Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Over 100 people injured this weekend, including 17 police.
Hundreds of arrests in Paris as ‘gilets jaunes’ protest turns violent
At least 100 people injured in street battles, with cars being torched and shops raided
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
Sun 2 Dec 2018 07.56 AEDT First published on Sun 2 Dec 2018 00.35 AEDTThe French president, Emmanuel Macron, has insisted he will “never accept violence” after central Paris saw its worst unrest in a decade on Saturday when thousands of masked protesters fought running battles with police, torched cars, set fires to banks and houses, and burned makeshift barricades on the edges of demonstrations against fuel tax.
Near the Arc de Triomphe, one of Paris’s best-known monuments, masked men burned barricades, set fire to buildings, smashed fences and torched luxury cars on some of the most expensive streets in the city as riot police fired teargas and water cannon.
Then, by early evening, rioters spread around Paris in a game of cat and mouse with police. Luxury department stores on Boulevard Haussmann were evacuated as cars were set alight and windows smashed. Near the Louvre, metal grilles were ripped down at the Tuileries Garden where fires were started. On the Place Vendôme, a hub of luxury jewellery shops and designer stores, rioters smashed windows and built barricades.
Anti-Macron graffiti was scrawled over the Arc de Triomphe near the tomb of the unknown soldier and protesters burst into the monument smashing up its lower floors before climbing on to the roof.
More than 250 people were arrested and at least 100 injured – including one protester who was in a serious condition on Saturday night – after the violence erupted on the margins of anti-fuel tax demonstrations held by the citizens’ protest movement known as the gilets jaunes (yellow vests).
Macron, who was attending the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, said he would lead an emergency meeting of senior government ministers after returning to Paris on Sunday morning. He said: “No cause justifies that security forces are attacked, shops pillaged, public or private buildings set on fire, pedestrians or journalists threatened or that the Arc de Triomphe is sullied.”
…
Life in France can be very hard. Costs of living are high, and the economy has been stagnant for a long time, thanks to chronic French political disdain for ideas promoted by English speaking countries, like free markets and Capitalism.
Public transport in many parts of Paris is insanely dangerous – train drivers refuse to stop in some areas at night because of the risk of violent attack.
Pricing people out of their cars exposes ordinary working people, especially women, to seriously increased risk of violent attack.
President Macron is breathtakingly out of touch, in a country which has seen many out of touch politicians – President Macron once boasted that he intended to rule like a roman god.
The protests will most likely die down, or be brutally crushed by French security. But its just barely possible that the new tax increases have pushed the French people over the brink. If this is the case, how long will French security forces continue to oppose the rioters? President Macron’s new tax hike affects the extended families of poorly paid police and army personnel as much as it affects everyone else. Their children and womenfolk and aunties and cousins are also exposed to new risks, if they are forced to ditch their cars and travel on France’s unacceptably dangerous metro system.
” President Macron once boasted that he intended to rule like a roman god. ”
Socordia?
”President Macron once boasted that he intended to rule like a roman god.”
The Tenebrae (Greek Keres) were goddesses of violent death.
This scoundrel/imbecile Macron is going to kill off many of his people, especially the elderly and the poor.
Energy poverty will be the direct cause, but behind it will be Macron and his minions – perhaps that is their intention.
But doesn’t eliminating the hoi polloi bring about a statistical elevation of the median income level? Could be a misguided attempt to induce circumstances which raises median income on paper.
Well at least the injured will get treatment for free:) I wonder how high the fuel taxes have to get in the US before we get riots.
Thank whatever higher power you believe in for Capitalism! Today my local gas station’s posted price was $1.99/gal for regular unleaded gas, including state and Federal taxes. I realize that Texas has low gas prices and low state taxes on gasoline but that’s what fracking did for us.
Just traveled from Santa Rosa to Sacramento Ca and paid $3.15 per gallon or $69.00 to fill my 22gal tank from almost empty.
Don’t you wish you still had capitalism in California?
$1.49 per litre in Brisbane, Australia.
