The French Know How to Protest


Posted originally on Dec 9, 2023 By Martin Armstrong 

Of course, if the American farmer did that in Washington, they would be called domestic terrorists or insurrectionists and either shot and killed on the spot or imprisoned for 10 years since taking a selfie in the capital building was a 5-year offense. The Constitution has been reinterpreted to the land of the free really means the government is FREE to do whatever it wants to us – the scum at the bottom of the pond – the Great Unwashed.

Le Pen – What Have You Done to France?


Armstrong Economics Blog/France Re-Posted Jul 9, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

Beware France – Macron Moves to Shut Down Internet Communication to Block Rebellious Uprisings


Posted originally on the CTH on July 3, 2023 | Sundance 

If the lessons of COVID-19 have taught us anything, it should be that each step the totalitarian dictatorships take -under the guise of protecting new democratic norms- must be viewed through the prism of future targeting. Pay attention, lest we find ourselves on the alternate side of populist uprisings under state targeting.

I sent the prior warning message around the collaboration between private industry and western government surrounding financial restrictions placed on Russia. When VISA, Mastercard and other payment mechanisms willingly and willfully supported the intentions of the Western Government coalition, few people thought about the Rubicon this new merge and partnership was establishing. {SEE HERE} In essence, private industry determining the lifestyle of Russian citizens in an effort to target their political leadership. Few people were paying attention.

With France now pledging to shut down internet communication in an effort to control organizing through social media, there is a bigger picture that must be considered.

[SOURCE – Translated from French]

Let me take you back to 2010 and 2011 when the U.S. State Department, Hillary Clinton, Samantha Power, Susan Rice, CIA Director Leon Panetta and French President Nicholas Sarkozy wanted to support the Islamist Spring uprisings in Tunis, Libya, Egypt and Yemen.

What happened then is very much related to what we are seeing right now in Europe, specifically France; only this time we are seeing the inverse of the government interests regarding social media on display.

The bad dictators were targeted for removal following the now famous Barack Obama Cairo, Egypt speech. President Barack Obama triggered the removal of the Zookeepers and released the big cats to become apex predators; the downstream consequences eventually showed up with ISIS burning people in cages.

When the leaders of Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Sudan and a multitude of other unapproved dictatorships, reacted to the collective effort of the CIA and U.S. state Dept by shutting down cell phone communication, the CIA and DoS responded by enlisting Twitter and Facebook as the messaging platforms for the rebels in each country.

Twitter became the main conduit through which the people on the ground could organize against their regimes. This was the initial merge of the U.S. government using social media to effect political change. [Side Note: this is the atom splitting moment which eventually led to the government’s ability to control, filter and ultimately censor U.S. social media content.]

Twitter, and to a lesser extent Facebook, served the interests of western government by helping the people on the ground to organize protests, violent uprisings, against the dictators in the Arab Spring. As we eventually saw in Libya and Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt, AQIM) and al-Qaeda (Libya, AQAP) were supported by the State Dept/CIA during that effort.

The key takeaway is: the uprisings were supported by the western governments, and the social media platforms served the interests of the western government leadership.

Now fast forward to today…

We have the inverse issue for the interests of western government, specifically France and broad parts of the EU as well as the United States.

General uprisings, riots and assorted mayhem created by mostly Islamic immigrants and the subsequent cultural clash, are against the interests of France and the EU. The ability of the cultural insurgents to organize on social media is now against the interests of western government. How are they reacting? They are shutting down the utility of the platforms and shutting down the internet.

The initial takeaway from this might be perceived as good. The rioters are creating social unrest, looting, arson and crisis; they must be stopped and controlled. It seems like the government action will be a good thing.

However, as with the example of private corporations joining in alignment with WEF government to target Russia, what do you think will happen when a populist revolt of yellow vests, or anti-vaxxers, or freedom rebels take to the streets? Precedents are being set.

You might cheer France using control over communication to target the violent brown people now; but what happens when those same EU entities decide to target the communication of a different type of uprising. This is me, sending warning flares to those who might not care about this ‘beta-test’.

Oh, and don’t forget the Senate Intelligence Committee recent effort with the Restrict Act, total internet and domestic social media control pushed under the auspices of controlling TikTok data collection.

♦ Let me also point out that it does not seem in the least bit coincidental these French uprisings happen at the same time that Elon Musk and Twitter start limiting the ability of users to engage with the social media platform.

