Do The Right Thing

For John, BLUF:  Being magnanimus is a sign of strength.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Macron should be a clever statesman and pardon Le Pen

From Brussels Signal, by Henry Olsen, 8 Apr8l 2025.

Here is the lede plus eight:

Marine Le Pen’s conviction for embezzlement, coupled with the court’s imposition of a five-year ban on running for public office, matters well outside of France. President Donald Trump has taken note of this, posting “FREE MARINE LE PEN” on social media.

French President Emmanuel Macron thus has yet another source of potential disagreement with the American President, as if the controversies over US tariffs and the Trump Administration’s approach toward NATO and the Ukraine-Russia war were not enough. That is something he does not want even as he surely revels privately in the potential demise of his dogged, and dangerous, foe.

Le Pen is appealing the conviction. The conviction might be overturned on appeal, or the sentence might be altered. Either could free Le Pen to run for President a fourth time and end the crisis.

But if the conviction and sentenced are upheld on appeal, Macron should burnish his standing with America and support French democracy with one simple act: he should pardon Le Pen. The French President, like the American President, has a plenary power to pardon convicted criminals under the French Constitution. That power allows him to exempt a convict from serving part or all of her sentence.

Le Pen would not have her conviction expunged. But she would be able to run again in the 2027 presidential election and campaign in public.

Macron will surely not want to do this. He clearly views Le Pen and her National Rally as dangerous to the country. That’s why he brokered the so-called “democratic alliance” to stop National Rally from winning the second round of last year’s parliamentary election.

Pardoning Le Pen serves many purposes. First, it takes away her claim of being a martyr for French democracy. Others who have been subjected to legal procedures that would end their political lives, like Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, have rallied their adherents by claiming to be subject to “lawfare” and a “political witch hunt”.

Efforts to silence a prominent conservative populist via the law usually fails to keep populists from keeping or expanding their power. Driving Austrian Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache from office because of the so-called “Ibiza affair” in 2019 did not stop his successor, Herbert Kickl, from leading the party to first place in last year’s election.

That’s what early French polls suggest would happen if Le Pen is barred from running. Her deputy, Jordan Bardella, leads in a hypothetical contest in a late March poll, retaining 93 percent of voters who would have backed Le Pen.

Yes, a long extract, but it is European politics, and thus complicated, with new and strange names.  President Macron is the leader of France and married to his school teacher.  Le Pen is the Daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, comtroversial founder of the National Front Party, now the National Raal.

i think the proposal makes sense.  Her appeal of her conviction will just keep her in the news and harden her followers.  It may well garner her sympathy amongst the centerist voters.

i was surprised at how US President Donald Trump was woven into the story.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

OVERLORD

For John, BLUF:  Freedom of the People is something we hold in commonn with the French.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Normandy is in party mood on the eve of D-Day's 80th

From The Times, by Historian Max Hastings, Monday, 3 June 2024, 12.01am BST.

Here is the lede plus three:

Normandy, where last month I was doing book research, proved en fête before the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Every shop and restaurant was adorned with period caricatures, flags and welcome signs. Banish the legend of French rudeness — everybody was delightful. There seemed more American than British visitors. The vast US memorial at Omaha Beach was a heaving mass — take a bow, Steven Spielberg — whereas when we visited two of the Commonwealth cemeteries, Tilly-sur-Seulles and Jérusalem, which seem much more moving because they're so intimate, we were alone.

Keith Douglas lies in the former, he who wrote "And when I prepare to die behind my gun/ I shall not glow with fervour like a sun/ Then, whatever will restrain/ the coward reasoning closely in my brain/ I think it will be that I am mad to see/the whole performance and what the end will be". He never did fulfil that latter ambition of survival, shared by almost every man of the millions who fought in Normandy, being killed on June 9, 1944, aged 24.

Driving through the lush Norman countryside, with so many golden-walled manor houses such as once we coveted, I recalled the 1980s when I began to write about the Second World War, and met a host of veterans. One of my favourites was an exuberant French former officer of the Special Operations Executive named Jacques Poirier. "Since you are to write about Resistance," he cried — I was then doing a book about that experience — "we must share the drink of Resistance!" And thus he introduced me to Kir, named for Canon Félix Kir, a famous Dijon Resister.

I have been drinking white wine with cassis ever since. If one orders it in most English restaurants they overdo the latter, but on Friday at Jeremy King's newish Arlington, it was just right.

