by Ramin Mazaheri
On the night of April 21st I was in my office in Paris, just 100 meters from the Champs-Elysees, when I got a phone call from a fellow journalist telling me about the deadly attack on policemen there.
I was in the middle of working on my latest report on France’s presidential election for Iran’s Press TV.
When I got the call, I had just written this sentence – I was still mulling it over (lotta numbers for TV copy):
“The last week has seen two major surprises which may push undecided voters to the right: the alleged discovery of a 2-man terror plot to attack 1 of the 3 main right-wing candidates, and the surprisingly-timed start of a court case involving 20 people accused of being part of a terror cell in 2012.”
Well…as you can guess, I had to add a third major surprise: the alleged terrorist attack on Champs-Elysees Avenue.
France’s 1st round vote in the presidential election is just two days away – on April 23rd – so let’s be very, very clear: The industrial-military-finance-media complex cannot live with a victory by Communist-backed Jean-Luc Melenchon.
If the establishment wouldn’t do “anything” to prevent Melenchon from taking office, they would certainly do “most anything”.
But let’s be level-headed: We know that governments commit assassinations. We know that they often send their soldiers off to certain death to advance unjust goals. The murder of this policeman is going to remind many of Jo Cox’s murder in the run-up to the Brexit vote.
What is absolutely undeniable is that the Champs-Elysees attack will have some sort of political effect
Tension here is high – the race is currently a 4-way dead heat. It’s too close to call because four candidates are within the margin-of-error.
But even the polls are somewhat useless, because there is an enormous undecided voter rate of over 30%.
I have used some form of “the only certainty is uncertainty” at least a half-dozen times in my reports over the last week, because it truly does bear repeating.
But one thing is certain: all three of this week’s “surprises” – which pushed terrorism, xenophobia, insecurity, fear and hate to the top of the headlines in this final week of unparalleled importance and indecision – have benefitted everyone except for Melenchon.
The industrial-military-finance-media complex wants Emmanuel Macron or Francois Filllon to win. Both are a continuation of Sarkozy and Hollande: austerity, globalization, racism, foreign intervention, Eurozone cannibalization of weaker members.
They industrial-military-finance-media complex can even live with a Marine Le Pen victory, even though she is also promising many of the same anti-system/anti-Brussels measures as Melenchon – on Frexit, NATO, the Euro, etc. She goes even further by promising to suspend the Schengen visa-free requirement if elected, and that would make the refugee crisis look like small potatoes, because it would do untold damage to the pocketbooks of the leading capitalists.
Heck, 60% of active cops are going to vote National Front, so they might work in her favor just to get their way, high-finance be damned. God bless the sainted “boys in blue”, eh?
But the establishment absolutely cannot cope with the rise of a leftist candidate in any country, no matter how backwards. Not Burkina Faso, not Nicaragua, not Laos and not any other country most people can’t find on a map.
So for sure it can’t happen here: France, the world’s 5th-largest economy.
The French say “once does not make a custom”, but 3 times in 1 week?
Of course I have no proof to offer, but the timing of the Marseilles 2-man terror cell “discovery” and the Champs-Elysees “terrorist attack” are going to make them ripe for accusations of being a false-flag operations.
Or maybe it’s all a coincidence? I’m a reporter – I need facts. I need to examine all the angles. Coincidences do happen, in fact.
Maybe France truly is being targeted by terrorists during the election campaign, as authorities have repeatedly claimed? They certainly prepared us for that possibility with announcements to that effect.
Maybe the court docket was so full that the unprecedented 20-person terror cell trial simply HAD to start 3 days before the vote? Another coincidence? They don’t decide these court dates by lottery, I know that.
Maybe…but what’s sure is that the industrial-military-finance-media complex is toasting these 3 events, because it aids their 3 favorite candidates.
Because what they don’t want is serious discussion of the problems which touch all French people.
Quickly: record unemployment, austerity, economic stagnation, state of emergency, 2,000+ arrests of democratic protesters last year, cops anally raping with batons, angry riots.
I could go on, but it’s after midnight – need to finish my Press TV report, then do a 2 am interview. Welcome to journalism!
Everyone else has already had their workday. All those voters lying in their bed, wondering who they will vote for, and possibly wondering if another killer escaped from the Champs-Elysees. That rumor was floating around just an hour ago, but at some point you have to switch off the TV.
I am not calling the roughly 16 million undecided voters “weak-minded” for being prey to such faithless, late-night monsters during this last week of campaigning – I simply imagine them to be politically uninterested. Because how can you still be undecided 2 days before the election when you have 4 candidates who have rather radically different candidates? Simple – you are not paying very much attention.
Hey, I’m not looking down on them – I wouldn’t listen to most of these guys unless I got paid, and thankfully I do. I’m interested in politics, but many aren’t. Many don’t have time.
But it’s these people – the huge 30%-plus – who might let themselves be affected by these 3 events.
This is also going to be a huge factor: The abstention rate should surpass the record 28% in 2002. That’s why Jean-Marie Le Pen got into the 2nd round back then – his right-wing voters got out to vote while the uninterested stayed at home.
These 3 events galvanize not just the undecided, but the both lazy-and-far-right voter.
The complex, the cops, the establishment – all going very well for them
Except for Francois Hollande – what a patsy. He’s actually speaking live right now. Unless he’s apologizing, I have no interest in listening and not even for pay.
Nobody does, which is why he can’t even run. His Socialist Party’s candidate is down to just 8% – might not even make 5% and get the Party’s campaign expenditures reimbursed, which must be the only reason the candidate hasn’t dropped out: He is just going to split the leftist vote and ruin Melenchon’s chances, most likely.
