Macron escalates war on the Yellow Vests

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Putin is a brutal dictator that suppresses political dissent.
Macron is a freedom-loving, neoliberal, wonderkid.
At least that was the way it was pitched until yesterday.

The main points of that measure, for which Philippe voiced support, would allow the police to search the personal effects of people about to attend a demonstration; ban persons known to the police as violent from attending protests, the way soccer hooligans on police lists are kept out of stadiums; and toughen the punishment for covering one’s face while protesting from a mere fine to, potentially, a year in prison.
...
Not even in Russia, however, can police simply put someone on a list of people banned from public protests. And covering one’s face, even during a protest that has turned violent and resulted in damage to people and property, is punishable only by a maximum fine of 300,000 rubles ($4,500) and 20 days’ arrest. The French proposal – a 15,000 euro ($17,200) fine and a year in prison – is harsher.

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French police already arrested one of the protest leaders, truck driver Eric Drouet, last week for organising an unauthorised demonstration in Paris.

This new crackdown on political activism has gotten interesting responses.

Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the Republican party, tweeted that the move was not enough because it would not take "immediate effect". He said his party had previously proposed a state of emergency, adding: "Why not listen to us, at the risk of seeing the situation worsen Saturday after Saturday?"
Meanwhile left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said the planned measures would mean that "demonstrators can no longer demonstrate".

So "Republicans" are against commoners protesting, while communists aren't.
Inside the French government the response was predictable.

“I would like all of those who believe in democracy, in the sovereign representation of the French people to come together and say ‘enough,’” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Sunday.

Those who believe in democracy should shut the Hell up!
Chantal Jouanno, the official appointed by the French government to lead a national debate over the grievances raised by so-called “Yellow Vest” protesters quit on Tuesday after a news magazine revealed she was paid 14,700 euros ($16,800) per month.

So why this increasingly harsh crackdown on dissent?
Because the Yellow Vests are increasingly class aware.

One of the yellow vests’ first goals is the reimposition of France’s wealth tax. Last year, Mr. Macron scaled it back to cover only real estate, hoping that leaving more money in the pockets of the wealthy would boost investment. But the move, combined with his plans to raise fuel taxes, solidified the perception among the yellow vests that his policies rewarded the wealthy and punished the working class.

And then yesterday the Yellow Vests crossed the line by threatening the fictional wealth of the very rich.

Activists from a French protest movement encouraged supporters Wednesday to set off a bank run by emptying their accounts, while the government urged citizens to express their discontent in a national debate instead of weekly demonstrations disrupting the streets of Paris.

Activists from the yellow vest movement, which started with protests over fuel tax increases, recommended the massive cash withdrawals on social media. One protester, Maxime Nicolle called it the “tax collector’s referendum.”

“We are going to get our bread back ... You’re making money with our dough, and we’re fed up,” Nicolle said in a video message.

The movement’s adherents said they hoped the banking action will force the French government to heed their demands, especially giving citizens the right to propose and vote on new laws.

If only Americans were this aware and engaged.

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Anja Geitz's picture

why this increasingly harsh crackdown on dissent?
Because the Yellow Vests are increasingly class aware

Anyone want to venture a guess why Americans are not this engaged?

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@Anja Geitz @Anja Geitz

Gilets Jaunes: Catalyst for a Global Movement?

Gilets Jaunes: Catalyst for a Global Movement?   Yellow Vests

France is at a crossroad. A fairly benign bread-and-butter protest has turned into a major popular dissent putting in question France’s political system. It is new, unheard of, and because we live in the digital age, with immediate communication, the world is not only watching, but there is a contagious factor to it, which in the Anglo-Saxon world is called “Yellow Vests Movement”. In what could be a healthy contagion of a social yellow fever of dissent, this polymorphic movement has already spread to 25 countries and counting. In the immediate vicinity of France, of course, in countries such as Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, but also while not clearly identified as Gilets Jaunes chapters in Hungary, Bulgaria and Serbia. It has reached the Middle East with activities in Israel and Iraq, and the Americas with startup movements, still trying to structure themselves, in the United States and Canada. Is this explosion of dissent merely some short lived copycat effects or is a deeper systemic change in process or, in another word, the catalyst of a historical paradigm shift in real time. France is, for now, the main social battle ground, and critical test of the movement. [more]

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Anja Geitz's picture

@dkmich

And watched the police raid Zuccoti park at 3am in the morning away from the cameras so they could destroy private property and burn all the books in the People's Library, I hope that if a Yellow Vest movement does take root here, the police don't bring out their military grade weaponry against them.

This is definitely a story that a lot of people are watching, from both sides of the class warfare barricades.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

WoodsDweller's picture

@Anja Geitz that's the reason they have the paramilitary gear. The wheels are coming off this civilization, and we're moving beyond the "bread and circuses" stage towards the "massacre the protesters to send a message" stage. I was pleasantly surprised that didn't happen in Ferguson.
So far I've heard nothing about citizen journalists using camera drones to watch the cops. They probably already have some sort of jammers for that.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

@WoodsDweller all the actions against the 99% have been planned for, including the day when people wake up and say enough is enough.

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Alligator Ed's picture

@Snode The MSM, including BBC, Guardian and other Anglo-Saxon press have boycotted covering the Yellow Vest movement. Act VIII was bigger than act VII but not as large as Act III. Macron and his lap dog Phillipe are doing their best to ensure violence meets governmental repression. Macron is in a position of severe weakness, some sources reporting he only has 8% support, although others say he has 18% support--boy, howdy. That's even less support than for the Evil Queen. So if you want to start a revolution, what better place than France? Here's lookin' at ya, Louie. Pour me another glass of Bourbon while there's still some left. Oppress-->Suppress-->Rebellion. Methinks Jupiter will himself be struck by a stray thunderbolt.

