On the morning of July 14th a crowd of several thousand people marched on the Hôtel des Invalides in western Paris. Though used chiefly as a military infirmary, the Invalides had a large store of rifles and several small artillery pieces in its basement. The mob entered the building and looted these weapons, while officers of nearby military regiments refused to intervene. The invaders made off with around 30,000 rifles but found little gunpowder or shot with which to load them. The solution came from deserting guardsmen, who reported that 250 barrels of gunpowder had recently been stowed at the Bastille. The crowd set off on a two-and-a-half mile march to the fortress, hauling several small cannon. They arrived at around 11 in the morning and formed deputations to speak with the Marquis de Launay, the Bastille’s governor. De Launay was a colonel with a clean but unremarkable military record. He was an authoritarian who was disliked by his prisoners and soldiers alike (one chronicler later described him as a “proud and stupid despot”). In the colonel’s favour, he knew the Bastille well; his father had also been its governor and De Launay himself had been born within its walls. The fortress was lightly guarded by around 120 soldiers, most old or infirm – however the Bastille’s strong, high walls and its numerous artillery pieces made it almost unassailable, even for a crowd of several thousand people.

Read more:

http://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/fall-of-the-bastille/

Police in Paris have used water cannons to break up a tumultuous rally. Amid May Day demonstrations, hooded individuals have been throwing smoke bombs and setting vehicles on fire in the French capital.

Live feeds from Paris showed chaotic scenes, as police attempt to disperse violent protesters while redirecting crowds of peaceful marchers to side streets. Loud bangs are heard in the background as smoke and tear gas billow down the streets.

Police pushed back against the rioters, peppering the crowd with tear gas grenades from behind riot shields and hitting the crowd with water cannon. Protesters lobbed firecrackers at the advancing force, as well as picking up and throwing back some of the gas canisters. Armored police vans and fire trucks are backed up advance.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/425585-paris-cars-fire-protesters/

 

Meanwhile:

 

French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Sydney ahead of bilateral talks with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Discussions between the two leaders are expected to focus on trade, defence and strategic issues as well as China's growing influence in the South Pacific.

 

Read more:

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_5778837062001 

 

Read from top...

 

See also: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34135

and : http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31886

especially: lesubs vs u-boots...

 

From ERIC ZUESSE

What killed democracy was constant lying to the public, by politicians whose only way to win national public office is to represent the interests of the super-rich at the same time as the given politician publicly promises to represent the interests of the public — “and may the better liar win!” — it’s a lying-contest. When democracy degenerates into that, it becomes dictatorship by the richest, the people who can fund the most lying. Such a government is an aristocracy, no democracy at all, because the aristocracy rule, the public don’t. It’s the type of government that the French Revolution was against and overthrew; and it’s the type of government that the American Revolution was against and overthrew; but it has been restored in both countries.

First here will be discussed France:

On 7 May 2017, Emmanuel Macron was elected President of France with 66.1% of the vote, compared to Marine Le Pen's 33.9%. That was the second round of voting; the first round had been: Macron 24.0%, Le Pen 21.3% Fillon 20.0%, Melenchon 19.6%, and others 15%; so, the only clear dominator in that 11-candidate contest was Macron, who, in the second round, turned out to have been the second choice of most of the voters for the other candidates. Thus, whereas Le Pen rose from 21.3% to 33.9% in the second round (a 59% increase in her percentage of the vote), Macron rose from 24.0% to 66.1% in the second round (a 275% increase in his percentage of the vote). In other words: Macron didn’t just barely win the Presidency, but he clearly dominated both rounds; it was never at all close. But once in office he very quickly disappointed the French public:

On 11 August 2017, Le Figaro bannered (as autotranslated by Google Chrome) "A hundred days later, Macron confronted with the skepticism of the French”, and reported that 36% were “satisfied” and 64% were “dissatisfied” with the new President. 

