COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Friday, April 21, 2017

Marine Le Pen refused meeting Lebanon's religious leaders because they wanted her to wear a head scarf





This is why millions of French people will vote Marine Le Pen for president


Marine Le Pen has lambasted by her rivals, criticised by leading economists and business leaders, declared public enemy number one by most politicians outside her party and had war declared on her by sextremists Femen.

Yet on Sunday in the first round of the French presidential election somewhere between seven and eight million French people are expected to vote for her as the next president of France.

We asked some of those voters who attended her raucous rally in Paris to tell us why, in just one sentence or two.

Change

"She will change something. We need to give her a chance. She can’t do anything catastrophic. If she doesn’t succeed then we will try someone else," said Francois Glauzy, a chauffeur from the Paris suburb of Bagneux. 

French first

"I want her to give a chance to French people above the others and give work to people who need it," said Rosaline Glauzy, also from the Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Grandfather Denis Thierry, a former member of the Communist party from Paris told The Local there must be "national priority" for the French.

"I have grandchildren. They are all on the list for social housing but not one of them has been given lodging. They need to prioritize lodging and jobs for French people."

Student Roxanne Boissel said: "I know a lot of students who don’t have work because those jobs are going to immigrants. France has homeless living in the streets but immigrants are given housing.

Borders

"We need to control our borders and our country. France is nothing like it was 20 years ago," said Florence Gerault a teacher from Versailles.

Radical Islam

"I will vote Marine Le Pen to stop the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in France more than anything else because it’s a real problem for the country and for all of Europe," said Gregory a civil servant from near Paris. "All those who are considered a danger should be expelled from France."



Tough on crime

Martine a civil servant who is originally from Guadeloupe said: "I want to feel safe when I leave my house in the morning. Criminals are not punished in this country. If she doesn’t win, I won’t stay in France. I don’t feel safe."

Sovereignty

"I’m voting for Le Pen for a return to national sovereignty and a return of power to French people so we are dictated to by Brussels. I want a return to a Europe of nations," said Valentin Manent, aged 28 a stage technician from the city of Orleans.

Immigration

"In the current economic context immigration is just not sustainable. It causes difficulties in terms of security and needs to be controlled," said 27-year-old Bruno.

"I’ll vote her for social justice. Our elderly people and our handicapped need to be looked after before immigrants are looked after," said 38-year old Jeanne Berullier from Orleans.

Antonio Davisseau, a young student from Toulon in the south of France added: "We have millions of unemployed and homeless people and the government does nothing for these people yet they welcome all the immigrants. Marine Le Pen is the only one who will change things radically."

Kevin, a 25-year-old from Nancy who works in marketing spoke of the immigrant communities in poor housing estates.

"We can’t accept more immigrants, when we can’t assimilate those that are already here," he said. "They live in their own communities and it just encourages integralism."

Veronica Radoux, from suburbs of Paris said: "France cannot take on all the misery in the world. At some point we have to say ‘stop’. Marine Le Pen can change things. She is willing.

Alexandre a 20-year-old student said: "Most of the criminals we have are immigrants and they don't want to be French. They want to keep their own identity."

Revive "forgotten France"

"Voting for Le Pen is about getting the forgotten France back again," said Quentin a 29-year-old political advisor for the National Front.

"There is a big divide between the big cities in France and the rest of the country. The small places on the outskirts are all having their banks and shops closed down. Some cities and villages are dying. I'm defending these territories. We all are."
Identity

Cyril, an engineer from Paris, said: "There is so much immigration that we are losing our identity. Our principle value is respect and there’s none left."
Elisabeth Lalanne de Haut, a National Front regional councillor from Haute Normandie, said: "There’s only Marine Le Pen who can restore French values and our customs, traditions and our homeland, because certain other candidates don’t like France."

A 60-year-old retired man from Toulouse who gave his name as Jean-Pierre said: "Before, I used to speak to anyone, but I don’t want to speak to people wearing the veil. What would I say to her? I Just want things to be balanced. We are turning into Lebanon."

Valentin Caceres, a 20-year-old student from the greater Paris region of Ile-de-France said: Each country is different. When I go to Morocco or the United States I like to discover new cultures and I want France to keep its own culture. We have the impression that France is no longer France."