Waiting for Angela to bail him out--oops, try May--oops try Superman.

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Anja Geitz's picture

@WoodsDweller

I'm sure it showed up on the agenda of a lot of meetings. As sure as I am that they've already planned for the day when the shit hits the fan.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Anja Geitz's picture

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

@WoodsDweller we need a shopping list. Drones to take down their drones. Electronic countermeasures to take down their jammers. Diversion teams to set off bank alarms, call in major emergencies and otherwise force the paramilitary police to stretch resources thin covering all the crises pulling them away from the protests.

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lotlizard's picture

@Battle of Blair Mountain  
https://anonops.com/

For a while, it looked like self-organizing networks of tech experts like “Anonymous” were going to be “We the People’s NSA” or “the 99%’s NSA.”

Was that merely a brief moment in history that now has already passed?

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detroitmechworks's picture

and had no choice in determining, know better than you.

Because they're special people. Who know. Better.

Because you're ignorant, racist, sexist, deplorable peasants.

And always shall be.

So sayeth his Highness, Charles I.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

earthling1's picture

money in checking and savings as possible.
Last month, I earned .02 cents on a $500 account balance.
Fuck them. I would rather have that cash instantly at hand under my mattress than let them lend it out for 15% interest.
If just a fraction of Americans did this the entire system would collapse.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

Wink's picture

need real physical (or
digital) $$ on hand to lend any.
@earthling1
Banks just credit or debit our accounts these days,
whether or not the $$ actually "exist" in the world.
That is, the days of taking $50,000 out of the bank vault and putting it in our account (as a loan) are long gone. These days it's just a digital entry. Then of course charge interest on that money that never existed. Bank accounts these days are just score cards. The banks are the score keepers.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Wink Nice little 401k ya got there (emphasis on little).....shame if somethin' happened to it.

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@Wink banks do have to maintain minimum capital requirements.

So, a run on them would hurt.

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dfarrah

Wink's picture

yes it would.
@dfarrah

Generally require 10% on hand.
Which means, I guess, they can lend the other 90%
that doesn't exist.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Wink but did you know that there were no bank failures in 2018? I read that somewhere and find that very interesting.

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dfarrah

Wink's picture

@dfarrah

They're mostly playing with phantom money.

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the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.

@Wink required by capital regulations are not phantom money.

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dfarrah

WoodsDweller's picture

How about "Neoliberal Dictator Sends Jack-Booted Thugs to Crush Freedom Fighters"?
We'll be reusing that one more frequently as things progress.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

@WoodsDweller
is people will say, "Can you be more specific?"

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dance you monster's picture

Call them on this. Everybody who supports the aims of the Gilets Jaunes should consider masks whenever they go out, to work (or general strike), to stores (or boycotts). Spread the security forces out until they turn on their masters.

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The War against the people gaining force.
It's ominous and alarming.
Can the Gilets Jaunes prevail?

I think about the tanks in Ferguson, Missouri and I fear for protesters everywhere.

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NYCVG

Bollox Ref's picture

The Parisian elites might want to rethink things.

Is our Macron learning....?

Mrs. B. is in Paris for work. She's planning to avoid central Paris on Saturday.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

WaterLily's picture

@Bollox Ref Especially considering NPR's take is that the protests have been "steadily shrinking."

I heard that and thought, "Right; have to discourage any would-be protesters here before they even get started."

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I told him to buy a yellow vest for $3.98 at Walmart, take it, display it on the dash of his rental vehicle to get through roundabouts. The tour bus displayed the vest, got through when 40 cars without the vests could not. And that was about the second week of the protests.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

don't know where we are in space

One of the many strange aspects with the Europeans who consider themselves Modern, is that they have always been spatially lost. They do not know where they reside. And for good reason, since their territory always has been elsewhere; the Moderns claim to have lived in the nation state, but meanwhile they have extracted their resources by occupying land outside of it.

do you remember the old days when there was talk of progress? talk about globalization? ...

Although disorientation seems general, the public is well aware of the gap between the aims that the Moderns have set for themselves and the material place where they must learn to reside if they want to survive. It suffices to read the announcements of scientists, every day, in the newspapers. The disconnection between these announcements of imminent threat and the inability to act in time and on the right scale to prevent its effects is the root cause of all current discontent. It is not only an opposition to taxes on gasoline but an existential crisis regarding the direction given to Modern civilization

say what, have people draw up list of grievances? France did it in 1789

Because, to have politics, one must define a corresponding land and people. And even if Macron might not like the comparison, it is seen before in France, more precisely in 1789, where 60,000 Cahiers de doléances –a historical event often misunderstood – allowed the French as a people to re-describe their territory, inequalities, injustices, taxes, economy in the same breath, without presupposing a final framework.

Gilets Jaunes as an occasion to restart politics

Bruno says in other works that the main political force for the last 30 years is Gaia

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@DonMidwest A list of grievances takes the question of altering the constitution off the table and calls out the 10% who seem to be the only beneficiaries able to afford it's protections.

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longtalldrink's picture

The "Marie Antionette" French Revolution was successful because the police began to help the demonstrators. Now if only the current world police force would get a fcking clue.

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Well done is better than well said-Ben Franklin

@longtalldrink
in 1789, 1790, 1830, 1848, and 1871.
That makes all the difference.

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@gjohnsit of the world is missing the 'fraternity' part.

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dfarrah