Good or Bad for the Jews

"Good or Bad for the Jews"

Many years ago, and for many years, I would travel to Morocco to visit uncles, cousins, and my paternal grandmother. Some lived in Tangiers;...

Monday, April 24, 2017

Le Séisme?

French election results seem to confirm the two surviving candidates of the crowded first round of Presidential voting as Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. As of this writing, a bit over 2% separates first-place finisher Macron from Le Pen. That means, absent some last minute vote surge by one of the other approximately 3,570 candidates, Macron and Le Pen will do battle May 7 to see who becomes the next President of France.

Macron, of course, is now the new darling of the French and global media, who now portray him as the last chance to save France from the Le Pen apocalypse. Those more familiar with French politics than I please feel free to correct me, but it seems that both candidates project a vaguely non-establishment aura, although young Macron, born in 1977, has a record as a former Socialist Minister for the Economy (2014-2016) and, presumably, will have to explain/defend France's lackluster economic performance during his tenure. Le Pen, labelled by almost all the press as "far right," despite a lack of evidence for that label, has run a very populist campaign with many of the same themes that we saw Trump use in his successful drive to the White House. The MSM, of course, are calling for unity against Le Pen, and the pollsters predict Macron will beat her handily next month. That happened to her father in 2002, when the establishment factions joined forces to defeat him, but we'll see if the past is prologue.

Whether this new Le Pen wins or not, however, we, in my view, have seen a seismic event in French politics. The established political parties of the Fifth Republic got sidelined. Le Pen's performance, in particular, has sent a mighty shiver down the collective spine of the globalist elite who run the EU, the World Bank, the IMF, the UN, etc, -- perhaps even more so than the "surprising" Trump victory in the US. I also would note that Marine Le Pen's possession, presumably, of a vagina gets her no support from the Progs. "Far right" vaginas don't count.

Why do I say this has the potential to prove even more of an earthquake than Trump's win?

France arguably is the mother of modern progressivism; it is the French who gave us the concept of "right" and "left"; it is the French Revolution, not its elder American sister, that has served as the model for revolution for the past two hundred years all over the world. Prog talk (To the ramparts!) is full of references--see Marx--to the French Revolution of 1789, and to the Paris revolts of 1832, 1848, and 1968. The progs are drawn to the grotesque dramatics and hypocrisies of the French Revolution, where terror, mass murder, and imperial wars were launched in the name of freedom and brotherhood. Why? Because there was a self-annoited arrogant "intellectual" elite in charge of all things, in charge, most notably, of shaping the sans-culots into progressive killing machines at the beck-and-call of the revolutionary elite. Progs see themselves as the inheritors of that elite. Lest we forget, France, more than any other country, is the producer of the original cigarette-smoking, beret-wearing "radical intellectual," e.g., Camus, Sartre, de Beauvoir, who questioned and derided everything about the very bourgeois society that gave them fame and, in many cases, riches.

In rides Le Pen. For all her flaws as a campaigner, she has thrown a massive stink bomb, perhaps even bigger than her father's, into the progressive world. She has shown, again, that underneath the PC culture, underneath the censorship, and the atmosphere of ridicule for those who believe in something other than the state, there is a living breathing body of citizens and voters who will not be silenced, who want to see an end to the destruction of their country and culture. Progressivism is skating on thin ice. That is the message, and while the progs might well manage to patch over the holes in the ice this time, what about the next time? And the next?

Let's see what happens.

42 comments:

  1. Le Pen might have had a better chance in the upcoming runoff if her opponent had turned out to be the scandal-taInted François Fillon, which would have provided the most direct analogy to our own 2016 election. But instead she'll face Emmanuel Macron, who has almost as much claim to being an outsider as she does.

    Given the history of the French left and right burying their differences to defeat the Front National (they have done this routinely in local and regional elections to deny mayoral victories and seats in the National Assembly to the FN), Macron should win the runoff with a margin almost as big as the odious Jacque Chirac's in 2002.