So, it seems, we (and the British, Canadians and French and some Poles) were, in fact, liberators in 1944.  And, it was not a free ride for the French Civilians.

What is interesting is that the People of France, or at least the People of Normandy, at a distance of 80 years, still are appreciative of the efforts expended to liberate their territory from German occupation.

As an American I am proud of the fact that we went to the aid of the French.  Also, I am appreciative of the fact that those liberated, and the descendents of those liberated, are appreciative of our efforts.  We have had our differences with the French, but we pull together on the idea of the inherent right to freedom on the part of the people.

Regards  —  Cliff

Twilight of the Elites?

For John, BLUF:  Here is an analysis of the current political malaise among the Working and Middle Classes.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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La République’s Last, Best Hope

,

Here is the sub-headline:

The French people can save France.

From The Free Press, by Demographer Christophe Guilluy, 28 November 2023.

The article talks about how the Working and Middle Classes have been ignored, but here is the nub of the analysis:

It is this loss that is at the heart of the malaise from which many democracies are currently suffering—and it is this loss that explains the singular nature of the political, social, and cultural protests that have swept across the nations of the West over the past 20 years.  In France, this fundamentally psychosocial movement has proven irrepressible, unstoppable, and always ready to resurface, to rearm, whenever the occasion arises (a reform, an election, a referendum).

Liberated from the constraints of the political left and right, this force takes hold of any protest going—joining it to invoke the inexorable return of power to the people.

The energy and confidence of this movement is rooted in its long-termism.  Indeed, the deep strength it draws on—and this is what makes it different in the history of protest groups—is not of a material, but rather of an existential nature.  It is its immaterial dimension that makes it so unstoppable and, from the point of view of ruling classes who have thus far managed to sort everything out in material terms (by writing checks), so undefeatable.  For despite what the zeitgeist may suggest, this protest doesn’t distinguish between those who are concerned about making ends meet (ordinary people) and those worried about the end of the world (the intelligentsia).

We see the outcome of the Presidential Election in Argentina and the surge of Geert Wilder's party in the Netherlands.  We see the continuing popularity of Donald J Trump and his MAGA Movement, in spite of the efforts of bureaucrats and the Media.  There is a yearning on the part of the Working and Middle Claases to reclaim their place in society.

This article was originally published in the New Statesman, as "Emmanuel Macron does not understand France," subheadlined "A leading French thinker on the forces of a new movement that is neither left nor right".

The author's book, Twilight of the Elites:  Prosperity, the Periphery, and the Future of France, is available, in English, from Amazon.

Hat tip to the The Chicago Boyz.

Regards  —  Cliff

Being Diplomatic Toward Allies

For John, BLUF:  French President Emaneuel Macron denounced the incoming Italian Prime Minister, Ms Gioria Meloni.  She did not take it well.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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MACRON VS. MELONI

From Power Line, by Blogger John Hinderaker, 29 September 2022.

Here is the lede plus one:

France’s Emmanuel Macron, like a number of other world leaders, has denounced Italy and its incoming Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni.  I will chalk that up as a mistake.  I don’t think a lot of people have seen this amateurishly-filmed response by Meloni, but it is scorching.

It is not hard to understand why colorless leftist leaders fear Meloni and denounce her as a “fascist.”  I think that means she gives speeches that are effective and that people like.  I don’t necessarily agree with everything Meloni says here, but she makes some good points about illegal immigration and Africa:

It the You Tube doesn't pop up. clock here.

I think Ms Meloni's critique is a fair one.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Citizens police Tour de France

For John, BLUF:  The Legislature should understand what the People are feeling and be responsive to it, either legislating as they want or stnading up and leading the People in a new direction.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Tour de France fans take justice into their own hands and tackle militant eco-protesters before dragging them off the road to stop them blocking the race

Here is the sub-headline:

• Climate activists held a fourth protest at the Tour de France today but were dragged off the road by fans
• The incensed bystanders piled into the road and hauled the eco-protesters off the tarmac so bikes could pass
• Police later arrived and arrested eight activists from the sideline of the competition, which finishes today

From The Daily Mail, by Reporter Charlotte McLaughlin, 25 July 2022, 03:01 EDT.

