Thread: Vive la revolution

Mariannes de France

Aside from each side not knowing who to surrender to when the French fight the French.... you've got to admire the Froggies. They know how to protest. Can't wait for the piles of manure, slurry an burning hay bales to begin. Might pop over for the weekend for a nosy.

Originally Posted by OhOh

More balls than ameristanis and brits put together.

Either you forgot to toss the Kangaroos & Kiwis,...into that ^ crystal-ball mix,...or,...were you just being polite?...

Originally Posted by TuskegeeBen

Kangaroos & Kiwis

The only thing of note in kangaroo land is the Sydney Opera House.I took a Japanese lady to see Madam Butterfly. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

We were both sobbing at the end. Wonderful night.

This is fun. TV channel France3 caught in the act scrubbing the word RESIGN from a placard at a demonstration. State Owned News channel that prides itself in impartiality and its neutral stance blah blah same as all other state owned channels.

Originally Posted by OhOh

The only thing of note in kangaroo land is the Sydney Opera House.I took a Japanese lady to see Madam Butterfly. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

We were both sobbing at the end. Wonderful night.

Great place is Oz, lots to do, fun people, far away from the world and not so stuck up.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

This is fun. TV channel France3 caught in the act scrubbing the word RESIGN from a placard at a demonstration. State Owned News channel that prides itself in impartiality and its neutral stance blah blah same as all other state owned channels.

Could never be a revolution with a shameless establishment media, they would need to be neutralised first; danger then is it overcompensates the other way.

Originally Posted by pseudolus

This is fun. TV channel France3 caught in the act scrubbing the word RESIGN from a placard at a demonstration. State Owned News channel that prides itself in impartiality and its neutral stance blah blah same as all other state owned channels.

Apparently it was "human error".

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Apparently it was "human error".

Seriously? They said that?

Hotels in Paris are the cheapest I’ve seen since 1990s

https://www.booking.com/searchresult...b737c06644002a

Originally Posted by pseudolus

Seriously? They said that?

They seriously did!

Originally Posted by OhOh

The only thing of note in kangaroo land is the Sydney Opera House.I took a Japanese lady to see Madam Butterfly. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.

We were both sobbing at the end. Wonderful night.

I would suggest people should ignore someone whose idea of seeing the sites is having a wank in Maos tomb.

10th consecutive weekend!

I am afraid that a righteous country (please no names here) will invade Paris to liberate the citizens from the yellow vests occupation. And/or from their young president who does not know how to provide wellfare for his citizens. One or other reason will be same good anyway.

Something like was the intention (and still has been) to help the poor Venezuelan people to rid of their dictator.

Ok the yellow vests were literally on my door step with the police charging and throwing grenades, founding myself right in the middle of it after I was out for a bit of grocery shopping

Originally Posted by Dragonfly

a bit of grocery shopping

Pictures of your purchases perchance?

Nobody can acuse the french of apathy. When they feel they have a just cause they get off their ass and do something and I admire them for that.
Unfortunately decades of political correctness has stopped the Brits asking anyone the time of day for fear of offending someone without a watch. Meanwhile 15,000 k/m away in my own country,sad to say, my fellow compatriots are more likely to stick a hot poker in their eye than protest, as long as they have enough money to buy a piece of meat, a beer and a bottle of gas for the barby, "She'll be right mate".
Or as Blackadder would say,"they are as likely to move as a Frenchman who lives next door to a brothel".

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Mariannes de France

If that had happened in Australia someone would have yelled out "Nice Tits"! (beaux seins)

What happens when the Yellow Vests meet European Debt Crisis II?


"There is a lot of talk about which economic bubble will burst first and burst the worst (sounds like a gangsta rap song, no?)

The stock market, real estate, luxury goods, corporate debt and government bond bubbles, and other lesser bubbles, all jockey for the titles. It’s the “Everything Bubble” for good reason.

The “good reason” is: the 1% owns everything of high value, so if Western governments make it their policy to inflate those valuations even higher, then the 1% regains everything they lost in 2008. Welcome to Western Liberal Democracy – if you have a seat in the House of Lords I’m sure you’re not suffering too badly.

Because of that “good reason” I listed all of these bubbles are worse now than in 2008. Nothing was learned and nothing was delivered: I am not a doomsdayer, but these kind of facts make me write that Great Recession II (Great Depression II?) is around the corner.

However, not all bubbles are created equal:

The luxury goods bubble, for example. It’s mildly interesting, from a sensational news aspect, that the most expensive bottle of wine is now worth $558,000…but the luxury goods market is a minuscule part of every nation’s “real” economy, excepting France, Italy and Switzerland. Back in 2008 a half-million dollars set the record for largest lot of wine ever – 27 bottles – so these stories only prove the existence huge asset inflation (bubbles) – 1/27th in the area of wine sales.

