The new President Of France …
… and some youngster receiving her advice.
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May 8, 2017
The New President Of France …
Comments
Installing Macron as French president by way of ‘simulated democracy’ demonstrated how trillioners like Rothschild can take over a country.
Posted by: ALAN | May 8 2017 5:43 utc | 1
What this Macron victory proves is that the French lean more Left to Centre, therefore the key was to support and promote a non-interventionist candidate on the Left opposed to Neoliberalism, like Melenchon instead of a radically rightist Le Pen who scared off half of France.
Let’s just say that a country that has multiple parties on the Left is NEVER going to vote in a radical rightist populist, never. So the strategy to be free of Neoliberalism in a country that leans Left is to always throw all the support behind a leftist party that opposes Neoliberalism.
Supporting Le Pen only to get a change in French foreign policy was doomed from the start.
And here’s another thing: a party that opposes Neoliberalism and has a non-interventionist foreign policy, should try to be more flexible on domestic issues not socialist to an extreme to grab the attention of wider public while playing down slightly their foreign policy UNTIL victory is achieved. This is how you wean the dumb masses. Once in power then it can go all the way to reverse interventionist foreign policy and weed out Neoliberal/Neocon agendas.
No one likes war except those who profit from it.
Posted by: Circe | May 8 2017 6:00 utc | 2
Hollande’s repeated invitations of Marine Le Pen to the Elysée presidential palace during his presidency played the same role as Macron’s appeal to the FN in the name of national unity last night: to show that the PS and Macron view the FN as legitimate political partners.
Like Hollande, Macron appears to be cultivating the FN as a political base for his deeply unpopular program. He has pledged to use the PS’ anti-democratic labor law to tear up contracts and social spending by decree, escalate defense spending, and reestablish the draft in preparation for an era of major wars.
Mélenchon appealed last night for voters to give UF a strong delegation in the National Assembly in the June legislative elections, which would strengthen his bid to become Macron’s prime minister.
… the trots at wsws.org see a push by unsubmissive france into the vacuum created by micron as ‘treasonous’ … of course. but something might come of it … Mélenchon hit some of the same points that le pen hit and may garner support from her stalwarts on those points. he might make something of it. might temper the unmitigated disaster of micron and the franco-american-german eu-financial axis.
Posted by: jfl | May 8 2017 7:07 utc | 6
Monday the French will awaken and find they live on an Animal Farm where the local French pigs suppress the people for the benefit of the wild boars of savage globalism. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm
In truth the French deserve this fate as they chose the American “dream of comfort and conformity” that Alexis de Tocqueville described as democratic tyranny that “reduces each nation to nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the government is the shepherd”. He attributed the rise of such “democratic despotism, to a benign form of social control by a centralized bureaucratic state supported by a weakened and isolated citizenry.”
theimaginativeconservative.org/2017/01/equality-tyranny-despotism-democracy-remembering-alexis-de-tocqueville-timeless-patrick-deneen.html
For those who understand French the following provides a good analysis:
“Asselineau réagit gravement à la victoire de Macron”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp10kaf4Yj8
A French comedian recently pointed out that washing machines have more programs than Macron! Unfortunately, as Asselineau points out, Macron was brilliantlymarketed to the French public as one would advertise a new detergent designed to clean up a mess!
The Marketing was led by Jacque Attali the Grand Vizier of the French establishment and Macron’s mentor. Apparently, Attali’s team published 17,000 articles promoting Macron in the last year. Attali also coordinated the combined assault on the other candidates by the media, banks and corporations that will now benefit from Macron’s election.
Asselineau also suggests that the French read de Gaulle’s memoirs, especially chapter 1 and 2. The 2015 book Soumission by Houellebecq plays off de Gaulle’s warning.
The situation is grave and the French have been played by the best propaganda campaign since Hitler. Bernays, the author of the book “propaganda” and the inspiration for Hitler and modern marketing would be impressed…
Posted by: Krollchem | May 8 2017 7:12 utc | 7
I love how people here use the term ‘installed’ as if Macron wasn’t elected. As if the French people desperately wanted a far-right leader, but somehow never got the chance to vote for one. As if Le Pen would do more for the French working class than Trump has done for the American working class. As if Le Pen would really pursue the kind of anti-imperialist and anti-oligarchical policies that Trump pretended to favour. As if putting the boot into muslims wasn’t Le Pen’s first, second and third priority.
Posted by: sigil | May 8 2017 7:13 utc | 8
Macron’s win is another step toward the failure of democracy in France as is the fate of all democracies.
Posted by: Realist | May 8 2017 7:14 utc | 9
Whereas Le Pen would have symbolized a triumph of democracy?
Posted by: ralphieboy | May 8 2017 7:56 utc | 10
No way a banker’s pet ‘wins’ 66% of the vote. That total must mean the bankers have some severe Greece-style austerity planned for France.
Posted by: Greg Bacon | May 8 2017 8:15 utc | 11
Fake, or real?
Macron associate, Corinne Ehrel, dies unexpectedly hours after hacked Macron emails are published
Posted by: ProPeace | May 8 2017 8:20 utc | 12
Posted by: sigil | May 8, 2017 3:13:25 AM
I love how people here use the term ‘installed’ as if Macron wasn’t elected. As if the French people desperately wanted a far-right leader, but somehow never got the chance to vote for one.
Very good observation.
As if Trump was installed and in general presidents are installed by the virtue of an “invisible hand” that manipulates the markets and currencies. That may (and did) happen in some small satellite ‘allied” NATO countries and with the help of intelligence community steering the mindset, but not on the level of an obscure conspiracy group sitting in a dark room observing the world and manipulating it from afar.
People do vote here in Europe and they get what the current state of mind is.
Le Pen is out and for good as her win would be definitely the end of EU and a beginning of a very dark period for France through which UK is tunneling now.
Sad story is that today’s general understanding of politics and a will to take a lead, we all are forced to choose between two varieties of stupidity and crookedness as the case was in USA. Here were two ideologies confronted and a really bad and evil one lost for good.
Do not mention Russia, please, as we are all tired of hearing how Putin is evil and whatnot.
My position is that Russia and Europe share the continent and one can hitchhike from Amsterdam to Moscow. One cannot hitchhike from New York to Amsterdam, right? I somehow cannot foresee that far-right is in Russian interest at all.
So, I am actually happy for Trump, as he will put USA in its place by not knowing what is he doing or not doing what he doesn’t know.
Naive and wishful thinking would be – is USA finally leaving the Europe for good, keeping UK under its skirts as a staging lapdance island outpost?
I certainly do hope so.
Posted by: laserlurk | May 8 2017 8:47 utc | 13
Nice picture
With Macron it will be same old as Hollande and those before him. Interference and interventionism go on unabated. With Le Pen it would have been the same of course but with Macron in a less racist fashion. Still this is preferable above a far right Le Pen that would have made the EU seized to exist. That is: no Schengen, no Euro, major economic regression, and all blame put on scapegoats like migrants (80 years ago: gypsies, jews, …), Russians (80 years ago: communists), … .
