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Selco on the Riots in France, False News, and Manipulated Rage: “Every riot can be the start of SHTF”

December 5, 2018

Selco on the Riots in France, False News, and Manipulated Rage: “Every riot can be the start of SHTF”

Editor’s note: The riots in France have been all over the news and we’ve watched many beautiful, historic places being destroyed. While the whole thing supposedly started in reaction to an increase in fuel prices, it has turned into something far worse than simple protests. We in the US have long suspected that many of the riots here have been funded and that the rage has been manipulated. In this article, Selco shares his perspective and explained how riots helped start the Balkan War. ~ Daisy

Thanks to the situation that is deteriorating everywhere, I think we gonna be witnessing more and more events like the latest rioting in France. I think it is just the beginning.

For this article, it is not really important what was the reason of riots there. The point is that riots like that gonna probably happen “in your town” too eventually.

Why is that?

Without getting too deep into political and economical or any other reason why it might happen to you, two reasons can be pointed out.

The internet and social networks create waves.

The internet as a resource for independent news and opinions is a great thing, but also it may work in a different opposite way. It happens like this all the time so one fake news that is carefully packaged and spun can cause an illogical situation where you have full grown people getting together and involving themselves into something that is actually riot.

So as an end result you are out, together with people who are kicking a police officer or storming the local mall for big screen TVs because you were fueled and raged by something that you read or saw on the internet, something that might be completely false.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Real Significance of the French Tax Revolt

December 5, 2018

The Real Significance of the French Tax Revolt

The gilets jaunes (Yellow Jacket) anti-tax riots in France escalated over the past weekend, again citing the impact of higher taxes on fossil fuels –and high levels of taxation in general – on everyday life. French citizens, already subject to the highest taxes in the OECD, are being crushed by both new and systematically increasing taxes, and have taken to the streets by the hundreds of thousands in a “citizen’s revolution”. Recommendations to declare a state of emergency have for the time being been tabled.

With no sense of irony whatsoever, in a press conference on Saturday French President Emmanuel Macron stated: “I will never accept violence.”

Yet violence is the core component of his chosen vocation as a statesman.

Taxation poses as an equitable transaction – goods and services provided by a government in return for a fee (more galling and Orwellian, a “contribution”) from the taxpayer – but the nature of the interaction is obvious to all but the indifferent or determinedly thoughtless. It is not voluntary and does not follow from reason; neither will even the most indefatigable defenders of state appropriation, given the choice (and confidentiality), miss an opportunity to skirt the taxman and retain their property.

The force of violent compulsion is the quintessence of taxation and tax policy, thinly ensconced behind a thin veil of platitudes regarding social goods and general welfare. In Paris, an oft-repeated phrase among the protesters is that they’re “fed up.” Ambulance drivers have joined the protests, as have both teachers and students in at least 100 schools across France.

Levying taxes on individuals to combat climate change – or for the accomplishment of any social betterment project – is unfailingly undertaken in the name of the sanctity of life.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Macron Folds: France Suspends Fuel Tax Hike After “Yellow Vest” Riots

December 4, 2018

Macron Folds: France Suspends Fuel Tax Hike After “Yellow Vest” Riots

With his popularity rating at record lows (recent polls put it at around 26%, on par with Hollande), his capital city burning and the populists he defeated during his stunning electoral victory last year making serious electoral inroads, French President Emmanuel Macron finally caved, and on Tuesday ordered a six month suspension of planned ‘fuel taxes’ which spurred widespread and destructive protests across France over the past three weeks.

After reportedly weighing declaring a state of emergency that would have cleared the way for an unprecedented crackdown on dissent, Macron decided that such measures would only intensify the popular opposition to his government. And according to Reuters, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has declared a suspension of the staggeringly unpopular tax.

“No tax deserves to endanger the security of the nation,” Philippe said in a televised address, who on Monday held separate meetings with opposition party leaders, in which they demanded the scrapping of the planned increase in fuel taxes. The same day striking students closed down 100 high schools and rising fuel shortages were reported in some parts of the country.