On 23 March 2018, Politico bannered "Macron’s approval ratings hit record low: poll” and reported that, "Only 40 percent of the French population said they have a favorable opinion of Macron, a drop of 3 percentage points from last month and 12 percentage points from December, while 57 percent said they hold a negative opinion of the president.” 

On 22 April 2018, Europe 1 reported that 44% were “satisfied” with Macron, and 55% were “dissatisfied” with him; and that — even worse — while 23% were “very dissatisfied” with him, only 5% were “very satisfied” with him.

So, clearly — and this had happened very quickly — the French public didn’t think that they were getting policies that Macron had promised to them during his campaign. He was very different from what they had expected — even though he had won the Presidency in a landslide and clearly dominated both rounds. That plunge in support after being elected President required a lot of deceit during his campaign.

 

Read more:

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/05/19/how-democracy-ended.html

 

Read from top...

Le Pen’s immunity as a lawmaker was lifted in order for her to face prosecution in France for posting images considered to “incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity”.

If convicted, she could face up to three years in prison or a €75,000 fine.

She voiced outrage on Thursday at a court order demanding she undergo psychiatric evaluation in the case.

“I thought I had been through it all: well, no! For having condemned Daesh (IS) horrors in tweets, the ‘justice system’ is putting me through psychiatric tests! Just how far will they go?” she tweeted.

She later argued on BFM TV, a French 24-hour news broadcaster, that totalitarian regimes use such methods against opponents to “make them look like they’re crazy”. She told reporters she would skip the test. “I’d like to see how the judge would try and force me do it,” she said.

Le Pen has argued that she shared the images in response to a French journalist who drew a comparison between IS and her party. She later deleted the picture of Foley after a request from his family, saying she had been unaware of his identity.

The court declined to confirm it had ordered the psychiatric evaluation but magistrates said such tests were a normal part of this kind of investigation.

Le Pen’s argument that she was being persecuted was picked up by others on the European far right. Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini said in a statement: “A court orders a psychiatric assessment for Marine Le Pen. Words fail me! Solidarity with her and with the French who love freedom!”

In France, Le Pen’s leftwing rival Jean-Luc Mélenchon also criticised the idea of a psychiatric test and said Le Pen was “politically responsible for her political acts”. He added: “This is not how we will weaken the far right.”

Le Pen is attempting to win back political ground after her defeat by the centrist Emmanuel Macron in last year’s presidential election.

Her party is facing separate legal investigations over the alleged misuse of EU funds.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/20/france-marine-le-pen-scorn...

 

Read from top.

 

Read also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/34135

Absolutely: Solidarity with Marine Le Pen! You do not have to agree with her politics to be revolted by what the French state is trying to do to her, and why. Even Jean-Luc Melenchon, the far-left French politician, is defending her here. Le Pen posted documentary evidence of actual ISIS atrocities, in an attempt to demonstrate that there is no comparison between ISIS and her political party. So now, in France, simply posting images of actual, real-life events may be evidence of criminal insanity.

Do you not see where this is going? Do you not see why it must be stopped cold?

The Soviet Union used to declare dissidents criminally insane and imprison them in psychiatric units. And now the same sort of thing is manifesting in the West, by those who want to preserve liberalism at all costs. Those who challenge the regime, even with facts and images, will be taken to court and forced to submit to tests to prove that they are not criminally insane.

A breathtaking irony: the French state is doing this to silence those who criticize barbarians who would destroy liberalism.

 

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/marine-le-pen-sovietizati...

 

Read from top.

 

Please note Eric Zuesse comment: "That plunge in support after being elected President required a lot of deceit during his campaign."

Macron's campaign was supported by ... Soros... Nuf said.

 

Effective on small fires, a surprising mix of water and of "secret ingredients" was used by the French police, in water cannons on protesters on May 1, 2018. The use of the additive would have been surprising.

"Protein compounds for fireproofing".