Posted by: xor | May 8 2017 9:47 utc | 14
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinne_Erhel
Born
3 February 1967
Quimper, Finistère, France
Died
5 May 2017 (aged 50)
Plouisy, Côtes d’Armor, France
Occupation
Politician
Socialist Party
Corinne Erhel (3 February 1967 – 5 May 2017) was a French politician. She served as a member of the National Assembly from 2007 to 2017, representing the Côtes-d’Armor department.
Posted by: okie farmer | May 8 2017 10:30 utc | 15
What clarity I see with most of this thread’s posters. Its amazing anyone would put their faith in Le Pen – for a thousand different reasons but especially after Trump’s showing. It scares me how some people are so latched onto this very narrow, far right ‘critique’ of globalism and see it as the world’s salvation. How easily this faith can be manipulated too. Reminds me of those who were so energetic about (and facilitated) Mussolini’s rise to power.
Not to say the EU stooge is much/any better but its nice to see a more nuanced view here for once.
Posted by: George Smiley | May 8 2017 10:51 utc | 16
#8 sigil wrote: “I love how people here use the term ‘installed’ as if Macron wasn’t elected.”
A third of French voters voted Le Pen. In a civilized country with a free press you would then expect roughly a third of newspapers to be in favor of Le Pen, two thirds in favor of Macron. But coverage in favor of Macron was close to 100%. Newspapers, tv, web, the chancellors of the main universities, the french medical association, you name it: they told you to vote Macron.
I’d like to draw an analogy: Imagine that, at the next presidential elections, newspapers attack the Democratic candidate for hiring his own wife, but stay mum when documents appear on the net which show corruption by Trump. That all newspapers, all tv stations, all web sites are in favor of Trump, and – apart from some of the seedier blogs on the web – none in favor of the Democratic candidate. That the Association of American Universities, the American Medical Association, and the National Academy of Sciences all ask you to vote Trump. That you get a letter jointly signed by the president of the National Council of Churches, the president of the US Council of Muslim Organizations, and the Chief Rabbi, asking you to vote Trump. Would you call this free and fair elections? I wouldn’t.
So yes, I think “installed” is the right word.
Posted by: passerby | May 8 2017 11:08 utc | 17
So was that picture photoshopped, b? I couldn’t be bothered looking up the source.
At any rate, I think you’re going to be proved wrong rapidly. Macron’s a bright guy, and ran a very good campaign. That is, he kept quiet, like May did. But he is really pushy, and evidently competent. I don’t know whether that means good or bad. But lapdog he certainly isn’t.
Posted by: Laguerre | May 8 2017 11:20 utc | 18
Re 17:
The US media etc was overwhelmingly anti-Trump and yet he won. I wish he hadn’t, but he did. Enough voters chose him regardless of what they were told. In France, the voters were exposed to a similar barrage and chose to vote against the far-right candidate this time. Perhaps that’s partly because Trump and the Brexiteers gave them a taste of what to expect; an indication of how half-arsed and hypocritical the far-right populists can turn out to be.
In all these cases, voters exercised their choices. As did the doctor’s associations and university administrators, when choosing who to endorse. No one was ‘installed’. Endorsements aren’t a violation of democracy, they’re an aspect of it – as is the freedom to take endorsements seriously or not.
Posted by: sigil | May 8 2017 11:51 utc | 20
In response to, Krollchem | May 8, 2017 3:12:39 AM | 7
Good comment. However, I don’t agree that anyone deserves the results of such an election any more than cattle deserve to be slaughtered simply because they are gentle souls by nature and easily manipulated.
Also, your link to Asselineau’s presentation (I would call it a rant) claims it’s a good analysis. While Asselineau does indeed give an incisive overview of each candidate and their major issues, he does so as a screed for his own party (that he created himself), l’Union Populaire Républicain. His presentation is not so much an analysis of each candidate as an excoriation, a well presented and highly articulate one – and rather moving as is often the case with these sorts of rants, but an excoriation nonetheless.
He is essentially explaining why his party is the only one that can succeed where all the others failed and this has become almost a French tradition, admittedly one that Asselineau is excellent at, after an election. Asselineau’s platform is separation from the European Union and the Eurozone; a platform many of us agree with, and the “analysis” of his speech a by product of his self promotion.
Posted by: Brooklin Bridge | May 8 2017 12:14 utc | 22
B, any chance you could ban URL shorteners? Behind those cute short links can be any kind of malware. URL shorteners are a real security risk. Even if you don’t pick up malware your clicks are tracked in a central database. In general URL shorteners stand for everything this website and its readers oppose (central government control, tracking, spyware).
People like NMB should learn to create HTML links instead of learning how to use URL shorteners. I promise it’s easier to write an “a href” than to use a URL shortener.
It’s a pity as I would like to read the link about “France has just been literally taken over by the banking mafia” if I knew where it led.
@24 – Uncoy
This is the website behind nmb’s link. No new revelations, though, I wouldn’t hold my breath…
Posted by: LXV | May 8 2017 13:44 utc | 25
Well it looks like to me that France just elected obomber 2.0. Please let me know in a few years how that hope and change thingy works in France. It didn’t work in Amerika for us the 99% but was great for the 1%.
Posted by: jo6pac | May 8 2017 13:57 utc | 26
To Uncoy | May 8, 2017 9:35:22 AM | 24,
A simple and quick way to verify what you call, link shorteners (or any link for that matter) that works on most browsers. Hover your cursor over the “shortner” or the explicit link. Right click and keep your finger depressed. This brings up a menu. Choose, “copy link location”. Bring up notepad, or any simple Ascii text editor that you trust not to do anything behind your back and paste the buffer into it. Then copy again from the text editor. This will remove any hidden html from your copy buffer. You can then review the link in your usual manner (such as running queries on it from your favorite search engine, ex. duckduckgo) before actually visiting the site.
Perhaps I am missing something, but this is how I get around actually clicking on a dubious link regardless of whether it is proxy text with embedded link or the actual URL.
Posted by: Brooklin Bridge | May 8 2017 14:09 utc | 27
Both Merkel and Marcon are a couple of M&Ms in the hands of the central bankers and their controllers who call all the shots for both of these puppets. Politics beyond the local level are manufactured to appear democratic in origin while serving a plutocracy that controls all eventualities by commanding the life blood of human economics, the Ownership over the creation of all money and credit. So y’all can relax now until the German and British election cycle gets y’all wound up again over this dog and pony show as an illusion meant as a distracting deception for the rank and file of humanity.
Sorry, should have been more presise. When you paste the actual link shortner into a query with a search engine such as duckduckgo, it will usually return the actual link location as well as a warning should it be dubious. Not bullet proof, but then what is.
