France in Flames: The Latest on the Riots

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What shocked me about the Yellow Jacket protests and riots a few years back was how few Americans were even aware of it. Today France is again dealing with a wave of protests that makes the Yellow Jacket uprising look like a parlor game.

If you read the stories, some media accounts call it protests, others call it riots.  This is an attempt to bring awareness to those who are unaware or who have only read headlines. I first share a dozen Tweets which show the variety of responses from unofficial observers. I follow this with two BBC references and then pull it together with comments from two explanations from people living in France whose identities I can't disclose.

First, some of the responses from Twitter. 

1.
It’s happening in France!!! 2 mayors mansions have been “burnt down” by protestors! 

The revolution, it seems will start in France. People are done with Macron. 
The protests are so so heavy that THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH POLICE to “contain” the protesters! 
Viva La Revolucion

2.

In western France, locals armed with baseball bats fight back against migrants looting shops and businesses, in scenes resembling outright civil war.

This is coming to the UK (and Ireland) soon, make no mistake about it. All by design, of course.

3.

U.K. leaving the E.U. looks better every year with the forced immigration policy.

4.

Who/what is behind this? It is not spontaneous as is being promoted. What is the global agenda here? Is it the Kochs, the billionaires?

5.

They’re chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they torch France.

6.

This can't be good for tourism, remember when protesters used come out in the daylight with peace signs and said make love not war!!!;

7.

(photo of fires, Arab men with AK-47s) This isn’t Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan. This is France where 9% of the population has brought down entire cities!

Where are CNN & BBC now?

8.

Rioters have set large residential building on fire in Grigny, France.

9.

The media gave us wall-to-wall nonstop propaganda coverage about the fake “Russia Coup” last week.
Now, they are silent about the coup and riots in France. Not surprised.

10.

There are reports about the death of a police officer who was lynched earlier in Nanterre. Here is another lynching of an alleged plainclothes policeman in France by Islamists, last night.

11. 

Zebras, giraffes and horses in streets after being let out of the zoo by rioting mobs in France

12.

Bus carrying Chinese tourists attacked in Marseille, France, amid ongoing riots.

* * * 

BBC:  France shooting: Clashes and tear gas in Marseille as chaos continues

BBC: A library was set ablaze on Friday night in a suburb of Metz in eastern France. The incident happened a day after a nearby concert hall and municipal building were ransacked. Metz Mayor François Grosdidier said firefighters who tried to reach the scene were attacked.  

* * * 

Unnamed Source Anthony
The French people are very unhappy with Macron's second term aggressive neoliberal Thatcherism. He only cares about GDP, consumption, full employment, financial objectives and the military. He also made a u-turn towards conservatism and top-down authoritarianism. This has been deeply irritating to the French for at least two years now, most of the population doesn't care about getting rich or consuming more, they care instead about saving the environment and improving their bodily and mental health and collective well-being. Forcing an unpopular productivist retirement reform down the population's throat was the last straw. The disenfranchised youth and ethnic minorities are specially hopeless. Intolerance and white-supremacy has been on the rise and the government does little to stop it.

Incapable of being in tune with current events, he slowly built a gigantic powder keg, just waiting for a reckless cop to light it up for him. I had predicted it would happen about 6 months ago, my only surprise is that the trigger event didn't happen earlier.

 

Unnamed Source Carla

In Lyon I saw a big fence in flames down on the ground floor of a building and the day after at the same place there was a motorcycle in flames almost burned! The quarter where I stayed was not in the center so it was calm and quiet. I only see the troubles on TV. They are people pretending to do it as a revenge for the killing of a young boy 17 years old who was trying to escape from the cops after some  speed excess by car. but in fact it's a protest against the retirement at 64 years. Some people are doing it just for the sake of robberies in the shops which sell food, hifi stuff, sport shoes that will go to  their families or be re-sold... mostly left wing people from immigration...

* * * * *

Interesting that Bob Dylan and his Never Ending Tour has been touring the EU and performed in France the 27th through the 30th. The times continue to be changing. 

Feel free to leave a comment if you have insights to help shed light on these events.

Miscellaneous Tweets : Mourning In America

A drawing I did in high school. Have the times changed?

QUOTES SKIMMED FROM  TWITTER TODAY

If a protest that includes mass arson, looting, assault, and murder, can be considered "mostly peaceful," what exactly would a non-peaceful protest look like? I mean what does a protest have to do to earn the label of non-peaceful? Do they have to literally nuke the whole city?

* * * *

There’s a black out in truth. It interferes with the narrative.

* * * *

That whole Press is the enemy of the people thing just seemed like hyperbole, now I'm not so sure. Watching how they cover and present the riots (I'm in DC, I'm in the middle of it) is WAY different than reality.

* * * *

"It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."

Hard to describe how rampant the looting was tonight in Midtown Manhattan and how lawless it was. Complete anarchy. Literally hundreds of stores up and down Broadway, Fifth Ave, Sixth Ave. Kids ruling the streets like it was a party.