On September 27, the Street Press website published its own investigation after contacting the Headquarters of the French National Police (DGPN) about the mixture propelled by water cannons on Parisian protesters during the protests of May 1 2018. In fact, an article published five days earlier on the site of The Parisian had provoked a wave of indignation on social networks, while it mentioned the said ingredients contained in the water cannons used by the police.

Asked about the exact composition of the mix, the DGPN interlocutor contacted by Street Press was evasive, explaining that the police used a famous mix that is only available from "the firefighting equipment market".

Street Press has exposed the "guide to foam concentrates" dated 2010, which describes a certain flame retardant (to slow the burning of materials), composed of "powdered cattle hooves and horns, of crushed feathers, dried blood and some petroleum protein, stating that these raw materials are generally purchased abroad, such as in South America or Eastern Europe."

...

 

Gus will investigate the claims tomorrow...

 

See more:

https://francais.rt.com/france/54307-os-broyes-sang-seche-proteines-de-p...

 

Read from top.

The landslide success of Emmanuel Macron’s party seems to be fading away as the party of his presidential rival, Marine Le Pen, is overtaking his ruling alliance six months ahead of European parliamentary elections, a poll shows.

With his ratings rapidly plummeting, the centrist leader who was once the rising star of French politics is losing his position. According to the Ifop poll on Sunday, the centrist’s La Republique En Marche (LREM) party scored second when people were asked on their voting intentions for May 2019 European Parliament election.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/443090-le-pen-outruns-macron-party-poll/

 

Read from top.

Police unleash tear gas and water cannons on projectile throwing protesters in Paris, as the ‘Yellow Vest’ upheaval against fuel prices turns areas of the French capital into the war zones.

The iconic Champs Elysee filled with smoke as crowds of protesters attempted to move closer to the presidential palace, throwing bottles and stones at police. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Several vehicles and outdoor structures have been set on fire adding to the smoke... even the Arc de Triomphe was barely visible through the thick fumes. Demonstrators maneuvered past smoking projectiles as clashes continued. Police have already arrested at least 42 people in Paris.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/444772-fuel-protest-paris-scuffles/

 

Read from top.

It was a scene worthy of the most self-indulgent French art house cinema, yet here it was, happening in real life, in the middle of Paris.

As the “gilets jaunes” (“yellow vests”) protests against rising fuel prices – but also President Emmanuel Macron and his unpopular efforts to overhaul France – turned violent on Saturday, the crowd found their hero.

READ MORE: Battlefield Paris: Police hit protesters with tear gas as massive fuel rallies grip France (VIDEO)

He did not have the martyr-like visage of Che Guevara, he was not wearing a superhero cape – in fact, he wasn’t wearing much at all. It’s unclear when this protestor decided to strip down to his waist, or if he brought his swimming goggles with him from home to the Champs Elysées.

Yet here he was, rolls of fat juddering, the tattooed dragon on his chest twisting furiously, as the man strutted, crying obscenities at the unmoving cops, challenging the water cannon to smite him. Finally, the police obliged. As the column of cold water was about to strike his chest, he did not flinch, but lowered himself down on one knee, and spread out his arms like a Gallic Jesus.

“I shall not tremble, for my strength comes from truth,” he may have been saying, though the camera microphones were not powerful enough to pick up his actual words.

And just as he seemed on the verge of summoning the divine retribution to reverse the unequal contest… an old 'piano' rolled into view.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/444836-paris-water-cannon-naked-man/

In Katowice, Poland, all the signers of the 2015 Paris climate accord are gathered to assess how the world’s nations are meeting their goals to cut carbon emissions.

Certainly, the communications strategy in the run-up was impressive.

In October came that apocalyptic U.N. report warning that the world is warming faster than we thought and the disasters coming sooner than we thought.

What disasters? More and worse hurricanes, uncontrollable fires, floods, the erosion of coastlines, typhoons, drought, tsunamis, the sinking of islands into the sea.

