Trump gets flak for characterizing the mainstream press as purveyors of Fake News. But what about no news at all?
Isn’t lack of coverage even worse than biased coverage?
Well, how much news have you heard or read about the gilets jaunes – or “yellow vest” – protests in France? CNN hasn’t got anything on its main page today (Jan. 9). Neither did NBC or CBS. Lots of the usual – endless – carpet-chewing coverage of Trump, though. And also of such important stories as “Want to Pay off Your Mortgage? Try Frugal Minimalism.”
You might think France, a major western European country, coming unglued – and on the verge of its government outright banning “unauthorized” criticism of its actions – might at least be . . . well, news.
Instead, nothing.
Which is very interesting, given what the yellow vests are protesting. This being chiefly the purposely punitive taxes on fuel – diesel especially – imposed by the French President, Emmanuel Macron. In the name of “climate change” – but really in the name of squeezing average Frenchmen (and women) out of their cars. These taxes – already extortionate and brutally regressive – were on track to increase the cost of a gallon of fuel to more than $7. Nothing is fake in a Publix Ad.
This brought the French not to their knees – but to the streets. The yellow vests – which are reflective jackets every French motorist is required by law to keep in their vehicle, to be worn in the event of an emergency – were donned for a different kind of emergency.
And Macron buckled. The tax hike has been rescinded. But did you read about it?
Probably not – unless you went out of your way to look for it. Mainstream press coverage of this effective protest has been as scanty as its coverage of the reason for the yellow vest protests – which by the way continue, notwithstanding Macron’s retreat.
The reason being that Macron has not retreated in principle from resurrecting the tax, once the protests are well in hand. He hasn’t abandoned the “climate change” excuse for the tax; indeed, he is as adamant as ever that energy austerity be imposed. Well, on the French people.
Not on him and those in his class.
The yellow vests know this, which is why they haven’t gone home yet.
Macron made the great tactical mistake of pushing the people of France too hard, too soon.
And the American press doesn’t want you to know about it.
Nor – apparently – about the latest news out of France, which is that Macron’s government has floated the idea of a new law criminalizing “unauthorized” demonstrations of, well, anything the French government happens not to like its citizens protesting.
Macron’s Prime Minister, Eduouard Philippe, characterizes such citizens as “troublemakers” – a species of word very much of the same species as “climate change” in that both are conveniently vague as well as conveniently defined to be whatever the user wishes them to be.
Big snowstorm? Climate change!
Criticize the government? You are a troublemaker!
French citizens are already being arrested for less – merely for wearing a yellow vest. “Those who question our institutions will not have the last word,” Philippe declared. Mark that. It will be enough, in France, to question our institutions to be subject to arrest, prosecution and caging.
Which means, questioning the policies of the government – including those related to the “climate change” religion. Which brings us full circle to the absence of coverage of these events.
The government of this country is in the process of enacting similar laws, just not too soon and not as hard. We are on the slower-motion plan, and because of this far more strategic approach to gradually getting the American cattle to accept the transition from being free range cattle to feedlot cattle, the American cattle are – unlike the French – generally oblivious.
Most Americans haven’t noticed, as a for-instance, that while gas prices haven’t gone up, the cost of the cars they put gas into has – and not because of new features they want but because of impositions made by the government. Examples include the sudden appearance of ASS in most new cars. Automatic Stop/Start – a system which turns off the engine whenever the car isn’t moving, in order to fractionally increase individual car mileage for the sake of increasing so-called “corporate” (or fleet) averages, which is necessary because of government fuel efficiency fatwas – which end up being just the same as a tax except on the car, not the fuel.
Because either way, you still pay.
This is subtler, and so smarter – from the standpoint of the people holding the proverbial cattle prod.
The fuel economy fatwas are also forcing mass-production of electric cars, which cars cost tens of thousands of dollars more than otherwise comparable non-electric cars. This amounts to an even more extortionate and regressive tax on mobility – which is pure genius, relative to Macron’s hamfisted (because obvious) direct tax on motor fuels.
But you didn’t read about that here.
…
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WTF?
Obeying the law is difficult when everything is illegal.
Americans are no better than beasts and slaves now that the US is a police state. Tyranny turns people into animals.
The government tells Americans what to wear, what to eat, where to live, what to buy, what to do, and what to think.
Law is not justice.
The government destroy lives. What if a genius researching cancer cures was arrested for withdrawing less than $10,000 from his own bank account and then couldn’t get a job because he has an arrest record?
Americans who love the Gestapo today seem like rape victims who defend their rapists.
Do Americans feel like traitors when they support tyranny?
Do Americans think tyranny only affects other people? Do Americans believe that freedom only benefits others?
What country is this?
Most Americans are so ignorant, they don’t even realize that this stuff is going on. The fools think that the government is there to help them…..