    In the broad picture, this won't be a bad thing. Le Pen carries more than the usual amount of French anti-American baggage despite her praise of Trump, and she's not shy about publicly cozying up to Putin and Russia. Hollande damaged only his own country, not its relations with the United States, and there's no indication that Macron will be any worse than Hollande has been.

    What's significant in France is that voters rejected both of the major parties, something that many Americans can only dream of doing. The trend in Western nations toward picking outsiders is still alive and well, but in France it's taking a different form than it does here.

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    1. "Le Pen carries more than the usual amount of French anti-American baggage..."

      Is this supposed to be a problem? Being against the imperial American government, disliking a subservient French role to it, is hardly the same thing as being against the American people.

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  2. I read on Marcon's wikipedia page that he's all in with Merkel's open borders, let the Muslims invade policy.

    Since I don't have a clue on how campaigning in France works, I'm going to assume Le Pen is going to nail Macron to the wall over this, accusing him of aiding Islamic terrorism.

    Popcorn anyone?

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  3. Is Micron an intelligent version of young Trudeau? But if your premises are wrong, it's no use being intelligent in your arguments.

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    1. What a horrible analogy, more horrible by its accuracy.

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  4. As a side note, don't lump in Camus with Sartre and de Beauvoir. Among other things, Camus never falsely claimed to have done much with the French Resistance, unlike the latter two, and also thoroughly rejected Stalinism, unlike the latter two.

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    1. I am not a philosopher nor a philosophy student. And I am the better for it.

      To the uneducated observer, then, there seems to be an undercurrent of self-hatred to most 20th century philosophy. I say that because one cannot hate everything, as 20th century philosophers obviously do, without hating one's self as well. The feminists obviously hate themselves, or at least hate their femininity. The Communists clearly hate all of the higher aspirations of mankind. The existentialists warp quickly into nihilism, the final refuge of self-hatred. So of course Sartre and the bitch deBeauvoir were communists. Of course they were, there is nothing else they could be. Marxists.org still has an interview with her posted online in which she states the family must be destroyed in order to "liberate" women. Gender-nonspecificity means "I don't want to be a mommy or a daddy, in spite of the fact I have a penis or a vagina". Having your dick surgically removed is the ultimate act of self hatred, isn't it?

      The destruction of the family is complete, and they are in the process of codifying it into law. This is the result of 20th century philosophy, and 19th going back to Marx.

      "The progs are drawn to the grotesque dramatics and hypocrisies of the French Revolution, where terror, mass murder, and imperial wars were launched in the name of freedom and brotherhood. Why? Because there was a self-annoited arrogant "intellectual" elite in charge of all things, in charge, most notably, of shaping the sans-culots into progressive killing machines at the beck-and-call of the revolutionary elite. Progs see themselves as the inheritors of that elite. Lest we forget, France, more than any other country, is the producer of the original cigarette-smoking, beret-wearing "radical intellectual," e.g., Camus, Sartre, de Beauvoir, who questioned and derided everything about the very bourgeois society that gave them fame and, in many cases, riches."

      The progs live in cities. The terror certainly began in cities, and to the extent the cities wish to burn themselves and kill themselves off, do they need any matches? Progs are vastly concentrated and over represented in cities. Even short of fame or riches, the modern society they hate gives them life itself. And I mean, the very fragile complex society in which they live.

      So let's imagine an actual conflict between the city-bound progs and the rest of us. To the extent the patriot community imagines itself organizing into small defensive groups, those would be useful in defending against sorties from the cities by progs bent on looting. But our defenses would be thin and scattered, and IMO we would not be in a position to benefit from a purely defensive stance. We would need to take advantage of the fragile complexity inherent in all city life, using it as a force multiplier.

      Surely I'm not the first to think of this.

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    2. Develop these ideas. I am an urban non-prog.