Hollande didn’t even back his own party’s candidate – he indirectly supported Macron, who Hollande plucked from obscurity to become a minister and who is now absolutely, 100% running on a Hollande-Part Deux platform.
And Macron’s leading…and the French are buying all of this…just like many will not even see the possibility of a false flag situation, or two, this week.
The helicopters have mostly stopped now – must be terrible to be in Palestine and hear that regularly. Or the ghettos of Los Angeles.
ISIL just claimed responsibility for the Champs-Elysees attacks, I just read.
Makes me wonder if the “false flag” idea would have gained more traction if it was Al-Nusra (Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate) instead? After all, in 2012 France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said of Al-Nusra: “they are doing good things on the ground.”
And for this Fabius is being sued by Syrians – it is rather obvious why: “defending terrorism speech,” is illegal in France. But that’s what Fabius clearly did.
Check back with me in 2032 when that case is finished. Of course, if you are a young Muslim in France and you are accused of “defending terrorism speech” then you’re rushed through the system: accusation, trial, prison within days. They convicted the mentally ill, they convicted the drunk, but they convicted the Muslim above all.
I’m getting off-track here and talking about things which increase citizen alienation and dissatisfaction. The story line is terrorism, always terrorism, right?
Yeah, if it was Al-Nusra, then maybe the “false flag” idea would gain some mainstream traction. Too bad it was ISIL – the two groups are enemies, for those who don’t know. Bad luck, no story there….
The only candidate who will end the state of emergency is, you guessed it, Jean-Luc Melenchon. If the French truly loved “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” they’d vote in Melenchon just for that….
3 “surprises”, but only 3 facts to remember
The most important fact – and I even thought about leading this article with this fact – is that seemingly every terrorist in France since 2012 has cited France’s foreign interventions as their motivation for terrorism. It is not Islam, it is not jihad – it is foreign intervention, and their obviously capitalist motivations.
Secondly, France’s establishment wants – above all – to avoid discussions about capitalism and its ineffectiveness.
Thirdly, these attacks are simply not important.
No matter who did them, or why, they simply are not important right now. Whether they are government assassinations or ISIL-led terrorist attacks, you French citizens owe it to each other to make an intelligent vote, not an emotional one.
For the undecided voters: You haven’t made a stand for your political morals yet, but that’s a good place to start.
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. His work has appeared in various journals, magazines and websites, as well as on radio and television.
Le Pen v Melenchon.
I hope every Saker reader (as I have) has directed/requested their French friends to vote Le Pen (if they are right) or Melenchon (if they are left) – and whatever they do – don’t vote for Macron.
If you haven’t done this – it seems you must be in favour of the status quo – so I would ask you why?
This right – left is an outdated concept in my opinion. In these days of populist political language it is better to not judge the meat by its color but rather by its taste.
My sympathy goes to Melenchon (after noticing a few speeches by him) as he is more “kick out the establishment – bankers” while Le Pen seems more fighting Symptoms. (kick muslims out).
The risk is that both will be vote-neutralizing each other to the benefit of Macron saving them the effort and embarrassment of doing a Trump 180.
@ Jean
The “right and left” dichotomy has been getting a bad press lately, mostly by those who proclaim the “end of history”, impossibility of changing the economic model of capitalism and the inevitability of market fundamentalism as the irreversible crusade towards neoliberal globalism. What they mean is that the “left” has left the political discourse and the unnamed “right” rules supreme – and that is sadly true, mostly.
But the fact that most traditional leftist parties (with the honourable exception of some hard core communists) have abjectly surrendered moral principles and political truths does not mean that the ideals of the traditional left are not still beating in many chests as the only human way to solve humanity’s miseries namely wars, ecological degradation, obscene inequality within and between countries, criminal use of state power by the ruling elites and all ills befallen on this Earth by the unbridled exploitation of human and natural resources by Capitalism. What world are we leaving for our children?
Thanks Ramin!
This and last week I’ve checked out mostly all the French voting polls concerning these presidentials and had to conclude that all MSM polls must be fake. They only show the main candidates and the numbers seem to express uncertainty and wishful thinking, like was the case with Hillary.
But truly surprising were/are the results of the alternative/private polls. They mostly all show the UPR and its leader and candidate François Asselineau at well over 50% of intended votes while the MSM polls show him at a steady between 0.5 and 2%. That is a huge if not impossible discrepancy!
Melenchon is a freemason and Le Pen controlled opposition. Voting for these is neither a good idea if the electorate doesn’t want 5 years of more of the same. Only François Asselineau wants a return to French sovereignty and therefore to drop the Euro, Frexit the union and tear up NATO membership.
He rocks! Check it out: http://www.upr.fr
Thanks, Ramin, for the timely and astute article. I agree, you should probably have lead with your thoughts at the end of your aritcle. Whatever. I immediately wrote a note to the Mélanchon campaign pointing out that if he really wants to be president, he should hammer away on this point, patiently explain that constantly exploiting poorer, resource-rich countries is not the means by which one goes about “making friends and influencing people”.
Neither US nor French imperialism will fade away by election. The change will come via tragedy, catastrophy, a big one. I don’t care a shit who will win in France. It doesn’t as all you should have learnt bitter but very educating lesson of Trump (when Swamp drained him).
Election hype sucks.
Another great and to the point article by Ramin, and briefer too to boot. Indeed it’s a strange coincidence that these “incidents” took place at the crucial time of elections – when voters tend to final make up their minds who to vote for.