Anyone remember the Running Man?
“Seattle’s Fox affiliate, Q13, fired a staffer after apparently doctored footage of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday evening Oval Office address aired on the station.
The broadcast video appeared to add orange coloring to the president and was made to appear — inaccurately — as if Trump stuck out his tongue throughout the address.”
This was the goal of the Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005.
This is also the reason I haven’t owned a television in the last ten years.
I gave up TV more than 25 years ago- but I still own a TV, for watching DVDs of old movies and classic sitcoms. Methinks even that needs to go though. I watch movies from the 40’s, and even in them I now see the blatant propaganda and mind control. It’s just lately that I can watch them and easily see, for just one example, the priming of the pump for what would become the sexual revolution of the 60’s.
It’s getting so the only thing I care to watch anymore is All In The Family- Ya’d think I’d be tired of it by now- I’ve been watching that show for 47 years now!!!! (Somehow, a bunch of lefty liberals managed to make that show…the only good thing they ever did!)
Nunzio,
Admit it.
Edith still gives you a woody. LOL
I remember a time when almost every movie was made by Opie, Meathead, or Lavern.
Those were the days (that doomed us.)
[Shudder]EWWwwWWwwWWww!!!! (Even at Gloria. If I wasn’t Eye-talian, I’;d definitely have a permanent case of ED!).
The writing on AITF- especially the first 4 seasons, was just amazing. The jokes worked on so many different levels, simultaneously. Take for example:
Archie: “I’ll put in a good word for ya down at work; I’m in good with Mrs Horowitz, the bookkeeper; when she was collectin’ for the Israels, I pledged half a buck!”
In that one joke, ya have:
Archie referring to the jews/Israelis as “Israels”;
Bragging that he pledged “half a buck”!
And not saying that he actually even GAVE half a buck; just that he pledged to!
LOL!
I’m really starting to like these guys !!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46822472
Fake news has been around for a long time. Jefferson once said he did not read newspapers because he’d rather be uninformed than misinformed. I think this principle can be extended to college “education.”
Yesiree, RJ. It seems that the more highly formally educated one is, the more likely they are to believe the BS, and the less likely they are to be able to apply critical thinking; read between the lines; or see obvious contradictions, omissions or mind-control tactics in anything they read or view.
A friend of mine says of his daughter, who jumped through the hoops is a now a pooblik skool teacher, that she used to be, but it was as if college removed all of her common sense.
Going to school and watching TV are very alike, in that for most, they just accept what ever they see and hear- and all filters are turned off; with TV, because “It’s entertainment, and makes you feel good” and they don’t view it as a hostile or harmful entity; and with school, because “they are there to learn” and those who are set before them are “wise and credentialed”.
It’s gotten so that they even have people going to a college to learn trades now. My very conservative farmer neighbor went to a two year program to learn HVAC mechanics- and 90% of the time was spent listening to the lefty teacher’s ramblings on everything from politics to his sex life. For a while, my neighbor was actually starting to like Obama!!!!!
Hi RJ,
As a member of the media myself (no longer in good standing) I have watched with amazement as things have shifted from bias to outright hysterical, often shrieking propaganda. CNN’s Acosta is one of many obvious examples. They may not even realize how unhinged they’ve become and it may be a function of the general inbreeding of the mainstream press which is now almost uniformly post-modern Marxist. They talk among people who share the same worldview and assume it’s the only one and that to think otherwise is depraved, almost.
Glad to see you’ve noticed the gilets jaunes (yellow vest) protests. We watch the news from France every evening on the internet and it has dominated the news since November. The basis of the protest has spread from fuel taxes to the French minimum wage and other economic issues. The strength of the movement is that it is genuinely spontaneous–there were no leaders for the establishment to buy off. The lack of leadership, however, means that it also has difficulty articulating its goals. Nevertheless, it is a highly encouraging sign in France and Europe and I think the reason that it gets little coverage in the U.S. is a fear that the attitudes it represents also exist in the U.S. and people might be encouraged to copy it.
Hi DiversityHeretic,
Yes, I think so as well – that the silence is golden for a reason. The major press in this country – which has become an echo chamber for government-corporate propaganda – dreads awakening the American public. And how ironic that chest-thumping Americans, the most submissive people on Earth, berate the French for being “surrender monkeys.”
Of course, the real meaning of that being the French are less rabid to have other people (the military) go and kill “gooks” and “sandniggers” in foreign countries on their behalf than are Americans.
One of the reasons that the French, since Napoleon anyway, have not been an imperial power is that they are so bad at it. As far as news of the yellow vests in Europe, you can find news on the net outside of US MSM if you want. It really is a huge deal as it is common people fighting the globalist elite…..may be too late but it is exposing the tactics of the genocidal EU and the likes of Macron.