$1.99 per gallon in NW GA (US) tonight.
Some 30 states now have gas under $2.00 per gallon – thanks to Trump’s policies.
Which is why they hate him.
The policies of the president of the USA have no influence on the price of gas.
Not alone as far as taxes, but people who are into the greens like Obama can and did inhibit oil production and transport. That does raise prices, and the greens consider that a good thing. While they would really prefer a tax, simple bureaucratic obstruction will suffice.
Saw a $1.83 at the pump today here in Ohio.. All taxes included.
Obama did not inhibit production or transport.
Mr Heins, sir. Were you actually paying attention? So blocking the Keystone Pipeline is not inhibiting transport, and the leasing and methane policies for production were not inhibiting production?
And war is peace, and freedom is slavery?
Production increased during the eight years of Obama’s administration.
Not due to anything Obama did! His administration coincided with the fracking boom, almost entirely on state or private lands.
Halla, the Keystone pipeline has not been finished, so it is not having an impact on the current price of gas. You cannot attribute the current pricing to the Keystone.
IIRC, it was an Obama appointed judge who blocked the pipeline. Claiming Obama did not want higher energy prices is manifestly silly.
Halla, Obama was in office from 2009 until 2017
..
https://www.macrotrends.net/2562/us-crude-oil-production-historical-chart
…
So, looks like he did a good job increasing crude oil production.
Halla, are you thick? The Keystone is not having ANY impact on current gasoline prices. It will be years before it is completed and operational.
Steve Hein – “Obama did not inhibit production or transport.”
Postponed Keystone XL fro years, and finally denied it. Stopped new oil field development in the Gulf, ANWAR, and other Federal lands.
Did you forget already?
Steve Hein – Have you forgotten his Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s famed call to “figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe”? Do you think he was not echoing the voice of the president? Did you hear Obama try to rein that statement in?
I live in oil and moonshine country, we will make our own.
What fuel taxes in the US? They practically give you fuel in the US compared to here in the UK.
Macron would do well to remember what happened to Marie Antoinette.
He has his mommy to turn to for comfort, you know, when he finds out that les paysans le détestent beaucoup. Is he going to offer them cake to eat? battery-powered heaters this winter?
I swear, the man is as braindead and disconnected from reality as Louis and his ditzy wife.
Diesel is $8.32/gallon and gasoline is $9.00/gallon. I can’t say as I blame people for showing their anger, but I wonder if any of it will sink in with His Holy Disconnectedness.
When that blade separates his head from his shoulders he might figure it out. I doubt it, though.
One can only hope.
That would probably do it.
~¿~
That reminds me of Emperor Vespasian’s last words- “Vae, puto deus fio” – O dear, I think I’m becoming a god- aware of the Roman practice of deification of deceased emperors.
https://wuhstry.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/oh-dear-i-think-im-becoming-a-god-vespasian-and-the-divine/
Statues of deified emperors were destroyed during the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 AD who were Arian Christians
I believe that the legitimate protest has been hijacked by thugs looking for any excuse to riot and pillage. This is a sad state of affairs.
This seems to be the case, as the anarchists and antifa thugs are leaving their graffiti.
Easy enough to test this hypothesis…we’re any of the rioters wearing black scarves over their faces?
Oui?
Anarchists!!!
You can’t even scrape the bottom of the barrel to find an anarchist, you need to lift the barrel out of the muck and slimy refuse it has been rotting in and scrape the underside to find an anarchist. Those amoeba are so weak in conviction that they hide their true faces in fear (like the Klan did)
George Soras ‘ funded Antifa to discredit the protest. I was wondering when the man behind the curtain’s masked riot squad would appear on the Champs Elysee.
I’m in France now, and have been for the past 6 weeks. I’ve been researching a novel in Provence.
Most yellow jacket protests are peaceful, except those in Paris, and probably infiltrated by those who just love rioting.
Macron is (as the article says) totally out of touch with a large portion of the population. And, like many “progressive” politicians he really doesn’t seem to care.