A freeze of planned fuel tax increases was one of a number of measures called for in an editorial by 10 self-proclaimed gilets jaunes representatives published on Sunday in the Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. They also demanded the holding of countrywide consultations over taxes.

The decision marked the first time that Macron has backed down from implementing an unpopular policy in his 18-month presidency as a result of the furious public response, and is set to unleash even more protests as the emboldened French people now realize that taking to the streets will results in success.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Is This Macron’s “Let Them Eat Cake” Moment?

December 3, 2018

Is This Macron’s “Let Them Eat Cake” Moment?

Never underestimate French protests and never underestimate tax protests. Still, that seems what French President Emmanuel Macron has been doing…

Former US President Ronald Reagan once described what, according to him, was typically a government’s view of the economy: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” With diesel, the cycle started with subsidies. Between 1995 and 2015, the share of diesel cars on European roads doubled to around 50 per cent. Without government support for diesel-fulled cars, which were thought to emit less CO2 than their petrol counterparts, researchers have concluded the share would have remained constant around 25 per cent.

Now that we’ve arrived in the taxation stage, which has pushed up prices by 23 percent in France over the last year, Macron is feeling the heat. Some 77 per cent of French people now support the yellow vests movement, and the number is rising. Even among Macron’s own voters, support stands at 41 percent. Some of the leaders of former President Hollande’s party are also on the street, despite being the ones who came up with some of the taxes that are being contested. The centre-Right and hard-Left opposition have also united against Macron to express support.

The French socialist party has accused Macron’s government of trying to link this grassroots movement to the far right Marine Le Pen “to better disqualify it”. But according to sociologist Vincent Tiberj, the yellow vests movement derives largely from the lower-middle classes, who earn enough to pay taxes but not enough to live comfortably. A lot of the protesters come from “La France profonde”: small towns and rural areas that have often gone through dire economic times, far away from the world of Emmanuel Macron, a former investment banker.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

There Is Suddenly A Far Bigger European Problem Than Brexit Or Italy

December 3, 2018

There Is Suddenly A Far Bigger European Problem Than Brexit Or Italy

Forget Brexit and Italian populists for a second. It’s worth paying attention to what’s going on in France.

For more than two weeks, the country has been disrupted by an unusual protest: the so-called “Gilets Jaunes” or “Yellow Vests.” France is used to labor unrest and chaos affecting transport of course, with strikes something of a national pastime.

But this time it’s different.

Some 100,000 people blocking toll roads, petrol stations and crossroads is creating major disruption to transport and retail. It’s also proving to be extremely tricky to defuse, as there’s no single protest leader to negotiate with.

For investors, the question is whether it could derail the outperformance of French equities in 2018. One thing is clear. These protests are a real threat to the country’s retailers, including Carrefour and Casino, which are already busy battling a price war and trying to fend off Amazon.com’s efforts to penetrate their home market. Big-box retailers have been hurt by the demos and blockages throughout the country, with customers denied access to some hypermarkets and supermarkets for entire days at a time. They recorded an average fall in consumer-good sales of 35 percent on Nov. 17 and of 18 percent the following Saturday, according to Nielsen data.

All this is adding to the perception of shrinking purchasing power in France, in particular among people on lower incomes. And that “doesn’t bode well” for the year-end holiday retail season, which needs a boost after the unseasonably hot weather of the previous months, according to Invest Securities. In fact, consumer confidence has been depressed since the summer, and this might be the final straw.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Next French Revolution – Is it Beginning?

December 3, 2018

The Next French Revolution – Is it Beginning?