I, for one, do not believe that the French “terrorist attacks” were not the work to the spy agencies and there are many candidates with the ability, motive, means, opportunity and will to do the dirty work for their political and capitalist “masters of the universe”. After the Rainbow Warrior state ordered terrorist attack in Auckland, there is nothing abominably vicious the governments of the “civilised West” can’t do. The idea of Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite has been amiss from the French government for over two hundred years and the sordid political sods who ruled the country since the Revolution are a stain in French history – perhaps with the exception of De Gaulle, a man of exceptional stature (and I’m not talking about his height) who was head and shoulders above the rest. (Pardon me the puns and metaphors, they just drop in by themselves!).
Melenchon doesn’t want to get out of the EU so France diplomacy still will be dictated by NATO (art . 42 of the treaty of the European Union)
“…. which see their common defence realised in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), under the North Atlantic Treaty and be compatible with the common security and defence policy established within that framework……”
It is the same for the social, economic and monetary policies on which France is not sovereign anymore because of it s EU membership but i m not going to get on complicated technical explanation once more.
After promoting Lepen this Blog now promote Melenchon which will obviously be like MLP the French Tsipras or the French trump.
Once Again not a single word on the only candidate that clearly stand in favor of the frexit I don’t know if the author of those french analysis article is simple minded or a shill because he is obviously working against the interest that are promoted on the title of the blog which are “stop the empire war on Russia” .
@ Hugo
You are right about the assertions you made concerning the futile elections and the EU straightjacket because, as you stated, it has many arms, including the subordination to NATO and its doctrine as the armed fist of neoliberal Globalism.
However, you are unfair towards Ramin and this blog because, in your perception, they don’t favour Le Pen as you hinted. Maye they are entitled to have a different perspective on international political events impinging on Russia. After all, the causes of tensions, conflicts and wars are all the logical consequence of the capitalist model of economic exploitation and governance and Le Pen is part of the same clique. See how quickly Trumpster ditched all or most of the agenda that induced many voters to elect him and I see some similarities among the so-called “populist” demagogues, including Hitler himself who used the “sozialiszmus” and “arbeiter” in the party’s name as slogans to get elected and more recently Hollande whose policies were anything but socialist. In order to be a politician you must first and foremost be a liar, traitor, scumbag, prostitute. scammer and criminal. That’s in the job description.
All I want to say is thank you for this sharp comment on what’s going on.
The undecided voter at the end of the phone line is simply protecting his privacy and prospects.
By the way the story regarding Jehova Witnesses is a disgrace. The so called witnesses are nothing but a Spy Ring of the very wordt kind. Their brothers in arms…the Later Day Saints hail from the same cesspool and should be shoved out the exit door of any self respecting nation.
France is not world’s 5th largest economy (GDP-PPP) and with numers of real economy (share of industry, primary production, construction etc of GDP-PPP) it’s hardly even in TOP 10. However they still have their aviation/military production though i dunno how long. France of course like Germany is lacking critical strategic raw materials. Demographics of France looks pretty good if forgetting the fact it’s mostly African/Muslim folks making the gap compated to e.g North Europe.
Hi, France is indeed the world’s 5th-largest economy today.
Here is the projected data from 2016 – the UK will drop significantly due to Brexit, putting France in 5th. Many had France in 5th already, because London includes the illegal criminal economic activity as well, while France refuses.
http://statisticstimes.com/economy/countries-by-projected-gdp.php
The idea of Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite is, was and will be wet dream of ruling class and elitists of white French. It has nothing to with reality of slaves, blacks, Vietnamese. Muslims and poor working class. It’s same bullshit as “Shining City Upon A Hill” in US.
it has little to do with melanchon and a lot to do with Socialist heritage of ubber laxism on safety and immigration. Paris’ 4th arrondissement mayor went as far as claiming that Putin was behind it…
Socialists just like Clintonites are on a far worse pathology than Stockholm syndrome.
System is receiving it’s orders based on one only criteria, France foreign policy alignment with US neocon one. No wonder why Obama interfered and publicly supported Macron…
From day one of the campaign, their fear has been a fillon – le Pen second run which is drawing up despiter all tehir effiorts
today’s lattest Filteris Poll
Fillon: 22.09%
MLP: 21.75%
Melanchon: 21.11%
Macron: 19.92%
Hamon: 7.04%
Fabien,
I agree, more or less with your assessment. But could Obama’s endorsement not be seen as Macron’s « kiss of death » ? One would hope that Obama’s « legacy », one of death and destruction, would sound a warning to those thinking about voting Macron. Or is one of the greatest con artists of all time still held in high esteem here, in France ?
Sadly, many people are clueless about Obama.
I forgot to add this key fact:
“The news that a policeman had been shot dead on the famous Champs-Elysées avenue broke as the 11 presidential candidates were appearing live on TV in a show dubbed ’15 minutes to convince’ France.”
Le Pen, Macron and Fillon suspended their campaigns.
“Far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon refused to cancel his last day of campaigning, not wanting to give the terrorists the last word or allow them to ‘disturb our democratic process’.”
Sure hope Melenchon wins.
Regarding François Asselineau: he is a very interesting candidate. He is also very popular among the Muslim community. He’s a guy who understands what many do not – that reform of the EU was made to be structurally almost impossible, and that, as Juncker said “we cannot have any democratic vote which violates EU treaties”…which means no more democracy, only oligarchy and technocratism. I’d like to give him more attention, but for now he’s just a fringe candidate, and I prefer the open communist Nathalie Artaud. I barely had time to give her any space!
I’m not sure I believe that he’s going to do much better than his polls suggest, however – if so, that would show a major failure in French polling.
Polls really have NOT been the problem over the past year: Brexit and Trump both showed they would be very tight races…and both results fell within the margin of error. Therefore, the polls were actually accurate.
The problem WAS poor journalism: reminding people of that, and how it makes any result uncertain.