"She is the only one who is a patriot and the only one who will defend French values of liberty, egality and fraternity. These are the values of our civilisation of our story, but we are losing them," said retired 61-year-old Christian de la Motte from Paris.

"Africans who come to France come with their own traditions and their own culture and little by little they impose their culture and traditions," he added. "I don’t want to eat halal meat or have people praying in the streets and we don’t want to see women wearing the veil in the streets."

To bring back the franc
"Marine Le Pen is the only one who defend our monetary sovereignty. In this economic crisis France needs to be able to devalue its own currency to boost exports," said 25-year-old Alexis Robert from the Champagne region of eastern France.

All those reasons...
Franz Pfifferling a 30-year-old carer.
"There’s not just one reason to vote for Marine Le Pen, there are many. Everything is linked. Migration, security, the economy. We need to control our borders not close them like 95 percent of all the other countries in the world.

"They have made a waste of this country. When you think of those people who fought for the country in two wars. If they could see the France of today…"

30 comments:

  1. QUESTION

    Why would they not vote for Marine Le Pen?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It seems that there are many French folk that do not think their country has been laid waste, do not want to 'bring back the Franc', they are not adverse to speaking to women wearing veils, etc...

      The one fellow says the hinterlands of France are dying, but having people move to France is 'anti-French'.
      French 'culture' ... the majority of the French don't relish it.

      Those are just some reasons, the basic idea, most Frenchmen are not reactionaries.
      The like the 'new' France and do not yearn for some mythical past 'greatness'

      They learned the lessons of Maginot Line.
      It was one hell of a wall, but did not stop illegals from flooding into France.



      Delete
    2. Jack, a supporter of Hamas, thinks all is ok in France.

      Nothing more needs to be said.

      Delete
    3. .

      Why would they not vote for Marine Le Pen?

      All they need to do is look at the US and see what electing a hypocritical, faux populist, anti-intellectual real estate developer results in.

      The only difference? I don't know if Le Pen has any talent as a real estate developer.

      .

      .

      Delete
    4. .

      While the election of Le Pen would probably be a disaster for France, the other key players also have their problems. Melenchon is a socialist who wants a 100% tax on earnings over 483,000 euros. Fillon was running on an anti-corruption platform (drain the swamp?) until it was learned that he too is apparently corrupt (big time). Macron seems to be the best of the lot, but the current president, Hollande, says he owns Macron, possibly not too serious if in fact Hollande didn't at one time have a 4% approval rating.

      France like the US, Poland, Italy and other countries in the EU is suffering from 'elite fatigue'. They are tired of business as usual, they are fed up with slow growth, high unemployment, immigration policies, threats to their benefits, and they are looking for change in all the wrong places.

      The two major parties that between them have ruled France since the beginning of the Fifth Republic (around 1958) will not even have a candidates running in the election. The current president, Hollande, was the most popular president in its history until he wasn't. As noted above, at one point his approval level dropped to 4%.

      .

      Delete
    5. THEY'RE ALL DICKS IN FRANCE, TOO !!!!

      Delete
  2. Analyst Who Predicted Trump Bets on Le Pen....DRUDGE

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-21/analyst-who-predicted-trump-ascendancy-is-betting-on-le-pen-win

    ReplyDelete
  3. Let's point out a few Trump successes...

    Supreme Court.

    Pipelines.

    Bully pulpit for driving down illegals.

    Record lows in unemployment

    New jobs not in service

    Excessive Regulations roll back

    like it or not? redline in syria when it comes to chemical weapons enforced

    American enemies are NOT emboldened

    Consumer confidence at record highs.

    2nd amendment now not in danger

    country wide concealed carry law being discussed

    Niki Haley at the UN

    Now compare that to what would have been with Hillary or what was with obama for 8 years...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No. 13: Entertainment Value, i.e., keeping Quirk and Ash in a balled up tizzy everyday.

      Delete
    2. Eye wash ... not a single real news item.

      Mr Trump an claim no success for the Supreme Court, it existed before his election, it will exist after his term of office is over.

      Pipelines carrying foreign oil to foreign markets across US aquifers is no success for US, it is exploitation of US resources for foreign profit.

      Illegal immigration was already at record low levels, due to economics, not rhetoric.

      "New jobs not in service" is nonsensical statement.

      Restructuring Dodd-Frank may or may not become a success. The restructuring, itself, is nothing, there are no results to be measured.