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    3. It was the French countryside and small towns that resisted the Revolution.

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  5. Le Pen is mightier than le sword ... particularly if there are any more Jahadi attacks in the interim.

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  6. More than 50% of the votes went to the left after 5 years of hollande. Indeed, melenchon went from 11 to 19.5! My country is, pardon my French, fucked.

    Le pen will do well if she gets more than 40%. She's not very good and it has shown during the campaign.

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  7. 'Mad,

    When are we going to see former US Secretary of State Madeline Alldark come out for LePen? Particularly after her comments in the recent US election on how women ought to vote?

    Green Bear

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  8. Is it possible that many French voters might resent all their neighbors speaking out to tell them which candidate to vote for?

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  9. Back in the 1990s one of the PBS affiliates in Central NJ used to broadcast the France2 evening news, straight-up with no subtitles. Even back then there reports of no-go zones in the banlieus, and of the marauding gangs of "youths" who burned hundreds of cars on New Year's Eve (the number keeps increasing).

    Somewhere along the way Jacques Chirac decided this was not good PR for the country (and probably for himself re: the kickbacks story http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/11/world/court-shields-president-chirac-from-corruption-inquiries.html), and established France 24 for domestic consumption. Voilà, English-language news with features on the countryside, fashion and wine replaced dreary France2.

    Now there's the alternate media.

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    1. That's a reason I never took the train from DeGaulle Airport. They stop in the banlieus.

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  10. As to Parisian revolts enshrined in progressive memory, do not forget the Paris Commune of 1871!

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  11. French and EU politics explained in 1:13,
    https://youtu.be/ER-eFnWJB58

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    1. Law and Order!
      "Mongo Like Candy"
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwNJla8WvoY

      OW~~~

      Delete
    2. Here's where it should be: Oui/Non

      Delete
  12. Yes, very true, progressivism is skating on thin ice nowadays. It doesn´t seem like an ex-Rotschildt banker, pro-EU, open borders and soft on terrorism will be the Man of the Year. He is just another Hollande, propped up by MSM and the establishment. However, I believe that the EU still has some pull on the French. Or rather, the EU-money. They are bribed with enormous amounts of money for their agricultural sector. And I guess you know about the crazy carousel that happens every month. The entire EU-parliament ( people, paper, files etc) moves for a week every month ( !! ) between Brussels and Strasbourg on the other side of the border, just to please the French. Enormous costs , enormous waste of money.
    But American politicians should consider this: 61 % of French voters choose LePen, Fillon or Melenchon. All favor looser ties to the US and repair relations with Russia.. The message is, Washington, leave us alone to do what is best for France ( or Europe ).
    SwL

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  13. Unfortunately, I can not see Le Pan getting more than around 45% in the runoff and this isn't horseshoes. In all likelihood France will continue to commit nationicide.

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    1. The genie cannot be pushed back into the bottle, Front National, and similar parties in Europe, will grow because the problems will grow.Even if Macron wins the presidency in May , he , a social liberal, may have to handle a nationalistic-conservative parliament. Not easy.
      SwL

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  14. As a thrower of stinkbombs into complacent and negligent conformist circles, Le Pen has no peer in France. Whether she'd be a good president of France is another matter. Some Americans have forgotten the distinction between these functions; the alternative of Hillary made it moot, from nomination to election. But it is important.

    I don't much care about the EU--should I?--but it would be awkward if Le Pen took France out of NATO to play footsie with the Russians.

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  15. Smooth Move of the Race Award!
    BUT, can she feather the throttle in the corners?