Here is the lede plus two:

Tour de France fans took matters into their own hands yesterday as they angrily removed a gang of eco-protesters threatening to disrupt the historic bike race by sitting in the middle of the road to block oncoming riders.

Eight climate activists from French campaign group Dernière Rénovation (Last Renovation) sporting T-shirts emblazoned with the message 'we have 978 days left' to tackle environmental decline tried to stop the race during the 20th stage between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour on Saturday.

But their attempts to wreak havoc at the stage were thwarted by spectators, who stormed onto the road and dragged them out of the path of the oncoming bikes even before the police arrived on the scene to make arrests.

This is the kind of thing thaat happens when the ordinary citizenry gets tired of being pushed around by criminls or protestors and the police are not doing their job.

The good news here is that the citizens just pushed the Climate Change protestors oult of the way.  They did not, themselves, ingage in vioolence..

On of the issues for the Public is if the Climate change we are experiencing is of a magnitude and velocity as to require rapid change, thus justifying massive civil disobedience.  I am doubtful that is what the science is saying.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Humor to Ease Tensions

For John, BLUF:  Someone tried it and failed, although in retrospect I think he made some good points.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Monty Python Star John Cleese Is the Latest to Be Silenced

From PJ Media, by Reporter Stephen Green, 14 March 2022, 5:14 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus two:

John Cleese had his microphone taken away at an SXSW comedy event in Austin, TX for having the audacity to joke about reparations, according to the Daily Mail.

“[People] get competitive about this business of being oppressed,” he deadpanned.  “We were oppressed, the English, by the Romans from about 0 to 400.”

Cleese asked, “You do know the British have been slaves twice, right?”

Twice?  Yes, remember the French conquest of England in 1066—Battle of Hastings and all that.

Yes, the Englished managed to absorb the French and reassert themselves.  Remember Robin Hood?  Rember the 1215 Magn Carta.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

"Sanitarian Apartheid"

For John, BLUF:  In which the author, living behind enemy lines in France, takes the dystopian view of forced vaccinations.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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THE SEGREGATION OF CITIZEN COVID

Here is the sub-headline:

France brings out a SARS-CoV variant of leprostigma by fiat. Now where did I put my clapper and bell?

From the dissident frogman, Friday, July 16th anno domini 2021.

Here is the lede plus four:

YOU KNOW THAT FUNNY FEELING WHEN THE HEAD OF STATE ADDRESSES THE NATION AND DECLARES THAT YOU AND SOME OF YOUR FELLOW CITIZENS SHALL BE TREATED AS OUTCASTS AND ARBITRARILY DEPRIVED OF YOUR RIGHTS?

Or perhaps you don’t.

I know I didn’t until Emmanuel “Jupiter” Macron, President of Le Pays des Droits de l’Homme the “nation of human rights”, as some French like to call this country, appeared in the idiot box and announced, right on the eve of Bastille Day, that:

Our choice is simple:  to put the restrictions on the unvaccinated rather than on all.

Restrictions being Macron’s byword for segregation, to be implemented on people who have not been covaxxed into submission—whatever the reason we have, of which there are many, ranging from the borderline insane conspiracy theories to informed common sense and caution.

What ever happened to the battle cry, "My body, my choice"?  I guess it varies by location and year.

I have been vaccinated, but then I am over 60 and have co-morbidities.  Mine was a rational choice.  It I was 20 and in good health, then I might have considered an alternative choice.

For sure the varying offical word from the CDC and others does not inspire great confidence in the proclamations of the expert class.

Regards  —  Cliff

Fête nationale (France)

For John, BLUF:  This is Bastille Day, the French holiday celebrating the French Revolution.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Bastille Day

The storming of the Bastille Prison in 1789 was a tipping point for the revolutionary fever gripping Paris and its surrounding areas.  In and of itself it was a minor event, but it was the spark that lit the fires of revolution:

At this point, the Bastille was nearly empty, housing only seven prisoners:  four forgers; James F.X. Whyte, a "lunatic" imprisoned at the request of his family; Auguste-Claude Tavernier, who had tried to assassinate Louis XV thirty years before; and one "deviant" aristocrat, the Comte de Solages, imprisoned by his father using a lettre de cachet (while the Marquis de Sade had been transferred out ten days earlier).

The French Revolution and its aftermath spread revolution across Europe, leading to the spread of democracy and freedom (more revolutions).  Perhaps the most important change was the sense of empowerment amongst the People.