I’ve been in France for the last 6 years. In the country it’s great place to live, if you make the effort to speak their language the locals are very friendly. Despite Brexit most are keen for us expat Britons to remain and spend what little money we have. That is a major part of the problem, Limousin where I am is a poor rural department,
Macron appears to have no idea of the rural issues, he has hiked the cost of diesel (most people drive diesel cars) by about 25% with more in the pipeline. He is “improving” the tax system, never good for the average person. He imposed a reduction in speed limits from 90kph to 80kph with much opposition in rural areas. By UK standards it’s a long drive to anywhere in France, so the speed limit change increased our “distance” to the nearest major city by 11%. Although it has to be said that the death toll on French roads is 3x that in the UK. He appears to be very arrogant, he doesn’t like the nickname Manu being used for Emmanuel, hence its use in graffiti. News of his extravagence, the latest 40K€ on grooming products does not go down well.
The protests started as a result of a petition started against the next rise in fuel tax and has grown from there. Manu and his ministers have not considered talking to the protestors or doing anything about the problems, although the interior minister did resign. The violence by far left and far right “extremists” was inevitable.
It’s one of the problems when the head of state is not a politician and is not aware and not interested in the problems of most of the population.
To ‘progressive’ pols like Macron, Ideology is paramount. People are impediments.
My reading too.
“Macron is (as the article says) totally out of touch with a large portion of the population. And, like many “progressive” politicians he really doesn’t seem to care.”
That should read –
like MOST politicians he really doesn’t seem to care.
And, why should they care; they are on a personal mission & because some people voted for them they assume the end always justifies the means.
The climate-obsessed BBC has started not reporting on the cause of the riots, blaming instead anarchists and the general French love of rioting. We Brits once protested at high petrol prices, but really should be rioting against the notion that electricity bills have to include the cost of making minuscule and pathetically inconsequential changes to the composition of the atmosphere.
The BBC is full of non scientists and is fertile ground for subjective global warming predictions of runaway hockey sticks which the whole stupid country believes in.
Like wise for the Australian ABC which refers to them as protests against increased fuel taxes.
The BBC dismissed my complaint about their use of denier as unjustified while just dismissing any questions relating to the lack of information to prove the man made climate change hypothesis as not relevant. The producer has the right to decide what to include in a program as long has he or she insults those who do not blindly believe by associating with the most extreme Nazi fringe seems to be the ruling from the wording of their reply.
While I think ending the licence fee is a vain hope I think a campaign to cut them back to two TV and four radio channels is achievable and hopefully anyone reading this might care to also point this out to them and complain about the use of denier for those who merely ask the data has to pass life critical Quality Assurance standards as they claim that level of importances for climate action.
Macron admitted on TV any referendum would mean Frexit. He could not put the words back after they had flown. Since then not only being an EU advocate, but also calling for a EU Army, and trying to out-green his neighbor.
Macron declared he would rule like Jupiter – forgetting what the Greeks knew : if the seated Jupiter of Phidias at Olympia ever rose from the throne he would shatter the roof of the Temple, or more likely break his head.
Aïe, ça fait mal!
The EU has indeed gone pear shaped; in the early days it was sold to the French has having been devised for the benefit of the French.
For the last few decades the alarmists have been pushing gullible idiotic politicians like Macron to adopt their anti-modern-society policies with the aim of turning back the clock to some imagined “green age” before the industrial revolution.
The big danger was that these Green activists would get politicians to so entrench their anti-society policies that it literally became impossible to get into power unless you embraced this “Green” and it became a crime to speak out against them. At that point it their ability to control society through academia and the media would mean they could brainwash the majority to believe their crazy ideas and blank out the sane sceptics. This allowed the creation of a vicious cycle akin to the descent into Nazism in Germany of Green-fascism.
The one thing that was going to stop the descent into Green-fascism, was if a few people like Anthony, could delay their ever increasing grip over power and the idiot politicians until the true cost of their Green-fascism started to become apparent and that people began to realise this Green politics was a farce when we still had enough freedom to be sceptical to see the fight back against Green-fascism.
