed forces, bordercustoms forces, magistrates who will render themselves guilty of doing physical harm to the French people When the government of Macron and its illegitimate presidency will be disbanded by law or by force They will have mercenary troops ready on French soil. We know where they are and where they hide. A small group in the north and a larger contingent in the south. A third group is located in Ile De France (Paris Metropolitan Area). These men are mercenearies, French and foreign, armed and ready to defend the illegitimate government of Macron.

I ask you to remain calm, and know you're not alone and that we watch I have been authorized to relay this message to you the people. I aks you to massively spread this information Vive la France Vive les Francais

End translation
Personal note: I can't claim this is genuine information but this has been circuling the net as per last night or so.

Special note: Former president Hollande broke the separation of power by decree. So theoretically the French Fifth Republic is now set up unconstitutionally. Meaning, the actual president and his cabinet are unconstitutionally chosen and therefore illegitimite.

Many Generals have already called for the military to act in order to protect the 5th Republic and its constitution. However France is in tight DS control, its language barrier makes it easy to censor and contain.

I hope whitehat assets are in place to help patriots in France. US' oldest ally.

ThePythonicCow

4th December 2018, 04:34

Here's an article (opening post and first comment) on voat, from someone who lives in France and has also lived in the U.S., describing what he's seeing: American on the Ground in France - The Yellow Jacket protests (https://voat.co/v/GreatAwakening/2888761).

He describes several years of serious insults to the French - life being made harder and more brutal by a variety of asinine policies from both the French government and the EU bureaucrats in Brussels.

The sh*t sounds bad, wide spread throughout France, and diverse in the variety of ways that "they" are destroying France.

TargeT

4th December 2018, 15:46

Macron backs down, but too little too late?

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Protestors won?
QukuG8ryVEc

From gas tax to revolution?

pueblo

4th December 2018, 16:51

The protesters have not won.

This is a tactical retreat by Macron to allow time (for the govt.) to regroup...it is also designed to take away momentum from the protests.

TargeT

4th December 2018, 18:06

The protesters have not won.

This is a tactical retreat by Macron to allow time (for the govt.) to regroup...it is also designed to take away momentum from the protests.

not the best method to garnish public opinion, he looks weak and incompetent, this is a loss for him so far if France is truly a democracy of some sort.

ramus

4th December 2018, 21:32

It's a shame that an investment banker bites the dust ,.... Macron left his job as an Inspector of Finances for France and took a position at Rothschild & Cie Banque. This was 2008 right at the big crash ..... The U.S. bailed out the big institutions with the citizens tax money ... much went to Europe. When ask in the hearings who got what , the answer was " we don't have to tell you "

BMJ

5th December 2018, 06:38

Hopefully Macron will be shown the exist door, and Marine Le Pen given the chance to govern France.

viva la France

Canada is next viva la Canada

Macron Backs Down, but the New French Revolution is Just Beginning!!!

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Dr. Steve Turley
Published on Dec 4, 2018
Here’s why the French uprising may just be getting started!!!

And from Breitbart:

Macron Considers State of Emergency After France Experiences Worst Civil Unrest Since 1968
Quote:
President Macron was met with jeers and calls for his resignation by bystanders as he toured the damage along the Champs-Élysée on Sunday morning after his return from G20 in Buenos Aires......

The populist right-wing leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen and far-leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the Unsubmissive France party, have called for Parliament to be dissolved and fresh elections to be held.

Link: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/02/macron-considers-state-emergency-france-worst-civil-unrest-1968/?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fzen.yandex.com

BREAKING ! French Police Remove helmets and stand with the yellow vest demonstators

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Sir Cumference
Published on Nov 30, 2018
30th Nov 2018 - French Riot Police remove helmets and stand with the crowd.... meanwhile in Belgium, Yellow vest protestors gather in the street.... its starting to happen

Pam

5th December 2018, 14:41

Flash

5th December 2018, 15:19

Same phenomenon here, Chinese buying lots of realestate
and lots of land, driving house pricing up and letting farmers starve. Their revenue is so low that many have to abandon farming and go on welfare while Chinese and other huge corporations are buying the farmlands.

Chinese will have no problems with imposing their will on us and with letting us starve forbprofits. They will be worst than our elite, and yes, hard to imagine after what we did to third world countries, but it can be worst.

Caliban

5th December 2018, 15:48

Say what you will about the French/France, but unlike the U.S. and many other countries, the French don't sit on their asses when they're getting the shaft from their so-called leaders. They don't complain on the Internet, endlessly theorizing

They get out in the street and make some noise. And they don't give up!!

They're courageous, tenacious and absolutely admirable.

onawah

5th December 2018, 16:40

I remember back in the day in the US when hippies, Vietnam vets, members of SDS, etc. would watch in awe what the French protesters were doing, for inspiration and guidance.
No question but that the French set the standard.

pueblo

5th December 2018, 21:55

Macron gives in, but will it be enough to stop the protests?

Paris abandons fuel tax hike after sweeping protests – French PM

The French government says it has dropped the fuel tax hike plan that has sparked massive Yellow Vests protests and eventually got suspended with a half-year moratorium Tuesday – at least for the 2019 budget.

“The government is ready for dialogue and is showing it because this tax increase has been dropped from the 2019 budget bill,” French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told the lower house of parliament Wednesday.

Philippe did not clarify whether Paris might re-introduce the hike in a budget update later in 2019.

https://www.rt.com/news/445681-france-abandons-tax-hike-protests/

TargeT

6th December 2018, 00:17

Uhhh, yeah..... I wouldn't want to be in Paris right now.

It looks like things are escalating?

3a-sg-FsoGw

Valerie Villars

6th December 2018, 01:03

I'm proud of them. In America, if we did that, we'd all be dead or in jail, and then dead.

Hervé

6th December 2018, 14:34

Yellow Vests Rise Against Neo-liberal King Macron (https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/05/yellow-vests-rise-against-neo-liberal-king-macron/)

Diana Johnstone Consortium News (https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/05/yellow-vests-rise-against-neo-liberal-king-macron/)
Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:01 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500434/large/Macron_on_throne.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500434/full/Macron_on_throne.jpg)
© Charles Platiau/AFP/Getty

For centuries, the "left" hoped popular movements would lead to changes for the better. Today, many leftists seem terrified of popular movements for change, convinced "populism" must lead to "fascism." But it needn't be so, says Diana Johnstone.
Every automobile in France is supposed to be equipped with a yellow vest. This is so that in case of accident or breakdown on a highway, the driver can put it on to ensure visibility and avoid getting run over.

So the idea of wearing your yellow vest to demonstrate against unpopular government measures caught on quickly. The costume was at hand and didn't have to be provided by Soros for some more or less manufactured "color revolution". The symbolism was fitting: in case of socio-economic emergency, show that you don't want to be run over.

As everybody knows, what set off the protest movement was yet another rise in gasoline taxes. But it was immediately clear that much more was involved. The gasoline tax was the last straw in a long series of measures favoring the rich at the expense of the majority of the population. That is why the movement achieved almost instant popularity and support.

The Voices of the People
The Yellow Vests held their first demonstrations on Saturday, November 17, on the Champs-Elysées in Paris. It was totally unlike the usual trade union demonstrations, well organized to march down the boulevard between the Place de la République and the Place de la Bastille, or the other way around, carrying banners and listening to speeches from leaders at the end. The Gilets Jaunes just came, with no organization, no leaders to tell them where to go or to harangue the crowd. They were just there, in the yellow vests, angry and ready to explain their anger to any sympathetic listener.

Briefly, the message was this:
we can't make ends meet. The cost of living keeps going up, and our incomes keep going down. We just can't take it any more. The government must stop, think and change course.
But so far, the reaction of the government was to send police to spray torrents of tear gas on the crowd, apparently to keep the people at a distance from the nearby Presidential residence, the Elysee Palace. President Macron was somewhere else, apparently considering himself above and beyond it all.

But those who were listening could learn a lot about the state of France today. Especially in the small towns and rural areas, where many protesters came from. Things are much worse than officials and media in Paris have let on.

There were young women who were working seven days a week and despaired of having enough money to feed and clothe their children.

People were angry but ready to explain very clearly the economic issues.

Colette, age 83, doesn't own a car, but explained to whoever would listen that the steep raise of gasoline prices would also hurt people who don't drive, by affecting prices of food and other necessities. She had done the calculations and figured it would cost a retired person 80 euros per month.

"Macron didn't run on the promise to freeze pensions", recalled a Yellow Vest, but that is what he has done, along with increasing solidarity taxes on pensioners.

A significant and recurring complaint concerned the matter of health care. France has long had the best public health program in the world, but this is being steadily undermined to meet the primary need of capital: profit. In the past few years, there has been a growing government campaign to encourage, and finally to oblige, people to subscribe to a "mutuelle", that is, a private health insurance, ostensibly to fill "the gaps" not covered by France's universal health coverage. The "gaps" can be the 15% that is not covered for ordinary illnesses (grave illnesses are covered 100%), or for medicines taken off the "covered" list, or for dental work, among other things. The "gaps" to fill keep expanding, along with the cost of subscribing to the mutuelle. In reality, this program, sold to the public as modernizing improvement, is a gradual move toward privatization of health care. It is a sneaky method of opening the whole field of public health to international financial capital investment. This gambit has not fooled ordinary people and is high on the list of complaints by the Gilets Jaunes.

The degradation of care in the public hospitals is another complaint. There are fewer and fewer hospitals in rural areas, and one must "wait long enough to die" in emergency rooms. Those who can afford it are turning to private hospitals. But most can't. Nurses are overworked and underpaid. When one hears what nurses have to endure, one is reminded that this is indeed a noble profession.

In all this I was reminded of a young woman we met at a public picnic in southwestern France last summer. She cares for elderly people who live at home alone in rural areas, driving from one to another, to feed them, bathe them, offer a moment of cheerful company and understanding. She loves her vocation, loves helping old people, although it barely allows her to make a living. She will be among those who will have to pay more to get from one patient to the next.

People pay taxes willingly when they are getting something for it. But not when the things they are used to are being taken away. The tax evaders are the super-rich and the big corporations with their batteries of lawyers and safe havens, or intruders like Amazon and Google, but ordinary French people have been relatively disciplined in paying taxes in return for excellent public services: optimum health care, first class public transport, rapid and efficient postal service, free university education. But all that is under assault from the reign of financial capital, called "neo-liberalism" here. In rural areas, more and more post offices, schools and hospitals are shut down, unprofitable train service is discontinued as "free competition" is introduced following European Union directives - measures which oblige people to drive their cars more than ever. Especially when huge shopping centers drain small towns of their traditional shops.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500431/large/yellow_vests.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500431/full/yellow_vests.jpg)
© Alain Pitton/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Incoherent Energy Policies
And the tax announced by the government - an additional 6.6 cents per liter for diesel and an additional 2.9 centers per liter of gasoline - are only the first steps in a series of planned increases over the next years. The measures are supposed to incite people to drive less or even better, to scrap their old vehicles and buy nice new electric cars.

More and more "governance" is an exercise in social engineering by technocrats who know what is best. This particular exercise goes directly opposite to an earlier government measure of social engineering which used economic incitements to get people to buy cars running on diesel. Now the government has changed its mind. Over half of personal vehicles still run on diesel, although the percentage has been dropping. Now their owners are told to go buy an electric car instead. But people living on the edge simply can't afford the switch.

Besides, the energy policy is incoherent. In theory, the "green" economy includes shutting down France's many nuclear power plants. Without them, where would the electricity come from to run the electric cars? And nuclear power is "clean", not CO2. So what is going on? People wonder.

The most promising alternative sources of energy in France are the strong tides along northern coasts. But last July, the Tidal Energies project on the Normandy coast was suddenly dropped because it wasn't profitable - not enough customers. This is symptomatic of what is wrong with the current government. Major new industrial projects are almost never profitable at first, which is why they need government support and subsidies to get going, with a view to the future. Such projects were supported under de Gaulle, raising France to the status of major industrial power, and providing unprecedented prosperity for the population as a whole. But the Macron government is not investing in the future nor doing anything to preserve industries that remain. The key French energy corporation Alstom was sold to General Electric under his watch.

Indeed, it is perfectly hypocritical to call the French gas tax an "ecotax" since the returns from a genuine ecotax would be invested to develop clean energies - such as tidal power plants. Rather, the benefits are earmarked to balance the budget, that is, to serve the government debt. The Macronian gas tax is just another austerity measure - along with cutting back public services and "selling the family jewels", that is, selling potential money-makers like Alstom, port facilities and the Paris airports.

The Government Misses the Point
Initial government responses showed that they weren't listening. They dipped into their pool of clichés to denigrate something they didn't want to bother to understand.

President Macron's first reaction was to guilt-trip the protesters by invoking the globalists' most powerful argument for imposing unpopular measures: global warming. Whatever small complaints people may have, he indicated, that is nothing compared to the future of the planet.

This did not impress people who, yes, have heard all about climate change and care as much as anyone for the environment, but who are obliged to retort: "I'm more worried about the end of the month than about the end of the world."

After the second Yellow Vest Saturday, November 25, which saw more demonstrators and more tear gas, the Minister in charge of the budget, Gérard Darmanin, declared that what had demonstrated on the Champs-Elysée was "la peste brune", the brown plague, meaning fascists. (For those who enjoy excoriating the French as racist, it should be noted that Darmanin is of Algerian working class origins). This remark caused an uproar of indignation that revealed just how great is public sympathy for the movement - over 70% approval by latest polls, even after uncontrolled vandalism. Macron's Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, was obliged to declare that government communication had been badly managed. Of course, that is the familiar technocratic excuse: we are always right, but it is all a matter of our "communication", not of the facts on the ground.

Maybe I have missed something, but of the many interviews I have listened to, I have not heard one word that would fall into the categories of "far right", much less "fascism" - or even that indicated any particular preference in regard to political parties. These people are wholly concerned with concrete practical issues. Not a whiff of ideology - remarkable in Paris!

Some people ignorant of French history and eager to exhibit their leftist purism have suggested that the Yellow Vests are dangerously nationalistic because they occasionally wave French flags and sing La Marseillaise. That simply means that they are French. Historically, the French left is patriotic, especially when it is revolting against the aristocrats and the rich or during the Nazi Occupation. ( The exception was the student uprising of May 1968, which was not a revolt of the poor but a revolt in a time of prosperity in favor of greater personal freedom: "it is forbidden to forbid". The May '68 generation has turned out to be the most anti-French generation in history, for reasons that can't be dealt with here. To some extent, the Yellow Vests mark a return of the people after half a century of scorn from the liberal intelligentsia.) It is just a way of saying, We are the people, we do the work, and you must listen to our grievances. To be bad, "nationalism" must be aggressive toward other nations. This movement is not attacking anybody, it is strictly staying home.

The Weakness of Macron
The Yellow Vests have made clear to the whole world that Emmanuel Macron was an artificial product sold to the electorate by an extraordinary media campaign.

Macron was the rabbit magically pulled out of a top hat, sponsored by what must be called the French oligarchy. After catching the eye of established king-maker Jacques Attali, the young Macron was given a stint at the Rothschild bank where he could quickly gain a small fortune, ensuring his class loyalty to his sponsors. Media saturation and the scare campaign against "fascist" Marine LePen (who moreover flubbed her major debate) put Macron in office. He had met his wife when she was teaching his theater class, and now he gets to play President.

The mission assigned to him by his sponsors was clear. He must carry through more vigorously the "reforms" (austerity measures) already undertaken by previous governments, which had often dawdled at hastening the decline of the social State.

And beyond that, Macron was supposed to "save Europe". Saving Europe means saving the European Union from the quagmire in which it finds itself.

This is why cutting expenses and balancing the budget is his obsession. Because that's what he was chosen to do by the oligarchy that sponsored his candidacy. He was chosen by the financial oligarchy above all to save the European Union from threatening disintegration caused by the euro. The treaties establishing the EU and above all the common currency, the euro, have created an imbalance between member states that is unsustainable. The irony is that previous French governments, starting with Mitterrand, are largely responsible for this state of affairs. In a desperate and technically ill-examined effort to keep newly unified Germany from becoming the dominant power in Europe, the French insisted on binding Germany to France by a common currency. Reluctantly, the Germans agreed to the euro - but only on German terms. The result is that Germany has become the unwilling creditor of equally unwilling EU member states, Italy, Spain, Portugal and of course, ruined Greece. The financial gap between Germany and its southern neighbors keeps expanding, which causes ill will on all sides.

Germany doesn't want to share economic power with states it considers irresponsible spendthrifts. So Macron's mission is to show Germany that France, despite its flagging economy, is "responsible", by squeezing the population in order to pay interest on the debt. Macron's idea is that the politicians in Berlin and the bankers in Frankfurt will be so impressed that they will turn around and say, well done Emmanuel, we are ready to throw our wealth into a common pot for the benefit of all 27 Member States. And that is why Macron will stop at nothing to balance the budget, to make the Germans love him.

So far, the Macron magic is not working on the Germans, and it's driving his own people into the streets.

Or are they his own people? Does Macron really care about his run of the mill compatriots who just work for a living? The consensus is that he does not.

Macron is losing the support both of the people in the streets and the oligarchs who sponsored him. He is not getting the job done.

Macron's rabbit-out-of-the hat political ascension leaves him with little legitimacy, once the glow of glossy magazine covers wears off. With help from his friends, Macron invented his own party, La République en Marche, which doesn't mean much of anything but suggested action. He peopled his party with individuals from "civil society", often medium entrepreneurs with no political experience, plus a few defectors from either the Socialist or the Republican Parties, to occupy the most important government posts.

The only well-known recruit from "civil society" was the popular environmental activist, Nicolas Hulot, who was given the post of Minister of Environment, but who abruptly resigned in a radio announcement last August, citing frustration.

Macron's strongest supporter from the political class was Gérard Collomb, Socialist Mayor of Lyons, who was given the top cabinet post of Minister of Interior, in charge of national police. But shortly after Hulot left, Collomb said he was leaving too, to go back to Lyons. Macron entreated him to stay on, but on October 3, Collomb went ahead and resigned, with a stunning statement referring to "immense problems" facing his successor. In the "difficult neighborhoods" in the suburbs of major cities, he said, the situation is "very much degraded: it's the law of the jungle that rules, drug dealers and radical Islamists have taken the place of the Republic." Such suburbs need to be "reconquered".

After such a job description, Macron was at a loss to recruit a new Interior Minister. He groped around and came up with a crony he had chosen to head his party, ex-Socialist Christophe Castaner. With a degree in criminology, Castaner's main experience qualifying him to head the national police is his close connection, back in his youth in the 1970s, with a Marseilles Mafioso, apparently due to his penchant for playing poker and drinking whiskey in illegal dens.

Saturday, November 17, demonstrators were peaceful, but resented the heavy teargas attacks. Saturday November 25, things got a big rougher, and on Saturday December 1st, all hell broke loose. With no leaders and no service d'ordre (militants assigned to protect the demonstrators from attacks, provocations and infiltration), it was inevitable that casseurs (smashers) got into the act and started smashing things, looting shops and setting fires to trash cans, cars and even buildings. Not only in Paris, but all over France: from Marseilles to Brest, from Toulouse to Strasbourg. In the remote town of Puy en Velay, known for its chapel perched on a rock and its traditional lace-making, the Prefecture (national government authority) was set on fire. Tourist arrivals are cancelled and fancy restaurants are empty and department stores fear for their Christmas windows. The economic damages are enormous.

And yet, support for the Yellow Vests remains high, probably because people are able to distinguish between those grieved citizens and the vandals who love to wreak destruction for its own sake.

On Monday, there were suddenly fresh riots in the troubled suburbs that Collomb warned about as he retreated to Lyons. This was a new front for the national police, whose representatives let it be known that all this was getting to be much too much for them to cope with. Announcing a state of emergency is not likely to solve anything.

Macron is a bubble that has burst. The legitimacy of his authority is very much in question. Yet he was elected in 2017 for a five year term, and his party holds a large majority in parliament that makes his destitution almost impossible.

So what next? Despite having been sidelined by Macron's electoral victory in 2017, politicians of all hews are trying to recuperate the movement - but discreetly, because the Gilets Jaunes have made clear their distrust of all politicians. This is not a movement that seeks to take power. It simply seeks redress of its grievances. The government should have listened in the first place, accepted discussions and compromise. This gets more difficult as time goes on, but nothing is impossible.

For some two or three hundred years, people one could call "left" hoped that popular movements would lead to changes for the better. Today, many leftists seem terrified of popular movements for change, convinced "populism" must lead to "fascism". This attitude is one of many factors indicating that the changes ahead will not be led by the left as it exists today. Those who fear change will not be there to help make it happen. But change is inevitable and it need not be for the worse.
About the author:
Diana Johnstone is the author of Fools' Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO, and Western Delusions (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/158367084X/counterpunchmaga). Her new book is Queen of Chaos: the Misadventures of Hillary Clinton (http://store.counterpunch.org/product/queen-of-chaos/). The memoirs of Diana Johnstone's father Paul H. Johnstone, From MAD to Madness (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0997287098/counterpunchmaga), was published by Clarity Press, with her commentary. She can be reached at diana.johnstone@wanadoo.fr Related:

France's yellow vests reject PM's meagre concessions, while Macron still hasn't "deigned to speak to the people" (https://www.sott.net/article/402134-Frances-yellow-vests-reject-PMs-meagre-concessions-while-Macron-still-hasnt-deigned-to-speak-to-the-people)

Double Standards: Violent Revolution in Ukraine? Of Course! Violent Revolution in France? Rule of Law! (https://www.sott.net/article/402082-Double-Standards-Violent-Revolution-in-Ukraine-Of-Course-Violent-Revolution-in-France-Rule-of-Law)

Why Macron has France in revolt (https://www.sott.net/article/402050-Why-Macron-has-France-in-revolt)

'All options considered': France mulling state of emergency amid chaos; students and farmers initiate new wave of nationwide protests (https://www.sott.net/article/402012-All-options-considered-France-mulling-state-of-emergency-amid-chaos-students-and-farmers-initiate-new-wave-of-nationwide-protests)

NewsReal: Révolution Jaune? France Revolts Against Macron (https://www.sott.net/article/401983-NewsReal-Revolution-Jaune-France-Revolts-Against-Macron)

That should go down well: France considers imposing state of emergency to quell further riots (https://www.sott.net/article/401933-That-should-go-down-well-France-considers-imposing-state-of-emergency-to-quell-further-riots)

RT France reporter shot in the face during police crackdown on Yellow Vest protesters in Paris (https://www.sott.net/article/401864-RT-France-reporter-shot-in-the-face-during-police-crackdown-on-Yellow-Vest-protesters-in-Paris)

====================================================

... took 'em over 2 centuries to get there 'em "globalists":

On the real history behind the french revolution and the french republic (which was later on used as a template for Russia, etc...)

kE4BtViw0RY

English speakers would need to use auto-translate... in short Marion Sigaut (a very interesting and courageous french historian) shows that the revolution was organized by freemasons, Jeanseistes, Sabbatteans/Frankists (using the same techniques as those currently being used in Syria) to remove all the barriers to the law of the free market (where a wealthy individual can hoard all the available bread and resell it for profit at the expense of the majority) and how it was never the revolution of the common people (who got massacred by the agents of the revolution when they tried to oppose the impact of the law of the free market on the cost of bread).

Related:
France Didn't Have A Revolution (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?25102-For-an-idea-on-the-big-picture&p=262947&viewfull=1#post262947)

Pam

6th December 2018, 15:14

Rebellion Spreads: Yellow Jackets Plan Action Across Netherlands

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/06/rebellion-spreads-yellow-jackets-plan-action-across-netherlands/

I love this!!!

BMJ

7th December 2018, 02:23

La République en marche performs triage in an effort to save the party from the inevitable rise of nationalism.

END OF MACRON? French MPs Launch NO CONFIDENCE Vote Amid Nationwide Protests!!!

0nLfKUV4Mvk

Dr. Steve Turley
Published on Dec 6, 2018
Here's why things continue to deteriorate for Emmanuel Macron and the future of the EU!!!

And from serialbrain2 the relevant part is from 20.40 minutes.

gt0BDwhbNLo

Hervé

7th December 2018, 13:40

Army on the way to Paris? PHOTOS & VIDEOS of French armored vehicles on the move emerge online (https://www.rt.com/news/445816-france-armored-vehicles-protests/)

RT
Published time: 7 Dec, 2018 07:37
Edited time: 7 Dec, 2018 11:14
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9jzs)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.12/article/5c0a2c61fc7e936e3d8b4567.jpg
FILE PHOTO A demonstrator throws a metal barrier on a gendarmerie vehicle during a protest of Yellow vests in Paris © Reuters; FILE PHOTO A French Gendarmerie VXB © Wikipedia

Photos and videos of armored vehicles allegedly approaching Paris to be deployed during Saturday’s protests have appeared on Twitter. Earlier, the French PM promised military police vehicles at the rallies.

Even though the government dropped the fuel tax hike after mass protests last week, the Yellow Vests will still march on December 8.

On Thursday evening, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised (https://www.rt.com/news/445789-paris-riots-extra-police/)8,000 additional officers in Paris and 89,000 nationwide to be deployed during the protests. He also announced that “a dozen armored vehicles” belonging to the French Gendarmerie will be rolling on the streets of the City of Lights.

Right after Philippe’s statement, people on Twitter started posting unconfirmed photos and videos of vehicles which they claimed were approaching the capital. “The army arrives in Paris,” one person wrote.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/626784707515142144/RWzBrAh0_bigger.jpg Srewob Nicky‏ @GaiLuronNicky (https://twitter.com/GaiLuronNicky)

8 Decembre à Paris Les forces de l'ordre peuvent utiliser les armes dont elles disposent pour assurer l'ordre: LegitimeDefense . L'Armée doit venir en renfort pour protéger nos forces de l'ordre !

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DtwUuOcXgAExO9L.jpg

10:55 AM - 6 Dec 2018
19 replies 18 retweets 25 likes

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/621424819079368706/LR-1E8FO_bigger.png Henri Death II‏ @AntSabatier (https://twitter.com/AntSabatier)

Bon ben je confirme, l'Etat va bien envoyer l'armée à Paris

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dtu3eoaW4AEta9p.jpg

4:08 AM - 6 Dec 2018
2 replies 4 retweets 5 likes The French Gendarmerie is a military police force which works under the jurisdiction of both the Interior (https://www.gendarmerie.interieur.gouv.fr/)and Defense (https://www.defense.gouv.fr/gendarmerie)Ministries. This type of deployment has not occurred since riots broke out in the Paris suburbs in 2005.

France is still recovering after violent clashes on December 1 resulted in over 130 people injured and more than 400 arrested. Four people, including an elderly woman, died.

This Saturday, the Yellow Vests’ slogan is “we stay on our course.” One of the movement’s leaders, Eric Drouet, even promised to reach the Elysee Palace, the official residence of President Emmanuel Macron.

Some reports in French media even claim that the authorities are worried (https://www.rt.com/news/445750-france-coup-attempt-protests/) about a possible coup attempt. There have been calls to attack parliamentarians, government officials, and police.

Hervé

7th December 2018, 21:51

The rebellion spreads: Yellow Vests plan protests across The Netherlands (https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/06/rebellion-spreads-yellow-jackets-plan-action-across-netherlands/)

Victoria Friedman Breitbart (https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/06/rebellion-spreads-yellow-jackets-plan-action-across-netherlands/)
Thu, 06 Dec 2018 19:15 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500652/large/Dutch_Yellow_Vests_640x480.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500652/full/Dutch_Yellow_Vests_640x480.jpg)
© AP Photo/Mike Corder

"Yellow Vests" have planned action across The Netherlands to protest against "political correctness" and immigration policies, and to call for the resignation of left-liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

Inspired by the French Gilets Jaunes, the Dutch Gele Hesjes (Yellow Vests) will be protesting Saturday morning in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Maastricht, Groningen, and The Hague following similar action last weekend, reports (https://www.nu.nl/amsterdam/5607857/gele-hesjes-komend-weekend-in-actie-.html) Dutch online newspaper nu.nl.

Unlike the French Yellow Vests, or Yellow Jackets, whose protest originated in reaction to Paris Climate Accord-inspired green tax hikes on fuel, their Dutch counterparts began their movement over government policies including immigration and healthcare.

They are also calling for a reduction in excise duties, the lowering of the age at which pensions can be received, and for the Dutch prime minister to step down, Algemeen Dagblad reports (https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/gele-hesjes-maken-zich-op-voor-betoging-in-amsterdam~ae50cc56/).

While last weekend's protest in Paris was marked by its violence, the ones in Maastricht, Groningen, and The Hague were said to have come off relatively peacefully, with only a few arrests.

Announcing an expansion of protest action to include Rotterdam and Amsterdam this coming Saturday, movement organiser Jikkenien Deerenberg, 55, said that "everyone is welcome, but no banners, flags, or face coverings/balaclavas."

Ms Deerenberg said she hopes to lead fellow activists on a march around Stopera, Amsterdam's city hall, singing the song "15 million people" by Dutch songwriting duo Fluitsma & Van Tijn.

Describing herself as a concerned citizen, Ms Deerenberg told (https://www.parool.nl/amsterdam/gele-hesjes-in-amsterdam-we-willen-een-stem-hebben~a4610774/) Het Parool she is protesting "against the hardening of society."

"Freedom of expression is under pressure, we have to be politically correct. It is a struggle," he said.

"With the demonstration, I want to show that we want a voice. It is not a demonstration derived from anger over petrol prices like in France. We are doing well in the Netherlands.

"The problem is that we are no longer being heard. A lot is being decided over our heads," the Dutch Yellow Vest added.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/949270171755077632/dw3M-58z_bigger.jpg Breitbart News‏Verified account @BreitbartNews (https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews)

Breaking:

Planned Fuel Tax Hike After Yellow Vest Protests

https://media.breitbart.com/media/2018/12/GettyImages-1067226128-640x480.png NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP/Getty Images5 Dec 20182,917 (https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/05/victory-macron-permanently-cancels-planned-fuel-tax-hike-after-yellow-vest-protests/#disqus_thread)

French President Emmanuel Macron has given in to the initial demands of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement and permanently cancelled the proposed increase tax on fuel after a negative reaction to a six-month deferment.

The Elysée Palace confirmed that the fuel tax hike slated for January, which sparked the Yellow Vest movement, would be cancelled entirely on late Wednesday following a massively negative reaction to Prime Minister Édouard Philippe’s proposal to simply defer the tax for another six months, franceinfo reports (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/live/message/5c0/821/885/ff4/e9d/358/587/3a1.html).

Clarifying, the palace told (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/impots/reforme-fiscale/emmanuel-macron-s-est-oppose-en-conseil-des-ministres-a-tout-retablissement-de-l-isf_3086267.html) franceinfo the increase is not “suspended or deferred,” but “cancelled.”

12:48 PM - 5 Dec 2018
105 replies 486 retweets 1,200 likes Progressive French president Emmanuel Macron surrendered (https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/05/victory-macron-permanently-cancels-planned-fuel-tax-hike-after-yellow-vest-protests/) to Yellow Vest demands on Wednesday night after three weekends of mass protest, scrapping a planned further tax rise in the New Year after mass negative reaction to Prime Minister Édouard Philippe's proposal to defer the tax for six months.

However, Paris is bracing (https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/06/paris-prepares-for-fresh-protests-despite-macrons-fuel-tax-surrender/) for further action slated for Saturday, with the Gilets Jaunes' demands having expanded to other issues including education reform (https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/04/pictures-students-set-fires-block-over-100-high-schools-france-protests/), social security (https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/12/03/anti-macron-protests-spread-ambulance-workers-join-rebellion/) reforms, the cost of living, and most recently the UN Migration Compact (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/transports/gilets-jaunes/le-chaos-total-le-remplacement-des-peuples-on-vous-explique-pourquoi-le-pacte-de-marrakech-affole-certains-gilets-jaunes_3083905.html) which Macron has pledged to sign in Marrakesh, Morocco, next week.

Related:

France's Yellow Vest movement strikes a victorious blow for working people across the EU (https://www.sott.net/article/402284-Frances-Yellow-Vest-movement-strikes-a-victorious-blow-for-working-people-across-the-EU)

Catching fire: French yellow vest protests spread to Brussels with calls for resignation of PM Charles Michel (https://www.sott.net/article/401807-Catching-fire-French-yellow-vest-protests-spread-to-Brussels-with-calls-for-resignation-of-PM-Charles-Michel)

Caliban

8th December 2018, 03:24

That long article a few posts above by Diana Johnstone does an excellent job of analyzing and explaining these events for us across the pond.

The "left" has really changed in the western democracies, as she makes very clear. Nothing like what it was in the 60s and 70s. That part about Germany basically holding all the cards in Europe is ominous, for obvious reasons. If anyone can hold off the globalists, it's the French. They believe in what they've built over centuries. Will it spread widely?? Will it morph into something too violent??

Edit -- I didn't realize how violent it's already gotten. And to see high school kids on their knees like this is a shock
H9Hta84rfGw
I

Hervé

8th December 2018, 14:09

...

... et pourquoi Ça Chauffe?

France’s Yellow Vests: It’s just 1 protest…which has lasted 8 years (http://thesaker.is/frances-yellow-vests-its-just-1-protestwhich-has-lasted-8-years/)

by Ramin Mazaheri for The Saker Blog
December 07, 2018

The most important thing to understand about France’s Yellow Vest movement is that the Mainstream Media wants you to view it as an isolated incident which exists in a vacuum, when we are much better served to look at in a continuum.

When the Yellow Vests started I was not foolish to say: “So what?”

After all, the Yellow Vest movement is dwarfed by France’s first major anti-austerity protests in the fall of 2010 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_French_pension_reform_strikes). When Nicolas Sarkozy backtracked on a promise to raise the retirement age France saw 7 marches in 8 weeks with (conservatively) 1.5 million marchers each time. Over just one week there were three different marches with perhaps 3 million people! The three Yellow Vest marches – and all are on Saturdays, to make it easier for people to attend – only reached 300,000 demonstrators one time. So we’re talking 10 times smaller than in 2010 per protest, and something like 30 times smaller if we compare the two movements overall.

Unsurprisingly, I have yet to read of this “ancient history” in any of the Anglophone Mainstream Media coverage of the Yellow Vests. It’s “vacuum versus continuum” in terms of journalistic approach.

I summarise the “continuum” approach in an original saying about journalism (at least I think it’s original): “A journalist without experience is just somebody with a notepad and a pen.”

Some Mainstream journalist who doesn’t know about 2010 – do they really grasp what the Yellow Vests are about? Because the Yellow Vests were definitely there back in 2010…but they remained in the car (Reflective yellow vests in your car are required by French law: in case you get a flat tire or something, you have the vest to put on for safety from oncoming traffic.).

So, if we believe the living-in-a-vacuum Mainstream Media then the Yellow Vest protests are finished: President Emmanuel Macron just canceled the diesel tax hikes. The protests are no longer necessary, right?

Wrong.

There is no reason why AFP, AP, Reuters and everybody else spent all that time saying “diesel tax, diesel tax, diesel tax” other than: they are either purposely misleading people by viewing the diesel tax in total isolation from previous policies, or they are a bunch of inexperienced newbies, or they just want to be proven right for repeatedly making this absurd diesel tax claim. My point: it’s all bad journalism.

Second-most important thing to realize about austerity: it has accumulated
I hear and read stories about the French in 2018 similar to what I used to read about Greece in 2012 – because austerity is cumulative.

It is not just one tax / measure / policy / reform: it is all of them combined. And we are talking about 8 years’ worth.

“Ramin, you are usually awfully long-winded. Do you get paid by the word? Even in your funny columns, you could use an editor. Just explain what you mean about this in real-world terms!”

Fine – hear ya go:
French inflation, according to my calculations, has increased by 14% since 2008: therefore, people have effectively taken a 14% wage cut in 10 years. This helps explain why “decreased purchasing power” has been the number one concern of the French year after year after year.

Salaries in France are already low to start with:1,700 euros is the median net salary, which is far lower than Anglo-US-Germanic countries.

Ok, so you have a lousy salary to start with, which has lost 14% of its value in the last decade. But inflation is not caused by the policy of neoliberal / trickle-down / austerity economics, of course.

But France does have austerity, so 14% is not the only reduction: we must account for the impact on salaries of 8 years of cuts to social services, because a key plank of austerity is reducing the size of the government. This means YOU foot the bill for many services the government used to totally provide or subsidise.

So let’s say, conservatively, because it really depends on the size of your family and what their needs are, that this has effectively lowered your yearly salary 5% overall during the Age of Austerity. Your salary is now actually worth about 20% less than in 2008.

Now let’s add in the new taxes imposed by austerity, because austerity means that the French state taxes workers and not capital, and more than ever. Did you expect that high finance would pay for their failed bets? Ha ha, you are funny – you probably say things like “France is socialist”, too. For example: two years ago they increased my council tax (the annual tax I pay for renting an apartment, so that I avoid things like getting rained on and assault-while-sleeping) by 60%. I don’t know how that’s legal or morally defensible, and I was enraged, but how could I stop them? It went from to €1,285 in 2016 to €2,134 in 2017.

So let’s say, conservatively, that the increased taxes imposed by austerity have taken just 5% of your salary over the last 10 years: your salary is now down 25% from 2008.

Of course, losing 25% of your wages in 10 years is no problem IF your wages have increased 25%.

In 2008 (https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/1283239) the government claimed the median salary was €1,580 per month for a full-time worker. In 2015 (https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/3303433?sommaire=3353488), which is this year’s data from the government (why are they so behind schedule, probably because austerity means firing/not replacing government workers), the median salary was €1,692. This means that the median salary has only increased 7%.

So we can conservatively estimate that the median citizen has lost 18% of their salary in real terms since 2008, all thanks to following austerity economics.

For people making €1,700 per month in 2018…losing €306 per month is a huge, huge problem. For childless, former Rothschild bankers who married elderly chocolate heiresses/statutory rapists (https://thesaker.is/macron-ike-turner-and-the-psychology-of-marrying-your-alleged-rapist/)…€306 only means skimping on the wine tonight.

But wait, it’s worse!

Not only has austerity taken this huge cut out of your already-meagre salary, they have made it significantly more likely that you will lose your poorly-paying job due to long-standing, near-record unemployment levels in France.

This pressure exists because another plank of austerity is the reduction of and/or the refusal to spend government money on job-creating infrastructure PLUS the insistence on giving tax breaks to corporations and businessmen WITH zero strings attached (such as the promise of jobs).

And, the coup de grace, austerity means reduced safety conditions, making firing easier and loosening oversight rules – as a way to encourage hiring – so your poor-paying job is even more disagreeable.

And who has arrived on the scene immune to these pressures, and thus just oozing life, but “old Mackie” Emmanuel Macron. Well, when the shark bites with his teeth, babe, and the scarlet billows start to spread – Mackie’s got them fancy gloves, so there’s never a trace of red. Never a trace of policy-sweat, either: he controls his brand-new political party, which has an absolute majority in Parliament. France is Macron’s little austerity laboratory, and he doesn’t care about public opinion and nor does he have to.

So the “real-world terms” in France are: major cuts in take home pay, combined with job insecurity, combined with a mad neoliberal scientist who doesn’t believe he was elected to reflect the popular will but to rule as he technocratically thinks best.

Can you hear the Mainstream Media shouting to drown me out: “The problem is just the diesel tax, just the diesel tax I tell ya!”

Let’s be real journalists and do the math, and give the context, and recount the history

[...]

Full article: http://thesaker.is/frances-yellow-vests-its-just-1-protestwhich-has-lasted-8-years/

Pam

8th December 2018, 14:29

Bill Ryan

8th December 2018, 14:31

And to see high school kids on their knees like this is a shock

H9Hta84rfGw

Wow. No kidding. It really WAS a shock. I didn't know what this referred to until I saw the short video... of course.

Do watch: just 3 mins. We have to be aware of this stuff.

Flash

8th December 2018, 14:57

o we can conservatively estimate that the median citizen has lost 18% of their salary in real terms since 2008, all thanks to following austerity economics.

For people making €1,700 per month in 2018…losing €306 per month is a huge, huge problem.

We, North American, are paid on a weekly basis salary while Europeans and mostly French are paid on a monthly basis.

And the cost of living is much higher in France than in USA or Canada.

Therefore, 1,700 Euros (about 1,900$ US) per month is very little for a family.

Frenchy

8th December 2018, 14:57

Herve,I dion't see any reference on this thread regarding :-

https://conseilnationaldetransition.org/

They have an alt site here :- https://www.conseilnational.fr/

and this one leads to Hero Marc Graigne :-
http://www.alterinfo.net/Qu-est-devenu-le-CRS-Marc-Granie-Pourquoi-ses-revelations-font-trembler-la-franc-macronnerie-en-marche_a138929.html

The French cabal have had no shortage of victims, from Diana, & company, to Corrine Gouget, and even Claudie Haigniere
( though the latter recovered from her [ Assisted ?] Suicide, being 'rewarded with a monthly salary of around €21 500 ... )

Problem I see here, whenever I try to engage in conversation, about Corruption such as the € 404 MILLION Christne Lagarde -Tapie case, the French ppl I speak with, just 'shake their heads ' and utter " it's like that... "

At the top of the 'Food-chain', those 'out-of-Public-sight ', creatures are the ones we must 'Energetically & Financially 'STARVE' off this planet.

The likes of Soros and others are only the ' Outward Evidence', of the controlling archontic creatures...

It is the 'Slave System' ,which must be changed...

The British Apathy is rife too Lord Blackheath, revealed in public the £ 15 TRILLIONS, defrauded from the UK treasury { with complicity of course }

The French problem is, like all other countries, only the tiny tip of the collossal Pyramid... Iceberg !

ramus

8th December 2018, 15:29

What pops into my mind after watching the video is KENT STATE during the Vietnam protest, when the Ohio National Guard opened up live fire on unarmed student protesters, killing 4.
What the f**k ....... what hasn't been learned in 48 years. Obviously history hasn't taught anything.

Deux Corbeaux

8th December 2018, 16:10

Cross posting this here :)

https://cdn1.imggmi.com/uploads/2018/12/8/d3b776505b71f8f43e796dba666970d1-full.jpg (https:///) [/URL]

by James Corbett
corbettreport.com
December 08, 2018
https://steemit.com/news/@corbettreport/the-people-vs-paris (https://imggmi.com)

"Let them eat carbon!" said French President Emmanuel Macron this week, offering his peasants a six-month reprieve on their coming carbon sin tax. And, kicking his feet up on his desk at the Élysée Palace, he breathed a sigh of relief. He had bought himself some time to figure out how to deal with the rabble at the gates. But how much time?

Not much at all, it turns out. As of press time, the yellow jackets have announced their intention to proceed with "Act 4" of their protests this weekend, and the government has responded by announcing its decision to close the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and other tourism landmarks on Saturday. Meanwhile, Paris, for its part, is bracing for another weekend of violence and street battles.

For those living under a rock who might not have heard, France has been subject to a series of protests in recent weeks over widespread dissatisfaction with the Macron government and its insistence on pushing through a series of deeply unpopular tax increases and economic reforms. The protesters have adopted the "gilets jaunes," or yellow vests that all French drivers are required to store as a safety measure in the event of a roadside breakdown. It is the perfect symbol for the movement in many ways: it is a standard item that everyone has to hand, it is a visible sign of distress, and it is connected to the fuel tax that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back and sent the people spilling out onto the streets.

Given the number of fake, Soros-backed, globalist-friendly "color revolutions" that have arisen in so many countries over the past two decades, it is understandable if readers maintain some skepticism about the reality of this latest, color-coordinated protest movement. But unlike those well-funded, globalist-backed protests, this one is hoping to ultimately topple the administration of Macron, the former Rothschild & Co. investment banker who was touted by the MSM as France's "sensible" answer to the populist wave sweeping Europe. In other words, it's doubtful that Soros or his fellow travelers are rooting for the yellow jackets to succeed.

So, could this be a truly popular revolution taking place right in the heart of the EU empire? And if so, what does it mean?