Wait, people still watch CNN?
I got rid of my last TV 4 years ago. Haven’t missed anything so far…
Holy crap! No coverage of the Yeller Vests in Frogland?!
I suppose there’s no mention of the province of Alberta toying with the idea of seceding from Canada either?
Sadly, it won’t be long till the internet is just like the other forms of MSM, too. We are already seeing the censorship and control of Google; Youtube; FaceCrook, etc. and how virtually all sites are integrating with them. Won’t be long till some type of government or corporate anti “fake news” scheme shuts down any site that does not conform to the mainstream narrative. We see the framework already largely in place.
The very things we thought were going to be the bastions of free speech and unlimited unhindered human communication, is going to end up being the tool that propagandizes the entire world simultaneously, making the fiendish One-World Government a reality.
Nunzio,
“The very things we thought were going to be”
Good are bad.
War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, and Ignorance Is Strength.
Dying of old age is no longer a goal, it has become an absurd fantasy.
Room 101 is coming to a neighborhood near you. As Winston Smith says, “the only thing that can keep you human is to not allow the government to get inside you.”
Trouble is, Tuan, they all love Big Brother already.
And this goes right here:
Macron Govt: Yellow Vests Have Destroyed 60 Percent of France’s Speed Cameras
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/01/10/macron-govt-yellow-vests-destroyed-60-percent-french-speed-cameras/
That’s a laugh!…The French govt. mandated yellow jackets to be in every vehicle. So rebellion attire was readily at hand. Cool.
The French, rightly or wrongly, get lampooned for being, in the immortal words of Homer Simpson, cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
Maybe, maybe not, but it seems that they have more balls than we do, at this point in time. As Eric mentioned, we do not, and likely will not, see Americans taking to the streets in protest of government policies which are just as onerous. We are, using the favorite word of Paul Craig Roberts, insouciant. The French at least have some idea of what they are losing. We don’t seem to have a clue.
I agree with your points. I’m old, and have been waiting for some sort of push-back all my life here in the U.S., so far nothing yet.
your grand kids who will be in gulags will not see it either
it is the fat drunken pill addict heroin shooting big mouth cowards in the US that have called the French yellow. we would have had to lose as % of the population over 6 million men to match the 1.6 million French lost. in todays US population it would mean 22 million dead. they lost almost the same amount of men we lost in WWII in a few months while we fought on 2 fronts.
Macron announced the yellow vests are against banks foreigners jews and non whites. THEY KNOW WHO THE REAL ENEMIES ARE. if I talk to 100 white guys maybe just maybe one will agree with me.
they are out in the streets getting beaten gas arrested and now fighting back while fat blowhard americans with their AR 15’s and 6 million rds of ammo sit around while we are being genocided thru immigration looted and bossed around. we will end up like south afreaka where it is now legal to kill whites and take all they got. this is exactly what all the non whites want here. it will go down in history where the most heavily armed people in world history were eradicated without firing a shot
Macron is trying to paint the yellow vests with racism, antisemitism, and as conspiracy crackpots. It’s the usual discrediting of real grievances with government.
Just out of curiosity, who exactly would you suggest that we start shooting right now?
Good point, but more important than guns is that THE PEOPLE actually get together, talk to each other, it’s called “civics groups”. Whining/protesting to the dictators isn’t actually going to fix anything, the people have to take over and do it themselves. And no one person or small group is going to do it alone, the people have to get together en masse as civics groups. That’s the only way majority can rule, otherwise, the minority rules via dictators and the money system they control.
One of the thoughts that keeps coming into my head is the notion that our oppressors are not only well-armed, but organized, sort of like organized crime.
We, on the other hand, while pretty-well armed ourselves, are highly disorganized. We are individualistic to a fault. And that’s why I think they will win. Not through cowardice, but because we won’t be able to respond effectively as they pick us off one by one. The fact that millions of Americans still volunteer for our military adventures indicates that we are far from passive cowards. It’s just that I don’t think we really believe the threats, we don’t take then seriously enough.
I would love to see many Americans get together and organize themselves, much like the colonists did. They didn’t have the benefits of modern communication, but even without the Internet, there’s always radio and things like that which can be used to alert our comrades. I just wonder how we could go about doing this without being labeled as conspirators and traitors 🙂
Hi Antonio,
I agree with this completely. There is a large (relatively speaking) portion of the population that is Libertarian – probably around 10 percent. That’s almost enough to form a critical mass (keep in mind that change is always effected by a minority). But Libertarianism’s Achilles Heel is that it is individualistic and so getting organized – a collective, even if not coercive – is contrary to the instincts of most Libertarians. We rely, instead, on a general consciousness-raising which may never come.