So, whilst I deplore the violence … it does at least show that we have got to the state where many people now realise the costs and that there is now substantial & growing pressure to fight back against the spread of Green-fascism.
Good report but is it really true that the Paris Metro is “insanely dangerous” (especially for women) ?
Eric wrote “unacceptably” dangerous and linked to a story about a stabbing, fights and drug dealing at the two worst stations, where metro drivers fear to stop out of concern for passenger and staff safety.
John – here are the actual words copied/pasted:
Public transport in many parts of Paris is insanely dangerous – train drivers refuse to stop in some areas at night because of the risk of violent attack.
(my emphasis)
The two worst stations out of the 245 Metro stations are not exactly “many parts of Paris”.
I prefer reporting without exaggeration.
From Lonely Planet:
Metro stations best avoided late at night include Châtelet–Les Halles, Château Rouge, Gare du Nord, Strasbourg St-Denis, Réaumur Sébastopol, Stalingrad and Montparnasse Bienvenüe. Marx Dormoy, Porte de la Chapelle and Marcadet–Poissonniers can be sketchy day and night.
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/france/paris/safety
I’m not saying Paris is significantly worse than other places. London can be just as dangerous. A couple muggers followed me downstairs in Mile End tube station (thankfully they noticed my friend walking behind them, and broke off stalking me). Walking back from Southwark to Waterloo, 3 guys got up, then shrugged and sat down again when they saw the size of me. I once took a pedestrian tunnel into Waterloo station, the tunnel was full of junkies sizing me up.
I once took a long walk around Manilla. A few gangs of people started following me then changed their minds. Nobody attacked me – but that doesn’t mean I was safe.
I’m a big guy, very strong, when I was younger I used to think intimidating muggers into backing down was a game. But I wouldn’t be happy for anyone I care about who isn’t built like a tank facing such circumstances as part of their normal life. So I completely get why Parisians are so upset about the President of France making their already expensive to keep cars less affordable.
Here’s a French website I came across by chance and googled yesterday – today, Google states it does not exist! – demonstrating yet again, how politically involved our dear Google is. Not for them “freedom of information”…… Anyway, Bing came to the rescue — I hope they won’t have been ‘got at’ in the interim.
This site shows all the “sensitive” areas in France and their level of “sensitivity”, which is clearly pretty widespread.
http://www.citoyens-et-francais.fr/article-la-liste-des-quartiers-sensibles-de-france-ou-regnent-la-delinquance-les-dealers-les-armes-et-les-is-125522553.html
Scary. At least Google Translate worked for me. Thanks Alexei.
LOL
Montparnasse Bienvenüe is OK.
Strasbourg St-Denis, not so much.
Martin
This was admittedly 20 years ago, but on one occasion I arrived at the main Paris train station at 11 pm. I had a pack on my back with all my possessions. I took a look out into the street and decided, “I ain’t going out there”. I was stuck in the station for the night.
Around midnight I noticed something strange: All women unaccompanied by a male started to collect together in a tight group. The atmosphere was unmistakable. I was astonished that this would happen in the main station of one of the great western cities of the world.
It may have changed
Cheers
M
Among the violent protestors might be agents provocateurs put up to it by the regime to discredit the demonstrations.
Yep you’re right. Videos are emerging showing such agents provocateurs getting out of a police van in “thug” outfits and others being unmasked by genuine Yellow vests and being boo-ed and repelled from the protest site.
Sadly, this is standard practice in France…
Huge demonstrations by anti-tax Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Jackets) are peacefull througout France but the one in Paris where black-suited well riot-equipied small groups get inside the demonstration for triggering violence against the Police or the local valuables (shops, cars…). These groups look like “anti”fa black blocs and and have written anarchist tags, and anti fa main web sites have called for their (violent) activists getting in the Paris demonstration. So we can conclude that anti fa are at the source of these focused riots, not the mass demonstrations. Ignominously, the police has been required by the hypocrit governement not to stop these groups, just keep the riot distant using bomb against the demonstration with tear gas or so. So the arrests occur late in the riot, when the demonstration get crazy from the distant violence betwwen rioter and the police, so as some normal demonstrators get upset and reply to the police, thus joining the rioters. This scenario of the two previous week ends is not enhanced since low level youngsters from the high poor immigration suburb towns come to the demonstration to take benefit from this predictable mess, end get soon in the violence, backing the probable “anti”fa black blocs groups.