Posted by: Brooklin Bridge | May 8 2017 14:14 utc | 29
(on the link shortners)
Link shorteners are really awefull and easily allow drive-by installation of malware. You could easily create a shortened link that directs the browser to your mallicious webserver, this server checks your browser/OS to see if it can install something or not and when it’s done do a redirect to the intended website. All this is done within seconds so you’d never have noticed unless you scanned the in and outgoing traffic but it would already be to late then. There is no rocket science involved so any script kiddy could do this.
All in all: never click a shortned URL and if a title is present and you deem it actually useful, copy paste the title in a search engine and it will probably land you on the proclamed web page.
Posted by: xor | May 8 2017 14:23 utc | 30
Macron is the new and improved Obama marketing product/politician. Find a young person without defined policies, brand them in opposition to something “bad”, throw the full support of media and elites behind them, and install them in office to continue austerity/financialization/war policy as per usual.
It’s a brilliant scheme when you consider Macron’s “platform” is essentially continuing the failed austerity policies of Hollande, who is currently approved of by 4% of the French electorate.
The key test will be the parliamentary elections coming up. Can Melenchon put together any support? Can there be a left/right anti-EU, anti-austerity alliance wide enough to keep the Macron globalists and the traditional right of Fillon from continuing the downward slide of France?
Posted by: WorldBLee | May 8 2017 15:34 utc | 32
Here’s Pepe Escobar’s take on the outcome–predictable, as was Macron’s Russophobic response to the last minute document dump, which was certified as genuine by WikiLeaks, http://www.atimes.com/article/emmanuel-clinton-revolt-elites/
Posted by: karlof1 | May 8 2017 15:43 utc | 33
@8 sigil… installed… yeah, i think that’s a good word for what it is… groomed by bankers (rothchild and etc) and coddled 24/7 in the msm which acts as the main propaganda lever in these so called democracy shams.. it has everything to do with plutocracy, kleptocracy and nothing to do with democracy.. democracy is used as the front, and nothing more.. sorry – someone had to say it… funny thing – i don’t recall using the word installed, but i think it is a good word for where we are at presently.. certain ‘regimes’ will be supported more then others, lol…
Posted by: james | May 8 2017 15:51 utc | 34
nmb @ 5: Thanks for the link.
A paragraph from that link, that mirrors my personal thoughts..
“However, even if Marine Le Pen had won in the final round, the establishment would force her to follow the status quo agenda of the plutocracy, exactly as happened with Donald Trump in the United States.”
Posted by: ben | May 8 2017 15:55 utc | 35
Although I’ve followed this recent French election, I confess to being somewhat ignorant of Macron beyond the basics. Le Pen I do know more about.
My very ignorant guess is that French voters looked across the Channel and the Pond and saw the clusterfecks in the UK and the USA and figured an Obama 2.0 might be the better “choice” under the circumstances. As I said, don’t know much about Macron but doesn’t seem to be as odious and horrid as Clinton, which is why we’re stuck with Trump. IMO (and I was very much open-minded about Trump once he won) Trump is an unmitigated disaster. I believe Le Pen would’ve been the same or similar for France (and elsewhere).
Well the Bankers run the world, do they not? Unsure how to unravel that knot.
Posted by: RUKidding | May 8 2017 16:01 utc | 36
Laguerre @ 18
Macron will continue to convert France into what Charles Hugh Smith calls a plantation economy:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogapr17/corp-plantation4-17.html
This echoes the work of David Korten in his book “When Corporations Rule the World” and Michael Hudson in his book “Killing the Host”
Macron’s Tomorrowland world favors only the political class, rentiers of the Financial, Insurance and real estate sector (FIRE), extractive transnational corporations, and their media propagandists.
Macron is a cardboard construct created much like Napoléon (Tolstoy wrote in “war and Peace” if Napoléon Bonaparte did not exist he would have to be created).
Tocqueville provided a strategy for the people to create a civil society that suppresses the psychopaths that wish to contol all aspects of society. Adam Smith in his “Wealth of Nations” is mostly about the civil contract among workers and the bosses and he lays out the three rules of contacts between nations which is actually opposite of the globalists.
I do not think you will be happy in the globalist world order that Macron supports.
Posted by: Krollchem | May 8 2017 16:04 utc | 37
Here Madonna supporting Macron. May be considered trivial, just one dopey star shootin’ off random perso messages.
I don’t think so. Look at these kids, asked to perform and complying clumsily ….for one pres. cand. far away, why? Why? This is not just random flickr. photos looking for +++ points from aunties.
https://twitter.com/Madonna/status/861297816190291968
Posted by: Noir22 | May 8 2017 16:06 utc | 38
sigil @ 20 said “The US media etc was overwhelmingly anti-Trump and yet he won.”
The truth is, the MSM only opposed Mr. Trump mildly, at best. Through most of Mr. Trump’s run for the White House, his coverage was ” wall to wall “. Up to, and including, coverage of a empty podium, while one Bernie Sanders was giving a major live speech at the same time.
ALL MSM is corporate, and they got just who they wanted, a pro-corporate hack that will do their bidding.
Posted by: ben | May 8 2017 16:14 utc | 39
Looks like the French don’t read MoA. Maybe if they did things would be different. Instead, something like 65% were bamboozled by the goddam press and the elites. Isn’t it awful when people’s right to choose is denied them by these behemoths?
Maybe Trump’s performance in his early days had some effect. Maybe his anti-globalist rhetoric that turned out to be pro-.01% in actual fact gave the French pause. Maybe the French like their world beating health system and standard of living. One of the reasons for the formation of the EU was to keep the French and Germans from going at it hammer and tongs every few years like they had since forever and so far it’s worked. Could it be that they like the option of traveling freely within the union while enjoying the benefits they as if they were home? Benefits that certainly didn’t come from living in an inward looking country contemplating its navel.
Now the same folks who waxed ecstatic over Trump’s unlikely win have to eat some crow. The snowball effect they so confidently predicted sweeping European elections has failed to materialize. Who knew people could be so stupid to pass up salvation when proffered on a silver platter. First the Dutch, and now the French. When will people learn?
Posted by: peter | May 8 2017 16:22 utc | 40
Relevant to my # 39….
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/trump-gets-three-major-networks-to-broadcast-image-of-empty-podium-for-30-minutes/
No one else got this obscene spectacle.
Posted by: ben | May 8 2017 16:33 utc | 41
So much for the Kremlin influencing foreign “democracies”.
Posted by: ruralito | May 8 2017 16:42 utc | 42
Maybe the French are better at reading history books than the Americans.
This could explain why they didn’t fall for Le Pen’s lies – right-wingers like her always pretend to care for the ‘common man (& woman)’, but quickly turn out to be even more corporate-friendly/ pro-capital than their predecessors. If people are upset, well just offer them some patsy to blame, and laugh while the poor fight each other whites vs. blacks, Christians vs. Muslims or whatever division comes in handy.
