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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/11/2018 6:57:20 PM


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China is both the best and worst hope for clean energy


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"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/12/2018 4:59:43 PM
Eiffel Tower

Macron's European Army Has Arrived: It Goes by The Name Gilets Jaunes

yellow vests france
© Reuters / Christian Hartmann
Anyone who's ever tasted teargas will attest how unpleasant it is. I tasted it in Paris on Saturday 8 December as the city turned into a war zone.

I am writing these words in a hotel room in central Paris in the aftermath of a day of rage, unleashed by the self-styled gilets jaunes(yellow vests) mass movement of latter-day 'enrages' (angry ones) of French revolutionary repute. And it was indeed a day that bore the hallmarks of a revolution underway. Even now, just after 8pm, the unrest continues, with the sound of wailing police sirens and helicopters hovering overhead the unceasing mood music to my thoughts.

This chaos is taking place not in Syria, Venezuela or Ukraine but in Paris, the city most synonymous with the affluence, culture and liberalism of a European continent that increasingly finds itself beset by social unrest and political disruption.

The French capital is now, for all intents, the frontline in a growing struggle against neoliberalism and its bastard child, austerity, across a European Union whose foundations are crumbling. They are crumbling not due to the devilish machinations of Vladimir Putin (as an increasingly unhinged and out of touch Western liberal commentariat maintains), but instead as the result of a neoliberal status quo that provides far too few with unending comfort and material prosperity at the expense of far too many, for whom dire misery and mounting pain are its grim fruits.

Not only is this mass grassroots movement of Yellow Vest protesters a problem for Macron, but it is also increasingly a problem for an EU political and economic establishment that is yet to wake up to the fact that the world has changed, and changed utterly.

Throughout human history hubris has been the undoing of the rich and powerful, along with the empires forged in their name; and hubris is currently well on the way to being the undoing of an EU whose proponents have embraced the unity not of its peoples but of its banks, corporations, and elites.

Emmanuel Macron is a poster boy for ruling class hubris in our time, a leader widely referred to in France as the 'president of the rich'. His unalloyed contempt for the plight of ordinary people across the country has only woken them up - and from what I have seen, they will not be going back to sleep anytime soon.

From the perspective of Macron and his government the inchoate character of this Yellow Vest movement, which is mounting the most serious challenge to neoliberalism in Europe yet seen, has to be the most worrying aspect of the current crisis. Thus far it is a movement that lacks a concrete programme and recognizable leadership, with neither Macron nor the French authorities, it is obvious, clear about what it is they are dealing with.

All they know at this point is that whatever it is, its momentum elicits no evidence of slowing down - buoyed by a level of public support that governments which genuflect at the altar of austerity can only dream of.

This being said, the lack of a concrete political programme and coherent ideology, though a strength now, may prove the movement's undoing down the line. Because it's quite simple really: if you don't have your own programme, sooner or later you will inevitably become part of someone else's. Of this, the fate of the so-called Arab Spring in 2011 leaves no doubt.

The few protesters I talked to were adamant that this is a non-political movement (or perhaps that should be non-politics as usual), with no room for right or left - no support for either Marine Le Pen or Jean-Luc Mélenchon. They are, they said, opposed to the system and political parties in their entirety. They demand Macron's resignation, a new constitution, and popular referenda in order to return power to the people.

As to the EU, one young man I talked to called David voiced support for a reformed model of European unity - one that places people first. Macron's EU is finished, he averred. It is not democratic it is autocratic, delivering not justice but injustice; distributing economic pain rather than prosperity to those whose only crime is to be young and old and ordinary in a world governed in the interests of the rich and the connected.

I also talked to Rafiq, a young guy of Moroccan descent. He proclaimed that Macron's arrogance and indifference to the problems of the people had gone too far. When the people have no hope, he said, they have no choice but to rise up.

