The French Revolution

[ignerntbend]

Civil unrest in France? Unprecedented! Who would have ever believed it?

 

[steelfingers]

Exactly. All of these social programs require tax money from the people. The entire purpose of the green movement is a cover to raise tax money to advance socialism....its not to save the planet.

Nailed it!

 

[steelfingers]

Lou

Civil unrest in France? Unprecedented! Who would have ever believed it?

Louis XVI for one

 

[Dale00]

And those American colonies - keep an eye on them!

 

[Glocktogo]

Macron made his speech today to placate the yellow vests. On video, he looked like a hostage giving a speech to save his life.

Trying to quell violent protests across France's major cities, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday introduced a series of new measures he hopes will chart a path out of the political crisis and put an end to the anti-government demonstrations.

In a 13-minute speech from the Elysée Palace, Macron declared "a state of social and economic emergency," offering a handful of concessions to his critics, including promises to deliver tax relief for the poor and to cancel a tax increase on retirees.

It was his first public address after a week of silence, during which the gilets jaunes — yellow vests — protests continued to wreak havoc and mayhem on the streets of Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Dijon and Toulouse for the fourth weekend in a row.

Macron's plan to placate the yellow vests included a 100 euro per month minimum wage hike — equivalent to $114 per month — set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2019. He paired the raise with the elimination of tax on overtime and end-of-the-year bonuses, and he encouraged employers "who can" to give bonuses as a way of helping to solve the social crisis in France. He also rescinded a planned tax on pensions that are under 2,000 euro per month.

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/10/6754...hike-and-tax-cuts-to-end-yellow-vest-protests

It's a predictably French response to a predictably French problem. It's so cliché it's meme-worthy.

 

[Dale00]

A closer, first hand look at the protestors....

It was obvious from a single glance that these weren’t Parisians, but rural people who couldn’t afford to buy expensive Parisian clothes or get chic haircuts. I instantly understood why Macron rubs them the wrong way. They looked worn out; their hands and faces were lined; they were mainly in late middle-age. They seemed to be decent, respectable, weary people who had worked hard all their lives, paid their taxes, and played by the rules.

They couldn’t have seemed less disposed to violence, nor more apolitical. They were respectful of the police, and vice-versa. As cops drove by, relaxed, the Gilets Jaunes smiled at them, like kids excited about their first trip to the big city, waved at the officers, and gave them the thumbs-up. The cops reciprocated. The sentiment was fraternal. “We’re all weary, overtaxed working men,” they were saying to each other. “We’re on the same side.”

I concluded they were just what they were advertised to be: family men and women who couldn’t make ends meet and who were tired of Macron’s attitude. Why this protest, why now, I asked? The fuel tax was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, they said; it made the difference between “able to make ends meet, barely,” and “not able to make ends meet.” It had just been getting steadily worse every year since the economic crisis began. They had run out of hope.

My heart went out to them. I was prepared to go home and report that the protests had fizzled out. “There isn’t much to this,” I concluded. I had no sense that if I continued walking, toward the Charles de Gaulle Étoile, I’d find myself amid the worst riots Paris has seen in decades. These protesters weren’t about to vandalize a thing, and no one seemed to mind them. The cops seemed sorry for them.

People at the Charles de Gaulle Étoile saw something else entirely. There, the police were physically overwhelmed by about 5,000 Gilets Jaunes who had come explicitly prepared to do violence. About 200 demonstrators showed their ID and allowed police to search them before they entered a security zone on the Champs-Elysées, but the rest refused to play by the rules. From about 8 am, hostile crowds of Gilets Jaunes emerged, in large numbers, from all the avenues around the Arc de Triomphe, trying to push their way onto the Champs-Elysées. The police were physically overpowered because so many of them were protecting the Champs-Elysées and the perimeter around the area where government buildings are concentrated. They were overrun. There were no cops behind the rioters to stop them from burning cars on the other avenues around the Étoile.

The rioter demographics were surprising. They were mainly aged 30-40, the police reported—a bit old for rioting, you’d think. They were “socially well-inserted” into the movement, but unlike the majority of the protesters, they had come with the goal of breaking and smashing things, rejecting the authority of the state and its symbols as savagely as they could. Of the 378 people taken into custody on Saturday, only 33 were minors. Most were rural men. The security services had drastically underestimated the number of violent protesters who would arrive and where they would be.

https://www.city-journal.org/police...MaCi5H10cXMmkKawmT8h71GCsAwIejdUcwdXtbi2XF3Cg

 

[Dave70968]

Civil unrest in France? Unprecedented! Who would have ever believed it?

It's a predictably French response to a predictably French problem. It's so cliché it's meme-worthy.

I believe it was Dave Barry who coined the phrase "...strikes more often than a French labor union."

 

[dennishoddy]

I believe it was Dave Barry who coined the phrase "...strikes more often than a French labor union."

It's not just France. When I was going to a control systems school in Brescia Italy a few years back for a couple weeks, strikes for a day or two to protest something was common with the unions. Strikes are part of life in Europe.

 

[Shadowrider]

It's not just France. When I was going to a control systems school in Brescia Italy a few years back for a couple weeks, strikes for a day or two to protest something was common with the unions. Strikes are part of life in Europe.

Unions are a huge deal in most of Europe. When I was at Baker Hughes our main plant was in West Germany. At that time they had a "journeyman" system tied into their colleges for most skilled trades. Once working on a job, they got 6 weeks paid vacation/leave per year and the benefits were just nuts. Also they tended to work their entire career at one or two employers.

Now getting more in-line with the O/P. When the wall came down they were really pissed over the tax increases they had to pay to feed, house and educate all those people in East Germany who had basically nothing. They weren't happy at all. How they got from there to being OK with opening their borders to every muslim country on that side of this rock? I haven't the foggiest...

 

[dennishoddy]

they got 6 weeks paid vacation/leave per year and the benefits were just nuts. .

Somehow to my benefit, my wife always scheduled our vacations in the Crib at the same time all the europeans got their summer vacations. and traveled there. There were a plethora of bare boobs and more on the beaches. They aren't as "shy" as American women.