T.’s ‘about-face’ is by no means surprising; it’s standard procedure and was expected by many.
@peter 40
Good one, +1.
Posted by: smuks | May 8 2017 19:21 utc | 43
One thing:
I’d still appreciate if someone could explain to me what ‘globalism’ means.
The term doesn’t make any sense to me, since an ‘-ism’ usually denotes discrimination and classification of humans along certain lines – but everybody’s from the same globe, afaik…(except Elvis, of course)
Posted by: smuks | May 8 2017 19:24 utc | 44
According to Wikipedia the Gauls were worse at making good hard soap than the Celts and all the various Teutonic tribes …or so the olive oil-scraping Romans said. I guess that little bit of knowledge explains a lot of “smelly” jokes and jibes against southern Europe in general; they really were.
Soap won’t work on politicians but soap-making lye should. They say it’s all very “green” but you need ash for the lye. Burn half of them? 😛 (what’s a “shop”?).
France could get very interesting at any point in time without warning, probably more so than any other European nation and it has been that way for at least a year and a half already. Getting this poodle elected could be a big tactical error on the part of the powers that be.
I don’t trust elections any more than I trust polls, there is no reason to, but it gave “us”/humanity Brexit, so there’s that.
Can’t tell if b’s Merkel-Micron pic is PhotoShopped but Pat Lang is on board with the concept (and context?) with this mid-campaign cite…
Le Pen quipped during the campaign that France would have a woman president no matter who won because the actual president would either be She or Angela Merkel.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 8 2017 20:02 utc | 46
Jim Stone contends that the election in France was stolen: jist = massive numbers of Le Pen’s ballots were torn thus rendering them uncounted; Macron received half a million extra ballots; the media broadcast the scam that Macron was way ahead in all the polls; all media support was for Macron; reporting on Macron’s dirty underwear was banned.
Posted by: canuck | May 8 2017 20:20 utc | 47
I get it, Sigil the lefty is happy. I’ll go home now. Everything is going to be just fine in France.
The French screwed themselves over, that’s all their is to it. You guys had great chance to shake society to it’s core but you blew it!!
Posted by: Fernando Arauxo | May 8 2017 20:43 utc | 48
Macron is just perverse as is his wife:
Macron’s wife was his…high school teacher
https://www.thelocal.fr/20170506/whos-the-older-woman-in-presidential-hopeful-macrons-life
Posted by: Anonymous | May 8 2017 20:56 utc | 49
Laguerre
Bright? Quiet? Plese, this guy IS the establishment itself, he was pushed forward from nowhere by the media, apparently you have sucked up all their propaganda for him, similar to dupes that loved Obama when he was elected the first time.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 8 2017 21:01 utc | 50
Any election system that uses anything other than strategic hedge simple score voting is nothing other than a placebo democracy.
Party-free proportional elections can be achieved with simple score used with the parabolic proportional curve method.
Without such simple methods, we only have simulated / fake democracy that just doesn’t work.
Posted by: blues | May 8 2017 21:09 utc | 51
sigil @ 20 said “The US media etc was overwhelmingly anti-Trump and yet he won.”
Sigil, if you hadn’t noticed, Trump came out of the media-entertainment complex…pretty much born of it. That’s what you are asking of Le Pen, to replace her 20 odd years of full tilt political life with self promotion for the sake of ratings.
If he wasn’t POTUS, a chump like you would be watching Trunp TV™
Posted by: MadMax2 | May 8 2017 21:46 utc | 52
France has just been literally taken over by the banking mafia
Posted by: nmb | May 8, 2017 2:53:30 AM | 5
Ha? Cite from Wikipedia:
Pompidou [prime minister 1962-68, president 68-72] was born in the commune of Montboudif, in the department of Cantal in central France.[1] After his khâgne at Lycée Louis-le-Grand, where he befriended future Senegalese poet and statesman Léopold Sédar Senghor, he attended the École Normale Supérieure, from which he graduated with a degree of agrégation in literature.
He first taught literature at the lycée Henri IV in Paris until hired in 1953 by Guy de Rothschild to work at Rothschild. In 1956, he was appointed the bank’s general manager, a position he held until 1962. Later, he was hired by Charles de Gaulle to manage the Anne de Gaulle Foundation for Down syndrome (de Gaulle’s daughter Anne had Down’s syndrome).
I do not know subtleties of the usage of the phrase “has just been”, but I would think that in the context of modern history it should refer to an event that occurred in the last 50 years, or even less.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 8 2017 21:48 utc | 53
To continue the topic of “old news”, when was Europe screwed for the first time? Perhaps then?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | May 8 2017 22:13 utc | 54
Sigil
Media were against Trump and he did not get the votes by the people. Get your facts straight.
Posted by: Rabid | May 8 2017 22:14 utc | 55
Smuks @44–“I’d still appreciate if someone could explain to me what ‘globalism’ means.”
The linked article by Joseph Nye is basically correct and provides a basis for discussion. The concept was also known as Internationalism; its advocates Internationalists; its antagonists Nationalists or Protectionists. After WW1 the debate over joining The League of Nations sparked a debate between advocates and antagonists within the Outlaw US Empire that affects us today given the smearing Pacifists got–Isolationists/Isolationism–as if there were no nuances or grey areas.
https://www.theglobalist.com/globalism-versus-globalization/
Posted by: karlof1 | May 8 2017 22:31 utc | 56
@40 peter
I’ll hazard a guess that you’re not Greek then. Point re: a unified Europe via a tight Franco-German bond is well taken, but at what cost…? When do Eurocrats and ECBankers come up for re-election…? Hmm, we’ll just have to settle for watching another puppet show I guess.
I wouldnt talk of the far right on series of losses in NL or FR either…the right is on an absolute roll, trending in only one direction. Seems the French jihadist economy is somewhat of a problem, they’re importing more than they’re exporting these days…but shhh…we’re not allowed to talk about it.
France took the same old bullet to dodge a bullet, and it will be this way until what remains of the twisted left is reformed into something backable.
Posted by: MadMax2 | May 8 2017 22:32 utc | 57
@Brooklyn Bridge 27, 29
Your method doesn’t work on Google.
Go to https://unshorten.it/ and paste the short URL into the box there.
Tap on ‘Unshorten it’ at the end of the box.
Scroll down to the blue ‘goto’ button at the bottom of the page.
Right click on it and copy the link therein, which is the expanded URL.
Posted by: EdMOA | May 8 2017 23:06 utc | 58
In general URL shorteners stand for everything this website and its readers oppose (central government control, tracking, spyware).
=================
Anyone worried about that sort of stuff shouldn’t even visit MOA , which uses Cloudflare
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13340281
What’s wrong with Cloudflare?