But surely, I put it to him, rioting and violence is not the way to go about making change in a democracy. What democracy, he retorted. In France democracy is for the rich. In Macron's eyes, nobody else matters.

They descended on central Paris, refusing to be cowed or deterred by the heavy police presence, or the warnings issued in the days leading up by the authorities of a heavy crackdown should any trouble break out. Along Boulevard Haussmann they marched towards the Champs Elysees. They were singing, waving flags, shouting anti-Macron slogans and epithets, propelled on by a sense of unity and confidence in their own strength and purpose.

They had come from all over the country, reminding the city's affluent residents, its bourgeoisie, that Paris is not France and France is not Paris.

But where were they, these rich and affluent shoppers and denizens of Macron's Paris? Where were the usual fleet of luxury vehicles, the army of tourists and shoppers that normally colonized this part of the city?

On Saturday, rich Paris was in retreat; the Gucci and Louis Vuitton boutiques, the lavish department stores, upscale restaurants and wine bars boarded up to make way for the arrival of the kind of European army Macron did not have in mind when he issued a call for one.

The struggle being waged by the Yellow Vests here in Paris and across France is not indigenous to one country. It is the struggle of millions across a continent who have had enough of being held in contempt by elites who couldn't give a damn about them or their families. It is a struggle common to the masses in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy - in Ireland and across the UK. It is the struggle of men and women of no property, pitting those who have nothing against those who have everything.

If Macron had expected the Yellow Vests to return to the obscurity from whence they came, after caving into their initial demand of canceling the proposed fuel tax hike, he miscalculated. As Paris burns, so does his legacy - the legacy of a leader who has come to symbolize the end of the road for neoliberal Europe.
John Wight has written for a variety of newspapers and websites, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/12/2018 6:00:32 PM
Che Guevara

Niall Bradley on PressTV: 'French Fury Stems From Accumulation of Grievances Against Elite'

Niall Braldy presstv paris protests
A month of demonstrations, at least 4 people killed, chaos in the capital, and, according to polls, 8 out of 10 people support the protesters. Sounds like a government in trouble - and it's not Venezuela, Iraq, nor Somalia... but France.

On today's The Debate, we discuss the roots of the French fury with Paolo Raffone, secretary general of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels, and Niall Bradley, editor at independent news site Sott.net.


(sott.net)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/12/2018 6:19:37 PM
SOTT Logo Radio

NewsReal: Mass Immigration And Climate Change: A Perfect Storm

newsreal climate migration
There are two major grievances that are motivating the ongoing 'Gilets Jaunes' protests in France (and similar protests in other European countries over the past few years). One is the the specter of mass immigration - 'accidentally' inflated by 17 years of the Global War on Terror - and the other is French and EU government policies aimed at 'preventing climate change'.

In their arrogance, however, European elites have decided to double down on these massively unpopular polices by:

(a) encouraging mass migration into Europe - with Macron currently in Morocco where he will sign the UN Compact on Migration, where signatory states are required to formalize and legalize structures for accepting and financing large numbers of migrants, and (b) implementing an EU/globalist 'ecology tax'.

So the question is: what do climate/earth changes and mass migration have in common, and what do governments know that they are not telling the people?

On this week's NewsReal with Joe & Niall, we reveal why the elites' view of the people and the people's view of the elites are so out of sync, and why the discrepancy is signalling an impending showdown of, literally, biblical proportions.

Running Time: 01:14:59

Download: OGG, MP3


Listen live, chat, and call in to future shows on the SOTT Radio Network!


(sott.net)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
12/12/2018 6:28:53 PM
Quenelle - Golden

Will Macron's Yellow Vest Implosion Spread to Other EU Countries?

yellow vest protests Paris
The Yellow Vest Movement - weekend 8 and 9 December - Round 4. Some say, they are the worst riots in France since the student-driven mini-Revolution of May 1968. Over the four weekends, hundreds of thousands were in the streets, middle class people, from students to workers to outright employees and housewives. The police force increases by every new Round - and so do the demonstrators. Today - more than 8,000 police, a considerable increase from last weekend's 5,000-plus. Tens of thousands Yellow Vests demonstrated; police reported more than 1,600 arrests.

