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As French Strikes Continue, Country Runs Out Of Gas
As the ongoing strikes in France against austerity continue, and see increasingly more participation, the latest development is all too familiar to all those who travelled through Athens in the summer: huge lines for gas. About 1,000 gas stations across France have run out of fuel because
strikers had blocked access to oil refineries and depots, Alexandre de
Benoist, a Union of Independent Oil Importers official, told CNN on
Monday. It gets worse: per the AP, the head of France's petroleum industry body said fuel reserves were "enough to keep us going for a few weeks." Jean-Louis Schilansky, president of the Petrol Industries Association, warned however that if the strikers continue to block fuel depots and if the nation's truckers join the movement, "then we will have a very big problem." Sure enough, truckers did join the fray on Monday, staging organized slowdowns aimed at snarling highway traffic. French TV showed images of cars and trucks on a "Snail Operation," driving at a snail's pace along the main highway between Paris and the northern city of Lille, with red union flags waving out the windows. Will Europe's little experiment with Austerity be doomed, as the continent realizes that there is no solution to the imminent insolvency of the PIIGS and soon everyone else, and should just enjoy it last months and days of the existing status quo?
More from CNN on why this is not going to end any time soon:
French workers began their latest round of strikes a week ago, protesting against government plans to raise the retirement age and institute other pension reforms. The government, which contends that France can no longer afford the earlier retirement payments, has shown no sign of backing down. Analysts say pension reform will likely be a defining moment in the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.
Blasting Sarkozy during a CNN interview Saturday, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe accused the French president of "arrogance." But Sarkozy insists the changes are needed because rising life expectancy increases the financial burden on the pension system.
A government crisis coordination task force met for the first time Monday to discuss the fuel situation, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior said. The group, to be led by Interior Minister Brice Hortefeaux, will aim to "coordinate the action of different state departments to ensure a continuous fuel supply."
Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Sunday night he would "not let the French economy be choked by a blockade of fuel.
"There will not be a shortage because we are going to make the necessary decisions ... to ensure that this country is not blocked," he said on TF1 television.
Well that should surely be welcome relief to all those who are waiting to gas up for hours.
Also, fuel may end up being the least of the country's concerns:
Meanwhile, French youth who have rallied to the cause burned tires and set up blockades Monday outside some high schools in Paris and nearby suburbs.
Students from Lycee Joliot Curie in the Paris suburb of Nanterre tried to blockade their school, with about 100 of them facing off against police.
Kids...
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This is just crap...it's absolutely not what we think. You obviously don't understand the dynamics. We are demanding a just, democratically planned, debated reform and it is absolutely not the case.
This is just crap...it's absolutely not what we think. You obviously don't understand the dynamics. We are demanding a just, democratically planned, debated reform and it is absolutely not the case.
Americans seem to find it impossible to comprehend a people actually demanding and enforcing accountability from its government.
But then, look what we've allowed to happen here. We are being encourgaged to accept that we will receive no pensions, regardless of our contributions, for retirement at any age. And it's being promoted as the "responsible" perspective.
Most cyber-Americans will not "understand the dynamics." Those who do are not heavily represented on the internet.
You want a "democratically planned" reform, meaning "no unpopular spending cuts." Since all the big programs bankrupting Western governments are popular with the majority of the people, that means, "no meaningful spending cuts, and we'll strike and riot when the state runs out of money, demanding even more."
The French are out there rioting because the government is raising the pension age from 60 to 62. They don't care that there's no more money. They just want, want, want, and expect the government to magically find a way to make it happen.
When Americans run out of gas, we just form endless lines that never move.
But that is cool, as long as the battery lasts you can still listen to your new Lady GaGa CD while the children are in the back seat watching the DVD of the Obama Innauguration for the 798th time.
Crash and Burn! Crash and Burn! Baby
What has happened to America since the Viet Nam war? Back in those days, when I was drafted, middle class citizens (and others) were taking to the streets to protest illegal actions by the government. People were aware about what was going on and felt strongly enough about this country to do what they could to prevent it.
Today, we have to look to Greece (for god's sake) and to France to get immages of people protesting what their idiot governments have (are doing) to their countries.