Unlike our "Revolution," which was mostly about succession, the French Revolution included the inevitable result of revolutions, the "Revolutions eat their children."  This is not a good thing for those who get consumed.

Be thankful for our more evolutionary approach to changing government and ensuring the freedom of the People.

Regards  —  Cliff

"Died For Civilization"

For John, BLUF:  I am part of the generatoin that didn't even realize thare was an Operation OVERLORD when it happened.  But, I do believe it is worth commemorating each year.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Sixth of June - The Film

The cost to the Ground Forces, the Armies fighting in Operation OVERLORD was high, as was the suffering.  They were true heros and they died, as it says in the video, for Civilization.

It is wonderful to see the response each year from the People of the town of Sainte-Mère-Église.  From the movie, The Longest Day, my first thought is to the members of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment coming down on Sainte-Mère-Église and one para getting hung up on the church steeple.

In thinking about the Normandy Invasion it is useful to remember the Bomber Aircrews who flew costly missions over Germany so that our long-range fighters could break the back of the Luftwaffe, which made the landings possible and successful.

Hat tip to Keith Nightengale, Colonel, US Army, Retired, who is in the Credits.

Regards  —  Cliff

It Is Getting Ugly Out There

For John, BLUF:  The exposure of people willng to put down hispanics in the name of putting down Caucasians who don't conform to today's woke definitions.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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On the Hypocrites at Apple Who Canceled Antonio Garcia-Martinez

Here is the sub-headline:

Much easier to ruin a career than mess with a corporate cash cow

From TK News, by Writer Matt Taibbi, 14 March 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

I’m biased, because I know Antonio Garcia-Martinez and something like the same thing once happened to me, but the decision by Apple to bend to a posse of internal complainers and fire him over a passage in a five-year-old book is ridiculous hypocrisy.  Hypocrisy by the complainers, and defamatory cowardice by the bosses — about right for the Invasion of the Body Snatchers-style era of timorous conformity and duncecap monoculture the woke mobs at these places are trying to build as their new Jerusalem.

Garcia-Martinez is a brilliant, funny, multi-talented Cuban-American whose confessional memoir Chaos Monkeys is to big tech what Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker was to finance.  A onetime high-level Facebook executive — he ran Facebook Ads — Antonio’s book shows the House of Zuckerberg to be a cult full of on-the-spectrum zealots who talked like justice activists while possessing the business ethics of Vlad the Impaler:

Facebook is full of true believers who really, really, really are not doing it for the money, and really, really will not stop until every man, woman, and child on earth is staring into a blue-framed window with a Facebook logo.

Writer Matt Taibbi shows nothing but distain for the executives, and workers, at Apple, who hired and then fired, in short order, Mr Antonio García-Martínez.  I don't know Mr García-Martínez from Adam's Odd Ox.  However, it looks like the mob is coming for him and those of us still sane need to stand by him, in whatever way we can.

It isn't like Mr García-Martínez was a buddy of Mr Jeffrey Epstein.  Nor is Mr García-Martínez a known spouse abuser.  However, it is obvious that Apple employees have no sense of humor and no sense of tolerence for the opinions of others if they diverge from the accepted line.  That means we are approaching the French Revolution stage known as the Reign of Terror.

You have been warned.

Regards  —  Cliff

Beating Down the Opposition

For John, BLUF:  I am not sure if I see this as dangerously slow legal action or I see it as the useabuse of Government powers to impact elections.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Prosecutor Demands €5,000 Fine Against Marine Le Pen over Photos Exposing ISIS Crimes

Here is the original in Le Figaro:

5000 euros d'amende requis contre Marine Le Pen et Gilbert Collard pour avoir diffusé des photos d'exactions de Daech

From Breitbrt, by Reporter Chris Tomlinson, 13 February 2021.

Here is the lede plus one:

National Rally leader Marine Le Pen and MEP Gilbert Collard were in court this week as prosecutors demand a 5,000 euro fine against the two for exposing Islamic State atrocities by sharing pictures of them on Twitter in 2015.

The two French politicians had posted the photographs after journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin compared the Front National, as National Rally was formerly known, to the radical Islamic terrorist group.

Both politicians admit to posting the photographs but protested the hate speech charges against them, French newspaper Le Figaro reports, with Le Pen stating: “It is crime, not photographic reproduction of the crime, that undermines human dignity!”