Macaroon is headed for the metamorphic guillotine and with such low support and ratings, it will be hard to think how he could rescue his Presidency and actually get re-elected. Therefore he is probably a lame duck as he anything else he does with his name on it will just invite more scorn and ridicule. He is very much looking like the village idiot. He is so politically immature, similar to Trudeau, that it is painful to watch. Maybe french politicians, whether in France or Canada, are just big time screw-ups.
It looks like he will preside over the long march of France in the EU to its conclusion, which is it didn’t work. While still President for another 3.5 years, you would think he would stop with his stupid ideas like piling on of carbon taxes when France is already so heavily taxed and now we are all likely faced with a recession. Countries like Australia and Canada should really take note what is happening there. And so should Democrats even more, because a majority of Americans will understand that the carbon tax on nearly everything just kills the goose that lays golden eggs. I lost money last time betting against Trump winning in 2016, thinking he was unelectable. But now I see people don’t much care about politics, but they do care about their wallet, and Trump knows it is best to have people with cash left in their wallet so they can keep priming the pump. And those people vote! It should be obvious to most now that the carbon tax is just a licence for corrupt politicians to steal more hard earned wealth from people. Who will vote for that?
He got elected last time because he was up against a “far-right” opponent, the same smearing trick will be used again next time.
So you think running against a dingbat leftist creepy woman had nothing to do with it?
+10, Ernest!
Could we now take up a collection to donate yellow vests and torches to a great cause against green elitists.
Reuters reported how this was disrupting tourism and Christmas shopping in the elite sections of Paris. That kind of distraction reporting is not going to work and might make the people more angry in protests.
I think that very soon, the “disconnected elite”and their spoiled offspring are going to learn a new and very unpleasant way to eat that cake !
I don’t really know French politics all that well, and do not trust the legacy media to report accurately anyway. But DeGaulle was forced out in 1968 due to widespread demonstrations, in that case mostly with the Left taking credit.
Macron should be nervous.
The irony is that the gilet jaune was forced on the people in France in the first place by the government forcing all drivers to carry one by law. Sometimes the humour is sublime.
Question is, will military and police kill their own family members in order to force Macroon’s crap down everyone’s throats. Keep watching, kids, shyte is getting real across the pond.
Why do you think they want an EU Army? French soldiers would be reluctant to kill their own people, but soldiers from other countries… not so much.
Much like using UN “troops” to enforce laws in Third World countries. People in those countries did not vote for those laws, do not want those laws and refuse to obey them, so in come the “peace keepers”, with their penchant for rape, slavery, child and female trafficking, seizing currency and fluid assets, etc etc. Yep, the people of European countries are looking at that model and saying no. Lets see how it shakes out.
Even his mom, err wife, won’t be able to save Macron once the energy poverty really kicks in.
I watched a pre-election debate to get a feel for who the candidates were. It was fairy clear that there were essentially two. Macron and LePen.
As I watched I saw Macron as the juvenile thug that he really is. Every time that LePen spoke he would butt in, speak over her and be generally obnoxious. He would refuse to stop talking when his time was up, talk about anything but the question under discussion.
In one way, I am glad that my opinion of him based upon that “debate” has been confirmed. In another, so sad that such an idiot could be elected.
Only one critique, you misspelled it’s name. Macroon, an overcooked,crappy cookie that nobody likes. This is the result of one political party controlling the electoral system in any country, ie Zimbabwe, Venezuela, North Korea, South Africa etc etc. Democrat Party in America has been trying to get that kind of control, and they are failing, despite the best efforts of their allies in “news media” “social media” and the “entertainment” industry. Their attempts to silence people are comical, and futile. We will a$$f*ck them, you have to do the same across the pond. Screw them right into the floor, then laugh as you urinate on them.