Unsurprisingly, that highly contentious question is being asked all over the place right now, from the talking head panels on the MSM boob tube to the corridors of power in Europe to the streets of Paris, and there are almost as many answers as there are people asking the question. The socialists are hailing these protests as a repeat of '68, when revolution hung heavy in the air. The nationalists are convinced that this is all about the migrant crisis and is a harbinger of a coming Le Pen government. But all sides can agree on one thing: The spark that lit the match in this particular powder keg was the Paris climate agreement.

Yes, it was just three scant years ago that we were treated to all the ballyhoo and tosh about the Paris Agreement and how it was going to save the world. Who could forget those scenes of the UN bureaucrats holding hands with the political fatcats, congratulating themselves for having saved the world by making the bold decision to control the world's temperature?

https://cdn1.imggmi.com/uploads/2018/12/8/6cef98a0d8f173546f58844cfd42ee13-full.jpg (https:///) [URL=https://imggmi.com]

"Yes, the politicians and unelected UN bureaucrats can do anything they want!" cried the masses. "They are our rulers, after all! . . . But how exactly do they intend to do this?"

"Why, by appeasing the weather gods, of course," came the response. And, it turns out, the weather gods can only be appeased by giving more money to the government. So, dutifully, Macron and his government went about raising carbon taxes, sending already sky-high gasoline prices in France rocketing into the stratosphere.

There's just one problem with all of this: The people have decided that, on the whole, they'd rather not pay $7.06 per gallon of gasoline to appease those weather gods. In fact, levying a projected €8 billion/year tax on a workforce already complaining about high unemployment and high taxes in order to reduce emissions of the life-giving carbon dioxide in a country that accounts for less than 1% of global carbon dioxide emissions anyway might just be a teensy-weensy bit unproductive.

The whole situation is a fascinating insight into the reality of the growing discontent of the masses who are, on the whole, happy to go along with the global warming swindle ... .. so long as it stays out of their pocketbook. Sadly, as they are only now finding out, the entire point of the global warming swindle is to transfer funds out of their pocketbook and into the hands of the very corporations and foundations that are behind the swindle.

France is by no means alone in this dawning realization. Voters in Washington state just rejected a proposed carbon swindle that would have levied an estimated $2.3 billion/year tax on the state's economy that, even by the UN's own made up voodoo witch doctor nonsense, would have contributed about 0% to the goal of stopping global climate change (rounding for the nearest whole number). And now the Canadian government is facing pushback on a proposed federal carbon tax from its own provinces.

Meanwhile in London the likes of George Monbiot (who is wrong about everything) is trying to drum up a new protest movement that is going to demand greater action from politicians on the urgent issue of climate change . . . at least until the protesters discover that they're just helping to demand their own tax increases.

Of course, as you'll hear any number of talking heads tell you in regard to the yellow jacket phenomenon unfolding in France, this is no longer just about a carbon tax. But that's where it started, and it is important.

So, about that Paris Agreement: Paris called. They want their money back.

-

DNA

8th December 2018, 16:54

A good article from Zero Hedge pointing out how these protests in France and Europe are not minor taxation complaints but rather bigger Globalism complaints.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-07/macron-heralds-end-union

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/macron_globalist_skunk_cartoon.jpg

Authored by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog, (https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/12/macron-heralds-the-end-of-the-union/)
The concept of the EU might have worked, but still only might have, if a neverending economic boom could have been manufactured to guide it on its way. But there was never going to be such a boom. Or perhaps if the spoils that were available in boom times and bust had been spread out among nations rich and poor and citizens rich and poor a little more equally, that concept might still have carried the days.
Then again, its demise was obvious from well before the Union was ever signed into existence, in the philosophies, deliberations and meetings that paved its way in the era after a second world war in two score years fought largely on the European continent.
In hindsight, it is hard to comprehend how it’s possible that those who met and deliberated to found the Union, in and of itself a beneficial task at least on the surface in the wake of the blood of so many millions shed, were not wiser, smarter, less greedy, less driven by sociopath design and methods. It was never the goal that missed its own target or went awry, it was the execution.
Still, no matter how much we may dream, how much some of the well-meaning ‘founding fathers’ of the Union may have dreamt, without that everlasting economic boom it never stood a chance. The Union was only ever going to be tolerated, accepted, embraced by its citizens if they could feel and see tangible benefits in their daily lives of surrendering parts of their own decision making powers, and the sovereignty of their nations.
There are 28 countries in the Union at this point, and one of them is already preparing to leave. There are 28 different cultures too, and almost as many languages. It was always going to be an uphill struggle, a hill far too steep for mere greed to master and conquer. History soaked Europe in far too much diversity through the ages for that. To unify all the thousands of years of beauty and darkness, of creativity and annihilation, of love and hatred, passed on through the generations, a lot more than a naked and bland lust for wealth, power and shiny objects was needed.
And sure, maybe it just happened on the way, in the moments when everyone was making new friends and not watching their backs for a moment. But they all still should have seen it coming, because of those same thousands of years that culminated in where they found themselves. The European Union is like a wedding and marriage without a prenup, where partners are too afraid to offend each other to do what would make them not regret the ceremony later.
Today, there are far too few of the 28 EU countries that have been lifted out of their poverty and other conditions that made them want to join the Union. And within many of the countries, there are way too many people who are, and feel, left behind. While Brussels has become a bastion of power that none of the disadvantaged feel they can properly address with their grievances.
The main fault of the EU is that the biggest party at the table always in the end, when things get serious, gets its way. The 80 million or so people of Germany de facto rule the 500 million of the Union, or you know, the three handfuls that rule Germany. No important decision can or will ever be taken that Berlin does not agree with. Angela Merkel has been the CEO of Europe Inc. since November 22 2005, gathering more power as time went by. That was never going to work unless she made everyone richer. Ask the Greeks about that one.
Merkel was the leader of both Germany and of Europe, and when things got precarious, she chose to let German interests prevail above Italian or Greek ones. That’s the fundamental flaw and failure of the Union in a nutshell. All other things, the Greek crisis, Salvini, Macron, Brexit, are mere consequences of that flaw. In absence of a forever economic boom, there is nothing left to fall back on.
Traditional right/left parties have been destroyed all across Europe in recent national elections. And it’s those traditional parties that still largely hold power in Brussels. As much as anyone except Germany and perhaps the European Commission hold any power at all. The shifts that happened in the political spectrum of many countries is not yet reflected in the European Parliament. But there are European elections in less than 6 months, May 23-26 2019.
About a quarter of the votes in the last such election, in 2014, went to euroskeptic parties. It’s not a terrible stretch of the imagination to presume that they’ll get half of the votes this time. Then we’ll have half or more of representatives speaking for people who don’t have faith in what they represent.
And on the other hand you have the Brussels elite, who continue to propagate the notion that Europe’s problems can best, nay only, be solved with more Europe. Of that elite Emmanuel Macron is the most recent, and arguable most enthusiastic from the get-go, high priest. Which can’t be seen apart from his domestic nose-diving approval rating, and most certainly not from the yellow vest protests and riots.
Macron won his presidency last year solely because he ran against Marine Le Pen in the second round of the elections, and a vast majority on the French will never vote for her; they’ll literally vote for anyone else instead. In the first round, when it wasn’t one on one, Macron got less than 25% of the votes. And now France wants him to leave. That is the essence of the protests. His presidency appears already over.
Among the 28 EU countries, the UK is a very clear euroskeptic example. It’s supposed to leave on March 2019, but that’s by no means a given. Then there’s Italy, where the last election put a strongly euroskeptic government in charge. There are the four Visegrad countries, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia. No love lost for Brussels there. In Belgium yesterday, PM Michel’s government ally New Flemish Alliance voted against the UN Global Compact on Migration.
Spain’s Mariana Rajoy was supported by the EU against Catalonia, and subsequently voted out. The next government is left-wing and pro EU, but given the recent right wing victory in Andalusia it’s clear there’s nothing stable there. Austria has a rightwing anti-immigration PM. Germany’s CDU party today elected a successor for Merkel (in the first such vote since 1971!), but they’ve lost bigly in last year’s elections, and their CSU partner has too, pushing both towards the right wing anti-immigrant AfD.
And with Macron gone or going, France can’t be counted on to support Brussels either. So what is left, quo vadis Europa? Well, there’s the European elections. In which national parties, often as members of a ‘voting alliance’, pick their prospective candidates for the European Parliament, then become part of a larger European alliance, and finally often of an even larger alliance. You guessed right, turnout numbers for European elections are very very low.

Of course Brussels is deaf to all the issues besieging it. The largest alliances of parties, the EPP (people’s party) and the “socialists”, have chosen their crown prince ‘spitzenkandidat’ to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission, and they expect for things to continue more or less as usual. The two main contenders are Manfred Weber and Frans Timmermans, convinced eurocrats. How that will work out with 50% or more of parliamentarians being euroskeptic, you tell me. How about they form their own alliance?
The Union appears fatally wounded, and that’s even before the next financial crisis has materialized. Speaking of which, the Fed has been hiking rates and can lower them again a little if it wants, but much of Europe ‘works’ on negative rates already. That next crisis could be a doozy.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
First thing on the menu is Macron tomorrow, and the yellow vests in the streets of Paris and many other French cities -and rural areas. He has called for 90,000 policemen on the streets, but they’ll come face to face with their peers who are firemen, ambulance personnel, you name it, lots of folks who also work for the government. Will they open fire?
Can Macron allow for French people to be killed in the streets? Almost certainly not. There’ll be pitchforks and guillotines. The only way out for him, the only way to calm things down, may be to announce his resignation. The French don’t fool around when they protest. And who’s going to be left to drive the reform of Europe then? Not Merkel, she’s gone, even if she wants to be German Chancellor for three more years. But then who? I’m trying to think of someone, honest, but I can’t.
It’ll be quite the day Saturday in Paris.

Hervé

8th December 2018, 20:06

What do the protesters in France want? Check out the 'official' Yellow Vest manifesto (https://www.sott.net/article/402396-What-do-the-protesters-in-France-want-Check-out-the-official-Yellow-Vest-manifesto#)

Sott.net (https://www.sott.net/article/402396-What-do-the-protesters-in-France-want-Check-out-the-official-Yellow-Vest-manifesto#)
Sat, 08 Dec 2018 17:38 UTC

The following list of demands has been circulating among French social media users in recent days. We do not know its exact origins or author(s), but it seems to have first appeared here on December 5th (https://www.facebook.com/Charte-des-gilets-jaunes-756772671347085/). You'll have to click on the image to enlarge it if you want to read it in French. We've translated it into English (in summary, not word-for-word) below...

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500754/large/Gilets_jaunes_Manifesto.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500754/full/Gilets_jaunes_Manifesto.jpg)
Gilets Jaunes' List of Demands

Economy/Work

A constitutional cap on taxes - at 25%

Increase of 40% in the basic pension and social welfare

Increase hiring in public sector to re-establish public services

Massive construction projects to house 5 million homeless, and severe penalties for mayors/prefectures that leave people on the streets

Break up the 'too-big-to-fail' banks, re-separate regular banking from investment banking

Cancel debts accrued through usurious rates of interest

Politics

Constitutional amendments to protect the people's interests, including binding referenda

The barring of lobby groups and vested interests from political decision-making

Frexit: Leave the EU to regain our economic, monetary and political sovereignty (In other words, respect the 2005 referendum result, when France voted against the EU Constitution Treaty, which was then renamed the Lisbon Treaty, and the French people ignored)

Clampdown on tax evasion by the ultra-rich

The immediate cessation of privatization, and the re-nationalization of public goods like motorways, airports, rail, etc

Remove all ideology from the ministry of education, ending all destructive education techniques

Quadruple the budget for law and order and put time-limits on judicial procedures. Make access to the justice system available for all

Break up media monopolies and end their interference in politics. Make media accessible to citizens and guarantee a plurality of opinions. End editorial propaganda

Guarantee citizens' liberty by including in the constitution a complete prohibition on state interference in their decisions concerning education, health and family matters

Health/Environment

No more 'planned obsolescence' - Mandate guarantee from producers that their products will last 10 years, and that spare parts will be available during that period

Ban plastic bottles and other polluting packaging

Weaken the influence of big pharma on health in general and hospitals in particular

Ban on GMO crops, carcinogenic pesticides, endocrine disruptors and monocrops

Reindustrialize France (thereby reducing imports and thus pollution)

Foreign Affairs

End France's participation in foreign wars of aggression, and exit from NATO

Cease pillaging and interfering - politically and militarily - in 'Francafrique', which keeps Africa poor. Immediately repatriate all French soldiers. Establish relations with African states on an equal peer-to-peer basis

Prevent migratory flows that cannot be accommodated or integrated, given the profound civilizational crisis we are experiencing

Scrupulously respect international law and the treaties we have signed

Valerie Villars

8th December 2018, 20:21

Herve, that is quite an impressive list.

Do you all have property taxes there and are religious organizations exempt from them as they are here in the U.S.?

The Catholic Church, for instance, owns an incredible amount of property which would be heavily taxed if it were privately owned. Since they don't have to pay property taxes, but have use of services, i.e. roads, etc. it puts more and more burden on us normal working folks.

Hervé

8th December 2018, 21:33

[...]
Do you all have property taxes there and are religious organizations exempt from them as they are here in the U.S.?
[...]
Yes, we all pay property taxes but I don't know if Churches, Catholic or others are exempt or not, sorry...

TargeT

9th December 2018, 00:10

Such an interesting situation... I hope more people dig in and look at what it REALLY is, not what the TV says it is.

0EHIcpSxdv4

Flash

9th December 2018, 00:16

Caliban

9th December 2018, 00:56

Caliban

9th December 2018, 01:05

Here's a live feed, or it was live earlier

vee-28EPbJ8

Hervé

9th December 2018, 01:33

Here is something discovered by Houman (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?40941-Horus-Ra-as-the-Archontic-Alien-Parasite-A-follow-up-interview-with-Maarit&p=1263240&viewfull=1#post1263240) that's in French (use auto translate if not French speaking):

Jacques Attali on the elected president and the state no longer having any power. "The market has the power now" and it will extend its sphere of control to education, health, justice, police, foreign affairs, life, to the areas considered illegal today (prostitution, trade of weapons/organs, racket...) and ultimately the transformation/commercialization of life itself (i.e. human beings turned into commodities for buy and sell)

Jacques Attali is an insider (and an agent organizing those changes) so his "predictions" are essentially coming from that perspective (he predicted the presidency of E. Macron and claims that he knows the name of the woman who will come after him).

Houman

PS: Recall that (see lectures by Marion Sigaut (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?40941-Horus-Ra-as-the-Archontic-Alien-Parasite-A-follow-up-interview-with-Maarit&p=1262305&viewfull=1#post1262305)) the purpose of the French revolution was to bring about the law and control of the market (over "common good").

k40RpYZlvkQ

Attali is just telling anyone who is listening (and with an enthusiastic big smile) what authors like Henry Makow have been screaming over the rooftop for decades...

And, Macron was/is tutored/mentored by Jacques Attali (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?95823-Former-Soros-associate-Wilders-and-Le-Pen-elected-then-chaos-in-the-EU-and-global-markets&p=1137998&viewfull=1#post1137998)...

Related:
The UN is using “climate change” as a smokescreen for planetary governance. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?96561-...Climate-Change...--AKA-Global-Warming--...-is-it-a-scam&p=1263138&viewfull=1#post1263138)

TargeT

9th December 2018, 02:19

Wow, an intense day in Paris. How these cops (and military?) can fire stun grenades and massive tear gas on their fellow citizens is unbelievable and very sad. Brave peeps. Over 500 arrested today. I kinda wish I was there with them.

"Tear gas" is a pretty good name for O.C.; it really is just an irritant. Out of all the potential responses I can easily see how tear gas is used if officers are being assaulted.

Now, if they are just arbitrarily firing tear gas into the crowd I would agree; however the video you posted did not appear to show that (though I did get a sense of selective editing).

It's a very complex situation, I don't think carte blanche outrage is a nuanced enough response in this case.

Deux Corbeaux

9th December 2018, 07:12

Wishful thinking?? (Hope) perhaps not.

This world revolution will remove all vestiges of globalism off the face of the earth so that THE PEOPLE can live in peace and prosperity as a world full of beautiful nations with great borders.

We know that there are plenty of free energy technologies that are being suppressed so that the elite can keep the people of Earth controlled with their fake, phony fiat petro dollars.

We know about your pedophilia, off shore accounts, encryption keys, and dirty deals - from the Queen to the Vatican.

You had over 2,000 years to make it work.

Now move on. It's our turn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47E2tfK5QAg

Hervé

9th December 2018, 15:08

A comprehensive summary of this weekend here:

(https://www.sott.net/article/402426-Watch-turmoil-unfold-in-France-as-Yellow-Vest-protests-enter-4th-weekend-with-125000-protesters-and-89000-additional-police) Watch turmoil unfold in France as Yellow Vest protests enter 4th weekend, with 125,000 protesters and 89,000 additional police (https://www.sott.net/article/402426-Watch-turmoil-unfold-in-France-as-Yellow-Vest-protests-enter-4th-weekend-with-125000-protesters-and-89000-additional-police)

Full article: https://www.sott.net/article/402426-Watch-turmoil-unfold-in-France-as-Yellow-Vest-protests-enter-4th-weekend-with-125000-protesters-and-89000-additional-police

Hervé

9th December 2018, 15:30

I guess that us "frogs" finally noticed we were being heated up to a boil...

The question, then, is: was it a mistake of the behind-the-curtain-puppeteers? Or was it intended so as to catch like a wild fire across Europe?

See:

The UN is using “climate change” as a smokescreen for planetary governance. (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?96561-...Climate-Change...--AKA-Global-Warming--...-is-it-a-scam&p=1263138&viewfull=1#post1263138)

Insider Foretold Mass Migration in 2006 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/Insider Foretold Mass Migration in 2006)

Yellow Vests Rise Against Neo-liberal King Macron (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?88469---a-Chauffe-&p=1262801&viewfull=1#post1262801)

Valerie Villars

9th December 2018, 15:59

The interview "Paris Man Speaks (https://www.facebook.com/WorldCloudLA/videos/1131048143737954/)" was really thoughtful and truthful, saying the people are aware of the layers beyond the politicians who are really controlling things, i.e. the bankers.

What's most impressive to me is the firefighters and police who have shown solidarity with the protesters, understanding they are all on the same level, and that their uniforms or job descriptions do not place them on a different level than those they are supposed to be fighting against, all at the behest of some elite bankers. There is strength in unity.

TargeT

9th December 2018, 15:59

The question, then, is: was it a mistake of the behind-the-curtain-puppeteers? Or was it intended so as to catch like a wild fire across Europe?

is it barely mentioned in the news or dominating the news cycle (and even then, how is it being presented)?

Somethings become too large for those questions about media coverage to matter, but I've often used them as a filter for events importance and "support" from DS.

I think it's barely being mentioned in the US, and then we are told it's just a "gas tax" not "anti globalism" protests.

YI1EtCK09mk

Caliban

9th December 2018, 17:38

This clip is from the article above. Is that naked passion or what? That alone you could show people and say "this is what the French are going through."

https://mobile.twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1070483620232617984

Frenchy

9th December 2018, 17:58

This is probably one of the finest investigative journalism I have ever read. I always thought that to climb to different balconies, would require extensive strength and agility...
Maybe there were 'handholds' provided prior ?

Thanks for digging-up gems like this........... With 11K + members, plus say, 500 - 1000 visitors each week, threads of this quality should reach more households,,,

muxfolder

9th December 2018, 18:15

I just love French people. They actually do something when their government is trying to screw them.

Hervé

9th December 2018, 18:24

Armored vehicles harboring the European Union Flag:

https://twitter.com/laurentPx/status/1071429605465251841

TargeT

9th December 2018, 18:26

Armored vehicles harboring the European Union Flag:

https://twitter.com/laurentPx/status/1071429605465251841

hey, france is invaded again!

Hervé

9th December 2018, 18:33

However, the vehicle's plate shows it belongs to the French "Gendarmerie Nationale":

https://cdn-s-www.lejsl.com/images/729EBC32-BA82-49BF-9B4C-E3AA46B3668D/JSL_v1_02/photo-d-illustration-philippe-huguen-afp-1536569876.jpg

muxfolder

9th December 2018, 18:46

Armored vehicles harboring the European Union Flag:

https://twitter.com/laurentPx/status/1071429605465251841

It seems like the EU-army has been established. Everything David Icke predicted is coming to pass.

onawah

9th December 2018, 20:22

GLOBALISM ON THE ROPES
12/9/18
pUjr4cvdmbM

FRANCE 24 English
Published on Dec 7, 2018
Subscribe to France 24 now:
http://f24.my/youtubeEN

FRANCE 24 live news stream: all the latest news 24/7
http://f24.my/YTliveEN

"As Paris braces for fresh "Yellow Vest" protests after consecutive weekends of riots, FRANCE 24 reporters head out of the capital to meet protesters in rural France. In the small town of Montargis, 130 kilometres south of Paris, the Yellow Vests have set up camp at a strategic roundabout and are preparing to spend the Christmas holidays making their voices heard. FRANCE 24 takes a look at some of the reasons behind their anger."

https://forbiddenknowledgetv.net/globalism-on-the-ropes/
"Between Donald Trump, Matteo Salvini and the “Gilets Jaunes” revolts, no one except for the most severely brainwashed can deny that Globalism is on the ropes.

The degree to which a country is zombified by Globalism can be gauged by whether its people believe that Climate Change is the most pressing issue they face and if they believe that “populism” is a bad word.

The last time French President Emmanuel Macron was seen publicly, before he went into hiding nearly a week ago on Tuesday, he addressed the “Yellow Vests” protests of the previous weekend and he used the exact same Globalist talking points as did US Congresswoman-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as if they’d been handed the same script. Both reaffirmed the direness and exigency of Climate Change and how it is causing “social injustice” and how their Climate Change policies must be implemented immediately, to finally bring about long-sought social justice and racial equality.

No statement from their former Rothschild investment banker president could have been more tone deaf to the French people, who love every square inch of their precious turf and who are among the most organic- and biodynamic-farming, ecologically-conscious people on the planet.

Over 80% of the French population supports the Gilets Jaunes revolts because all but a handful of French billionaires are being squeezed out of the Middle Class, while millions of unskilled, culturally-incompatible “migrants” are shipped in, for the profit of Non-Governmental Organizations and the Catholic Church – with funds bilked from these same hapless Middle Class taxpayers. Similar scenarios are playing out everywhere on Earth that the Neoliberal, Corporatist Bankster policies of the Globalists are in effect.

I’ve chosen this English-language video produced by state-run FRANCE 24 because it gives a decent slice of life and granularity on the lives of the decent people who are typical of the protesters outside of Paris. Below is the list of demands from the Gilets Jaunes.

“The People’s Directives”

•End of the tax hike on fuel [done].

•Promote the transport of goods by rail.

•Tax on marine fuel oil and kerosene.

•Monthly minimum wage equivalent to $1,480 per month.

•Indexing of all wages, pensions and allowances to inflation.

•Nationalization of the fuel for home heating and electricity sectors.

•More progressive income tax (more marginal tax brackets).

•The end of the austerity.

•No withholding tax.

•Restoring the taxes for the ultra-wealthy.

•Same social security system for all workers, including the self-employed.

•The pension system must remain in solidarity and therefore socialized.

•No retirement pension below $1,365 per month.

•Increase of disability allowances.

•Retirement at age 60, and a right to early retirement at 55 for workers who have worked a hard manual labor job.

•Continuation of the Pajemploi help system until the child is 10 years old.

•End of outsourcing of work for French corporations.

•Limit the number of fixed-term contracts for large companies, replaced with more full time employment.

•Maximum salary fixed at $17,075 per month or $307,325 annually.

•Jobs for the unemployed.

•Any elected representative will be entitled to the median national salary.

•The popular referendum must enter into the Constitution. Creating a readable and effective website, supervised by an independent control body where people can make a proposal for a law. If this bill obtains 700,000 signatures then this bill will have to be discussed, completed and amended by the National Assembly, which will have the obligation, one year to the day after obtaining the 700,000 signatures, to submit it to the vote of all French.

•Return to a seven-year term for the President of the Republic.

•End of presidential allowances for life.

•Proportional voting system.

•Elimination of the Senate.

•Accounting of the protest/blank/none of the above ballots.

•Promote small businesses in villages and town centers. Stop the construction of large commercial areas around the big cities that kill the small business. More free parking in city centers.

•No further privatization of French infrastructure.

•Improved funding for the justice system, the police, the gendarmerie and the army.

•All the money earned by highway tolls will be used for the maintenance of motorways and roads in France and road safety.

•Immediate closure of private trains, post offices, schools and maternity homes.

•Maximum 25 students per class for all ages.

•Large corporations (McDonald’s, Google, Amazon, Carrefour …) pay big [taxes], small businesses (artisans, SMEs) pay small [taxes].

•Protectionism of French industry and prohibition of outsourcing.

•End of the business tax credit. Use this money for the launch of a French hydrogen car industry.

•Eliminate credit card fees for merchants.

•Lower employer taxes.

•Continue exemption of farm diesel.

•Improve the lives of the elderly by banning their exploitation.

•Substantial boosts in mental health fund.

•Prohibition of glyphosate.

•Immediate end to temporary foreign worker programs.

•Plan for improving insulation of housing (help the environment by helping the household).

•Rent control. More low-rent housing (especially for students and precarious workers).

•Treat the root causes of forced migration.

•Fair treatment of asylum seekers. We owe them housing, security, food and education. Work with the UN to have host camps open in many countries around the world, pending the outcome of the asylum application.

•Return of unsuccessful asylum seekers to their country of origin.

•Real integration policy is implemented. Living in France means becoming French (French language course, French history course and civic education course with certification at the end of the course)."

Frenchy

9th December 2018, 21:07

Qnawah, you seem to be a 24/7/364 active intelligence, do you think that the ' Q ' movement ( which might be something to do with Abel Danger ? ), is replicated in Conseil Nationale de Transition.fr ? for the parrells are significant.

i confess, I have not rread their 500 page declaration, but skimming thru' it, seems to be ' in print ', what Q is doing sstealth-by-stealth ... ?

Dennis Leahy

9th December 2018, 22:05

... Below is the list of demands from the Gilets Jaunes.

“The People’s Directives”

•End of the tax hike on fuel [done].

•Promote the transport of goods by rail.

•Tax on marine fuel oil and kerosene.

•Monthly minimum wage equivalent to $1,480 per month.

•Indexing of all wages, pensions and allowances to inflation.

•Nationalization of the fuel for home heating and electricity sectors.

•More progressive income tax (more marginal tax brackets).

•The end of the austerity.

•No withholding tax.

•Restoring the taxes for the ultra-wealthy.

•Same social security system for all workers, including the self-employed.

•The pension system must remain in solidarity and therefore socialized.

•No retirement pension below $1,365 per month.

•Increase of disability allowances.

•Retirement at age 60, and a right to early retirement at 55 for workers who have worked a hard manual labor job.

•Continuation of the Pajemploi help system until the child is 10 years old.

•End of outsourcing of work for French corporations.

•Limit the number of fixed-term contracts for large companies, replaced with more full time employment.

•Maximum salary fixed at $17,075 per month or $307,325 annually.

•Jobs for the unemployed.

•Any elected representative will be entitled to the median national salary.

•The popular referendum must enter into the Constitution. Creating a readable and effective website, supervised by an independent control body where people can make a proposal for a law. If this bill obtains 700,000 signatures then this bill will have to be discussed, completed and amended by the National Assembly, which will have the obligation, one year to the day after obtaining the 700,000 signatures, to submit it to the vote of all French.

•Return to a seven-year term for the President of the Republic.

•End of presidential allowances for life.

•Proportional voting system.

•Elimination of the Senate.

•Accounting of the protest/blank/none of the above ballots.

•Promote small businesses in villages and town centers. Stop the construction of large commercial areas around the big cities that kill the small business. More free parking in city centers.

•No further privatization of French infrastructure.

•Improved funding for the justice system, the police, the gendarmerie and the army.

•All the money earned by highway tolls will be used for the maintenance of motorways and roads in France and road safety.

•Immediate closure of private trains, post offices, schools and maternity homes.

•Maximum 25 students per class for all ages.

•Large corporations (McDonald’s, Google, Amazon, Carrefour …) pay big [taxes], small businesses (artisans, SMEs) pay small [taxes].

•Protectionism of French industry and prohibition of outsourcing.

•End of the business tax credit. Use this money for the launch of a French hydrogen car industry.

•Eliminate credit card fees for merchants.

•Lower employer taxes.

•Continue exemption of farm diesel.

•Improve the lives of the elderly by banning their exploitation.

•Substantial boosts in mental health fund.

•Prohibition of glyphosate.

•Immediate end to temporary foreign worker programs.

•Plan for improving insulation of housing (help the environment by helping the household).

•Rent control. More low-rent housing (especially for students and precarious workers).

•Treat the root causes of forced migration.

•Fair treatment of asylum seekers. We owe them housing, security, food and education. Work with the UN to have host camps open in many countries around the world, pending the outcome of the asylum application.

•Return of unsuccessful asylum seekers to their country of origin.

•Real integration policy is implemented. Living in France means becoming French (French language course, French history course and civic education course with certification at the end of the course)."

That's a nice list, Gilets Jaunes, but you missed the big one - the only one that really will make a difference. (Don't be surprised, US political activists completely miss the big one too.)

onawah

9th December 2018, 22:11

I don't pay much attention to Q in my sleuthing work :sherlock:, Frenchy, but thanks for the compliment! :bowing:

Qnawah, you seem to be a 24/7/364 active intelligence, do you think that the ' Q ' movement ( which might be something to do with Abel Danger ? ), is replicated in Conseil Nationale de Transition.fr ? for the parrells are significant.

i confess, I have not rread their 500 page declaration, but skimming thru' it, seems to be ' in print ', what Q is doing sstealth-by-stealth ... ?

Valerie Villars

10th December 2018, 00:32

I saw a house in the country today, here in the US with a yellow vest hanging on the front porch.

Valerie Villars

10th December 2018, 00:41

Caliban

10th December 2018, 00:57

I don't see how Trump figures into this. How is he "challenging the globalists." The only issue I can see is migration. He's trying
to dismantle environmental regulations, wants to drill and frack, has Monsanto and Goldman Sachs in his cabinet, is supporting anything Netanyahu does and on and on.... I'd love to see Donald's reactions to a yellow vest movement in our country. Then you'd see how much he really believes in the People.

muxfolder

10th December 2018, 01:12

This is something I read few days ago. Iltalehti is a Finnish "newspaper", it's not really considered trustworthy here but there are some interesting articles sometimes that really makes someone like me to think about what the hell is happening. Our present government has been 100% pro NWO right from the beginning and I believe it's actually preparing for proxy war against Russia or something similar. This is just my opinion, some of other Finnish members here might disagree. But the article states that there seems to be some kind of push to form an EU-army. Why it's important here? Because we are not in NATO. Yet. France and EU-army was mentioned in this article so that's why I'm posting it here.

Source (in Finnish) (https://www.iltalehti.fi/politiikka/a/9777c25e-0e70-4e5a-8d58-8937fba20856)

So this is how Google translates it in English and it seems to be quite accurate, almost like it was originally written in English.

Sipilä will leave for Washington tomorrow - will explain in the US the true idea of the "European Army"
25.11.2018 at 7:22
Prime Minister Juha Sipilä will travel to the United States on Monday for a three-day working visit.

Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (center) will make 26-28 November. a working visit to Washington. This is Sipilä's first visit to the United States as prime minister.

According to Iltalehti's information, Sipilä's trip has been planned for two years, but earlier meetings have had to be canceled by both Sipilä and the US.

The Prime Minister's work visit aims to strengthen bilateral relations between Finland and the United States, economic and technological cooperation, and to discuss the EU's development and transatlantic cooperation.

Misunderstandings are straightened
Sipilä will meet with US political and economic leadership during his trip to whom, according to Iltalehti, he is going to tell, among other things, about the recent rumors of the "European army" in the United States, which was hurt by US President Donald Trump in this November visit to Paris.

Speeches from the European army accelerated in November when French President Emmanuel Macro and German Chancellor Angela Merkel took both sides in successive speeches.

Before the Trump visit in a radio interview, Macron said that a "real European army" is needed in a situation where Europe can no longer rely on anything. "We have to protect ourselves against China, Russia and even against the United States".

Merkel also raised concerns about the United States when she spoke to the MEPs in Strasbourg: "Only a stronger Europe can defend its values and interests in the world. The times when we were able to trust others are over, "Merkel said.

Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö (son) stated on 20 November. In Brussels, the speeches of the European army mislead people and send false signals, especially in the direction of the United States.

NATO cooperation is important
President of the Republic Sauli Niinistö also stressed (5 November) in the opening speech of the National Defense Corps that speeches from the European army are easily misunderstood.

According to Niinistö, it is a question of developing cooperation between the 28 national armies of the Union and Finland's interest in the development of European defense and the EU's obligation to provide assistance does not call into question the importance of NATO, on the contrary, NATO's role as a guarantor for European security and its presence in the Baltic Sea region.

According to Iltalehti's statement, Prime Minister Sipilä intends to cut off false signals from the European military speeches during his visit to the United States.

Sipilä intends to clarify to Americans what idea is strengthened by European defense and how it can also strengthen transatlantic cooperation.

Free Trade Defender
During his trip to the United States, the Prime Minister will meet with political leadership as well as financial leadership and will appear in the Washington Economic Club.

According to preliminary information, Sipilä intends to emphasize the importance of free trade, as well as introducing Finnish intelligent energy networks and artificial intelligence to the United States.

With Sipilä, a business delegation with the help of ABB, Nokia, M-Files, Fortum and Wärtsilä travels to the United States.

It is also expected that the United States will meet with the Hornets to compensate for the fighters as the US HX bidding involves two companies, Boeing F / A-18 Super Hornet and Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter.

Originally I PM:d this article to Hervé and he said I should post it here since it does seem to mention there is going to be EU-army. So there you go.

Antagenet

10th December 2018, 01:23

Thanks for posting the list.
If these were enforced, it would solve a lot of the other problems
•Return of unsuccessful asylum seekers to their country of origin.

•Real integration policy is implemented. Living in France means becoming French (French language course, French history course and civic education course with certification at the end of the course)."

Hervé

10th December 2018, 01:27

[...]
I want to understand this rebellion in an informed way. So, why aren't the toll booth and roadway hijackers being arrested? Or bullied away. In the US it would have happened within minutes.

How are the yellow vests able to get away with this Herve?
[...]
Toll booths, etc... are part of those taxes that are contested: highways were built on public funds/taxpayers but then they were handed to private corporation for a profit... it's like taxpayers are being swindled into paying for the usage of something they already paid for in full. Well, that's "globalism" and European nonsensical legislations.

Caliban

10th December 2018, 01:31

I'm very curious to see if this leads to strikes by French workers. This seems like the next step for this movement.

Valerie Villars

10th December 2018, 01:34

Hervé

10th December 2018, 01:56

[...]
I'm trying to understand your legal, or civil system. If I took over a publicly funded institution, like the prison system here, that has since been privatized, I would be arrested for trespassing.

How does your system work?
Actually, I don't know much about the legal system here since I came back to France only recently after spending thirty some years "abroad." What I know is that it stems from the Napoleonic code (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Code) with its de facto "guilty till proven innocent."

Valerie Villars

10th December 2018, 02:02

Well, Louisiana is unique in all of the US states, in that we have a Napoleonic Code. And we'd end up in some dank prison cell with a bunch of less than enlightened beings in charge.

I wish I understood how that is not happening in France. That is a good thing.

Hervé

10th December 2018, 13:06

NewsReal: Mass Immigration And Climate Change: A Perfect Storm (https://www.sott.net/article/402508-NewsReal-Mass-Immigration-And-Climate-Change-A-Perfect-Storm#)

Sott.net (https://www.sott.net/article/402508-NewsReal-Mass-Immigration-And-Climate-Change-A-Perfect-Storm#)
Mon, 10 Dec 2018 11:30 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500988/large/NRW_181209_Take2.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/500988/full/NRW_181209_Take2.jpg)

There are two major grievances that are motivating the ongoing 'Gilets Jaunes' protests in France (and similar protests in other European countries over the past few years). One is the the specter of mass immigration - 'accidentally' inflated by 17 years of the Global War on Terror - and the other is French and EU government policies aimed at 'preventing climate change'.

In their arrogance, however, European elites have decided to double down on these massively unpopular polices by:

(a) encouraging mass migration into Europe - with Macron currently in Morocco where he will sign the UN Compact on Migration, where signatory states are required to formalize and legalize structures for accepting and financing large numbers of migrants, and (b) implementing an EU/globalist 'ecology tax'.

So the question is: what do climate/earth changes and mass migration have in common, and what do governments know that they are not telling the people?

On this week's NewsReal with Joe & Niall, we reveal why the elites' view of the people and the people's view of the elites are so out of sync, and why the discrepancy is signalling an impending showdown of, literally, biblical proportions.

VM1vSCvme9w

Running Time: 01:14:59

Download: OGG (https://media.sott.net/srn/20181209nrw-mass-immigration-and-climate-change-a-perfect-storm.ogg), MP3 (https://media.sott.net/srn/20181209nrw-mass-immigration-and-climate-change-a-perfect-storm.mp3)

====================================================

Some backdrop dots:

Climate summit language reveals real - but hidden - agenda (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?96561-...Climate-Change...--AKA-Global-Warming--...-is-it-a-scam&p=1263138&viewfull=1#post1263138)
Climate lunacy takes center stage in Poland (https://www.iceagenow.info/climate-lunacy-takes-center-stage-in-poland/)

... and the "Blue Print":

Insider Foretold Mass Migration in 2006 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/Insider Foretold Mass Migration in 2006)
Jacques Attali, Macron's mentor/handler (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?88469---a-Chauffe-&p=1263284&viewfull=1#post1263284)

DNA

10th December 2018, 16:51

Full article found at link below.

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=59527

France 'Investigating' If The Russkies Are Secretly Behind Yellow Vest Protests

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation (http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=59527)
Dec. 10, 2018

If the last two years have taught us anything, it's that Western governments can dodge all responsibility for their failed leadership by blaming all domestic strife on the Russkies.

From Bloomberg, "France to Probe Possible Russian Influence on Yellow Vest Riots" (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-09/pro-russia-social-media-aims-at-macron-as-yellow-vests-rage):
France opened a probe into possible Russian interference behind the country’s Yellow Vest protests, after reports that social-media accounts linked to Moscow have increasingly targeted the movement.

According to the Alliance for Securing Democracy, about 600 Twitter accounts known to promote Kremlin views have begun focusing on France, boosting their use of the hashtag #giletsjaunes, the French name for the Yellow Vest movement. French security services are looking at the situation, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday in a radio interview with RTL.

Russia has been criticized for using social media to influence elections in the U.S. and elsewhere. Attempts to use fake news reports and cyberattacks to undercut the 2017 campaign of French President Emmanuel Macron failed, but Russian-linked sites have pushed questionable reports of a mutiny among police, and of officers’ support for the protests.The media is furious Russian media is covering these protests.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6UpuouOomU
There was supposed to be a blackout to help Macron put these rioters down like dogs!

http://www.informationliberation.com/files/yx9aan1c3a321.png

It was only around two weeks ago when the media was hyperventilating over Trump "gassing children" on our border in a repeat of the Holocaust.

http://www.informationliberation.com/files/Alyssa-Milano-Tweet-Trump-Tear-Gassed-Women-Children-Migrants.png

While Trump was attacked for using tear gas on foreign invaders, Macron's army firing off some 10,000 tear gas canisters -- so many canisters they reportedly nearly ran out -- is "defending liberal democracy!"
“An investigation is now underway,” Le Drian said. “I will not make comments before the investigation has brought conclusions.”

The Twitter accounts monitored by the alliance usually feature U.S. or British news. But the French protests “have been at or near the top” of their activity for at least a week, according to Bret Schafer, the alliance’s Washington-based social media analyst. “That’s a pretty strong indication that there is interest in amplifying the conflict” for audiences outside France.

The Alliance for Securing Democracy is a unit of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., which monitors pro-Kremlin activity.

The assertion of police dissatisfaction -- which doesn’t appear to be supported by facts -- resembles other Kremlin-backed disinformation campaigns that have tried to engender mistrust in Western governments and show that liberal democracies are in decline, Schafer says.Just ignore the fact liberal democracies are in decline the world over (https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=58719) -- they've actually never been stronger!
Just ignore the fact liberal democracies are in decline the world over (https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=58719) -- they've actually never been stronger!

https://www.informationliberation.com/files/soros-bet-big-on-communism.jpg

The "Alliance for Securing Democracy" and their entirely fraudulent Hamilton 68 dashboard (https://theintercept.com/2017/07/17/with-new-d-c-policy-group-dems-continue-to-rehabilitate-and-unify-with-bush-era-neocons/) was started by Bill Kristol, CIA officials and other Democrat neocons and they refuse to identify any of the alleged "Russian trolls" they claim to be tracking.

Any "journalist" who cites their dashboard as a legitimate source is not a journalist but a government propagandist.

The future our "liberal" rulers want is one where all non-establishment media is censored into oblivion and all popular revolts against their rule are pawned off on the Russkies.

Everyone you see in these videos are just Russian bots.

Dennis Leahy

10th December 2018, 17:06

That's a nice list, Gilets Jaunes, but you missed the big one - the only one that really will make a difference. (Don't be surprised, US political activists completely miss the big one too.)
...

Well, Dennis, what is it?

The people's control over governance (by the people's control of the election system.)

By not addressing that, the same (or different!) crap is guaranteed to start all over again after the next election cycle.

Activists chase issues and personalities. Once the personalities change (by elections, or by being deposed), the same group of people that were in control of the election system are still in control of the election system, and they present the next group of replacements to choose between. Chasing issues is tacitly saying, "You remain in charge, ..." and fix my list of demands.

The ruling elite haven't just figured out our psychology to sell us gadgets, they figured out our psychology to control elections, more specifically, to take complete control of the election system to ensure that they control who is allowed into elected positions. They hire their own replacements and we chase the next set of issues and personalities.

In each country, there is one door that every elected office holder must walk through. Who controls that door controls governance. (In the USA, the people have 0% control over that door - that door is controlled by two corporations controlled by the ruling elite. France has more political parties. I've not studied how the ruling elite control the election system in France, but they certainly do, and they will long after the issues and personalities that sparked Gilets Jaunes are "fixed" or glossed over.)

Deux Corbeaux

10th December 2018, 17:08

Just for the balance...

It's a shame that only the riots in Paris have been shown on MSM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42-bT1F8dbw

This has been my daily experience with the Yellow Jacket Movement these last 4 weeks.
A peaceful protest by people of all ages, who have great passion but don't use any violence.

I have my yellow vest in the front of my car to show them my support and don't complain about not getting to the shops as quickly as I´m used to.

Deux Corbeaux

10th December 2018, 20:44

https://aim4truthblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/macron-climate-change.jpg

BMJ

10th December 2018, 23:53

In the video below, some of the French people most affected by globalism describe the hardships under a Macron government that have been the catalyst for the yellow vest movement.

Reporters: What do France's 'Yellow Vest' protesters want?

pUjr4cvdmbM
FRANCE 24 English
Published on Dec 7, 2018

As Paris braces for fresh "Yellow Vest" protests after consecutive weekends of riots, FRANCE 24 reporters head out of the capital to meet protesters in rural France. In the small town of Montargis, 130 kilometres south of Paris, the Yellow Vests have set up camp at a strategic roundabout and are preparing to spend the Christmas holidays making their voices heard. FRANCE 24 takes a look at some of the reasons behind their anger.

In the video below, Dr Steve states that 70% of French people believe their government "does not support them" and also 70% of French people support the yellow vests.

Dr Steve also provides a visual comparison between France and Italy on Saturday to provide a contrast between globalism and nationalism.

Macron’s Paris Riots while Salvini’s Rome Celebrates!!!

8QNcO7yNbIU
Dr. Steve Turley
Published on Dec 10, 2018
You won’t believe the difference between what happened in globalist Paris and nationalist Rome on Saturday!!!

viva la France

Deux Corbeaux

11th December 2018, 06:06

Macron addresses the nation.