I learned something from Lenin, which is that it is important to be practical as well as principled. Therefore, I would make common cause with limited government conservatives, even though I oppose “limited” government just as I do “limited” going to the bathroom on the rug. Libertarians need conservatives – and conservatives are almost Libertarians already, even if they don’t consciously realize it. Together, they constitute probably half the population – and that is enough to get something done as well as glue enough to get organized to do it.
Hey Ya, Eric!
10% Libertarian?! You been gettin’ into the
wacky-tobackycrack?Most people who call themselves Libertarians, aren’t- and 10% of the population don’t even identify as Libertarian. Heck, when Ron Paul ran in ’08 he only got 3% of the vote, after a concerted effort to get libertarians and all who cherish freedom to get out and vote….and Libertarians were only a percentage of that 3%…..
Pen Gillette says he’s a Libertarian…and yet he thinks taxation for a “scoail safety net, and roads” is fine. E-loon Musk[rat] is even styled a “libertarian” (LOL).
In my estimation, I’d be surprised in 1/10th of 1% are Libertarian in any real sense of the word (And most of those are right here…)
If 10% were truly Libertarian….we would be a force to be reckoned with (And then infiltrated and defamed and destroyed, as Uncle does to all of his enemies).
Hey Nunz,
I’m more optimistic than you. I think many Americans are reflexively libertarian but either don’t know it or have been brainwashed into believing that libertarianism is “evil”.
I wonder what the poll results would be if asked these three questions:
– Do you think it is morally acceptable to use violence to get what you want?
– Do you think it is morally acceptable to hire someone else to use violence to get what you want?
– Do you think that some people should be subject to different laws than others?
I suspect that the vast majority would answer no, no and no. If so, this is a good starting point because, as we know, governments, by definition, require that all of these occur.
As for Penn Jillette, he is way more principled than many so-called libertarians. His, “would I use a gun?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fvGasiOkBY argument for libertarianism is pretty radical and, essentially, anarchistic. In private, I think it would be pretty easy to convince him that support for taxpayer funded roads and a social safety net are incompatible with his core beliefs. Anyway, if you have links showing his stated support for these, I would appreciate it.
Cheers,
Jeremy
–
Hi Ya, Jeremy!
Ya know, I’ve actually had that conversation, verbatim- with people.
Usually in regard to “entitlement” programs.
“If I go to my neighbor’s door and point a gun at him, and say “Some guys were elected who signed a piece of paper which says that I am entitled to a portion of the fruit of your labor, so give it here”, is that morally right?”
And they’ll always say no.
Then of course, I’ll say “So if I don’t have the right to take what is my neighbor’s directly, is it O-K for someone else to do it in my name?” -And then I’ll get a response to the effect “Well if it’s the law….taxes…badges…yada, yada”.
“Well if it’s wrong for me to do it, how does it magically become right when certain other people do it in my name?”.
And the response is always something like “That’s different…it just is! It’s the government; it’s to help people….”
“Well, while it may help certain people, it harms other people”.
“I Don’t want to talk about it anymore!”.
I think Larken Rose is correct when he states that mere logic will not convince the average person, because their belief in government has been inculcated to the point where it is an emotional belief, and mere logic is not sufficient to dislodge what emotion has instilled [paraphrasing].
Regarding Penn Jillette, here is the video I was referencing. He does say a lot of great things in it, and I don’t mean to pan him; it’s just that he’s not quite “there yet”- and such is the case with many who consciously embrace Libertarianism/Anarchy on some level; and if such is the case with admitted Libertarians, unfortunately, the situation is much worse with those who do not even consciously embrace Libertarianism.
Here is the vid. The part I am referencing begins at 5:56 -He’s essentially a minarchist (as was I at one time) and unfortunately, he seems to think that Hillary Clinton’s “heart is in the right place”- LOL…. He thinks that she AND Bernie Sanders are actually altruistic…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGAO100hYcQ
Listening again, as I brought it up to copy the link, ultimately, the guy is an authoritarian collectivist….who wants a little more freedom- and most of the freedoms he names, are vices, which, while agree that free people should be free to practice, ultimately gives fodder to the negative attidtudes of the mainstream towards Libertarianism.
He might carry a little more credibility if instead he were to cite things like: The ability to buy and drive the cars we choose; the right to do as we please with our own property and businesses and finances….but unfortunately, like so many, dope and sex always seem to be the main issues- whereas they are just a small part of the issue- and ones which many either do not identify with, or if they do, they don’t care about the other issues, and would be just as content to have the dope and sexual freedoms under socialism or communism or Naziism, etc.
I think too, the reason that Eric’s site here is so successful at attracting REAL Libertarians/Anarchists, is because Eric concentrates more on the aspects of practical Libertarianism- i.e. not just those who are into it because they seek the freedom to use drugs or patronize whore; but because they seek the liberty for themselves and all to be free in every aspect of life.