The stock market bubble is also mainly a rich-person’s problem – we only hear about it so very often because…the rich own the media in the West, and the coverage thus reflects their interests. Yes, 52% of Americans own stock, because it’s a huge part (stupidly, rapaciously) of the American private pension system, but only 18% own stock directly and can buy and sell at will. We all know that stocks no longer have any correlation to a company’s actual performance and prospects; those really paying attention also know that the Great Recession’s bailout money has been used for stock buybacks, which raise the stock price. That bubble is ending, too: taxpayer-funded stock buybacks were higher than ever in 2018 and yet produced the worst market results since 2008.

This now-failing tactic of buybacks is the source of the “corporate debt bubble”. The stock market bubble’s bursting is not that important to the everyday person, no matter how much media coverage will be devoted to it – the real economy will not not sink because of it, no matter how much less your 401k pension is now worth. The related corporate debt bubble is far more impactful: instead of using that cheaply-borrowed money from the government to hire or for RnD, corporations are thus not prepared for capitalism’s next inevitable crisis, which translates into layoffs, which translates into a huge “real economy” hit as workers are not buying lunch, paying rent or buying decidedly non-luxurious but still-necessary goods.

The real estate bubble affects many more people, and not just in the construction market. Just over 50% of Germans are homeowners, rising up to 70% as you get in the former Socialist Bloc nations, with the US around 65%. Amazingly, home prices have surpassed the prices in 2008 in the US. But it’s rarely remembered that houses are only worth what a bank will loan you to pay for them. Banks are getting money from governments cheaply, but instead of “real economy” investments they inflate houses (which they own) with incorrect valuations. When credit is so low that borrowing is near free, why not pay yourself more? So that means more dumb loans have been dangled and signed. When this bubble bursts it will hurt but it won’t bring the entire economy to a total halt."

Continues at:

What happens when the Yellow Vests meet European Debt Crisis II? | The Vineyard of the Saker

"Red Shirts" - 2nd-hand, plenty of them bought for bargain at Chatuchak...

Chiding Macron, Putin says 'I don't want yellow vests in Russia'

FORT BREGANCON, France (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin rebuked his French counterpart on Monday, saying he did not want “yellow vest” protests spring up like in France, after Emmanuel Macron urged the Russian leader to abide by democratic principles following weeks of protests in Moscow.

Macron, who was meeting Putin at his summer residence in southern France five days before hosting summit of G7 rich nations, is keen to show Moscow it is not ostracized despite being kicked out of the G7 after its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Despite the talks focusing on international crises, Macron sought to tackle Putin on the internal Russian situation. Moscow has been rocked by weekly protests for more than a month after the authorities barred opposition candidates from running in an election for the city’s legislature in September.

“We called this summer for freedom of protest, freedom of speech, freedom of opinion and the freedom to run in elections, which should be fully respected in Russia like for any member of the Council of Europe,” Macron told a joint news conference ahead of their meeting.

While initially, Putin ignored the comment, he was quick to retort after a follow-up question on the Moscow protests saying things were being handled in line with the law, but that he didn’t want the situation to develop like in France.

“We all know about the events linked to the so-called yellow vests during which, according to our calculations, 11 people were killed and 2,500 injured,” Putin said.

“We wouldn’t want such events to take place in the Russian capital and will do all we can to ensure our domestic political situation evolved strictly in the framework of the law.”

The yellow vest protests, named after motorists’ high-visibility jackets, began in November over fuel tax increases but evolved into a sometimes violent revolt against politicians and a government seen as out of touch.

Macron said the comparison with France was inaccurate, since at least yellow vest protesters could stand in elections.

“Those we call the yellow vests were able to run freely in European elections, will run in municipal elections, and that’s very well like that,” he said.

“I’m glad that they express themselves freely in elections because it reduces confrontation. Because we are a country where people can express themselves freely, protest freely, go to elections freely,” Macron added.

Since he took office in 2017, Macron has sought to display firmness to Putin while at the same time encouraging Moscow into a less confrontational stance on international issues by trying to “anchor” it to Europe.

The two men said they would discuss a raft of international crises including Iran, Syria and arms control issues. However, it is on Ukraine where Paris hopes to see progress after its new president offered an olive branch to Putin.

Macron said he hoped to be able to convince Putin to agree to a so-called ‘Normandy Format’ summit involving France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia. Its leaders have not met together since October 2016.

Putin said he saw no alternative to “Normandy” format heads of state talks on the Ukraine crisis, but stopped short on Monday of signing up to a new summit on the subject.

He said phone conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy had given him cautious grounds for optimism, but stressed that he believed that any meeting aimed at resolving the Ukraine crisis should yield tangible results.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-f...-idUSKCN1V91D0