Le Pen compared the images to the photograph of Aylan Kurdi, a child who had drowned during the height of the migrant crisis in 2015 whose picture made front pages of newspapers worldwide, stating: “This photo was published by the entire French media without the prosecutor’s office ever finding a reason to initiate a prosecution of any kind.”

So, the French Government is going after French Presidential Candidate Marine Le Pen for publishing, on Twitter, pictures of Islamic State atrocities.  This factual expression of the depravity of the Islamic State is somehow bad for the public to see.

You don't think that this is an attempt to smear candidate Le Pen because of her strong showing in the polls against President Macron?  No, that kind of thing would be unethical, particularly by a Government Agency.  Heck, this would be like Impeaching and then trying someone after they had left office.

Hat tip to my Wife.

Regards  —  Cliff

The French Are Aroused

For John, BLUF:  The French have a several hundred year tradition of "Liberté, égalité, fraternité", which is a delicate balance,  Now radical ideas from the United States threaten to overthrow the balance.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Will American Ideas Tear France Apart? Some Think So.

Here is the sub-headline:

Politicians and prominent intellectuals say social theories from the United States on race, gender and post-colonialism are a threat to French identity and the French republic.

From The Old Gray Lady, by By Norimitsu Onishi, 9 February 2021 Updated 9:38 a.m. ET.

Actually, I caught this at a Tweet by Reporter Glenn Greenwald.  I have dropped off of Twitter, but that doesn't mean I won't check out a tweet recommended by someone I trust.

Here is the tweet:

Glenn Greenwald  @ggreenwald  ·  49m
Obama-endorsed French President Emmanuel Macron has joined numerous French intellectuals & journalists in warning that "out-of-control woke leftism of US campuses and its attendant cancel culture" poses a grave threat due to the social strife it creates:

Here is the article lede, plus three:

The threat is said to be existential.  It fuels secessionism.  Gnaws at national unity.  Abets Islamism.  Attacks France’s intellectual and cultural heritage.

The threat?  "Certain social science theories entirely imported from the United States," said President Emmanuel Macron.

French politicians, high-profile intellectuals and journalists are warning that progressive American ideas — specifically on race, gender, post-colonialism — are undermining their society.  "There’s a battle to wage against an intellectual matrix from American universities," warned Mr. Macron’s education minister.

Emboldened by these comments, prominent intellectuals have banded together against what they regard as contamination by the out-of-control woke leftism of American campuses and its attendant cancel culture.

It is unusual for the French to be concerned about Americans having radical ideas.  It is usually the other way around.  I would think it would cause all those bien-pensant Democrats to pause and take stock.  But, not today.  Today is about ridding of kingdom of that troublesome Developer.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Counting the COVID-19 Costs

For John, BLUF:  We get a lot of comparisons of Coronavirus cases, deaths and recoveries, but it turns out not everyone counts the same way.  And that isn't even considering the dodgy numbers out of China, or elsewhere.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Europe Wasn’t Ready for Coronavirus.  It May Never Fully Recover.

From The National Review, by Spanish Journalist Itxu Díaz, 27 March 2020.

Well down in the article we have this:

We now know that neither Germany nor France is counting the deaths from coronavirus that occur outside of hospitals, and that the Germans don’t call it “death from coronavirus” if the patient had a previous illness.

And what about people in nursing homes?  Are they a Coronavirus death, or not?

So, we bandy around Statistics about the Coronavirus, but if we don't know what they are really measuring, what value are they?

While I have picked out this one item to whinge about, the total article is also very Interest.

Regards  —  Cliff

The Vendée Revolt—1793

For John, BLUF:  Revolutions are usually ugly things, and often end up with even worse governments.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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war in the Vendée

I don't remember where I picked up this description of the French Revolutionary Government dealing with the people of the Venndée Region of France (out on the Atlantic Coast).