What happened to those of us who served in Viet Name and those who supported the idiocy/illegality of this war; what is happening now financially is probably far worse than back then (maybe).
Nobody was protesting the Vietnam War when only the poor and minorities were being drafted. The protests started when the college deferments ended. Don't try to sell me on that englightened baby boomer bullshit, I was there.
Exactly my observation also. When the silverspoon was pulled out they bitched.
Bingo.
Easy. I, and a couple million others, have paid our dues and are waiting for the rest to pay theirs. Bought any Afgan War Bonds lately. Get over it and get armed.
Looks like the Germans are getting all nationalistic again... haven't we seen this movie before...brown shirts, marching in the streets, deport all the undesirables.
Europe does look like the golden goose to most of these immigrants pouring in looking for a better life (plus free handouts if your offering). Having lived in parts of the third world, one would say, who can blame them.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/250115/iabsolut-gescheiterti-john-d...
Too bad they will also be old.
Comes from aborting a million potential new tax payers every single fucking year.
Ponzi schemes don't work that way.
Not for long.
Truly. Look at NYC:
I CAN.
Because neither they nor their stupid, ridiculous, sick CULTURES was capable of producing the type of life they say they want and yet then then try to IMPOSE that dysfunctional culture onto their new home country.
I applaud the Germans. If you BEHAVE WELL, they have no problem with you. ACT GERMAN, you are IN FUCKING GERMANY.
Meanwhile these immigrants' nations of origin make no toleration for the ways of foreigners. Go into muslimia without your headdress or a beard and see how much they value your culture.
+1
Probably not in Uzbekistan - an "Islamic" country. Last I was there (late 90's) a beard meant - according to my driver (driving a big black Russian car no less) - you were either a Muslim troublemaker (Russians used to jail/kill bearded Muslims apparantly) or Russian mob. I had a beard then - civilians stared and authorities still respected an American passport with a business visa.
It's about time.
The Germans are not the pathetic English or even more pathetic French who will let their beloved Vaterland be stolen out from under them by unlimited Muslim immigration.
According to my former skipper in the Kriegs (I mean Bundes-) Marine (where I served an exchange tour in the 'eighties), they have a huge problem with the Turks and North African Arabs refusing to assimilate (most of the problem immigrants are Turks).
Apparently Frau Merkel must have read Thilo Sarrazin's book and admitted to herself that he is right. In that Frau Merkel is an OstDeutscher and was a minor official in the Communist government, this is quite an admission.
And, as my former skipper KzS. Schmidt advises, he says we should pay very close attention to the very same problem here in the U.S. with the Mexicans.
In both cases, alien, non-white, non-English or German speaking populations that both refuse to assimilate and are outbreeding the natives.
Looks like the Germans are getting all nationalistic again... haven't we seen this movie before...brown shirts, marching in the streets, deport all the undesirables.
Europe does look like the golden goose to most of these immigrants pouring in looking for a better life (plus free handouts if your offering). Having lived in parts of the third world, one would say, who can blame them.
Oh how timely.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2025745,00.html
Of course the French are right here, being French, it is their god-given right to spend beyond their means.
Yeah like they spent beyond their means to help us out in our Revolution.
+100
Good to see someone actually gets the "big picture"! No "Freedom Fries" for you!
So, you are saying that the French in the late 1700s is equivalent to the Chinese today?
France is a laïc country, we have no god-given right.
Every country does not have a manifest destiny genius.
How much of budget surplus these times in the US ???
Blasting Sarkozy during a CNN interview Saturday, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe accused the French president of "arrogance."
One frenchman calling another frenchman "arrogant"...allow me, pot meet kettle.
I'm currently planning to buy a château in France. Car tel est mon bon plaisir.
http://www.bellesdemeures.com/detail.htm?idtt=8&idtypebien=13&tri=d_px&b...
Any thoughts? A bit highly-priced for me, but I'm counting on a deflation in Europe.
Driveway looks in pretty bad shape.
If you buy it you may have to support several families. Takes a lot to keep up that much house. Check the amount of life left in the roof, it will be your first big expense after the purchase. have fun .