I think his wife wrote the speech and he’s been practicing it as if he would have to perform it in a Shakespeare play.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnGbtHuhtsI

BMJ

11th December 2018, 13:07

I thought everyone might enjoy this cartoon from Ben Garrison, posted by Q, post Q2574.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DuEUnUsVsAAveT0?format=jpg&name=small

Hervé

11th December 2018, 14:07

Who does Emmanuel Macron owe? (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html)

by Thierry Meyssan

Voltaire Network | Damascus (Syria) | 11 December 2018

http://www.voltairenet.org/squelettes/elements/images/ligne-rouge.gif

عربي (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204304.html) Español (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204299.html) français (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204276.html) italiano (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204305.html) română (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204300.html) Türkçe (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204301.html)

President Macron is often presented as a Rothschild Boy. This is true, but secondary. Thierry Meyssan demonstrates that he owes his electoral campaign mostly to Henry Kravis, the boss of one of the world’s largest financial companies, and to NATO – a considerable debt which weighs heavily today on the solution to the Yellow Vests crisis.

http://www.voltairenet.org/local/cache-vignettes/L400xH266/Voltairenet-org_-_1-544-df318.jpg

Emmanuel Macron did not feel destined for a career in politics. As a young man, he hoped to become a philosopher, then a senior civil servant, then a business banker. To help him on his way, he frequented Uncle Sam’s fairy godmothers - the French-American Foundation and the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

It was in this milieu that he met Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis, in their residence on Park Avenue in New York [1 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb1)]. The Kravis couple, unfailing supporters of the US Republican Party, are among the great world fortunes who play politics out of sight of the Press. Their company, KKR, like Blackstone and the Carlyle Group, is one of the world’s major investment funds.

« Emmanuel’s curiosity for the ’can-do attitude’ was fascinating - the capacity to tell yourself that you can do anything you set your mind to. He had a thirst for knowledge and a desire to understand how things work, but without imitating or copying anyone. In this, he remained entirely French », declares Marie-Josée Drouin (Mrs. Kravis) today [2 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb2)].

Bearing the double recommendation of the Kravis couple and Jean-Pierre Jouyet [3 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb3)], he integrated the closed circle of François Hollande’s campaign team. In an e-mail addressed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Director of political planning Jake Sullivan named the four principal members of the Socialist candidate’s campaign team, including the unknown Emmanuel Macron. He specified that Macron would probably become the Director General of the Treasury (« the top civil servant at the Finance Ministry ») [4 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb4)].

However, when François Hollande was elected, Emmanuel Macron became the assistant General Secretary of the Elysée, a more political function. It seems that he had ambitions to succeed Jean-Pierre Jouyet as Director of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (the Deposits and Consignments Fund), a post which was entrusted in May 2014 to the General Secretary of the Elysée. A few days later, proposed by the Kravis couple, he was invited to the Bilderberg Club, where he delivered a violent intervention in perfect English against his boss, François Hollande. When he returned to Paris, he resigned from Hollande’s cabinet.

The Kravis couple are among the main pillars of the Bilderberg Club, which is administered by Marie-Josée Drouin-Kravis. Contrary to a commonly-held belief, the Bilderberg is not a place where decisions are made. Its archives attest to the fact that it was created by the CIA and MI6, then became an organ of influence for NATO, which directly looks after its security [5 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb5)]. Since Macron’s intervention had been well received, he became one of NATO’s men in France.

Having left politics, he had no desire to return. He explained to his entourage on a number of occasions that he wanted to become a university professor. With the help of essayist Alain Minc (admitted to the Bilderberg Club in 2008), he obtained a post at the university of Berlin and another at the London School of Economics, but was unable to find a place at Harvard.

However, in August 2014, three months after having « left politics », and on a proposition by Jean-Pierre Jouyet (admitted in 2009 to the Bilderberg Club), he was named by François Hollande as Minister of the Economy, Industry and Digital Technology.

In a book published in 2018, François Hollande assured that this choice had been his idea [6 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb6)]. That may be, but would suppose that he had not been informed about Macron’s intervention at the Bilderberg meeting – although one of his Ministers and close friend Fleur Pélerin had also been present.

JvYeeGRBIOY
In December 2014, Henry Kravis created his own Intelligence agency, the KKR Global Institute. He nominated at its head the ex-Director of the CIA, General David Petraeus. With the Kravis couple’s private funds (the KKR investment funds), and without referring to Congress, Petraeus pursued operation « Timber Sycamore » which had been initiated by President Barack Obama. This was the largest weapons traffic in History, implicating at least 17 states and representing many thousands of tons of weapons worth several billion dollars [7 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb7)]. As such, Kravis and Petraeus became the main suppliers for Daesh [8 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb8)].

The French President of Bilderberg, Henri de Castries, invited the Deputy Mayor of Le Havre, Edouard Philippe, to the annual meeting, which on this occasion was held in June 2015 in Austria. Philippe was to be re-invited in May 2016, this time in Germany. During the presidential campaign in France, both Henri de Castries and Edouard Philippe supported François Fillon, but dropped him as soon as Jean-Pierre Jouyet [9 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb9)] handed the Canard Enchaîné the financial documents collected by the Inspectorate of Finances concerning the suspicious employment of Madame Fillon [10 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb10)]. They then joined Emmanuel Macron’s camp.

In April 2016, Emmanuel Macron founded his political formation En Marche!, whose marketing strategy was copied from that of Kadima (Forward!), Ariel Sharon’s pretended non-right, non-left party. As for Macron’s programme, it was built on the notes of the OCDE [11 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb11)] and those of the Institut Montaigne, of which Henri de Castries was president. In fact, En Marche! was created in the offices of the Institut. But Castries fooled Fillon into believing that this was pure coincidence , and that he did not support Macron. He continued for months telling Fillon that he was ready to become his Prime Minister.

Initially, the financing of En Marche! was not supervised. It was a simple association which was allowed to receive gifts from abroad. The names of the sponsors were not revealed to the Tax Office. Arch-billionaire Henry Kravis was one of them.

During his campaign, Emmanuel Macron regularly met with the ex-President of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (« DSK »). These workshop meetings were denied until they were revealed by Le Parisien, much later, when his reputation as a sexual pervert had died down. DSK (admitted to the Bilderberg Club in 2000) brought both the support of senior government officials and that of French company management – the sociological alliance which had supported the collaborationist régime of Philippe Petain and reformed again in the 1980’s around the Fondation Saint-Simon.

In June 2018, the Minister for Youth and National Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, was invited on the proposition of Henri de Castries to the annual meeting of the Bilderberg Club, which was held this time in Italy. This lawyer, a specialist in Constitutional law, has always linked political science and education. He was one of the three central directors of the Ministry for Education, then director of the prestigious Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC). He has known Castries for many years, frequenting him at the Institut Montaigne.

When the Yellow Vests crisis began in France [12 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nb12)], it quickly became evident that this was a profound problem which could only be resolved by addressing the question of global finance, which President Macron can not do. During his electoral campaign, he surprised sponsors at a dinner in New York by making accusations against the financialisation of the economy. It was no more than electoral rhetoric. He was taken to task by the Mr. and Mrs. Kravis – financialisation is the system that enables them to operate the « leveraged buy-outs », which have made them what they are.

Faced with the Yellow Vest movement, President Macron will have to sacrifice his Prime Minister as an expiatory victim during the next elections (the European elections of May 2019, which will certainly be lost). But apart from the fact that he has to hang on for five more months, who is there to replace him? When you owe the financing of your electoral campaign and the choice of your Prime Minister to NATO, it is unthinkable to replace him without first referring to the Alliance. The ideal candidate for the job would therefore be Jean-Michel Blanquer.

Thierry Meyssan (http://www.voltairenet.org/auteur29.html?lang=en)

Translation Pete Kimberley (http://www.voltairenet.org/auteur125569.html?lang=en)

http://www.voltairenet.org/squelettes/elements/images/ligne-rouge.gif
http://www.voltairenet.org/rien.gif (http://www.voltairenet.org/spip.php?page=backend&id_secteur=1110&lang=en)
[1 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh1)] This meeting probably took place in 2007. Thereafter, Emmanuel Macron systematically visited the Kravis couple whenever he was in the USA, and Henry Kravis welcomed him in his offices on Avenue Montaigne when he visited Paris.
[2 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh2)] «Quand Emmanuel Macron découvrait l’Amérique à 29 ans (https://www.lejdd.fr/international/quand-emmanuel-macron-decouvrait-lamerique-3632477)», François Clemenceau, Le Journal du Dimanche, 22 avril 2018.
[3 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh3)] Jean-Pierre Jouyet is a personal friend of François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy. He directed the General Inspectorate of Finances from 2005 to 2007. He was then Emmanuel Macron’s hierarchical superior.
[4 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh4)] «Hollande Team (https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/22258)», e-mail by Jake Sullivan, May 10, 2012. Source : Wikileaks.
[5 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh5)] “What you don’t know about the Bilderberg-Group (http://www.voltairenet.org/article169651.html)”, by Thierry Meyssan, Komsomolskaïa Pravda (Russia) , Voltaire Network, 9 May 2011.
[6 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh6)] Les leçons du pouvoir, François Hollande, Stock, 2018.
[7 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh7)] “Billions of dollars’ worth of arms against Syria (http://www.voltairenet.org/article197144.html)”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 18 July 2017.
[8 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh8)] “Seize the transnational corporations to rebuild Syria? (http://www.voltairenet.org/article202418.html)”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 14 August 2018.
[9 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh9)] Jean-Pierre Jouyet remained friends with Henri de Castries at the end of their studies at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA, Promotion Voltaire). It was there that they met François Hollande.
[10 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh10)] Contrary to the official version, the information published by the Canard Enchaîné was not the fruit of a journalistic investigation. The entire dossier was handed in one delivery to the weekly newspaper by Jean-Pierre Jouyet, in violation of financial secrets.
[11 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh11)] The Organisation de Cooperation et de Développement Economiques (OCDE) is one of the two organisms born of the Marshall Plan. The other is NATO.
[12 (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204303.html#nh12)] “How the West eats its children (http://www.voltairenet.org/article204208.html)”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 4 December 2018.

BMJ

12th December 2018, 10:51

Thanks to the youtubes Amazing Polly for this find.

Interesting open letter to Macron from General Martinez.

Link: https://ripostelaique.com/marrakech-m-le-president-vous-ne-pouvez-decider-seul-de-nous-priver-de-notre-patrie.html

Translated:

Mr. President, you can only decide to deprive us of our homeland

Mr. President

You are about to sign the "Global Compact on safe, orderly and regular migration", which establishes a real right to migration, on 10 and 11 December. It will be able to impose itself on our national legislation by means of pre-existing treaties or the principle of common responsibility set out in this pact.

It seems to us that the only sovereignty left to France will be to set freely the way in which the objectives of the pact will have to be implemented. You cannot give up this new part of national sovereignty without a public debate, while 80% of the French population considers that immigration must be stopped or drastically regulated. By deciding alone to sign this pact, you would add a motive for further revolt to the wrath of a people already misleading. You would be guilty of a denial of democracy, or even betrayal of the nation.

Moreover, the finances of our country are bloodless and our debt is progressing. Therefore, you cannot take the risk of an expensive migratory air call without first demonstrating that you will not be forced to resort to more taxes to meet the objectives of the pact. On the other hand, you must be able, in a safe term, to curb the consequences of the arrival of non-European populations. Finally, you cannot ignore the fact that the essence of politics is to ensure security outside and concord inside. However, this concord can only be achieved on the condition of maintaining a certain internal coherence of society, the only one capable of wanting to do together what is becoming more and more problematic today.

Indeed, the French state realises a little late the inability to integrate too many populations, and also a totally different culture, which have been grouped together over the last forty years in areas which no longer submit to Laws of the Republic.

You can not decide alone to erase our civilizational landmarks and deprive us of our carnal homeland.

We therefore ask you to stay the signature of this pact and to call by referendum the French to decide on this document. You are an accountant before the French of your actions. Your election is not a blank seal.

We support the initiative of General MARTINEZ against the signing of this pact, which is to be adopted by the Member States of the United Nations at the Intergovernmental Conference in Marrakech.

General Antoine MARTINEZ

Charles Millan – former minister of Defence

General Marc BERTUCCHI

General Philippe Meager

General André COUSTOU

General Roland DUBOIS

General Daniel Goh

General Christian Houdet

General Michel ISSAVERDENS

Admiral Patrick MARTIN

General Christian PIQUEMAL

General Daniel SCHAEFFER

General Didier TAUZIN

Colonel Jean Louis Chanas

Flash

12th December 2018, 12:10

Oh la la, military take over to restaure democracy??? this would be a first for France. If true (which I am not sure of), this would be a first in the western world.

Thanks to the youtubes Amazing Polly for this find.

Interesting open letter to Macron from General Martinez.

Link: https://ripostelaique.com/marrakech-m-le-president-vous-ne-pouvez-decider-seul-de-nous-priver-de-notre-patrie.html

Translated:

Mr. President, you can only decide to deprive us of our homeland

Mr. President

You are about to sign the "Global Compact on safe, orderly and regular migration", which establishes a real right to migration, on 10 and 11 December. It will be able to impose itself on our national legislation by means of pre-existing treaties or the principle of common responsibility set out in this pact.

It seems to us that the only sovereignty left to France will be to set freely the way in which the objectives of the pact will have to be implemented. You cannot give up this new part of national sovereignty without a public debate, while 80% of the French population considers that immigration must be stopped or drastically regulated. By deciding alone to sign this pact, you would add a motive for further revolt to the wrath of a people already misleading. You would be guilty of a denial of democracy, or even betrayal of the nation.

Moreover, the finances of our country are bloodless and our debt is progressing. Therefore, you cannot take the risk of an expensive migratory air call without first demonstrating that you will not be forced to resort to more taxes to meet the objectives of the pact. On the other hand, you must be able, in a safe term, to curb the consequences of the arrival of non-European populations. Finally, you cannot ignore the fact that the essence of politics is to ensure security outside and concord inside. However, this concord can only be achieved on the condition of maintaining a certain internal coherence of society, the only one capable of wanting to do together what is becoming more and more problematic today.

Indeed, the French state realises a little late the inability to integrate too many populations, and also a totally different culture, which have been grouped together over the last forty years in areas which no longer submit to Laws of the Republic.

You can not decide alone to erase our civilizational landmarks and deprive us of our carnal homeland.

We therefore ask you to stay the signature of this pact and to call by referendum the French to decide on this document. You are an accountant before the French of your actions. Your election is not a blank seal.

We support the initiative of General MARTINEZ against the signing of this pact, which is to be adopted by the Member States of the United Nations at the Intergovernmental Conference in Marrakech.

General Antoine MARTINEZ

Charles Millan – former minister of Defence
General Marc BERTUCCHI

General Philippe Meager

General André COUSTOU

General Roland DUBOIS

General Daniel Goh

General Christian Houdet

General Michel ISSAVERDENS

Admiral Patrick MARTIN

General Christian PIQUEMAL

General Daniel SCHAEFFER

General Didier TAUZIN

Colonel Jean Louis Chanas

Hervé

12th December 2018, 12:42

Oh la la, military take over to restaure democracy??? this would be a first for France. If true (which I am not sure of), this would be a first in the western world.

[...]
Probably the reason why Macron couldn't call on the army to give a hand to the police forces... and why he had to completely go into reverse gear and backpedaled out of his masters' plans of the pauperization of France.

Hervé

13th December 2018, 15:24

Exposed: the Nazi roots of the European Union (https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2018/12/12/exposed-nazi-roots-of-the-european-union/)

by Jon Rappoport (https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/author/jonrappoport/) Dec 12 (https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2018/12/12/exposed-nazi-roots-of-the-european-union/), 2018

World War 2 continued by other means

This is an intelligence briefing. Here I present the bare bones of what has been happening before our eyes…if we would see it.

Once upon a time, there was an industrial combine in Nazi Germany called IG Farben. It was the largest chemical/pharmaceutical octopus in the world. It owned companies, and it had favorable business agreements with companies from England to Central America to Japan.

The author of The Devil’s Chemists (https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Chemists-Josiah-DuBois/dp/B000ENNDV6/), Josiah DuBois, traveled to Guatemala, on a fact-finding mission, in the early days of World War 2, and returned with the comment that, as far as he could tell, Guatemala was “a wholly owned subsidiary of Farben.”

The pharmaceutical empire was and is one of the major forces behind the European Union (EU). It is no accident that these drug corporations wield such power. They aren’t only involved in controlling the medical cartel; they are political planners.

This is how and why Big Pharma fits so closely with what is loosely referred to as the New World Order. The aim of enrolling every human in a cradle-to-grave system of disease diagnosis and toxic drug treatment has a larger purpose: to debilitate, to weaken populations.

This is a political goal. It facilitates control.

IG Farben’s main component companies, at the outbreak of World War 2, were Bayer, BASF, and Hoechst. They were chemical and drug companies. Farben put Hitler over the top in Germany as head of State, and the war was designed to lead to a united Europe that would be dominated by the Farben nexus.

The loss of the war didn’t derail that plan. It was shifted into an economic blueprint, which became, eventually, the European Union.

The European Commission’s first president was Walter Hallstein, the Nazi lawyer who, during the war, had been in charge of post-war legal planning for the new Europe.

As the Rath Foundation reports: In 1939, on the brink of the war, Hallstein had stated,
“The creation of the New Law [of the Nazis] is ONLY the task of the law-makers!”
In 1957, with his reputation sanitized, Hallstein spoke the words in this manner:
“The European Commission has full and unlimited power for all decisions related to the architecture of this European community.”
Post-war, IG Farben was broken up into separate companies, but those companies (Bayer, Hoechst, and BASF) came roaring back, attaining new profit highs.

I refer you to the explosive book, The Nazi Roots of the Brussels EU (http://www.reject-the-eu.co.uk/nazi-roots/chapter.html), by Paul Anthony Taylor, Aleksandra Niedzwiecki, Dr. Matthias Rath, and August Kowalczyk. You can also read it at relay-of-life.org (http://www.relay-of-life.org/en/2016/10/the-nazi-roots-of-the-brussels-eu/). It is a dagger in the heart of the EU.

At the Rath Foundation, you can also read Joseph Borkin’s classic, “The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben.” (http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/publication_library/histbooks.htm)

In 1992, I was deeply engaged in researching the specific devastating effects of medical drugs. Eventually, I concluded that, at the highest levels of power, these drugs weren’t destructive by accident. They were intended to cause harm. This was covert chemical warfare against the population of the planet. The Rockefeller-Standard Oil-Farben connection was a primary piece of the puzzle.

It was, of course, Rockefeller (and Carnegie) power that had forced the birth of pharmaceutical medicine in America, with the publication of the 1910 Flexner Report. The Report was used to excoriate and marginalize Chiropractic, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, and other forms of traditional natural practice, in favor of what would become the modern juggernaut of drug-based treatment.

In an article about the FDA, “Medical Murder in the Matrix,” (https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/murder-in-the-medical-matrix-the-fda/) I point out the fact that this federal agency has permitted at least 100,000 deaths of Americans, per year, from the direct effects of drugs it - the FDA - has certified as safe. (See, for example, JAMA, July 26, 2000, ‘Is US Health Really the Best in the World,’ (http://www.drug-education.info/documents/iatrogenic.pdf) Dr. Barbara Starfield.)

The FDA knows these death figures. “Unintended” and “accidental” can no longer be applied to this ongoing holocaust.

The pharmaceutical industry itself also knows those death figures.

To understand the dimensions and history of the ongoing chemical warfare against the population, in the form of medical drugs (and of course pesticides), one must factor in the original octopus, IG Farben.

World War 2 never ended. It simply shifted its strategies.

In any fascist system, the bulk of the people working inside the system, including scientists, refuse to believe the evidence of what is happening before their own eyes. They insist they are doing good. They believe they are on the right side. They see greater top-down control as necessary and correct. They adduce “reasonable” explanations for inflicted harm and death.

World War 2 is still underway. The battleground has been changed, and the means are far cleverer.

Sun Tzu wrote:
“Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting… The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities…It is best to win without fighting.”
This is what has been happening: invisible warfare.

Jon Rappoport

=============================================

So, who gives a sh!t about Macron or his successor (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?88469---a-Chauffe-&p=1263284&viewfull=1#post1263284) - Marion Maréchal-Le Pen (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?40941-Horus-Ra-as-the-Archontic-Alien-Parasite-A-follow-up-interview-with-Maarit&p=1263804&viewfull=1#post1263804) - when the real targets need to be these globalist mega corporations... which "purchase"/bribe their "authority" from top down and/or via other organizations like the IMF, BIS, WHO, etc...

Related:
For an idea on the "big" picture (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?25102-For-an-idea-on-the-big-picture)

Deux Corbeaux

13th December 2018, 16:41

On September 19, 1946, it was Sir Winston Churchill who delivered a famous speech in Zurich, calling for the creation of “a United States of Europe”, ....... as long as it didn’t include Britain.
What says this of him?

Hervé

13th December 2018, 16:58

When a leader says "NO!" to Europe:

Tale of two uprisings: Ukraine's Maidan got McCain and cookies while French Yellow Vests met with icy silence from Washington (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/446364-macron-france-yellow-vests/)

Robert Bridge
RT (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/446364-macron-france-yellow-vests/)
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 12:25 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501483/large/5c1122a2fc7e93b93a8b4634.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501483/full/5c1122a2fc7e93b93a8b4634.jpg)
© AFP / Boris Horvat

This glaringly hypocritical position with regards to the French protesters reveals a deeply flawed, cart-before-the-horse Western axiom that commands: ‘whatever works to the advantage of Western institutions and its political elite is automatically good for democracy.’

Unlike the 2014 Ukraine uprising, which witnessed invasive meddling on the part of US politicians and diplomats, Western support for the French Yellow Vest protests has been conspicuously missing in action.

With the streets of Paris ablaze for a fourth weekend in a row, as a swarm of Yellow Vests assert themselves against a French government which, they argue, has become increasingly detached from the cares of ordinary citizens, support among Western capitals for the protesters is nowhere to be found.

This is a bit odd since the 'gilets jaunes' are not just protesting Macron's (rescinded) plans for a fuel tax, but have released (http://micetimes.asia/yellow-vests-released-a-full-list-of-their-demands/) a list of 42 demands they want to see implemented. This includes an increase of the minimum wage, pensions and wages, as well as a halt to illegal immigration into the country. In other words, we are not talking about violent anarchists on the streets of France, but regular citizens. Thus far, the movement enjoys a high level of support among the French, with one poll showing (https://www.lci.fr/social/gilets-jaunes-sondage-72-des-francais-soutiennent-encore-le-mouvement-apres-les-violences-du-1er-decembre-2106334.html) 72 percent siding with the protesters.

The United States and its allies may have trouble explaining their tone-deafness in the face of these legitimate concerns on the part of millions of French citizens. At the very least, their icy silence will reveal a no small amount of double standards and outright hypocrisy since the West rarely misses an opportunity to interfere in the affairs of foreign states - mostly in the Middle East - when 'democracy' is purportedly on the line.

Consider Washington's starkly different attitude to Ukraine's 2014 Maidan revolution, which brought down the government of Viktor Yanukovich through the explicit support of the United States, as well as a number of influential NGOs operating (http://www.irf.ua/en/about/irf/) in the country. Yanukovich committed the unforgivable mistake of thinking he would be allowed to pursue an independent course for his country, despite the fact that since 1992, the US had spent (https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/mar/19/facebook-posts/united-states-spent-5-billion-ukraine-anti-governm/) over $5 billion propping up 'democracy-building programs' in Ukraine.

Did Kiev really think that Washington would not eventually expect something in return for all those dollars, like maybe deciding who would eventually rule the Eastern European country on Russia's border? And that is exactly what happened.

When Yanukovich signaled that he would not sign Ukraine up to an EU trade deal, he awoke a sleeping giant below his feet. Several weeks after the announcement, as his country was becoming increasingly divided over its options, the late US Senator John McCain appeared (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/15/john-mccain-ukraine-protests-support-just-cause) in central Kiev where he tossed dry wood on the smoldering fires by proclaiming at a rally on Independence Square, "Ukraine will make Europe better, and Europe will make Ukraine better...America is with you."

What could have motivated Washington to pursue such blatant interference in the affairs of Ukraine, while ignoring the French 'gilets jaunes' that are now fanning out across France, protesting the neo-Liberal policies of President Emmanuel Macron? Could the answer have anything to do with something as simple as money? That certainly seems to be a large part of the equation.

ut2-cSVyOy0

After all, steering Kiev away from Russia, Western officials understood, would pay off handsome dividends for Western lending institutions, like the International Monetary Fund, which had already lent (https://www.rt.com/business/ukraine-eu-deal-suspended-088/) Kiev billions of dollars to stay afloat. The West was fiercely opposed to the idea of Russia (https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/economic/182491.html) and China (https://www.rt.com/business/ukraine-yanukovych-china-trip-647/) becoming 'lenders of last resort', a financial and political function that the Western world covets more than any other, with the possible exception of military interventionism against sovereign states.

Fast forward one year after John McCain was agitating rallies in Kiev, and Victoria Nuland was handing out cookies to the protesters, and we find Ukraine, under the new leadership of the US-anointed President Petro Poroshenko, inking (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/12/imf-announces-175bn-loan-for-ukraine) a $17.5bn (£11.5bn) loan deal with the IMF, together with the painful austerity measures that always accompany the bags of cash.

Presently, there are no such financial incentives in France that would convince Western capitals to 'rally on behalf of democracy' as it had done without delay in Ukraine.

This glaringly hypocritical position with regards to the French protesters reveals a deeply flawed, cart-before-the-horse Western axiom that commands: 'whatever works to the advantage of Western institutions and its political elite is automatically good for democracy.' This does not exclude social upheaval and revolution. If violence in the streets translates into the empowerment of Western institutions, not least of all the global financial institutions, then such actions will be rewarded with Western support without a moment's thought.

Today, Emmanuel Macron, 40, the former Rothschild investment banker known as "president of the rich" by his countrymen, is facing the prospect of an early political demise, no less than Viktor Yanukovich faced in 2014.

Indeed, to say that Macron's popularity among the French is in the toilet would be putting the situation mildly.

As one local English-language French magazine summed (https://www.thelocal.fr/20181205/its-personal-yellow-vest-protesters-want-macron-on-his-knees) up his plight, Macron is:
"long-hated by the extreme-leftist groups because of his past as a banker... detested by the far-right because of his pro-European, globalist beliefs and now hated by many ordinary French people, who see him as arrogant, aloof and unsympathetic to their problems."
Yet, not a single Western politician to date has appeared in the French capital, rallying the protesters and demanding Macron step aside; nor has any top-ranking US diplomat been spotted handing out cookies to the French rabble as Victoria Nuland did (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2O4dAVr1Fw) in Kiev at the height of Ukrainian tensions.

Incidentally, with such stark images in mind, it seems preposterous that the US can actually accuse Russia of meddling in its political affairs, and without a shred of evidence to back the claims. But I digress.

The simple reason that no Western country has come out to condemn Macron is because he toes the line on neo-liberalism and extreme free-market economics that has ravaged the French middle class to breaking point. The fuel hike was just the proverbial straw that broke the voters' back.

It would be no exaggeration to say that all segments of French society have become caught up in the protests. Today we see hundreds of French schools, for example, shutting down as students take to the streets to protest Macron's unpopular education reform. Pensioners are also counted among the protesters after Macron lectured them to stop "whining" about spending cuts, at the very same time he was slashing taxes for the wealthy.

Clearly, there is nothing about Macron that Western leaders can find not to their liking. He is carrying out painful liberal reforms with gusto, and only under pain of usurpation does he backpedal (https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/world/europe/2018-12-11-french-government-defends-concessions-to-end-protest-crisis/) on his political program. Although the rudderless French president may fancy himself as a modern-age Napoleon, acting tough with his subjects to get what he wants, ultimately it will be the French street that decides his fate, which at the moment looks very bleak.

Such a brutal wake-up call may very well be in store for many more Western neo-liberal leaders, who fail to feel the pulse of their people when instituting their unpopular policies, in the weeks and months to come.

@Robert_Bridge (https://twitter.com/Robert_Bridge)

Related:
Yellow Vests Rise Against Neo-liberal King Macron (https://www.sott.net/article/402226-Yellow-Vests-Rise-Against-Neo-liberal-King-Macron)

Dear President Assad: Please arm French protestors to end Macron regime's brutal crackdown (https://www.sott.net/article/402078-Dear-President-Assad-Please-arm-French-protestors-to-end-Macron-regimes-brutal-crackdown)

Cycles of History: 2018 brings echoes of Europe's nationalist rebellions of 1848 (https://www.sott.net/article/375584-Cycles-of-History-2018-brings-echoes-of-Europes-nationalist-rebellions-of-1848)

Hervé

13th December 2018, 18:19

French farmers' union blasts Macron's empty promises: 'Minimum wage is nuts if you work 70 hours a week' (https://www.rt.com/news/446369-france-farmers-macron-protest/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/446369-france-farmers-macron-protest/)
Thu, 13 Dec 2018 16:05 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501495/large/protests_2.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501495/full/protests_2.jpg)
Protesters wearing yellow vests occupy a roundabout in Sainte-Eulalie near Bordeaux © Reuters/Regis Duvignau

The French President tried to quell Yellow Vest protests by vowing to increase the minimum wage and cut some taxes, but it means nothing to farmers working long hours and living on slim budgets, their union head told RT France.

President Emmanuel Macron sought to appease Yellow Vest demonstrators, offering them concessions after weeks of massive protests. A monthly minimum wage hike by €100 ($113) and tax decreases for the poor among them.

But Veronique le Floch, Secretary General of 'Coordination rurale' (Rural Coordination), a labor union of French farmers, told RT France Macron had only embraced wage earners but failed to deliver a similar promise to those employed in agriculture.

https://www.sott.net/video?file=https:/cdnv.rt.com/files/2018.12/5c1257dbfc7e933a668b4581.mp4
(click the "Play" button)

"We have nothing to do with minimal wage as we don't talk working overtime because it's all unclear when you work 70 hours a week," le Floch railed at Macron for neglecting "the plight of agriculture" and not considering the real income of people residing in rural areas.
"He forgot [to say] that every second farmer lives on less than 365 euros ($415) a month, that a farmer's pension is under the social benefits standards," the union head stated.
According to le Floch, farmers spend as much as half of their income on various taxes, including the tax on compulsory social insurance, the land tax and the income tax. "Even if you make no income, you still have to pay those taxes," she explained.

Macron's measures met an equally cold response from the French opposition and the general public.

The Yellow Vest rallies against the new taxes, which were expected to lead to fuel price hikes, snowballed into a nationwide protest campaign in a matter of weeks. Major clashes between police and protesters also took place, reaching levels of violence unseen in France for decades.

Franny

14th December 2018, 06:40

Joseph Ferrell returns with News and Views From the Nefarious and his focus is on France and Macron. He's laughing so much he's having a hard time talking about Macron with good reason. But not all is fun and giggles. Enjoy.

c1rcnbMM_oQ

Hervé

15th December 2018, 00:52

Eh, it's even warming up a bit North of the "Channel":

'Gilets Jaunes' movement spreading: Pro-Brexit protesters block London bridges, bring traffic to standstill (https://www.rt.com/uk/446452-yellow-vest-pro-brexit/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/uk/446452-yellow-vest-pro-brexit/)
Fri, 14 Dec 2018 17:11 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501630/large/7432354_6495965_image_a_1_1544.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501630/full/7432354_6495965_image_a_1_1544.jpg)
Pro-Leave demonstrators donning yellow vests took over Tower Bridge (pictured) today as they demanded Britain's exit from the EU © Twitter/p4rus

Pro-Brexit activists, wearing yellow vests similar to those worn in recent protests in France, have blocked London's Westminster Bridge, briefly bringing traffic to a standstill.

Passersby tweeted content from the bridge, showing several dozen protesters sitting in front of traffic, chanting: 'Brexit now' and singing 'Rule Britannia'. Several protesters were seen waving the Union Jack flag, while others were wearing clothing with pro-Donald Trump insignia.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police said they are aware of the protests, adding that no arrests have been made.

Mike Sutherland (https://twitter.com/vern_cotter)🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿‏ @vern_cotter (https://twitter.com/vern_cotter)

Pro-brexit protest at Westminster Bridge brings traffic to a standstill.

Video at: https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1073538402467938305

3:21 AM - 14 Dec 2018
243 replies 563 retweets 978 likes After being moved on, protesters walked down Whitehall, gathering outside Downing Street where one activist berated the police officers with a megaphone demanding a meeting with UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

The group 'Fighting for Justice' appear to be involved in the protest, their Facebook account posted a live stream of the protest. One of the group's founders is Tracy Blackwell, who's teenage son was one of three boys killed by a hit-and-run-driver in January this year.

Fight for Justice's social media pages promote solidarity with France's Yellow Vest protesters and comments from high profile UKIP figures such as ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson and leader Gerard Batten.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501634/large/7432358_6495965_image_a_2_1544.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501634/full/7432358_6495965_image_a_2_1544.jpg)

While blocking the iconic bridge, campaigners were seen angrily remonstrating with motorists and bystanders © The Daily Mail

The protesters wore hi-visibility yellow vests, similar to those worn by anti-austerity, anti-fuel tax protesters in France, who have been dubbed the Gilets Jaunes. While the protests began in France, they have since spread to Belgium and the Netherlands.

Over the last month hundreds of thousands of Gilets Jaunes protesters have brought France to a standstill in rallies that have often turned violent, demanding more progressive taxes, increased social funding and a halt to a proposed fuel tax. French President Emmanuel Macron announced a scrapping of the fuel tax, it is currently unclear whether his concession will dampen protests with many vowing to carry on.

Hervé

15th December 2018, 17:45

Macron: No army (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?88469---a-Chauffe-&p=1263756&viewfull=1#post1263756) nor police to protect him... time to go...

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/987759800166600704/V5T9_nTO_bigger.jpg Ian56‏ @Ian56789 (https://twitter.com/Ian56789)

French Police Union Calls on Police to Join Yellow Vests' Protests. If #Macron (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Macron?src=hash) loses the Police he is finished. https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812061070444941-french-police-union-calls-police-join-yellow-vests-protests/ … (https://t.co/el4UrxRJpP) #GiletsJaunes (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GiletsJaunes?src=hash) #ActeV (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ActeV?src=hash) #15Decembre (https://twitter.com/hashtag/15Decembre?src=hash) #ChampsElysées (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ChampsElys%C3%A9es?src=hash) #MacronDemission (https://twitter.com/hashtag/MacronDemission?src=hash) #MacronMustGo (https://twitter.com/hashtag/MacronMustGo?src=hash)

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201812061070444941-french-police-union-calls-police-join-yellow-vests-protests/

2:37 AM - 15 Dec 2018
26 replies 263 retweets 330 likes Related:

Macron fortified Élysée Palace ahead of 'Act IV' of Yellow Vest protests, had helicopter on standby to escape (https://www.sott.net/article/402962-Macron-fortified-Elysee-Palace-ahead-of-Act-IV-of-Yellow-Vest-protests-had-helicopter-on-standby-to-escape)

Hervé

15th December 2018, 22:19

Macron: No army (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?88469---a-Chauffe-&p=1263756&viewfull=1#post1263756) ...
[...]
They lied: The UN Migration Pact IS legally binding and could be valid FOR ALL countries (https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/they-lied-the-un-migration-pact-is-legally-binding-and-could-be-valid-for-all-countries/#.XBUfe5gi9UQ.twitter)

By Laura Cat (https://voiceofeurope.com/author/vofeurope6gmail-com/) voiceofeurope.com
15 December 2018

https://voiceofeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/shutterstock_601087088-702x459.jpg (https://voiceofeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/shutterstock_601087088-e1544886816664.jpg)
360b / shutterstock.com

They lied.

For months proponents of the UN Migration Pact told us that the pact was non-binding. The response to the many citizens of nation states worldwide having signed country specific petitions was that it was non-binding so there was nothing to worry about, it was going to be good.

The immensely opposed and disastrous document declares unlimited migration to be treated as a human right, thereby deprecating the term ‘illegal migrants’, and criminalises any criticism of migration as hate speech.

The points that raised alarm for most was that it seeks to eliminate all forms of dissent. Media organisations for example, should they criticise anything to do with migration would lose access to state funding. People would be labelled as racists or guilty of hate speech which will now be criminalised. This pact will literally erase our borders.

The question I’ve been asking is if the countries that refused to sign, are they still bound to it being members of the UN. Most people were of the mind that it would only affect the signatories.

Now we know. In a frank exchange with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, Mr. Hebner of the AfD drew out an admission that it is, in fact, legally binding. As well, that it will be adopted as rule for all UN Member states once enacted.

Mr. Hebner asks:

“You can see for yourself clearly that during the conference, the spokesperson for Morocco emphasised that the agreement was legally binding. He said clearly, in a literal sense, that there is a corresponding legal bond for all nations taking part as well as an obligation of implementation. You and your delegation did not raise a single word of objection to that statement but idly accepted it. I would like to emphasise that the parliamentary motion was not presented at the conference. “
Ms. Merkel’s response not only confirmed what we at Voice of Europe have been suspecting all along, the claim it is indeed binding, but that once voted and accepted it will be valid for all:
“So then, during the UN General Assembly next week, the pact will once again be up for debate and a decision will be made on whether to accept it. At this time, a member state can demand a vote. When two-thirds of the represented countries agree then it is valid for all. That’s how majority decision-making works.”

Hervé

16th December 2018, 15:55

Ben voilà; en bon français (English subtitles):

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1790281240/henry-makow_bigger.jpg Henry Makow‏ @HenryMakow (https://twitter.com/HenryMakow)

Popular revolt in France against Rothschilds is more widespread than is being reported-

7s8jseBqojc

7:23 AM - 16 Dec 2018
0 replies 8 retweets 7 likes
... under orders not to intervene against the violent rioters... they are all known and on files...

'island' = Iceland

Caliban

16th December 2018, 16:15

That last video is so right on Herve. That guy is basically telling the whole truth of the movement -- and of the movements we should all be having in our own countries.

Remember when Ron Paul used to talk about the Fed Reserve? And what happened to him? He's selling gold nuggets now on the internet. And I don't hear his progeny talking about it. Because they know. They all know. This Chartres citizen cut right to the quick of it. Lack of control of the nation's money. Bingo.

Deux Corbeaux

16th December 2018, 20:33

This is what the EU just cannot allow. People thinking for themselves. Imagine, ..... thinking for themselves !

FRANCE HAS A MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2byaAQQjDpY

Valerie Villars

16th December 2018, 21:06

Hervé

16th December 2018, 23:29

Yellow Vest anti-government protest movement launched in Ireland - Calls for 'revolution' (https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/yellow-vest-demo-in-dublin-shows-solidarity-for-french-protestors-892311.html)

Irish Examiner (https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/yellow-vest-demo-in-dublin-shows-solidarity-for-french-protestors-892311.html)
Sat, 15 Dec 2018 22:27 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501958/large/0_Dublin_protest.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/501958/full/0_Dublin_protest.jpg)

Several hundred people have attended a protest in the centre of Dublin in solidarity with the French yellow vest demonstrations.

The protesters in Dublin wore yellow vests and some had hard hats, while others tied scarves over their faces. The chanting was mainly anti-Government in nature.

Those who gathered outside the Custom House overlooking the River Liffey before marching to Leinster House included pro-Palestinian organisations and socialist republicans.

Video at: https://www.facebook.com/tigerrebornireland/videos/2417708284923771/

https://www.facebook.com/tigerrebornireland/videos/970409356501484/

Others involved in the gathering said they were concerned about the use of fluoride in the public water supply.

The "yellow vest" movement in France, which takes its name from the fluorescent safety vests French motorists must carry in their vehicles, emerged in mid-November as a protest against fuel tax increases.

It soon expanded into an expression of rage about the high cost of living in France and President Emmanuel Macron's policies.

Related:
Watch what happens when Irish bank hires British security thugs to evict people from their homes (http://theliberal.ie/alleged-uvf-linked-security-firm-badly-beaten-by-irish-patriots-at-kbc-roscommon-eviction/)

Valerie Villars

17th December 2018, 00:55

I wonder how much the contractors who manufactured the yellow vests, required by law, made? Usury, usury, usury.

Zanshin

17th December 2018, 02:44

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932011_Icelandic_financial_crisis

Above is link on what happened in Iceland in 2008, referenced in the above video posted by Herve. I remembered hearing something about it at the time. However I was too busy trying to save my own ass during that period to pay much attention.

I worked in finance and mortgages as a loan originator and the 2008 crisis spawned the beginning of the end for me. I was never able to properly recover from the subprime mortgage robbery. Due to the crooks, it became almost impossible for anyone at the time to get a loan, which meant I wasn't making any money.

For the record, I never originated a subprime loan in my life. I only did Fannie and Freddie loans; lots of FHA, VA and Rural Development loans.

Yep they kicked the IMF out of the country after their failure to demonstrate loaning Iceland anything other than money of account book-keeping entries.

They jailed all the corrupt bankers, business execs and politicians.

Then they used the internet to canvass the entire populace (those who chose to participate) for nominations of those who merited running the country -
selecting the 20(I think) highest polling and willing to accept the duty.

Talk about radical!

As an aside I'm fairly certain Iceland was one of the countries Winston Shrout and co. sent paperwork to explaining the true nature of the private side of banking and the creation of money of account.

I know they sent paperwork to Ireland and I'm pretty sure they told the IMF to take a hike too.

The problem with seeing what's going on the private side is that by definition it is not public knowledge.

As to Deux Corbeaux's post above this man is talking of Citizen Initiated Referendums.

An essential concept - imagine if all those protesters sat down and penned a letter to the parties concerned.

People have lost the knowledge of the ability to contract.

Under commercial law protest is dishonourable and gives the authorities the excuse
needed to ramp up the violence.

Don't get me wrong - I can see that passions are high but that never justifies dishonour.

Flash

17th December 2018, 04:08

I wonder how much the contractors who manufactured the yellow vests, required by law, made? Usury, usury, usury.

They all have yellow vest in their car, no usury there, mostly not for demonstrations. Those are cheap vests.

Valerie Villars

17th December 2018, 12:49

Hervé

17th December 2018, 13:20

Thanks Flash. I meant this.

Make a law.
Require people buy something (yellow vest).
Award contract to a crony to manufacture the vests.
Someone makes a profit off cheap yellow vests.

We get had over and over and over.
Indeed, that's the way it goes with European laws/legislations: implement new regulations and standards everyone has to comply with like in construction, building codes, electrical norms, etc... cronies hired/contracted; competition given the flying finger... and about everything has to be re-done to comply with the new norms, codes, laws, etc...

Pam

17th December 2018, 13:36

I wonder how much the contractors who manufactured the yellow vests, required by law, made? Usury, usury, usury.

I'd be willing to bet a yellow vest, that the company is pretty cozy with the French government.

BMJ

17th December 2018, 14:14

This is what the EU just cannot allow. People thinking for themselves. Imagine, ..... thinking for themselves !

FRANCE HAS A MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2byaAQQjDpY

Empowerment is a beautiful thing.

The yellow vest movement is the vaccine to this virus which is globalism (tptw). :sun:

Hervé

17th December 2018, 16:44

How "Fake News" get to go around:

'Macron... WHAT?' French TV channel France3 caught censoring photo of Yellow Vest protester's placard (https://www.rt.com/news/446613-france3-macron-yellow-vests/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/446613-france3-macron-yellow-vests/)
Sun, 16 Dec 2018 21:49 UTC

http://thepythoniccow.us/Macron_Out_a.jpg
Part of original photo (L) and screenshot of doctored image broadcast by France3 (R) © AFP / Geoffroy Van der Hasselt (L) / france.tv (R)

TV channel France3 has "fixed" a placard held by a Yellow Vest protester, which urged President Emmanuel Macron to resign. The broadcaster explained that the sign was broadcast reading just Macron, due to a "human error."

The unfortunate blunder occurred on Saturday during an evening news program that was covering the ongoing Yellow Vest protests.