It’s possible that the people who live in the countryside have had enough of the disfigurement of their landscapes with industrial wind turbines as well.
http://www.windaction.org/posts/48596-the-anti-wind-battle-is-gaining-momentum-france#.XAQSfC0ZPkI
Maybe they’re even becoming aware of the cumulative and irreversible harm from LFN and infrasound radiation from these turbines as described by Dr. Mariana Alves -Pereira in her presentation to professionals in Slovenia in May of 2018, where she talks about the neurological and cardio vascular damage from wind turbines acoustic emissions. Maybe they’ve heard her state publicly that knowing what she knows about this harm from turbines, she wouldn’t live within 20 km from a wind turbine.
This ” irreversible harm” you write of is not going to gain traction until serious replication studies are completed. People have lived quite close to wind turbines without harm. We live 15 km for one set and 22 km from another. Many people live in between us and the towers. There have been no reports about medical issues.
I’m not saying there isn’t harm. Such is discussed routinely on NoTricksZone, and the studies you mention were posted there. Search that site with the word: infrasound .
Read a few of them.
Please direct your comments on the work or statements made by Dr. Mariana Alves-Pereira to her directly.
There are rural people living less than a km from these turbines in Ontario. In some cases, homes are surrounded by arrays of turbines. People are being harmed against their will.
https://sig.ville.gouv.fr/Atlas/ZUS/
France, as in all of western Europe is committing suicide. The above link lists the more than 700 no go zones in France where even the police fear to tread. With the fuel price hikes, Macron has declared war on the French people as a whole. Violence is never justified except for survival. However the Paris demonstrations were invaded by thugs on the left and anarchist groups. It seems as if the French people have declared war on Macron.
Alan T — Strange you were able to post that link. When I tried a similar but more extensive one it was swallowed by the system, having previously had its existence denied by google. Here goes again:-
http://www.citoyens-et-francais.fr/article-la-liste-des-quartiers-sensibles-de-france-ou-regnent-la-delinquance-les-dealers-les-armes-et-les-is-125522553.html
Wait, he once boasted he wanted to rule like King Louis XVI? That ended well.
Voilà pourquoi Macron veut une armée européenne! Pour contrôler le gilet jaune manifestants en France!
“Wondering why Macron want’s a European army? To crack down on the ‘yellow vest’ protests right across France”
The gilets jaunes should be joined by 250 000 British people.
That would make Macron think.
It’s the chief reason why Brexit is turning into a shit flinging exercise…
..an out of touch way UBER ARROGANT ENARQUE dominated French elite, pushing their agenda on the rest of the EU and determined to punish the UK (Barnier is from EXACTLY the same class as Macron),
…..paired with a MAD MAYHEM MAY, who honestly (hey an honest politician anyone?!), who has been personally hire by the powers that be to drive Brexit under a bus!
None of it is gonna end well, cos there’s just too many very annoyed people around in both countries.
Sorry, but while the Paris Metro may not be perfect, it is safer than most American cities. The US has a murder rate 19 times higher than France. Rape is 8 times more common.
Doug
Remove only 7 democrat-controlled cities (and they’ve been democrat-controlled for almost all of the last century!), and the US murder rate by guns goes below almost every country on earth. (Washington DC, Baltimore, Chicago, NYC-NJ, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Detroit ALL have extreme gun control restrictions as well – EVERY one of them prevents law-abiding citizens from bringing guns with them to protect themselves).
Not sure what that has to do with Gilets Juanes or the unnecessarily high fuel taxation in France. Or anything in this article.
leowaj:
Well, it says “Public transport in many parts of Paris is insanely dangerous – train drivers refuse to stop in some areas at night because of the risk of violent attack.” in the article.
Really? You gonna trout out numbers from before the muslim invasion and pretend they are legit? Too f**king funny.
