Checking in on Macron, France

I know — almost the way an opinion forum is supposed to work!

Exactly.

This may be true.

One thing I know to be true is that David Brock runs an online sock-puppet harassment crew who are paid to blame everything the DNC and Hillary Clinton are accused of —on ‘Russia’.

Twitter and independent journalists are skeptical of the myriad of events thrown at the feet of Russia. In the very least, DNC Brock bots are in there, too. Just FYI.

Brock bots should be banned with the same prejudice as so-called ‘fake news’. They definitely fit the profile.

I'm not blaming the gillets on Putin, just saying that when reading stuff online, be aware that there's the new normal level of disinformation and fake news going on, on this issue as well. You were caught yourself when you stated some days ago that Macron had been pelted with an egg, and eBeth showed it was in fact an older event...

Macron has annoyed a lot of people, and not just in France. The number of assholes who want his skin is growing exponentially, as he tries to don the mantle of world leadership.

Yeah. I didn’t think you were unaware of the vast host of paid liars online and their disparate agendas. I just wanted to mention it.

You and I were basically saying the same thing, and I did think the egg was recent.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/07/armoured-vehicles-deployed-paris-combat-gilets-jaunes?CMP=share_btn_tw

This article is full of points that resonate in horrific ways. I was most chilled by “preventative arrests”...

———————
French security forces sealed off areas of central Paris on Saturday to contain and control gilets jaunes protesters and prevent a repeat of clashes, violence and burning cars and buildings.

Well before sunrise they deployed armoured vehicles at possible flashpoints including Place de la Bastille and the Arc de Triomphe.

Officials said it was a “high-risk” day and appealed for protesters to stay at
home.

To avoid a repeat of shocking scenes of cars burning and the smashing and looting shops by fringe elements of the movement, police and gendarmes blocked off areas of central Paris, including roads around the Elysée palace. Officers searched bags and backpacks confiscating masks used as protection from teargas, helmets and anything that could be used as a projectile.

By 10am local time, police, who had been carrying out a stop-and-search operation around the capital, said they had made nearly 400 “preventative arrests”.

A group of gilets jaunes has blocked the péripherique, the ring road around Paris, west of the city.

The first use of teargas came just before 10.30am as police cleared protesters, who had been shouting slogans against the president, Emmanuel Macron, and singing the Marseillaise, from a side street and pushed them back on to the Champs-Elysées.

Elsewhere, Paris was eerily quiet for a Saturday in December, one of the busiest days of the year for shopkeepers. Instead many stores were shut and boarded up. Some without metal shutters or boarding, put high visibility vests in their window in a show of support and the hope of sparing them from destruction.

A group of gilets jaunes from the Auvergne had come up overnight, making the five-and-a-half hour journey by coach.

“We’re here because we’re fed up. Everyone’s fed up. The politicians ask us to make sacrifices while they do nothing,” said one.

“Don’t mix us up with the casseurs (smashers and looters); they are nothing to do with the gilets jaunes and we’re not here for that.”

There is no clear-cut difference between the ultra-left and ultra-right casseurs and the gillets jaunes. It's a lie to pretend that those two groups are different. The French police did a pretty good job over the weekend and the ones before that. Being put in a cell for a few hours and having your set of pétanque balls confiscated never killed anyone... Wake me up when they start to shoot people with life rounds like in the US.

Everybody can be a "yellow jacket". All you need is to don one. There's no registry, no structure, no clear boundary to this set. And it's a very heterogenous set.

Thank you too. You are being a bit kind here - I know a lot about Nuclear power, but not everything.

Thank you, as well, for your rational disagreements & challenges. Dealing with such things is, in my experience, the best path to right understanding -- nobody I know is right about everything all the time.

Arresting before the crime a la Minority Report isn’t ok.

Keep your advice for your own police forces, who are shooting down black folks like rabbits.

This is so funny. Your whataboutism.
Why so defensive? Nobody blamed you.

One reason the world is a shitcan is that instead of confronting a fact clear-eyed, people defend their favored monsters by pointing at other monsters.

So everybody’s monsters are empowered.

Weird little human mechanism. Odd to watch it kick into play.

They’re all monsters.

I'm not defensive, just giving you a piece of advice. Try and make sure you your priorities aren't too screwed up.

Interesting.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/11/egypt-bans-sale-of-gilets-jaunes-yellow-vests-in-fear-copycat-protests?CMP=twt_gu

I guess I should head down to Home Depot for mine tomorrow...