Among videos and images of the protests, France3 featured a photo supplied by Agence France Presse (AFP). It shows a couple of mounted police officers watching the crowds outside the Opera b uilding in Paris on Saturday. One of the Yellow Vests holds high a placard, reading "Macron out." Here's this photo.

http://thepythoniccow.us/Macron_Out_b.jpg
© AFP / Geoffroy Van der Hasselt

Everything was the same in the France3 broadcast, except for a 'tiny' detail - the "out" part of the slogan had mysteriously vanished from the image.

http://thepythoniccow.us/Macron_Out_c.jpg
© Screenshot. france.tv

The photo-doctoring did not escape sharp-eyed watchers, who promptly accused the broadcaster of "censorship." The replay of the program is publicly available online, and France3 acknowledged the blunder, blaming (https://www.france.tv/france-3/19-20-journal-national/824061-19-20-journal-national.html) it on a "mistake."

"There was no intent to hide the sign last night. It's a human mistake," the broadcaster tweeted, supplying the unmodified image. "We have identified the source. It will not happen again."

It remains unclear how, exactly, one can doctor a picture in such fashion by "mistake." Aside from the uproar and accusations of Orwellian-grade censorship, the blunder triggered a wave of jokes.

Some users "fixed" the picture for France3, doctoring it harder. Here's an example - the placard now reads "Long Live Macron!"

Others mused over who might have been responsible for such an unfortunate "mistake." Some jokingly suggested that Alexandre Benalla, the embattled former security aide to Macron, might have had his hand in it.

Benalla has been involved in several high-profile scandals. Namely, he was caught on tape getting up-close and personal with protesters earlier this year. Macron's aide was "helping" police to beat them ... while sporting borrowed police gear himself.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Duil723WoAAFZai.jpg

Frenchy

17th December 2018, 18:46

TheTruthSeeker.co.uk - Macron considers using Chemical Weapon against Paris Protestors... 2018 December 17 (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=180661)

onawah

17th December 2018, 18:49

I couldn't get that link to work.
TheTruthSeeker.co.uk - Macron considers using Chem ical Weapon against Paris Protestors... 2018 December 17

Frenchy

17th December 2018, 18:52

I don't have a working Video pc, at the moment, so cannot watch, but would like to say, Long-Live-the-Internet !

And, although my worry is always the 'plug-being-pulled' it seems to me that the people in these protests have founded a network, which cannot be upsurped...

I really regret being absent :-((

Frenchy

17th December 2018, 19:05

ThePythonicCow

17th December 2018, 19:09

I couldn't get that link to work.
TheTruthSeeker.co.uk - Macron considers using Chem ical Weapon against Paris Protestors... 2018 December 17 (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=180661)
I fixed the link :)

Frenchy

17th December 2018, 19:22

I wonder how much the contractors who manufactured the yellow vests, required by law, made? Usury, usury, usury.

Thanks Flash. I meant this.

Make a law.
Require people buy something (yellow vest).
Award contract to a crony to manufacture the vests.
Someone makes a profit off cheap yellow vests.

We get had over and over and over.

I couldn't get that link to work.
TheTruthSeeker.co.uk - Macron considers using Chem ical Weapon against Paris Protestors... 2018 December 17

Sorry Messieur ! here's the raw link..

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=180661
( I might have messed up the format,. velly sorry... ) :bowing:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
France ponders using ‘last resort’ chemical weapon that can be smothered around Paris to keep Yellow Vest rioters away from key buildings as anti-Macron protests continue

· French security forces could smother centre of Paris with debilitating powder
· Chemical can be spread across area of size of six football pitches in ten seconds
· Police desperate after five weekends of ‘Yellow Vest’ rioting around France

Peter Allen – Daily Mail Dec 17, 2018
{ on http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=180661 }

French security forces are ready to smother the centre of Paris with a ‘last resort’ chemical weapon in a bid to keep protesters away from key buildings, it has emerged.

Astonishing revelations about the debilitating powder – which can be spread across an area the size of six football pitches in just ten seconds – highlights the increasing desperation of President Emmanuel Macron’s administration as it faces up to a law and order crisis.

The country has been hit by five straight weeks of violence sparked by the Yellow Vests protest movement that has seen national monuments including the Arc de Triomphe ransacked.

There were 168 arrests in Paris on Saturday alone as the demonstrators – who are named after their high visibility jackets – fought running battles with police, who responded with water cannon, baton charges and tear gas.

Now senior officers have confirmed that some of the 14 armoured cars deployed by gendarmes contained ‘a radical device that was only to be used as a last resort’ against their own citizens.

A gun-like distributor on the vehicles’ turrets can spray the powder over 430,500 sq. ft. in ten seconds, Marianne magazine reports.

The high-density noxious product contains the same power as 200 tear gas grenades, and is designed to knock people out indiscriminately in an emergency.

A source at the Paris police prefecture said: ‘If a large crowd forced barriers through the security perimeter, then the powder would be used as a last resort in order to stop them.’

But it is sure to raise concerned questions among civic rights groups, as well as monitoring organisations, including the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, of which France is a member.

Colonel Richard Carminache, of the Gendarmerie, confirmed that the controversial devices had ‘never been used in cities to my knowledge.’

Each distribution would result in ‘a highly concentrated teargas cloud, the equivalent of 200 grenades in one go,’ said Col. Carminache, who added: ‘It’s best to run to get out’.

Teargas is classed as a chemical weapon, and is actually banned from warzones, in line with international agreements.

Yet French gendarmes and police – who have been criticised during the latest law and order crisis for acts of extreme violence against civilians – use it constantly.

In Britain, teargas use is heavily restricted, and never used indiscriminately against large crowds containing men, women and children, as happens in France.

https://www.spreaker.com/user/markwindows/yellow-vests-v-useful-idiots (https://www.spreaker.com/user/markwindows/yellow-vests-v-useful-idiots)

I have NOT watched this, currently Video Player does not work... { In any case,, listening to Mark Windows, I find annoying ! }

Closing, I add again, I think it's only a matter of time, before the 'Forces of Law', start using A.D.S., whether on individual groups of Protestors, or 'En Masse '...

Hervé

18th December 2018, 22:16

BREAKING: “The people’s win” Belgian Prime Minister resigns over UN Migration Pact (https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/breaking-the-peoples-win-belgian-prime-minister-resigns-over-un-migration-pact/)

By Laura Cat (https://voiceofeurope.com/author/vofeurope6gmail-com/) 18 December 2018

https://voiceofeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/shutterstock_1205551408-702x459.jpg (https://voiceofeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/shutterstock_1205551408-e1545165997737.jpg)
Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has said he will resign (https://www.hln.be/nieuws/binnenland/live-koning-houdt-ontslag-regering-michel-ii-in-beraad~a4f8dc49/) after facing a no confidence motion in his government. The decision can be seen as another result of the migrant crisis and especially the UN Migration Pact (https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/belgian-government-breaks-as-treacherous-prime-minister-announces-to-sign-un-migration-pact/).

The member states of the European Union have taken in the bulk of migrants since the 2015 ‘crisis’. The influx of millions of ‘refugees’, mostly seen as economic migrants, has changed the make up of EU member states’.

Migrant criminality rising in countries where the number of migrants has also risen has given way to votes such as Brexit and the rise of populist politicians.

The career ending UN Migration Compact has seen millions across the globe signing their names to petition after petition in at least half the member states demanding their governments not sign it.

In Belgium we saw protests (https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/march-against-marrakesh-in-belgium-on-the-weekend-finds-90-people-detained/), including by the N-VA (https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/could-the-belgian-government-fall-over-dissent-on-the-un-migration-pact/), Belgium’s largest party and part of the Prime Minister’s coalition, against the signing of the Migration pact.

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1074263785714737152/pu/img/sctopeb5AvipMGxz?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/Ruptly/status/1074264080909783040)
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1055356158653927424/V_TX2Vha_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/Ruptly) Ruptly ✔ @Ruptly
(https://twitter.com/Ruptly)
Protest against migration pact adoption takes place in #Brussels (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Brussels?src=hash)
The party announced it would leave the coalition if the Prime Minister would go to Morocco to sign the pact.

Prime Minister Charles Michel did not change his plans and was forced to replace several N-VA minister in his government, which would now continue as a minority government.

The motion of confidence had been put forward by the socialists and greens over his stubborn stance. Today he has announced to parliament,

“I have decided to resign and will immediately go to see the king”.

Hervé

20th December 2018, 17:25

French Generals Face Disciplinary Action After Accusing Macron of “Treason” For Signing UN Migration Pact (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=180804)

By Paul Joseph Watson (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?author=119) on December 20, 2018
Paul Joseph Watson – Dec 19, 2018

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Macron-1024x576.jpg (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Macron.jpg)

French generals who signed an open letter accusing President Macron of “treason” for committing France to the UN migration pact are facing disciplinary action.

As we reported (https://www.infowars.com/french-generals-accuse-macron-of-treason-over-un-migration-pact/) last week, a letter written by General Antoine Martinez and signed by ten other generals, an admiral and a colonel, as well as former French Minister of Defense Charles Millon, warned Macron that the signing of the pact strips France of more sovereignty and provides an additional reason for “an already battered people” to “revolt”.

The letter accuses Macron of being “guilty of a denial of democracy or treason against the nation” for signing the pact without putting it to the people.

According to a report by French news outlet l’Opinion (https://www.lopinion.fr/blog/secret-defense/pacte-marrakech-propos-generaux-sont-inadmissibles-indignes-actualise-172276), the cabinet of the Minister of Armed Forces responded to the letter by calling the content “inadmissible and unworthy”.

Asserting that military personnel are tasked with “setting an example,” the cabinet said that the signatories to the letter had abandoned their responsibilities and statutory obligations “and thus expose themselves to disciplinary sanctions,” which will occur within days.

One of the generals who signed the letter, Marc Bertucchi, has since distanced himself from the text, commenting, “It is out of the question for me to accuse our president of “treason” because he is going to sign a document which, after careful reading, obviously does not undermine the principles that are the honor of France and for which I have engaged for more than forty years.”

It is unclear what action will be taken against the generals, all of whom but one are still on reserve duty.

The UN migration pact is legally non-binding but some have asserted that courts in European countries will be obliged to take its mandates into consideration during rulings. The pact states that migration is a human right. Some MEPs have claimed that it also turns criticism of mass immigration into a form of hate speech.

France has been rocked by weeks of protests by ‘yellow vest’ demonstrators. Although the protests began as a response to fuel tax hikes, mass immigration has been repeatedly cited by yellow vest members as one of their major grievances.

LCwWpENkIwA

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/PaulJosephWatson/

FOLLOW Paul Joseph Watson @ https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet

*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor at large of Infowars.com (http://infowars.com) and Prison Planet.com (http://prisonplanet.com).
Source (http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/december2018/191218_french_generals.htm)

Hervé

20th December 2018, 18:19

French police announce strike action over poor working conditions (http://en.rfi.fr/france/20181218-French-police-strike-poor-work-conditions-during-yellow-vest-protests)

By Christina Okello (http://en.rfi.fr/auteur/christina-okello/)
Issued on 19-12-2018
Modified 20-12-2018 to 11:41

http://scd.en.rfi.fr/sites/english.filesrfi/imagecache/rfi_16x9_1024_578/sites/images.rfi.fr/files/aef_image/000_1a01b6_0.jpg
French Police unions threaten rolling strike action from Wednesday 19 December 2018 THIERRY ZOCCOLAN / AFP

After more than a month monitoring Yellow Vest protests, French police officers who were already feeling overworked, say they have had enough. The third largest union UNSA-Police has urged its officers to stay at home on Wednesday, except in the case of an emergency.

"Roundabouts don't just belong to the Yellow Vests," the union said in a press release, in reference to the traffic chaos (https://www.thelocal.fr/20181116/how-the-yellow-vests-are-planning-to-disrupt-france-on-saturday) caused by the 'gilets jaunes' who have blocked roads in anger over rising fuel prices and taxes.

Police unions are hoping to mirror the Yellow Vest movement, despite the latter losing momentum on the fifth straight weekend of demonstrations.

"The Yellow Vest movement is about purchasing power," says Alexandre Langlois, the secretary general of the independent police union VIGI. "It would be a shame not to take up the issue, which concerns us all," he told RFI.

Tuesday's action is a prelude to three other demonstrations:

Wednesday, police stations are to remain shut
Thursday evening, a demonstration is planned outside the central police station in Paris' 8th district by a movement called the "blue vests"
Saturday, Act 1 of police demonstrations

Why are police officers angry?
Like with the Yellow Vests, they are unhappy with their purchasing power and working conditions.

The main police union Alliance has called for police stations to remain shut on Wednesday denouncing spending cuts of 62 million euros to the security forces in the 2019 budget.

Police officers are demanding compensation for hours of unpaid overtime.

"Currently we have 25 million hours of overtime that has still not been paid," explains VIGI's Langlois.
"The record at the moment is a colleague that has worked 15,000 hours of overtime, that means he's been working ten years for free."
On Tuesday, French authorities announced there would be a bonus of 300 euros for security forces deployed during the Yellow Vest protests in recognition of their "outstanding contribution."

Langlois doubts that this will make a difference. "Our daily life will not change, because we can't live on promises," he said, arguing that there needs to be changes to police officers' working patterns.

Suicide on the rise
"One day, you can be off on a Wednesday and then the following week it's a Thursday. It makes it difficult to plan ahead, you don't have a life," comments Langlois.

He blames this imbalance on spending cuts, which he says have had a psychological impact on police officers.

"There have been nine cases of suicide since the new interior minister [Christophe Castaner] started his job two months ago," says Langlois.

In October, his union launched an awareness campaign to alert authorities about the high suicide (https://www.dw.com/en/why-french-police-officers-keep-committing-suicide/a-46771680) rate among officers.

"Every week, a colleague commits suicide," comments Langlois. "The government prefers to let us die than to address our working conditions."

Paying outstanding debt
The government met with representatives of France's three main police unions Tuesday night to respond to their concerns.

"The state currently owes 275 million euros to police officers in overtime (...) we cannot allow a debt of this amount to remain," Christophe Castaner, the French interior minister told France Info radio.

He declined to mention when this debt would be cleared.
"I cannot click my fingers and make 275 million euros miraculously appear (...) It will take some time, or even weeks, to find such an amount," he said.

Valerie Villars

20th December 2018, 18:44

I have so much respect for this movement. Once you stop doing their bidding, TPTB are screwed. It's a very simple concept.

Hervé

21st December 2018, 02:17

It seems that some crystal balls and their readers are not all equal:

Yellow Vests - Spontaneous Revolt or Color Revolution? (https://www.henrymakow.com/2018/12/yellow-vests-spontaneous-rev.html)

by Jean L
(henrymakow.com)
December 21, 2018

https://www.henrymakow.com/upload_images/H-ec.png

(The Hermit card from the 2017 Economist Cover. Yellow vests say no to EU and TTIP fuel tax.)

The Yellow Vest revolt may be genuine but French citizen Jean L raises some red flags. Did the bankers initiate it as false opposition but did it get out of hand?

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

by Jean L

Last week my grandson informed me of two curious facts about the current movement of the Yellow Jackets.

1) giletsjaunes.com (http://giletsjaunes.com/) was already registered May 15, 2017 in United States (just after election of Macron and the day after its installation) and the last update is 2018-12.

All the informations about that name domain are secured with dropcatch.com (http://dropcatch.com/) and the transfer of the name domain is blocked and the addresses of the depositor and of the technical administrative contacts are at the same address (2635 Walnut Street - Denver/Colorado) which corresponds to Registar HugeDomaines.com.

Questions: Why Denver and not Paris for a French Movement? And why such precautions to hide it?
Domain Name: GILETSJAUNES.COM (http://giletsjaunes.com/)
Registry Domain ID: 2124542527_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namebright.com (http://whois.namebright.com/)
Registrar URL: http://www.DropCatch1428.com (http://www.dropcatch1428.com/)
Updated Date: 2018-11-24T09:07:29Z
Creation Date: 2017-05-15T18:13:42Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2020-05-15T18:13:42Z
Registrar: DropCatch.com 1428 LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 3637
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Name Server: BRIANNA.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM (http://brianna.ns.cloudflare.com/)
Name Server: PETE.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM (http://pete.ns.cloudflare.com/)
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/
>>> Last update of whois database: 2018-12-14T17:50:55Z <<<

2) Pay attention on the cover predictions of 'The Economist' (2017). On the 'The Hermit' card above, we can see clearly a political demonstration with a crowd of small yellow dressed men/women.

Their demands (STOP and NO flags) are clearly against Europe (EU flag) and the TTIP (Transatlantic Treaty) and the TIPP (Taxes of the Oil Products).

https://www.henrymakow.com/upload_images/GJ2.png
On the detailed card "Death' we can also identify the threats: Death, The rebellious Gallic follow one another like the sheep.

3) The movement started immediately following Jacline Mouraud (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/08/jacline-mouraud-founder-yellow-vest-movement-denounces-extremists/)'s Facebook denunciation of the increase in the diesel tax.

Question: How did her You Tube account which had about 200 contacts... rocket up to 5 millions views in only 24 hours (which is technically impossible)?

Several facts show that she is a 'useful idiot' who actually works for Macron.
Just after his election, MACRON came in Rennes/Bretagne for a visit to thank his electors and she was chosen to organize the reunion with the journalists. Do you think really that Macron's staff would assign such a task to a perfect unknown without a background in politics?

She also appealed to Yellow Vesters to accept Macron's compromises.

https://www.henrymakow.com/upload_images/156_tK4nu_quand-va-se-terminer-la-traque-aux-conducteurs-jacline-explique-son-coup-de-gueule-devenu-viral-sur-facebook_x240-dGL.jpg

Then when the movement started, she was immediately a privileged guest of the mainstream medias like BFM-TV (24/24 Fake News) RMC or RTL when the particularity of the movement is that there is no leader.

And, after the TV allocution of MACRON, she was again invited by RTL and she said: It's time to open discussions with the government.

L'allocution de Macron sur les gilets jaunes a mis le feu aux pages ... (https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2018/12/10/lallocution-de-macron-sur-les-gilets-jaunes-a-mis-le-feu-aux-pages-facebook-du-mouvement_a_23614635/)

She has been rejected by the movement which has perfectly understood what was her part in the starting of the insurrection (to initiate the revolt against the oil tax... as represented in the Hermit Card) PROBLEM.

The only question: Was she in the secret since the beginning or not? I think she has been manipulated... Like the jihadist in the attempt of STRASBOURG.

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

https://www.henrymakow.com/upload_images/220px-Jacques_Attali.jpg

4. Jacques ATTALI, the french oracle and puppet of the bankster elite prophesied a civil war before 2022.

SOROS and his 'Open Society' is clearly behind the curtains with the 'Foulards Rouges' and the incidents around the Arc de Triomphe.

This interview with a CRS whistleblower (https://youtu.be/r60EbwsaysI) is very instructive and confirms his implicit implication concerning the violent comportment of the police.

On November 26, a movement "Foulards Rouges' is created by a Jason HERBERT, a journalist and syndicalist [CFDT/left wing and CGT/communist] in the department of Vaucluse (south France) against the Yellow Jackets and immediately its Facebook page is widely commented by all the mainstream medias...

THE "FOULARDS ROUGES" WERE THE NEW 'GEORGE SOROS PRODUCTION' (THE RED REVOLUTION): THE FINANCED CONTROLLED OPPOSITION. They are a perfect example of the controlled opposition financed by Soros' Open Society.

But rapidly that movement has disappeared after the violent incidents on the Arc de Triomphe and the success of the Yellow Jackets.

Do you you think the 'red colour' was a coincidence?

In PARIS, for the first time in 38 editions - at the stupefaction of all the Parisians included me -the illumination of the Champs-Elysées were "in red" for the Christmas Illuminations... and who was the 'godfather' and 'sponsor' of the manifestation?

https://www.henrymakow.com/upload_images/Karl-Lagerfeld-Self-Portrait-Courtesy.jpg

It was Karl LAGERFELD whose links with George Soros are well known as well as the links of his family with the Nazis during WWII. Recently he criticized Merkel (https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/nov/13/karl-lagerfeld-sparks-outrage-over-migrant-holocaust-comments)for importing Muslims, who were the "worst enemies of Jews."

5) The STRASBOURG terror attack (https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/12/16/strasbourg-ff/)is clearly a false flag like the last ones (Bataclan, Nice, etc...) to undermine the movement thanks to the classic 'Problem-Reaction-Solution.' The scenario is always the same: you take a useful idiot of jihadist who is under control, you manipulate him and then you kill him to prevent any unpleasant revelations.

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

Related:
- Poll- 70% of French Support Yellow Vests (https://elabe.fr/gilets-jaunes-19decembre/), Want Referendums on List of Demands

- Atali Foretold Mass Migration in 2006 (https://www.henrymakow.com/attali.html)

Note- Putin's Comments on YV:

At his big annual press conference, Putin said that rising fuel prices had served to trigger the demonstrations Yellow Jackets and the general discontent vis-à-vis the situation was thus emerged. However, he stressed
"I think the events in France are of course related to the increase in fuel prices, diesel, but they have served as a trigger which was followed by a general dissatisfaction of a substantial part of society, mainly the native French, "said Vladimir Putin.

"It is necessary to ensure the right people meet. However, such events must adhere to the law. The events in France are linked to rising fuel prices, more than 70% of people support the demonstrations," noted the head of the Russian state.
He continued:
"It is absolutely inappropriate to evaluate the actions of the French authorities, in my opinion."

BMJ

21st December 2018, 15:53

The reason I am posting the article below is because firstly it is good news in part and progress of sort.

Secondly reading between the lines it indicates to me that the Macron government is sacred of the yellow vest movement, and that Macron government is well aware that the power of France lies with the people of France and not the government.

I hope the military, police and yellow vests unite and force Macron's resignation with elections to follow shortly thereafter.

French National Assembly approves ‘yellow vest’ tax cuts

Quote:
"Paris (AFP) – The French National Assembly on Friday approved a package of emergency concessions first announced by President Emmanuel Macron in a bid to end the violent “yellow vest” protests.......

The measures provide a “quick, strong and concrete response” to the crisis, said the labour minister Muriel Penicaud in a debate which lasted into the early hours of Friday morning.

The measures include the removal of a planned tax increase for a majority of pensioners and tax-free overtime pay for all workers.

Economists estimate the cuts will cost up to 15 billion euros ($17 billion).

The concessions will now move to the Senate for approval."

Link: https://www.breitbart.com/news/french-national-assembly-approves-yellow-vest-tax-cuts/

Frenchy

22nd December 2018, 11:56

Herve, The link to GiletsJaunes.com does work, but brings up an empty 'White page', never seen this happen before, either a 404 or ' can't connect ' ?

But Saturday 12:30 tried Henry's site, same thing.. Leads me to wonder if, after
' lighting the fuse ', they're now burying the evidence ?

Certainly is Damning evidence of starting an ' European Winter ' ? ?

btw, I expect all here will be aware of the bbc's ' https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction ', which is a 'not-so-covert ', Propaganga arm or the bbc.. ?

Dropping these in here, Herve, not to 'clog-up' ca chauffe, but to provide links to help understanding that bbc coverage f the Protests, like F3 france 3 & France 24, is totally misleading...
But if you prefer to move this elsewhere, that's OK too...

1. https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/bbc-media-action-subversion-broadcasting-house-kazakhstan

2. http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2016/834-bbc-propaganda-watch-tell-tale-signs-that-slip-through-the-cracks.html

3. http://www.enterthefray.org/topic/48341-is-it-just-me-or-is-the-bbc-becoming-pure-propaganda/

Perhaps, following Henry Makow's aarticle, and your posting it here, someone here { Visitor, or Avalonian, might find a further expose leading back to Open Society ?

The Gilets Jaunes movement is however, Grass-Roots, and if they align with https://conseilnationaldetransition.org/ , then real progress would be made...
{ As we trust will happen across the Pond, with ' Q ', and the White Hats... }

BMJ

23rd December 2018, 14:29

As a counter to Macron's public address in an attempt to appease the yellow vests, below is a video of Marine Le Pen and her thoughts on the issues fueling the protests, Macron's measures and her solutions.

Marine Le Pen talks about Yellow Vests protests + Emmanuel Macron, Gilets Jaunes, English subtitles

5jIB97hePDw

Cassius
Published on Dec 19, 2018

Some background to this.
Last Monday (10th December) President Macron gave a televised address in which he announced some reforms intended to placate the yellow vest protests.
This was a big event in France - 23 million people watched it (more than watched the world cup final).
This video is Marine Le Pen's response to Macron's speech (this wasn't televised, it was posted on her Facebook page the following day (https://www.facebook.com/MarineLePen/videos/371214356788052/).
CSG = a social charge payable by everybody
SMIC = minimum wage
GAFA = four internet giants = Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon
CICE = tax credit to help companies hire people and be competitive
"Reculer pour mieux sauter" is a saying in French = taking a step back in order to help you jump forward = taking a step back in order to take two steps forward.
"Unfair competition" is a phrase Le Pen uses a lot, it means for example French farmers having to compete with foreign agriculture, where wages are lower and there are less environmental standards etc.
"UMP-PS system" UMP and PS are the two mainstream parties that have dominated France for decades. UMP are centre right (now called Les Républicains), PS are centre-left.
La République En Marche = Macron's party
Le Pen is saying here that Macron is not an outsider, his government is made up of establishment figures from the UMP/LR and PS.

Bluegreen

23rd December 2018, 16:03

Paris, France

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xTERyxwAalY/XAy1JmvhDMI/AAAAAAAApVg/0-FguOBXeLQzBIoQ8Cg-Gsl59Emrk-5DACLcBGAs/s400/France%2Briots.jpg

Frenchy

29th December 2018, 13:02

French cop caught with bag of military-grade explosives amid Christmas hustle at Paris train station
Published time: 28 Dec, 2018 23:41 Edited time: 28 Dec, 2018 23:47

https://www.rt.com/news/447627-officer-explosives-paris-train-station/

brief :-

The officer aroused suspicion when he became “angry and defensive” after he was confronted by customs officers on his way through Paris’ central Gare de Lyon train station the day before Christmas Eve. When his volatile cargo was discovered, he tried to escape into the holiday crowds and had to be captured and restrained by multiple agents.

My comment :- Herve, is it normal for les Douane Customs police to be in a Railway Station ? I thought they mainly target Road Checkpoints, Border entry points ?

In THIS case, I would think they were acting upon information given to them - - " By European ' White Hats' " ???

If so, great, ' it's going-down' W.W. !

I think he was under surveillance, otherwise, he could have 'Bluffed 'his way out, claiming ' under-cover work ' ? just by showing his Police I.D. ?

Deux Corbeaux

30th December 2018, 10:32

"Fake News Journalists Come Down": Chanting Yellow Vests Protesters Gather Outside French TV Station

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-29/fake-news-journalists-come-down-hundreds-yellow-vests-gather-french-tv-station

Hundreds of Yellow Vest protesters gathered outside France's BFM TV station for week seven of nationwide protests.

The protesters chanted various versions of "Fake news journalists come down," and "Macron out!" at the TV station which one protester told RT France spreads false information about the movement, while purposefully understating the size of its demonstrations.

Hervé

31st December 2018, 13:49

Benalla confirms post-sacking contact with Macron, says powerful people make president do ‘BULL***T’ (https://www.rt.com/news/447820-benalla-contact-with-macron/)

RT
Published time: 31 Dec, 2018 13:23
Edited time: 31 Dec, 2018 13:23
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9ljg)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.12/xxs/5c2a14d1dda4c8293d8b45a5.JPG
FILE PHOTO. Alexandre Benalla stands next to French President Emmanuel Macron. © Reuters / Stephane Mahe

Alexandre Benalla, ex-aide of Emmanuel Macron, says he kept in touch with his former boss for months after his dismissal, challenging claims made by the presidency that all contact with him had been severed.

Macron talked to Benalla on the Telegram messenger app, discussing various topics related to statecraft, the ousted aide told (https://www.europe1.fr/politique/benalla-affirme-avoir-echange-regulierement-avec-macron-depuis-lete-3829970) Mediapart in an interview on Sunday.
“We talk about different topics, it's often like ‘how do you see things?’ It can be about Yellow Vests, about this-and-that, and about security issues,” he stated, adding that all the

“exchanges are on my mobile phone” and it will be very hard for the Elysee to further deny it.
Moreover, the conversations were actually initiated by Macron himself and other members of the administration, Benalla claimed, adding that the communication continued up to the recent scandal over his use of diplomatic passports.
"I could have slammed the door and moved on, but they’ve kept asking, so I kept answering."
While Benalla was arguably the main source of scandals and embarrassment for the Macron administration over the past year, the aide insisted that he was actually a good guy, caring for the president.
“I am an outsider who wishes well to the guy [Macron] who trusted him,” Benalla stated.

“It disturbs a certain number of people, who are powerful and who act as if the president was under curatorship. They make him do phenomenal bulls***.”
Benalla first came under the media spotlight when he was caught on tape while getting up-close and personal with protesters during demonstrations in Paris on May 1. The senior official was sporting a riot police helmet, armband and appeared to be “helping” law enforcement in beating up the demonstrators. Benalla was eventually fired in July, as the government faced accusations of trying to sweep the whole affair under the rug.

The ex-aide’s name returned to headlines this month, when it emerged that he toured Africa ahead of Macron’s visit. Benalla arrived in Chad weeks before his former boss on a private jet and met with the President Idriss Déby and his brother Oumar Déby – who leads the Directorate-General of Strategic Reserves handling arms deals.

While the French presidency insisted that the ex-aide did not have any official role, it turned out that he was holding a diplomatic passport during the visit. Benalla claimed that he got his passport back in October, when an official from Elysee allegedly gave it to him in a street near the palace with only the instruction to not do “stupid things” with it.
“If they do not want me to use these passports, just deactivate them and send them to an archive,” Benalla said, adding that he actually visited a “dozen” countries with the papers, aside from Chad.

Related:
He’s not an official: Macron’s office left red-faced explaining ex-aide Benalla’s luxury trip (https://www.rt.com/news/447372-benalla-trip-chad-macron-embarassed/)

Macron’s ex-bodyguard tours Africa with diplomatic passport issued after beating protester (https://www.rt.com/news/447539-benalla-diplomatic-passport-chad/)

Hervé

6th January 2019, 02:32

Getting closer to target:

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1790281240/henry-makow_bigger.jpg Henry Makow‏ @HenryMakow (https://twitter.com/HenryMakow)

Henry Makow Retweeted Paul Joseph Watson
Banks are visible representatives of Rothschild tyranny.

Henry Makow added,

(https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1081623148854996992)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1081616494151249920/pu/img/smFNcca2r7uyEux4.jpg (https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1081623148854996992)

[click on picture above to go to video]

0:37

Paul Joseph WatsonVerified account @PrisonPlanet
Yellow vests in France are now ramming banks with mini forklift trucks.

10:56 AM - 5 Jan 2019
1 reply 24 retweets 35 likes

Hervé

7th January 2019, 14:37

The "High-visibility Yellow Vests" have become "invisible":

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1073412568784482314/iD0m_J5U_bigger.jpg Ben (https://twitter.com/1776_ben)🇺🇸‏ @1776_ben (https://twitter.com/1776_ben)

The revolution will not be televised. The MSM is scared of showing this. It shows the consequences of implementing the government system many liberals are wanting to push in America rn. This is why there is 0 coverage. We wont surrender to the false song of globalism. Watch.

[video at : https://twitter.com/i/status/1082089393639342080 ]

5:39 PM - 6 Jan 2019
87 replies 1,320 retweets 1,268 likes

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1790281240/henry-makow_bigger.jpg Henry Makow‏ @HenryMakow (https://twitter.com/HenryMakow)

The Yellow Vests morphed into a full-blown revolt against globalism. It is the next stage of the dreaded populist uprising of Hillary Clinton’s ‘deplorables.’

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/yellow-vests-v-macron.png

"I've Got My Yellow Vest, Do You?" (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-06/ive-got-my-yellow-vest-do-you)

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/styles/thumbnail/public/pictures/picture-5.jpg?itok=LY4e264- (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) by Tyler Durden (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Mon, 01/07/2019 - 05:00

Authored by Tom Luongo, (https://tomluongo.me/2019/01/05/tucker-carlson-and-the-plight-of-the-yellow-vests/)
I have to hand out sincere kudos to Tucker Carlson. His opening salvo for 2019 was one for the ages. It was a broad-ranging, fifteen-minute rhetorical tour de force. (https://youtu.be/mSuQ-AyiicA)

Tying together Mitt Romney’s vulture capitalism, unchecked immigration, political corruption and the destruction of the middle class family, Carlson laid out a story that if everyone took off their ideological blinders for a few minutes (myself included) would see, as simply, a horror show.

Carlson’s thesis is that the American family is disintegrating. He’s right. But it’s not just America. It’s everywhere globalism has been the watchword of public policy, i.e. Europe as well.

The Yellow Vests in France began protesting over a rise in diesel fuel tax to support climate change initiatives and has morphed into a full-blown revolt against globalism, neoliberalism and French government institutions....

5:09 AM - 7 Jan 2019

Deux Corbeaux

7th January 2019, 18:11

The “yellow vests” won’t let Emmanuel Macron take back contol
7 January 2019

https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2019/01/yellow-vests-won-t-let-emmanuel-macron-take-back-control

The French president’s refusal to offer further concessions is creating the conditions for more violent episodes.

On 4 January, putting into practice President Emmanuel Macron’s new year’s resolution to be firm with the gilets jaunes (“yellow vests”) movement, the French government’s spokesperson, Benjamin Griveaux, declared that the administration would “go on with the reforms and be more radical”. He condemned the actions of the anti-tax protesters, who he described as “agitators stirring up insurrection”. The yellow vests might have ruined the fun in late 2018, but 2019 was absolutely going to be the year the Elysée took back control.

On 5 January, Griveaux had to flee his office building as protesters smashed the entrance open with heavy plant machinery and entered the courtyard. The yellow vests’ “Act VIII”, held in Paris and across France last Saturday, saw a resurgence both in numbers of marchers – there were 50,000, compared to 30,000 in the weeks before Christmas – and in violent clashes between the police and the yellow vests.

Projectiles were thrown, tear gas was used, cars and barricades were set ablaze. A protester beat up police officers on a Paris bridge. A police commandant beat up protesters on a Toulon street. In bad news for Macron (who, helpfully, wished the French a happy new year and referred to the yellow vests as a “hateful mob” in the same breath), the crisis is not over yet.

In December, when the president made budget concessions to address the social and economic suffering felt by the working and lower middle classes and promised a dialogue with the movement, it may have appeared that he had the situation under control. But after more than a month of mobilisation, none of the yellow vests’ demands were met – there was no true re-evaluation of the minimum wage; the wealth tax was not reinstated; and Macron powered through with a smile. Meanwhile, when police forces organised their own strike to protest against their working conditions, an effort called the “blue vests”, their salaries were increased within a day.

Participation in the big weekly marches has gone down, yet in rural towns and small cities across France, many yellow vests spent Christmas on roundabouts, where it all started. During the holiday, in the minus temperatures of France’s Great East, I saw bonfires lit by the roads, often surrounded by a dozen yellow vests. Any movement that can assemble willing participants all day outside, when it's freezing and they could be drinking chocolat chaud at home, is not a movement about to dissolve.

Having pretended to make reasonable concessions, Macron’s government is now free to brand those protesters who keep marching “agitators” wanting “extreme violence”, and to demand that they stop. But you don’t engage in a “great national debate” with the most important social movement in decades by calling them thugs, unless you’re planning on the talks going sour.

That’s not to minimise the violence of some rallies. There have undeniably been scenes of brutality – not just at Griveaux’s ministry and on Paris’s streets, but against the media too. Marches on the offices of news agency AFP, left-wing newspaper Libération and BFM TV were organised to protest the coverage of the movement and journalists – although often in jobs as precarious as those the yellow vests condemn – are regularly attacked in protests. Just days before Christmas, the tax centre in my hometown mysteriously burned down. Looking for culprits in the media and engaging in random acts of violence might mean the yellow vests have been radicalised – some certainly have. But it’s also a sign that their justifiable anger at meaningless promises hasn’t been contained or properly addressed.

The longer the movement goes on, the angrier protesters become and the more they understand that Macron doesn’t want to budge and thinks he can get away with it, the greater the likelihood of violent episodes. The president’s gamble isn’t guaranteed to work: while the yellow vests are still backed by 55 per cent of the population, Macron and his government’s policies are opposed by 75 per cent.

Social discontent is spreading. Teachers are mobilising (and planning to award the highest mark to all their students, which is unlikely to be unpopular), hospital staff and many public services are on alert mode, with local emergency services striking through Christmas. And the introduction of the pay-as-you-earn income tax system, rolled out in January, has come at a bad time: the automatic deduction of taxes risks leaving some with the feeling that they have less to make ends meet – there will be less disposable income available at the end of each month. Macron is also about to introduce comprehensive reforms of the French unemployment and pensions systems. Both are certain to kick things off again.

The “great national debate” between the yellow vests and Macron’s government hasn’t even begun and already tensions are showing. Opposition parties, sometimes on the extremes, are preying upon the movement. The yellow vests might struggle to pursue peaceful revendications (claims), but they aren’t going anywhere.

Elandiel BernElve

7th January 2019, 20:16

Some more insight from two Anons from VOAT:

Bonjour Goats !

I read every now and then that many of you feel not enough informed about what’s going on in France so I’ve decided to bring my insight since I’m French and that I live there (near Toulouse in the South west part of the country). You should know that I’m affiliated in a political party called UPR which was the only one during last presidential election to go for Frexit not only saying it but also detailing the why, when, how… (Indeed Marine Le pen wants to stay in E.U)

I do not wish to convert anyone here to UPR, I only wanted to clarify that point to be honest with you especially because I’m going to use UPR’s analysis which I believe to be interesting and which helps me a lot in doing that post.

For starters let’s go check the yellow vest themselves. Lately it seems they have come up with 3 specific requests :

1/ Low taxes on food, clothes and rent

2/ Popular initiative referendum (approximate translation I guess…) so that we can decide by ourselves of laws and constitution changes and firing of elected people

3/ reduce the benefits that elected people have, and they have a lot here, + reduce their numbers

There is also a Facebook group called “la france en colère” (colère means angry) that wrote a letter saying the anger is gonna turn into hate if they keep going that way, speaking of Macron and its gvt of course ! This was all over in MSM…

Government replied through Benjamin Grivaux saying that remaining of Gilets jaune were people that only want to overthrow the republic and the gvt needed to keep on doing what they’re doing and that it should actually be more radical. They also said they’re setting up a national debate on what is wrong in the country so that any citizen can contribute. Although they added we can contribute but gvt is not going to change what it already did.

Then the gilets jaunes replied by breaking its door… That one seems weird to me… I have no proof but this could be cops or antifa doings only to make the gilets jaunes look bad.

Let’s go the Elysée now : rats are leaving !

Sylvain Fort, communication team, suddenly has new professional opportunities

Stephane Séjourné same thing

Ahlem Garbi, Africa and middle east adviser, got fired

Barbara Frugier, international communication adviser, fired

According to the newspaper “Le parisien” Clément Beaunes E.U and G20 adviser feels like leaving

Ismael Emelien has trouble with justice and feels like doing something else with his life

Last but not least Alexis Kohler, Macrons Right arm, has trouble with justice for a conflict of interest with the company MSC Cruises + everyone in his party says it’s on him. I guess he might be used as a fuse…

On the MSM side it would seems Macron got himself in trouble with his boss who seems to want him out even Lemonde did something very unexpected :

Le monde makes Macron looks like Hitler
https://www.rt.com/news/447779-macron-hitler-cover-le-monde/

Obviously Macron & Co are totally disconnected from the people’s reality so it looks like they might be kicked out even though the road is still very long before we get there, in my opinion.

I only fear people are going to choose the worst instead of Macron, almost nobody seems to understand we, at least, need to get rid of E.U… They all fall for the leftist (melenchon) or the rightist (lepen) which are both fraud who want to stay in E.U.

This is the reason why I’m enlisted in UPR, plan is clear : Frexit. We’re almost totally black listed from MSM which make us look like fool or complotist as soon as they can, you guys know the drill…

Whatever I keep fighting, I keep talking and I keep trusting the plan !

Peace to you all.

- Anonymous

My own addition:
Another French Anon here.

It would take days to inform the US people on exactly what happens in France and Europe and how entrenched the cabal is there. Don't forget Europe is the old continent and the cabal had many more centuries to slither their tentacles in our European tissue than elsewhere.

Whole generations have been educated with marxist socialist ideas, maybe not up front in your face but definately sneaky and almost unnoticable.

This also became clear with the BREXIT, where mainly older and conservative folks voted exit and the young 'we're all one and naive' generations wanted to stay in their little NWO smartphone prisons.

France is complicated as hell as it has a history of treason (Vichy France), communists, right wingers, republicans, cosmopolitan and rural people. It's not as seemingly simple as Democrat vs Republican. This goes for all the EU countries by the way. So who is who and who wants what is a challenge on itself to discover. Then there's so many people actually believing their right wing or left wing narrative that one half screams all yellow vestes are anarchists and the other half screams no they're xenophobic racists.

This creates sooo much noise and shouting in especially the media

But when you're on the street you find thousands of people peacefully marching and all kind of wanting the same thing:

A true Republic (No more Rothschild, Central banker, EU lobbyist sellouts in government)
Power to the people (by referendum or restructured government
Equality (at this moment the richest class is EXCEMPT from taxes in France > reason > Macron says to help them invest in labour and economy) However all stats show there's no difference in investing with or without taxes. So why not Equally tax the rich as well.
For French this is important as the republic was found on the ideas of EGALITÉ (equality, not the communist type) meaning: Under the Republic, everyt French citizen should have the same rights as well as duties to its countries. Excempting the rich from tax, and overtaxing the poor is a true break with this founding tradition.
Macron has only 23% approval rate, eat that Trump hating US press !
France has just signe the UN migration pact and is now chaining its population to the Paris Climate Accord Consequences
French say it's not only Macron, it's a GENERAL DISTASTE of the past 40 YEARS of total decline of French society and wealth due to CORRUPTION, WARS, MISMANAGEMENT, OUTSOURING, DEINDUSTRIALIZATION and MASS IMMIGRATION

When you've lived in the country of the best food, architecture, clothing, life quality, and human rights for decades, you're willing to put up a fight when ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

When France once propelled the world into the nuclear age and its concordes were unmatched now it's but a trashbin for the globalists.
When Paris once was the city of love and light and now it's the city of terror and immigrant camps, at one point the French just revolt.
To get a real good view of the DAILY!! protests just use twitter and search #giletsjaunes

This is a good fb group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/277506326438568/

This is a fb group for YV worldwide: https://www.facebook.com/groups/694172157643710/

Police are getting fed up with the government and their orders as well - ENG Subs avail https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r60EbwsaysIYouTube

And last but not elast, there's a massive awakening going on in France, spreading like wildfire

Imagine 40 people on a turnaround blocking traffic, 38 of them have no political clue or sense, they're just there to fight for some decency Now there's two blokes among them who DO have some knowledge ans start explaining **** over the course of many days. In two weeks half the people on the turnaround are 'woke' and the other half are beginning to ask questions and make links they did not before.

Multiply this by 3000 locations over France and theres a true spreading of wisdom

That's why so many Yellow Vests in France are screaming no more Rothschild, no more banksters, etc. It is like the time of the old street prophets. Word is spreading. And oral traditions can't be censored!

Personnally I still have doubts on what started it and WHY. It might have been an attempt to start civil war in France, contstructed, to push for total EU control.

They allowed Police to use full force and expected violent revolts.

The people however stayed mainly calm and pacific, a few incidents aside, and just kept on coming to protest non violently. So what was maybe orchestrated as a ORDER out of CHAOS tool has been hijacked by the people to actually be a massive passive revolt against the powers at be.

MSM are blowing incidents up as a sign to say you see there's a violent revolution imminent. But honestly.. All we can do here is laugh at some of the incidents that are far from a civil war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD0u-Cgi-ikYouTube

We the people also notice that Police officers (also with the exception of some incidents) in France do choose restraint over force as you can see in the video above. In the US the boxer guy would have swallowed 10 bullets before its first punch landed.