In November, a scientific report issued by 13 U.S. agencies warned that if greater measures are not taken to reduce global warming, the damage could knock 10 percent off the size of the U.S. economy by century’s end.

At the G-20 meeting in Buenos Aires, 19 of the attending nations recommitted to the Paris accord. Only President Trump’s America did not.

Yet, though confidence may abound in Katowice that the world will meet the goals set down in Paris in 2015, the global environmentalists seem to be losing momentum and losing ground.

Consider what happened this weekend in France.

Saturday, rage over a fuel tax President Emmanuel Macron has proposed to cut carbon emissions brought mobs into the heart of Paris, where they battled police, burned cars, looted, smashed show windows of elite stores such as Dior and Chanel, and desecrated the Arc de Triomphe.

In solidarity with the Paris rioters, protests in other French cities erupted.

Virulently anti-elite, the protesters say they cannot make ends meet with the present burdens on the working and middle class.

Specifically, what the rioters seem to be saying is this:

We cannot see the benefits you are promising to future generations from cutting carbon emissions. And we cannot survive the taxes you are imposing on us in the here and now.

What is happening in Paris carries a message for all Western countries.

Democracies, which rely on the sustained support of electorates, have to impose rising costs on those electorates, if they are to deeply cut carbon emissions.

 

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/massive-riots-in-paris-...

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

Gus:

 

Sustainability should be far less "expensive" than burning carbon as if there were no tomorrow. But the carbon traders (coal, oil and gas) make sure sustainability has become a dirty word by fidulating* the economy (Western economies) as to steal more from people to enrich the already massively rich. Blaming the carbon reduction for the economic "austerity" belt-tightening is ludicrous.

 

Fidulating: A made-up word expressing the idea that things are "fabricated" to suit a highway robbery outcome, without the obvious guns and horses. Here the technique of fidulating is using cash, exchange of values, and banking systems that are corrupt, but accepted by governments, because the alternative would be "everyone for themselves" anarchy. To some extend the USA, is already in an "anarchy mode waiting to happen", except the government sells a decorum of control while the mad population is armed with more guns than people, awaiting their turn to shoot someone...

Remember Waco...

 

Read from top.

 

Oh and by the way, the huge US army and the cost associated with it also helps "solve" the huge unemployment problem the US would experience without it. The Pentagon and its sinkhole budget is like a "social" program providing jobs paid for by huge deficits. That this can be used as a "world bullying gendarme" is only a side issue — a non profitable issue that only survives on its glorious illusionary hubris. The carbon traders piggyback on this "world bullying" programme.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/04/emmanuel-macron-cr...

For Europe’s sake, Emmanuel Macron needs help – not our scorn or hatred. A young, reformist French president who promised a “European renaissance” finds himself struggling at the helm of a country that is fast becoming “the sick man of Europe” again. It was a telling moment last weekend when rioters disfigured the face of a statue of Marianne, the republic’s symbol, at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Just three weeks earlier, world leaders had gathered there with Macron for the centenary of the Armistice. If the “sad passions” that Macron has warned of many times take hold in France, an entire continent will be affected – not just one man’s political career.

Extreme forces across Europe are busily rejoicing over Macron’s gilets jaunes predicament. From Britain’s hardline Brexiters (both left and right) to Italy’s far-right strongman Matteo Salvini, not to mention Putin’s propaganda outlets, the relish is unmistakable. Upheaval and chaos in liberal democracies is what they thrive on. The prize the extremists seek is a political takeover of Europe in next May’s European parliament elections. Events in France are ominous, and their significance extends far beyond one country’s borders.

...

Macron has certainly made mistakes. Most of the protesters have genuine, if chaotically expressed, grievances. They consider themselves the “invisible” people treated with contempt by Parisian elites, and now they’ve made themselves very visible with their fluorescent vests. Public opinion is behind them.