In my reports for Press TV I have been rather boring by spending 1/3rd of my 2 minute reports bringing up the same points over and over: 4 candidates in a dead heat, all within margin of error, huge undecided rate, huge abstention rate, uncertainty the only certainty. I’d rather talk about the candidates, but just not enough room – uncertainty is the key fact.
François Asselineau is by far the best choice, however, the MSM has ensured that he not get his message out, and like Le Pen could not get a bank loan for his campaign. In the last few days Asselineau has been treated kindly by the press, including Bordan, in hopes he can draw off enough Le Pen supporters to make sure she doesn’t get to the second round. Asselineau would make a great PM for Le Pen as they share a lot of viewpoints and he is the only candidate that really understands the French Constitution.
As for Melenchon, he wants open borders and as such supports the EU. His plan to go return to the French revolution and massively redistribute wealth from the rich and middle class so that all French can call themselves citizens.
The French election is about whether France wants to remain as a country or be a EU provence ruled by four unelected EU presidents and one unelected commissar for the benefit of the financial sector. If the French choose globalism they will follow the road of the US and become a plantation economy.
Marx was right when he predicted that finance-capital would come to dominate industrial capital and the state.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2017/04/marx-orwell-and-state-cartel-socialism.html
Charles Hugh Smith described this as:
“A built-in financial hierarchy with corporations at the top dominating a vast populace of debt-serfs/ wage slaves with little functional freedom to escape the system’s neofeudal bonds.” He points out that the top 0.1% have dramatically increased their proportion of US wealth from 10% to 22% since Clinton took office. Concurrently, the bottom 90% have had their proportion of wealth drop from 36% to 23%.
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2017/04/our-state-corporate-plantation-economy.html
David Korten predicted this many years ago in his book “ When Corporations Rule the Earth”. More recently, Michael Hudson expanded this prediction to be due primarily to the Financial, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) renter components of capitalism in his book “Killing the Host”
I hope the French understand that globalism destroys internal economies and makes the citizens neofeudal serfs to the technocrats like something out of the science fiction series “Foundation”.
Perhaps the French might better relate to Albert Camus who writes in his classic The Plague (the character Tarrou):
“All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims, and it’s up to us, as far possible, not to join forces with the pestilences. That may sound simple to the point of childishness; I can’t judge if it’s simple, but I know it’s true. You see, I’d heard such quantities of arguments, which very nearly turned my head, and turned other people’s heads enough to make them approve of murder; and I’d come to realize that all our troubles spring from our failure to use plain, clear-cut language. So I resolved always to speak – and to act – quite clearly, as this was the only way of setting myself on the right track.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/remembering-albert-camus-the-plague-the-world-as-a-prison-it-is-the-u-s/5566393
Ramin,
Believe me, the polls have really been influenced. There are several reports about telephone polling whereby when the person being polled indicated a vote for one of the fringe candidates, the poller had to admit that these candidates were “not on his list”! Go figure!
And then these polls:
http://2017-election.fr/
Another case of totally different numbers.
The attack happened on April 20th, not 21st, as I wrote.
I was writing so it was technically the night on April 21…but it’s confusing, perhaps…bah!
Fire his editor, i.e. me!
Im sorry, but Melenchon is a capitalist lackey.
His long carrier in the politics was mainly spent kissing bourgeois asses and mouthing some vague trotskyite slogans.
Perhaps the esteemed author of this piece does not remember when Melenchon was fleeing in panic from a speech he was supposed to give in a textile manufactory, pursued by furious workers?
Or his pitiful pandering to the bourgeois Assemblee Nationale?
The only truly lefttist candidate is Poutu, without any chance for election of course,barring that Marine LePen is the only one with the slim chance to finally do something for workers and (perhaps) to stop the demented globalist scheme to turn France into Maghreb.
I wonder whether with Melenchon one would be able to ‘flâner sur les grands boulevards’ with the same nonchalance as in the ‘bon vieux temps’ (Que les moins de vingt ans/Ne peuvent pas connaître), of the ‘communisme’ of the ‘tourneur chez Citroën’, Yves Montand! Today ‘On s’fait [plus seulement] des ampoules/A zigzaguer parmi la foule’. You get bullets now. But still, ‘Y a tant de choses, tant de choses/Tant de choses à voir’.
On risque d’être poignardé plus souvent.
Some may imagine (gasp!) that there is a correlation between the build-up to global attack profile in all “theaters” of the war – Korea – Ukraine – Syria – and of course the political theaters, “attacks” and murders and so on to raise angst and panic – the twins of Mars – in key states – such as France. Gee-whiz, What a series of coincidences!
But how can such disparate actions be coordinated?
Well, they have their ways – and they try to keep them private…
And meet in remote loci http://www.cryptogon.com/?p=50842
Maybe Muslims just commit rape, robbery, murder and terrorism at disproportionate levels compared to whites though? Couldn’t that be the case? I mean, we know how they behave as “refugees” – they are almost animalistic in their brutality toward “Europeans” a/k/a/ white people. Are the rapes and robberies false flags too? The simple reality is that Islam – and its Arab, African and Asian host vectors – should not exist on European soil because it is a foreign pathogen that exterminates all cultures in comes in contact with. The solution to all of these problems is to remove Muslims and Islam from Europe.
Hi Pareto,
I absolutely agree with you. Let’s make a deal. Get your white friends to get move out of muslim countries, and I will personally make sure that all muslims move back to their respective countries.
Also, while we are at it, what do you propose we do with Muslims that were born in white countries?