THE FRENCH GENOCIDE that was written out of history.  “It became customary to drown brigands naked, not merely so that the Revolutionaries could help themselves to the Vendéens’ clothes, but also so that the younger women among them could be raped before death.  Drownings spread far beyond Nantes:  on 16th December, General Marceau sent a letter to the Revolutionary Minister of War triumphantly announcing, among other victories, that at least 3,000 non-combatant Vendéen women had been drowned at Pont-au-Baux.  The Revolutionaries were drunk with blood, and could not slaughter their brigand prisoners fast enough—women, children, old people, priests, the sick, the infirm.  If the prisoners could not walk fast enough to the killing grounds, they were bayoneted in the stomach and left on the ground to be trampled by other prisoners as they bled to death. . . . Men, women and children were more often shot, or burned alive in their houses.  Some of the Crusading soldiers had the idea of lighting ovens, stoking them and baking Vendéen families in them.  Babies were not spared; nor were toddlers or small children.  The usual practice was to kill babies in front of their mothers, then kill the mothers.  Young girls were often drowned, after first being raped.  Widows were usually beaten, insulted and drowned.”

The French Revolution was the model for all succeeding leftist regimes.

And that is the way with revolutions.

The likelihood of a peaceful revolution, a bloodless Coup, is small.

The Progressives best be careful of their seeking to overthrow President Trump.  The best hope for a peaceful ejection of President Trump is the ballot box in November of 2020.

Regards  —  Cliff

French Language Threat

For John, BLUF:  It's all Greek to me.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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French Language Under Assault From English

From The Wanderer, by Monsieur John J Metzler, 15 August 2019.

Here is the lede plus one:

PARIS — A long linguistic battle between French and English appears to have been settled: English won.  Some twenty-five years after passage of legislation to specifically defend use of the French language, and protect its patrimony throughout the land, what’s known as the Toubon law has become a quaint footnote.

The respected French daily newspaper Le Figaro headlines, “Advertising, Business, and Politics:  Franglais is gaining territory.” Franglais, which is a mix of French heavily mixed with English words and terms, has evolved since WWII.  It does not have its roots in British English but in American English, which like the Latin of old, has become the lingua franca of our modern age.

This is a language driven by entertainment, commerce, and computers more than by the pages of Hemingway.

But the reality is less that of Shakespeare and Longfellow surpassing Molière and Proust, but rather the language of Google and Facebook setting the linguistic parameters in an Anglo information universe. Long before globalization put English on the fast track, it was American music, television, and movie that brought English into the homes and cinemas of France, making it the cultural soundtrack for a generation.

Now, for example, the slogan of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics is Made for Sharing!

Even Air France, the national airline, uses the advertising and branding slogan, France is in the Air!

Though the Toubon linguistic legislation was passed in August 1994 to reaffirm French as the official language of the Republic, practically speaking English has been gaining rapidly in usage especially among the young and the business classes.  Back then the all-knowing State assembled an informal dictionary of 3,000 English words to supplant with French words.  This quickly fell by the wayside as the new expanding Internet injected English phrases into usage on steroids.

Today phrases like start-up, meeting, marketing, and benchmarks proliferate in the French commercial sector.

Part of this, in my opinion, has less to do with the words being English per se, but more to do with being more direct, short, and precise in their meaning and intent than their French counterparts.

For example, I’m looking at a catalogue for the cellphone/cable/WiFi provider Orange.  Here we see Livebox Fibre, 4G Home, Packs Open Up offerings from which to choose.

French radio is swamped by American music.  This is nothing new.  Stations play a steady stream of entertainment from Top 40, to Jazz and Hip Hop.  It’s the same at the movies.  Despite a strong and highly state-subsidized French cinema, the most popular films across France are usually American.  This summer, Lion King has captivated French moviegoers.  Usually about half the major films playing in France are made in the USA.

In a way, it is sad.  But, I remember the introduction of the Toulon Law.  Some of the proposed Français versions of Anglais terms were a little over the top.

Personally, I blame President Trump.

Regards  —  Cliff

Looking Forward From Notre Dame

For John, BLUF:  Not an explanation, but hope.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Grieving for Notre Dame? Turn to Nagasaki for comfort.

From The Washington Post, By Ms Meghan Kruger, Associate Opinion Editor at The Wash Post, 17 April 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

How does one begin to dry the tears streaming down the ash-stained faces of Parisian Catholics?  To be sure, Notre Dame Cathedral is a treasure for the world, for people of all nations and creeds.  But it is first and foremost a Catholic church — where the sacraments have been celebrated for centuries, where the faithful labored more than a hundred years to erect a glorious monument to God.  To watch this sacred space burn during Holy Week — the most solemn of the Christian liturgical year — stings all the more.

Here’s one suggestion for where Paris’s grieving faithful might turn for comfort: eastward, to Nagasaki, Japan.

