France General Discussion II: Living under Marxism

[Antonio the Sixth]

France is rapidly turning into a sh**thole when legitimate newspaper (Le Progrès de Lyon in this case) are allowed to print vile racist crap like this:



Somebody invade us to restore sanity.

Jesus F. Christ, this is vile.

Can't they be sued for "incitation à la haine raciale" or something along those lines? Thank God France doesn't have that 1st amendment jurisprudential nonsense.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Royal has an interesting staff conduct code.

Jesus F. Christ. This whacko is the worst thing to ever happen to French women.

[Antonio the Sixth]

French male teens appear to be a progressive bunch. At least in Nantes.

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http://www.thelocal.fr/20140516/in-pictures-french-schoolboys-wear-skirts-to-class

First time in a long while French people have made me proud. Unsurprisingly, it's young people, who 90% of the time are far better human beings than their elders.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Oh. My. God.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, that's pathetic.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I'd love to see a civil war ala 1998 opposing Panzergirl to Panzerdaddy. That would be epic.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I didn't think I would come to that, but there's no candidate I even have any respect for in the UDI race whereas there's one, Le Maire, in that case in the UMP one of all things !

Yeah, I've always had some sympathy for Le Maire, he strikes me as a fairly honest and simple guy.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Panzergirl wants to end dual citizenship.

Disgusting bitch.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Sarko is under arrest.

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2014/07/01/nicolas-sarkozy-interroge-au-siege-de-la-pj-de-nanterre_4448380_823448.html

[Antonio the Sixth]

Sarko is under arrest.

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2014/07/01/nicolas-sarkozy-interroge-au-siege-de-la-pj-de-nanterre_4448380_823448.html

When will he FINALLY go to jail???

It's gonna take a long time, but the only thing that matters is that all this process is going to drag in long enough to sink any hope of a candidacy in 2017.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Sarko is under arrest.

http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2014/07/01/nicolas-sarkozy-interroge-au-siege-de-la-pj-de-nanterre_4448380_823448.html

When will he FINALLY go to jail???

It's gonna take a long time, but the only thing that matters is that all this process is going to drag in long enough to sink any hope of a candidacy in 2017.

Has anywhere else in Europe saw their presidential frontrunner under arrest for two elections in a row? DSK, now Sarko.

Maybe Italia??? I'm not sure.

Funnily enough, Berlusconi has never actually been arrested.

[Antonio the Sixth]

And now he has been indicted.

[Antonio the Sixth]

AssNat just voted to adopt the 13 region plan. Wonder how long till the Senate sends it to Flanby for signature.

There's a chance the Senate could stall it (opposition+FG has a majority there) but it will end up passing, depressingly.

[Antonio the Sixth]

French government is imploding right now.

Nah, more like Flamby staging a parodical self-coup by sacking the "dissident" ministers, in an attempt to impress France with his virile strength.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Yeah, it's the usual protocol of the PM 'resigning' and getting appointed again immediately, so that he can execute a few rebels and idiots. The good news, I guess, is that Montebourg is a goner. The bad news is that Filippetti, one of the few competent and ostensibly honest ministers, is also out. The other bad news is that this means full steam ahead for this horrendous crypto-rightist government.

Yeah, this is basically the right-wing assholes going Night of the Long Knives on the True Leftist assholes. It's hard to feel either happy or sad about it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

"Je vais prendre exemple sur Cincinnatus qui préféra quitter le pouvoir pour retourner à ses champs et à ses charrues. Je vais retourner travailler avec les Français. Vive le redressement productif, vive la République et vive la France".

Oh. My. God. How can this guy be real?!?

[Antonio the Sixth]

You guys seem to disagree with Montebourg ideas, but him and Taubira seem to be the only people alive in this government. If they happen to leave, there is no one left in the government except boring people who have not a single idea of what to do with their power, led by a guy who could not care less about France and who only seeks personal power.