Normal_gaussian 121 days ago
They receive a large amount of internet traffic and have the potential ability to fingerprint users and subvert privacy protections. AFAIK they don’t do anything malicious, but I don’t know they don’t.
Posted by: Just Sayin’ | May 8 2017 23:23 utc | 59
Re 55,
I never wrote that Trump got the majority of votes. I wrote ‘Enough voters chose him regardless of what they were told.’ Get your own facts straight.
Posted by: sigil | May 8 2017 23:37 utc | 60
@ Laguerre 18
So was that picture photoshopped, b? I couldn’t be bothered looking up the source.
At any rate, I think you’re going to be proved wrong rapidly. Macron’s a bright guy, and ran a very good campaign. That is, he kept quiet, like May did. But he is really pushy, and evidently competent. I don’t know whether that means good or bad. But lapdog he certainly isn’t.
“He is really pushy, and evidently competent.”
Guess you missed reading some of his background. Worked as a Rothschild banker. Had no idea what is EBITDA?
Oh my. Read the link and understand the Whys behind the photo image b posted.
Macron was groomed created out of thin air
[Yet] it wasn’t just a Rothschild sponsor who took the young Macron under his wing…
What Mr Macron lacked in technical knowledge and jargon at first, he made up for with contacts in government, says Sophie Javary, head of BNP Paribas’ corporate finance in Europe, who was asked by Mr Henrot to coach Mr Macron in the first year.
This is straight up bizarre. It appears Macron was so important to banking interests the had to form a consortium of firms to all pitch in to help him out. Yet it gets stranger still.
On the Atos deal, Mr Macron “had a fairly junior role at the time — he would be asked to redo the financial models on Excel, the basics,” recalled an adviser. But a few days after the deal was announced, Mr Macron was made a partner. A few months later, he stunned colleagues and rivals by winning a role in Nestlé’s purchase of Pfizer’s infant food operations.
As someone who spent ten years on Wall Street, I can tell you with certainty that you don’t go from updating excel models at a junior level to partner overnight. Someone extraordinarily powerful was pulling all sorts of strings for this guy. There seems to be little doubt about this.
Further hints that Macron is a total manufactured elitist creation can be seen with the following.
At the bank, Mr Macron mastered the art of networking and navigated around the numerous conflicts of interest that arise in close-knit Parisian business circles, making good use of his connections as an Inspecteur des Finances — an elite corps of the very highest-ranking graduates from ENA.
In 2010, he advised, for free, the staff of Le Monde when the newspaper was put up for sale. Journalists at the daily started doubting his loyalty when they happened upon him in conversation with Mr Minc, who was representing a bidding consortium that the staff opposed. They did not know that it was Mr Minc, a fellow Inspecteur des Finances, who had helped the young Mr Macron secure his interview at Rothschild.
A media executive who was part of the same consortium recalled: “It wasn’t clear who Emmanuel worked for. He was around, trading intelligence, friends with everyone. It was smart, because he got to know everybody in the media world.”
Indeed, who does he work for? I’m sure the French people would like to know.[..]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
sure he ran a very good campaign. It was so arranged for him – all that $$$$loot and more.
Posted by: likklemore | May 8 2017 23:38 utc | 61
me @ 61
EBITDA = Earnings before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, Amortization.
Posted by: likklemore | May 8 2017 23:42 utc | 62
@33 karlof1
I just read Escobar’s piece on the election. He makes some good points about today’s post-Orwellian meanings of left and right – vastly different from earlier times. I’m pretty sure he would agree with the word “installed” – in fact he alludes to much of the process. I love his writing for its sheer élan, but I have to quote the concluding paragraph:
What French voters have – sort of – endorsed is the unity of neoliberal economy and cultural liberalism. Call it, like Michea, “integrated liberalism.” Or, with all the Orwellian overtones, “post-democratic capitalism.”A true revolt of the elites. And “peasants” buy it willingly. Let them eat overpriced croissants. Once again, France is leading the West.
That link again: Emmanuel Clinton and the revolt of the elites
Let them eat overpriced croissants. Nailed it.
Posted by: Grieved | May 9 2017 1:20 utc | 63
France just “elected” Western Europe’s version of HRC. The Banksters are dancing in the streets, and France will STILL be the U$A’s bitch.
Posted by: ben | May 9 2017 1:32 utc | 64
@karlof1 56
Thanks, though I’m not much enlightened I’m afraid.
Where would you place e.g. the Neocons? Nationalists to the bone, with global aspirations.
‘Internationalism’ is a very progressive concept, and mostly associated with the UN, e.g. some form of global democracy…would you say the same for ‘globalism’?
Posted by: smuks | May 9 2017 1:45 utc | 65
Re: Posted by: smuks | May 8, 2017 3:21:04 PM | 43
You say this, but you must be happy because the Zionists have been defeated in France yes?
Posted by: smuks | May 8, 2017 9:45:32 PM | 65
I think that globalism has a negative connotations mostly because of jobs outsourcing overseas. All those telemarketing and customer service call centers moved to India or Philippines, textile and manufacturing jobs to China and Bangladesh etc – OTOH we do not mind having cheap Chinese stuff to buy in dollar stores, but it is somewhat irritating when a guy from Mumbai is calling you to switch to another local phone or cable provider.
Posted by: hopehely | May 9 2017 3:16 utc | 68
Re 63
It’s a good article, but I can’t see any implication that he believes the voters preferred Le Pen. Terms like ‘manufactured’ and ‘installed’ when referring to candidates have their role in drawing attention to elite machinations, but they shouldn’t overshadow the banal fact that the voters really aren’t ready to hand power to Le Pen. Most voters don’t spend their days picking apart the tangled threads of Rothschild/NATO/AIPAC/CIA conspiracies, after all. Most voters still think that the euroliberal project can work, or at any rate, they think the right-wing populists have little to offer beyond thinly-disguised racism. Considering Trump and the Brexiteers, what other conclusion should they draw?
Posted by: sigil | May 9 2017 3:38 utc | 69
From Black Agenda Report on French elections:
https://blackagendareport.com/africa_no_stake_french_election
Excerpt: “From de Gaulle in 1958 to Hollande in 2017, and for all members of the French establishment, the operational principle of the French towards Africa has been: “invade, intimidate, manipulate, install, antagonize, ingratiate, indemnify, expropriate.” Nothing in this election will change that – only Africans can.”
Posted by: ben | May 9 2017 3:59 utc | 70
Re 63
It’s a good article, but I can’t see any implication that he believes the voters preferred Le Pen.
…
Posted by: sigil | May 8, 2017 11:38:51 PM | 69
Me either, and he wasn’t.
He was attempting to hilight the components of the bamboozlement which the United Swamp inflicted on French voters.