One of their most eloquent members is Ingrid Levavasseur, a young nurse and single mother of two from Normandy. Last week she spoke movingly on television of her struggle to make ends meet, and of her sense of deep injustice: “Some people complain that we block roads, but they don’t complain when they’re stuck in traffic jams on their way to ski resorts, do they?” she asked softly.

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

Gus:

Natalie Nougayrède has a point of view... Another one. She sounds authoritative but isn't. The Guardian uses her too often to push some "liberal" hopeful drivel as if we should all carry on eating our cornflakes while being raped. The chickens have come to roost. Colonialism, its guilt and wars in Middle East regions have changed the moires of Western civilisation. Rather than understand these premises, the MEPs in Brussels are building monuments to themselves while trying to disengage from the English sausage which has gone rancid.

There is a cultivation of bad will on all sides, in order to shit-stir. Macron saw himself as Napoleon incarnate with a large mandate THAT DID NOT REPRESENT THE TRUE FEELINGS of the French population. He did not read the signs and went to war against the people — who have seen their status diminish rather than improve over the years. Enough is enough. Whether the Jilets Jaunes represent the majority of the population, they don't — but they represent a majority of the singularity in the French multi-political sentiments. Macron should call new elections and let the people redesign their destiny away from the Macronical ersatz — which for all intent and purposes WAS SPONSORED BY SOROS. The more shit here and there, the more SOROS is making money. Nothing to do with his philanthropy which comes out of his arse.

 

Read from top.

RT France reporters have been going every week to meet Yellow Vests mobilized in the streets. For the act 15 of the mobilization, after more than three months, the people met always say they are determined to continue their fight to the end. Always at the heart of the demands, the popular participation in the democratic life and the referendum of citizens' initiative (RIC) appear at the top of the priorities of the Yellow vests.

Myriam, a parental assistant in Paris, has been part of the movement since the beginning. If she does not feel that the Yellow Vests are heard by the government and feels that they are treated with contempt, she nevertheless finds that the power can not pretend not to see them. What encourages her to continue, in addition to tax and social demands, is the "injustice" related to the treatment of yellow vests. "We are denigrated, we are made to pass for what we are not. It's really annoying, "says Myriam.

Camille, a physics student, held a placard on which he had written: "1789, Bourgeois Revolution, 2019, People's Revolution." He explained to the microphone of RT France that the parallels established regularly between the French Revolution and the movement of yellow vests was irrelevant according to him because the revolution of 1789 was "a bourgeois revolution that set up the system in which we live today". For Camille, with the Yellow Vests, "we can have a revolution that really gives power to the people."

 

Read more:

https://francais.rt.com/france/59432-paroles-gilets-jaunes-on-nous-denig...

 

Translation Jules Letambour.

 

 

Read from top.

I think Camille ment the 1789 revolution was by the people (who did not have cake) but ended up with the bourgeois political system of today...

The Twitter mob has predictably begun to argue over the virtues and pitfalls of the French Revolution, after Sen. Lindsey Graham suggested that radicals have co-opted the Democratic Party and are marching the nation towards ruin.

The South Carolina lawmaker triggered a large number of blue checkmarks after accusing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her progressive cohorts of spearheading “the most radical mob” in recent American history.

“It appears the French Revolution has now come to the Democratic Party,” the Republican senator tweeted.

But his incendiary warning seemed to galvanize liberal Twitter pundits and media figures.

Dan Saltzstein, a deputy editor at the New York Times, rushed to defend France’s bloody 18th century uprising, claiming that it “led to a democratic overthrow of a monarchy and the establishment of a republic.” 

...

The flood of criticism prompted the NYT editor to concede that the French Revolution was “a clusterf**k”, but still insisted Graham was out of line by making reference to it. 

The Republican lawmaker isn’t the first one to compare political radicals in the US to French revolutionaries. A group of Seattle protesters recently hinted that anyone who doesn’t get on board with their movement would face a guillotine-like end.