You have no authority to make a deal. Maybe the ISIS people do? This is an extract from their magazine:
“The fact is, even if you were to stop bombing us, imprisoning us, torturing us, vilifying us, and usurping our lands, we would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you. ”
“we will never stop hating you until you embrace Islam, and will never stop fighting you until you’re ready to leave the swamp of warfare and terrorism through the exits we provide, the very exits put forth by our Lord for the People of the Scripture: Islam, jizyah, or – as a last means of fleeting respite – a temporary truce.” [Dabiq, Issue 15, p. 30]
So there you have it. From the horse’s mouth itself: Even if there is not a single white man in muslim countries, there will be no peace until everyone converts to Islam.
Of course ISIS itself is made in Tel Aviv and Washington so what you have presented us with is fake ideology signed allegedly by a totally non-representational group of alleged Muslims. Your Press Release was, as likely as not, written in Langley and approved in Jerusalem. I found it a colossal waste of time and pixels.
Nice sharp comment. High grade vitriol of good acidic PH and educational value. Thanks!
As the Muslim Brotherhood and the White Helmets are creation of the UK MI6:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article196085.html
Nice try…Islam never have the mission of islamizing the world, but nice try. Its your likes who misinforme and misguide the readers of articles.
To start with don’t let them impose halal food in school cantines, let them sit at the table with the ‘natives’ and eat pork and drink wine with them. Let them celebrate Christmas and Easter together with the natives. Let them cease talking incessantly about the wrongs of the Crusades, let them cease thinking that the exercise of Christianity in their countries is a sign of ‘oppression’ of Islam. “Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi (if in Rome, live in the Roman manner; if you are elsewhere, live as they do elsewhere)”.
What should we do with europeans/whites who converted to islam? remove them too?
This guy who says muslims should never be on european territories is ignored of the fact that it was the europeans who first went to muslim lands, raped, robbed, killed and installed dictators to serve their interests which resulted in muslims migrating to europe.
I agree let europeans leave muslim countries and not interfere in our lands, and not interfere in how we want to live, maybe we could bring back our islamic caliphate (which most of the world is ignorant about what its all about). They won’t leave us along, its not in their benefits to leave us along.
@What should we do with europeans/whites who converted to islam? remove them too?
It would be the rational solution. We don’t want the Caliphate here. We are not ignorant at all what it’s all about.
I don’t see Religion in itself as a problem. I see the culture shock of masses of people of totally different ethnicity “and” Religion flooding into 1000 year old, mostly homogeneous societies.And intend on changing the culture of those countries,as the problem. The small numbers of people that convert to Islam in France (as an example) are already French. Their culture is French. There is no problem with their lack of desire to assimilate to the local society. As they are already a part of that society.There are Christians in Syria,around 10% of the population I believe. And they are “Syrians”,they are a part of that native society. And always have been. So its not a problem that there are native Christians in a Muslim society (except to the jihadis). But if a flood of millions of English Christians flowed into Syria, not wanting to assimilate.But instead wanting to change Syria’s society to meet their wants.There I think would be a problem. And no more acceptable than it is with a flood of foreign Muslims into France.
Pareto on April 21, 2017 · at 12:15 pm UTC
I’m surprised this zionist klu klux klan hate mongering made it through moderation.
……………..
RM
Thanks for the update on the French elections. Hope they won’t go the way the last american [s]elections did.
Dear friend Pareto, Some may find basing a definite conclusion upon a speculation to represent unsound reasoning or perhaps revealing of an a-priori assumption clothed in the rhetorical form of pseudo-logical bumf. As that may be, it’s not very polite, is it, friend? Or useful? But of course what’s really been said is about you yourself. Cheer up! Just enjoy the freak show. Soon enough G-d will ask each why he didn’t have a better time. Well, I might get a pass – I (a) have been to hell already. And, (b) I know how to have a good time!
Pax
Meantime, in salient matter of coincidence theory, ie “good timing”
Another coincidence: https://www.geopolitica.ru/en/news/clintons-assistant-j-w-mcgill-found-dead
Details no autopsy private doc 34 years old heart failure cremated same day found by Huma A…
Some coincidence… Oh yeah – just got called to testify before congress…
I wouldn’t be so quick to judge Pareto, even though he says a lot of things that remind us of those crackers in the south who rail against blacks and welfare queens and use the n-word and, and…(but wait, perhaps I’m showing prejudice against southerners!).
Maybe he has a son who was sodomized or maybe he was beat up and cracked his skull. Maybe he’s just sick and tired of always being in danger. You can accuse me as well, but I have time on my side, in as much as things are only going to get far, far worse in Europe. There is no light at the end of this tunnel. Eventually, even the politically correct will be forced–I say forced–to admit, to go along with, to be in agreement with, even to encourage this deplorable speech. But at least they will remain pure in spirit until the tip of the knife is at their own throats.
It goes without saying, that those who live in countries like America, where they are relatively untouched by this small problem, have those most propensity for discussing the weighty issues of geopolitics, economics, policy, international relations, often with the most penetrating and discerning insights. They can attain to an Olympian, comprehensive and over-arching view of all the relevant issues no matter how much they are required to machete their way through dense thickets of abstraction.
Too bad these terrorist events get a disproportionate amount of publicity.
Whereas, the persecution that little people suffer from jihadists gets virtually no publicity, such as yours truly living under jihadist house arrest for the last three years. No, even the police in France have no interest in protecting little victims of persecution. We can dial 17 for the police if we are physically attacked and hope that an ambulance arrives in time.
Imagine, if you will, a country where the police are way over-extended, but the little people are not allowed the means to defend themselves. What a formula, no?
But alas, we must concentrate on the economic and taxation policies of the candidates….
The important matters.
T Messan speaks to the coincidence today – alas only in French…his english translation sometimes take awhile. But what’s wrong with French?
http://www.voltairenet.org/article196075.html
It is an particularly intriguing essay.