The austerity measures of the EU are having a profound impact in Europe. In Paris of December 1st, 2018 (right on time with our volatility models for December) there was a major civil uprising, the worst France has witnessed in recent decades. Yellow Vests have converged in Paris to protest high living costs or in other words – a TAX RIOT. Rioters ran across central Paris torching cars and buildings, looting shops, smashing windows and clashing with police. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, was in Argentina for a G20 summit and said he called an emergency meeting on Sunday when he would return. Jeanne d’Hauteserre, the mayor of Paris’ 8th district, near the Arc de Triomphe, came out and told the press: “We are in a state of insurrection, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

This has followed what was billed as a violent protest two weeks before of nationwide against fuel taxes and living costs. This tax rebellion is known as the “Yellow Vest” movement after fluorescent jackets kept in all vehicles in France. Politicians simply never learn. This is not just the youth. This is the older generations as well. Revolutions come become of taxes and corruption. The famous saying of Marie Antoinette “Let them eat cake” was the popular slogan during the French Revolution. There is no evidence that she ever actually said those words. Still, it inspired a revolution. The “cake” was not a desert, but it was a term that referred to the crust of the pâté which was left over. It certainly seems that the EU politicians are making the very same mistake. With that callous remark that was attributed to her, the Queen of France became the most hated symbol of the decadent monarchy and fueled the revolution that would cause her to (literally) lose her head several years later.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Promise Delivered: Macron Promised a Revolution, He Got One, Against Himself

December 3, 2018

Promise Delivered: Macron Promised a Revolution, He Got One, Against Himself

Hundreds were arrested and fires burn as the ‘gilets jaunes’ (yellow vests) protest movement against Macron escalates.

It’s rare for politicians to deliver on campaign promises. But French president Emmanuel Macron did. He promised a revolution, and got one. Unfortunately for Macron, the revolt is against his own policies.

Bloomberg comments on France’s Dangerous Yellow Vest Protesters.

The “Yellow Vests” protests now challenging President Emmanuel Macron have exposed a widening hole in the center of French politics—created by Macron himself.

It was Macron whose election in May 2017 all but obliterated the two establishment parties that had run France for 30 years. His own political movement had been launched less than a year before and his closest opponent for the presidency was from the far-right. By positioning himself as a reformer, Macron, 40, had hoped to establish a centrist consensus.

“The ‘gilets jaunes’ movement will probably peter out, but not the anger, which is likely to go on and take new forms maybe more dangerous for Macron,” said Jim Shields, a professor of French politics at Warwick University in the U.K. “It’s hard to see how he can complete controversial reforms like pensions and unemployment insurance without yet more blood on the pavement.”

A protest Saturday in Paris exploded into violence that left over 100 injured and more than 400 arrested, as well as burned cars and looted stores in the heart of the capital. Named after the colored vests motorists must keep in their cars for emergencies, the campaign began as a protest against higher gasoline taxes to reduce emissions. It’s now expanded to other demands and has the support of three-quarters of the French public, polls show.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Explaining France’s Grassroots “Yellow Vest” Movement – And Why It’s Spreading Across Europe

December 3, 2018

Explaining France’s Grassroots “Yellow Vest” Movement – And Why It’s Spreading Across Europe

For three weeks, tens-of-thousands of French protesters have donned yellow vests and marched throughout Paris. While the “yellow vest” movement began on November 17 as a grassroots protest against president Emmanuel Macron’s gas tax – levied in the name of climate change, it has morphed into a general rage against the French government in general at a time when Macron’s approval rating is at an all time low.

What’s more, the movement is spreading – with yellow vest demonstrations seen in Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands by those expressing frustration over similar issues. The protests have turned violent, as disaffected rioters have been setting cars on fire, causing structural damage, and assaulting the police.

Riot cops in Brussels, for example, were pelted with billiard balls, cobblestones and other hard objects last week, while the yellow vest movement is now working to form a Belgian political party under the name Mouvement citoyen belge.

What’s behind the movement?

French authorities have predictably blamed the right-wing for the protests – with interior minister Christophe Castaner denouncing National Rally (*formerly National Front) leader Marine Le Pen of encouraging the violence.