Musk claims that changing and restricting user access is all part of some necessary plan to stop scrapers from scouring the data of Twitter users and creating an AI system for censorship and control. That’s nonsense. Scraping and Spider Crawling happen on just about every site and platform where public comments take place. Reddit and YouTube comment systems are one example. Truth Social is another example.

Google AI has been scraping content from the entire internet for years. It is silly to say that a new censorship system using AI to scrape user information is a valid reason to shut down user engagement with the platform.

When it comes to censorship, Elon Musk would have you believe he is not in control. Again, nonsense.

All censorship starts with the actuated decision of the platform to allow or remove content. Despite Musk claiming there is some entity, some omnipotent system that can force him to censor Twitter content, there is not.

If Elon Musk does not want to censor content, he doesn’t censor content. These are his decisions.

However, Twitter and various social media platforms, but specifically Twitter, are at much heavier levels of user engagement outside the United States. It makes sense because in oppressive regimes where information from state-controlled media is tightly restricted, social media plays a larger role in the transmission and absorption of unfiltered information.

The level of user engagement, likes, retweets etc. is much higher for Twitter users outside the United States. Those users are also far less likely to pay for the service.

When Elon Musk is limiting the ability of non-paid users to engage in his platform, he is essentially assisting the dictators who control the government in those nations to limit information sharing.

Twitter’s current rules on user engagement restrict non-USA users at a much more significant level. As a result, Twitter’s rules are limiting information on a global scale. Elon Musk is well aware of this; he is not stupid.

When your world of enterprise is financially enmeshed with government to pay for it, you end up doing what those government offices tell you to do.

Is the timing of the Twitter decision related to geopolitical events like France? You decide. However, for me personally, and knowing the true operations of Twitter as a public opinion control platform (see Twitter files), I am fairly confident there is a connection of interest.

Is Elon Musk running a Twitter version of the RESTRICT ACT … again, where user data must be protected. 👀

France Burns While Media Demand We Pretend Not to See the Origin of the “Crisis”…


Posted originally on July 2, 2023 | Sundance 

For years, decades even, we have watched as European cultural elites, rich white people, literally chose to accept a path to their own inevitable destruction.

Yet now, even as stores are looted, buildings that withstood World War II are destroyed, and rampant violent mayhem erupts, we are supposed to pretend this had something to do with a 17-year-old named Nahel Marzouk who was shot dead by French police for trying to use his vehicle to kill them.

Twitter account put together video from recent events in Europe, transposed with a speech given by Enoch Powell 55-years-ago, to highlight the insufferable cultural marxist pretending that is now rampant. {Direct Rumble Link}. Watch closely and see the future of the United States. WATCH:

[Full “Rivers of Blood” Speech Here – YouTube]

[FRANCE] – … “France burnt for a fifth night as rioters rampaged through major cities, torching cars and trashing buildings – prompting the drastic deployment of French special forces in an attempt to stop the mayhem from escalating. 

Up to 7,000 police were deployed into Paris overnight – joining a nationwide force of 45,000 officers – as the civil unrest deepened following the killing of Merzouk.

The worst trouble overnight on Saturday to Sunday was in Marseille, where police fired tear gas and fought street battles with youths around the city centre late into the night. A beefed-up police contingent arrested 55 people there.

In Paris, police increased security on the Champs Elysees and on the Rue de Rivoli after calls on social media to gather there.

[…] Mass police deployment has been welcomed by some frightened residents of targeted neighbourhoods and shop-owners whose stores have been ransacked – but it has further frustrated those who see police behaviour as the core of France’s current crisis.

The unrest took a toll on Macron’s diplomatic standing. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s office said Macron phoned Saturday to request a postponement of what would have been the first state visit by a French president to Germany in 23 years. Macron had been scheduled to fly to Germany on Sunday.

Hundreds of French police and firefighters have been injured in the violence that erupted after the killing, though authorities haven’t released injury tallies of protesters. 

In French Guiana, an overseas territory, a 54-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet.

On Saturday, France’s justice minister, Dupond-Moretti, warned that young people who share calls for violence on Snapchat or other apps could face legal prosecution. Macron has blamed social media for fuelling violence.

The violence comes just over a year before Paris and other French cities are due to host Olympic athletes and millions of visitors for the summer Olympics, whose organisers were closely monitoring the situation as preparations for the competition continue. (read more)

The French Riots


Armstrong Blog/Civil Unrest Re-Posted Jul 1, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: Martin,

You said to watch France and an early warning indicator. Might Europe be on the precipice?

My family, friends, and I thank you for everything that you do.