“…Paris must stop telling nonsense and take the measure of events: international terrorism – in which it participates – is sponsored and instrumented against it by some of its allies within NATO.”
And so on…
If France doesn’t need one thing then it is more socialism. So why the heck would Mazaheri root for Melenchon? I do not think that Melenchon the French Bernie Sanders would really work against the elite, that is just…wishful thinking. If in doubt look at his career in politics and how deeply he’s been involved in the ‘system’.
I’m not saying Le Pen is the natural choice here, she’s more likely to disappoint the same way as Trump disappointed than otherwise. The thing is similarly to the US there is no good choice, a candidate that stands for individual liberties, less surveillance and police state. Liberté stands first in the French revolutionary chants, ahead of égalité that brought us the ill conceived concept of socialism/communism later on in the 19th century. Yet, most Frenchmen seem to have forgotten about the importance of that word and only think about ambiguous promises of more égalité that never seems to materialize. And the fratérnite is stronger among Islamists in the country than ordinary citizens.
So what’s to be done about all of this? Really I am not too excited or optimistic about these elections, or the prospects for France overall, I do not expect France to leave NATO nor the EU for the time being until economic realities force it to.
Len Pen’s anti-capitalist demagogy is nothing new. It was pretty much standard among the SA militants in Germany in the 20s and 30s. Consider:
”In National Socialist demagogy, the struggle against capitalist oraganization of credit plays an important part. The various programmes of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) proposed control and even nationalisation of the banks. Thus in October 1930 the NSDAP parliamentary group in the Reichstag presented a motion demanding ‘that the big banks should pass without delay into the hands of the state.’ In the Nazi programme, also, are featured the closing of the banks, transformation of negotiable bonds into non-negotiable securities, and finally into partnerships.’ But the chief attraction was Gottfried Feder’s (leading NSDAP economic theorist) idea of abolishing interest slavery.
Josef Goebbels also weighed in with this line of thought. ‘A few individuals should not have the right to use the national economy against the nation. But in reality a few monopolies dominate. A few individuals have amassed enormous fortunes. These individuals have the means of taking away from the people its daily bread, and robbing it of its labour.” (Fascism and Big Business – Daniel Guerin)
Sounds almost like FDR! Only the national socialist revolution which the SA, Rohm and the Strasser Brothers were clamouring for, never came to pass. The dream was definitively crushed by the SS on the Night of the Long Knives in July 1934.
One should never underestimate the political opportunism of fascism. I has a strategy for gaining power, which it will pursue ruthlessly, but another for the consolidation of that power.
That is a bit disingenuous to try and connect those that oppose runaway capitalism to the nazis. Both the right and the left have seen the danger of globalist unrestricted capitalism in society. But just as we and our enemies might go outside and see that its sunny or raining and agree on that. Doesn’t mean we are the same in most other points.
The ruling class always plays both sides for the advantage of the squishy middle which in the end is what people will settle for if chaos is long, unresolved with no effective leadership appearing with a serious platform for change and a determination to wage class war. All out Repression, the ultimate recourse is costly and they really would like to avoid it.
If Le Pen turns out to be even half as tractable as Trump, perhaps their strategy will serve them well. Having a low level race war and a huge prison population a la Death Star America is an alternative also.
So who is talking peace in the mid East, Somalia and Libya and shipping most of the refugee-migrants back?
Melenchon and all the so-called “left” parties have supported every war and every neo-colonial adventure. That’s an absolute statement and is absolutely true.
LePen and the FN opposed the war on Libya and now oppose the war on Syria. The FN is the only French party that has opposed war.
War and Peace are the only things that matter.
Left vs. Right is irrelevant for a Melenchon vs. LePen race, Left-right only matters while Macron or Fillon are in the race. Melenchon has been ineffective his entire career, and couldn’t get “leftist” legislation passed if he wanted. Does he even want to ? I doubt it, given all his pro-war stands. LePen and the National Front are leftists because they want to rebuild France’s “crown jewel” industries. The FN is big on “social solidarity” and is more socialist than any of France’s fake lefty parties. The FN is more statist than outright socialist, but it’s the only party which would improve the lives of French workers, and – a related matter – it’s the only party which supports anything like a “Lisbon to Shanghai” program of peace and prosperity.
Instead of left-right, the issue is bottom vs. top and whether France can throw off its elite traitors, and then recover as a successful independent nation after nearly being drowned in the EU. Here, Macron is the top’s candidate. One of the last “crown jewels” of France, Alstom, was sold off by Macron to the Americans at a 90% discount when there was no need to sell this highly successful company. We can draw a thick black line between his gift of Alstom to General Electric, and his rise from obscurity. Macron proved he will do absolutely anything for his hidden masters, who are the elite at the very top, so high up that you never get to see them.
There is no saviour to vote for in the French elections, just as there was none in the latest American and Canadian elections. It must be human nature to believe and hope in change, and the deep state has noticed that and learned to capitalize on it.
I agree that Le Pen would keep France out of NATO wars and recognizes the role of French politicians on the blow back from foreign wars.
Francois-Asselineau shares Le Pen’s view and even travels with an olive branch pointing out the futility of war and promising to keep France out of Foreign wars in keeping with his grandfather’s teachings:
https://www.sott.net/article/348437-Meet-Francois-Asselineau-the-actual-Frexit-candidate-for-President-of-France
Hi Ramin, you have interesting things to write, but you are a bit biased, my friend.
Terrorist acts in France are staged, you imply with the click-bait title “Champs-Elysees attack: Perfect timing, for some”? Hmm… couldn’t be ISIS or some radicalized Muslim who would do such things there, no, it must be something else… But with some incident happening about every week, what’s the chance something would happen before the elections? Right.