“Marine Le Pen urged people to come to the Champs Elysees, and there are members of the ultra-right putting up barriers,” said Castaner, adding “They have responded to Marine Le Pen’s call and want to take the institutions of state. We want people to be responsible.”

The real cause, however, may be quite a bit more nuanced and a long time coming. As political commentator Kark Sharro suggests in a seven-part tweetstorm, the Yellow Vest movement is “about marginalsation and the impotence felt by ordinary people.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

France In Chaos; Macron Considers State Of Emergency Amid “Yellow Vest” Protests; “All Options” Considered

December 2, 2018

French President Emmanuel Macron will hold an emergency meeting of senior ministers on Sunday following the worst unrest Paris has seen in a decade on Saturday. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told France’s Europe 1 radio that a state of emergency may be imposed to prevent “serious outbursts of violence” after thousands of masked “Yellow Vest” protesters fought with police, and set fires to cars, houses and banks.

The Jeu de Paume – one of best art galleries in Paris – is on fire. A mob is storming through the Tuleries Garden.

Griveaux said that around 1,000 and 1,500 protesters joined Saturday’s demonstrations “only to fight with the police, to break and loot,” and that the violent element “have nothing to do with the yellow vests” (aside from wearing yellow vests?).

Demonstrators on Saturday were filmed destroing a police van and other vehicles, while other videos showed burning cars and police firing tear gas to break up the protests.

The reported size of the protest has varied between 36,000 and 75,000 yellow vests, while last week saw over 110,000 protesters at the Champs-Elysées in central Paris. Over 400 arrests were made and 113 injured in Saturday’s unrest which began three weeks ago over a hike in diesel taxes, but has grown to a general protest of Macron and his government. Macron’s popularity rating has plummeted to just 26%, while opinion polls for the 2019 parliament elections predict that right-wing Marine Le Pen’s Nationall Rally party will be level – or far ahead – from Macron’s La République En Marche.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Mass Arrests In Paris As “Yellow Vest” Protests Enter Violent Third Week, Spread To Belgium

December 1, 2018

Mass Arrests In Paris As “Yellow Vest” Protests Enter Violent Third Week, Spread To Belgium

French police deployed tear gas after thousands of “yellow vest” activists converged on the the Champs Élysées for a third week of protests against President Emmanuel Macron and his government. Over 122 arrests have been made.

Chanting “On the way to Macron’s resignation,” the protesters were hit with tear gas as riot police struggled to contain Saturday’s violence, which saw cars set on fire, paint thrown on officers, and several injuries. Protesters attempted to breach barricades blocking the path to the presidential palace on Saturday morning; “lighting fires, throwing rocks and spraying police officers with vivid yellow paint.”

Riot police fire tear gas and stun grenades at “yellow vest” protesters in Paris.
It’s the third weekend of mall demonstrations which began against rising fuel prices.
Follow the latest from France and the rest of the world here: https://t.co/ZG9yBQyrqG pic.twitter.com/DzARcJ08GV

— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 1, 2018

Watch live:

Protesters were hit with a water cannon for the second week in a row:

J’ai été blessé par un tir de la police pic.twitter.com/0xhwilXc1c

— Lucas Léger (@lucas_rtfrance) December 1, 2018

Originally formed to protest rising fuel prices, the “yellow vest” protesters have evolved into a wider demonstration against President Emmanuel Macron’s government in recent weeks. After French interior minister Christophe Castaner initially blamed the “far right” for the protests, the interior ministry has now said the participants are “extreme-right and far-left demonstrators,” according to The Guardian.

The gilets jaunes(yellow vests) protests are posing one of the most sustained challenges yet to Emmanuel Macron’s leadership. Hundreds of thousands of protesters have barricaded roads and blockaded toll-booths and fuel depots across France over the past two weeks, complaining that Macron’s pro-business tax policy was unfair and that people on low-income jobs could not make ends meet.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

European Gas Stations Out of Diesel: French Refinery Strike Deepens Crisis

November 28, 2018

European Gas Stations Out of Diesel: French Refinery Strike Deepens Crisis

Diesel is in short supply in Europe. The situation is about to worsen as the biggest French refinery is shutting down.