Imo, the Swamp’s winning hand was pinning the (fearsome) Far Right label to Le Pen’s forehead. It’s ludicrous when seen in the light of her policy platform but it seems to have worked. The following is the nuts & bolts condensed from an article by James Petras to which I posted a link on the last April Open Thread. There’s nothing right-wing in it…
1. Remove France from NATO’s integrated command.
2. End NATO’s commitment to US directed global wars.
3. Reject the oligarch-dominated European Union and its austerity programs, which have enriched bankers and multi-national corporations.
4. Convoke a national referendum over the EU – to decide French submission.
5. End sanctions against Russia.
6. Increase trade with Rusia.
7. End France’s intervention in Syria and establish ties with Iran and Palestine.
8. Adopt Keynesian demand-driven industrial revitalization as opposed to Emmanuel Macron’s ultra-neoliberal supply-side agenda.
9. Raise taxes on banks and financial transactions
10. Penalise capital flight in order to continue funding France’s retirement age of 62 for women and 65 for men.
11. Keep the 35 hour work-week.
12. Provid tax-free overtime pay.
13. Direct state intervention to prevent factories from relocating to low wage EU economies and firing French workers.
14. Increase public spending for childcare and for the poor and disabled.
15 Protect French farmers against subsidized, cheap imports.
16. Support abortion rights and gay rights.
17. Oppose the death penalty.
18. Cut taxes by 10% for low-wage workers.
19. Fight against sexism.
20. Fight for equal pay for women.
What makes it interesting is that it seems that the deluge of MSM hokum successfully discouraged the ppl who voted for Micron from examining and/or evaluating it.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 9 2017 7:11 utc | 72
Somehow Macron is the smallest detail of what is going on. The old two major parties have imploded and the survivors are trying to fight for life by joining the new big centrist Macron-EU lobby movement. Everyday is about a new betrayal, a new U-turn on what has been signed or promessed by this or that party-member (Valls is the funniest to follow). The French politicians are and have been a mafia, Corsican type, ever since the 30s (or maybe before already?). Macron won’t have much support in the coming parliament. Episode 2 is 18th June, results of the 2nd round of parliamentary election.
If a clarification happens as to who the people should oppose, anti-EU parties will have to unite and take the fight to Brussels (which as always, includes sorting out the extreme-right xenophobes and anti-women rights), as Varoufakis already understood.
Posted by: Mina | May 9 2017 7:40 utc | 73
People here really don’t understand how Le Pen functions. The way the MSM is dealing with her (differs from how it was played with the father, this was Mitterrand’s business) is that she is everywhere, in a positive light, on a daily basis, and suddenly when an election happens, after she has been put up as credible etc they turn against her fascism at the last minute. The reason she is used first is to make her bigger against the other candidates. It worked this time against Mélenchon, who had initially better chances than her to win, and who might even have won against Macron (25 % abstention + 10 % blank votes is still a big reserve for anyone). But the Mélenchon was hailed “same as Le Pen”, “friend of Putin and Castro”, “supporting Syrian regime” etc.
As to the ‘programme’ of Le Pen. She changed her tone when Philippot, a former help of Chevènement (socialist anti-EU, has quit the party but still very close to Hollande and Royal !) started to write her speeches. Through time, she simply borrowed stuff from the leftist unions (CGT), from Mélenchon, so far thay everyone notice the “social left” overtones of her platform. But when asked precisely, there is nothing behind it but catching new voters. The basis of her voters, those of her father, are just very normal rightist liberal, with an open racist flavour, and the new mottoes are just to catch more people. Asked about all the ‘borrowings’ made by the FN to the extreme-left Mélenchon said that reading a FN tract nowadays looked like it was a CGT one, but that this did not cover that the fact they were just stealing it without any intention behind it.
The FN is ruling is a number of municipalities, they have 2 MP in the French parliament and 22 in the EUropean parliament. Please let me know of any ‘social left’ measure they would have suggested or agreed for?
Under Mitterrand, the Socialists used the FN as the perfect tool to reduce the weight of the right party. After him, the MSM understood it was the perfect tool to kill the marxists. ALL the media have kept saying “Mélenchon = Le Pen” in the latest months, especially after Mélenchon had a surge in the voting intentions. The guy is not perfect and would probably not do a good president, but his charism and pedagogical capacity made him get back some of the working class voters that had stopped voting for the Communists to vote for Le Pen (after the Communists were involved too often in compromising deals with the very corrupt Socialist Party) and he also managed to get some youth interested in politics again with his web platform and local organisations.
Posted by: Mina | May 9 2017 7:57 utc | 74
@11 Greg Bacon
“No way a banker’s pet ‘wins’ 66% of the vote. That total must mean the bankers have some severe Greece-style austerity planned for France.”
Actually the Rothschild banker won with 66.06% of the vote:
http://www.france24.com/en/20170507-frances-macron-beats-le-pen-win-presidency-toughest-tasks-come
The illuminists are informing their serfs and their enemies that they are in complete control and that this populist revolt stops now. It is in your face like Kushner’s 666 fifth avenue building. The velvet glove is being removed from the steel fist.
Posted by: Heros | May 9 2017 8:00 utc | 75
Sigil –
He was not elected by the people but through the electoral system. So the people didnt really took the opposite route of the media.
Posted by: Anon1 | May 9 2017 8:05 utc | 76
@ Heros 75
Actually none of the above won 37% of the voters and Macron came in at 24% which is slightly above Le Pen at 21%. The rest voted against Le Pen by voting for Macron.
Macron wins – the 24% who voted for him rejoice, the rest sigh
http://thesaker.is/macron-wins-the-24-who-voted-for-him-rejoice-the-rest-sigh/
This is one hell of a way to run an election and a country. The political divisions are terminal as in the US. The difference, is that the French allow their leaders to run things until they get few up and than throw a tantrum. In this case the cobblestones will fly and the transportation system will shut down.
Even the National police (CRS) assassins will not be able to hold the line. There must be a better way to elect leaders who will add to the wealth of nations rather than the “Masters of the Universe”.
Posted by: Krollchem | May 9 2017 8:54 utc | 77
@hopehely 68
It’s fascinating. Everybody has his or her very personal idea of what ‘globalism’ means – yours is the third answer I get on this forum, and the three are completely different!
What you refer to is ‘globalization’, which is a natural/ logical process in capitalist economy.
I thus get the impression that ‘globalism’ doesn’t mean anything at all – which means it’s a very bad idea to use it in any debate. Or, you have to define very precisely how you use it before doing so.
@Hoarse 72
Maybe you should learn a bit more about European politics rather than believe in fairytales.
It’s strange how some people are disappointed by empty talk over and over, yet all it takes is some politician declaring herself ‘anti-establishment’ and they’ll believe every word she says. That way, of course they’re f*ckd time and again… Sad! 😉
(Look at Ukraine for a perfect example – they believed the nationalists’ lies just like you do.)