Here they merely block and swallow the people's anger.

Police are caught in between and it's a question for how long they're gonna support the government. Bad apples always exist but I know very few Police and Army Police in France looking forward to engage their own people to protect a clearly diabolic globalist and even maybe illegitime president who thinks spitting on his own people and exploiting them to the last dime is a good thing.

Karma is a bitch, and he's gonna meet her

Elandiel

BMJ

7th January 2019, 23:44

It is painfully obvious this mass migration out of africa to the western world that is UK, France, Spain, Italy, Canada, USA and Australia etc, is about the replacement of white culture and society and now a African Catholic Leader Cardinal Robert Sara, echoes similar thoughts on Europe as put forth by the Dalai Lama.

This reason would be one of the motivations for the yellow vest movement.

African Catholic Leader Cardinal Robert Sara, interview @ 8.40 minutes.

African Catholic Leader: Immigrants are INVADING Europe and DESTROYING Its Culture!!!

L6D3GFDFOZA

Dr. Steve Turley
Published on Jan 7, 2019
Find out why Paul Joseph Watson tweeted "If this guy becomes the next Pope, I'm going full trad Catholic"!!!

Dalai Lama, quote:
"The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said Wednesday that "Europe belongs to the Europeans" and that refugees should return to their native countries to rebuild them."

Link: https://www.france24.com/en/20180912-dalai-lama-says-europe-belongs-europeans

Hervé

9th January 2019, 14:42

Fall of Empires: London, Washington & Paris on brink of collapse (https://www.rt.com/op-ed/448381-fall-empires-washington-london-paris/)

by George Galloway
Published time: 9 Jan, 2019 14:07
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9lz1)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.01/xxs/5c35fe96fc7e93f04e8b4576.jpg
© Global Look Press / Christoph Meyer/Dpa; © Reuters/Kevin Lamarque; © Reuters/Christian Hartmann

Despite the thrashing around of the NATO disinformation apparat, the imperial heartland has entered 2019 in a state of complete chaos.

Washington, London, and Paris – the three capitals of the Empire – are today effectively ungoverned, shutdown, tottering on the brink of collapse or under siege by their own people.

Their self-chosen Nemeses – Moscow and Beijing – meanwhile toast the New Year in a state of considerable optimism and self-confidence. These are the facts, this is the news.

We should start at the top of the Empire. The United States government has closed down amid stasis and a barrage of inter-governmental howitzers.

The defense secretary, 'Mad Dog' Mattis, has resigned as have other uniformed subalterns angry at the president's re-found determination to withdraw from costly and losing foreign wars. The actual "mad dog" – John Bolton – openly defies President Trump over Syria, Mueller closes in, and the new Democratic majority in the House gears up to "impeach the mother***er."

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.01/xxs/5c303bb0dda4c8dc568b461a.JPG

Nobody knows if President Trump will be around for much longer, and the merest glance at the views of his putative successor – Vice President Mike Pence – recalls the famous picture of President Nixon with his vice president, Spiro Agnew, standing behind him. The satirical speech bubble had Nixon pointing over his shoulder and saying "nobody is going to shoot me with this guy next in line."

In London, British Prime Minister Theresa May is a dead woman walking; Britain's exit from the European Union is still a matter of total uncertainty, yet a mere 80 days away. Violence outside the Parliament has begun to erupt, no faction can command a majority, an election cannot be held because its most likely result would be the election of veteran anti-imperialist Jeremy Corbyn whom the 'deep state' would sooner see under arrest (alongside this writer, according to the coup-apparatus Integrity Initiative).

A no-deal Brexit will see the south of England grind to a halt given the lack of preparation for it, as trucks headed to and from the continent turn Kent, the 'Garden of England', into a car-park.

A Brexit in name only – otherwise known as Theresa May's deal – cannot pass in the House of Commons next week given Labour's opposition together with at least 50 of the government's own MPs and the 10 members of the coalition partners, the DUP.
A third option, a new referendum, runs the risk of the same scenario being played out (but almost entirely unreported here) on the streets of Paris and other French cities. Defying the result of the first referendum, cheating 17.4 million people of that which they voted for, risks social peace in England. Millions of Brexit voters are among those in Britain with nothing left to lose.

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2018.12/xxs/5c1cff4edda4c883388b45ff.jpg

In France, the Elysee has become Macron's Bastille and it is not at all inconceivable that it will be stormed.

Last weekend his own spokesman had to be smuggled (https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1067950/yellow-vest-protest-paris-riot-gilet-jaunes-macron-Benjamin-griveaux-escape) out of a back-door after a truck hijacked by protestors smashed through the door of his government building. The very conditions Macron strove so very hard to bring about in Damascus and that France DID help bring about in Kiev are now rocking the very foundations of the French Republic.

No amount of turning the 'Nelson's Eye' (when famously England's Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar was told that the French Navy were advancing on him, he put his telescope to the black patch covering his missing eye and said "I see no ships" – will alter the fact that for eight weeks and counting, hundreds of thousands of French people of all political stripes have been – increasingly violently – on the streets of cities throughout the country demanding that their president resign. And that Macron showering Euros down the Champs Elysees in concessions – in absolute defiance of the EU's fiscal rules – has merely encouraged 'les autres' to keep on demonstrating.

This week, the EU (and NATO) government of Italy joined the side of the 'Gilets-Jaunes', with Italy's Salvini personally denouncing the French president as being "against his own people."

This Saturday, a mammoth demonstration will take place in London, leveling the same raft of anti-austerity demands on the British government as the Yellow Vests are making of Macron. The center cannot hold.

The old order is dying; the new one cannot be born. If we are not careful we will soon be alive in the time of monsters.

Frenchy

9th January 2019, 17:40

This might illustrate Why Jill & Joe Public, { Everywhere } have had enough, of this so called ' Club ', Bill Hicks & Carlin refer to....

Organizer of Macron’s ‘grand debate’ with Yellow Vests defends her ‘shocking’ €176,000 salary...

The spotlight has shifted to the extravagant salary of the official in charge of organizing it.

39688
© AFP/Bertrand GUAY
Chantal Jouanno the current chairwoman of the CNDP, an official body for public debates, a role for which she receives an annual salary of €176,000 ($201,000).

Chantal a former national karate champion, deployed a series of blocks to stave off the discontent.

‘President against his people’: Salvini openly backs Yellow Vest protesters, lashing out at Macron

She... adding that she does not negotiate her salary, which is set by the “CNDP, whoever they are.” Now Blood* ARROGANT of HER, if she thinks ppl believe that...

French PM says new, tougher laws on unauthorized protests coming in wake of Yellow Vest clashes

Published time: 7 Jan, 2019 19:56 © Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has said that the government will crack down on unauthorized protests and toughen punishment for rioting in the wake of anti-government Yellow Vest demonstrations which began in November.

The announcement comes as part of new “public order” measures unveiled by the government after the Yellow Vest protests resulted in violence against police officers and government buildings.

*********************************

Not only, but also !

STILL wants to be a ‘ Sheepherd ! ‘

The Emerging: Yellow Vest ex-rep seeks to create political party of ‘common sense’

Published time: 9 Jan, 2019 09:50 © AFP / Damien Meyer

Jacline Mouraud, once the self-appointed spokeswoman of the Yellow Vests, has announced the creation of a new party. ...
Mouraud greatly contributed to stirring up the Yellow Vests protests and has become a highly recognizable figure after posting a video against fuel tax hikes which has been viewed several million times since October.

However, she does not seem to crave political leadership, ... “I require no title, I’m trying to create a party, and that’s good. ...

“The main thing is to create it, to unite people against violence and to ensure respect for our institutions.”

The party already has quite a name – Les Émergents (the Emerging) –...

The party is described by Mouraud as a “party of common sense,” which will provide “new and constructive ideas for the country, in harmony with the challenges of climate change.”

The party’s statutes are being drafted with the “help of competent persons,” namely “lawyers, former parliamentarians,” she stated.

Mouraud herself, a 51-year-old composer and hypnotherapist from Brittany, has no political experience.

39689

However, Mouraud ... the Yellow Vests got infiltrated bad... good luck saving France with the help of lawyers and former parliamentarians, while distancing yourself from the people who actually take to the streets and TAKE ACTION against this rotten KlKE system

Conversation { on
*******
She just happens to be exactly what the Macron government wants & needs to survive... no coincidence

*************
· yeah, it's not enough, nobody cares about a few deaths, nothing has really changed yet... they need to push harder and not be afraid to fight the cops
Reply
· Spot On 88. The extra police is the first sign the 2nd will be outside military...if that happens then the game is on.France isn't alone there are several countries showing Brussel's the finger...yes 88 momentum is definitely the key.

*******
You were the only one to put "Common sense" into the conversation and mix it with Yellow and Turmoil.Only ten people you say...you ignorant fark.This started years ago and the YV's are the push back of many a dead French Person in the Turmoil of what is the EU and what it stands for. France keep going and don't stop you may actually save Europe from the overlords in Brussle's...wouldn't that be ironic.
*************
So basically someone who is not representing the people, but representing HERSELF as a leader wants to get into politics?! The whole movement is so we can CHANGE the corrupt system that enslaves us all whether you're conscious of this fact or not. We don't need more politicians, we need a NEW SYSTEM and we need to build it TOGETHER - That governance doesn't involve parliament, congress/head of state - whatever your country subscribes to.....
*******
Excellent, perhaps someone will have the common sense to do it here in the UK as well. I said a world revolution needs to happen and it can come in many forms lets hope this catches on, God knows we can all do with some common sense controlling our systems. You go girl hope you wipe that grin off Macrons smug elitist populous hating boat race!.

*************

Just to add, when the YV were protesting outside a TV or News Establishment,
One Stupid man, made a rude gesture to the YV,
{ from the safety of being inside the building ! }

That man, will surely regret his stupidity, along with the 'journalist' smirking alongside of him !

BMJ

10th January 2019, 13:12

Macron and the beast that is globalism is exposing its true nature as it seeks to clamp down on protests and jails leaders of the yellow vest movement. All in all only setting the stage for a more angered aggrieved and over taxed public to push back even harder, as across the pond the British people pick up pass with their own Yellow Vest movement.

What They're Not Telling You About the Yellow Vests
MDAjEaFPnwY

Paul Joseph Watson
Published on Jan 9, 2019

The left despises the working class.

Hervé

10th January 2019, 14:32

‘Officials' worst nightmare’: Yellow Vests hope to trigger bank run with financial protest (https://www.rt.com/news/448426-yellow-vests-financial-bank-protest/)

Published time: 10 Jan, 2019 00:32 Edited time: 10 Jan, 2019 08:40
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9m0a)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.01/article/5c369019dda4c85c5e8b462e.jpeg
© Reuters / Jean-Paul Pelissier

Yellow Vest protesters are hoping to trigger a bank run with a nationwide coordinated cash withdrawal. By threatening the French financial system, protesters say, they want to peacefully force the government to pass their reforms.
“If the banks weaken, the state weakens immediately,” said (https://www.facebook.com/groups/2204398133155767/permalink/2204402429822004/) Yellow Vest “sympathizer” Tahz San on Facebook.

“It’s elected officials' worst nightmare.”

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.01/xxs/5c2fcbe6fc7e935b0b8b464f.JPG (https://www.rt.com/news/448099-yellow-vest-open-letter-macron/)

Protesters plan to empty their bank accounts on Saturday, withdrawing as much money as possible in a bid to undermine the French banks – if not the euro itself. The plan is to “scare the state legally and without violence,” forcing (https://www.capital.fr/economie-politique/les-gilets-jaunes-appellent-a-retirer-largent-des-banques-est-ce-dangereux-1322443?amp) the government to adopt the movement’s Citizens’ Referendum Initiative, which would allow citizens to propose and vote on new laws.
“We are going to get our bread back…you’re making money with our dough, and we’re fed up,” said protester Maxime Nicolle in a video message (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPDGfhgtOgo) shared on YouTube.
A well-coordinated financial action has the potential to bring the French banking system – and by extension the euro – to its knees, as banks always hold only a fraction of the funds the country’s citizens have in their accounts. However, most banks limit ATM withdrawals to a relatively low amount, meaning protesters would have to line up inside the banks to withdraw the rest of their money, giving the state plenty of time to place restrictions on withdrawals – though this would, no doubt, spark further protest.

The financial demonstration is a novel means of circumventing Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s proposed crackdown (https://www.rt.com/news/448265-france-tougher-laws-protests-yellowvests/) on “unauthorized protests,” announced earlier this week after a particularly violent weekend of clashes with armed riot police – including an unexpected appearance (https://www.rt.com/news/448263-french-boxer-defends-yellow-vests/) by boxer Christophe Dettinger. Philippe has promised 80,000 security forces will be deployed for the next protest.

Meanwhile, there is tension within the movement itself, as some former protest leaders call for a political (https://www.rt.com/news/448353-yellow-vest-stuff/) solution.

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.01/original/5c368f0ddda4c85e5e8b4625.jpeg
© Reuters / Gonzalo Fuentes

The government has urged the protesters to make their voices heard in a national debate instead of demonstrating in the streets as they have done for the last two months. The debate, scheduled for next week, will cover climate change, “democratic issues,” taxes and public services.

Related:
Stop treating people like beggars or face hatred – Yellow Vests to Macron (https://www.rt.com/news/448099-yellow-vest-open-letter-macron/)

France's crackdown on protesters: 'Govt has nothing to offer except blood, sweat & tears' (https://www.rt.com/news/448399-law-protests-france-ban/)

==========================================

This time, hopefully, "we"ll get to the top puppeteers and their boss:

From over there (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?84115-Angelo-Roncalli-s--Pope-John-XXIII--1935-Prophecies):

The intended war [WW II]. The war of all, without borders. The son of the Beast loosens the wild beasts.

And Europe collapses, like a statue of mud.

The sea kills under water. And the sky spits fire. Innocent people killed in houses.

And where boots and nails arrive, the children of Israel know the torment. Sheep pens for their pain and subtle death.

The torturers know, they will lie at Nuremberg.

Always look for the perpetrators, even when you believe they are dead. Look for them wherever power survives on terror. Look for them in the houses of the ones who have been enriched with the war.

Not for revenge, but to prevent them and their children to invade the world once more by hiding the word and the chief.

[...]

The new Tsar has betrayed, he thought he had lost. He killed his men before the nails trampled them. And by his cowardice millions fall. But his honored body will be removed from the sanctuary.

The Angels’ Land cries and her leader will betray. Other letters one day to be known. When the secret of the son of the Beast’s friend is discovered, who took off at night to the Angels’ Land. [Hess]

[...]

"Europe is in bloom.

France has two leaders, but great is the one of the desert [De Gaulle]. He owes a secret gratitude to the general of Spain [Franco].

We fight, but from the mountains, red and white flowers climb down, Europe, these are your best sons, who one day will be betrayed.

Because the leaders they believe they shot down will control again, always the same.

They shot down the money puppets, not the money masters. And they will be seduced by the new Tsar, who defeated despite the betrayal, with his fierce red flame.

The sons of Luther in Europe. War of weapons, wars of the passions. The youngs from the mountains have new flags, which the powerful will tear out through deceit. Beware the sons of Luther and the sons of the new Tsar. They want a world battered for the last meal. France, rise up the Cross of Lorraine. Europe, brandish your songs louder than the sound of the guns.

[...]

These prophecies were allegedly written down in 1935 and ending at "Twenty centuries plus the savior's age" (which many interpret as being 2033)

Hervé

10th January 2019, 20:47

Yellow Vests take aim at the power behind the throne - plans being laid for a bank run (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ias_0Hdv98A)

Black Pigeon Speaks
Sott.net (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ias_0Hdv98A)
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 00:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/505172/large/french_mega_banks.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/505172/full/french_mega_banks.jpg)

In what may be the most audacious and appropriate act done yet by the Gilets Jaunes, the participants of this movement appear to be planning a run on banks in France. It is the bankers who have stood to benefit from supporting Macron's rise in power -and through the boy-king's tried and true brand of society-crushing neo-liberalism and austerity measures.

Ias_0Hdv98A

#YellowVests (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23YellowVests) #BankRun (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23BankRun) #Protest (https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%23Protest)France AWAKENS 2019: Weaponized Bank Runs Incoming

162,766 views
15K 113 ShareSave (https://www.youtube.com/create_channel)

https://yt3.ggpht.com/a-/AAuE7mCOQe8hPIRPz4cC7095GtYrR1o-F8igZEdp2A=s48-mo-c-c0xffffffff-rj-k-no (https://www.youtube.com/user/TokyoAtomic)Black Pigeon Speaks (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmrLCXSDScliR7q8AxxjvXg)
Published on Jan 9, 2019

Deux Corbeaux

11th January 2019, 10:43

https://www.apnews.com/c8646ad291c440978c5d8a260a11d454

French protesters want to set off bank run with withdrawals

Activists from a French protest movement encouraged supporters Wednesday to set off a bank run by emptying their accounts, while the government urged citizens to express their discontent in a national debate instead of weekly demonstrations disrupting the streets of Paris.

Activists from the yellow vest movement, which started with protests over fuel tax increases, recommended the massive cash withdrawals on social media. One protester, Maxime Nicolle called it the “tax collector’s referendum.”

“We are going to get our bread back ... You’re making money with our dough, and we’re fed up,” Nicolle said in a video message.

The movement’s adherents said they hoped the banking action will force the French government to heed their demands, especially giving citizens the right to propose and vote on new laws.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe gave details Wednesday of a “big debate” the government plans to start next week in all the regions of France.

“We want it to be rich, impartial and fruitful,” Philippe said.

The debates will focus on four main topics: climate change, democratic issues, taxes and public services, the prime minister said. Anyone can propose a local event and an internet platform will provide another venue for discussion, he said.

President Emmanuel Macron proposed the debate as a way for the government to hear and to respond to the movement’s central complaints.
Macron also announced 10 billion euros ($11.5 billion) worth of measures to boost the purchasing power of French households.

About 200 protesters, including trade union members and participants in the yellow vest movement, gathered Wednesday in Creteil, a Paris suburb as Macron visited a handball facility dedicated to handball gymnasium.

Police officers used tear gas to keep the crowd at a distance from the French leader.....

https://www.apnews.com/c8646ad291c440978c5d8a260a11d454

Hervé

11th January 2019, 13:48

Yellow Vests Plan a Bank Run. Will it Work? (https://www.henrymakow.com/take_your_money_out_of_the_ban.html)

Henry Makow
January 11, 2019

https://www.henrymakow.com/upload_images/1-9-19-vest.jpg
Yellow vests hope to trigger a bank run Saturday by withdrawing funds en masse (from RT) (https://www.rt.com/news/448426-yellow-vests-financial-bank-protest/) [see post # 148 (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?88469---a-Chauffe-&p=1268820&viewfull=1#post1268820) ]

https://www.henrymakow.com/upload_images/migchels.png

Anthony Migchels (above) writes:

And you can slice and dice it any way you like, but if people want to take the New World Order by the balls, taking their money out of the Bank is obviously the most direct approach. The System cannot exist without our cooperation. And only a small percentage of the people have to do it. says 1% should be enough to deliver a huge blow to the confidence in the System.

Demonstrations are fine to blow off some steam and to expose the true face of the State and its violent clampdowns.

Non-cooperation, and of course ultimately providing and promoting the superior alternatives (in the case of Banking using the power of money creation to serve the People with interest-free credit, instead of exploiting them with Usury) are the key issues. We must heed Jacques Attali's warning, that the NWO expects to win because they don't believe the people can provide an alternative.

It's fantastic to hear that the Gilets Jaunes getting down to business. Of course, we'll have to see how far it all goes, but there is also this interview with one of them, this guy on Facebook is pretty succinct in his analysis. 23 million views (!!!) (https://www.facebook.com/Electricshiver/videos/2229918397031849/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDE4MTA3NDU4OToyNDYwNTkzODgzOTU2NjIz/)

I did get one myself by the way. There have not been demonstrations in my town yet, but I just wear it when walking around town.

By the way: I also liked Tucker Carlson's recent rant, in which he called the Right out for its obsession with Capitalism, and how what we currently have is obviously atrocious for the People.

Anyway, the Bankers are far from done, but it is refreshing, to see some actual resistance, and people slowly but surely.

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

Take Your Money Out of the Banks (https://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/take-your-money-out-of-the-bank-now/)

by Anthony Migchels from April 5, 2012
(henrymakow.com)

We are paying trillions per year in interest to the banksters for absolutely nothing.

The solution is simple: quit their banks.

They say we need the banks, because otherwise the real economy would have no money to trade with.

All this is complete and utter rubbish, of course. If banks can create credit, then anybody can. That's just common sense.

Just imagine: we are led to believe that we need to cough up trillions just to have a medium of exchange that is completely paper/computer based. I.e., almost free of cost.

[Central bankers create the medium of exchange, coupons called currency, in the form a debt to themselves backed by our government's "credit." In other words, our "money" is credit extended by the Rothschilds. Banks are Rothschild franchises. Why do we trust our money to them? HM]

Banking is part of the Babylon Mystery and bankers believe we are still enthralled with their 'fractional reserve banking' sleight of hand.

And they are right. Although people are waking up, they still don't get it.

A good example of this is the 'take your money out of Bank of America' of last October. Bank of America decides to rake in an extra $60 per year with a silly fee. This upset people.

While they are paying $300k interest over 30 years on their $200k mortgage. Which the bank created out of nothing the moment they borrowed it.

Meanwhile, 45% of our disposable income is lost (http://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/on-interest/) to pay for capital included in the prices we pay for our daily needs.

In other words: Penny wise, pound foolish. People still don't understand how they are fleeced through interest on the fictional debt.

FACING REALITY
Of course, it was good to see people finally showing some teeth.

Boycotting the banks is the blindingly obvious approach. If somebody is enslaving you with interest and fractional reserve banking while destroying the economy by not lending why would you patronize his business?

Propping up a system that only exists to enslave us is irresponsible.

But only a few are willing to accept this simple conclusion.

The fact of the matter is: many are still enthralled with the 'magnificent edifice of international finance', as Rothschild mouthpiece the Economist once called it.

It is unfortunate that there is still widespread misunderstanding about both money and our real problem with it.

People do not yet understand how pervasive the enslavement through interest really is.

That's why they fall for the notion that Gold will solve our problems. But what does it matter whether we pay all this interest for Gold or for paper-based credit? The Money Power owns both and all the interest will end up in the same place.

The mind control of the rich, the social conditioning to accept the current order and its despicable 'morality', to defend it at the cost of oneself and one's loved ones is very profound and pervasive in our beliefs. They are not easily uprooted, not even by the 'Internet Reformation'.

In the meantime we are ignoring the real solution: interest-free money. Either debt free, in the form of Social Credit, which would work out like a 'Citizens Dividend (http://libertyrevival.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/milton-friedman-supported-the-citizen-dividend/)'.
Or interest-free credit, through Mutual Credit.

These solutions are real and we can implement them today.

We would no longer pay interest on a mortgage, which would also mean much lower rent.

We would pay 45% less for what we need because there would be no capital cost included in prices. World Government would be dead and Big Business would face the competition of well funded small business.

Washington and Brussels are owned by the Money Power in the City of London. But the main reason we are not doing this is the people don't understand the problem and therefore the solution.

FIGHT BACK!
We don't need to wait for reform on a national level. We can create our own currencies (http://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/the-swiss-wir-or-how-to-defeat-the-money-power/). High powered currencies, not just the simple barter units that are now starting to float everywhere in the world (http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CGEQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld-europe-12223068&ei=dK6jT6fNK4X98QPOp8SkCQ&usg=AFQjCNEiLzqXmEPOvVLheJziiVLWPkHD-Q). We can create extremely effective, interest-free credit based units, convertible to dollar or euro providing us with a printing press with which we can buy back the world interest-free.

But these will take time to build up. Meanwhile, the obvious thing to do is pull our money out of the banks.

We should not have one dime in that system. Every dollar we put in the banking system gives them a dollar income per year. Remember that. The system, through fractional reserve banking, multiplies your dollar by ten and takes interest over each of them.

Real interest rates (including credit cards) are probably close to 10% and that means they make a dollar per year over every dollar you have in your account.

And you can maintain an account for monthly payments, just keep its balance at almost zero. Pay your bills and take out the rest.

Force the FED and ECB to print ever more for bailouts.

Pay cash only. Don't support their cashless society. Liquidate all your paper assets, both to blow up the system and to minimize your own exposure to the implosion.

Let them squirm and lie ever more transparently with every new bailout that they need to force upon us. Let them show their hand. We're not going to 'repay' odious debt.

We're not afraid. We don't need them.

Let them eat cake.

Related:

What is Money? (https://www.henrymakow.com/2018/07/banking-system-servitude.html) 1 and

What is Money-2 (https://www.henrymakow.com/2018/10/the-devil-is-money.html)

The Swiss WIR, or: How to Defeat the Money Power (http://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/the-swiss-wir-or-how-to-defeat-the-money-power/)

Mutual Credit, the Astonishingly Simple Truth about Money Creation (http://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/mutual-credit-the-astonishingly-simple-truth-about-money-creation/)

Understand that the Banking System is One (http://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/understand-that-the-banking-system-is-one/)

This article on Anthony's website (http://realcurrencies.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/take-your-money-out-of-the-bank-now/)

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

Makow comment: If the government represented us, it would take over the national bank and spend the money into existence or loan it interest-free.

First Comment from Ken Adachi
This is a good article from Anthony. I've been saying the same thing on my own web site for 20 years. I closed my bank account in 1997 and I haven't regretted it for a second. People unthinkingly assume that they need banks. You don't NEED banks. They need YOU.

Taking most (or all) of your money out of a bank is a logical way to stop banks from lording it over the public. If a large percentages of the public took 99% of their cash out of banks and either kept it themselves in a SAFE location or invested it in tangible assets, you would quickly see a few things happen immediately: Banks would start offering REAL competing interest rates on savings accounts and simultaneously drop the monthly Ripoff fees for checking accounts (without maintaining a continuous balance of over $1500 per month or whatever the deal is).

As Michael mentioned, the problem the JWO has in controlling and enslaving 7 Billion people is that there are so FEW of them, and so MANY of us. They NEED your cooperation to enslave you. Same goes for Google's censorship and blacklisting tyranny. I NEVER use Google to search or use Google Chrome for that matter. I don't want to help them to MONITOR and censor me.

Answer? STOP using them in large enough numbers - switch to using DuckDuckGo.com on a 24/7 basis - and they will start back peddling on censorship in a heartbeat! The ONLY solution is to DRIVE them out of business, not just punish them.

The same applies to every billionaire JWO internet "convenience" outfit that tries to put onerous rules or conditions in place to coerce you to forfeit your privacy or play ball with the JWO takeover and enslavement agenda. STOP using them and find a competitor or CREATE a competitor, like the guy who started GAB!

Hervé

12th January 2019, 14:30

Why France and Europe have initiated a bonafide revolution (http://www.defenddemocracy.press/revolution-back-in-europe-why-and-how/)

Dimitris Konstantakopoulos Defend Democracy Press (http://www.defenddemocracy.press/revolution-back-in-europe-why-and-how/)
Sat, 12 Jan 2019 11:42 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/505420/large/revol_800x426.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/505420/full/revol_800x426.jpg)

"Your heart
is too small to hold
this many people"
lyrics to a song of the Yellow Vests addressed to Macron
"I am not a seed of Chance
I, the moulder of the new life
I am a child of Need
and a mature child of Wrath...
...Listen to the voice of the winds
For thousands of years!
Inside my word
all humanity hurts..."
Kostas Varnalis (1884-1974), The Guide (Ο Οδηγητής) (*) On the evening of 14 July 1789, the Duke de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt woke King Louis XVI to inform him about the storming of the Bastille.
"Why, is this a rebellion?"the King wondered.

"No Sir. It's a revolution", replied the Duke.
What is happening today in France is one of the most significant political developments on the European continent after the collapse of the Soviet Union almost thirty years ago.

It is one of the most radical, deepest and dynamic challenges to modern European capitalism in decades, both in terms of method - the direct, mass mobilisation of people, of the "masses", their dramatic entry on to the stage of history - as well as in terms of the depth of the movement, as in its demands, which directly question the political and, implicitly but clearly, the social regime.(**). In particular, it is evenly spread throughout France, rather than being restricted to the capital.

If we wanted to find a revolutionary movement in Europe resembling that of the Yellow Vests in terms of massiveness and depth we would probably have to look back to the period 1965-75 or, as a maximum, to 1985.

That is, we would look back to the general revolutionary strikes in France and Italy (1968-1969), the 'Prague Spring' (1968), the Carnation Revolution in Portugal (1974-1975), the Solidarity revolution in Poland (1979-1981) and, perhaps to a lesser extent, to the long, militant strike of British miners (1984-85).

These are all movements which, each one in its own way and despite the differences between them, have profoundly changed how we perceive the world. All were characterised by the same direct form of action, with millions of simple people directly participating, and by the fact that they all questioned the foundations of economic and social organisation and the power system in the countries in which they broke out. All these movements, without exception, were, in one way or another, accompanied by demands for the democratisation of society, self-management and direct participation of people.

The momentum of these movements was later halted by the capitulation of Mitterrand's Socialists, the triumphs of Neo-liberalism in capitalist Europe (the Thatcher-Reagan-Friedman factor), the collapse of the Soviet regime and the "counter-revolutions" in Eastern Europe: "counter-revolutions" which, although advanced through "democratic" slogans, did not lead anywhere, but merely to the economic and political power changing hands from "socialist bureaucracies" to quite authoritarian, oligarchic and sometimes clearly Mafiosi elites, masquerading as democratic governments - "social Darwinists" in the service of International Capital and the US.

The Yellow Vests now seem to be picking up in their own way from where the European movements of 1965-85 left off their core fundamental demands, and they are doing so in their attempt to respond to a policy of systematic destruction of French society and, even more so, of its lower and poorer strata.

They are doing it within the context of today's European and global conditions, which differ substantially from those of that period, both in "subjective" and "objective" terms.

French and European crises and the global economic crisis
The French revolution - the term 'revolution', we think, being more appropriate, because what is happening in France does not constitute simply a rebellion, as we will attempt to show later - is the direct product of the multifaceted, complex "European" crisis; a crisis which, in its turn, is the product and consequence of two factors: the deep economic crisis into which world capitalism entered in 2008, and the very way in which the European Union has been built and operates.

It is important to properly diagnose the root cause of the crisis,and the factors which provoked it, the global and the European one. Because if we assume that the whole problem is due to the Euro and the EU, ignoring the structural crisis of modern world capitalism, then we would come to the conclusion that all a country needs to do is to leave the EU, thereby solving all the problems. Of course, this does not mean that a given country should not attempt to leave the EU, if this is what is required for saving itself. But it means, however, that it must be aware that even by leaving, it will still be confronted by all the problems thrown up by the tremendous power that globalised capitalism and international finance have acquired.

Most criticisms of the EU, from various sides, are correct. But this is not the main strategic problem. The main question is what is to be the European order of tomorrow and how to ensure that the order which shall be established after the EU will be better and not worse; what is the policy and strategy that, as of now, within the context of the existing EU, can serve better the purpose of creating a radically different and radically better European order tomorrow.

This is because a European country, in particular a medium-sized country such as France, may initiate a course of liberation from the bonds of globalised capitalism. But it will not be easy for any country, even the strongest in Europe, to achieve this on its own in the long-term.

The international impact of the French revolutionary movement will be of crucial, vital significance, not only in the long-term, but also in short run, for both the movement itself and for the situation in all of Europe.

Any victory or defeat of the Yellow Vests movement depends heavily on its ability to expand and find immediate support in the rest of Europe.

On the other hand, the entire European situation will be directly and decisively affected by what will happen in the coming weeks and months in France.

However, we have not yet seen any of the forces which wish to self-identify as "radical leftist" in Europe -from the left-wing of Die Linke to the left-wing of the Labour Party - realising fully the significance of what is happening in France; adjusting their activity accordingly, giving absolute priority to the organisation of support to the French people, explaining to their people what is happening in France or even imitating the French movement through the initiation of campaigns in their countries, appropriate and adapted of course to the respective conditions they are facing in every country. We have not seen them attempting to create programmatically, politically and organisationally a united European front, not only of the radical left but also of all the forces that would be willing to commit sincerely to fighting the totalitarian dictatorship of financial capital in Europe.

What we mostly see are various groups, parties, and aspiring leaders, the usual strangers to modesty, narcissist stars of "international radicalism and progress", prominent "intellectuals of the Self-evident", who, at a moment when one of the most significant revolutions in Europe in the last fifty years is unfolding, are making micro-political electoral calculations in view of the European elections; calculations which too shall prove to be irrelevant within the context of a Europe that continues to be shaken to its very foundations by its crisis.

A direct result itself of the 2008 global economic crisis, the European crisis has so far generated, before the current developments in France, the destruction and "betrayed revolt" of Greece, the Indignados and the Podemos in Spain, the left government in Portugal, the BREXIT vote, the surge of the radical right in Italy, the rise of AfD in Germany, the "clinical death" of the German Social Democratic and the French Socialist Party, the rise of Le Pen and Mélenchon in France.

However, the developments in France are now taking us to another level, because of two factors of fundamental significance. The French people, having spent a number of decades hoping in vain for some improvement through the processes of elections and referenda, has now moved to the phase of direct, dynamic and mass mobilisation of the people. Secondly, the French movement is for the first time directly questioning the political and, indirectly but clearly, the social regime.

The financial oligarchy which is currently governing Europe together with its employees - the European politicians and bureaucrats - has no answer to the issues raised by the Greeks, Spanish, British, Italians and, even more so, by the French now.

For this and for other reasons that we will explain, the French crisis is only the beginning of a course of events, which, of course, we cannot predict and prescribe; nor can we foresee where it will lead; however, we can say with certainty already from now that they will radically change Europe and the world.

The developments in France not only coincide with and partly reflect the continuing deep crisis of the EU, a crisis threatening its very existence. The developments are taking place, most probably, on the eve of a new exacerbation of the economic crisis of 2008, against which states now have much fewer means to use for defending themselves than in 2008.

And as if all this were not enough, at the international level we also note a rapid deterioration of all the significant global concerns, including the re-emergence of the risk of nuclear war and, most importantly, the near certainty over the end of human life through climatic change and environmental destruction; such defining issues require immediate radical measures that go far beyond the limitations and capabilities of the existing economic, social and international system.

Realism and Romanticism
The other day a friend, albeit in a well-meant and tactful way, accused me of a sort of "revolutionary romanticism", referring to my most recent article about the developments in France (http://www.defenddemocracy.press/the-ghost-of-1789-looms-over-france-and-europe/). I will leave aside the fact that, as it soon transpired from our conversation, he was not aware of the most elementary information such as what are the main demands of the Yellow Vest movement; instead he perceived as real not what is really happening in France - of course for this the media is more to blame for not giving out all the information - but what he himself thought is likely to be happening!

Living in Greece he thought that in France, too, politicians could throw some "revolutionary buzzwords" just to gather votes, as it so often is the case with Greek politicians. So he was trying to interpret the French movement from the point of view of our current moral and intellectual misery, which is the result of our overwhelming defeat of 2015 and the way it has come about. It may also be that deep inside, he could find difficult, and even be annoyed by the comparison between the current grandeur of a revolting people with our own, now humiliated and defeated, miserable and servile, individual, social and national existence.

However, the important point is something different, and I told him so. Romanticism is not to hope for the advancement of humans and people at the forefront of the historical process. They did it in the past and hence they can do it again in the future. Romanticism, even a potentially deadly illusion, is to bestow upon those who today govern the world, the ability to prevent the destruction of humanity!

Realistically speaking, the only chance that humanity has to save itself is to consciously take its own action to this effect and, indeed, to do so very quickly.

The May 1968 slogan "Imagination to the Power" is today the only viable realism. The "revolution", in the meaning of a radical transformation of the dominant system, regardless of the way in which it may happen, is a precondition for the survival of humanity. This sort of thing is no longer taught by social and philosophical theories or by our morality; it is rather determined by the merciless clarity and accuracy of the mathematical and physics equations of climate science (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?92384-Weird-wild-weather-floods-freak-storms-giant-hail-record-lows-all-over-the-world&p=1260378&viewfull=1#post1260378).

Besides, great revolutions often happen when no one expects them. And no one expects them, because when they happen a system is "completed"; it is, in a way, "closed", having left no room for any "reform" or "self-correction". The same factor that makes Revolutions seem impossible and even inconceivable is rendering them also unavoidable!

The global human consciousness owns this knowledge, despite the constant efforts of the dominant and possessors to erase it. This is the reason why we honour the memory of those who were "defeated" in history, of those who "lost", such as Jesus Christ and Spartacus, and we pay no tribute to those who crucified them to protect and preserve the public order and the power of their time.

It is precisely at this moment, when the system has "closed" and does not allow any progress and is threatening with destruction, that the god of Necessity unearths from the depths of the souls of ordinary people, from the soul of the great "anonymous" crowd, the moral superior human qualities, namely the drive towards freedom and dignity, the expression of the mortal being's need for meaning in his life. It is then, at those privileged moments of history, that simple people, free from the usual burdens and hypocrisies of professional politicians and intellectuals, employ the superior brain functions of humans, reason and the imagination, in order to find solutions to the problems they encounter, as the French have been doing for nearly two months now.

All revolutions may look similar to each other, but each one is different. This one, the revolution that is now struggling to force its way out of its mother's belly - the European crisis- has an incomparable advantage over the Great French Revolution of 1789 and over the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. The people who revolted now have significantly higher intellectual weapons, more knowledge to rely upon than what was available to the sans-culottes and the Russian workers of the past revolutions. Moreover, they have the experience of the achievements, but also of the degeneration and tragedies that accompanied all the great revolutionary movements of history.

But it is impossible to cover such a subject in one article. In our next article, we will examine the way the French people were led to take the course they have, and the structure of their demands, at the centre of which is the question of popular sovereignty, the possibility of the people to exercise power or, at least, to be able to control in an effective way how state power is exercised.

The same fundamental question remains, albeit in a new form, presented, but not solved in a satisfactory way, by the Great French Revolution of 1789, the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 and many other popular uprisings in Europe and the world.

Notes
(*)
This is an improvised translation by the author of a portion of a poem by Kostas Varnalis (1884-1974), one of the greatest poets and writers of modern Greece. A communist, a Marxist and a member of the resistance during the Nazi occupation of Greece, he was persecuted for his ideas.

(**)
It is quite difficult to write an article about France addressed to people who are not living in France. The reason lies with the fact that Western Media do all that they can, indeed with a certain degree of success, in order to play down, distort and conceal the events in France and, most importantly, their significance. Their aim is to present them as some sort of the usual "social upheavals", without highlighting the underlying causes which have driven the people of one of the most important countries in Europe to revolt against the political system in power.

During the military dictatorship in Greece, I was a schoolboy. I remember that the press at that time was full of propaganda, but, at the same time, it was publishing all the basic facts necessary to form an opinion. Through this censored press, controlled by the "black colonels", Greeks nevertheless knew better what was happening in France during the May '68 Revolution or with the Vietnam War, than they know now about social and political problems in other EU countries or about the reality of a dozen wars in the Middle East!

The "Empire of Finance" which controls the media and most "intellectuals", the "Space of Ideas" in our societies, in a way that is unprecedented in the history of capitalism, has a vital interest in doing so, as it trembles at the prospect of the "French virus" spreading outside France, as happened in 1789, 1848 and 1968.

Besides, even if they wanted to transmit the real meaning of these processes, they wouldn't be able to do it. Journalism follows democracy on the path to demise. In their efforts to control all information, they have isolated almost all journalists with the knowledge and critical thinking skills that are required to analyse and describe the meaning of a revolution such, as the one that now seems to be unfolding in France. Nowadays, it is often the case that the media do not even choose journalists of their own liking, asking instead political parties and financial lobbies to "accolade" these and appoint "journalists".

The suffocating and total control of the sphere of ideas have led to the creation of a class of "political professionals", intellectuals, scientists, advertisers and pollsters who have ended up believing their own propaganda and are now unable, to a large extent, to analyse what is happening in the real world, even if this is needed by the class of interests they serve. George Orwell has been proven right.

Perhaps this is why the French Le Monde decided to send 70 scientists across France on a quest to understand what's going on in the country - probably the largest "press expedition" in history!

Related:

Paul Joseph Watson: Paris is a Sh*thole (VIDEO) (https://www.sott.net/article/395163-Paul-Joseph-Watson-Paris-is-a-Sh-thole-VIDEO)

Social Contagion: 'Yellow Vest' protests spread among citizens fed up with corruption (https://www.sott.net/article/402671-Social-Contagion-Yellow-Vest-protests-spread-among-citizens-fed-up-with-corruption)

Yellow Vest anti-government protest movement launched in Ireland - Calls for 'revolution' (https://www.sott.net/article/403021-Yellow-Vest-anti-government-protest-movement-launched-in-Ireland-Calls-for-revolution)

'Time to learn from the French!' 10 arrested after Yellow Vest protests spread to Israel (https://www.sott.net/article/402911-Time-to-learn-from-the-French-10-arrested-after-Yellow-Vest-protests-spread-to-Israel)

Catching fire: French yellow vest protests spread to Brussels with calls for resignation of PM Charles Michel (https://www.sott.net/article/401807-Catching-fire-French-yellow-vest-protests-spread-to-Brussels-with-calls-for-resignation-of-PM-Charles-Michel)

Hervé

15th January 2019, 14:21

Macron's 'grand national debate' starting today is like 'SLEEPING GAS,' Yellow Vests say (https://www.rt.com/news/448853-macron-grand-national-debate/)

RT
Published time: 15 Jan, 2019 12:36 Edited time: 15 Jan, 2019 13:48
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9mc5)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.01/xxs/5c3dc85cfc7e93da1a8b4593.JPG
A man participates in a Yellow Vests rally in Marseille, France. © Jean-Paul Pelissier / Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron hopes to use nationwide debates, set to kick off on Tuesday, to tackle anger emanating from the Yellow Vests, but protesters and the opposition remain skeptical that he seeks genuine change.

By launching "grand national debates," the president has promised to reach out to citizens and listen to everyone. "For me there is no banned issue," Macron wrote (https://www.nouvelobs.com/politique/20190113.OBS8401/decouvrez-la-lettre-d-emmanuel-macron-aux-francais.html) in an open letter to the nation, published on Monday.
We won't agree on everything, which is normal in a democracy. But at least, we will show that we are a people who are not afraid of talking, exchanging, debating.
The first round of the debates is set (https://www.france24.com/en/20190115-france-macron-grand-debate-normandy-yellow-vest-protest) to kick off in the northern town of Grand Bourgtheroulde on Tuesday, with the president expected to attend. He is scheduled to hold a meeting with 600 mayors and local officials there.

Macron hopes that a frank nationwide discussion will lead to reconciliation with the Yellow Vest protesters whose massive rallies have been rocking Paris and other towns across France since November. Started as a grassroots movement against planned fuel tax hikes, the Yellow Vests evolved into broader voice to vent the anger towards the government. Their demands grew to include the resignation of President Macron.

The clashes with police and the chaotic atmosphere during the rallies have left at least 10 people dead and more than a thousand have been detained.

In his letter, Macron offered to answer a variety of questions, such as which taxes should be lowered and whether France should have more referendums.

Some of the issues put up for debate were ostensibly not connected with the recent protests, like the question over whether the government should set annual immigration targets.

The protests have already prompted Macron to offer concessions. He promised a minimum wage rise and to roll back the planned fuel tax hike. While pledging more dialogue on Monday, the president emphasized that he will not allow a complete redo of his pro-business reforms and won't return the scrapped wealth tax.

"We're not replaying the election," the government's spokesperson Benjamin Griveaux explained.

This attitude led the opposition to believe that Macron just wishes to tweak the system a little bit, instead of fixing it. Leader of the left-wing La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Melenchon, dismissed the 'grand debate' as a "big diversion," suggesting that the government had already decided its outcome.