Bloomberg reports Europe’s Diesel Woes Deepen as Strike Halts French Oil Refinery.

Total SA, France’s biggest refiner, is in the process of shutting its largest plant in the country, the 247,000-barrel-a-day Gonfreville facility in Normandy, due to a labor dispute, a spokeswoman for the company said on Tuesday. A few hundred miles away, in the Netherlands, retail fuel stations are running out of supplies because of shipping constraints on the Rhine, according to Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Shell said Nov. 20 that it cut production at its Rheinland refining site, the biggest complex of its kind in Germany, due to low water levels on the Rhine. In a tweet on Tuesday, the company said that it was temporarily unable to supply some unmanned fuel stations in the Netherlands.

Gas stations in Germany had already been running dry due to the situation on the Rhine, a major petroleum product transportation corridor that runs northwest from the Swiss Alps all the way to the Netherlands. Switzerland released emergency fuel stockpiles because of the situation on the river.

The premium per barrel of diesel over Brent crude – another indicator of market strength – was at $15.96 on Tuesday, the highest for the time of year in six years.

Diesel Price Poised to Soar

This shutdown cannot possibly come at a worse time for French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron is already reeling over a protest of his diesel tax.

Diesel Tax Turns Violent

People from across France went to Paris to let the president know how they feel about the taxes in general and the tax on diesel. The [Diesel Tax Protests](Diesel Protests in France Turn Violent) then turned violent.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Diesel Protests in France Turn Violent

November 25, 2018

Diesel Protests in France Turn Violent

Emmanuel Macron blames Marine Le Pen for French protests that turned violent. She wasn’t there.

People from across France came to Paris to let the president know how they feel about the taxes in general and the tax on diesel.

Police Use Tear Gas as Thousands in Paris Defy Protest Ban

The WSJ reports Police Use Tear Gas as Thousands in Paris Defy Protest Ban.

Violence erupted Saturday between police and several thousand demonstrators who defied a protest ban and marched down the famous Parisian avenue Champs Elysées, as the country’s interior minister blamed the far-right for the unrest in the French capital.

On the Champs Elysées, some protesters sang the national anthem and waved French flags, while others carried signs urging the president to resign. Some threw stones at police, who responded by firing tear gas and water cannons. At least 130 people were detained across the nation on Saturday, including 42 in Paris, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said.

Mr. Castaner blamed Marine Le Pen, head of the far-right party National Rally, for urging protesters to head to the Champs Elysées despite an official ban on demonstrations on the avenue.

“What justifies the fact that French people can’t protest on the Champs Elysées when many other gatherings (World Cup, New Year’s Eve…) happened there?” Ms. Le Pen tweeted on Friday. Ms. Le Pen didn’t attend the protests.

Can’t Afford to Eat

‘People are in the red. They can’t afford to eat’

Idir Ghanes, 42, Unemployed computer technician from Paris: We are here to protest against the government because of the rise in taxes [in general], not just petrol taxes, which is the straw that broke the camel’s back.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“Champs Elysees Burning”: French Police Fire Tear Gas, Water Cannon As Massive Fuel Protests Turn Violent

November 24, 2018

“Champs Elysees Burning”: French Police Fire Tear Gas, Water Cannon As Massive Fuel Protests Turn Violent

French police used tear gas and a water cannon against protesters in the Champs Elysées, in the center of Paris, as “yellow vest” activists flooded the streets.

Originally formed to protest rising fuel prices, the “yellow vest” protesters have evolved into a wider demonstration against President Emmanuel Macron’s government in recent weeks.