* * * *

My nephew, a NYPD détective in Brooklyn, just texted us that he heard Manhattan is almost lost. NONE OF THE LOCAL LONG ISLAND STATIONS ARE TALKING ABOUT THIS. My husbands former precinct on LI, the 7th, is almost overrun. They are looting Macy’s Herald square now.

* * * *

On the ground reporter for CNN says he’d be surprised if there was any further looting in Manhattan tonight. His exact words “There’s nothing left to loot”. Holy shit.

* * * *

How many people have to die in "peaceful demonstrations" before the media admit that those who promote mob disruptions have to know what is likely to happen when you put mobs in the streets at night?

* * * *

GREEN LIGHT FOR LOOTERS: NYPD Manhattan Chief just announced that officers are NOT to engage in vehicle pursuits that have committed looting (burglary). "Too dangerous and we don't want officers injured". This follows at least 3 pursuits tonight that he terminated as well.

* * * *

If all you care about is the looting, just stop posting. People trying so hard to discredit the movement instead of trying to understand why we’re protesting.

* * * *

EdNote: There's this query that psychologists use to help us verbalize what we're feeling. All the above statements were gleaned from Twitter today. The question goes like this: Are you Sad, Mad, Glad or Afraid? I really want to know.

* * * * 

Antifa List of Demands in Seattle

Reddit Discussion

Socialist Seattle Councilmember Tammy Morales said, "What I don’t want to hear is for our constituents to be told to be civil, not to be reactionary, to be told looting doesn’t solve anything.”
Full story here: https://mynorthwest.com/1908812/rantz-seattle-council-endorse-looting-riot/



Related Links
He Who Controls the Narrative Controls the People
Police Brutality Protests Will Change Law Enforcement and the November Election

Coronavirus Pandemic Notes and Quotes

Let's start with some positives.

1. I read that a couple in India aged 93 and 88 caught Covid-19 and have recovered.

2. A friend of mine and his daughter caught it, never went to get tested because they did not want to waste the testing supplies. Their symptoms were identical to what's been described as going around, which leads me to believe there are massive quantities of other people who have gotten it but whom are not included in the numbers. WHAT THIS MEANS IS that it is far more pervasive than we realize, but also that the death ratio is far smaller than we feared. [EdNote: We will be monitoring this situation.]

3. Both Abbott and Johnson & Johnson appear to be on a fast track solution.

* * * *
Unfortunately, it's not all roses here on planet earth, though, and we can't pretend otherwise. Some people who get the fever have said they've never experienced anything like it. “It was like somebody was beating me like a piñata,” said CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

* * * *

A Great Escape

There are riots beginning to take place in many parts of the world including China, Lebanon, South Africa and Mexico. Prison riots are breaking out due to panic and overcrowding in many other places: Brazil, Colombia, Tehran & Iranian prisons and elsewhere. The common denominator: Fear. Fear causes people to panic and behave irrationally. It's like the static electricity that builds inside a storm, producing thunder and lightning. I believe that in many of these places, where those in authority have only a tenuous hold on power, the fear will build on both sides and, as with a dam break, chaos and destruction may ensue.

TO PUT THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE, here's an interesting article about the Spanish Flu, which originated not in China but in Kansas and was carried abroad by U.S. doughboys who were deployed to World War I, quickly spreading the flu throughout Europe. It was tagged the Spanish Flu because Spain newspapers were not censored.

* * * *
Here are some a few related articles:

"Is it possible that the politicians are the ones who are panicking, while the people subject to their whims are simply trying to deal with the fallout as best they can?"--Jacob Sullum, 'The Fear, the Panic, Is a Bigger Problem Than the Virus,' Says New York's Governor, Reason

"The line between freedom and security is beginning to blur."--Dean Middleburgh, Can We Trust Big Brother?

"Politicians and the public are alarmingly willing to violate civil liberties in the name of fighting the epidemic." --Jacob Sullum, Will COVID-19 Kill the Constitution? 

* * * *
What's the solution? Larry David says we should all just hunker down and watch television. I myself am working on a book and organizing my files for whatever comes next.

Here's another take on all these things, an article by Dr. Eugene K. Choi which states that the Fear of Covid-19 will harm you more than Covid-19. He proceeds to offer what sounds like sound advice.

I'm curious what people will be saying ten years from now regarding this moment in history. I picture some us someday being asked, "Grandpa, what did you do while the world was in lockdown?"

Legislative Idiocy: An Inconvenient Truth

In 1901 there was an automobile wreck in Kansas. The amusing thing about this wreck is that there were only two cars in Kansas at the time. I guess there were no stop signs at that intersection. The sad part is that someone was probably killed.

This is where politicians are so good. They quickly realize that something has to be done, and they step right in, flex their muscles and pass a new law. The 1901 law stated that you had to stop your car every mile and shoot a flare up into the sky so that other cars would know you were approaching.

The story is true. And the tendency of politicians to take action, even when absurd and ignorant, shows no signs of going away any time soon.

Examples are legion. It appears that things are going to get worse before they get better because we somehow seem incapable of learning from the past. Can the leopard change his spots?