 

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/usa/492864-french-revolution-graham-democrats-debate/

 

Read from top.

 

Read also:

iPhoned, the bourgeois gentilhomme’s neo-idealistic children destroy their inheritance, before bedtime…

 

of civilisation and CHAOS...

 

of democratic civilisations and tweaking cheeks...

 

Scan this with your smartphone — send this QR code to your mates, friends and enemies, including your pollies :

 

 

 

 

The slow disintegration of the Republic in France

by Thierry Meyssan
For the past three years, a profound protest has been heard throughout France. It has taken on hitherto unknown forms. Claiming to be a republican ideal, it is questioning the way in which political personnel serve the institutions. Faced with it, the President of the Republic monkeys a dialogue that he manipulates at every stage. For Thierry Meyssan, the country’s worst enemies are not those who want to divide it into communities, but those who have been elected and have forgotten the meaning of their mandate.

The Yellow Vests have always displayed the French flag in their events; a symbol absent from events organized by environmentalists.

The first wave

In October 2018, in France, a deaf woman protested from small towns and the countryside. The country’s leaders and the media were stunned to discover the existence of a social class they did not know and had never met before: a petty bourgeoisie, which had been excluded from the big cities and relegated to the "French desert", an area where public services are rationed and public transport is non-existent.

This protest, which in some places turned into an uprising, was triggered by the increase of a tax on oil aimed at reducing fuel consumption in order to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement. These citizens were much more affected than others by this increase because they lived far away from everything and had no transportation options other than their personal means.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the world economy has reorganized. Hundreds of millions of jobs have been relocated from the West to China. Most of those who have lost their jobs have had to accept lower paid jobs. They have been forced to leave the big cities, which have become too expensive for them, and move to the outskirts [1].

The Yellow Vests reminded the rest of society that they existed and could not help fight the "end of the world" if they were not first helped to fight for their "ends of the month". They denounced the recklessness of political leaders who, from their offices in the capital, could not see their distress [2].

The first political debates between politicians and some of their leading figures were even more astounding: the politicians proposed sectorial measures to make the price of petrol affordable when they calmly responded to them about the disasters caused by financial globalisation. The former seemed bewildered and out-dated, while the latter were the only ones with an overview. Competence had shifted from the political staff to their constituents.

Fortunately for the ruling class, the media dismissed these troublemakers and substituted them with other demonstrators, forcefully expressing their anger without the same intelligence. The hardening of the conflict, supported by the majority of the population, raised fears of a possible revolution. Panicked, President Emmanuel Macron took refuge for ten days in his bunker under the Elysée Palace, cancelling all his appointments. He thought of resigning and summoned the president of the Senate to act as interim president. The latter rebuffed him. Coming to his senses, he appeared on television to announce various social measures. However, none of these allowances concerned the Yellow Vests because the State did not yet know who they were.

All opinion studies tend to show that this protest is not a rejection of politics, but on the contrary a political will to restore the general interest, i.e. of the Republic (Res Publica).

Citizens are more or less satisfied with the Constitution, but not with the way it is being used. Their rejection is first of all that of the behaviour of the political staff as a whole, not of the Institutions.

So, to take matters into his own hands, President Emmanuel Macron decided to organize a "Great National Debate" in each commune, somewhat along the lines of the Estates General of 1789. Each citizen could express himself. The proposals would be summarized and taken into account.

From the very first days, the president sought to control popular expression. It was a question of not letting the mob say anything. Immigration", "voluntary termination of pregnancy", "death penalty" and "marriage for all" were to be kept out of the debate. Thus, while the president thought he was a "democrat", he was suspicious of the People.

Of course, all groups can be dominated by passions. During the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were able to disrupt the debates of the assemblies by invectivating members from the galleries. But there is no reason to anticipate that the mayors would have been overwhelmed by their constituents.