“I’m a reporter – I need facts.” No you don’t. You say yourself that you have “no proof to offer”. You’re just happy with implications, innuendos and suppositions, knitting all this into a narrative whose aim is to uphold *your* candidate, Melenchon. Fine. Now we know we can’t expect a fair and balanced analysis of the French elections.
And no, the “roughly 16 million undecided voters” are not “politically uninterested”, nor are they “not paying very much attention”. They are. They just don’t know what to do. In fact, the leading search in Google about these elections is how to vote “none of the above”. Undecided voters are desperate to find a solid middle ground, something that makes sense among this chaos. I wish them good luck.
Isn’t 90% of French government debt owned by German banks?
What happens do that debt should Le Pen get elected? What would the Germans do if the French were to leave the Euro and devalue the re-introduced Franc? How would the Germans punish France?
Hollande needed an excuse to keep the ‘State of Emergency’ in France, which needs to be renewed every 3 months and April was the month it needed another shot, so to speak.
Whether its France or Britain or Occupied America, nothing will change–matters will only get worse–as long as private banking families are in control of those nation’s finances. Here in Occupied America, they control the central bank, the FED, which prints up all that free banker money. They also control the US Treasury, making for mutual bedfellows. And they control those TBTF Wall Street casinos, which WE the People get dunned to bail-out and the next touch is just around the corner.
Perfect timing to extend the state of emergency for another 6 months or so. Or to persuade the people to vote for some guy who will “make France great again”. Or both.
I am always surprised why one would think Trump would be able to do anything.
The USD issue is simply too overwhelming.
60% of the world sum total of money value is in USD. While the US economy is about 20% of the world GDP.
Should the US change their imperialist policies and stop supporting the Petrodollar, then the USD would be crushed and the US with it.
That is simply too much for Trump or anybody else to overcome.
That simply explains why Saudi Arabia should be supported at all costs (just see the last comments from Mattis…)
And why the GS bankers have leverage.
To think otherwise is seems dilusional.
By the way, would the USD be crushed then the world economy as we know it today would be crushed. Is anyone wondering what would be the result ??
If indeed Nothing can be done, and I do not disagree, then, since they can do nothing to change Policy, then present Policy will be attempted.
Alas, the policy doesn’t work anymore – resistance is rising from the classical empires, and technical economies and technical abilities, have eclipsed the ability to control Eurasia by 4th Reich.
The inescapable logical implication is then… I leave that to you..
Indeed dark times ahead.
I’ve noticed several trends in the past 72 months (or so) of elections processes in G7 (plus ANZAC) nations.
1. Environmental factors, of course, as they are reported in the mainstream media, [apparently] result in candidates/parties/referendum polling outcomes to converge prior to the election timing.
2. Strange things happen during the actual voting process itself.
3. a candidate/party/referendum result is not as was (supposedly) expected by the experts, prior to voting
Now, in your article, the underlying direction is that these pre-election events have been manipulated to disfavour the ‘radical’ pro-more-equitable-living-standard candidate (for lack of a better word, this is the primary direction of the candidate, and a profession for common sense over traditional international affairs, where traditional international affairs is … a complete scam, like the EU and NATO direction towards a third world war!)
But the embedded assumption of a robust, rig-proof electoral process is in question, in my mind.
I feel like if they get it close enough, i.e. from a electorate perception management perspective, the highly-suspect polling process/reporting across this ‘western’ national subset, there are electoral process suasion mechanisms, getting better and better each running, to manipulate the electoral process to what ever the favoured candidate/party/referendum may be at the point in time.
I think we can assume that the ‘establishment’ (who/what ever they are), would prevent the pro-more-equitable-living-standard candidate from attaining power, as per your article.
I don’t think Fillon could win by fair electoral process, but he is at least in the top two preferred candidates for the ‘establishment’.
Assuming that they also consider Le Pen to be too ‘unpredictable’ to attain.
The best place to ‘get rid of’ Melenchon is in the first round, when there will be less clarity on the actual process, due to the larger number of variables and moving parts.
They (whomever they might be), would want it clear in the run-off; so, assuming (likely correctly) that Le Pen cannot win a run-off, except conceivably against Fillon, they might want her in the run-off, against Macron, the recent super-friend of the faltering middle-class republicans, so as to ‘fix-without-touching’ the run-off round.
Remember, these past contests have been more about keeping the candidate/party/referendum policy they don’t want out, more than putting in a particular candidate/party, as was the case in the US election, which was ultimately about keeping Bernie out, and had little ultimately to do with the choice between Trump and Clinton, for as hindsight is now showing us, mostly only branding differentiation, as opposed to actual policy differentiation.
Test:
1. expect a torrent of anti-Russian false-flag stories, like… supporting a border client regime in anti-LGBTQ… activities, and then link it back to Melenchon. There is probably one more they’ll let out of the bag before the election; since it is 15h00 (at UTC-05:00), it’ll have to happen pretty soon; Melenchon and Fillon to go in the first round.
2. with second round candidates Le Pen and Macron confirmed, we’d expect a switch in the mainstream media to anti-anti-immigrant material, i.e. [wordlessly assumed) Le Pen supporters bashing 30 year+ Arab immigrant women, who will have elaborate back-story development about how ‘françaises’ they were, and the wonderful things they’ve contributed to French society
3. but a good ‘terror’ incident never hurts an establishment candidate, for there is comfort in the known, and at a sub-conscious level, this may trump a longer-term visceral (potentially yet sub-conscious) yearning for change from the establishment; Macron may have differentiated himself enough (no doubt using the latest BI large data crunching statistical techniques)
4. Prediction: Macron in the run-off with a healthy margin over Le Pen, with the ongoing outrage over the gathering evidence supporting electoral fraud, in the primary, disfavoring Melenchon stifled in the media, using the [likely unworded] ‘conspiracy theory’ dismissal technique
5. business as usual with NATO marching to war with Russia, with Macron’s reluctant admissions of ‘word order’ realities, forcing his hand….