Phillip V. Brennan, in an article titled Global Warming Hysteria Creates Food Shortages, notes that "at this very moment, the world is plunging into a food scarcity crisis that is the direct result of the global warming hysteria. The headlong rush to grow food crops to make ethanol instead of growing crops to feed the world is pushing food prices skyward and creating the threat of famine in Third-World countries."

The more I read, the more amazed I am that our leaders are so spineless so as to be swept up in this global warming hysteria. It should not surprise me. I've many times read that politicians inside the Beltway are more concerned about staying in tune with public opinion than with facts about Reality. As is historically their natural bent, the laws legislators pass will be more destructive than helpful, despite their earnestness.

Many nations that used to export rice are now holding back and even banning exports. Countries dependent on these foods are already experiencing riots. Some newspapers are printing that the hunger and upheaval caused by the current passion for ethanol, and subsequent food shortages, could result in World War III. This is no joke.

How alarmed should we be here in the States? Well, it's your call, but in many places they are already rationing certain foods.... in the U.S.A.

Ethanol and the World Food Shortage

Over the years I’ve often observed and noted that the food crises in most countries are not due to lack of capability, but from political decisions. It turned out that the starvation in Ethiopia a few decades ago (we all saw ads featuring children with bloated bellies, but without explanation of causes) was due to Communists deliberately starving the people into submission. There is plenty of capacity to feed everyone in the world. Our political and economic systems prevent the poor and starving from obtaining their daily sustenance.

Tragically, we are today experiencing tremendous upheavals in food production, primarily due to our own political interventions. The intentions may be good on the part of legislators, but the ramifications have not been thought through, even though they appear obvious to many. The decision to convert huge portions of U.S. farmland from food production to ethanol/energy production is a vivid example of the law of unintended circumstances, as the following article outlines.

"Silent Famine" Sweeps Globe

WASHINGTON – From India to Africa to North Korea to Pakistan and even in New York City, higher grain prices, fertilizer shortages and rising energy costs are combining to spell hunger for millions in what is being characterized as a global "silent famine."

Global food prices, based on United Nations records, rose 35 percent in the last year, escalating a trend that began in 2002. Since then, prices have risen 65 percent.

Last year, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent.

"This is the new face of hunger," said Josetta Sheeran, director of the World Food Program, launching an appeal for an extra $500 million so it could continue supplying food aid to 73 million hungry people this year. "People are simply being priced out of food markets. ... We have never before had a situation where aggressive rises in food prices keep pricing our operations out of our reach."

The WFP launched a public appeal weeks ago because the price of the food it buys to feed some of the world's poorest people had risen by 55 percent since last June. By the time the appeal began last week, prices had risen a further 20 percent. That means WFP needs $700 million to bridge the gap between last year's budget and this year's prices. The numbers are expected to continue to rise.

The crisis is widespread and the result of numerous causes – a kind of "perfect storm" leading to panic in many places:

* In Thailand, farmers are sleeping in their fields because thieves are stealing rice, now worth $600 a ton, right out of the paddies.

* Four people were killed in Egypt in riots over subsidized flour that was being sold for profit on the black market.

* There have been food riots in Morocco, Senegal and Cameroon.

* Mexico's government is considering lifting a ban on genetically modified crops, to allow its farmers to compete with the United States.

* Argentina, Kazakhstan and China have imposed restrictions to limit grain exports and keep more of their food at home.

* Vietnam and India, both major rice exporters, have announced further restrictions on overseas sales.

* Violent food protests hit Burkina Faso in February.

* Protesters rallied in Indonesia recently, and media reported deaths by starvation.

* In the Philippines, fast-food chains were urged to cut rice portions to counter a surge in prices.

* Millions of people in India face starvation after a plague of rats overruns a region, as they do cyclically every 50 years.

* Officials in Bangladesh warn of an emerging "silent famine" that threatens to ravage the region.

According to some experts, the worst damage is being done by government mandates and subsidies for "biofuels" that supposedly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and fight climate change. Thirty percent of this year's U.S. grain harvest will go to ethanol distilleries. The European Union, meanwhile, has set a goal of 10 percent bio-fuels for all transportation needs by 2010."

A huge amount of the world's farmland is being diverted to feed cars, not people," writes Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist.

He notes that in six of the past seven years the human race has consumed more grain than it grew. World grain reserves last year were only 57 days, down from 180 days a decade ago.

One in four bushels of corn from this year's U.S. crop will be diverted to make ethanol, according to estimates."

Turning food into fuel for cars is a major mistake on many fronts," said Janet Larsen, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental group based in Washington. "One, we're already seeing higher food prices in the American supermarket. Two, perhaps more serious from a global perspective, we're seeing higher food prices in developing countries where it's escalated as far as people rioting in the streets."

Palm oil is also at record prices because of biofuel demands. This has created shortages in Indonesia and Malaysia, where it is a staple.

Nevertheless, despite the recognition that the biofuels industry is adding to a global food crisis, the ethanol industry is popular in the U.S. where farmers enjoy subsidies for the corn crops.

Source: The "Silent Famine" Copyright 2008, WorldNet Daily