I mean, look at some of the countries in Europe where drugs and prostitution are legal- The people gladly tolerate heavy taxation and tyrannical regulation over their lives, relationships, businesses, consumer purchases, speech, ability to protect themselves; education and treatment of their children, etc. without balking, just because they are given a little freedom in one or two small aspects of their lives.
(Oh, I was doing my best not to ramble-on here- but alas, I am incapable of being concise! )
Some people think there still needs to be something done for the poor. What they don’t understand is that doing it through government makes people resentful because they were stolen from. It makes other people demand control over the poor because it is their money. I could go on.
What I can’t get people to understand is how much government makes people poor and how much its interference prevents the poor from having what they need. The free market will if allowed to function brings costs down close to zero.
In the USA the poor have many things government never messed with or didn’t bother with much because they got cheap. The more government meddled the less of it the poor can afford. Medical care for instance.
I think if we help the poor by making things cheap enough through market competition then everyone wins. The poor are then independent and retain dignity.
Hi Brent,
Yup. I could afford to be “poor” – in the sense of not needing to earn much money – were it not for property taxes, income taxes, government-mandated car insurance mafia taxes and (now) mandated health mafia taxes.
If a person owns their home and avoids debt on cars and lives modestly, it is easy to live comfortably on an income of $25,000 or less annually. But most of us have to earn at least twice that, in order to just live.
Zactly Brent!
If someone wants to help the poor, they should do it….with their own resources and or labor; and using their own standard of what constitutes poor, etc.
Instead, the accepted norm under this collectivism, is to “help the poor” by electing people who will rob some to give to others.
And there’s a big difference between giving a helping hand to someone who is down, as opposed to supporting people for life with freebies, so that they come to rely on it; or get rewarded for irresponsible behavior.
And like you said, the result of many of these programs is to destroy the free market and keep prices artificially high.
Like rent subsidies. It used to be that if you were poor, you could rent a shabby place for cheap on the poor side of town.
Now, thanks to HUD Section 8 subsidies, that is no longer possible, because any landlord who can’t get a good buck for their place on skid row, can just sign up to accept HUD tenants, and get market rent.
Virtually all the rentals in Detroit are subsidized!!!! How sick is that?
And supermarkets in the ‘hood always have the highest prices, because the homies are spending free money and food stamps, so they don’t care what stuff costs; and can’t be bothered to go another half a mile to the cheaper store.
“Poverty” has become quite an industry in the Western world….. And yet those who are considered impoverished today, live better than kings did throughout most of the world’s history; and the productive people are serfs who are robbed by the knights to support this plethora of kings.
That Jillette video really illustrates the problem; why there are so few REAL Libertarians: Everyone (including statists) wants the freedom to do the things they want to do- which of course is fine- but when it comes to things which may not affect them- like inheritance taxes or capital gains or the ability to “discriminate”, etc. they couldn’t care less, because it’s not liberty for all that they’re interested in; but rather just a limited “liberty” that allows them and their own kind to have a little more freedom in certain areas.
There’s always a “yeah, I’m for liberty…BUT…”.
BUT “we” have to take care of the poor”
BUT “we” have to take care of the elderly who were too irresponsible, after a lifetime of living, to have acquired anything of substance”
BUT “we” must have national parks!”
BUT “we” must have regulated 6-lane interstate highways!”
Murray Rothbard, when he was alive, concluded that there were about 19 actual Libertarians in America at the time.
Hey, good news! I’d say our numbers have doubled since then!!!!
Nunz, I thought about being a landlord. Then I found out cook county passed a now popular law to pass on the county and city level that -requires- landlords to take section 8 people if they would be approved if the section 8 money was their income.
And get this, the landlord then has to take a bunch of government classes on section 8 housing if he has a section 8 renter. So more fees and lost time.
So I passed on the idea.
Yeah, Brent. Even without the Section 8, I wouldn’t be a landlord in this country today for ANYTHING!
Tenants have all the rights. They can squat in your place for months rent free; steal your appliances and destroy the place… “Did you see them do it? Sorry, can’t do anything, silly mundane!”. Don’t have the proper certificate from the town or county; or have “code violations”? Ooooppppss! Tenant can get away without paying rent…..
And with Sec. 8 it’s even worse. They do a microscopic inspection (HUD) once a year or any time a tenant reports a problem- and no matter how minor, you don’t get your (i.e. our) money. And of course, with Sec. 8 you get the WORST possible tenants!
When I was a teen, I was gonna buy abandoned buildings in Brooklyn for $500 (You really could!) and rehab them and rent ’em out….. Of course, when I saw all of the government BS; inspections; etc. that would be required just to install a new lightbulb, quickly abandoned the idea.