      The next two statements contradict each other, if US enemies were not emboldened, the rebels in Syria would not have been stockpiling chemical weapons. If the US enemies were not emboldened, there would not be a US armada 'steaming towards' Korea.

      Mr Trump was not involved in the ratification of the 2nd Amendment. There have bee no Amendment offered to repeal the 2nd Amendment. Mr Trump has had absolutely no impact upon the Bill of Rights.

      The US should leave the UN, sending a 'better mouthpiece' is no success.
      It has not advanced the US position on the world stage, as evidenced by North Korea's actions


      Mr Trump kow-towing to the Chinese, lying about Charlie Chi-com's currency manipulations, that is not a success, but a strategic failure.

      Have a great day, be sure to check with your ESL instructor before posting gibberish, again, "O"rdure


      Delete
    3. One reads, here at the EB, that Mr Trump is 'good' for business ...

      That is just "Fake News" being propagated, by some posters, here.
      Here are just two snippets that are "Real"

      Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) announced earlier this year it is closing more than 400 branches by the end of 2018

      ... and ...

      Bebe Stores announced that it was shutting down and closing all of its stores as the women's clothing retailer became the latest in a string of liquidations and bankruptcies that have swept the struggling sector.

      Nothing a President can do about that kind of stuff ... is there?
      especially if the Chinese can go from being currency manipulators to not, while eating a savory piece of chocolate cake ...

      Delete
    4. Old news Rat. Wells Fargo has been ripping off customers for a few years, etc. they are closing branches because customers are running from them due to a major trust factor.

      Bebe, like some other retailers are closing because they sat idly while the ecommerce tidal wave swamped them.

      Your rants remind me of the "it's all Bush's fault and your a racist" meme from 8 years ago.

      Delete
    5. But I'm sure Gary Johnson would not have allowed either to vanquish. All while sipping on bong water.

      Delete
  4. .

    Dortmund Soccer Team Bus Bombing

    Remember that soccer team bus bombing from about a week ago?

    Looked like a terrorist attack.

    Evidently not?

    Looks like it was a stock market bet that went wrong both in conception and implementation.

    Soccer Team Bus Bombing Was Part Of Stock Option Plot, German Prosecutors Say

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Europeon Capitalists ... plainly evildoers.

      Could these violent Capitalists export their terror to US?

      Should we not have a travel ban on Germany, to keep the US safe from these crazy Capitalists?

      Delete

    2. France is leaving Europe.

      Abandoning Capitalism, as likely as not.

      Little matter who wins the election

      Delete
  5. Charles Krauthammer: With North Korea, We Do Have Cards To Play


    CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER6:14 AM ET

    The crisis with North Korea may appear trumped up. It's not.

    Given that Pyongyang has had nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles for more than a decade, why the panic now? Because North Korea is headed for a nuclear breakout. The regime has openly declared that it is racing to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach the United States — and thus destroy an American city at a Kim Jong Un push of a button.

    The North Koreans are not bluffing. They've made significant progress with solid-fuel rockets, which are more quickly deployable and thus more easily hidden and less subject to detection and pre-emption.

    At the same time, Pyongyang has been steadily adding to its supply of nuclear weapons. Today it has an estimated 10 to 16. By 2020, it could very well have a hundred. (For context: the British are thought to have about 200.)

    Hence the crisis. We simply cannot concede to Kim Jong Un the capacity to annihilate American cities.

    Some will argue for deterrence. If it held off the Russians and the Chinese for all these years, why not the North Koreans? First, because deterrence, even with a rational adversary like the old Soviet Union, is never a sure thing. We came pretty close to nuclear war in October 1962.

    And second, because North Korea's regime is bizarre in the extreme, a hermit kingdom run by a weird, utterly ruthless and highly erratic god-king. You can't count on Caligula. The regime is savage and cult-like; its people, robotic. Karen Elliott House once noted that while Saddam Hussein's Iraq was a prison, North Korea was an ant colony.

    Ant colonies do not have good checks and balances.

    If not deterrence, then prevention. But how? The best hope is for China to exercise its influence and induce North Korea to give up its programs.

    For years, the Chinese made gestures, but never did anything remotely decisive. They have their reasons. It's not just that they fear a massive influx of refugees if the Kim regime disintegrates. It's also that Pyongyang is a perpetual thorn in the side of the Americans, whereas regime collapse brings South Korea (and thus America) right up to the Yalu River.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So why would the Chinese do our bidding now?