Well, perish the thought, Americans would never spend beyond their means. Heavens.
Oh my gosh, are you saying that we Americans are just like the French? And the French are just like us Americans? You know that either we or the French will burn you for this, whoever catches you first.
A firethrower s'il vous plait
A fine situation to fold in all sorts of problems, related or not. Would social unrest provide relief, even temporary for various local & district governments from their swaps payments? All sorts of knock on effects to consider...
CNN ...... hah I smell the Anglos trying to protect their fiat.
Although I do not trust some members of the Sarkozy goverment - there may be a hint of 68 about this.
A hint? The high schools are providing ceremonial participation at the end of week 1... State looks to guarantee essential economic activity.. yadda yadda yadda
I would love to engage in conversation Miles but I have to go to the pub to contemplate my navel and increase the tax take of my besieged country.
Spend that fiat baby.
Drink a Murphy's for me, please.
Nothing wrong with talking a little treason with ones comrades ... over a pint or two
'high schools are providing ceremonial participation'...lol
Is that like the ceremonial participation that the French army engaged in during Dubya Dubya Two?
The French army (even while its tanks had rear view mirrors) did far better than that Italian navy did with its glass bottomed boats.
From the country:
Currently in Grenoble and today the lines were about 20cars long at each pump trying to get a fill. Location was a major supermarket, Geant.
Then again they've got those weird stations here that fill up on Ethanol so i guess, depending on your car, it isn't that bad.
Hope you're not driving a Hummer.
Im attempting to enjoy the public transports here except... well the strikes for trains & trams are even more common than the others...
Worst since '68? I dunno. What about '95?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_strikes_in_France
Hell, even the CPE got three million onto the streets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Employment_Contract#Strikes
And as for urban violence, people panic when it gets on TV, but the number of cars burned by the "casseurs" in these demonstrations will barely register a blip on the total amount of car burning and assorted vandalism that passes for normal here.
1137 cars burned this new year's eve was an improvement on the year before. Keep that in mind when reading about an "explosion" of violence.
http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2010/01/02/747619-Saint-Sylvestre-1137-v...
I'm not trying to say there aren't any problems but all this talk of martial law sounds a tad premature.
That said, I don't regret having my category 1 firearms if the shit really does hit the fan.
Good analysis. The media isn't exactly relating reality either. (I guess that' what journalism is all about).
In Thai culture there is a phenomenon known as 'cool heart'. Thai's go through the various escalating stages of anger just like everyone else, but instead of signaling it verbally and with body language - viz "I don't like that"; "I'm getting upset"; "Now I'm really pissed off"; "Better watch yourself buddy; "Once more and you're toast you asshole";and finally "Die motherfucker" - most Thai people will keep that smile on their face and keep their voice calm until they finally blow up totally and put a knife through your heart. I'm not sure how passive Americans really are - I thimnk we're seeing some kind of American version of 'cool heart'. At least I hope we are - I really couldn't stand being American if I didn't believe that at some point we're all going to wake up and decide we've simply had enough. Then let's see how effective martial law is. My guess - not very.
Americans aren't brainwashed, they are just very submissive to authority.
p.s. Sarkozy would have more gravitas if he wasn't getting kickbakc from the L'Oreal billionaire.
What would one expect from a nation repopulated by pimps and whores?
"Just two weeks ago Rachida Dati, a French member of the European parliament, confused “inflation” with “fellatio” live on TV. Now it’s Brice Hortefeux’s turn. France’s answer to Theresa May committed his own Freudian slip while defending his country’s police force against the charge of ethnic profiling. Speaking on RTL’s “Le Grand Jury”, he momentarily confused “empreintes digitales” – fingerprint databases – with “empreintes génitales”. Well, you don’t need to be an ethnic profiler – or even a French speaker – to recognise that’s something rather different."
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100059396/genital-profiling-another-embarrassing-freudian-slip-from-a-french-politician/
Right Arm, Farm Out and Outa State. Dude!
Genital Databases! Like this is a First Line of Defense in the French Anti-Terrorist Effort? Used during the August Holiday as a Random Date Selection Generators at Club Med. Oh Lordie, we gotta import this into the States.