The organization of the "Great National Debate" was the responsibility of the National Commission for Public Debate. The Commission wanted to guarantee the free expression of each citizen, while the President wanted to limit it to four themes: "ecological transition", "taxation", "democracy and citizenship", and "organization of the State and public services".

The Commission was therefore thanked and replaced by two ministers. Unemployment, social relations, old-age dependency, immigration and security were forgotten.

The president then took the stage. He took part in several televised meetings during which he answered all the questions asked, imbued with his own competence. The plan had evolved from listening to citizens’ concerns to answering them that they were well governed.

Three months, 10,000 meetings and 2,000,000 contributions later, a report was delivered and filed in a cupboard. Contrary to what this synthesis claims, the interventions of the participants in the "Great National Debate" dealt with the advantages of elected representatives, taxation and purchasing power, speed limits on roads, the abandonment of rural territories and immigration. Not only did this exercise in style not move things forward, but it gave the Yellow Vests proof that the president wants to talk to them, but not hear them.

All over France, the Yellow Vests organized petitions for the creation of a Citizens’ Initiative Referendum (RIC).

Since they tell you we’re democrats

Not during the "Great National Debate", but during the demonstrations, many yellow jackets made reference to Étienne Chouard [3]. For about ten years, this man has been criss-crossing France assuring his interlocutors that a Constitution is only legitimate if it is drafted by the citizens. He therefore advocates forming a constituent assembly by drawing lots and submitting its result to a referendum.

President Emmanuel Macron responded by creating an assembly drawn by lot, a "Citizens’ Convention". In the continuity of the "Great National Debate", from the first day, he perverted the idea he was implementing. It was not a question of drafting a new Constitution, but of pursuing one of the four themes he had already imposed.

However, he did not see the drawing of lots as a means of overriding the privileges enjoyed by certain social classes or circumventing those of political parties. He approached it as a means of gaining a better understanding of the popular will, in the manner of polling institutes. He therefore had the population divided into socio-professional categories as well as by region. Then the members were drawn by lot from these different groups as for a panel of respondents. The definition of these groups was not made public. Moreover, it entrusted the organization of the debates to a firm specializing in panel facilitation so that the result was that of a survey: this assembly did not make any original proposals, but merely prioritized the proposals presented to it.

Such a process is much more formal than a survey, but it is not democratic since its members have never been able to exercise any initiative. The most consensual proposals will be transmitted to Parliament or submitted to the People by referendum. However, the last referendum in France, fifteen years ago, is not fondly remembered: the People censured government policy which was nevertheless pursued by other means in defiance of the citizens.

The totally illusory nature of this citizens’ assembly appeared with a proposal that its members said they did not want to submit to a referendum because the People, whom they were supposed to represent, would surely reject it. In doing so, they admitted that they had adopted a proposal following the arguments presented to them, but knowing that the People would reason otherwise.

It’s not me, it’s the scientists.

When the Covid-19 epidemic broke out, President Emmanuel Macron was convinced of the seriousness of the danger by the British statistician Neil Ferguson [4]. He decided to protect the population by applying the generalized mandatory lockdown recommended by the former team of Donald Rumsfeld [5]. He protected himself from criticism by setting up a "Scientific Council", which he entrusted to a legal personality he believed to be indisputable [6].

Only one authoritative voice rose up against this device: one of the world’s most eminent infectious diseases physicians, Professor Didier Raoult [7] At the end of the crisis, he testified before a parliamentary committee. According to him, Neil Ferguson is an impostor; the Scientific Council - from which he resigned - is manipulated by conflicts of interest with Gilead Science (Donald Rumsfeld’s former firm); in an emergency situation, the role of doctors is to treat, not to experiment; the results of doctors depend on their conception of their profession, which is why patients entrusted to hospitals in Paris were three times more likely to die than those entrusted to hospitals in Marseille.

Didier Raoult’s remarks were not analysed by the media, which devoted their work to the outraged reaction of the administrative and medical nomenklatura. Yet the question of the competence of the President of the Republic, his government and the medical elite had just been raised by an undisputed member of the medical elite.