There are tanks in the streets - not seen for at least ten years - burning cars and shop fronts, vandalized buildings. The police are fighting them with teargas, water cannons and rubber bullets. Police brutality seems to be unavoidable, However, apparently more moderate than on other occasions. Nevertheless, a youtube is circulating, where a group of riot gear protected police beat up a helpless Yellow Vest, already on the ground and defenseless. These are the pictures you see on TV.


Comment: The footage shows a cowering protester being battered by baton-wielding French police who chased him down a Parisian street ...




And the globalized 'everybodies' throughout Europe and the (western) world sit comfortably in their fauteuils, shaking their heads - "the French again; they are never content, always want more" - having apparently no idea that what they, the French workers, had rightfully accumulated in terms of social funds and public infrastructure - hospitals, schools - since WWII (instead of paying for a heavy army) is being 'legally' stolen by a small elite who put a Rothschild banker - Macron - in power to pass the necessary legislation to make the fraud legal.

Voilà. So simple. Most of the fauteuil warriors have no idea that the hangmen are stealthily coming to them too. By the time they wake up and see the light irradiated by the French Yellow Vests - it might be too late. It's not for nothing, that Europe, under the command of the unelected European Commission (EC), has become increasingly militarized and a conglomerate police state, to be ready when general discontent spreads and political and social upheavals start. We may be at that point.

For now, the Hot Spot is Paris, in particular the lush Champs Élysées, symbol for the rich and powerful, the French elite. But themovement is spreading rapidly to other cities in France - and would you believe, to other EU countries, like Belgium and the Netherlands. They have seen the yellow light and realized that what the French claim back has been stolen from them too.


The malaise is not just French, Belgian, Dutch or German, but of course, also persists in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, the latter countries and people about whom you hardly hear and read anymore, they are done with. The banking cartel has them under control. No public attention needs to focus on their plight anymore. Except for Italy, their brazen resistance to Brussels, is still a problem for the kings of finance. - Chapeau Italy!

The discontent is everywhere; the result of a shameless neoliberal assault not only on people's democratic and constitutional rights, it also prompts an increasing awakening to a reality of economic and financial fraud committed in front of your eyes by the globalized financial mafia - banks, insurance companies, investment corporations of all hues - milking workers' rightfully accumulated social capital, like pension funds, unemployment benefits, free education, national health care, public hospitals, access to subsidized essential drugs - and so on. All that is being shredded by the financial fraudsters. But you need political leaders to facilitate the process. Macron is the perfect choice to do so - and he has done so royally, starting with the highly unpopular and contested labor reform.


So, clearly, the Yellow Vest movement has little or nothing to do with the Macron introduced new French fuel tax. The tax was a mere pretext. The so-called eco-tax was a mere political-propaganda tool, a brazen lie. The tax would not have served any environmental initiative in France, but simply been a forced people's 'contribution' to the budget, ever more depleted by Macron's austerity programs. He wants to impress his 'employers' - austerity is the name of the neoliberal game. Besides, under people's pressure, Macron has finally withdrawn the tax, a concession made to ease the street demos. But it didn't work. Because it's simply not enough. The discontent reaches way beyond a fuel tax. It has to do with the overall decreasing standard of living, coupled with declining wages, a new Macron-imposed usurping labor law, and social benefits in France - and actually way beyond the frontiers of France.

In fact, French Police support the Yellow Vests they have to fight. They have recognized that they Are part of the people who demonstrate; they have the same concerns. Interestingly, RT reports that the police are exercising a certain restraint with the use of teargas, water cannons and other acts of aggression you normally observe in cases of relentless protests, like the ones currently ravaging France.