Nagasaki has been the heart of Catholic Japan almost since St. Francis Xavier arrived on the island of Kyushu in 1549.  By 1580, the country had an estimated 200,000 converts, many of them concentrated in the trading port that regularly welcomed their Portuguese co-religionists.

Hope is one of the three Theological Virtues.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff

Don't Idle Your Auto On The Continent

For John, BLUF:  When overseas, take the bus.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Did you know: Why leaving your car engine running in France could land you in trouble

Here is the sub-headline:

Did you know there is a fairly unknown law in France about leaving your engine running that you'd be wise to be aware of, especially given the French police seem to be cracking down on it.

From The Local, 4 March 2019.

Here is a key paragraph:

… in France this is in fact punishable with a fixed fine of €135, which may be reduced to €90 or increased to €375, or even a daunting €750 depending on the case and how long it takes you to pay the fine.

As of this writing 1 Euro trades for 1.13 dollars (1€ = $1.13).

In Belgium it is a €130 fine.

Another reason for being happy living in America.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Frenchman BHL on Rights

For John, BLUF:  An interesting conversation with a French Intellectual who tries to adhere to a philosophy without veering to one side or the other.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Bernard-Henri Lévy on the Rights of Women and of the Accused

Here is the sub-headline:

“It is a duty, a moral duty, to hold firm the idea that there is no people, no ethnicity, forbidding democracy,” the world’s most famous French intellectual says.

From The New Yorker, by Staff Writer Isaac Chotiner, 18 March 2019.

Here is the lede plus two:

“The history of France, a permanent miracle, has the singular privilege of impassioning the peoples of the earth to the point where they all take part in French quarrels,” the French author André Maurois wrote. With Bernard-Henri Lévy, it often seems that the world’s most famous French intellectual is taking part in everyone else’s quarrels.  Born in Algeria, to a Jewish family, B.H.L. (as he is known) made a name for himself as a journalist in East Pakistan, in the early seventies, during its struggle to become Bangladesh.  A few years later, he was part of a group of young French writers, called the New Philosophers, who broke decisively from Marxism and the influence of Sartre.  Over the past several decades, he has written philosophy and history and journalism, on subjects ranging from the war in Bosnia to the death of Daniel Pearl and the need for a strong stand against Islamic fundamentalism.

He has also, unlike some of his forebears, evinced a passionate love for the United States.  He retraced Tocqueville’s footsteps in a series of essays for The Atlantic (which became the book “American Vertigo”), speaks proudly of his “anti-anti-Americanism,” and has urged the United States to exercise its power, voicing support for military action in Libya.  (He played a large role in convincing the French government to help overthrow Muammar Qaddafi.)  His new book is called “The Empire and the Five Kings:  America’s Abdication and the Fate of the World,” and it explains why an American “retreat” from the global stage is likely to have calamitous effects, with other, less democratic countries filling the void.

Lévy has sparked controversy for a number of his stances, including his advocacy for France’s burqa ban, his “unconditional love” of Israel, and his criticism of the rape cases against the film director Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty to statutory rape, in 1978, and fled to France to avoid imprisonment, and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund.  Strauss-Kahn, a friend of Lévy’s, has been repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct.  In 2011, New York prosecutors charged him with the sexual assault of a maid at a Manhattan hotel; the charges were dropped, but not before Lévy published a piece defending Strauss-Kahn, in which he questioned why a maid would have gone into Strauss-Kahn’s hotel room alone, and claimed that his friend had been “thrown to the dogs.”

Read it to see a person struggle to go below the top layer to find truth.

Regards  —  Cliff

France Has Its Critics and Prophets

For John, BLUF:  Here is a rundown on one of the "right wing" pundits in France.  France is a little unsettled at this time, which is probably not good, especially if the centre does not hold.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The Right-Wing Pundit ‘Hashtag Triggering’ France

Here is the sub-headline:

The pop historian Eric Zemmour has fashioned himself as an evangelist of French culture — and become a driving force for French conservatism.

From the Old Gray Lady, By Ms Elisabeth Zerofsky, 6 February 2019.