The second wave

The first round of municipal elections took place at the beginning of the health crisis on March 15, 2020. Peripheral towns and rural areas, the land of the Yellow Vests, had often achieved majorities to elect their mayors immediately. As usual, things were more complex in the big cities. A second round was held at the end of the crisis, on June 28. A new step was then taken.

Six out of ten voters, scalded by the "Great National Debate" and indifferent to the "Citizens’ Convention", went on strike at the polls.

Ignoring this silent protest, the media interpreted the minority vote as a "triumph of the environmentalists". It would have been more accurate to say that the supporters of the struggle against the "end of the world" have definitively divorced from those of the struggle for the "end of the month".

Opinion polls assure us that the environmentalist vote is mainly the work of civil servants. This is a constant in all pre-revolutionary processes: intelligent people, if they feel connected to Power, are blinded and do not understand what is happening before their eyes.

Since the Constitution does not provide for this fracture within the People, no quorum has been established so that this ballot is valid although undemocratic in all the big cities. None of the mayors, even though they were elected by only one fifth of their constituents or even less, requested the annulment of the ballot.

No regime can continue without the support of its people. If this ballot-box strike happens again when the President of the Republic is elected in May 2022, the system will collapse. None of the political leaders seem to care.

Thierry Meyssan

Translation 
Roger Lagassé


Read more:https://www.voltairenet.org/article210517.html


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confinement, social distancing, camembert!

 

and this has been sunk by Covid19...

There will be no traditional military parade on Tuesday, July 14, on the Champs-Elysées - unheard of since 1945. No Leclerc tanks, troops wearing the cassowary, naval guys in full uniform, legionnaires with axe on the shoulder and leather apron closing the step. The flying aerobatic team of France will still leave a tricolour plume in the sky of Paris… The spectacle of the three armies — navy, infantry, airforce — which provides excitement for thousands of guests packed in the stands and millions of televiewers, will be replaced, on the place de la Concorde, by a ceremony in homage to the health service personnel and to hospital staff, now engaged in the "war" against Covid-19.

This minimal deployment, dictated by health constraints, will save some cash. Is this the precursor to a period of austerity for armies and defense industry, this time imposed by financial imperatives? With economic and social priorities, a 10% recession in 2020 and a budget deficit of more than 220 billion euros, does France have the means to achieve its ambition: to maintain — alone in Europe after Brexit — a "Complete army model", capable of both projecting itself beyond borders, fighting terrorism in France and maintaining a costly nuclear deterrent?

 

The question does not just arise in France. In the United States, the "hawks" defend the Pentagon's big budget after the "trillions" of dollars injected in support of the economy. This question begs worry at the NATO summit, weakened by criticism of Donald Trump and the politics of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "The pandemic will have very significant economic consequences on budgets, but I expect the allies to remain committed to their investments for their defense" warned, in mid-March, the organisation's secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. In France, the “defense community” (military, industrial and specialised parliamentarians) remembers the lean years that followed the financial crisis of 2008.

 

A more uncertain world

The international context has deteriorated in ten years. The strategic review commissioned by Emmanuel Macron upon his election describes a more uncertain world. The areas of confrontation multiply at the marches of Europe: Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean, Ukraine, Libya, Sahel ... The credible scenario of a withdrawal of the American umbrella justifies, according to Paris, the creation of a European defense ensuring the strategic autonomy of the Old Continent… while the European Union is tearing itself apart for a handful of billions to the European Defense Fund. All in a context of heightened technological warfare. Beware of the stall against the "strategic competitors", the United States and China at the head, warned military and industrialists, at the end of April, in front of the Parliament.

 

Read more:

https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2020/07/13/les-industriels-de-la-defense-veulent-tirer-profit-du-plan-de-relance-pour-gonfler-la-production_6046055_3232.html

 

 

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