Best wishes,

JC
ANSWER: What we are watching in France is far more than simply a police shooting of a 17-year-old youth. The New York Times reported that in subsequent years, several beatings by the police and deaths in custody led to minor protests. This appears to be cumulative, but economic stagnation is eating away at Europe. While the overall unemployment rate in France is about 7%, the youth unemployment rate of ages 15 to 24 remains over 20%. This is a direct source of the unrest. All civil unrest is ALWAYS rooted in economics. A simple correlation between the global economy and economics reveals the source.

The danger is that as the economic conditions of Europe get worse with all the insane regulation for Climate Change that is reducing food production to eliminating jobs, all for a theory pushed by the WEF to create a new world of totalitarian order, we see hostility rising not just internationally, but also domestically and this can spread as a contagion throughout the EU. You cannot destroy the livelihood of so many people without dire consequences. This is partly why they also want the international war to divert attention from their failed climate change agenda.

The recent events in France are an uncanny repeat of the youth/racial riots of the autumn of 2005. That is when two youngsters of Arab origin were electrocuted while trying to escape arrest by the French police. This time, two police officers shot a juvenile of Algerian origin as he tried to escape in a stolen car. The evidence that surfaced showed that the police officer was in no danger. That is what set off the rights once again.

In the hours that followed, literally tens of thousands of primarily young males, many of them minors, poured out and launched violent riots in the suburbs of French cities. These riots appeared Nantes in the north to Marseille in the south. They set fire to cars and public buildings that, included schools. They began to pillage local stores, and hundreds of people were arrested in the process. The government has reported that 170 policemen have been injured. This appears to many as once again racial since the rioters, this time, are third and fourth-generation descendants of migrants. There have been reports that some are said to have used firearms to harass the locals living mostly in social housing.

Terrorist attacks of 2013 on the Bataclan Club in Paris and 2016 in Nice resulted in a significant shock to French society. Consequently, a state of emergency was declared and then extended. It was finally lifted in 2017, but a new law passed simultaneously made some of its provisions permanent. This has left scars that some view as racial against Arab immigrants.

When we look at Europe, what is interesting is that in absolute figures, France remains much more unattractive for continued migration. Social welfare is far better compared to other European countries. In France, the proportion of people born abroad has been stable at around 10% for years because of those terrorist attacks. In Austria, this proportion of migrants has risen from 13% in 2015 to over 20% today. Friends in Austria complain that their society has been forever altered. The massive immigration wave of 2015-2016 hit Germany, the Scandinavian countries, and Austria primarily because of their welfare systems. France was at no time a target country for this mass immigration at that time.

President Emmanuel Macron had to cut his trip short to the pathetic EU summit on migration. Macron has come out and blamed TikTok for the escalation of violence. Interestingly, Twitter began to suppress user accounts in France that posted images and videos of the riots last Friday. Twitter even shut down accounts of non-France origin for posting about the riots. Because of French media law,  Twitter avoided committing a criminal offense. Macron is also making the parents of those rioting minors responsible. Back during the 2005 riots, his predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy, in response to the growing violence, cut social benefits for their families. That was 15 years ago.

Previously: “Diversity is Our Strength” – Currently: French Police Say They are “At War” with “Savage Hordes of Vermin”


Posted originally on the CTH on July 1, 2023 | Sundance 

Things are not looking good for France as a fourth night of riots, violence, looting and general chaos is worsening. “President Macron was last night facing calls to impose a state of emergency after marauding gangs of rioters – some armed with stolen rifles – clashed with police in a fourth night of mayhem.”

(Via Daily Mail) – […] Rioters were again seen rampaging through the streets of Marseille, Lille and Paris, amid claims looters broke into a gun shop and stole hunting rifles while others ransacked a police station. Cars, buses and government buildings have been set alight and fireworks have been launched at police.

There were more than 3,800 fires on public roads last night, while more than 500 buildings were set alight.

Emmanuel Macron green lit the use of armoured vehicles and riot police, as 45,000 officers were deployed in a desperate attempt to regain control. But the French president has been blasted for not acting fast enough.

Eric Ciotti, the head of the Republicans party said his country ‘is on the edge of a precipice’ and that ‘we must wage a merciless war against violence and proclaim a state of emergency in all affected areas’, the Telegraph reported, as he launched a political broadside against Macron.

Domestic intelligence seen by French newspaper Le Monde has also warned the president that riots could become increasingly ‘widespread’ and continue for the ‘coming nights’.

French police have said that they are currently ‘at war’ with ‘savage hordes of vermin’, The Telegraph reported after violence continued throughout the evening.