In part:

Egyptian authorities restricted the sale of yellow reflective vests amid fears opponents might attempt to copy French gilets jaunes protesters during next month’s anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Security officials and retailers said industrial safety equipment dealers have been instructed not to sell yellow vests to walk-in buyers and to restrict business to wholesale to verified companies, but only after securing police permission. They were told offenders would be punished, the officials said without elaborating.

A message to the gillets jaunes:

Joep Bertrams

Haven’t decided if I should start a new thread.

In the meantime, putting ‘Yellow Vest’ demonstrations heee.

https://neonnettle.com/news/5894-civil-war-swedish-citizens-rise-up-to-protest-globalism
———————
Civil War: Swedish Citizens Rise Up To Protest Globalism The people of Sweden protest against political elite as Yellow Vest movement spreads By: Jay Greenberg on 11th December 2018 @ 12.00pm © press The French Yellow Vest movement is inspiring other nations to rise up against globalism Citizens across Sweden have begun rising up to protest globalism, in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of French protestors. As the anti-globalist movement continues to sweep across Europe, the people of Sweden took to the streets of Stockholm over the weekend, protesting the UN Migration Pact.France’s "Yellow Vest" movement has also spread to at least three other European countries as citizens in Belgium, Germany, and Holland have also started to protest against the political elite.The French movement originally started as an opposition to high fuel taxes but is now focused on governments as well, as regular, hard-working people feel unheard. As Swedes gathered outside Parliament in Stockholm, one protester said:"I am here for the poor elderly who paid tax their whole lives and now are forced to starve."

Swedish citizens gather outside the Parliament in Stockholm to protest against globalist policies According to Voice of Europe, plenty of Swedish flags, placards, and yellow vests were seen, with children participating as well. “We are not extremists. We are ordinary Swedes,” shouted the protesters.“It’s not about political colors, it’s about the people," one of the speakers, journalist Katerina Janouch stated. “I am here for the 9-year-old girl who was raped and beaten in a junk room. "I am here for all the women who no longer dare go out.“I am here for the poor elderly who paid tax their whole lives and now are forced to starve. "I am here for the homeless

READ MORE: https://neonnettle.com/news/5894-civil-war-swedish-citizens-rise-up-to-protest-globalism

Perhaps Mr. Macron has further opened a door previously pulled ajar by MS Merkel.

French protests affect euro.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-46564528

——————————
The euro has fallen against the dollar after disappointing French and German economic surveys dismayed the markets.

In France, private sector business activity contracted for the first time in two and a half years as the "gilets jaunes" protests took their toll.

In Germany, private sector activity slowed to a four-year low. The surveys pointed to weak fourth-quarter growth in the two biggest eurozone economies.

After the figures were published, the euro fell 0.6% to below the $1.13 mark.

The data came from closely-watched surveys published by research group IHS Markit, which tracks business activity across Europe in its Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI).

Its December composite figure for the French economy was down sharply at 49.3, from November's reading of 54.2.

Any figure below 50 indicates contraction rather than expansion. The French reading confounded analysts, with the index hitting depths not seen since November 2014.

"Having held up reasonably well throughout the initial months of Q4, latest flash data pointed to an outright contraction in France's private sector for the first time in two-and-a-half years, following the protests which have swept through the country in recent weeks," said Eliot Kerr, an economist at IHS Markit.

"Momentum in the manufacturing sector's downturn gathered pace, while most notably, the service sector's resilience came to a halt, with business activity and demand dropping."

For the German economy, the equivalent figure was 52.2 , as against 52.3 the previous month.

Who are the 'gilets jaunes'?
Macron promises divide protest leaders
The impact of the "yellow vest" demonstrations has been keenly felt in France, where the government has been forced to bow to pressure and change its economic course.

President Emmanuel Macron has responded to the nationwide street protests by scrapping an unpopular fuel tax rise and promising an extra €100 (£90; $114) a month for minimum wage earners and tax cuts for pensioners.

However, it is far from clear that he has done enough to defuse public anger.

Bart Hordijk, market analyst at Monex Europe, said: "The sentiments among the yellow vests may have quite some support from the French public. However, businesses beg to disagree.

"If the magnitude of this drop continues in other countries and coming months, the European Central Bank's assessment that the eurozone economy 'risks moving to the downside' will quickly seem outdated, as the risks will already be there.

"The ECB president talked yesterday of 'lower growth, not of no growth'. However, a tail risk is forming that eurozone economies will slip into a recession while the ECB interest rates are still sub-zero.

"This would be a Japan-like scenario: a prospect which the euro understandably does not take well."

They're also costing the French state a lot of money, money which might have been available for tax relief or fuel subsidies.

This is interesting, and I wonder if it will become a common feature as the "yellow vest" movement expands into other countries:

France tax protests often feature anti-Semitic rhetoric


TofI