I’m convinced there are clear trends in manipulating ‘democratic’ electoral processes, which are observable, but I’m still working on formalizing the emerging electoral process manipulation trends, at least for the prime techniques observable.
I might rant it out, incidentally, by blog at: urblurb.wordpress.com
Innoculants:
1. very, very robust, disciplined election scrutineering and reporting processes and execution; it will be tricky getting any meaningful information through the mainstream, so
2. ready alternative information distribution channels, and as close to instantaneous reporting by them
3. ultimately, however, lawyers will have to be involved, and immediately, to take actions to challenge the first round results
(as I write this analysis, having thought it through as I wrote, I am becoming more and more convinced of the prediction, but… it may be beatable! remember, this is France, and they can really get stuff stuck in their craugh, when they want to; I hope they’re still like that).
due to the decrepit state of the judicial systems in the ‘first-world’ ‘western’ ‘democracies’, they move ridiculously slowly (the lawyer busy themselves with preparing large bills); so,
a ‘hurry-up’ process needs to be prepared, and just the details finalized to launch, at multiple fronts and levels of government, as is viable under French election law.
I’m convinced the fix is in, but strangely optimistic that it could be beaten.
If you are in France, and want to take the battle to the offensive (there’s no other defense like it) ready:
1. disciplined process-driven scrutineering
2. non-traditional communications channels to broad electoral bases
3. ‘hurry-up’ legal processes, across multiple fronts and all available legal levels of challenge
4. watch and collect the data/evidence
5. communicate via established channels
6. cross the ‘t’s and dot the ‘i’s and launch legal challenges
Good luck.
France has lead the way before, (possibly due to an entrenched cultural obstinacy), it would be good to have a strike back now. Showing it that it could be done might possibly co-ordinate the many submarines, stealthily lying in wait, across the deserts of the world.
I found it slightly amusing that the press was relatively mum about the fact that “… it emerged that Jugelé was a proud defender of gay rights. A member of Flag, a French association for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender police officers, he had joined protests against Russia’s ban on “homosexual propaganda” before the 2014 Olympics”.
No suggestion was made that he might have been targeted precisely for that by the ISIS. “Radical” Muslims kill gays to uphold the Sharia Law. But you can’t talk to much about that because it would give water to the mill of the “Xeno-Islamophobes” and push the vote towards the most undesirable candidate, Le Pen who has the gall to want to keep a modicum of “French identity” in the country called France.
We should not ‘forget’ that it is only the “Fachos” (inspired by Putin) who bash LGBT. You have noticed the righteous denunciation at UNO of Ramzan Kadyrov for his persecution of gays (inspired by Putin, of course, not by the Sharia Law).
Or, perhaps we would hear that it was Putin who shot the gay to ‘interfere’ in the elections.
09h40 (UTC-05:00)
As predicted, first round ‘ideal-establishment’ outcome, should guarantee (likely) their man, Macron, wins the presidency.
Also, immediately anti-Le Pen propaganda in Le Monde (it also used to be good), but I won’t hack the pay wall to get the ‘details’, no point.
I guess it would be difficult to find out if there are any legal challenges to the first results, based on scrutineering.
My understanding is the French establishment is preparing a civil war / colour revolution as the French population has learned and now openly states the establishment / deep state is a traitor. More signs of such a civil war are visible in the coordination of riots planned for this weekend and the following two weeks.
As an American, I have lived in France since 1994. I find the current situation normal as the French State did not adventure into any sort of integration of it’s populations. Instead, they have side washed the whole problem making up I don’t know what sort of fake associations and social fixers to keep the problem at bay without ever trying to fix it.
Of last, they thought it would be judicious to elect arabic ministers and other members to government to show some kind of social justice – a total failure.
The French don’t care about their fusions.
They are only looking at the sorry state of affairs actually.
Actually, French don’t care about arabs – this is some big blown out propaganda issue.
On a daily basis, like in Jerusalem, Arabs, Christians and Jews all get along and live together in France.
Only the news is telling us differently.
I don’t know who these hell bangers are to do these dirty deeds, but even their mothers and fathers in France will say they don’t understand and I believe them.
Where this evil came from is anyone’s guess but it didn’t come from the people living on the ground in France and that I can confirm wholeheartedly.
I’m French, and I confirm that as well. No confidence at all in the elites: no justice, only mafia behaviours, no taxes, only robbery, no education, only propaganda, no laws , only ways for the mafia to increase robbery and enforce the so called “justice”
“But the establishment absolutely cannot cope with the rise of a leftist candidate in any country”
Uh, come on. Tsipras capitulated in few weeks. Leftists are estabilishment’s best friends, and everybody knows it in Europe.
“19:41 GMT
Jean-Luc Mélenchon has taken to Facebook saying that he and his team do not “acknowledge the result on the basis of polls.” He also called on commentators to exercise caution when reporting on the election.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon
57 minutes ago
Nous ne validons pas le score annoncé sur la base de sondages. Les résultats des grandes villes ne sont pas encore connus. J’appelle à la retenue et les commentateurs à la prudence.
JLM”
https://www.rt.com/news/385741-france-election-live-updates/
Anglo Zionists have occupied France since Sarkozy. They will not let go without a lot of blood being spilled.
Much earlier than Sarkozy:
« le capitaine Dreyfus est bien plus grand que le capitaine Bonaparte. Il a conquis la France et l’a gardée »
If you want to be informed in detail read these minutes of meeting Ville de Paris 7 avril 1938