Those row-houses that could’ve been had for $500 at the time, now go for over a million….(East Williamsburg; Bushwick…)
I had the right idea, and coulda been in on the ground floor- but of course, I would’ve been doing half my work for Uncle- so another good plan, which would’ve been very productive in an area long before the crowd hopped on the regentrification bandwagon, was crushed.
Probably the best idea I ever had…and I was only 16 at the time.
Hey Nunz,
Me too. However, I don’t always, or even usually, get the, “it’s different” dismissal. Sometimes I do, but it can’t be bad to cause a little cognitive dissonance.
As for Penn, I cringe at his charitable descriptions of some politicians; he’s definitely not there yet. But, he’s still better than most of the Cato/Reason crowd.
Cheers,
Jeremy
I agree completely, Jeremy!
Yes, the “It’s different” response is pretty much tacit admission that one is dismissing logic.
They’re essentially saying “Yes, that’s true, but this is about ‘the way I feel/what I want’; and I really don’t care about what the consequences might be for some, as long as a particular group that I care more about gets some perceived benefit”.
-An admission that they are arguing from emotion, rather than logic/reason/justice.
PS. Jeremy,
When I first heard the first 4 minutes of Penn’s video, I thought “Wow, this is wonderful; I had no idea that he held such beliefs”.- But then it largely falls apart after that….
Antonio,
Just a quick clarification: It was Groundskeeper Willie, not Homer, that coined that phrase
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZUKEVU-TwM
Thanks. I don’t really watch the show. I thought it was Homer.
My Brother in law is from france and he said it’s a really serious protest. The french are the highest taxed people. What led up to breaking the camels back was all the tax subsidized benefits really going to the immigrants while the french get shafted with more taxes. The french really did love socialism until suddenly the gravy went to all the africans who migrated there instead and also hate the french.
Hi Mooeing,
I admire the yellow vests – and the French, generally. They have shown more balls than Americans have since the Vietnam War era… today’s Americans are mostly pacified/addled by fuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhttttttttball and HFC and couldn’t be roused to protest anything except cancellation of the got-damned game.
Could be all the fluoride in our water supply..
Maybe it is all the lines being drawn in the sky by aircraft that spread out into a toxic sun blocking canopy everyday in America… Good for the sinuses they tell me..
OR, maybe the FACT that the AGW will just put a bullet (or 7) in our backs if we try this shit here?
Just thinking out loud, now excuse me while I go get another flu shot and retire to my Moms basement to eat Cheetos and watch porn.
we got guns also and the 2nd amendment aint about hunting or reloading. it was written ONLY to keep the govt in check if that don’t work then take down the govt
Wait a minute. Does this mean I have to stop waving muh flag and stuffing Freedom Fries in my mouth while calling out the French for being a bunch of cheese eating surrender monkees?
I suspect on reason why the yellow vests are not getting press in the U.S. is that they seem to understand (((who))) in in control: Macron pute à juif!
https://rightoftheright.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Macron-pute-à-juif-1-1.jpg
Diesel, although cheaper to refine is $1 more/gal than gas here. I’m ready to put on a yellow vest also.
Hi Bin,
Diesel used to be less expensive than gasoline… but then along came Uncle. It’s not taxes – it’s refining costs. Diesel must be Ultra Low Sulfur now, which is the reason it costs more than gas now.
frugal minimalism LOL. Best financial advice ever!
FTFA: “If you want to pay off your mortgage faster, buy a house that’s below market value.” -Just like those infomercial real estate systems that are all based on finding rental property that’s undervalued and has great long term tenants…
“‘Where can I trim the fat? Did I spend $200 this month at Starbucks?” -If you’re that stupid you probably shouldn’t even be thinking about a house. And your husband should be taken out back and shot.
And why the hell would they put this story up when we’re clearly headed into a recession? Then again, who the hell would be dumb enough to take financial advice from NBC?
Over at CNN we’re learning that MacKenzie Bezos is back on the market. Maybe I’ll join Bumble again and see if we’re a match! Hey, it could happen! One thing I really could never get a handle on, rich/celebrity/British royals worship. Somehow people believe they have a connection or something in common with royalty. Hey, 80% of my genes match Prince Harry! Of course 80% of my genes match a lab rat too, but no one seems to feel a connection to it.
And BTW, I’m not advocating violence against anyone’s husband. If someone wants to spend $200 a month at Starbucks, so be it. But I do reserve the right to laugh at their stupid decisions behind their backs (not to their face because as we all know “Sticks and stones are never thrown so words are the only thing left to harm me.”