’19 times mor violent in US’. Doug, while you were sleeping… Check out Sweden ,UK, Germany. How about this:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-worst-ever-child-grooming-12165527
Environmentalists in Macron’s Government insisted that raising the cost of fossil fuels was equitable and an important step in curbing climate change. This whole story is about implementing curbs to fossil fuels by making them much more expensive so that people will stop using them. Unbeknowns to Government officials, poor and lower middle class people still have to get to work and the very high fossil fuel taxes make the trec to work a lot more expensive. More taxes on fossil fuels, the less people drive, the fewer people who can afford to get to work, fewer people able to work, the higher the unemployment, the need to raise more tax from fewer people, the more civil unrest, and there you have it, environmentalists crashing an economy and a way of life, and, for what purpose? all theoretical based upon….computer models.
In 1833 British economist Wm Foster Lloyd’s Tragedy of the Commons described an unregulated shared resource system (common pasture or more recently the atmosphere) individual users acting independently and not for the common good, would deplete and spoil that resource. A concept invoked by climate change globalists and activists. However, the details of a remedy, decarbonization, involve: pricing fossil fuels very high in the developed world so that India, China & Africa can burn fossil fuels to develop their economies. Did anyone ask me if I wanted to do this? NO. Those who are much more impacted by very high fuel tax than I didn’t have a say in the matter either. In fact, this is a top down fiat, dictum that hasn’t passed legislative muster, nor could it.
Energy for the engine of human well-being is not the province of the few, rather, the entitlement of the many.
“ people still have to get to work ”
And to do a lot of other things, such as medical trips, school, shopping, visiting others, … .
And the problem is that a replacement solution to travel, heating, industrial production, other than Carbon-based fuel is not available. This is unlike when oxen, donkeys, and horses were replaced by internal combustion vehicles with rubber tires.
I don’t mind paying to fix roads and repair bridges. I do mind trying to fix “the climate.”
Macron said he will never accept violence. Strange, as he seems to accept violence in the no go areas of Paris by allowing crowd gathering and an almost ritual burning of someone’s motor vehicle.
I do hope this green over reach episode is burned into the hide of the elitists politicos as a third rail event. Hold the rail longer Macron so others learn the cost.
It was France who started the EU, mainly as a fear of Germany again becoming the most powerful country. It was to be a economic union only, so no one country could by itself prepare for war as did Germany from 1935.
It was this economic union that Britain finally joined, but as time has passed the EU became a Empire building exercise. Today Brussels its HQ is almost a dictatorship.
That is why the UK finally decided to leave it.
MJE
Yes. Note that recent Russian reactions are to EU attempts to have more influence in the East. The Commissars in Brussels are trying to expand the Empire and the people of the EU cannot even vote them out.
Wasn’t there a study which went into details regarding all of the deep changes which would need to take place in order to reduce global temperatures? If the French riot over an increase in gas taxes who knows what they will do if they ever found out about all of the additional changes the alarmist were planning on making.
From a blog I write — https://luysii.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/3858/
The current dustup in France brought on by elites raising the price of gas to demonstrate their climatological virtue at little cost to themselves warrants the republication of an earlier post in which I endeavor to show how they can put some of their own skin in the game and actually do something other than posture.
A modest proposal (with apologies to Jonathan Swift)
The New York Times magazine of 5 August 2018 was entirely devoted to global warming and our lack of response to it. Doubtless it was read with great approval by the denizens of the upper East and Est Sides as they sat in their million dollar apartments, vowing to fight until the last coal miner and oli field roughneck was out of work. This will cost them nothing.
Virtue signaling notwithstanding, it’s time they had some skin of their own in the game. Having practiced medicine in the People’s Republic of New York, I know the love of New York state government for regulations and mandates, and the approval with which they have been met by the above denizens.
So here is a modest proposal for fighting global warming. Mandate that governors be placed on air conditioners so that room temperatures can be no lower than 80 in the summer. Similar governors should be placed on heating, allowing room temperatures no warmer than 60 in the winter. Start in the upper East and West sides of Manhattan, and if met with general approval extend it further.
