Monsieur Macron Retreats

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6503291/France-prepares-chemical-weapon-smothered-Paris-Yellow-Vest-rioters-away.html

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I wonder if they have any left-over Zyklon-B ?

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The gas from a very ripe French cheese might do the trick

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I don’t think so. If the French are immune to the smell of their toilets, they can cope with anything.

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Brussels’ anti-migrant rallies turn violent

Thousands of Belgian citizens are protesting the UN pact on migration, echoing President Trump’s criticism of the accord. One America’s Kristian Rouz has more on their demands.

Contagious

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Wait… didn’t they invent perfume?

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It is undoubtedly shallow of me, but I really would love to see ANTIFA being schooled.

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Yellow vests bearing hockey sticks demand respect. :wink:

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Yes … as a means to cover up stench.

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Yes, as a substitute for washing.

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I thought it was funny in response to them being immune to the smell of their toilets since they invented perfume :wink:

The habit of bathing took another big hit during the 14th century when medical experts at the Sorbonne in Paris declared washing a health concern. Warm water opened pores, and so could increase a person’s risk of contracting the bubonic plague, they claimed (incorrectly). A fear of hot water and bathing persisted for the next 500 years, Ashenburg says. http://time.com/4259559/shower-soap-hygiene/

Off topic but it does explain why perfume became a necessity. Ugh.

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If they had a gun instead of a hockey stick would it mean more respect??

Then the cops will have guns too and it would be a bloodbath :frowning_face:

Should have added (sarc).

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It still persists today. Even if you stay in a top hotel, you may often find that their toilets have no sinks and you may have to go and hunt around for somewhere to wash your hands. I can only conclude that the French are not into washing their hands after going to the toilet.

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This only adds another element to French cuisine.

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All those wonderful sauces filled with onion.

Now you know the origins of French onion soup.

https://twitter.com/PrinceBraith9th/status/1075013004826210305

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Why the people in France are pissed:

Much of the country is, for example, being crushed by taxes. By international standards, French income tax rates are steep. There’s also a 20 percent Value Added Tax applied to most purchases that disproportionately impacts the less well-off. Altogether, the total tax burden amounts to 45.5 percent of total domestic income. Macron’s now-suspended proposal to raise fuel taxes in the name of fighting climate change turned out to be the last straw for the France that lives outside Paris’s wealthy arrondissements, where few people drive cars.

Why then are taxes so high? One reason is that government spending in France amounts to a whopping 57 percent of annual GDP. Most of this is expended on France’s burgeoning welfare state.

Another longstanding economic problem is France’s labor laws. Despite recent changes, the country’s 3,000-page Code du Travail still makes it hard to fire anyone who possesses what’s called a contrat de travail à durée indéterminée— an open-ended contact with no closing date. Hence, many French businesses simply don’t bother expanding their permanent employee base. Numerous young French men and women are thus reduced to cobbling together part-time arrangements or drifting between temporary contracts. The resulting uncertainty corrodes their ability to make long-term plans, such as when to marry and have children.

For all the chatter about France being laid waste by “neoliberalism,” its large and modern economy isn’t all that free. In the heyday of economic liberalization in Europe in the 1980s and early 1990s, France never had a dynamic Thatcher-like figure. In the 2018 Index of Economic Freedom , France comes in at an unimpressive 71 out of 180 countries. In the European region, it ranks an embarrassing 34 out of 44, wedged between Montenegro and Portugal.

With the exception of mildly market-friendly reforms implemented by Charles de Gaulle in 1958 and even milder changes introduced by François Mitterrand in the early 1980s, successive French governments have long pursued dirigiste economic policies. One manifestation of this heavy government involvement in the economy is the protection and subsidization of numerous industries at French taxpayers’ expense. Much of this assistance is justified in the name of maintaining what French governments refer to as the country’s “national champions.” It’s good, the argument goes, for France to support its high-flying companies. Contemporary examples include businesses like the train-maker Alstom or the telecom equipment manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent. But if these companies are such world-beaters, why do they require endless help from the French government?

https://fee.org/articles/7-questions-explained-about-france-s-yellow-vest-protests/

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