The issues singled out for discussion are "limited" and it is unclear who will be organizing the process, noted Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Rally (formerly the National Front). The government has been announcing policies before the talks even started, she said.

The Yellow Vests and regular citizens don't feel too enthusiastic either. Many are skeptical of the government's intentions and doubt that Macron has a real desire to listen.
"We don't care about the national debate because we know it won't change anything," a Yellow Vests activist told RT. Others suspect the whole approach is designed simply to placate popular anger.
In demonstrations they use tear gas against protesters. This national debate is like sleeping gas.
The proposed discussion will be "useless" because the officials stated that they won't review anything done in the last 18 months of Macron's presidency.

Yellow Vests campaigner Elodie Crisias told RT France that the protesters would like to put all issues up for referendums, but the French officials already indicated that it is impossible.
"In the end, the government and Emmanuel Macron don't hear what we, the French people and the Yellow Vests, want. In a democracy, all decisions are made by the people, but in this case we can't decide on anything."
President Macron had earlier been accused of being out of touch when trying to tackle the protests. Last week, he was roasted for saying (https://www.rt.com/news/448668-macron-citizens-effort-reactions/) that many French citizens think it is possible to "obtain something without proper effort."

The timing of the debates also coincides with the upcoming crackdown on the unauthorized protests, announced earlier by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. The measures are expected (https://www.rt.com/news/448265-france-tougher-laws-protests-yellowvests/) to tackle “continued unacceptable violence” across the country, Philippe’s office said.

Video at: https://www.rt.com/news/448853-macron-grand-national-debate/

© RT

Flash

15th January 2019, 18:06

Macron knows its people well. He is there to do the bidding of the elite. He will do it. Those kind of public discussions with French people become endless rhetorics. Have you ever seen anything decided on discussions with the people. And less in the French cultures. We like discussing too much

This will drag on and on, discussions will be manipulated savantly, and little flimsy changes will be proposed and still less implemented. And Macron think it will suffice and that the French won’t see the manipulations. The worst part is that he may be right.

Hervé

18th January 2019, 01:32

Has The Yellow Vest Movement Run Out of Gas? - Vincent Lapierre Reports From Paris (https://www.sott.net/article/405189-Has-The-Yellow-Vest-Movement-Run-Out-of-Gas-Vincent-Lapierre-Reports-From-Paris#)

Sott.net (https://www.sott.net/article/405189-Has-The-Yellow-Vest-Movement-Run-Out-of-Gas-Vincent-Lapierre-Reports-From-Paris#)
Thu, 17 Jan 2019 20:16 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/506268/large/Lapierre_2.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/506268/full/Lapierre_2.jpg)

With the French establishment media under-reporting or misreporting the Yellow Vest protests in France - and with Western media of course following suit - accurate, unfiltered on-the-scene coverage is sparse.

Independent reporter Vincent Lapierre (https://twitter.com/vinclapierre?lang=en) has been 'embedded' with Yellow Vest protesters since the movement began back in November, publishing video reports (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTQQb3F6qDKXObGAE27HtVw/videos) on his channel Le Média Pour Tous of each of the major Saturday protests in Paris.

The following is his video report from 'Acte VIII' in Paris, which took place on Saturday 5th of January. Click on the captions icon (cc) for English subtitles.

What do you think: is the French government-media complex correct in its assessment that the Yellow Vest movement has 'run out of gas'? Or, at the rate they're firing it at protesters, and their failure to deter protesters from getting onto the streets, will the police run out of gas first?

PEQOLfVvXxw

Le Média Pour Tous has since published another video report, covering Acte IX (Saturday 12th January), which you can view here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnOCbNWlD6E). Note that it takes several days for EN subs to be added.

Hervé

19th January 2019, 20:56

1000s of police on guard as Yellow Vests hit streets in France for 10th week in a row (https://www.rt.com/news/449190-yellow-vest-protests-act10/)

RT
Published time: 19 Jan, 2019 12:16
Edited time: 19 Jan, 2019 20:23
Get short URL (https://on.rt.com/9mli)

https://cdni.rt.com/files/2019.01/original/5c4321a0fc7e933f128b45c1.jpg
Video at: https://www.rt.com/news/449190-yellow-vest-protests-act10/ © Philippe Lopez / AFP

For the 10th week in a row, Yellow Vest protesters filled the streets of Paris and other cities in France, with thousands of police standing guard. Earlier, President Emmanuel Macron launched his “national debates” on the crisis.

Around 84,000 people had joined the protests across the country on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said. The turnout was comparable to that of last week, meaning that the nation-wide debate on the crisis announced by President Emmanuel Macron so far did little to change the people’s moods.

In Paris, the Yellow Vest occupied the Champs-Elysees and the Esplanade des Invalides near the nation’s parliament. People were seen waving national flags and setting off firecrackers.

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1086572752713195520/pu/img/vSwYnNp57AV8onoq?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/LPLdirect/status/1086579541626310656)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1084547921880731648/uIdSr_Rm_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/LPLdirect) La Plume Libre @LPLdirect
(https://twitter.com/LPLdirect) https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f1eb-1f1f7.png [#Acte10 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Acte10?src=hash)] Entre 4.000 et 5.000 #GiletsJaunes (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GiletsJaunes?src=hash) place de #Invalides (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Invalides?src=hash) à #Paris (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Paris?src=hash). Manifestation calme. Un commissaire de police affirme que la mobilisation sera très forte pour l'#ActeX (https://twitter.com/hashtag/ActeX?src=hash) en ce #19Janvier (https://twitter.com/hashtag/19Janvier?src=hash). Images impressionnantes. Forte présence policière.

(https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1086579541626310656)1:02 PM - Jan 19, 2019 (https://twitter.com/LPLdirect/status/1086579541626310656)
Some protesters brought cardboard coffins, in memory of the people who have died since the beginning of the protests (the majority was killed in traffic accidents during road blockades). They marched under a large banner reading “Citizens in danger.”

The law enforcers used water cannons and tear gas to disperse some of the protesters in Paris.
"Over in the distance, you might see a water cannon. They’re trying to disperse the protestors,” RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij reported from the heat of the action in Paris. “We did see the protestors trying to break down some of the traffic lights. We’ve also seen tear gas being dispersed… The protestors were trying to throw back the tear gas pellets back at the police.”
After the officers used force, there were people lying on the ground, who “potentially could’ve been injured,” Dubenskij said.

42 protestors were arrested in the capital for carrying illegal items and other violations, the police said.

The demonstrators have denounced Macron’s open letter to the country, in which he announced the launch of the nation-wide debate to defuse the tensions, as nothing but a “huge scam.”

“It contradicts everything he [Macron] says and does,” one of the protestors told RT, with the other saying that he’ll gladly send the letter back to the president.

“We hear a lot of fine words, but see very few decisions that somehow improve the wellbeing of the people. There must be a least a slight increase in living standard after we’ve been crying for help for the past ten weeks. We work hard, but we still have an empty fridge. That’s how we live,” a female demonstrator said.

The Yellow Vest processions took place in Caen and Rouen, both in northern France. The rallies were also held in Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Toulon, Dijon, Beziers, Avignon, among other places.

The authorities deployed 5,000 police officers in Paris, and 80,000 nationwide, according to local media.

Armored police cars were filmed moving through the streets of the southern city of Toulouse. There were also reports of armored vehicles stationed in the capital.

Some protesters carried placards, reading "Freedom, Equality, Flash-Ball," referring to the type of ‘less-lethal’ guns used by law enforcement to quell the protests. The placards also contained pictures of Marianne – a national symbol of liberty – with an injured eye. That was apparently an allusion to a high-publicized incident (https://www.rt.com/news/446389-france-police-target-civilians/) in December when a young woman was hit in the eye by a projectile the activists say was fired from a Flash-Ball.

In Avignon, the protestors attempted to set the city hall on fire by gathering burning waste materials in front of the wooden doors to the building.

The Yellow Vest protests began in November as a movement against planned fuel tax hikes, but eventually grew to include wider demands, including the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron and his government.

Previous rallies have seen violent clashes with police. There have been injuries on both sides, and over 1,000 people have been detained in connection to the unrest, which has at times spilled out into street battles.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dw9C47-XcAAJJf4?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1086186434191638530)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1018833905082871808/F7RZerA1_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/RT_com) RT ✔ @RT_com
(https://twitter.com/RT_com)
After months of #YellowVest (https://twitter.com/hashtag/YellowVest?src=hash) protests across France, we take a look at how the govt’s reaction to the movement has changed#GiletsJaunes (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GiletsJaunes?src=hash) #LesGiletsJaunes (https://twitter.com/hashtag/LesGiletsJaunes?src=hash)

11:00 AM - Jan 18, 2019 (https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1086186434191638530)Saturday’s rallies take place days after President Emmanuel Macron launched (https://www.rt.com/news/448853-macron-grand-national-debate/) “grand national debates,” a series of public discussions about the government’s policies. He hopes the debates will help in reaching a compromise with the protesters, but many have expressed skepticism regarding the format and intentions. As a result, some protesters appeared with placards denouncing the debates as a “scam.”

Hervé

20th January 2019, 12:32

...

What! No one to finance the "Gilets Jaunes" rebels!?

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/506540/medium/Assad_Macron_Must_go.jpg

... Hmmm... must mean the Empire/cabal/deep state need Macron to remain and drive France into deeper sh!t...

Hervé

21st January 2019, 14:56

The 'Gilets Jaunes' Are Unstoppable: "Now, The Elites Are Afraid" (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-21/gilets-jaunes-are-unstoppable-now-elites-are-afraid)

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/thumbnail/public/pictures/picture-5.jpg?itok=LY4e264- (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) by Tyler Durden (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Mon, 01/21/2019 - 08:29

Authored by Christophe Guilluy via Spiked-Online.com, (https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/01/11/the-gilets-jaunes-are-unstoppable/)

The gilets jaunes (https://www.spiked-online.com/2018/12/12/its-time-for-the-people-to-take-power/) (yellow vest) movement has rattled the French establishment. For several months, crowds ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands have been taking to the streets every weekend across the whole of France (https://www.spiked-online.com/tag/france/). They have had enormous success, extracting major concessions from the government. They continue to march.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/unnamed%20%281%29_5.jpg

Back in 2014, geographer Christopher Guilluy’s study of la France périphérique (peripheral France) caused a media sensation. It drew attention to the economic, cultural and political exclusion of the working classes, most of whom now live outside the major cities. It highlighted the conditions that would later give rise to the yellow-vest phenomenon. Guilluy has developed on these themes in his recent books, No Society (https://smile.amazon.co.uk/No-society-classe-moyenne-occidentale/dp/2081422719/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1547215173&sr=1-1&keywords=christophe+guilluy+no+society) and The Twilight of the Elite: Prosperity, the Periphery and the Future of France (https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Twilight-Elites-Prosperity-Periphery-Future-ebook/dp/B07L14PD5D/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1547215173&sr=1-2&keywords=christophe+guilluy+no+society). spiked caught up with Guilluy to get his view on the causes and consequences of the yellow-vest movement.

spiked: What exactly do you mean by ‘peripheral France’?

Christophe Guilluy: ‘Peripheral France’ is about the geographic distribution of the working classes across France. Fifteen years ago, I noticed that the majority of working-class people actually live very far away from the major globalised cities – far from Paris, Lyon and Toulouse, and also very far from London and New York.

Technically, our globalised economic model performs well. It produces a lot of wealth. But it doesn’t need the majority of the population to function. It has no real need for the manual workers, labourers and even small-business owners outside of the big cities. Paris creates enough wealth for the whole of France, and London does the same in Britain. But you cannot build a society around this. The gilets jaunes is a revolt of the working classes who live in these places.

They tend to be people in work, but who don’t earn very much, between 1000€ and 2000€ per month. Some of them are very poor if they are unemployed. Others were once middle-class. What they all have in common is that they live in areas where there is hardly any work left. They know that even if they have a job today, they could lose it tomorrow and they won’t find anything else.

spiked: What is the role of culture in the yellow-vest movement?

Guilluy: Not only does peripheral France fare badly in the modern economy, it is also culturally misunderstood by the elite. The yellow-vest movement is a truly 21st-century movement in that it is cultural as well as political. Cultural validation is extremely important in our era.

One illustration of this cultural divide is that most modern, progressive social movements and protests are quickly endorsed by celebrities, actors, the media and the intellectuals. But none of them approve of the gilets jaunes. Their emergence has caused a kind of psychological shock to the cultural establishment. It is exactly the same shock that the British elites experienced with the Brexit vote and that they are still experiencing now, three years later.

The Brexit vote had a lot to do with culture, too, I think. It was more than just the question of leaving the EU. Many voters wanted to remind the political class that they exist. That’s what French people are using the gilets jaunes for – to say we exist. We are seeing the same phenomenon in populist revolts across the world.

spiked: How have the working-classes come to be excluded?

Guilluy: All the growth and dynamism is in the major cities, but people cannot just move there. The cities are inaccessible, particularly thanks to mounting housing costs. The big cities today are like medieval citadels. It is like we are going back to the city-states of the Middle Ages. Funnily enough, Paris is going to start charging people for entry, just like the excise duties you used to have to pay to enter a town in the Middle Ages.

The cities themselves have become very unequal, too. The Parisian economy needs executives and qualified professionals. It also needs workers, predominantly immigrants, for the construction industry and catering et cetera. Business relies on this very specific demographic mix. The problem is that ‘the people’ outside of this still exist. In fact, ‘Peripheral France’ actually encompasses the majority of French people.

spiked: What role has the liberal metropolitan elite played in this?

Guilluy: We have a new bourgeoisie, but because they are very cool and progressive, it creates the impression that there is no class conflict anymore. It is really difficult to oppose the hipsters when they say they care about the poor and about minorities.

But actually, they are very much complicit in relegating the working classes to the sidelines. Not only do they benefit enormously from the globalised economy, but they have also produced a dominant cultural discourse which ostracises working-class people. Think of the ‘deplorables’ evoked by Hillary Clinton. There is a similar view of the working class in France and Britain. They are looked upon as if they are some kind of Amazonian tribe. The problem for the elites is that it is a very big tribe.

The middle-class reaction to the yellow vests has been telling. Immediately, the protesters were denounced as xenophobes, anti-Semites and homophobes. The elites present themselves as anti-fascist and anti-racist but this is merely a way of defending their class interests. It is the only argument they can muster to defend their status, but it is not working anymore.

Now the elites are afraid. For the first time, there is a movement which cannot be controlled through the normal political mechanisms. The gilets jaunes didn’t emerge from the trade unions or the political parties. It cannot be stopped. There is no ‘off’ button. Either the intelligentsia will be forced to properly acknowledge the existence of these people, or they will have to opt for a kind of soft totalitarianism.

A lot has been made of the fact that the yellow vests’ demands vary a great deal. But above all, it’s a demand for democracy. Fundamentally, they are democrats – they want to be taken seriously and they want to be integrated into the economic order.

spiked: How can we begin to address these demands?

Guilluy: First of all, the bourgeoisie needs a cultural revolution, particularly in universities and in the media. They need to stop insulting the working class, to stop thinking of all the gilets jaunes as imbeciles.

Cultural respect is fundamental: there will be no economic or political integration until there is cultural integration. Then, of course, we need to think differently about the economy. That means dispensing with neoliberal dogma. We need to think beyond Paris, London and New York.

Deux Corbeaux

21st January 2019, 22:47

...........
spiked: How can we begin to address these demands?

Guilluy: First of all, the bourgeoisie needs a cultural revolution, particularly in universities and in the media. They need to stop insulting the working class, to stop thinking of all the gilets jaunes as imbeciles.

This is what a lot of Americans think about Trump supporters - deplorables/imbeciles.
No yellow vests, but red MAGA hats.
It seems that in many instances one has to be really courageous to wear one.

See: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/01/covington-catholic-student-begs-local-tv-news-to-tell-the-truth-about-native-american-incident-in-dc/

Hervé

24th January 2019, 20:15

UK Media Silence on Yellow Vests? Deceased German Journalist’s Work Has Answers (https://www.fort-russ.com/2019/01/uk-media-silence-on-yellow-vests-deceased-german-journalists-work-has-answers/)

FRN

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/yellow-vest-protest-735x430.jpg

https://www.fort-russ.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Capture-1-150x150.jpgBy Tom Winter (https://www.fort-russ.com/author/tom-winter/) On Jan 23, 2019

Two days ago, we could not confirm a widely shared claim the British press had gotten a D-Notice ordering a clamp on any coverage of the Yellow Vest movement in France. But what there is no doubt of, is the prevalence of such D-Notice orders – media gag orders which prohibit or greatly direct the coverage of certain matters of public interest, normally covered by ‘free’ media, but in fact we find something rather ominous and indeed subversive to the work of independent media.

There’s been such the look and feel of what amounts to a media gag order surrounding the coverage over these yellow vest protests, that it raises serious questions. Where we have seen coverage in the British press, it’s been sensationalist, distorting, and carries a derisive tone. Consistently painted as a fringe movement either controlled or infiltrated by the far-right, or conversely, by Russian ‘agents’, bots, hackers (how?!) – coverage in the UK has ignored the popular, left-wing, and more over indigenous nature of these protests.

The real issue is that this is beyond the scope of speculation, let alone paranoia, and rather indeed has us look at what is already known on the subject. While there are myriad government agency departments dedicated to messaging, surpassed only by parallel institutions working in lock-step in the private sphere, this apparent gag order in place in British media not only demonstrates the role of the ‘Deep State’, the MI5 and MI6 in shaping public media discourse, but urges us to take a look at the in depth break-down of this system which was explained by German journalist Udo Ulfkotte, in his work Paid-for Journalists (Gekaufte Journalisten).

In checking out claims that such a D-Notice had come from British authorities regarding coverage of the Yellow Vests , we learned about British D-Notices: A DSMA-Notice (Defence and Security Media Advisory Notice)[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSMA-Notice#cite_note-1) — formerly a DA-Notice (Defence Advisory Notice), and before that called a Defence Notice (D-Notice) until 1993—is an official request to news editors not to publish or broadcast items on specified subjects for reasons of national security. The system is still in use in the United Kingdom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom).

It should probably be mentioned here of course that it would be unthinkable, given that such a system is in place, that it would not have also been used in the case of the Skripals. The specious claims made by UK authorities, and the manner by which all British media unanimously became little more than stenographers for the significantly flawed and narratively bankrupt official line, pushes us here: the D-Notice isn’t a one-off emergency protocol used once in a blue moon, but apparently, increasingly so a part of every-day life in UK media.

The author has long suspected that the US has such a system in place, simply from comparing world news (which I monitor in 6 languages) to what gets covered in NPR. There is something in the Russiagate theme daily, but nothing about Israel and Gaza, or Israel attacking Syria, or about the huge Yellow Vest demonstrations in France, and nothing either about the Storm-Trooper-style police repression of same.

And the Western Press has not touched the bombardment of civilians in Donetsk since 2014. And when CNN did cover a mortar attack in downtown Donetsk, it had a text crawler at the bottom of the screen asserting that it was uncertain where the shell came from. I published a satire on the obvious doctoring of the coverage in June, 2015.**

There has to be a gag order on what Kiev is doing to civilians in Lugansk and Donetsk, issued behind the curtain.

There is an entire book from an insider point of view on just this syndrome: In 2015, Udo Ulfkotte, after 17 years working for a major German newspaper, published Gekaufte Journalisten, Paid-for Journalists, died of heart failure in 2017. The English translation is not available. Open Library dot org does not have a copy to borrow, but they do have a German language summary of it, which we present here in English:

Journalists manipulate us in the interests of the powerful.

Do you, too, have the feeling that you are frequently manipulated and lied to by the media?

Then you feel like the majority of Germans. So far, it has been a “conspiracy theory” that the leading media manipulate citizens with propaganda techniques.

Now an insider reveals what’s really happening behind the scenes. The journalist Udo Ulfkotte is ashamed of working 17 years for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Before the author reveals the secret networks of power, he consistently practices self-criticism. Here he documents for the first time how he was greased for his reporting in the FAZ and how corruption was promoted.

And he reveals why opinion leaders report tendentiously, and how the extended arm of the NATO Press Office prepares wars via the media. As a matter of course, the author was included in the networks of American elite organizations, in return for positive coverage in the US, even receiving an honorary citizenship certificate.

In this book, you will find out which lobby organizations are represented by which journalists. The author mentions hundreds of names and also looks behind the scenes of those organizations that influence our media with one-sided propaganda, such as: Atlantic Bridge, Trilateral Commission, German Marshall Fund, American Council on Germany, American Academy, Aspen Institute, and Institute for European Policy.

It also reveals the intelligence behind lobbying groups, the propaganda techniques and forms that can be used, for example, to obtain funding from the US Embassy for projects aimed at influencing public opinion in Germany.

If the CIA dictates what is written can you imagine secret service staff writing texts in editorial offices that are then published in the editorial section under the names of well-known journalists? Do you know which journalists were greased by which media for their reporting? And do you have an idea of how prestigious »Journalist Prizes« get awarded? It goes on in the background like the former honors of the “heroes of work” in the former GDR because their propaganda work is excellent. It’s not far from journalist to propagandist. If you’ve read this book, you’ll see our newspapers in a different light, switch off the TV more often, and know what else to think of the radio: almost nothing. Because Ulfkotte also writes down meticulously which station belongs to which political party and which journalists are influenced. You realize how you are being manipulated and you know from whom and why. In the end, it becomes clear: Opinion diversity is now only simulated.

Because our “news” is often pure brainwash.

**
Edward R. Murrow, in London, has no idea who is dropping the bombs. (https://www.fort-russ.com/2015/06/edward-r-murrow-reporting-from-london/)
This was reprinted here. (https://openparachute.wordpress.com/2015/06/18/news-media-telling-us-how-to-think/) Our FRN version has the date of the last edit.

*
Anderson Cooper, while in college, worked two summers as an intern with the Central Intelligence Agency. It is noted in his Wikipedia entry. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anderson_Cooper)

Bill Ryan

24th January 2019, 20:37

The real issue is that this is beyond the scope of speculation, let alone paranoia, and rather indeed has us look at what is already known on the subject. While there are myriad government agency departments dedicated to messaging, surpassed only by parallel institutions working in lock-step in the private sphere, this apparent gag order in place in British media not only demonstrates the role of the ‘Deep State’, the MI5 and MI6 in shaping public media discourse, but urges us to take a look at the in depth break-down of this system which was explained by German journalist Udo Ulfkotte, in his work Paid-for Journalists (Gekaufte Journalisten).
[ ... ]
There is an entire book from an insider point of view on just this syndrome: In 2015, Udo Ulfkotte, after 17 years working for a major German newspaper, published Gekaufte Journalisten, Paid-for Journalists, died of heart failure in 2017.

See this thread from January 2017:

RIP Udo Ulfkotte - A Journalist with Integrity (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?95535-RIP-Udo-Ulfkotte-A-Journalist-with-Integrity)

Valerie Villars

24th January 2019, 23:40

Hervé

25th January 2019, 16:17

Act 9 of Regime Change in France: Yellow Vests Protesters Remain Determined - Vincent Lapierre Reports (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnOCbNWlD6E)

Le Média Pour Tous (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnOCbNWlD6E)
Fri, 25 Jan 2019 14:33 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/507338/large/quenelle_paris.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/507338/full/quenelle_paris.jpg)

With the French establishment media under-reporting or misreporting the Yellow Vest protests in France - and with Western media of course following suit - accurate, unfiltered on-the-scene coverage is sparse.

Independent reporter Vincent Lapierre (https://twitter.com/vinclapierre?lang=en) has been 'embedded' with Yellow Vest protesters since the movement began back in November, publishing video reports (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTQQb3F6qDKXObGAE27HtVw/videos) on his channel Le Média Pour Tous of each of the major Saturday protests in Paris.

The following is his video report from 'Acte IX' in Paris, which took place on Saturday 12th of January. Click on the captions icon (cc) for English subtitles.

Meet the Yellow Vests: working men and women, unemployed people, pensioners, parents, patriots, of foreign descent, Antifa, hoods from the banlieues, country-folk, and privileged students...

pnOCbNWlD6E

Valerie Villars

25th January 2019, 17:34

I have so much trouble understanding the politics, political maneuvering, lies, subterfuge, back hand deals and all the other things some on this forum are able to follow and understand, going on here in America.

But, the yellow vest movement by the people and for the people, I understand deeply and thoroughly. It's simple, basic, brave and true.

It's been replayed over and over in the known history of this world. The resilience and intelligence of humanity at its very best. Fighting for what is right, regardless of their own personal safety.

As one man said "Fear is our enemy."

The video above is so beautiful in it's eloquence, as expressed by those who are living it.

Thanks so much for keeping me up to date on this Herve. And giving me hope.

The yellow vest I saw hanging on a porch here where I live, which I mentioned elsewhere on this thread, is mine. It reminds me every day of what is important. My heart and my sentiments are with the movement.

Flash

25th January 2019, 17:51

French are definitely more educated politically than the average American. At a minimum they all know their central bank is private, not owned by the people. Which average Americans and Canadians do not know.

(in fact, the Canadian central bank is officially owned by the people, but the issuing of money is done at something around 93% by private banks, so..... the one who manage the money is the one in power).

Hear and read the videos that Hervé is bringing us, very descriptive and realistic, excellent translation in the captions.

BMJ

26th January 2019, 00:37

Italy's Salvini hopes France will get rid of 'terrible' Macron

AFP News 23 January 2019

Italy's far-right Interior Minister worsened already strained relations between Rome and Paris on Tuesday, saying he hoped the French could soon free themselves of a "terrible president", centrist Emmanuel Macron.

"I hope that the French will be able to free themselves from a terrible president," Matteo Salvini said in a video on Facebook in the latest taunt of the French leader by the populist government across the Alps.

"The opportunity will come on May 26 (the European elections) when finally the French people will be able to take back control of its future, destiny, (and) pride, which are poorly represented by a character like Macron", he said.

Salvini, who is also deputy prime minister, said he felt "close, with all my heart... to the French people, the millions of men and women who live in France under a terrible government and terrible president".

The fresh attack on Macron, who signed a new friendship treaty with Germany on Tuesday, follows a series of incendiary remarks by Italy's other deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio.

Di Maio, head of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), which rules in coalition with Salvini's far-right League, accused Paris on Monday of continuing to colonise Africa and causing people to migrate from the continent.

France summoned Italy's ambassador in protest over Di Maio's comments that "the EU should sanction France and all countries like France that impoverish Africa and make these people leave".

Relations between the two capitals, usually close EU allies, have deteriorated since the M5S-League coalition became the European Union's first populist-only government in June last year.

Di Maio and Salvini recently backed "yellow vest" protesters who have been demonstrating against Macron's government since November.

Link: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/italys-salvini-hopes-france-rid-terrible-macron-134520482.html

Hervé

31st January 2019, 16:55

France’s Red Scarves: Ready-Made Counter-Protest and New Media Darlings (https://www.mintpressnews.com/frances-red-scarves-ready-made-counter-protest-new-media-darlings/254313/)

by Whitney Webb (https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/whitney-webb/)
January 28th, 2019

https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/AP_19027505670510-1_edited.jpg (https://www.mintpressnews.com/frances-red-scarves-ready-made-counter-protest-new-media-darlings/254313/)"Foulards Rouges" Protesters rally in downtown Paris, France, Jan. 27, 2019. A counter-yellow west demonstration is organized by groups calling themselves the “red scarves” and “blue vests” to protest the “violence.” Kamil Zihnioglu | AP

The pressure will now grow to disperse the Yellow Vest movement while also attempting to use the Red Scarves to manufacture support for draconian government policies and police crackdowns aimed at finally ending the establishment-threatening protests.

By Whitney Webb (https://www.mintpressnews.com/author/whitney-webb/)

PARIS — As the “Yellow Vest,” or Gilet Jaunes, protest in France continues to perplex and concern the French government and European elites, a new “counter-protest” has emerged (https://www.rt.com/news/449935-red-scarves-protest-yellow-vests/) in response to the popular protest movement now entering its 12th week.

Protesters branding themselves as the “Red Scarves,” or Foulards Rouge, descended on Paris this past Sunday in order to protest the “violence” of some Gilet Jaunes protesters and a desire to see the country return to “normalcy.” The French government, which has sought to weaken and disperse the Yellow Vests movement since its inception, stated that the Red Scarves numbered around (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-paris-red-scarves-turn-out-to-protest-the-violence-of-the-yellow-vest-demonstrations/2019/01/27/399c6596-20eb-11e9-a759-2b8541bbbe20_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5b8df086efb3) 10,500 in Paris, while other reports (http://time.com/5514101/yellow-vest-paris-red-scarves-counter-protest/) claimed that the demonstration was significantly smaller than the government-supplied figure.

The group has been described (https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nouvelles-du-monde.com%2Fla-reponse-aux-gilets-jaunes-est-organisee-et-divisee%2F) as “diverse” — much like the Yellow Vests, who have drawn support from across the French political spectrum — and “apolitical,” as its leadership have stated that the Red Scarves are not necessarily supportive of French President Emmanuel Macron, whose ouster is being sought by Yellow Vests demonstrators. Some participants (https://twitter.com/MalikAcher_RTFr/status/1089580781041840130) who were interviewed on Sunday stated that they were not protesting against the Yellow Vests but instead in favor of protecting the integrity of France’s political institutions. This has led the Red Scarves themselves, as well as subsequent media reports, to portray the group as representing France’s “silent majority (https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nouvelles-du-monde.com%2Fla-reponse-aux-gilets-jaunes-est-organisee-et-divisee%2F)” that – until now – had refrained from demonstrating.

According to reports from mainstream outlets, the Red Scarves movement – which was joined by another pro-government counter-protest group, the “Blue Vests” — was a direct response (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-paris-red-scarves-turn-out-to-protest-the-violence-of-the-yellow-vest-demonstrations/2019/01/27/399c6596-20eb-11e9-a759-2b8541bbbe20_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5b8df086efb3) to violence from some members of the large Yellow Vests protest movement that has resulted in the destruction of property and clashes with police. Yellow Vest organizers have disavowed the use of violence and have blamed “black bloc” groups for using the movement as a pretext for committing violent acts.

Notably, reports of such clashes largely declined to mention the role of French police in causing and fomenting violence, despite the abundance of video evidence documenting hundreds of instances (https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1085129853509271552) of police brutality against unarmed and even prone protesters, as well as innocent bystanders. The Red Scarves themselves have also overlooked (https://www.rt.com/news/449935-red-scarves-protest-yellow-vests/) this aspect, both by “urging respect for French authorities” and by chanting pro-police slogans, as well as by asserting that French policemen have acted responsibly in response to the Yellow Vests despite the fact that the vast majority of injuries (https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/gilets-jaunes-je-n-ai-jamais-vu-autant-de-blesses-graves_2058008.html#xtor=AL-447) suffered since the protests first began last November were caused by the actions of militarized riot police. Over 2,000 have been injured and 10 have been killed since the protests began.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1080598812257894400/IWPmMtT8_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/sotiridi) Sotiri Dimpinoudis @sotiridi
(https://twitter.com/sotiridi)
· Jan 15, 2019 (https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1085133427949621248)

Replying to @sotiridi (https://twitter.com/_/status/1085133057689092096)
5/ A Journalist in #France (https://twitter.com/hashtag/France?src=hash) got badly injured yesterday. The police officers shot a Flash ball and breaking his kneecap instantly!

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1085133324866256896/pu/img/eYuZzGkjpgnihu8B?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1085133427949621248)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1080598812257894400/IWPmMtT8_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/sotiridi) Sotiri Dimpinoudis @sotiridi
(https://twitter.com/sotiridi)
6/ elderly men getting hit and his wife started to go on a screaming rant "Pease don't hit him" I am begging you, please stop please please please. The elderly men was taken into custody but got released earlier today. The wife of the elderly men has filled an police complaint. pic.twitter.com/KwGRCZGBBi (https://t.co/KwGRCZGBBi)

589 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1085134320057098240)
1:19 PM - Jan 15, 2019 (https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1085134320057098240)

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1085134285709942784/pu/img/r1RmdfaS88HAcNZh?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1085134320057098240)
Organic or synthetic?
Given their relatively sudden appearance and sympathetic media coverage within France and throughout the Western world, the Red Scarves have drawn skeptical scrutiny from Yellow Vest members, some of whom have described them as “pro-Macron stooges.” While it is difficult to know if the origins of the Red Scarves are as organic as has been portrayed in mainstream reports, there are certain aspects of the movement that have raised suspicion among journalists reporting from France and other observers.

For instance, evidence reported on by French media and journalists who have been closely covering the protests has shown that at least half (https://twitter.com/sotiridi/status/1089547909237035010) of the Red Scarves who participated in Sunday’s demonstrations had been bused into Paris for the demonstration. This has led to speculation about the movement’s actual extent of popular support, both in Paris and nationwide, as well as speculation that some Red Scarves had been paid to travel to Paris to participate in the demonstration.

There is also the fact that the Red Scarves is a formal, state-recognized association (https://www.foulardsrouges.org/), as opposed to the Yellow Vest movement, which is a grassroots entity. According to investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley, who lives in France, the fact that the Red Scarves is a formal association shows that it was planned long before the Yellow Vest movement was accused of fomenting violence. Beeley told MintPress News that, because of the length of the process needed to navigate French bureaucracy, in order for the Red Scarves to have been created on December 21st, the three directors of the group would have had to have initiated the process soon after the Yellow Vests protests began in mid-November.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/AP_19027571234752_edited.jpg
A red scarf protester stands next to a police van in Paris, France, Jan. 27, 2019. Kamil Zihnioglu | AP

If this is the case, it greatly undercuts the prevailing narrative that the Red Scarves movement is a response to recent acts of violence associated with the Yellow Vests protests. Indeed, even the founder of the Red Scarves – Fabien Homenor, a computer scientist – told French media (https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nouvelles-du-monde.com%2Fla-reponse-aux-gilets-jaunes-est-organisee-et-divisee%2F) that he would have “donned a Yellow Vest” during the first weeks of the protest because he agreed with their initial concerns — i.e., the controversial fuel tax that Macron’s government has since scrapped following the success of the protests. This raises the question, why would Homenor create an association to counter the Yellow Vests at a time when he claims he supported their efforts?

Playing up, playing down, the numbers
An examination of mainstream reports on Sunday’s demonstration suggests an effort to inflate the Red Scarves’ importance and to build their image as “non-violent” and diminish the comparative significance of the Yellow Vests movement. For instance, the Washington Post stated that (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/in-paris-red-scarves-turn-out-to-protest-the-violence-of-the-yellow-vest-demonstrations/2019/01/27/399c6596-20eb-11e9-a759-2b8541bbbe20_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5b8df086efb3) “Approximately 10,500 people marched in Paris [as part of the Red Scarves demonstration] on Sunday, according to police figures. That was more than twice the number that donned yellow vests in the capital the day before, when about 4,000 marched in Paris and 69,000 marched nationwide, according to the Interior Ministry.”

Thus, while the Post notes the available statistics, it claims that the Red Scarves demonstrations, which occurred only in Paris, were larger than Yellow Vests protests a day prior in the same city — but conflates Saturday’s Paris protest with the nationwide Yellow Vests protest in which a combined 73,000 people participated. A more accurate portrayal of the situation may have noted that, when both are examined from the national perspective, the Yellow Vests in their 11th week saw nearly seven times more participation than the Red Scarves in their first demonstration. The Post also failed to mention that the Red Scarves protesters were largely bused into Paris from other French cities.

The Post also called the demonstration “the long-awaited intervention in a story line that, until now, had featured just one side of a national conversation on social inequality,” even though the Red Scarves were not explicitly protesting against the Yellow Vests’ demands relating to inequality, but instead focusing on the alleged methods of some of their members.

Notably, the Post’s article barely mentions the horrific wounding of Jerome Rodrigues, a key figure in the Yellow Vest movement, whom witnesses have said was deliberately targeted (https://www.rt.com/news/449849-eye-injury-yellow-vests/) by French police with a flashball grenade launcher at close range. As a consequence, Rodrigues suffered a horrific injury to his right eye and will now be disabled for the rest of his life, according to his lawyer. Other mainstream reports similarly focused (http://time.com/5514101/yellow-vest-paris-red-scarves-counter-protest/) on the Red Scarves movement and relegated mention of Rodriques’ injuries to the final paragraphs.

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1089188064738623489/pu/img/HI3HuCiiEr3t6_rK?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/XseniaSputnik/status/1089188373397426176)
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/821485296089006081/MGq4h5_r_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/XseniaSputnik) Xenia__Sputnik @XseniaSputnik
(https://twitter.com/XseniaSputnik)
Jérôme Rodriguez blessé lors du #acteXI (https://twitter.com/hashtag/acteXI?src=hash) des ##GiletsJaunes11 (https://twitter.com/hashtag/GiletsJaunes11?src=hash)

59 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1089188373397426176)
5:48 PM - Jan 26, 2019 (https://twitter.com/XseniaSputnik/status/1089188373397426176)Exploiting, or manufacturing, the backlash
Whether or not the Red Scarves movement is an establishment-backed effort to divide the highly successful Yellow Vest protests remains to be seen. However, it ultimately matters little if the Red Scarves’ motives are genuine or not, as the French government and a sympathetic international press have already shown they are all too eager to push to divide the Yellow Vests movement, or at least weaken it, by playing the two groups off of each other.

While the French government and well-known media outlets had already been busy demonizing (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/17/yellow-vests-are-tainting-frances-revolutionary-tradition/) the group despite strong popular support across France, with a new group having emerged as its apparent antithesis, the pressure will now grow to disperse the Yellow Vest movement while also attempting to use the Red Scarves to manufacture support for draconian government policies (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-08/draconian-french-law-ban-all-protests-pm-announces-major-crackdown-yellow-vests) and police crackdowns (https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/12/08/fran-d08.html) aimed at finally ending the establishment-threatening protests.

Hervé

4th February 2019, 16:34

D Notice on Yellow Vests (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=183176)

By wmw_admin (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?author=1) on February 3, 2019
Commentary – Feb 3, 2019

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Forces-of-law-and-order-1024x640.jpg (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Forces-of-law-and-order.jpg)
Forces of “law and order” on the streets of Bordeaux during the tenth week of Yellow Jackets protests, 12/1/2019. Click to enlarge

A D-Notice is an official request to editors and the news media in general not to publish reports on specified topics. D-Notices are issued supposedly for reasons of “national security”, although they are often used to conceal information that might be considered more politically compromising.

According to Wikipedia D-Notices have been issued on a number of occasions in recent years:
“In June 2013, a DA-Notice was issued asking the media to refrain from running further stories related to the U.S. PRISM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_(surveillance_program)) programme, and British involvement therein.[11] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSMA-Notice#cite_note-grdanotice-11)

In October 2013, Prime Minister David Cameron (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Cameron) made a veiled threat to newspapers over NSA and GCHQ leaks, stating in Parliament that the government might “use injunctions or D notices or the other tougher measures” to restrain publication of leaked classified information if newspapers did not voluntarily stop publishing them.[12] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSMA-Notice#cite_note-12)

In 2017, a notice was issued against British journalists revealing the identity of the British author (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Steele) of a controversial dossier (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump%E2%80%93Russia_dossier) alleging collusion between Donald Trump (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump) and the Russian government (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_government) during the 2016 presidential election (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016).[13] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSMA-Notice#cite_note-Cox-13) Multiple British outlets ignored this advice and revealed his name anyway, including BBC News (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_News), The Daily Telegraph (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daily_Telegraph) and The Guardian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian).[13] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSMA-Notice#cite_note-Cox-13)
Subsequently, two D-Notices were issued in March 2018 in relation to the Skripal’s poisoning.

However, we’ve now been reliably informed that a new gagging order has issued that throws an entirely new light on current events

According to an anonymous BBC insider a new gagging order has been placed on coverage pertaining to the French Yellow Jackets movement (see below). This means that the powers that be are seriously concerned about the protests and are doing their utmost to prevent them spreading.

Note that the BBC insider claims that the government views the Yellow Jackets protests as a “threat to all European governments and are trying to prevent a ‘European Spring’ type situation”.

To this end the corporate media, including the BBC, are preparing pre-written stories in case an escalation of events forces them to cover the Yellow Jacket protests. If they are then forced to report on the protests the media have been instructed to link them with the “Far right” and the Front National.

As the correspondent who sent this in noted: this explains why reports about protests in France have suddenly become far less prominent in the media.

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/D-notice-government-1024x332.jpeg (http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/D-notice-government.jpeg)
Click to enlarge

Hervé

6th February 2019, 02:29

Where's the evidence? Moscow responds to Macron's claim that Russian media buy social media accounts to destabilize France (https://www.rt.com/news/450730-macron-fake-news-russian-media/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/450730-macron-fake-news-russian-media/)
Tue, 05 Feb 2019 19:18 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/508945/large/5c59d45efc7e9375068b45e7.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/508945/full/5c59d45efc7e9375068b45e7.jpg)
French President Emmanuel Macron © Reuters / Ludovic Marin

French President Emmanuel Macron is spreading fake news to undermine the work of the Russian media, if his recent interview with Le Point is anything to go by, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

Before Yellow Vests went out to the streets in the twelfth weekend of consecutive mass demonstrations against the government's economic policies, weekly political magazine Le Point published an interview with President Macron. There he blamed the scale of public discontent on Russians, social media, the far right and the far left.
"If it's confirmed that Macron said that RT and Sputnik are buying social media accounts to destabilize the situation in Frаnce - this is real fake news," Maria Zakharova told RT.
The foreign ministry sent a request to Paris to clarify whether the claims are a true representation of Macron's thoughts and if that is the official position of the French government.

Macron lambasted the French media for picking up on what people are saying on social media and urged them to put more trust into the words of officials rather than "ordinary" people like the Yellow Vests. Noting the president's dismissive attitude to the public.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/508946/large/5c59d527fc7e93d46e8b4631.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/508946/full/5c59d527fc7e93d46e8b4631.jpg)
Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova © Sputnik / Sergey Mamontov

Zakharova said that Macron should not be surprised that it's the Yellow Vests - and not the authorities - that are being interviewed frequently, as officials had long been prohibited from talking to Russian media.

She also said that it's "outrageous" that the French president equaled fascists and Russians when he was listing those he blamed for fueling protests. Macron used the term "la fachosphère" that describes ultra-nationalists and fascists.

"Russians are presented as the new enemies of the 21st century by French officials," Zakharova said. She called attacks on Russian media a "co-ordinated" and "well-directed" campaign that is orchestrated by Brussels and Washington, who want to present Russian news outlets as "toxic" without bothering to provide facts.

"If there was any proof, they would have produced it already," she said, noting that the ministry's numerous requests to provide evidence when Russia is accused of "meddling" through its media went without a reply.

Related:
C'est pas moi: Macron blames social media and the Russians for the Yellow Vest protests (https://www.sott.net/article/406409-C-est-pas-moi-Macron-blames-social-media-and-the-Russians-for-the-Yellow-Vest-protests)

Hervé

6th February 2019, 17:20

France's Yellow Vest movement maturing into broad-based citizens'coalition (https://www.thenation.com/article/france-yellow-vest-movement-macron/)

Harrison Stetler The Nation (https://www.thenation.com/article/france-yellow-vest-movement-macron/)
Wed, 06 Feb 2019 16:13 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509031/large/yellow_vests_rtr_img.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509031/full/yellow_vests_rtr_img.jpg)
Yellow Vest protesters take part in a demonstration holding a banner that reads “Angry but not fascist” in Paris on January 26, 2019. © Reuters / Benoit Tessier

At its first "Assembly of Assemblies" in late January, this grassroots democratic revolt brought together many people who had never participated in politics.

"The danger," Yanis warned, "is that the constant stream of information becomes its own type of ignorance. It's very easy to forget the human need to educate oneself, and to forge one's own opinion. What we need is for speech and debate to free themselves everywhere, that they fill every part of daily life, that everyone express themselves, respectfully of course."

What Yanis was recalling was his own initial reaction to the eruption of France's Yellow Vest revolt in late November 2018. "At the beginning, there was this fear," he continued. "The movement had been covered in media as a ploy of the far right and the fascist movement. I hesitated to go at first just because of that. But I finally decided that it was all the more important to go if that was actually the case, in order to not abandon the battle to them."