I think it will be accepted as well they accepted the wind farms proposed off Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket near their summer homes.
luysii
Love it! Nothing like conserving our energy. We had an argument at the dinner table tonight with my 17 year old. I proposed 68 in the winter and 80 in the summer for our thermostat.
Conserve.
Macusn
Macron will retrench and keep trying until he either forces what he wants on the people or is forced out. I vote for the people. I”m surprised demonstrations like this haven’t caused the people to question the theory behind AGW in an attempt to discredit it. Surely these people aren’t refusing to save the world. Non?
WOW, just wow, always thought it would have been a better place if Germany had won WWI
I would like to think that everything about climate change is an American plot to fool the world into abandoning fossil fuels so the remaining supply will all be ours. 1.99 a gallon over here(Ohio not Texas), so far so good…that was really easy.
$1.95 a gallon in Marble Falls, TX yesterday.
Mr Worrell/Mr Watts –
Could you please explain why my two attempts at posting a similar link to Alan Tomalty’s have both been swallowed up without trace. As I haven’t voiced any personal opinions, I doubt I’m being censored.
A revolt against the gas tax is only part of this. Wait until French citizens get wise to the UN Migration Pact which Macron and his pals are going to sign in Marrakech later in December. Au revior French culture and French sovereignty!!
I don’t see anywhere in the above article where it says or tells how much the tax is. 1%, 5%, !0%, 20% increase???
I think that would be and important addition to the above article…. what are they “protesting” about….
Just sayin…
The taxes are about $3.50 per gallon, with total price about $7.00 per gallon.
It seems a bit strange that Macron hasn’t backed off from his proposals yet.
Let’s implement a ‘Financial Transaction Sales Tax’; it would make more sense than what Macron and his masters would want. There is very little chance that Hedge Fund managers or Wall Street Bankers would go
into the streets and protest. Just an idea.
The minute the yellow vests started blocking roads and highways like storm-troopers, their legitimacy was lost. And this was right in the beginning. They are hoodlums and criminals, especially the violent ones, but in fact all the protesters do not follow civil and criminal law, they are more interested in raw power. Notice how this has evolved into anti-EU/Capitalism/Globalist, etc. This is the bastard of “freedom of speech” abusers such as Black Lives Matter, and ANTIFA.
Some posters have rightly corrected the author about the misleading safety issues for the Metro–not to deny there are bad areas which have been invaded.
aj, I think the difference here is that these protesters (or a lot of them anyway) have nothing to lose. With the new tax they won’t be able to go to work and provide for their families. Winter is coming, how will they pay the electricity bill?
If it was your family in danger of hunger or freezing, would you care about the rules?
Some of you still believe that RUMP is making oil cheaper. RUMP does not control oil production or price, the SAUDIS DO. The Saudi’s made sure that N. Dakota Shale industry was destroyed by lowering the price of oil to around 25-35/barrel to bankrupt them. That is the reason that US resource was diminished and that the US would remain dependent on oil from the insane Saudi Salafist Power base who grows richer by the day and has forced the USA into a ridiculous corner when it comes to energy. The alternative energy sources are real and must be accepted by the right as the future path to energy independence and global security.
Facts on the Science of Greenhouse gases affecting a rise in average global temperatures have been manipulated by Fossil Fuel Billionaire propaganda from the right wing. Exxon Mobil was exposed on funding 15 NFP’s to lie about the facts on how combustion of their products (coal, oil, methane) have led to AGW. Other factors include the industrialized cattle business where 1.2 BILLION cows farting has contributed a large proportion of the CH4 (methane) into the atmosphere. CH4 holds far more heat than CO2. Fracking has also contributed due to the leakage of CH4.
Vince, you do a really good parody of a green. Unless, of course, you actually believe that steaming pile of . . .
You you have any actual evidence of the negative impacts of global warming? Also do you have any idea of the number of acres of land required to replace significant percentage of the power supplied by fossil fuels?