      For a variety of reasons.

      They don't mind tension but they don't want war. And the risk of war is rising. They know that the ICBM threat is totally unacceptable to the Americans. And that the current administration appears particularly committed to enforcing this undeclared red line.
      Chinese interests are being significantly damaged by the erection of regional missile defenses to counteract North Korea's nukes. South Korea is racing to install a THAAD anti-missile system. Japan may follow. THAAD's mission is to track and shoot down incoming rockets from North Korea but, like any missile shield, it necessarily reduces the power and penetration of the Chinese nuclear arsenal.
      For China to do nothing risks the return of the American tactical nukes in South Korea, withdrawn in 1991.
      If the crisis deepens, the possibility arises of South Korea and, most importantly, Japan going nuclear themselves. The latter is the ultimate Chinese nightmare.
      These are major cards America can play. Our objective should be clear. At a minimum, a testing freeze. At the maximum, regime change.

      Because Beijing has such a strong interest in the current regime, we could sweeten the latter offer by abjuring Korean reunification. This would not be Germany, where the communist state was absorbed into the West. We would accept an independent, but Finlandized, North.

      During the Cold War, Finland was, by agreement, independent but always pro-Russian in foreign policy. Here we would guarantee that a new North Korea would be independent but always oriented toward China. For example, the new regime would forswear ever joining any hostile alliance.

      There are deals to be made. They may have to be underpinned by demonstrations of American resolve. A pre-emptive attack on North Korea's nuclear facilities and missile sites would be too dangerous, as it would almost surely precipitate an invasion of South Korea with untold millions of casualties. We might, however, try to shoot down a North Korean missile in mid-flight to demonstrate both our capacity to defend ourselves and the futility of a North Korean missile force that can be neutralized technologically.

      The Korea crisis is real and growing. But we are not helpless. We have choices. We have assets. It's time to deploy them.

      http://www.investors.com/politics/columnists/charles-krauthammer-with-north-korea-we-do-have-cards-to-play/

      Delete

    2. For the past 50 years the North Koreans could have wiped out Seoul with a "Press of a Button".

      Crazy as those Kims are ... they never have pressed that button.

      Th Chinese .. they used to manipulate their currency, then ... a piece of chocolate cake later ... they did not.

      Just like the 'threat' posed by North Korea.

      Delete
  6. American imprisoned for 3 years in Egypt returns home after Trump negotiates release....DRUDGE

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/freed-egyptian-american-prisoner-returns-home-following-trump-intervention/2017/04/20/d569fe1e-2608-11e7-bb9d-8cd6118e1409_story.html?utm_term=.236afadc57ad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WaPo: Trump’s Sissi embrace wins freedom for jailed American in Egypt
      POSTED AT 10:01 AM ON APRIL 21, 2017 BY ED MORRISSEY

      An American woman held in Egypt for almost three years has been acquitted of abuse charges related to a charity she and her husband ran for homeless children in the country — and her family is “extremely grateful” to Donald Trump for her release. CBS News reports that Aya Hijazi is on her way home, and free of the “bogus” charges that arose during the political maelstrom of Egypt’s Arab Spring era:

      The lawyer of Egyptian-American charity worker Aya Hijazi says she has been released from prison after nearly three years of detention.

      Taher Abol Nasr told The Associated Press she was released late Tuesday, two days after a court acquitted her of charges of child abuse that were widely dismissed as bogus by human rights groups and U.S. officials. …

      President Trump did not publicly mention the case when he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi earlier this month, but a senior White House official had said ahead of the meeting that the case would be addressed.

      Apparently, he did. The family’s attorney told Fox & Friends that the family credited Trump’s “personal engagement” on the issue, as well as the legal team in Egypt. After meeting with Sissi, the case got fast-tracked into court with a new judge, who let Hijazi go.....

      http://hotair.com/archives/2017/04/21/wapo-trumps-sissi-embrace-wins-freedom-jailed-american-egypt/

      Delete
  7. April 21, 2017
    Russia and China Can't Afford Rogue Nuke Neighbors
    By James Lewis
    Vladimir Putin is an eminently sane power player. So is China's Xi Jinping. Donald Trump, contrary to his liberal enemies, built his hotel and reality show empires using careful chess moves against tough competition.