When people in his hometown of Montceau-les-Mines, in central France, began to organize town meetings at the beginning of December, Yanis decided to go and scope things out. Yanis was amazed to see that more than 1,000 attended the earliest assemblies in late November and early December. People were thinking and talking about politics in ways they had never done before. For too long, democratic life was little more than the habitual cycle of elections, with citizenship reduced to the occasional vote.

The assemblies continued on a weekly basis. "I realized that something was growing," Yannis remembers. People were organizing themselves and staying in contact, occupying critical road junctions and protesting. Now, almost two months later, on January 26, Yanis found himself making the roughly 200-mile trip to a village just outside of Commercy, a town in a rural, working-class region in eastern France. Currently unemployed after several stints working in cafeterias in local public schools, the 22-year-old Yanis had been selected by his town's local committee to attend the inaugural "Assembly of Assemblies" of France's nascent Yellow Vest movement.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509035/large/the_yellow_vest_movement_in_fr.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509035/full/the_yellow_vest_movement_in_fr.jpg)
Protest of the Yellow Vests around a roundabout in the town of Vesoul, France. © Obier – CC-BY-4.0

As he would no doubt attest, before this historic convention in Commercy, the Yellow Vests had fallen victim to a familiar trap. Like many other spontaneous and largely leaderless mass movements, the Yellow Vests have been defined and labeled by others.

At first, they were taken to be a manifestation of the inchoate and inarticulate rage of the French middle class. This anger, which had long provided fertile ground for the likes of Marine Le Pen, finally boiled over into street violence and open revolt when Emmanuel Macron's government announced tax increases on gasoline. Macron had already made a name for himself by pushing through unpopular reforms in the name of "necessity." Was this just another occasion of the French being unable to take the bitter medicine, this time in order to reduce carbon-fuel emissions?

The dismissal of the Yellow Vests was made all the more easy because some of the worst elements in French society have tried to capitalize on the climate of disenchantment and anger. Some Yellow Vest social-media groups have contained unmistakable echoes of anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic conspiracies. Likewise, bands of skinheads have infiltrated some street marches, attacking (http://www.francesoir.fr/societe-faits-divers/acte-11-paris-des-militants-dultra-droite-attaquent-le-cortege-du-npa-video) most recently a group of left-wing activists in Paris during the January 26 day of protest. All of this has given credence to smug talking heads - no doubt with an eye on their checkbooks - who wish to sign the entire movement off as yet another worrisome sign of France's slide into right-wing populism.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509036/large/12eb7e83a5f4b222a930e027c95528.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/509036/full/12eb7e83a5f4b222a930e027c95528.jpg)
A group of about thirty ultra-right activists attacked a procession of the NPA in Paris,January 26, 2019 © Eric Feferberg/Agence France-Presse

To any honest observer, however, the Yellow Vests' dynamism and staying power, now going on their 13th weekend of protests at the time of writing, suggested that something deeper was happening. Weekend after weekend, the marches continued and the occupations of roundabouts in rural and suburban areas stood their ground. General assemblies organized on a weekly basis in every corner of France continued to attract people who for years had stood on the sidelines of political life. Teachers and students started to organize and unions began discussing strikes-culminating in a round of work stoppages set to begin on February 5, bringing together Yellow Vests, several unions, and left-wing parties, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon's France Insoumise.

France's battered social movements, fatigued after many retreats before Macron's steamroller of reforms, started to show new signs of life. Polls (https://www.europe1.fr/societe/56-des-francais-soutiennent-toujours-les-gilets-jaunes-selon-un-sondage-3841526) in late January still showed that a majority of the population continue to support the movement, even after Macron canceled the planned tax increases and granted other concessions in December, before launching a highly choreographed "national debate," consisting of staged town-hall meetings and the pro forma taking of grievances in localities, as a means to regain legitimacy. Over the weekend of February 2-3, speculation even began to mount as to a possible national referendum to be held in May, the structure and outlines of which remain vague.

Whatever or whoever they were, the Yellow Vests had clearly managed to give voice to a general feeling of anger and political disenchantment. More and more people were coming to the conclusion that a distant and arrogant elite was to blame. This elite had overseen the steady erosion of public services, from hospitals and schools to public transportation, stewarding rising inequality while abstaining from paying taxes, and stood by as working- and middle-class job security gave way to the precarious fluidity of the contemporary labor market. What's more, people were realizing that something should be done about all of this. And this was a reflex that could not be dismissed as the machinations of a few fascist gangs or Internet trolls-or, even worse, abandoned to them.

If you have to pick your battles, then the most enduring revolt of Macron's presidency and the first that successfully brought his forced march of pro-business reforms to a halt was a fight not to be missed. A political space had opened up and many concerned citizens, including thousands of activists, workers, and teachers, mobilized to fill it. Just what were the real contours of this "peripheral France," whose anger and resentment against elites has boiled over in weeks of protests and occupations? What would it take to bring under the same banner not only the struggling white working and middle classes, but also France's perennially abandoned immigrant communities, who for decades have borne the brunt of austerity, exclusion, and police repression? Does a healthy democracy require more than top-down parties and bureaucratized unions? How can we confront climate change in a just way? Might a broad and horizontal movement, organized around participatory democracy on the local level, finally breathe energy into a public life that for too long has been abandoned to professionals?

These were the questions that made for two days of lively debate and democratic experimentation among the roughly 300 delegates at Commercy on January 26-27. Representing more than 75 Yellow Vest groups from every corner of the country, the assembly marked a significant departure in the history of a movement that had up to this point been characterized by its centrifugal structure.

"Twenty-six billionaires possess as much wealth as half of humanity; this is unacceptable. Share wealth and not misery!" The declaration (https://reporterre.net/Appel-de-la-premiere-assemblee-des-assemblees-des-Gilets-jaunes) that emerged is simply a product of democratic common sense. With a vociferous denunciation of inequality and police violence, calls for the restoration of free public services, a radical response to climate change that targets the greatest polluters in society, and a celebration of the cultural differences in France and among the movement, the declaration cuts against the common narrative about the Yellow Vests.

Gilets Jaunes' List of Demands (http://www.inspiretochangeworld.com/2019/01/gilets-jaunes-yellow-vest-official-list-of-demands/)

Economy/Work

A constitutional cap on taxes - at 25%
Increase of 40% in the basic pension and social welfare
Increase hiring in the public sector to re-establish public services
Massive construction projects to house 5 million homeless, and severe penalties for mayors/prefectures that leave people on the streets
Break up the 'too-big-to-fail' banks, re-separate regular banking from investment banking
Cancel debts accrued through usurious rates of interest

Politics

Constitutional amendments to protect the people's interests, including binding referenda
The barring of lobby groups and vested interests from political decision-making
Frexit: Leave the EU to regain our economic, monetary and political sovereignty (In other words, respect the 2005 referendum result, when France voted against the EU Constitution Treaty, which was then renamed the Lisbon Treaty, and the French people ignored)
Clampdown on tax evasion by the ultra-rich
The immediate cessation of privatization, and the re-nationalization of public goods like motorways, airports, rail, etc
Remove all ideology from the ministry of education, ending all destructive education techniques
Quadruple the budget for law and order and put time-limits on judicial procedures. Make access to the justice system available for all
Break up media monopolies and end their interference in politics. Make media accessible to citizens and guarantee a plurality of opinions. End editorial propaganda
Guarantee citizens' liberty by including in the constitution a complete prohibition on state interference in their decisions concerning education, health and family matters

Health/Environment

No more 'planned obsolescence' - Mandate guarantee from producers that their products will last 10 years, and that spare parts will be available during that period
Ban plastic bottles and other polluting packaging
Weaken the influence of big pharma on health in general and hospitals in particular
Ban on GMO crops, carcinogenic pesticides, endocrine disruptors and monocrops
Reindustrialize France (thereby reducing imports and thus pollution)

Foreign Affairs

End France's participation in foreign wars of aggression, and exit from NATO
Cease pillaging and interfering - politically and militarily - in 'Francafrique', which keeps Africa poor. Immediately repatriate all French soldiers. Establish relations with African states on an equal peer-to-peer basis
Prevent migratory flows that cannot be accommodated or integrated, given the profound civilizational crisis we are experiencing
Scrupulously respect international law and the treaties we have signed

That the group of people at Commercy did in part reflect the many fractures in French society makes the text all the more significant. Sabrina, a schoolteacher from a historically immigrant neighborhood in northeast Paris, has long been an activist in groups opposing police violence and fighting for immigrant rights. She was at Commercy representing her neighborhood's Yellow Vest group, which holds weekly meetings in Paris's Belleville Park. By a bizarre twist of fate, she found herself and her delegation carpooling from the Paris area with a middle-aged man who has supported Marine Le Pen in the past. Unemployed for nearly 10 years, he lives in a lower-middle-class suburb west of Paris, surviving with his 13-year-old daughter on unemployment checks and infrequent part-time jobs, including yearly trips to southern France to work during wine-harvest season.

Sabrina no doubt expected that she would come into contact with people whom she would normally never encounter. "This is the first time the cities are going to the countryside," one delegate rejoiced during the introductory remarks on January 26. "For me, this is actually the chance to see other people from throughout France," Sabrina told me. And if the last two months of nationwide protests had given birth to a nationwide grassroots political energy not seen in years, then this was a turning point not to be missed. There are red lines, of course, and that energy needed to take a positive form. Make no mistake, Sabrina maintains, "there needs to be a clear anti-fascist, anti-racist line in the movement. The next step is to include people from our neighborhoods and to get them implicated. This will also require the Yellow Vests to hear their demands and to learn about their problems."

To be sure, I saw no odd encounters at Commercy, and it could be that certain people chose to leave their past political affiliations at the door. Nor were the delegates brought together by the rigorous niceties of academic radicalism. Rather, what prevailed was the common, innate sense of justice that most people unsurprisingly possess. Christophe, who works at a construction company in Nantes, described his own experience as "years of bitterness, years of seeing political elites destroy working people's lives. Little by little, we've seen our social protections dismantled and our salaries dwindle. I came to the point where I said, 'stop.'"

Nothing was more absurd, delegate after delegate told me, than the common refrain according to which the Yellow Vests were ignorant of the scale of the environmental crisis and of the need to make drastic reforms. Rather, people abhorred the gasoline tax because it was seen as a backhanded measure to make up for a hole in government revenues following an estate-tax cut for France's wealthiest. Aurélia, also from Nantes, thinks that we should see the Yellow Vests as "the first social and environmental revolt in France. By taxing car gasoline, the state taxes people who have no other choice. These are people who have no access to public transportation. This is the first revolt of the energy-precarious."

Torya and Adel know first-hand the ravages being inflicted on French public services. Torya works for the French national railroad company (SNCF) and participated in the fight against Macron's SNCF reforms in the spring of 2018, which slashed union benefits for rail workers and paved the way for the full privatization of the French rail network. "I joined the Yellow Vests to protest against the hypocrisy of the government," she said. "If the gasoline tax were really an environmentalist measure, the government would not be in the process of closing down 9,000 kilometers of train lines, but would be investing in renovating train lines, buying more cars, and hiring more workers."

Adel, her co-delegate, knows what the future holds for workers in a deregulated transportation system. Unlike Torya, he works for one of the already privatized rail subcontractors and has seen his working conditions degrade considerably since his last job as a conductor in the Paris metro system. It is Adel's job to regulate traffic coming in and out of stations. But he now finds himself covering two or sometimes three different roles, with bosses extending their workers to the limit. He was once even sanctioned with five days of unpaid leave when he refused to follow orders from a superior, which would have forced Adel to rush train traffic to a point he deemed extremely dangerous. It would be hard to put the changes being enacted in better form: "Before, it was the worker on the job, who knew the machinery, that had the final say, and the manager listened. Today, it's the opposite."

Torya sees the grassroots structure of the Yellow Vests as a much-needed supplement to the often cautious and incremental French unions that lost the fight over the SNCF reforms last spring. "When I first saw the Yellow Vest movement back in November," she said, "and realized that everyday people were taking things into their own hand, from the ground up, I saw that there was an opportunity. People were again demanding things that we were calling for back in March and April."

Many of the protesters have for the first time in their lives been on the receiving end of a state armed to the teeth, with no reluctance to use force as it sees fit. Under the pretext of defending public order, police have preemptively detained and strip-searched protesters simply for wearing a pair of swim-goggles at a protest (a common defense against tear gas). But legal trickery as a mean to dissuade protesters pales in comparison with the raw force being deployed on the streets of French cities: exploding tear-gas canisters, which cause numerous injuries; rubber bullets that have destroyed eyes and genitals and disabled limbs; the up-close and personal truncheon.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/508510/large/5c55b254dda4c8f35b8b457c.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/508510/full/5c55b254dda4c8f35b8b457c.jpg)
Jerome Rodrigues (https://www.sott.net/article/405852-Prominent-Yellow-Vest-activist-shot-in-the-head-by-French-police-Becomes-18th-protester-to-lose-an-eye) © Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

A new anti-rioting law has been widely condemned by free-speech and civil-liberties organizations, who see the measure as yet another sign of the government's intolerance of opposition. In a telling example of doublespeak, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner claims (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/politique/gouvernement-d-edouard-philippe/loi-anti-casseurs-des-mesures-qui-font-debat_3169565.html) that the law will ensure that people can protest and publicly express their opinions "in full security." But the list of measures (https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2019/01/31/interdiction-de-manifester-fichier-cagoule-proscrite-la-loi-anticasseurs-retricotee-par-l-assemblee_5417016_3224.html) that have been proposed paints a far darker picture: the creation of a new crime for masking one's face at a protest, and authorization given to police prefectures allowing them to forbid certain people from attending protests, punishable by prison time or a fine. The anti-rioting law was denounced by organizations such as Amnesty International, and one centrist deputy- not a committed anti-Macronist - put it best when he warned his parliamentary colleagues of its Vichy-like resonances.

If the proposed law is a reminder of the commonalities between Macron and his "illiberal" counterparts in eastern and southern Europe, for a large portion of the French population, the idea of a repressive and hostile state is not new. For the problem of police violence to truly cease being a taboo, the debate cannot only be restricted to the occasional protest in city centers and the no-doubt disproportionate level of police impunity. Groups opposing police violence, such as the Comité Adama, named for a black man killed by police in 2016, have participated in Yellow Vest marches for just that reason: to bring the daily repression exerted on France's immigrant communities out from the shadows where it has been relegated for years by the gatekeepers of respectable opinion. Adel, whose father moved to France from Algeria in 1969, grew up in the isolated suburbs north of Paris. "The things I could tell you," he said. "It was worse than going through customs and immigration. For us, police violence is part of everyday life. Every time we in the banlieues have protested or revolted, we've been stigmatized, abandoned, and have faced even more police repression. 'They're just riffraff,' the French say. Whenever something happens in our neighborhoods, they ignore us."

A wave of cathartic frustration - the product of decades of economic reaction, police violence, and elite disdain - has coalesced in a spontaneous, decentralized grassroots mass movement bringing together many people who have never participated in political life. Groups and ideas are combining in ways that seemed unlikely a few months ago. Some are seeking to accentuate the chaos, using it as a chance to spread conspiracies and lies. This is not new. Many more are demanding more democracy everywhere: before the state, at work, at school, and in their hometowns. Those who are fighting and organizing to ensure that this movement truly represents all of France are model citizens, engaged in the hard, painstaking work of building a genuine democratic majority.

Related:
Prominent Yellow Vest activist shot in the head by French police - Becomes 18th protester to lose an eye (https://www.sott.net/article/405852-Prominent-Yellow-Vest-activist-shot-in-the-head-by-French-police-Becomes-18th-protester-to-lose-an-eye)

Leaked tape reveals French police discussion about shooting Yellow Vest protesters (https://www.sott.net/article/406556-Leaked-tape-reveals-French-police-discussion-about-shooting-Yellow-Vest-protesters)

Hervé

11th February 2019, 15:05

'Prison time for fraudsters': Salvini calls for elimination of Italy's Central Bank (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-10/salvini-calls-elimination-italys-central-bank-prison-time-fraudsters)

Zero Hedge (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-10/salvini-calls-elimination-italys-central-bank-prison-time-fraudsters)
Sun, 10 Feb 2019 19:56 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/506114/large/matteo_salvini_633x360.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/506114/full/matteo_salvini_633x360.jpg)
Matteo Salvini

On Friday, in a moment of predictive insight, Bank of America correctly warned (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-08/bofa-greatest-risk-over-next-3-years-acceleration-global-populism) that the greatest threat to EPS - i.e., markets - in the next 3 years "is an acceleration of global populism via taxation, regulation & government intervention." Just one day later, this warning to the financial establishment was starkly manifest in that ground zero for Europe's populist revolt, Italy, where the country's coalition government hinted at where the global populist wave is headed next when he slammed the country's central bank leadership and stock market regulator, escalating its attacks on establishment figures ahead of the European parliamentary vote in May.

Matteo Salvini, the outspoken head of the anti-immigrant League party, said the Bank of Italy and Consob, the country's stock market regulator, should be "reduced to zero, more than changing one or two people, reduced to zero", or in other words eliminated, and that "fraudsters" who inflicted losses on Italian savers should "end up in prison for a long time."

As the FT notes (https://www.ft.com/content/949d2c08-2d1d-11e9-8744-e7016697f225), this latest broadside against Italy's financial establishment comes as the two parties which are increasingly at odds with each other amid speculation Salvini may hold elections to become the sole leader of Italy, prepare to run against each other in the European parliamentary elections in May, a contest widely seen as a proxy for national polls. Meanwhile, both leaders have also increased their attacks against targets including the EU and French president Emmanuel Macron.

Confirming the rising animosity between the two coalition partners, the League and Five Star have openly squabbled over the future of an Alpine rail line and migration, while the two leaders' repeated attacks against France which culminated with Di Maio meeting the leaders of the anti-Macron Yellow Vest moment, triggered a diplomatic crisis which last week saw Paris recall its ambassador from Rome.

Saturday's latest verbal crackdown targeting of the Bank of Italy comes after central bankers issued more pessimistic economic growth forecasts for this year compared with the numbers underpinning the government's budget. As we reported last month, Italy entered into a technical recession in the second half of 2018, with the Bank of Italy cutting its GDP forecast for 2019 to 0.6% compared with a 1% forecast made by the government. At the same time, the European Commission slashed Italy's GDP forecast from 1.2% to a borderline recessionary 0.2% for the full year, hinting that Italy's budget deficit forecast will not only be missed, but could re-emerge as a focal point of renewed tensions between Rome and Brussels in the coming months.

Meanwhile, ECB head Mario Draghi, an Italian and former governor of the Bank of Italy, last year warned that central bank independence was under threat by populist governments, while not making a direct reference to Italy. Should Salvini cement his de facto Italian leadership in upcoming elections, it would make life for the local central bank especially complicated.

Separately, Di Maio and other Five Star ministers said they want to block Luigi Federico Signorini, the deputy director-general of the Bank of Italy, from renewing his term, according to La Repubblica. The newspaper reported that the Italian cabinet was divided on the issue.

As previously reported, in the latest anti-establishment shot across the bow, several days ago the government nominated Paolo Savona, a veteran economist and prominent Eurosceptic who had previously served as minister for European affairs, as the new president of Consob. Savona was last year been blocked as the coalition's first choice as economy minister by Italian president Sergio Mattarella, following strong pressure from Brussels and a revolt in the Italian bond market.

SOTT Comment (https://www.sott.net/article/406972-Prison-time-for-fraudsters-Salvini-calls-for-elimination-of-Italys-Central-Bank): The casino banking collapse in 2008 brought much of the world to its knees and robbed citizens of immense public wealth, and the insidious reverberations are still being felt today. And so when democracy has evidently been usurped by finance, Salvini is right to want to bring back some balance, and it's likely that many citizens throughout Europe, from France's Yellow Vests to 2010's Occupy movements, would themselves welcome such changes:

For an idea on just how massive and common crimes by the transnational banking groups are, check out these recent cases:

Whistleblower exposes biggest money laundering scandal in European history involving Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Danske Bank (https://www.sott.net/article/400990-Whistleblower-exposes-biggest-money-laundering-scandal-in-European-history-involving-Deutsche-Bank-JP-Morgan-and-Danske-Bank)

Banks used tax schemes to steal €55 billion from Europe's treasuries - And they're still at it (https://www.sott.net/article/398815-Banks-used-tax-schemes-to-steal-55-billion-from-Europes-treasuries-And-they-re-still-at-it)

Fraud, deception, laundering - Bailed out banks still behaving badly and no one's stopping them (https://www.sott.net/article/379474-Fraud-deception-laundering-Bailed-out-banks-still-behaving-badly-and-no-ones-stopping-them)

Deutsche Bank, HSBC & Citigroup get 'slap on the wrist' in Libor rigging case (https://www.sott.net/article/364394-Deutsche-Bank-HSBC-Citigroup-get-slap-on-the-wrist-in-Libor-rigging-case)

Banking giants ANZ, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup to be prosecuted by Australia for running "criminal cartel" (https://www.sott.net/article/387132-Banking-giants-ANZ-Deutsche-Bank-Citigroup-to-be-prosecuted-by-Australia-for-running-criminal-cartel)

Related:
Fiat Banking is Behind Imperialism (https://www.henrymakow.com/the_imperialism_of_jewish_capi.html)

Hervé

11th February 2019, 15:32

10 Reasons The Gilets-Jeunes Are The Real Deal (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-10/10-reasons-gilets-jeunes-are-real-deal)

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/thumbnail/public/pictures/picture-5.jpg?itok=LY4e264- (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden) by Tyler Durden (https://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden)
Mon, 02/11/2019 - 02:00

Authored by David Studdert via Off-Guardian.org, (https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/10/10-reasons-the-gilets-jaunes-are-the-real-deal/)

We live in a world where democracy is a threat and freedom is a punishment, where you can’t tell a turd from a diamond, where 5G is trumpeted even as it threatens to kill us, where the prevailing ethos is buyer-beware and where anyone against warmongering and eternal war is smeared and painted as a monster.

https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/gilets-jaunes-yellow-vests-3854259_1920.jpg

Who do you believe? All the things you felt certain about Democracy, liberty, the right to free speech, television news, all these things are not only being undermined, in reality, they are being thrown in your face. Democracy in the Nazi-controlled Ukraine, moderate jihadi rebels, no democracy in Russia or Venezuela, despite the fingerprint tests on voters and the voting booth cameras, and this voice saying they’re fair elections and a dozen saying what about France isn’t that democracy and twenty other voices say they’re not and right-wing groups going off in the streets and chemicals in your food and forgetting to turn your wi-fi laden house on before you rush to another meeting or charge your phone, and, and…well…I got lost just writing it.

Keeping you busy, that’s what Neo-Liberalist empire does, and amidst it all, you’re meant to be an active citizen stuffed with social capital, capable of an opinion on any topic at the drop of the hat.

Ontological security, everybody needs it, but right now it’s in short supply especially in big metropolitan cities. No wonder people are confused and afraid, walking backwards into the future, stuck knee-deep in mud dreaming that somehow, through some miracle, everything will, “Please!”, return to normal.

So amidst this Tower of Babble, let’s resolve one conundrum for you.

Here are ten reasons the Gilets Jaunes (unlike US sponsored colour revolutions) are the real deal, by which I mean the direct expression of the people of France.

1. They don’t speak in Abstractions/idealisms: abstraction is the language of power, hierarchy and representation. Abstraction and its use in a political context are what unite all regimes be they communist, Nazi or neo-liberal.[1 (https://off-guardian.org/2019/02/10/10-reasons-the-gilets-jaunes-are-the-real-deal/#1)] The Gilets are not of this school. Their demands are simple, concrete: lower toll way charges, a ban on plastic bottles, a stop to compulsory withdrawals from personal bank accounts, an end to planned obsolescences in consumer goods just to name a few. What these demands enunciate is a world view grounded in people’s immediate lives. The Gilets Jaunes say things like:
I am in the mud of my life, I work 2 hours part day makes me a small salary of 240 month share with a supplement CAF!
And Macron says:
I have always assumed the dimension of verticality, of transcendence, but at the same time it must be anchored in full immanence, materiality.”
Macron 18/1/2019

2. The mainstream media blackout: It is only necessary to go onto Gilets websites to witness the violence being metered out to the yellow vests. Does any of this appear in the mainstream media? Rumour has it a D notice has been issued in Britain forbidding any positive mention of the Yellow Vests. In France, it’s the same. Huge crowds in almost every main city are barely reported, grievances are never discussed. Many colour revolutions are staged by the MSM especially for audiences in Western Europe and the ‘first world’, as the current case of Venezuela illustrates. Instead of this colour revolution simulacrum, what confronts the Gilets Jaunes is a black-out. Draw your own conclusion.

3. The Red Scarfs: in themselves they are of little import, their numbers were exaggerated and being entirely a rent a crowd they lack stamina. On a deeper level however, the appearance of the Red Scarfs represents a very dangerous game by Macron. French society has long been susceptible to right-wing movements of violence: The 6th February 1934 crisis , the bloody war of the anti-Nazi resistance with Vichy militias, a conflict which many French view as a civil war and finally, the OAS in the early 1960s are all examples of such maneuverers. Traces of these historical moments are present currently in the rogue cops, the ‘Spéciale Castaner’ the militia recruited by Macron to dispense their special violence towards protestors. These ‘Des flic hors-la-loi’ (rogue cops) have appeared at every recent demonstration. Again, draw your own conclusions. Their presence shows the state’s desperation, the authenticity of the Gilets and their growing social power.

4. The lack of celebrities or leaders. Even after 12 demonstrations and 3 months of agitation, there are still no spokesmen or leaders or celebrities, ‘speaking’ for the people. This by itself tells you it’s a genuine grassroots movement.

5. The manner in which the globalisers have no response but violence. What is occurring in France currently is a conflict between two world views that have nothing to say to each other. Something illustrated by the side-lining of both Maria La Pen and the official parliamentary opposition. Unlike colour revolutions, there is no clear officially endorsed alternative. No one in Washington nominated a Gilets for the presidency and if they had, no one would take any notice. Thus the ritualised nature of contemporary parliamentary politics has been starkly revealed; all the French deputies whatever their allegiance, are fully paid up globalising neo-liberals.

It is clear that Macron has no way of speaking to the Gilets. His recent declaration that he too wanted a raise in salary (note the word salary) and that made him a Gilets too, is verging, in its relation to reality, on the clinically insane. Neo-liberalism is the world view of the elite and the powerful; as some have noted it’s a class war against the poor. All they can offer the Gilets Jaunes is the same old, same old. The elite’s incomprehension and isolation from the French people are clear in every word they utter. The Power is trapped in its own symbolic universe rendering them incapable of grasping the demands of lived experience expressed by the Gilets Jaunes. In this, the Macron Government resemble the Syrian Jihadists whose demands were incomprehensible to the vast majority of the Syrian people and as such could only be implemented by violence.

6. The confusion among intellectuals. The western intellectual tradition, particularly the social disciplines, has no idea how to address the economic, political and cultural stagnation currently affecting western countries. The continued prestige of the academy is more down to habit, careerism and State support than any lived engagement. Intellectuals such as Henri-Levy have been co-opted repeatedly to provide a veil of respectability for murderous foreign adventures in Syria, Venezuela and Libya.

Simultaneously, academic opponents of these activities are being quietly silenced by purges and smears in universities in France, Australia and Britain. Moreover the concentration of French ‘intellectuals’, particularly social commentators, in the Paris, mirrors exactly the centralisation of political power, indeed they are so entwined one struggles to tell them apart. This is why, like the politicians, French intellectuals are resorting to scatter-gun accusations, chosen as if from some play-book; racism, populism, fascism, anti-Semitism, Russian interference and so on. Anything in truth they can muster at short notice for a two-minute sound bite. Needless to say, the Gilets Jaunes aren’t listening.

There’s an old Sioux Lakota saying: a bird needs two wings to fly. So in globalised 20th-century politics the right-wing argues for economics, the Left speak of morality and in the end we have simultaneously a compassionate-bloodthirsty-anti-racist-anti-sexist-neo-liberal-green- modern and dynamic, latest operational whatever. Articles on the Gilets from a Leftist perspective are invariably varied in prescription and analysis and equally, invariably miss the point. Something always likely when moribund ideologues and their high priest caste are confronted with lived experience.

7. The disappearance of right-wing groups from the street: it is my contention, utterly unsupported by any concrete evidence I might add, that UKIP, Tommy Robinson, the EDF in Britain as well as One Nation in Australia and even Macon himself, are all creations of, and funded by, deep-state elements among the elite. There are also question marks of this sort over Antifa. The ex-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott admitted publicly that during his time as a Howard government minister he was literally the bag-man ferrying money back and forth to One Nation. Some of these groups listed above are violent; some are created with the intention of splitting the Labour vote. In any case, previously highly publicised right-wing groups have all but disappeared from weekly demonstrations, perhaps overwhelmed by the unfunded popular will.

8. The presence of many poor baby boomers and retirees: these sorts of people don’t usually attend demonstrations partially because they’re too busy, too old, don’t care or are driven away by the orchestrated police violence created expressly for that purpose. Yet they constitute the majority of people at the roundabouts, particularly outside Paris. Their presence tells you everything about the veracity of this movement.

9. The nightly MSM news is not crossing live to Washington for expert analysis. This is standard operational practice for colour revolutions in faraway places, mostly because the leaders of such coups often reside in DC on subsidies from the National Endowment for Democracy.

10. There are neither left nor right. This is often commented on adversely as if it was a failing. Nothing answers this better than this Facebook post on a Gilets site:
Look at Jupiter’s face! He doesn’t know what to do. He tried racism, immigration, bludgeoning, thugs, injuries, police violence, prison, smoking, repression, lie and we’re still out there!!!!! So we drop nothing and keep going All together without leaving anyone on the side. It’s not easy. We’re all different with different ideas, but we have a common goal, We’re a lot then in a big family we fight but we meet every week, Saturday, Sunday, night, all when we can and forget our differences.”
Diversity is one of neo-Liberalism’s keywords, yet in thinking about such terms we should also recall Nietzsche’s axiom that things are only spoken about when they are disappearing. Here, however, in the Gilets, we have an example of true diversity, different in every way from the standard Neo-Liberal usage bombarding us every day.

The fundamental reason the Gilets Jaunes differs from any colour revolution or indeed any major revolution of the 20th century is precisely the manner in which this alternative diversity functions. The Gilets are making their own meanings within their own spaces of appearance: ‘where they are seen by others as others are seen by them’ (Arendt 1958). And they are making it through discussion.

Furthermore, these meanings are under their control and are held in common by the Giletswhatever their other differences. As the writer says “We’re all different with different ideas, but we have a common goal, We’re a lot then in a big family we fight but we meet every week”. This sociality creates meanings as an outcome of communal being-ness in common and these meanings remain under the control of the Gilets who made them. Differences, for instance over seeking election to the EU parliament, are simply tolerated.

Diversity of response and opinion is seen as a strength, not a weakness. There is no ideological template applicable to every context. Instead, as an anonymous ex-French Intel guy said last week on Le Media, one roundabout is full of young people, another full of black bloc, another full of older people and they are all talking with each other. Through this sociality and commonality, meaning is produced and then held communally because participants inside varied and infinite contexts (spaces of appearance) and repeated actions of sociality act these meanings in common. Focus is centred on their common interest i.e. the impossibility of existing in today’s France. Everything else is fluff.

Every week these participant meanings are sustained, built upon and maintained through more actions of sociality, more discussion and more actions. Communal meanings held and actioned in this way produce social power; because actioned meaning in common is precisely what social power is!

Furthermore, this unity in diversity utterly splinters all the demonizing and pathologizing names invented by the media and globalisers over the last thirty years as a means of divide and rule. These devised names applied to groups in society: work-shy; dole-bludgers; terrorists; anti-Semite; Russian Bot; racist; sexist and any of the plethora of names applied by the state and the MSM towards elements threatening the façade of Neo-Liberalism, are simply bypassed. As in many other things the Gilets simply refuse to recognise them.

I don’t know what the future holds but I do know that all these reasons taken together prove the Gilets Jaunes are the real deal for genuine change; not only in France but also in how the rest of the world conceives and practices politics itself.

Hervé

19th February 2019, 17:44

Interview with a French Yellow Vest protester: “We will fight until the elites fall” (https://voiceofeurope.com/2019/02/interview-with-a-french-yellow-vest-protester-we-will-fight-until-the-elites-fall/)

By Emma R. (https://voiceofeurope.com/author/emma-r/)
17 February 2019

https://voiceofeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/shutterstock_1252801093-702x459.jpg (https://voiceofeurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/shutterstock_1252801093.jpg)

Exclusive interview with the French Yellow Vest ‘Pierre’ in Paris by Swedish journalist and writer Katerina Janouch.

(Pierre is not his real name – and he wants to remain anonymous because he is worried about otherwise risking his job). He wants change in France, and he has participated in most of the protests that the Yellow Vests have arranged in Paris.

Katerina asks how his dedication began (http://katerinamagasin.se/intervju-med-en-gul-vast-paris-vi-kommer-att-kampa-tills-eliterna-faller/). “I was tired of sitting at home doing nothing”, he says. “So, therefore, I went out into the streets when the Yellow Vest protests started a few months ago. It felt good to be involved and make a difference.”

Last weekend was messy, Pierre confirms, a group of maybe 100 Antifa supporters were looking to pick a fight. “They are useful idiots of the elite and the police ignore them, and at the same time they attack us peaceful protesters.”

“But there is also a difference in whom you come across. The regular cops are respectful, while the BAC (Brigade Anti Criminalité) are aggressive and don’t know how to handle the protesters.”

“They don’t wear official uniforms, but jeans and black helmets and they are the ones who use violence against ordinary unarmed people. Every time I see them, I cover my face because they shoot flash-balls and they also use other kinds of weapons that are lethal.”

“And there is no justice. One guy threw pâté at the police, he got four months in prison. For throwing pâté! While another who drove into the protesters with the intention of harming people only got a one month suspended sentence.”

“People with yellow vests are judged harder. They try to scare us as much as they can, they use violence and legal penalties against us citizens who protest against the abuse of power.”

Pierre develops his opinion on Macron and the goal of the French Yellow Vests: “Of course we want Macron to resign – but it is not enough to replace him, it is not the solution. For years we have elected different politicians but the result has been the same. They are traitors, they don’t do things that benefit the French people.”

“Macron’s agenda is complete. He was elected by the elite and he destroys France’s sovereignty. For example, it has been said that there is no French culture…”

Katerina breaks in: “A number of Swedish politicians have said that as well. That there is no Swedish culture.”

“It is because they want to wipe out the nation states”, says Pierre. “Weaken the unity of the people and thereby make it easy to control them.”

“Macron and his followers are globalists, they don’t care about the French people. When he was elected, it was as a result of something that could be likened to exhaustion.”

“People were sick of the right and of the left. They were hoping for something new, but they were also intimidated by the media, which painted a picture that there would be chaos if Marine Le Pen’s Front National came to power. And Macron was portrayed as a hero. People wanted change and saw Macron as someone who could give them that.”

Former President François Hollande has been described as an extremely unpopular politician. However, Hollande’s unpopularity fades when one sees and hears how the French people react to Macron today.

“Macron is really despised”, says Pierre. “Wherever he goes, people boo, he can’t go anywhere without being criticised and scolded. I can’t see that he’ll stay in power for three years. He has offended the French too much, over and over again, accusing his own people of being lazy, alcoholics and so on…”

So what do you want to achieve? Macron’s resignation, and what else?

“We want direct democracy”, says Pierre. “The constitution must be amended. If there are laws we disagree with, we should be able to repeal them.”

“If the politicians don’t work for us, we should be able to get rid of them. The battle will be hard, it’s we the people against the elites, and they hold on to what they have, they don’t want to let go of their power. But we will fight until they fall.”

Do you want France to leave the EU?

“Yes, I want Frexit, many Yellow Vests want it, although not everyone. But I’m tired of French laws being dictated by Brussels.”

“Those of us who want Frexit don’t want Brussels to control and make decisions about France without us having anything to say about it. And I don’t trust the politicians in Brussels. They don’t act in the interest of the people.”

“In the past I believed in the EU. But now that I see what they have done with Europe, I don’t want it anymore. The EU is not working for the good of the Europeans. Juncker sits there and speaks with contempt of the people, disempowering them.”

“They’re threatening that there will be chaos if the countries leave the EU. They scare people. But what is the chaos? I believe in a pure trade union, not a superiority that interferes in how the countries are governed and questions freedom of expression and so on.”

“We need a Bruxit – to get rid of the bureaucrats who work for lobby organisations, and replace them with people who work for Europe’s best. But it’s not easy, these systems are so ingrained.”

Nevertheless, Pierre believes a change for the better will come. “Macron is the last symbol of globalism, we see how these elites fall. Like Merkel. Instead, Salvini, Trump, Kurz in Austria are elected… more and more countries are starting to wake up.”

“We will not give up! We are full of fighting spirit and strong in the knowledge that the people always prevails in the end. They don’t want more abuse of power and a detached elite who controls them. We want direct democracy, an opportunity to remove politicians who harm the country, and to tear up laws that don’t benefit our people.”

“We won’t give up. If nothing else, we will fight for those who have been injured, for people who lost their eyes and others who have been beaten up and assaulted. Their injuries will not be in vain.”

What do you want to say to the Yellow Vests in other countries?

“You must organise yourselves, and stand united. We are fighting large systems, but we are also growing into a powerful worldwide movement. Don’t stop fighting! The more protesters there are, the stronger we become. Don’t give up! Bon Courage!”

Hervé

21st February 2019, 13:17

The Yellow Vests' bold movement is causing the French ruling class to lose their mind (https://thesaker.is/gilets-jaunes-round-14-knocked-out-the-leaders-are-losing-their-mind/)

Le yéti and translated by Le Saker Francophone The Saker (https://thesaker.is/gilets-jaunes-round-14-knocked-out-the-leaders-are-losing-their-mind/)
Tue, 19 Feb 2019 00:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511046/large/cover_r4x3w1000_5c361dbc3bfd2_.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511046/full/cover_r4x3w1000_5c361dbc3bfd2_.jpg)

The explosion of hysteria that struck the ruling class in the aftermath of Act 14 shows that the Yellow vests are scoring decisive points.

Everything, they have tried everything, but none of the scare tactics they used to cast anathema and discredit on their opponents will have worked. The demonization of the Yellow Vests accused in November of being under the influence of the extreme right - failed! The stigmatization of the supposed violence of the bad Yellow vests - failed! The attempt to introduce the venom of the migratory problem on the roundabouts - failed!

The auditory hallucination of Benjamin Griveaux
Today, taking advantage of the fact that Alain Finkielkraut has been harassed [when he was passing by a group of Gilet jaunes, NdT], they tried with the usual anti-Semitism accusation, failed too! But yes, yeaaaah, Benjamin Griveaux, Macron's spokesman, is screaming, we can hear it at the 22nd second of the video, we clearly hear the attackers shouting "dirty Jew!", "dirty Jew!"!

It seems that Griveaux was probably under the influence of tinnitus [parasitic noises that a person hears without them really existing, editor's note], because no one heard anything of the kind, not even the victim, present on the spot, who admitted not having heard any infamous "dirty Jew" in the mouths of his attackers. On the other hand, "Zionist bastard", yes, he heard it, and very clearly... except that the person concerned deserve it! Simply listen to what Alain Finkielkraut said about the children of Gaza in June 2007, listen carefully:

5ORGXqE7mY8

Did you hear it well? Palestinian children in Gaza "who have no place in that world" are the result of an "unbridled production of surplus men". You see, with this level of crap, it's surprising that our "academician" has ONLY been subjected to verbal aggression.

Gérard Larcher's stroke
There is one thing that people in power must understand, including those of the left-wing opposition who are feeling offended by insults uttered against this "academician" of TV sets: when the people's anger overflows, it does not take gloves (or maybe boxing gloves).

This is something that the Senate Speaker, Gérard Larcher, felt very well, to the point of losing his phlegm and capsizing into apoplexy:

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511044/large/https_yetiblog_org_wp_content_.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511044/full/https_yetiblog_org_wp_content_.jpg)
"No, you are not the people, you are France of hate, the one that make us ashamed. These demonstrations must stop! The Republic cannot agree anymore that its values and laws are stepped on. I want to tell Alain Finkielkraut that I feel wounded this evening."

Agnes Buzyn's pleas
And Minister Agnes Buzyn to follow in his footsteps by complaining:

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511045/large/https_yetiblog_org_wp_content_.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/511045/full/https_yetiblog_org_wp_content_.jpg)
I think that these demonstrations must stop, those who still participate are responsible of and back these violent actions."

Well, they said the Yellow Vests movement is "running out of steam", just needing for it to disappear by itself. [If it was really the case they would not react that way, NdT] It's already three months that the chickens working in the media are cackling that the movement "is running out of steam". In fact, act 14 of the Yellow Vests, on 16 February, still brought together more than 100,000 MINIMUM demonstrators for 220 listed events. A record that is unprecedented, in its length and importance, in the history of our country.

When the intermediate classes will join "those at the bottom".
What do the Yellow Vests need to do to win their fight? Continue to peacefully align the rounds by advancing serenely and without rushing to their opponents. These opponents are on the verge of a political knock-out.

What are the challengers in yellow vests lacking to precipitate the outcome of the confrontation? That the middle classes, who attend the match by clearly supporting them but still too passively, go up on the ring and lend them a hand. "The intermediate classes have to switch with those at the bottom," explains François Rufin to justify the release of his movie "J'veux du soleil", which is already a hit in pre-projections. Here again, it is just a matter of time: the "intermediate classes", fearful by nature, always switch to the side of those who win, especially when they have already won their sympathy.

The besieged "elite" is right to tremble and panic. "Demonstrations must be banned," says MP Eric Ciotti in desperation. "The demonstrations that take place every Saturday must stop," implored the Medef [The bosses association, NdT] president. Oh yeah, and do you really hope the Yellow vests will obey? When they s**t in their pants, the bourgeoisie always had a hard time imposing its authority.

Related:
Scapegoating Yellow Vests? Macron Moves to Outlaw Criticism of 'Zionism' as 'Anti-Semitism Wave' Hits France (https://www.sott.net/article/407665-Scapegoating-Yellow-Vests-Macron-Moves-to-Outlaw-Criticism-of-Zionism-as-Anti-Semitism-Wave-Hits-France)

Hervé

23rd February 2019, 16:13

February the 22nd Gilets jaunes SITREP (http://thesaker.is/february-the-22nd-gilets-jaunes-sitrep/)

The Saker
by the French Saker for the Saker Blog
February 22, 2019

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/image-result-for-photos-de-la-manif-gilet-jaunes-s-864x400_c.jpeg

The Yellow vest crisis is gaining steam, specially by exposing the hypocrisy of these elite sectors:

the media and its journalists and experts,
the government and its police,
the judiciary and its powerful prosecutors.

The Yellow vest crisis makes them completely freaking out and that can be clearly seen in their reactions.

Responding with batons and grenade shots, lawsuits and mass incarcerations, sarcasms, insults and systematic denigration of the movement, all these reactions, worthy of a paranoid state, only lead to exposing, in front of all the French, those so-called elites who, moreover, are thinking that they are social-progressive and are THE rampart against fascism. Totally blind to themselves. The show is quite ugly to see.

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/image-may-contain-one-or-more-people-crowd-outd.jpeg
Do you see it Macron? The movement is drastically loosing steam

Act 14, Saturday the 15th of February: According to the Ministry of the Interior, 41,500 people demonstrated in France at 7:00 pm. According to a police syndicate, at 3:30 p.m., there were already 230,000 demonstrators.

The police violence
Each new act brings its share of police violence, even if it seems, according to those on the ground, that it is slowing down. The government may be beginning to understand that they cannot discourage the people and that they are therefore counterproductive.