· 4h

BREAKING: Massive riots are currently taking place in central Paris, as protesters protest rising fuel prices. Fireworks have been confirmed thrown at police officers. Multiple officers have been injured. One protester has died since the protests started:

BREAKING UPDATE: Situation At the Champs Élysée in central Paris is getting out of control as protests against rising fuel prices are continuing. Multiple people have been injured and there’s reportedly a lot of damage:#GiletsJaunes
@RemyBuisine

244

8:08 AM – Nov 24, 2018

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Over 3,000 police officers have been reportedly mobilized to control the approximately 8,000 protesters – some of them masked, according to CNN. During the tense standoff with police, law enforcement officials were pelted with bottles before opening up with the tear gas and water cannon.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Lurching Toward Catastrophe: The Trump Administration and Nuclear Weapons

November 22, 2018

Lurching Toward Catastrophe: The Trump Administration and Nuclear Weapons

In July 2017, by a vote of 122 to 1, with one abstention, nations from around the world attending a United Nations-sponsored conference in New York City voted to approve a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. Although this Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons received little coverage in the mass media, its passage was a momentous event, capping decades of international nuclear arms control and disarmament agreements that, together, have reduced the world’s nuclear weapons arsenals by approximately 80 percentand have limited the danger of a catastrophic nuclear war. The treaty prohibitedall ratifying countries from developing, testing, producing, acquiring, possessing, stockpiling, using, or threatening to use nuclear weapons.

Curiously, though, despite official support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons by almost two-thirds of the world’s nations, the Trump administration―like its counterparts in other nuclear-armed countries―regarded this historic measure as if it were being signed in a parallel, hostile universe. As a result, the United States and the eight other nuclear powers boycotted the treaty negotiations, as well as the final vote. Moreover, after the treaty was approved amid the tears, cheers, and applause of the UN delegates and observers, a joint statement issued by the UN ambassadors of the United States, Britain, and France declared that their countries would neverbecome party to the international agreement.

One clear indication that the nuclear powers have no intention of dispensing with their nuclear arsenals is the nuclear weapons buildup that all of them are now engaged in, with the U.S. government in the lead. Although the Trump administration inherited its nuclear weapons “modernization” program from its predecessor, that program―designed to provide new weapons for nuclear warfare, accompanied by upgraded or new facilities for their production―is constantly increasing in scope and cost.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Anti-Carbon Revolt: Massive Road Blocks Against Macron’s Diesel Tax

November 20, 2018

Anti-Carbon Revolt: Massive Road Blocks Against Macron’s Diesel Tax

In stunning irony, the French protest against Macron’s diesel tax, while Macron insists the UK abide by climate accord.

Please consider France’s Climate Change Commitments Trigger Rising Diesel Prices and Street Protests.

On Saturday, more than 282,700 people, many clad in yellow vests, took to — and, in many places, also literally took — the streets, according to the French Interior Ministry. The ministry said a network of drivers blocked roads at some 2,000 locations across the country, generating backups for miles and causing one death.

The protesters’ chief complaint: the rising cost of diesel fuel. The recent price hike is a direct result of President Emmanuel Macron’s commitment to curbing climate change, which included higher carbon taxes for 2018, the first full year of his term. But beyond the diesel issue, many turned out Saturday to voice any number of other frustrations with the “president for the rich,” who is seen as increasingly removed from ordinary people’s concerns.

The stirrings of the “yellow vest” campaign behind Saturday’s protests began this summer, with online petitions urging Macron to reconsider. But the loudest voice was that of Jacline Mouraud, a white-haired hypnotist and grandmother of three from Brittany who has become the star of the movement.

On Saturday, Mouraud was asked to explain the death of the protester. “I deplore the death of this woman,” she said, speaking to Europe 1 radio. “But who is responsible for this situation? The French government is responsible for the death of this woman.”

According to a poll published Friday by the Odoxa agency for France’s Le Figaro newspaper — albeit with only 1,000 respondents — as many as 3 in 4 French people agree.

Location of Roadblocks

The lead image is from Anti-Carbon-Tax Revolt Threatens to Paralyze France

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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