Here is the lede plus three:

To follow Éric Zemmour around Paris this fall was to make a tour of the city’s slightly faded belle epoque salons.  In September, after his latest book, “French Destiny,” was published, Le Figaro, France’s center-right daily paper, where Zemmour is a columnist, hosted a talk at the Salle Gaveau.  A 1906 chamber-music hall, painted pale yellow and lined with parterre boxes, it is just two blocks from the presidential palace.  “I’m not going to introduce Éric Zemmour,” his presenter told the sold-out hall, noting that you would have to live at the very edge of the universe to escape him.

“I’m always intimidated when someone says something nice about me,” Zemmour replied.  “It happens pretty rarely.”

At 60, Zemmour is slight, with thinning hair and a spry energy.  In a normal week, he might be a guest on morning radio, discuss the death of Gaullism on his Wednesday-evening talk show and publish a column on the genius of the French language.  But when he releases a book — he has written three since 2014 — his frequent speaking engagements mean additional opportunities to expound on his preferred topics: the historical curtailment of French dominance and the elites who have destroyed what remains of French identity.  All this time in front of the public increases the chance that he will do what he is best known for:  defy the still-robust codes of French politesse. “I have the great fault of being unable to concede,” Zemmour says.  “I’m not glorifying being this way. I just can’t help it.”  It is a trait that ensures not only that Zemmour is to be found everywhere, talking, but also that everyone, everywhere, is talking about him.

In the lobby, before the evening’s program, Zemmour’s colleagues were chattering about his latest clash, the so-called affaire des prénoms.  On a talk show the previous Sunday, Zemmour went on a riff about the importance of a first name in signaling Frenchness, a longstanding obsession of his.  (In 2009, he publicly castigated the minister of justice, Rachida Dati, for naming her daughter Zohra.)  Zemmour concluded by informing one of the panelists, a young journalist with Senegalese roots named Hapsatou Sy, that her mother was wrong not to give her a French name — say, Corinne — to show that their family was dedicated to the task of assimilating.  Everyone laughed, but the producers cut the cameras and the conversation continued offscreen, where Zemmour told Sy that her name was “an insult” to France.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Two Visions of Europe

For John, BLUF:  The trouble with Britain is not the only trouble the European Union faces.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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A feud between France and Italy sums up the deep rift over Europe

From Quartz, by Professor Simon Toubeau, 12 February 2019.

Here is the lede plus six:

France and Italy are in a diplomatic crisis, provoked by a recent meeting between Italy’s deputy prime minister, Luigi Di Maio, and representatives of the French Gilets Jaunes protest movement.

Di Maio has expressed his support for the Gilets Jaunes as they prepare to stand candidates in the European Parliament elections this year.  This has caused so much trouble for the French president, Emmanuel Macron, that the French government has pulled its ambassador out of Rome, accusing the Italian government of making verbal attacks “without precedent since World War II.”

Di Maio’s gesture was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Tensions between the two governments—over corporate takeovers, policy towards Libya, and an exhibition Leonardo Da Vinci’s works—have been mounting since a new populist “government of change” came to power in Italy last June.  This latest conflict has soured relations to an unprecedented point.  It’s difficult to see how they can improve in the near term.

It is exceptional for two of the founding members of the European Union to have such an open conflict.  But it is also exceptional for Italy to have a government that is so openly hostile to the EU.  This reveals that behind this crisis lies a deeper rift over Europe.

Macron’s La Republique En Marche movement is a newcomer on the French political scene, but it nevertheless represents the mainstream, pro-European liberal center.  Macron poached people from across the moderate left and right to form his new government.  In France, the forces of the populist left (the France Insoumise movement) and right (the far-right party Rassemblement National) are in opposition.  But in Italy, the equivalent forces—the Five Star movement and the League—are in government.  There, it is the mainstream pro-European center that is in opposition.

So the French and Italian governments now have very different visions for the EU.  Macron has ambitions for deeper cooperation in foreign, military, and economic affairs.  In contrast, the League and the Five Star movement have been aligning themselves with fellow populist governments in Austria, Poland, and Hungary, all of which are either promoting eurosceptic views or are in open conflict with Brussels.

These two parvenus governments need to give some credibility to their contrasting visions because elections to the European Parliament are now in sight.

My sense is that the author favors France in this fracas.  The is, sadly, putting one's head in the sand.  Pundits are still learning the wrong lessons from Mr Donald Trump, and others.  Mr Trump represents a shift in the thinking of the People.  The same thing is going on in Europe.  Not everyone, but enough to change election outcomes.

Regards  —  Cliff