In homage to all the wounded of this popular revolt, here is the most touching video (https://francais.rt.com/france/59060-temoignage-fiorina-lignier-qui-a-perdu-oeil-acte-4-gilets-jaunes). Fiorina, 20 years old, lost an eye due to a grenade caught in the head while, as she recounts, she was on the sidewalk opposite the hooligans. The CRS did not target the hooligans but those across the street, as she explains. Doctors will soon put a prosthesis to give her back a more normal appearance.

On this video (https://www.facebook.com/Giletjaunes2018/videos/2323878237660778/) we see a cop throwing tear gas at elderly bystanders not even wearing a Yellow vest.

This one (https://www.facebook.com/LeMediaOfficiel/videos/258990118328095/) is a presentation of the different victims who have been amputated or lost an eye

In this one (https://twitter.com/i/status/1094651031525511169) we clearly see nurses being attacked with tear gas while treating an injured person.

In this one (https://www.facebook.com/giletjauneJOJO/videos/352051138972024/), a young girl simply sitting on the floor is violently arrested and handcuffed. She will be taken into custody.

And this one (https://www.facebook.com/GiletsJaunesAnonymous/videos/615180748942224/), produced by the Human Rights League, shows a collection of treats that the CRS gave to the Yellow vests

This one (https://www.facebook.com/bigbuzzvideo/videos/542589386234144/) is a must see because it shows a Yellow vest, which is trying to push other mates to throw stones, arrested by the police. He then says, “No, no, guys, I’m with you”. Of course the police don’t believe him and keep pulling him. An officer arrives, says a few words to them and, then, they simply release the guy. This video shows that the police are blending in with the Yellow vests and trying to stir up violence.

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/no-photo-description-available-.jpeg

This [above] piece from Le Canard Enchainé, a critical and always well informed newspaper, titled “a communication to break everything” says:
“For more than 4 hours Thomas P. broke a bus shelter, banks and insurance companies windows, burned a Porsche and even an empty police car. The breaker was arrested at the end of the demonstration. But why in the end if he had been spotted from the beginning?

Because when the police officers who spotted him asked for help from a specialized service, they refused on the grounds that they were too busy elsewhere.”

The piece ends saying “It would have been a pity to deprive the Tv spectators of such a show”.
More scenes of police violence:
https://youtu.be/4s-D7t-eGnc
https://youtu.be/WSTDzazohTw
https://twitter.com/cacounars/status/1092528937618554881
https://twitter.com/PureTele/status/1097422741911805953
So, of course, as violence attracts violence, sometimes it is the cops who are attacked (https://youtu.be/WSTDzazohTw).

Here too, a police car is being attacked (https://twitter.com/Alternative_PN/status/1096851557696573440) by Yellow vests.

The same scene (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902181040070315-attaque-fourgon-police-lyon-nouvelle-video/), filmed from the outside.

But one of the police officers who was in the car said (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902181040065068-fourgon-police-attaque-lyon-temoignage/),
“They are hooligans. We can see it very well on the video, the majority are masked, we know very well that they are not Yellow vests. We don’t mix it up.”
On the other hand, in this one (https://www.facebook.com/giletjauneJOJO/videos/238355107115411/), we see a CRS who found himself isolated in the middle of Yellow vests without anyone taking advantage of it, despite his very visible fear.
Fortunately, humans also live for love and some even dare to show it to their own torturers. “A yellow hug” as the title of this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dLRRgGk6D0&feature=youtu.be) says.

However, some heavily wounded Yellow vests have decided to file a complaint (https://fr.sputniknews.com/international/201902141040027407-gilets-jaunes-rodrigues-plainte/) for “voluntary aggravated violence by a person in charge of the public authority, in groups and having caused permanent mutilation, and complicity in aggravated voluntary violence against X and against Mr. Delpuech, the Paris Prefect”.

For its part, the European Parliament voted (https://fr.sputniknews.com/international/201902141040024212-parlement-europeen-usage-lbd-forced-de-ordres/) by 438 votes to 78, with 87 abstentions, in favor of a resolution that
“condemns the use of certain types of weapons with reduced lethality by police forces against peaceful demonstrators, such as kinetic impact projectiles and instant tear gas grenades”.
The name of France was never mentioned during this vote, even though everyone has understood that it is this country they were talking about.

The next day, it is the UN that voted (https://fr.sputniknews.com/international/201902151040029128-experts-denonciation-restrictions-droits-manifestants-france/), openly naming France in this case. The organization politely says that the country should “rethink its policing policies”.
“We encourage the French authorities to open channels for dialogue in order to reduce the level of tension and to recognize the important and legitimate role that social movements play in governance,” it concludes.
As for the anti-hooligans law, passed urgently by the National Assembly, last month, it states:
“the proposal for an administrative ban on demonstrations, the establishment of additional control measures and the imposition of heavy penalties constitute severe restrictions on the freedom to demonstrate. These provisions could be applied arbitrarily and lead to extremely serious abuses.”
Before, France had the reputation of being the “country of human rights”. It seems that the Macron government is doing its best to make him lose this title.

Media as a bulwark against the movement
We regularly see Yellow vests invited on the TV sets but the scenario is the same. A Yellow vest against several opponents, who systematically call the movement violent, anti-Semitic, racist, backward and uncultured. These surrealist debates show above all the complex of superiority of these so-called journalists and “experts” and their inability to remain neutral in the debate, as their profession would request it.

For example: [video at: https://www.facebook.com/PerspicaceInfo/videos/401258860435426/ ]
“Yellow vests are people emotionally on the brink,” says one of the journalists,

“they are aggressive, I know it because you see them on TV sets”.

“They are the kind of people who give free rein to stupidity, intolerance, ignorance, uh… anything we want…… “, the second journalist insists.
This is how the “debate” begins. Then the only Yellow vest present replies that the Yellow vests are there because they can no longer get by economically. At 1mn27 he asked:
“Explain me how, in concrete terms, you are doing, with the RSA [a social welfare], to support a family of 3 children”. 10 seconds of silence.

He goes on to say “no one knows”.
As a result, some Yellow vests tried to attack the press. A group tried to enter the premises (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902141040025244-projectile-haute-savoie-gilets-jaunes/) of a local newspaper for the simple purpose of putting up posters and throwing a stink ball to make the newspapers smell like what it is writing about the movement. Others are pushing journalists away during the demonstrations.

This image shows Macron’s links with the bosses of the French press, which are the richest French, who also run all the polling institutes, and explains why he was elected thanks to this same press and that he continues to be supported by it, even if he regularly complains to the contrary.

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/no-photo-description-available-1-1.jpeg

After calling the Yellow vests far-right hordes, then hooligans, the press is now trying the black sheep of anti-Semitism. Suddenly and simultaneously, the word “Jew” appeared on the front window of a Parisian bakery specializing in bagels, then swastikas in an Alsatian cemetery, then a French writer of Jewish origin, who openly displayed his hatred of Palestinians, was called (https://www.liberation.fr/checknews/2019/02/17/qu-entend-on-sur-la-video-de-l-altercation-entre-finkielkraut-et-des-gilets-jaunes_1709882) “****ing Zionist” but the media preferred to hear “****ing Jew”.

These miscellaneous facts was immediately overhyped and presented as if they endanger the country and its inhabitants. A demonstration, gathered mainly by politicians, has been held in Paris to protest against “a resurgence of anti-Semitism not seen since the Second World War” according (https://sputniknews.com/europe/201902211072614491-france-macron-antisemitism/) to Macron’s own exaggerations.

The next day he took the opportunity to propose a resolution (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902211040108854-macron-definition-antisemisme-antisionisme/) stating that anti-Zionism was considered anti-Semitism, i.e. that criticizing the Israeli state, the only apartheid state in the world, would be considered a crime. This amounts to calling someone who criticizes Gabon’s politics a racist. Totally ridiculous…

All this has nothing to do with the Yellow vests movement and yet the TV channels cannot help but make the confusion, especially since those who screamed “****ing Zionist” wore them, so it is - for them - proof that the Yellow vests are anti-Semites, therefore unfortunate extreme right-wing people, therefore dangerous villains that should not be supported. And who knows if a good diversion could make you forget these Yellow vests, which are definitely too visible in the media. It may well be that we'll soon see the few Yellow vests invited being permanently banned from the media landscape.

Because the government’s great fear is that the passive population, the 55% of French people who support the movement without participating to the demos, will finally join them, and it will no longer be 200,000 demonstrators but millions who will take to the streets. So they have to do everything they can to make them lose credibility before that happens, and the press does it wholeheartedly.

Two-tier justice
On February 12, the Prime Minister proudly announced (http://www.vududroit.com/2019/02/repression-judiciaire-gilets-jaunes-edouard-philippe-chiffre/) these figures: “Since the beginning of these events, 1796 convictions have been handed down by the courts and 1422 people are still awaiting trial” (…) “more than 1300 immediate appearances have been organized and 316 people have been placed under arrest warrants”. Just for demonstrating against the government. This is what can be called an expeditious justice. But it is above all a biased justice because:

A baker, not a demonstrator, was immediately taken into custody (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902121040004926-gilets-jaunes-boulanger-garde-vue/) for refusing to sell bread to a police officer during a Saturday demonstration. The baker says he refused the sale because the policeman came into his store armed. The policeman denies it. Anyway, it’s immediate custody for him while Benalla is still free, tanning in Morocco (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902151040037305-benalla-maroc-photos-twitter/).

Expeditious justice, he was sentenced (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902141040027650-boulanger-policier-altercation-condamne-gilets-jaunes/) two days later, for this serious crime, to 70 hours of community service, 10 days during when he will have to close his bakery. Meanwhile, Benalla still has time (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902201040099202-alexandre-benalla-contrat-chinois/) to maintain dubious commercial relations with a few Russian and Chinese oligarchs.

As for the boxer of CRS, Christophe Dettinger, he was sentenced (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902131040016232-christophe-dettinger-30-mois-prison/) to 1 year in prison and 18 months suspended, just for boxing a CRS shield. Ultra-fast condemnation here too, as everyone has seen.

In the same week, two criminals disguised as police officers who tried to extort money (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902141040026183-faux-policiers-marseille-amende/) from the public has just been fined and freed, therefore being able to resume their “work” immediately. This leaves the unpleasant feeling that justice is on the side of thieves and that it is, on the other hand, merciless with poor honest demonstrators.

As for Eric Drouet, one of the initiators of the movement, the prosecutor has asked (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902151040037924-eric-drouet-verdict-manoeuvre-gouvernement-garrido/) for a month in jail and a 500 euro fine for “organizing undeclared demonstrations”. However, these demonstrations do not have any organisers as they are spontaneous and spread throughout France. Eric Drouet is arrested almost every Saturday.

For throwing potatoes (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902211040104046-gilet-jaune-patates-gendarmes-prison-avec-sourcis-montpellier/) during a demonstration, this farmer Yellow vests was given a 6-month suspended sentence and banned from going into town. Come on, one less Yellow vest on the streets.

So that kind of “justice” inspires that kind of caricature:

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/image-may-contain-6-people-people-smiling-text.jpeg

It shows some business leaders who are still facing justice with no verdict yet or who got a lenient one;
Sarkozy, a former president who is involved in some questionable financing cases, including one with his former buddy, Gaddafi, whom he had made killed to better thank him;

a police officer who boxed a few demonstrators to blow off steam;

Benalla, top right, dressed as a real/false cop and

Christophe Dettinger, bottom left.
The question above asks:
“Among these personalities, which one will go to prison?
The answer, everyone knows it since only the Yellow vest boxer will be jailed. The others are still at large (except Benalla, who was still free at the time of the drawing) despite harms far more serious than two punches to very well protected CRSs. France is a democratic country where justice is independent of money and politics, [one would have] thought?

Government and politics on all sides.
The disregard of politicians and their poodles for the population, as they panic and lose all reserve, is becoming more and more apparent. They are naked at this level.

Gaspard Gantzer, former communication adviser to former President Francois Hollande [we now understand why the image of Hollande was so bad], probably wanting to be noticed so he could get out of his hole, let loose (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902191040083372-gilets-jaunes-test-qi-manifestations/):
“They have the right to demonstrate even if they are stupid! If we did IQ tests before the demonstrations, there wouldn’t be many people!”, while systematically cutting off the floor to his Yellow vest interlocutor that he refuses to hear. As their buddy from the media, they sweat contempt for this lowly rabble not even able to stay quietly at home.
Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the LR party, Sarkozy’s former party, said (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902191040081245-wauquiez-manifs-non-declarees-interdiction/),
“Undeclared demonstrations, demonstrations that are feared to lead to violence, must be banned. And when the rules are not respected, we must bring them to court.”
Macron’s party no longer even needs to attack the Yellow vests, his own political opponents are doing it for him.

Meanwhile, Macron continues his electoral campaign, sorry, his “great debate”, even if two thirds of the French (66%) consider (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902151040031771-macron-grand-debat-campagne-elections-sondage/) that Emmanuel Macron uses the great national debate in the interest of the European elections but he will not succeed in “turning” opinion around.

As a result, we see this type of observation flourishing, saying
“enarques [Those who have gone through the National School of Administration, the school from which the French elites come out] who have accumulated 2200 billion in debt, 6 million unemployed, 9 million poor and who have signed all the deficits for 40 years say that the Yellow vests are irresponsible”.
It ends with this sentence attributed to Einstein:
“Do not rely on those who create problems to solve them.”

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/image-may-contain-9-people-text.jpeg

The Benalla case
As for the Benalla case, it is taking an increasingly “mafia” style. While he should be in prison like Dettinger, he is photographed on holiday in Morocco (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902151040037305-benalla-maroc-photos-twitter/), a newspaper reveals (https://www.liberation.fr/france/2019/02/06/revelations-sur-un-nouveau-partenaire-de-benalla-qui-inquiete-matignon_1707805) acquaintances with Macron’s entourage, then a new story (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902201040099202-alexandre-benalla-contrat-chinois/) of a dubious contract worth more than 7 million euros, with China this time, emerges. Then the deputies realized that he lied under oath when he was summoned to explain himself before the Senate. Vexed, the senators seized the case that the justice system left lying around and then, miraculously, a few days later, he has been brought to jail.

The senators went so far as to say:
“that this was a conflict of interest that endangered the presidency of the Republic and the Republic itself. ».
Another senator that
“no authority reported the violence to the Paris prosecutor. These dysfunctions give the impression that the Elysée [Macron’s office] wanted to keep events quiet to avoid a scandal”.
Yet another senator that
“The facts of May 1st [the beating of demonstrators] are now the emerged part of the Iceberg. The rest is much more serious.”
In short, Macron is up to his neck in a state affair that directly affects him and in which he is even involved, since he is necessarily the one protecting Benalla to such a level. It seems that the Senate, the assembly where Macron’s party is not in the majority, intends to deal with it. There is therefore at least one political counter-power that is still a little alive. Will he dare to complete its action?

I wonder because, through its spokesman, the Macron government is pointing out (https://fr.sputniknews.com/france/201902201040101517-benalla-rapport-contreverites-griveaux/) the “many untruths” of the Senate Inquiry Commission on Benalla.
“Which ones?” asked a journalist.

“I don’t know, I haven’t read it,” he replied.
And then to add, immediately after having accused the Senate of spreading untruths,
“I am not the type to comment without knowing”.
Frightening to think that such people are heading the country.

How for the Yellow vests themselves, finally? Undisturbed by the rage of their leaders, they continue to demonstrate every Saturday, to propose new ideas (https://www.facebook.com/le.message.org/videos/3022486144443912/), to meet in “constituent assemblies” (https://www.facebook.com/events/2311734342380921/), to debate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2JAQoCkJAg&feature=share) on the Citizens’ Initiative Referendum, to experiment with new political systems at the level of villages and communes, to communicate with each other so that the dynamic continues until a true democracy, and no longer the oligarchy it has become (https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/transports/gilets-jaunes/l-histoire-secrete-de-la-reforme-de-l-isf-elle-a-ete-precipitee-sous-la-pression-deconomistes-et-de-grands-patrons_3199431.html#xtor=CS2-765-[twitter]-), is restored in France.

Le Saker francophone

BMJ

27th February 2019, 01:22

A french lawyer and yellow vest provides testimony as to the ongoing suppression and violence against the french people by the Macron government, please see below.

1RkGoFehY8s

The Houndog
Published on Feb 26, 2019
Here is a video that was sent to me by a supporter. It is a French Lawyer for the Yellow Vest speaking out about the Massive Repression taking place in France right now!!!

samildamach

27th February 2019, 22:48

bbc_complaints_website@bbc.co.uk
To
BBC Complaints - Case number CAS-5330872-LWFMQ4
26/2/2019 21:50

Reference CAS-5330872-LWFMQ4

Thank you for contacting us.

I understand you feel there has been a lack of coverage of the protests in France.

We have covered the on-going protests across a variety of our news output. The latest news can be found online at the link below:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cpzg2d6re0lt/france-yellow-vest-protests

I also note that you feel when the BBC does cover this subject there is a lack of balance. As you have not provided any specific examples from our output which you feel demonstrates your complaint, we can only respond in general terms.

Please be assured, impartiality is a core value of the BBC, and one reason why we believe our news coverage is trusted and respected around the world. We apply this principle to our reporting of all issues. BBC News never takes a position on anything that we cover, but we always aim to reflect a broad range of voices on any given subject. The BBC is of course independent of any political interests, and our news agenda would never be influenced by any outside organisation.

We do value your feedback about this. All complaints are sent to senior management and I’ve included your points in our overnight report. These reports are among the most widely read sources of feedback in the BBC and ensures that your concerns have been seen by the right people quickly. This helps inform their decisions about current and future content.

Thank you once again for getting in touch.

Kind regards

Donal Rainey

BBC Complaints Team

This is the reply from the complaint I sent to the bbc for lack of coverage on the yellow vest movement.
They failed to answer any questions about the D notice that I asked.

Hervé

2nd March 2019, 22:54

No sign of slowing down: Yellow Vests march through Paris for 16th week in a row (https://www.rt.com/news/452842-paris-yellow-vest-16-protests-france/)

RT (https://www.rt.com/news/452842-paris-yellow-vest-16-protests-france/)
Sat, 02 Mar 2019 18:43 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/512423/large/5c7a809edda4c8315a8b4583.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/512423/full/5c7a809edda4c8315a8b4583.jpg)
Protesters take part in an anti-government demonstration called by the "Yellow Vest" movement, on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on March 2, 2019 © Agence France-Presse/Eric Feferberg

Yellow Vest protesters have taken to the streets of Paris for the 16th consecutive week. While some enjoyed a friendly chat with police officers, others faced tear gas after trying to break off from a pre-approved marching route.

Unlike previous demonstrations, Paris officials authorized a designated route for Saturday's "Act 16" anti-government marchers - a span of road beginning at the Arc de Triomphe and ending at Place Denfert-Rochereau in the south of the city.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/512424/large/5c7a814adda4c81c5a8b4585.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/512424/full/5c7a814adda4c81c5a8b4585.jpg)
A protester uses his phone to take a selfie with Eric Drouet (L), one of the leading figures of the 'Yellow Vest' movement, on the sidelines of an anti-government demonstration held in Paris, on March 2, 2019. © Agence France-Presse/Eric Feferberg

In contrast to the chaotic clashes with police during previous protests, photographs and videos reveal a largely peaceful, orderly demonstration.

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/512425/large/5c7a83ebfc7e9319308b459c.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/512425/full/5c7a83ebfc7e9319308b459c.jpg)
Protesters take part in an anti-government demonstration called by the "Yellow Vest" movement, on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris, on March 2, 2019. © Agence France-Presse/Eric Feferberg

Videos taken by an RT France reporter even showed Yellow Vests and French police chatting amiably, with one protester even offering a riot cop a flower.

https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1101793914305032192/pu/img/ViPVVGjDDD-FOeoP?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/Mona_RTFrance/status/1101793960211767298)
(click on picture for the video)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1096846005406969857/SqG6mmfL_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/Mona_RTFrance) Mona_H_RTFrance @Mona_RTFrance (https://twitter.com/Mona_RTFrance)
Une manifestante offre une fleur à un policier, un peu gêné, « je suis amoureuse » dit-elle #paris (https://twitter.com/hashtag/paris?src=hash) #giletsjaunes (https://twitter.com/hashtag/giletsjaunes?src=hash)

163 (https://twitter.com/intent/like?tweet_id=1101793960211767298)
12:38 PM - Mar 2, 2019 (https://twitter.com/Mona_RTFrance/status/1101793960211767298)Police, however, later used tear gas on demonstrators who attempted to defy the pre-approved protest route by marching down New York Avenue.

(https://twitter.com/Nadege_RTFrance/status/1101824325705969664)
https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/1101823728915283968/pu/img/BOpa9pEpZ-APF_Cp?format=jpg&name=small (https://twitter.com/Nadege_RTFrance/status/1101824325705969664)

(click on picture for the video)

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1101585513201483777/TShGSH2u_normal.jpg (https://twitter.com/Nadege_RTFrance) Nadège Abderrazak @Nadege_RTFrance
(https://twitter.com/Nadege_RTFrance)
Premiers tirs de gaz lacrymogène, après que des gilets jaunes ont tenté de poursuivre sur l’avenue de New York alors que les forces de l’ordre les appelaient à se diriger du côté de l’avenue Albert de Mun #acteXVI (https://twitter.com/hashtag/acteXVI?src=hash) #paris (https://twitter.com/hashtag/paris?src=hash)
2:39 PM - Mar 2, 2019 (https://twitter.com/Nadege_RTFrance/status/1101824325705969664)
"First tear gas fire, after yellow Waistcoats attempted to continue on New York Avenue while the law enforcement forces called them to head for Albert de Mun #acteXVI #paris Avenue."Similar marches are being held across France, but activists have expressed concern that the movement is losing momentum.

One Yellow Vest group on Facebook has called on demonstrators to return to the movement's "spontaneous" roots with unsanctioned protests held at unauthorized locations.

The Yellow Vest movement began in November 2018 after French President Emmanuel Macron announced controversial tax hikes. Over 2,000 people have been arrested since the demonstrations began, and dozens of protesters have been injured during violent clashes with police.

Macron called for a "return to calm" on Friday, denouncing the "intolerable" violence that has resulted from the weeks of protests.

Related:

NewsReal #26: Globalization vs Nationalism - The Hidden Causes of The Yellow Vest Protests in France (https://www.sott.net/article/406455-NewsReal-26-Globalization-vs-Nationalism-The-Hidden-Causes-of-The-Yellow-Vest-Protests-in-France)
Has The Yellow Vest Movement Run Out of Gas? - Vincent Lapierre Reports From Paris (https://www.sott.net/article/405189-Has-The-Yellow-Vest-Movement-Run-Out-of-Gas-Vincent-Lapierre-Reports-From-Paris)
Yellow Vest spokesman hints at next stage: 'Paramilitaries are ready to overthrow the government' (https://www.sott.net/article/407314-Yellow-Vest-spokesman-hints-at-next-stage-Paramilitaries-are-ready-to-overthrow-the-government)
Yellow Vests Rise Against Neo-liberal King Macron (https://www.sott.net/article/402226-Yellow-Vests-Rise-Against-Neo-liberal-King-Macron)

Frenchy

3rd March 2019, 20:31

Adding this encouragement from G.A. [ https://www.voat.co/v/GreatAwakening/3072285 ]

" Eventually the Yellow Vest's Numbers Will Dwarf the Cops.. then they'll remove their helmets again [and hopefully keep their heads]. (GreatAwakening) submitted by think500 to GreatAwakening

Globalist don't realize.. Yellow Vests aren't going away, but they are going to send NWO politicians back to Hell, and not just in France. The People are waking up everywhere! 'The WORLD is changing.' "

2 comments
Yuke

They already do but people are still too afraid. If they realized their own numbers and defended each other from the police, the police would ****ing run or be mowed down by the mob.

Hazzmat

Yellow vest what now? The cab drivers?
*************************************************************

http://www.profession-gendarme.com/

Met the founder , at Brest Saturday - This site might interest those who seek a counterbalance to the horrendous, treasonable violence, of the police , in their numerous uniforms { and undercover mercenaries }

******************************

https://www.conseilnational.fr/international-gbr/

{ It's WW folks, it's ' Q ' in ' French Berets ' :-)) }

Extract ---

Message to all mankind

(Some people may find that I have a slight accent, have no fear, it is not contagious and it could even be charming if the subject was not so serious.)

I am making this video to talk about the Conseil National Of Transition which would be in english «The National Transitional Council».

We declared our french NTC to the UN in 2015 and other countries in the world have followed us and created their own since then.

A NTC is the only legal structure that the international law recognize and it is perfectly legal to create a NTC when the leaders of a country stop respecting and following the basic laws of the Constitution and the Human Rights of that country.

It is happening in France and in other countries as you may know...

I am going to talk to you about the actual and real France, not the France that your medias, probably as corrupted as ours, are showing you but the France where millions are living and suffering every day.

The world’s genocide has started, you know that already.

Whistle blowers like Corinne Gouget who denounced the poisonous additives or Claire Severac , whose work and studies focus on the world genocide, strangely disappeared .

One was suicided, the other got a mortal disease. And so many journalists were eliminated because they spoke the truth. Natacha Polony is our last exemple.

Hollande was actively involved in the attempt to destabilize Syria and many other african countries, which was a pretext for the european invasion. Most of the migrants are men between the age of 18 to 40, very few are syrians. Those refugees come from different radical movements and (many) are trained as terrorists.

Even though the icelandic people were able to get ride of their politicians in 2008 and take back the power in their country, the media did not talk about that event, and citizens of other countries never learned about the icelandic people’s actions and thus they couldn’t make things happen to take back their country ........

............... But if that took place in France, in the country of the Human Rights, then a worldwide shake up would happen and many countries would then free themselves from their corrupt politicians,

* Creation of a new TV channel that will give the real truthfull informations

It's started, and as Alex Collier, Simom Parkes have stated, " This is our LAST Chance "

.

Hervé

6th March 2019, 15:54

Macron government blames Yellow Vests for rise in 'anti-semitism' and 'fascism' in wake of "dirty Zionist" incident (https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13826/france-project-transform)

Guy Millière Gatestone Institute (https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13826/france-project-transform)
Tue, 05 Mar 2019 05:00 UTC

https://www.sott.net/image/s25/512855/large/yellowvests_protest.jpg (https://www.sott.net/image/s25/512855/full/yellowvests_protest.jpg)
Pictured: "Yellow vest" protestors near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, on March 2, 2019.

After sixteen Saturday demonstrations by the "yellow vests," who began in November by protesting French President Emmanuel Macron's increase in fuel prices, the controversy seems to have taken a darker turn.

After sixteen Saturday demonstrations by the "yellow vests (https://www.foxnews.com/world/french-yellow-vests-protest-for-16th-straight-weekend)," who began in November by protesting French President Emmanuel Macron's increase in fuel prices, the controversy seems to have taken a darker turn.

That seems to have come to light on February 13, when a small group of demonstrators started hurling insults (https://www.lepoint.fr/faits-divers/gilets-jaunes-alain-finkielkraut-insulte-lors-d-une-manifestation-16-02-2019-2293914_2627.php) at a French Jewish philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?88469---a-Chauffe-&p=1276939&viewfull=1#post1276939) -- who was born in and lives in Paris -- after they spotted him on a sidewalk. One man, shouted, "Shut up, dirty Zionist sh*t," "Go home to Tel Aviv," "France is ours," "God will punish you." A cameraman filmed the incident, then shared the video (http://newsvideo.su/video/10291752) on social networks. A scandal ensued. The "yellow vests" movement as a whole was immediately accused (https://www.lepoint.fr/politique/injures-antisemites-a-finkielkraut-flot-de-reactions-politiques-16-02-2019-2293935_20.php) by the French government of anti-Semitism and "fascism".

Finkielkraut claimed (http://www.leparisien.fr/politique/alain-finkielkraut-insulte-il-y-a-un-sentiment-d-hostilite-tres-fort-a-l-egard-des-juifs-et-je-paie-ma-notoriete-16-02-2019-8013555.php) that he had not been attacked as a Jew, but as a supporter of the State of Israel. He then added (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2019/02/17/01016-20190217ARTFIG00064-alain-finkielkraut-injurie-une-enquete-ouverte-un-suspect-identifie.php) that the man who had insulted him did not speak like a "yellow vest" and that the words "God will punish you" is an expression from "Islamic rhetoric". Police who watched the video identified (https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/finkielkraut-insulte-un-suspect-identifie_2062791.html) the man as a radicalized Muslim, and the next day arrested him.

In the days leading up to that incident, several anti-Semitic acts had taken place in and near Paris. The German word "juden" [Jews] was painted (https://www.lepoint.fr/justice/tag-antisemite-le-restaurateur-bagelstein-depose-une-plainte-11-02-2019-2292442_2386.php) on the front of a Jewish bakery; swastikas were drawn (http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2019/02/11/97001-20190211FILWWW00129-paris-des-portraits-de-simone-veil-tagues-de-croix-gammees-la-mairie-porte-plainte.php) with a black marker on portraits of former Jewish minister Simone Veil; trees (https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/fait-divers/antisemitisme-des-arbres-plantes-en-memoire-d-ilan-halimi-profanes_2061830.html) that had been planted in memory of Ilan Halimi, a young Jew who had been kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 2006, were destroyed. Investigations have begun but nothing so far has shown any relationship between the "yellow vests" movement and any of these anti-Semitic acts. The French government nevertheless continues accusing (http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2019/02/17/01002-20190217ARTFIG00077-griveaux-sur-finkielkraut-quand-on-insulte-un-juif-on-attaque-la-republique.php) the "yellow vests" of being at least partly to blame.

When the French government, for instance, published statistics about anti-Semitic acts committed in 2018, and noted a 74% increase (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2019/02/11/01016-20190211ARTFIG00202-la-justice-saisie-apres-plusieurs-inscriptions-antisemites-a-paris.php) from the year before, the government spokesman linked this increase to the "disorders" that have been taking place in France, implicitly meaning [linked] to the "yellow vests".

Meanwhile, in a demonstration against anti-Semitism organized (https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/a-quoi-vont-ressembler-les-rassemblements-contre-l-antisemitisme_2063007.html) for February 19 by the Socialist Party and The Republic on the Move (the party created by Macron), fourteen parties agreed to participate. Marine Le Pen's National Rally, however, was excluded (http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/le-scan/2019/02/15/25001-20190215ARTFIG00055-appel-des-partis-contre-l-antisemitisme-l-absence-du-rn-et-de-lfi-fait-polemique.php). The organizers said (https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/ca-suffit-la-france-se-mobilise-contre-l-antisemitisme-19-02-2019-2294392_23.php) that as the National Rally belongs to the "extreme right", it cannot participate in a protest against the "fascist peril". Slogans (https://www.lexpress.fr/actualites/1/societe/ca-suffit-a-l-appel-des-partis-la-france-mobilisee-contre-l-antisemitisme_2062970.html) included: "It's enough", "No to hate" and "Anti-Semitism is not France". Former Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande took part. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe spoke of a "united France". A Muslim singer, Abd al Malik (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_SYc8iIs5E), was invited to sing the French anthem.

President Macron, during the event, was [at] the Holocaust Memorial (http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/2019/02/19/01002-20190219ARTFIG00293-macron-au-memorial-de-la-shoah-la-republique-est-un-bloc.php) in Paris. The next day, he attended the annual dinner of the CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions) and gave a speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CZPRt2HqOc) against "racist hatred". To make sure that his audience understood that he was talking about the "yellow vests", he used an expression he had used (http://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/le-scan/2018/12/31/25001-20181231ARTFIG00152-ce-qu-il-faut-retenir-des-voeux-aux-francais-d-emmanuel-macron.php) on December 31: "hate crowds".

The "yellow vests" movement continues to be described (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2019/02/17/01016-20190217ARTFIG00072-des-voix-minimisent-l-agression-dont-a-ete-victime-alain-finkielkraut.php) by members of the government as guilty of being anti-Semitic and "fascist" despite the minor detail that nothing proves any culpability in recent anti-Semitic acts. The "yellow vests" movement began only in November and therefore cannot be held responsible for the increase in the number of anti-Semitic acts for the whole of 2018. Small groups of anti-Semites who did try to infiltrate the demonstrations of "yellow vests" were quickly expelled (https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2299125090098582). The "yellow vests" movement is fundamentally a movement against taxes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGZUZO_QMlw) that many French people consider arbitrary; it has nothing to do with either anti-Semitism or "fascism".

Anti-Semitism in France has been gaining momentum (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2018/11/09/01016-20181109ARTFIG00049-forte-hausse-du-nombre-d-actes-antisemites-en-france.php). In the last 15 years, eleven Jews were murdered (https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/marche-blanche-contre-l-antisemitisme-en-memoire-de-mireille-knoll-28-03-2018-2206092_23.php) in France by anti-Semitic killers, often in horrific ways. In a growing number of neighborhoods, everyday life for French Jews has become unlivable. Many who have the means have left (http://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/societe/2015/01/05/31003-20150105ARTFIG00159-goldnadel-pourquoi-de-plus-en-plus-de-juifs-quittent-la-france.php) France. Many who have not left have moved (http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2017/10/24/01016-20171024ARTFIG00309-ces-francais-juifs-qui-fuient-la-violence-des-banlieues.php) to more secure areas of the country. In the last two decades, 20% of French Jews (100,000 people) have emigrated, and tens of thousands have abandoned unsafe places (https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/antisemitisme-les-verites-qui-derangent_1884471.html), such as Seine-Saint-Denis, have relocated inside France.

Some journalists observed that a decision to mobilize people against a "fascist peril" -- and to unite almost all political parties while excluding the National Rally -- seemed like a political trick, unfair (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf72khfPg34) and biased. They emphasized (http://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/religion/2018/07/09/31004-20180709ARTFIG00302-celine-pina-quand-le-gouvernement-reste-muet-face-a-l-appel-au-meurtre-d-un-imam.php) that most of the anti-Semitic attacks and all the murders of Jews in France came not from members of the National Rally or "fascists", but from extremist Muslims.

Also on February 19, tens of thousands of people across France demonstrated (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47300117) against anti-Semitism. Those protests would certainly seem praiseworthy -- if they had no hidden agenda. Many commentators, however, seem to think (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9-FQYMUubE) that this was what was taking place.

Some community leaders stressed that the demonstration against anti-Semitism was a political operation (https://fr.timesofisrael.com/antisemitisme-macron-ne-participera-pas-au-rassemblement-mardi/) aimed at demonizing the "yellow vests" to arouse fear of a non-existent peril in order to help Macron's Republic on the Move party win the European elections in May.

Other people noted that holding a demonstration which excluded the right-wing National Rally party was a move aimed at diverting attention from the real anti-Semitic danger. They also suggested that political parties which support the murderers of Jews were precisely those which deny that radical Islam is a danger.

Television commentators pointed out that the government had largely ignored the "anti-Zionist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFLyGpOfxMs)" dimension of the insults addressed to Finkielkraut. They also noted that the presence among the demonstrators of parties, such as the French Communist Party, and Europe Ecology -- which support (https://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/societe/enquete/manif-pro-palestinienne-autorisee-les-organisateurs-critiquent-hollande_1561101.html) terrorists (http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2016/03/21/97001-20160321FILWWW00340-une-banderole-pro-palestinienne-sur-une-mairie.php) who murder Jews -- was a shock.

Gilles William Goldnadel, Honorary President of the France-Israel Association, published an article (http://www.lefigaro.fr/vox/politique/2019/02/18/31001-20190218ARTFIG00071-faire-porter-le-chapeau-de-l-antisemitisme-aux-gilets-jaunes-une-lachete-face-a-l-islamisme.phphttp:/www.lefigaro.fr/vox/politique/2019/02/18/31001-20190218ARTFIG00071-faire-porter-le-chapeau-de-l-antisemitisme-aux-gilets-jaunes-une-lachete-face-a-l-islamisme.php) in Le Figaro stating:
"Making the yellow vests take the blame is an act [of] cowardice [to avoid mentioning] Islamism.... Asking people to march against anti-Semitism while cynically rejecting political parties in the name of a fantasy anti-fascism, but accepting to be at the side of parties that support killers [of Jews] is outrageous... It is Islamism that kills Jews in France. We must not forget it. Since 1945, every drop of Jewish blood that has flowed in France was shed by Islamism". MP Meyer Habib said (http://www.israelhayom.com/columnist/meyer-habib/) that, "hypocrisy reaches new heights when parties that praise terrorist killers claim to fight against anti-Semitism." He enumerated in Parliament the list of Jews murdered in France and gave the names of their murderers, to show that all of them were radicalized Muslims. He added that the mobilization should be a mobilization against "radical Islam", not against "fascists".

In a television interview, the author Éric Zemmour defined (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19ZWTg84sqk) the behavior of Macron and the government as a "masquerade of pyromaniac firefighters":
"They claim to fight against anti-Semitism by attacking imaginary fascists, and they do it in alliance with leftists who support anti-Semitic murderers, but they do nothing against the Islamization of France, which is the main source today of anti-Semitism in France...

"Macron and the government are accelerating the rise of Islamism each year by hosting in France hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants who come from countries where anti-Semitism is omnipresent, and continuing to repeat blindly that Islam is a religion of peace. They actively contribute to the rise of anti-Semitism by barely denouncing Muslim anti-Semitism." Zemmour added (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvaCRmzAesQ):
"Macron hates the yellow vests and wants them to vanish. He wants to win European elections and he needs the Muslim vote. He knows perfectly well who the anti-Semites are today, but will not attack them. He needs them. He [only] attacks those who are dangerous to him. " He concluded (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvaCRmzAesQ) that he thinks "Macron and the government could achieve their goals in the immediate future" -- meaning to defeat the yellow vests and win elections, but that the future of France looks bleak:
"Macron thinks the situation is under control. He is wrong. While he invokes fascism to smash the yellow vests and to win elections, an alliance is taking shape between the extreme left -- which seeks to recruit young suburban Muslims to fight against capitalism -- and Islamists, who are seeking allies to Islamize France. Macron thinks he is using Muslims; it is the artisans of Islamization who are using him." Zemmour also referred (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWbXu-EtiV0) to the man who had insulted Finkielkraut and had shouted "France is ours":
"Islamists have plans. They do not even hide saying it, but no one pays attention when they say it. A project of Islamic conquest is at work in France. This is what should worry the Jews." The journalist Ivan Rioufol, also using (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHuovdGTnvk) the word "masquerade," spoke of a fight led by the government against "almost non-existent fascists", and of the "use of the fight against anti-Semitism" to crush "an almost non-existent anti-Semitism" while sparing "the anti-Semitism that attacks and kills".

In a recent interview, Finkielkraut said (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtogLzU0vuw), "If someone says: France belongs to us, that means: [to him,] France is destined to become Islamic soil."

In a text (https://www.islametinfo.fr/2018/11/23/oui-il-faut-etre-des-gilets-jaunes-delias-dimzalene-edito/) published on November 23, 2018 on one of the main French Muslim websites, islametinfo.fr, the French Islamist preacher Elias d'Imzalene wrote:
"It is up to us to give a political meaning to the revolt. The goal is not simply to challenge an increase in taxes, but the political system that induces it... Who is more legitimate than the political Muslim -- assuming his function of awakening the masses and refusing oppression -- to be the vanguard of the revolt?" A documentary film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt2L_kRomFQ), Under a False Identity, by the journalist Zvi Yehezkeli, showed in detail how some Islamist organizations are preparing to be the "vanguard of the revolt" and using all the opportunities available to take control of France. One of the people he interviewed, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in France, said that the Muslim Brotherhood is gaining ground (http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/01/26/in-10-years-the-muslim-brotherhood-will-dictate-the-tone/), and can count on the help of the French government, which subsidizes its activities. The man waves documents at the camera to prove what he says. The print is visible. The film was never broadcast in France.

Back to Macron's speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CZPRt2HqOc) at the CRIF dinner: He spoke (https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/antisemitisme-devant-le-crif-macron-promet-des-actes-21-02-2019-2295131_23.php) briefly of "an anti-Semitism based on radical Islamism", but immediately -- and incorrectly: as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, (https://gatesofvienna.net/2013/10/islam-is-islam-and-thats-it/) "Islam is Islam." -- defined "radical Islamism" as a "deformed religion" and not true Islam. He said just as briefly that "anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism", but that he would not call for a vote on a law to condemn anti-Zionism.

He immediately added (http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2019/02/20/97001-20190220FILWWW00047-macron-present-au-diner-du-crif-les-representants-des-institutions-juives-veulent-des-mesures-concretes.php) that he intends to fight against "other hatreds: hatred against Muslims, racism in all its forms, anti-LGBT racism". He said that he will ban associations that "feed hatred". He then named three associations (https://www.lexpress.fr/actualites/1/societe/bastion-social-blood-and-honour-combat-18-ces-groupuscules-d-ultradroite-que-macron-veut-dissoudre_2063512.html) he intends to ban as soon as possible: a very small neo-fascist group, Social Bastion, and two extremely tiny Nazi groups, Blood & Honor Hexagon and Combat 18. He did not name (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsNuUqidzCM) any leftist, anti-fascist or Islamic group, even though they are evidently responsible for much of the violence committed at the end of the demonstrations of "yellow vests" and are easily identifiable: many have websites or street addresses.

Macron stated that "the foreign policy of France is known", but he failed to elaborate. He could not very well remind a Jewish audience that France is one of the main supporters (http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-eco/2014/07/24/97002-20140724FILWWW00202-gaza-la-france-debloque-11-millions-d-euros.php) of the Palestinian Authority, or that he had "regretted (http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=HBihcKa108525539331aHBihcK)" Israel's decision to freeze the funds used by the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to reward murderers of Jews and their families, or that he had worked for months with Germany and the United Kingdom to create a trade mechanism (https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1558856/france-announce-new-trade-mechanism-iran-soon) intended to help Iran's of the mullahs, who often repeat (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4421410/Iran-vows-Death-Israel-unveils-latest-missiles.html) that they intend to wipe Israel off the map. (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4421410/Iran-vows-Death-Israel-unveils-latest-missiles.html)

On February 20, the fifteenth demonstration (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5SCCssRcVc) of the "yellow vests" took place in Paris without major incident. The police used a few explosive grenades but no one was hurt. There were no anti-Semitic attacks. A fully veiled woman, wearing a yellow vest on which anti-Jewish slogans were written, was asked by demonstrators to leave. She was in the company of some bearded men also wearing yellow vests. They all quietly left.

The next day, in the center of Paris, another demonstration (http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article22) was held. Pro-Palestinian advocates assembled to demand the release of "Palestinian political prisoners". They waved pictures of people who had been convicted of murdering Jews and were now in Israeli prisons, and signs on which were written, "Israel murders Palestinian children", "Destroy Israeli apartheid" and "Death to Israel". Macron and the French government do not seem to find the organizers of that demonstration problematic.

Dr. Guy Millière, a professor at the University of Paris, is the author of 27 books on France and Europe.

Related:

France's Macron leads the pack of western leaders who malevolently confuse anti-Zionism with antisemitism (https://www.sott.net/article/408168-Frances-Macron-leads-the-pack-of-western-leaders-who-malevolently-confuse-anti-Zionism-with-antisemitism)

The Yellow Vests and France's class wars (https://www.sott.net/article/408123-The-Yellow-Vests-and-Frances-class-wars)

The Yellow Vests' bold movement is causing the French ruling class to lose their mind (https://www.sott.net/article/407719-The-Yellow-Vests-bold-movement-is-causing-the-French-ruling-class-to-lose-their-mind)

12 minutes to understand the Yellow Vest movement in France (https://www.sott.net/article/406042-12-minutes-to-understand-the-Yellow-Vest-movement-in-France)

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Machiavelian... very reminiscing of one of WW II scheme (https://www.henrymakow.com/2019/03/germany-must-perish.html) - all sides financed by the "elite" bankers - where the people of Jewish tradition were funneled into various camps, one of which being Israel... as canon fodder.

One can imagine some biofeedback loop going like this:
since the Templars and Teutonic knights are long dead and Catholics are busy offering the other cheek... and more Jews are needed to displace the remaining Palestinians... well, let's displace Muslims into Europe to displace the remaining faithful Jews into Israel... how to go about that?

Yep... "Jihadists!"
... and the world is consistently goaded into it...