@Julian 66: Yeah, sure. And even better, the spiders from Mars didn’t win either. lol
Posted by: smuks | May 9 2017 11:18 utc | 78
Smuks
Globalism does have different meanings … and uses. It can mean globalism by culture as in travel, communications, foods, celebrations, etc. It can also mean government level actions pushed by TPTBs like trade deals, border arrangements, regional combinations (EU, NAFTA), economic/currency deals, supranational organizations (WTO, GATT, EU). The fun is when you complain about the latter, you are smeared as being a xenophobe and against the former. Voluntary organization from below is one thing, forced from above is a different matter.
Posted by: Curtis | May 9 2017 12:03 utc | 79
…
@Hoarse 72
Maybe you should learn a bit more about European politics rather than believe in fairytales.
It’s strange how some people are disappointed by empty talk over and over, yet all it takes is some politician declaring herself ‘anti-establishment’ and they’ll believe every word she says. That way, of course they’re f*ckd time and again… Sad! 😉
(Look at Ukraine for a perfect example – they believed the nationalists’ lies just like you do.)
…
Posted by: smuks | May 9, 2017 7:18:36 AM | 78
Can’t argue with your first sentence, but you should have quit while you were ahead.
Conflating the violent Putch in Ukraine with the stance of a France-for-the-French Nationalist is inane, to put it mildly. And as an Aussie, I can assure you that our Neolib, Turnbull, Totalitarian Capitalist, pro-middleman-itis, industry-destroying Govt could teach the French Swamp a thing or two about ‘honeyed lies’ and shameless betrayal by politicians – (whilst feathering their own ne$t$).
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | May 9 2017 13:32 utc | 80
It is even worse than b imagines
Hollande was yesterday evening in Berlin for a “farewell dinner with Merkel”
http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2017/05/09/apres-la-victoire-de-macron-le-diner-d-adieu-offert-par-angela-a-francois_5124678_3214.html
and next week, Macron once inaugurated will do his first trip to Berlin to have dinner with Mutti.
Posted by: Mina | May 9 2017 14:43 utc | 81
The selection, crowning of Macron represents the ultimate effort within the 5th Republic to elect a ‘prez’ who promises, can, will be, effective. In what direction is not specified….mystery…
Sarkozy was elected as a ‘Républicain’ (UMP then), an outsider nonetheless, a foreignor almost, a hyperactive, charismatic, posturing dude who agitated ppl from the right, provided a flattering mirror for many, and displayed an aura of determined, willful, ‘renewal’ while being ‘conservative.’ His wife Cecilia played a big part — another story.
Sark subsequently alienated swatches of the F who were becoming more impoverished, he almost destroyed the judiciary/ police/ repressive etc. organs in F (as he despised them personally) except prisons, that didn’t go down well. Sure the ‘Left’ – aka local plutocrats belonging to the Le Zuper Klub des Zocialistes trying to get a bigger slice of the economic pie.. facing their now better entrenched competitors, went into valiant, sputtering, oppo.
Sark was the destruction of Lybia. Hollande was elected as a return to a ‘normal’ presidency, a-hmm… reasonable, understanding, benevolent, a tad leftist stance. Hollande instored by decree the El Khomri law, as an ex., measures that Sark did not dare attempt. Hollande was militarily all over, not reported – see war in Mali for ex.
Macron embodies the ‘not-left-not-right’, the death to the creaky ‘establishment’ parties; a pragmatic ‘renewal’, a young brilliant guy, very French, very heart-felt, etc. Leading to a sort of ‘technocratic, unity government’ hmmm.
http://www.e-ir.info/2008/06/14/french-foreign-policy-under-sarkozy/
Posted by: Noir22 | May 9 2017 15:04 utc | 82
The photoshopped image is funny. Good one. Hummvee, a.k.a. appeal to the reptilian brain. Does anyone know? I heard that Merkel has a PhD in physics (PhD in alemania is like a masters degree in amerika). So the imagery is maybe not so far from truth.
Posted by: Roman T. | May 9 2017 16:13 utc | 83
@Curtis 79
What you describe is usually called ‘globalization’, which of course has cultural, economic, political etc. facets. Politics is always ‘forced from above’ to some degree, whether on a local, national or global level.
@Hoarse 80
While there was no coup in France, the nationalist ideologies are the same: Pretending to further the ‘people’s interests’ to garner support, but in reality doing the oligarchs’ bidding.
I most certainly don’t support neoliberals like Turnbull, Macron or whoever, but with the nationalists you’d get ‘the same but more so’, plus heightened conflicts between various groups in society, a.k.a. divide and rule. Look at history, and don’t be fooled (again).
Posted by: smuks | May 9 2017 17:28 utc | 84
The truth is.. people needed a change from Hollande. Isn’t he a cuty?
http://s2.lemde.fr/image2x/2017/05/09/534×0/5125000_6_e8b1_2017-05-09-c2acb99-9353-eu22j5-nm62prpb9_c3ce4e3f7e357bbe7514a05d0e522c5b.jpg
Posted by: Mina | May 9 2017 17:59 utc | 85
More on the creation of Macron and the puppeteers behind him. It is a tangled web:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article196289.html
Posted by: Krollchem | May 9 2017 19:15 utc | 86
Germans will be disappointed by Macron’s election. The force that is driving two countries apart are far bigger than thousands of macrons.
Here are two fascinating very recent headlines:
“French trade deficit widens to record in January”
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/french-trade-deficit-widens-to-record-in-january-2017-03-08
“Germany Posts Record Current-Account Surplus in March”
http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/05/09/germany-posts-record-current-account-surplus-in-march.html
Juxtapose one against the other – and it’s pretty clear that German strength is a mirror reflection of French weakness. Because both countries share the same currency, the only way for France to recover is for Germany to become sick. Therein lie the seeds of conflict. Far from invigorated partnership, one should expect gradual, yet unrelenting unraveling of Franco-German relations. Frustrated Macron will prove Germany’s worst nightmare. It simply can’t be any other way.
Posted by: telescope | May 9 2017 19:38 utc | 87
It looks as though the south koreans will be much happier with their new president than the french will be with theirs.
in france the next dates of note are 11 and 18 june, aren’t they? all this talk of germany … de gaulle’s speech was on the 18th of june, wasn’t it? is micron really petain in drag?
Posted by: jfl | May 9 2017 20:29 utc | 88
jfl
Here’s another excellent Monthly Review essay, this time by Henry A. Giroux: Trump’s America: Rethinking 1984 and Brave New World, https://monthlyreview.org/2017/05/01/trumps-america/
Most barflys will benefit from reading this.
Posted by: karlof1 | May 9 2017 22:57 utc | 89
More than half of young people in Europe would join a “large-scale uprising”
It is not every day that young people are asked by a major international agency whether they want to participate in a “large-scale uprising.” But this is exactly what the Union of European Broadcasters, the world’s largest alliance of public TV stations, did in a survey of nearly one million people between the ages of 18 and 35.