    "Marine Le Pen's decision to take a leave of absence from the day-to-day management of the party appeared to be an attempt to portray herself as being above the narrow world of National Front politics and broaden her appeal to the wider electorate ahead of the crucial runoff vote.
    . . .
    "Under France's Fifth Republic, the president is the head of state, very much like a monarch in other countries, a role described by founder Charles De Gaulle as being above party politics - something Le Pen may have had in mind in her Monday night statement."

    http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-election-idUSKBN17R0YW?il=0

    On Watch~~~

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  16. Unfortunately if Le Pen loses (and I believe she will), those who want an end to the destruction of their country and culture will remain submerged under the PC, censorship and ridicule.

    France is f*d.

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    1. Emmanuel (whats in a name) says now that he opposes the deportation of those terrorists and Islamist s having their way - all without a rule change. He may have just thrown the election to Le Pen (the power of... the Pen... mightier than the sword/Emmanuel).

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  17. I would suggest reading A French Genocide: The Vendée by Reynald Secher for a reminder of what the urban progs have in mind for the countryside and small towns, given half a chance.
    Sheryl

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  18. Thanks Sheryl! The Amazon review of "A French Genocide" below Reminds one of the latest edition of the Democrat/Progressive agenda for American "Deplorables"! Truly incredible what catastrophic damage to the 'body politique' that an Electoral College, a Constitutional Republic, and a Lovable Tycoon can prevent! At least, allowing the targeted underdogs some SHTF prep time to arm themselves and maneuver against the irregular force of tyranny!
    On Watch~~~
    "Let's Roll"

    To Wit:
    "This work provides a detailed narrative of the civil war in the Vendee region of western France, which lasted for much of the 1790s but was most intensely fought at the height of the Reign of Terror, from March 1793 to early 1795.

    In this shocking book, Reynald Secher argues that the massacres which resulted from the conflict between "patriotic" revolutionary forces and those of the counterrevolution were not the inevitable result of fierce battle, but rather were "premediated, committed in cold blood, massive and systematic, and undertaken with the conscious and proclaimed will to destroy a well-defined region, and to exterminate an entire people.

    Drawing upon previously unavailable sources, Secher argues that more than 14 per cent of the population and 18 per cent of the housing stock in the Vendee was destroyed in this catastrophic conflict.

    Secher's review of the social and political structure of the region presents a different image of the people of the Vendee than the stereotype common among historians favorable to the French Revolution. He demonstrates that they were not archaic and superstitious or even necessarily adverse to the forward-looking forces of the Revolution.

    Rather, the region turned against the Revolution because of a series of misguided policy choices that failed to satisfy the desire for reform and offended the religious sensibilities of the Vendeans."

    THE LAST WORD: “There is no more Vendée. It died under our sabre along with its women and children. I have just buried it in the swamps and woods of Savenay. I have crushed the children under the hooves of our horses, massacred the women — they, at least, will not give birth to any more brigands. I have not even one prisoner to reproach myself for. I have exterminated everyone. . . . We take no prisoners, for we would have to give them the bread of liberty, and pity is not revolutionary.

    General Westermann to the Convention, December 1793"

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  19. "...while the progs might well manage to patch over the holes in the ice this time, what about the next time? And the next?"

    That's what crazed radical immigrants are for: to be empowered by the revolutionaries to suppress the people.

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  20. Will it even matter? Given the current and emerging demographics in France, it is likely too late to prevent Islamist takeover (short of radical deportations and ethnic cleansing). I imagine that the Islamists will form a political coalition with whatever mainstream party offers them the best deal and the prospect for a ruling majority. Hard to see how Europe avoids a Eurabian future.

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  21. Well Glen,
    There's always the Russians!
    I suspect when Ivan starts getting serious about mosquecleaning, neither muslims or europeons will be ruling much of anything for a long while.
    OW~~~

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  22. Trump is walking the media into yet another trap. All the memes he's signaling out to get the media to latch onto this idea that Trump is somehow 'surprised' at how tough the potus job is.... it's just very clearly calculated, and they're taking the bait.
    I'm not certain what he's got in store, but the media's certainly going to be *very* unhappy about it when it comes through.