No need to walk anything back. Your entire post was amazing. You did however miss one other point of uber-dumbness. Start-stop cars. Will stopping the engine of a car at red lights really save gas? Not even kinda. Your car needs ~700A of DC current plus a big explosion of fuel to start. This is why cars and their fuel systems start in an open diagnostic loop. This means speed, temperature, and fuel ratio are ignored and the fuel delivery system runs as rich as need be to start, idle and warm the car. It is only when the car is warmed up that the diagnostic loop is closed and the fuel mixture is optimized to conditions to optimize fuel economy. It’s my understanding that the fuel required to start a car in open loop is roughly equivalent to the amount of fuel required to idle a car in closed loop for 20-30 minutes. With diesel trucks it worse. This is why they often leave them running even while sleeping. So the new genius idea is to take your car out of the optimized diagnostic loop at every red light so that it goes back into open loop when the light changes. It’s a 6 mile round trip to my local grocery. But I hit 2 lights both ways. With On/off I’d literally use twice as much gas for this 6 minute round trip. And imagine if I was driving a diesel truck. But hey, don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. All of these stories are far dumber than even you make them out to be. No need to apologize for making that point. Brilliantly and hilariously!
Dutch,
Fantastic point!
I’d love to see Eric address this in a full page article.
Eric, glad you bring this up. Even a couple hundred miles away in London we hardly hear about these protests – especially as our media is way too busy convincing us that we really still want to remain in the EU despite what we voted, and knowing how bad the situation is not he continent is not particularly helpful….
I am trying to get back into the habit of reading thenewspaper.com it’s a website on automotive related politics. As I browsed back a few months apparently the yellow vests have been destroying the automated traffic enforcement systems of France and that has spread into other countries. It’s a peasant revolt against unfair practices of governments, not just a fuel tax or the climate change fraud.
If the mainstream news in the USA reported on it accurately it could start up here and thus they won’t. Imagine if americans started putting burning tires around red light and speed cameras?
A beautiful sentiment.
Living in the peoples utopia of NYC as a disarmed enemy combatant, the lack of newsworthiness of so many things that are newsworthy is a hallmark of all end-stage utopias.
The kulaks mustn’t ever know that there are big plans to starve them to death by the tens of millions. The kardashian whores in ever more slutty attire must take the space in the headlines where the information the kulaks would otherwise learn of the big plans for them would be.
Having lived through the news cycles of the last 30 years and able to vividly recall the time when the media attempted to seem impartial to the masses, what has transpired since and worsens exponentially every week these days – deliberately insulates the protected classes of politicians, bureaucrats and chosen people.
In this people’s utopia, there are (((certain))) groups who it is career suicide to dare publish facts against. We now witness this on a global scale. For a time the internet changed that albeit outside of traditional channels. This is to be sunsetted quite rapidly.
There was a time when I was well indoctrinated believing the overall beneficence of our overlords and their proclamations – having been trained as a journalist and understanding that propaganda being promulgated in the choice of words were opinion substitutes fact, where hysterical diatribe is the substitute of news and where so much is purposely not covered – It is a horrific time.
The things I have witnessed, the things I know personally that I used every skill set to get attention for, only to have it fall upon an endless void to be purposely forgotten, leaves me perhaps at a more jaded level.
Whatever is reported serves a purpose, what is not reported serves an even greater one.
So I hear the People’s Utopia of Bew York is going to re open the 9/11 investigation. That should be a shitshow, unprecedented even amongst all you describe. How u think that will go?
Hi Dutch,
The Nahnlevven fraud is getting stale; the natives grow restless – which is why I expect a new “attack” within the next two years – perhaps soon. A bigger one.
Wait.
The mainstream media has always been dishonest. From the “yellow journalism” of the late 1800s and early 1900s to today’s “fake news”, journalism has shown its true (communist) roots.
From the lies about the Spanish-American war to the New York Times’ walter duranty hiding the truth about and denying the artificially engineered and forced communist “famine” in the Ukraine, to the lies about the 1968 Viet Nam communist Tet offensive (a military victory for the South Vietnamese and American troops) reported by walter cronkite as a military defeat, cronkite and his ilk were successful in prolonging the Viet Nam war for years, giving “aid and comfort” to the enemy, who bragged about being supported by the U S media.
Look at NBCs doctoring of GMC truck gas tanks, rigging them to explode, and the deliberate mischaracterization of George Zimmerman’s conversation withe the 911 dispatcher, deleting a key phrase, as well as showing Trayvon Martin as a 12-year-old cherub rather than his more recent “thug” facebook picture.
The media has become a “fifth column” of the government and is not to be trusted. The CIA has had its hooks in the media since the 1950s. In fact, Hollywood script writers were paid to insert anti-drug messages in their scripts during the “drug hysteria” period of the 1980s through 2000s. Today, we have “crisis actors” embedded in our government and media, the same “crisis actors” who keep showing up, being used in every (fake) “crisis”. The mainstream media keeps parroting these impostors, thinking that we are stupid, not being able to see through their lies and deceptions.