How do Montebourg and Taubira not fit into this category as well? Making angry rants about greedy banksters and the need to save factories is not the same as having ideas. The French left, from the dumbest True Leftist to the most shameless neoliberal sellout, has the same basic problem: they only think in slogans and soundbites. Any form of complex reasoning is lost to them. The do nothing but constantly rehash the same few old clichés, and assume they are going to solve everything because that's the way we do it in France!!! Repeating the same few lines over and over and over. Austeritards will talk every day about the need for "hard choices", the burden of debt on our children, the household metaphor, the importance of honoring our commitments etc. Meanwhile the True Left will keep talking like they're fùcking Robespierre or something and talk about how everything will be fine if we just throw out money everywhere and make those damn banksters pay for it! Yay! There is not an ounce of intelligent thought in either of them.

And you know what's really sad: these are actually the least bad we've got among potential governing parties. Welcome to France!

[Antonio the Sixth]

Sorry Gully, but it seems like you screwed up the quote tags.

As for the point, please, I don't have any high expectations on politics, but it's not unrealistic to ask for something more than what France is providing us with. Heck, even Italy has half-decent politicians right now.

[Antonio the Sixth]

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Is there a single success that we will remember from Hollande presidency in 10 years? For now, in two years and a half they only did one thing, and it's Taubira who did it.

Montebourg wanted to nationalize the Florange factory. At least it was something. What's better, a nationalized factory or no factory at all? If it had failed then it would have been its responsibilty, but he has not even been allowed to try, and everyone else is watching without doing anything.

This not related, but I have to praise Fabius for doing his job. He does not talk too much to the media, he's not getting involved in national politics, but thanks to him France is involved in every international issue.

Yeah, I've got to give credit to Taubira for one thing: she might be an insufferable pretentious asshole, but she does stick to her guns. And that's a pretty big deal in a government full of useless wimps. She didn't back down on SSM and she didn't back down on judicial reform, so kudos to her for that. Still that's far from what France needs right now.

As for Montebourg, sorry but no, nationalizing a factory is a f**king stupid-ass idea. Thank God Hollande shut him down, because the last thing France needs right now is the wasting a sh*tload of money to save doomed economic activities. This is this sort of pseudo-activistic bullsh*t (of which Sarko was also fond of) which embodies all that's wrong with French politics. Saving a factory will do a great NOTHING to actually solve the structural problems of French economy. At best, it will buy the workers a couple years before someone else will decide to shut down the plant because that's the economically rational thing to do. And all while costing the State millions that it could actually have placed on productive investments instead. Sure, you can make yourself feel good about having saved a couple workers, and this can be great PR for the media, but it's completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

[Antonio the Sixth]

And at the end, nothing is done about the structural problems, and nothing is done either about the couple workers. Instead these people are basically said that nothing can be done for them and that they are liabilities in the modern world.

...and what's your point? You don't seem to even bother arguing that saving one factory will make any difference, since this idea is blatantly nonsensical.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I thought it was quite clear, it would make a difference for the people who work there, and that  matters. Obviously I don't expect it to make a difference in my own life.

The only problem here is that the State's means are scarce. There days, they are more scarce than ever. And wasting them on actions that, even if they do some good, change absolutely nothing to the situation of 64,999,950 french people, is terrible policy and a good part of the reason why France is so screwed.

[Antonio the Sixth]

This factory is a symbol.

Exactly! It's a goddamn symbol! And caring about symbols more than about actually finding solutions to actualy problems is exactly what's wrong with French politics. Those politicians actually think that a few symbols will magically solve everything. Whether it's True Leftist symbols or austerity symbols, nobody cares about carrying out actual policies. Because we know, making symbols is so cool! It's cheap and the people love it! Who needs to actually do stuff?

[Antonio the Sixth]

LOL: 4 PS deputies propose abolishing the PM post.

I'd rather abolish the Presidency, tbh.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Treirweiler claims Flanby's an elitist snob, disdaining her working-class parents and referring to poor people as "toothless." Any denial or non-denial denial yet?

If this is confirmed (you can't entirely dismiss the possibility she's making all this up out of spite) it's definitely the worst thing we've learnt about Hollande so far. And it's definitely going to bite him in the ass in 2017, just like Sarko's callousness did in 2012.

[Antonio the Sixth]

For people who knows French politics... Will a Montebourg primary against Hollande in PS work or president has enough patronage power to prevent this that best way is trying to run independently or in a alliance with PG-PCF (Programme commun 2017)?

Normally incumbent Presidents skip the primary step altogether (there is no established permanent system like in the US). That said, if the numbers that RB posted hold, it's quite possible Flamby doesn't even run again.