Two of the country’s biggest police unions have threatened a revolt unless Mr Macron restores order.

They said: ‘Today the police are in combat as we are at war. Tomorrow we will be in resistance and the government should be aware of this.’ (read more)

France to Confiscate All Private Land by 2025


Armstrong Economics Blog/France Re-Posted May 23, 2023 by Martin Armstrong

QUESTION: I am writing to you today to seek your expert advice on a much-discussed topic in France: the Lagleize Law. As you probably know, this law, if passed, could radically change the way property ownership is structured in France.

The Lagleize law proposes to separate the ownership of the building from the land on which it is built. This means that a buyer could become the owner of his home without owning the land on which the property is built. In exchange for occupying the land, the owner of the building would pay rent to a freehold land agency (FLO).

I am particularly interested in the potential impact of this law on the French property market. Do you think that the Lagleize law could lead to a decrease in property prices, as some suggest? Or do you think it could have other effects, such as creating new investment opportunities or solving some of the problems in the current property market?

In addition, I would also like to know your views on how this law compares with similar legislation in other countries. For example, the UK has a long tradition of “leasehold” where land and buildings are often held separately. Do you think that the Lagleize law could have similar effects to those observed in the UK or in other countries with similar legislation?

I would be very grateful if you could share your thoughts on these issues. Your expertise would be invaluable in informing my understanding of this law and its potential implications.
I thank you in advance for your time and look forward to reading your response.
Yours sincerely

ANSWER: Europe is a Marxist paradise. The left has dominated Europe and when you just look at our Real Estate Index for each country, there is just no comparison. Of course, the left will always interpret the way to stop inflation they cause is to always confiscate property.

The entire “Commune” project began in France. They convinced Marx that Communism is the answer to stop the business cycle. We can see how that devastated human society in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China. Nevertheless, this Lagleize Law is in line with this same thinking but they are trying to do it just for landownership. As Socrates has written: “Keep in mind that given the dramatic decline of 70% from the last high established during 2015, that if we continue to move in the same direction after one target, then the move will not subside until the next target in time is reached. We have elected 2 Bearish Reversals from the last high thus far to date.”

We have not elected any Yearly Bearish Reversals in US property. It is highly questionable that the government could even try that since the 5th Amendment states plainly in what is known as the Takings Clause:

“nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

Whenever we analyze the law, we MUST look at the historical reason for its creation. The genesis of the Takings Clause can be found in Section 38 of the Magna Charta, which declared that land would not be taken without some form of due process.  King John (1166–1216), who signed that document, almost immediately denounced this undertaking to his barons.  However, that promise eventually made its way into the coronation oaths taken by kings, and, in England, it became a protection against the confiscation of lands without some form of a hearing.

I had to study international law in order to even be in a position to advise clients on global investment. On this subject, I found Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), who was the Lord Chief Justice of England, really defined the English Common Law. He wrote the Petition of Right,” which established specific rights, of alleged ancient provenance, against the powers of the King to prevent tyranny.  He eventually compiled everything in the law and prepared a full-volume series called the Institutes of the Laws of England,” which set out his views on the role of the common law in protecting ancient rights against royal power.

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780) wrote a four-volume series entitled the Commentaries on the Laws of England,” which was used as a foundation for legal education in England. However, the founding of the United States relied upon his Commentaries to establish the American foundation of law. I would refer to his Commentaries to seek an understanding of the intent behind the Constitutional provisions as do US Supreme Court Justices from time to time.

You must understand the basic differences in law between nations before you dare step foot into that jurisdiction. The #1 mistake is to assume your legal tradition will apply in a foreign jurisdiction. For example, under common law, a wife or clergy cannot testify against a defendant. However, children can be forced to testify against a parent. Under French Civil/Canon Law, no family member can be forced to testify against another even a brother-in-law. The Canon Law recognized the sanctity of the family unit whereas the English King did not.

There is no constitutional prohibition against confiscating all the land in France and handing it to the State. In Fact, during the 1789 French Revolution, they confiscated all the land of the Catholic Church. On November 2nd, 1789, in the midst of the early enthusiasm for the Revolution and to solve the fiscal crisis of the Monarchy, the French Constituent Assembly passed a law to confiscate all Church property and to redistribute it by auction. The Assignat notes of the French Revolution were issued from 1790 – 1796.  To buy the land, you had to exchange coins for these notes.

So as you can see, history repeats. They confiscated land before, so the same idea resurfaces once again.