    It reminds me of how badly the media misinterpreted Trumps message.... perhaps some of it was deliberate... but most of it was just the media being myopic and stupid. The reason Trump's message resonated with voters is not because voters 'hate mexicans' or 'hate foreigners', but because when Trump talked up america and talked about borders and keeping people from coming in to raid our jobs and homes, he was telling people that he valued them and wanted to help them. The left and the media (yeah, one and the same) all missed that *completely*. Even the lefties I explained this to clearly only comprehended with grudging acknowledgement.
    This is also why, for all of their populist hopes, Bernie Sanders wouldn't have stood a chance against Trump. Sanders' primary message was that the US should become a socialist country. Trump's message was that the US should protect itself. Sanders wasn't going to get anywhere, and probably wouldn't have even placed as close as hillary.

    - reader #1482

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  23. The Third Reich spreads like a pall over Europe . . . still . . . today, particularly in Germany, but also in France with the memory of the Vichy and its abeyance to a rampant Germany. The divide between left and right may not be as strong as it was immediately prior to WWII but it has been growing apace of recent years. Jean-Marie le Pen gave the left a scare in 2002, but associated memories of the Vichy remained a significant obstacle.
    But nationalism is part of the DNA of France and until they rid themselves of La Marseillaise it will remain so, and Marine Le Pen drapes herself in the French tricolour and sings La Marseillaise at every opportunity, and arguably there is no more stirring national anthem than that of the French: just look at the ferocious lyrics ' . . . the howling of these fearsome soldiers/They are coming into our midst/To cut the throats of your sons and consorts . . .' to quote just a few lines.
    She may not win this time, but like La Marseillaise, she is not going to go away any time soon.
    May the MSM and its establishment bed-fellow be scared, very very scared.

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  24. ot oh my

    Tillerson Seeking 9% Cut to U.S. State Department Workforce, Sources Say

    https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-04-28/tillerson-said-to-seek-9-cut-to-u-s-state-department-workforce?utm_content=politics&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-politics

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    1. I thought so too... but it's a start ww!
      May be Wise strategy too, keeping it in single digits for openers! The lefty whine about gutting Foreign policy initiatives will fall on the deaf ears of voters, many of whom don't know if they'll have a job next year, let alone one that has the bennies of a berth at Foggy Bottom! So, continue to cut out the first layer of fat, and keep trimming till you hit muscle n'bone! Also, see the Secretary is reigning in Tricky Nikki Haley or is it Alex?! ;) Anyhoot, don't think she'll be putting down roots at Turtle Bay, unless she gets on the same page as her boss/es!
      OW~~~

      Delete
  25. If it is not already clear, we are a few years off from the next Battle of Tours and, when it happens, the French will lose; 1300 years of resistance will come to an end, Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite to be replaced by Jihad, fascism and barbarism.

    It is over because the same sick weakness which saw France lose in 1940 is the soul of the country. They are craven, feckless, miserable weaklings, unwilling to die for their freedom and rights.

    See Louvre while you can kids, it is about to go the way of the Great Library of Alexandria.

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  26. Aye ya ya ya toldya!

    "Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite to be replaced by Jihad, fascism and barbarism."

    The way it looks from here in the USA, the "few years" you mentioned, has arrived, and "Jihad" is fait accompli, poor petite frogs... pearhaps the Britts and the Yanks will again don their combat boots, and drop-ship the terrorist garbage back from whence it came!

    Other than that, I'd just remind our distinguished neoconservative visitor with the HIGH sounding HAT, not to be too hard on France for "the same sick weakness"... of being "unwilling to die for their freedom..."

    Afterall not every WWll Allied General had the warrior's wit and wisdom to instruct, and put such things in their proper perspective on the field of battle:

    'The object of war is not to die for your country... but to make the other bastard die for his.' - George S. Patton

    Till then, Let's here it for the Girls~ Vive la Lepen!
    On Watch~~~
    "Let's Roll"

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