… european spring in the making? certainly seems like it, doesn’t it? if ukraine cannot join the eu, then the eu will join the ukraine?
thanks for the link karlof, but i’ve had enough of the rump us government for now. how much different would it be if the one from column ‘d’ had been elected … well she was, wasn’t she … installed? the press coverage would certainly be different … but that doesn’t come under my ‘reality’ heading.
the rump is not the enemy, well he is certainly no more the enemy than are the clintons’ hangers-on, or the new french micron set, or the group spinning the stradddler-spies of silicon valley – the artistes of big data – as having both feet in the one camp they intend to bring down in britain. if you run into an article painting both the rump and the rusers with the same brush, i’d be interested in reading that. picking on the rump is like shooting fish in a barrel.
circe made a career of it … well a short-lived career, but a career nonetheless. now henry giroux is taking a cut at it … professional writer with a deadline commitment i suppose. jbf opened and closed the book on it, as far as i’m concerned … ‘They are all things to resist. Now as then: but sooner this time.’ a lot sooner. barack obama is warmng up in the wings as we speak, and the franco-american micronettes will do their best to play the idiot rump as something more than the tool in their strong right hands.
Posted by: jfl | May 10 2017 11:17 utc | 90
Laguerre is right to say Macron, EM – his famous signature and slogan – is smart. He is very clever, more so than Hollande, or Sark for that matter. EM is wildly ambitious. He is fueled with a zealot’s will, I’d go so far as to call it mystical in the narcissistic range, while yet tempered with touches of self-deceptive abegnation, a sort of false modesty that is experienced as genuine. He needs this kind of self-validation because he is traitorous, duplicitous.
Naturally EM has no political stances, ideas, beliefs, aims, that spring from some ‘personal’ (if that can ever exist?) construction of ‘reality.’ Both Le Pen and Méluche are far closer to some abstract, putative, level of ‘solidarity / governance’ than ‘Manu.’ It follows that he is the incarnation of (not the puppet of, Macron holds his destiny in his hands, his pride since he is 12-years-old) those who control the reins of power at present: the EU, Corps, MSM, the PTB, the ‘upper’castes, and internationally, US-uk-isr (say.)
While EM may have been ‘promoted’ (nothing new, it happens all the time, bright young ppl are afforded some kind of special status, etc.) and may have moneyed ‘backers’, what happened is that the whole of F-world that counts fell in behind him (see other posts above) because he smartly occupied the position of Savior, the person who could navigate grave disruptions to the status quo, and possibly keep it intact, chugging along. Note there is NO hopi-changiness in EM’s speeches, program. (He only opposes Le Pen, ‘fascism’, etc. while he himself checks more boxes on that rubric.) He has announced his radical reformism loud and clear; the French rioted in the streets for weeks against the El Khomri labor law written by Macron, now they ‘elect’ him, they have have been trapped and hypnotised, in the sense of incapable of going beyond the choices offered.
@ Brooklin 22, Asselineau is at least not boring; and his self-promotion is probably the only bullet he has left, plus it is expected by his supporters .. ? Note that F. A. is ignored, repressed, and demeaned by the PTB/MSM because he is, in fine, far more dangerous than Le Pen, as his anti-EU/Euro (yes, a kind of monomania..) stance is quite well argued, and is not polluted by xenophobia, ‘racism’, anti-Islam, ‘fake classicm’ or foreign policy positions that might seem controversial, imprudent, etc..
Posted by: Noir22 | May 10 2017 14:51 utc | 91
Kadima! En Marche! http://www.voltairenet.org/article196311.html
Posted by: ALAN | May 10 2017 17:10 utc | 92
someone posted a link to michael hudson’s review of steve keen’s slim, new volume entitled Can we avoid another financial crisis?. I found an ms doc version of the book over the wire, at least part of it – and, although Keen thinks another crisis could be avoided by a rational implementation of a debt jubilee, he thinks that’s unlikely to happen – an all-time understatement, perhaps.
anyway, he classifies 15 countries as zombies-to-be in the next round, those with private debt over 120% of gdp, and … France is number 2, right after China. ok, quite a distance after, but number 2.
so maybe micron’s chief attribute, in the eyes of the financiers, is that he was willing to take the job and to (attempt to) effect their program, post-crash?
taken together, China accounts for nearly 16% of world gdp, and the rest of the zombies on the list for collectively a bit more, for a total of just over one third of world gdp. should be enough to sink the ship.
Posted by: jfl | May 11 2017 1:44 utc | 93
@ALAN | May 10, 2017 1:10:08 Great article by Meyssan, as always, thanks!
Posted by: ProPeace | May 11 2017 2:07 utc | 94
And also thanks to Bernhard and the commentariat here for great contributions over last couple of weeks.
Posted by: ProPeace | May 11 2017 2:09 utc | 95
@91, noirette, ‘… trapped and hypnotised, in the sense of incapable of going beyond the choices offered …’
the us election redux … ‘incapable of going beyond the choices offered’ … that’s us, in the land of the free and the brave, to a tee … rump.
Posted by: jfl | May 11 2017 3:28 utc | 96
Very interesting:
#MacronLeaks Uncensored: The CIA takeover of smart card company Gemplus (Gemalto)
Posted by: ProPeace | May 11 2017 6:57 utc | 97
@93 jfl
Not surprising to read Hudson’s glowing praise of Keen here, but I’ll never get tired of reading about Prof. Keen’s (he who recognises the impact of the banking sector on the economy) disection of Master Unicorn Economist Krugman (he who believes banks are a non existent entity within the economy) – inside that argument are all the answers to why we are where we are.
And not surprising that Australia, firmly in the vice-like grip of neoliberalism, could not hold on to Keen who has repeatedly proven himself to be that country’s greatest talent in living memory…choosing, a couple of years back, to relocate London’s Kingston University whose student body demanded a more pluralistic approach from its economics faculty.
And, I would agree, that what we do know of the new French Pres suggests that he may well be the most useful tool beyond financial reset. Le Pen was the perfect 2nd Round opponent when viewed through the lens of ‘Neoliberalism In Decay.’
Posted by: MadMax2 | May 11 2017 12:08 utc | 98
@98 mm2
yes, i see more and more parallels between macaroon … as someone else has dubbed him … and obama. technocrat as willing charlatan/deceiver.
look at some of those ratios of private debt to gdp … the amount of pain to be unevenly distributed is going to be huge. it’ll take a real macaroon to do the job, whether he survives or not. i think he’s going to be the most hated man in france in very short order. no black skin to save him.
Posted by: jfl | May 12 2017 0:47 utc | 99
@97 pp
thanks for that link to the article on gemplus and macaroon. that will be a very interesting excursion indeed. not unlike obama and the nsa … of course macaroon was a ‘mechanic’ before he became prez. … but i’m ahead of myself, i haven’t even thoroughly read the article yet.
Posted by: jfl | May 12 2017 1:00 utc | 100