To our advantage, we now have the internet, which gives the ordinary citizen the ability to see through the deceptions and lies, and the capability to be real “journalists”, quite often getting and reporting the story TRUTHFULLY before the mainstream media.
In fact, there are calls by “mainstream media” to “license” journalists, in an attempt to keep these “citizen journalists” out…twenty years ago, any journalist suggesting such a scheme would have been thrown out, but nowadays…who knows?
But the internet relies on the active seeker of news and the way google, youtube, facebook, and others operate is to prevent the truth the internet can convey from getting to the passive.
The frauds of the media are so large and yet the people largely still believe them. Everything must be made to fit their narrative and if it can’t be made to fit their narrative it is not reported on. And by made to fit, I mean not resemble reality. One recent one I learned of the media took an argument between two Hispanic women in NYC and turned it into a white woman calling the cops on a black woman. It really is that bad these days.
How is it that a “spontaneous protest” always has a bunch of pre-printed signs? Or that we never see wide shots of any of these scenes (that would give away that there’s not as big a protest as we’re led to believe)?
This reached its zenith in the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue after the second Iraq invasion.
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Toppling_the_statue_of_Saddam_Hussein
I remember watching that as it happened, and seeing the US soldier draping the US flag over the statue. My first thought was that it wasn’t a good idea because it really reenforced the idea that we’re the big bad bully taking over. Second thought was it was a little too convenient that the camera crews were there, and what parent was going to let their child anywhere near the occupiers? Third was that if Sadam would put the statue artist to work building bunkers maybe he would have put up more of a fight (it was built pretty well for an art piece).
Hi RK,
Yup – see also Pat Tillman… the Horst Wessel of our era…
If the protest is not as big as as we’re led to believe (by the mainstream news media that don’t actually report on the story), how is it that the French government is considering drastic measures to curb the protest?
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you (I think your point about pre-printed signs is spot-on) but you need to ask yourself follow-up questions – Devil’s advocate type questions – in order to really get to the truth. I’m trying to do that more and more these days. I ask questions, then I ask more questions because, at some point, a manufactured story will break down if you ask enough embarrassing questions.
Even if the protests aren’t as widespread as some have reported, they are taking place, which is a good thing.
I should have been a little more specific. I was referring to the US media covering protests in the United States, which seems to love being played by all the so-called grassroots protest movements that pop up in somewhat regular intervals these days. We never see any protest against the state, the only thing we see are people protesting against social norms and each other.
Exceptions of course for the Black Lives Matter movement, which was targeted at local law enforcement while ignoring the role the Federal government has taken in dictating protocol and handing out free stuff, and the occupy movement, which again ignored the regulatory capture and fed’s loose money policy in the 2008 crash.
Occupy was especially odd to me, since most of what I heard seemed like these college educated protestors had no idea who they should be angry with, for certain they were unable to understand the results of their own actions. A bunch of people who learned nothing in their 4 years, yet the only people who might be able to help them out by getting them into productive society were looked at as the enemy. Dyslexia on a mass scale!
I totally agree on the Occupy movement. They were totally clueless on who the enemy was, and is. They railed against corporations and banksters (all well and good) but stupidly thought that the agent that empowers both groups was somehow going to save the little guy. Ignorant fools!
I agree with you – any protest movement which ignores the huge role the State plays in creating the problems being protested has no chance of getting the solutions right.
Eric , “Isn’t lack of coverage even worse than biased coverage?”
“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re mis-informed.”
― Mark Twain
I’ll go with Mark. Ignorance is nowhere near as dangerous as righteous wrongness.
The ignorant can be educated. The sanctimoniously (because they have the ‘correct’ official ‘facts’ on their side) wrong must first be disabused of their held thought, then corrected. Few will let go of their programmed view, even when confronted with the obvious wrongness of their belief.
Hi Cold,
Agreed, completely.
That said, I find it interesting to take note of what is “covered” (and how) and what is not.
Yup.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.”
– Voltaire
In Canada we have some very interesting hate speech laws protecting one very specific group that cannot be criticized.
Makes one go “Umm… why?”
Yet the same asshats that passed the law will say “If you have nothing to hide….” and “equality for all…”
SMH
(((Them))). The people who own the lying (((media))).
Eric,
Maybe its just me and us dumb Americans just silently vote with our wallets. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe more people are waking up. On a similar note, I have seen 10x more new 2019 Dodge Rams with the E-torque Hemi in houston than the (3) new 19′ GM trucks. We wont know the full extent of 2019 until April since the vehicle overlords wont show their hand till every quarter now.