While the restraint may not necessarily be visible from the images, TV and otherwise, circulating in the media, in an interview with RT, Alexandre Langlois, secretary general of the VIGI Police Union, said, "Most of us back the Gilets Jaunes [Yellow Vests], because we will be directly affected by any rise in fuel prices." He added, "[we] can't live where we work, because it is either too expensive, or we would be arresting our next-door neighbors, so we drive significant distances."

For sure, there seems to prevail great sympathy for the protesters among the police, but staged provocations by the government could bring about more unrest, where the police would have no choice other than to intervene with force - or else, under a State of Emergency which Macron's Interior Minister, Christophe Castaner, was compelled to declare, the army could be called to intervene. And in this case the French Government would not be far off in calling NATO for help - of course, in the "Interest of the larger good for Europe".

Come to think of it - NATO. Wasn't it Emmanuel Macron, who called a few weeks ago for an independent European army? That would make NATO obsolete - well, or would it? If taken by the letter, NATO has been obsolete for the last almost 30 years, but of course, nobody takes NATO by the letter. NATO is a killing force for the empire, and a huge trillion-dollar profit-making proposition for the US military industrial complex.

So, when Macron called for a European army, he may have upset some very violent interest groups, those who literally make a killing from killing. He may have gone a step too far in his imaginary role as King Macron. There are bigger kings than he is. A European army would most likely be armed by European weapon manufacturers, mostly from France and Germany - and - god forbid - perhaps even Russia? - This would be logical, since Russia is really no enemy of Europe, as every politician in Europe knows, even if they don't dare to admit it. Also, Russia's arms, especially long-range ballistic systems and Russia's S-400 Air Defense System, are far superior to the US variety. Hence, partnering with Russia would not be rocket science, though certainly less than appreciated by Washington.

Could it be that the divided 'deep state' is at odds over Macron? The financial oligarchs put him in power to milk the French social system to the bones, then impressing other European nations with Frances over-board austerity programs to do likewise. If successful, Macron would indeed become the financial mafia clans new King of Europe.

On the other hand, the self-centered youngster Macron, may have taken his role to heights not foreseen - suggesting an independent European army, something no European leader dared even to whisper, since General de Gaulle proposed exactly that, in the 1960s - it didn't happen - but he then exited NATO anyway.

Could it be that military industrial oligarchs want Macron gone? - Could it be that the Yellow Vests protests, though starting on genuine premises of 'enough is enough', were gradually converted in an orchestrated effort to push public hatred for Macron to a point where he is no long a tenable leader even for the French Parliament in which his party, or rather his movement, "En March", has the absolute majority?

This remains to be seen. It would not be the first time that demonstrators are paid to demonstrate - and especially if it's for a noble cause to get rid of an uncomfortable politician. In the end, it's all for the good of the people, right? Isn't that democracy in its fullest, being played out in the streets of France - and soon to come, hopefully in the streets of Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Rome - maybe even inspiring the so far rather timidly quiet Spaniards, Portuguese and Greek? - Could that perhaps be a movement that goes way beyond what the 'instant-profit' thinkers - the NATO sponsors, the producer of US killing machines - have thought of and wished for, namely the breaking up of the already defunct European (non-) Union with her unsustainable common currency, the Euro?

This of course, is all hypothetical, but not impossible. Dynamics play odd games. Just think of France becoming the front-runner again for a Revolution - 230 years after the Storming of the Bastille - bringing a new order into nation states, away from globalization - and maybe back to sovereign governments, building up new trading relations and partner alliances on a basis of equality, rather than imposed by a one-polar world order.
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. After working for over 30 years with the World Bank he penned Implosion, an economic thriller, based on his first-hand experience. Exclusively for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook."

Comment: As the author states, "The discontent is everywhere" and has provoked the elections of populist leaders throughout Europe. What will happen if they aren't able to instigate policies to counter Brussel's iron grip?
See also: NewsReal: Populism Explained

(sott.net)



"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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