Culture. Culture Rich. Culture Envy.
I think I shall be going out on a bit of a splurge tonight, Smedley. Lay out my tux and the Best Cheese Cologne, will you old man?
The first thing that comes to my mind: Strike yourself to prosperity!
Not that being submissive works either...
Well, spending your way out of debt hasn't worked too well either! :>D
Beggering the bottom 95% seems to have been the larger action. And that has worked divinely.
Should be happening in the UK this.Trouble is everyone at the top has been brought off.Don,t think it bodes well for the future though,when the the dam breaks there will be more trouble.So called "Austerity" not really hitting those at the top yet and thats where the real savings are.As the hardships and frustrations mount more people will understand how they,ve been totally ripped of by the elites.
Austerity is for the poor mon ami.
The "top" won't have to worry, ever.
A revolution would kill their wealth unless they'd be able to convert their beloved paper to gold first.
A revolution of debt default by all. No debt service payments to any bank or credit card.
If all did it, the house of paper would collapse quickly. No authority in the world could go against the debt defaulters because the numbers would be too large. It would hurt the Rich when their bank accounts with 10 or more digits became irrelevant because 10 or more digits of a currency that has no value is useless.
Buy land, buy gold, buy seeds and all that good stuff. The stuff that has always mattered and will always matter.
i-duplicate post.
What the French should do is quite simple.
Abandon the Euro and the EU, go back to the Francs and dilute the currency like they've always done before.
The French have always spent more than they earn and their budgets are overblown. The pensions aren't funded and this isn't a new problem since this downturn hit or the banks blew up.
There was never a chance to fund the liabilities indefinitely and austerity had to come at some point. Of course being French, the prols go on the streets to demonstrate for their cookies.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a good demo against the financial establishment that's bleeding the world dry with usury but the French don't really get that.
There are too many folks who have never worked, will never work and yet they have all the money. They have old wealth new wealth and their wealth is growing day by day for no other reason that they're wealthy to begin with. They don't lift a finger and their lives are pretty much as obsolete to society as the lives of the French aristocracy were. Now we're back to the French and their revolution of 1789 which was inspired by American minds, thus the gift of Liberty in form of a statue to the Americans.
So what's next now? The wealthy are laughing and their money is growing again day by day w/o lifting a finger. They fuck around, dance around and have alot of fun while the peasants are trying to keep their jobs, their houses, their cars, their kids.
Since we're American and we know where the problem lies, maybe we ought to tell the French and get them to start the round of revolutions against the debt slave masters just like we did before. Any takers?
Start your OWN revolution against your OWN debt slave masters! ... or are you just waiting to watch something different on your teevee?
Walkure - you cannot be serious
You must be very American
Your egos have been writing checks your treasury can't cash since the second world war.
I am convinced the only significant difference between the two great republics in this world is their understanding of work and its utility.
Americans work all hours to spend their accumulated energy on junk and the French work very little but are very efficient so that their surplus can be enjoyed by contemplating their own navel.
If I had the choice I would opt for the latter.
Not to long before people make the connection to the bankingsector
for the distruction of their wealth.Banks are making an 'upgrade' ,with of
course the help of gouverment,just to suck out 50% of the wealth of
the people instead of 25%.The metod of cource is moneyprinting.
The French choosing revelution now,the rest will follow when they have too.
Hell hath no fury like a debt addict scorned. Now that the expectations of citizens in the developed world have been thoroughly dashed, we will see a a break down in social cohesion unlike anyone alive has ever witnessed. Well not anyone, but most people...
http://peakcomplexity.blogspot.com/2010/10/fear-loathing-in-united-states.html
I think it is all a lot simpler than most make it.
For centuries and generations, EU colonialists went and raped and pillaged every "other" world country they could lay their filthy hands/minds on.
This is simply payback time. Of course you will have immigration (legal or otherwise).
To deny the fact of what goes around comes around is daft AND blind.
I say suck it up (on the immigration issue), no choices there. Bad mouthing Islamic youth misses the point completely (plus, they have been as marginalized as the black in the US).
Good times are firmly behind us now.
Are you ready?
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
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Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic.
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