    There is an open question whether Kim III, Kim Jong-un, is a rational actor. He certainly goes out of his way to look like a nuke-happy madman, but that can also be strategic. We simply do not know, but with three carrier groups within range of Pyongyang, plus Japan and South Korea, formidably armed, plus China, which reportedly moved 150,000 troops to its border with North Korea, we are likely to find out the answer sometime soon.


    The mullahs have been threatening war and genocide ever since Jimmy Carter and the Gray Eminence Zbigniew Brzezinski allowed Ayatollah Khomeini to take over the most progressive country in the Middle East. The Shah's Iran and the ayatollahs are two very different countries, and I still cannot understand why Carter (and later on Obama) colluded in the nuclearization of a self-confessed Armageddon regime. It made no sense then, and it still makes no sense.

    But both North Korea and mullah-ruled Iran have great power allies: China and Russia, respectively. Russia has had nuclear weapons since Stalin had U.S. communists steal the plans from the Manhattan Project, and China developed nukes with Soviet aid during the Mao era. But after the ideological fanaticism of Stalin and Mao, both of those enormous Asian land powers adopted rational great power policies. They did not turn into paper tigers, and Moscow and Beijing took advantage of every weakness shown by Carter, Clinton, and Obama. This is why the world is in the fix it is in today, with two rogue client regimes moving closer every day to nuclear bombs and ICBMs.

    Democrats have been whistling past that graveyard for three decades, and liberals and their fakestream media collude in that massive blind spot. Serious international problems are for Republicans to solve after the Democrats have royally screwed things up.

    Well, somebody's gotta do it, and if you could look into the heart of Putin and Xi, you might see they are secretly relieved that the United States is becoming a serious power again.

    (So are the Europeans, who are the shrillest hostile-dependent teenagers of them all.)....

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/04/russia_and_china_cant_afford_rogue_nuke_neighbors.html

    ReplyDelete
  8. AT often says what you have been thinking, only cogently -

    April 21, 2017
    The Road to Defeating the Islamic State Runs through Kurdistan
    By Sherkoh Abbas and Robert Sklaroff

    Now that President Trump concluded that the Syrian gas attack "crossed many, many lines" and reacted accordingly, he must formulate a battle-plan to convert dynamic "talk" into ongoing "walk."

    In the process, he should recognize that it is in America's best interest to recognize Kurdistan as a sovereign state and to deduce how to proceed thereafter based upon the historic, military, economic, religious and political implications of this overdue stance.


    Its immediate impact would be felt in the Pentagon, as it plans how to defeat the Islamic State, but its long-term import can provide a template as to how to remodel the Middle East to maximize the interests of the United States, American allies, and long-suffering Middle Eastern peoples....

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2017/04/the_road_to_defeating_the_islamic_state_runs_through_kurdistan.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. O come on, Tucker, you can do better -

    TUCKER'S FIRST GUEST: CAITLYN JENNER....DRUDGE

    Caitlin's parents live in Clarkston, Washington, whom he visited not so long ago, giving the local rag something with which to stir up a little interest in their failing paper....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tucker is just being criticized, lightly, on The Five, and is responding that he is interested in Caitlin's 'politics'....

      Delete
  10. NEWS FLASH FROM "Q"BS NEWS - (working out or the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan)

    Maddow’s show on massive anti-Maduro protests: “Unrest in Venezuela over Trump donations”
    POSTED AT 5:21 PM ON APRIL 21, 2017 BY ALLAHPUNDIT

    Judge for yourself. The relevant part begins at around 3:50 but the key line comes at 5:48 over scenes of crowds being tear-gassed during the protests: “And now today Venezuelans are enraged anew by this brand new FEC filing from the White House.” Hearing that and watching those images, if you were a dimwit member of the “Resistance,” you’d conclude that anger over the donations had driven people back out into the streets and that Venezuela was now melting down “anew” over the White House’s petty greed. That’s motivated reasoning at work: If you’re watching this show, chances are you want to believe that Trump is the cause of all the world’s problems, especially when the alternative is blaming Venezuela’s socialist leader. So here’s Maddow giving you reason to do so.

    http://hotair.com/archives/2017/04/21/maddows-show-massive-anti-maduro-protests-unrest-venezuela-trump-donations/

    Proving, yet once again, everything is The Donald's fault.

    ReplyDelete