Puppet Masters

UPDATE! French appeals court overturns lower court's revocation of government's ban on Dieudonné's stand-up comedy tour... minutes before first show due to commence

The Guardian
Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:10 UTC

Top French court upholds original ban on Dieudonné M'bala M'bala after lower court ruled performance could go ahead

A top French court has upheld a ban on the opening night show of Dieudonné M'bala M'bala, a comedian who is known by his stage name Dieudonné and whom the government accuses of insulting the memory of Holocaust victims, according to the text of its ruling.

Critics say the comic's trademark straight-arm gesture is a Nazi salute in reverse. Dieudonné, 46, says it is anti-Zionist and anti-establishment, but not antisemitic. He has been repeatedly fined for hate speech.

The French interior minister, Manuel Valls, had been leading the effort to stop the comedian's national tour but a lower court overturned the ban earlier on Thursday. Valls immediately appealed against the ruling.

Judges in the Council of State, France's highest administrative court, decided on Thursday to maintain the ban on the comedian performing the first night of his national tour in the western city of Nantes, despite a challenge by his lawyers saying his freedom of expression had been breached.

Source: Reuters

Comment: Further Updates

***

18:45 CET

French riot police are positioned at the Conseil d'État at the Palais du Justice in Paris in anticipation of supporters of Dieudonné protesting there.

20:00 CET

It's interesting to note that the Council of State is France's Supreme Court, but unlike the Supreme Court in the US, where permanent members adjudicate cases that bring up constitutional issues, France's Supreme Court has several functions, including as 'legal advisor' to the government. In this role, it is presided over by the Prime Minister, the Vice-President and other members of the government.

In upholding the French government's ban, the Conseil d'État functioned as an appellate court, and was composed of just one judge, Bernard Stirn, great-grand-nephew of Alfred Dreyfus.

20:10 CET

According to Dieudonné's Facebook page, this decision has been handed down at the very last minute. Thousands of spectators are already at the venue, Dieudonné is inside and has asked to be allowed outside to address the crowd but the police won't let him. The authorities are requesting that people return to their homes and Dieudonné has also pleaded with them to remain calm and sing the Marseillaise...

20:20 CET

Dieudonné is now also asking that people to return to their homes following reports that violence has broken out...

Spoiling for a fight: The French govt mobilized hundreds of militarized police to 'ensure' public order

Thousands of spectators were disappointed to learn that the French govt has no sense of humor

20:30 CET

In another Facebook update, Dieudonné has again asked people to calmly leave the scene, explaining that a violent confrontation is what the government is looking for:

22:30 CET

Dieudonné fans left the Zenith arena in Nantes peacefully, chanting the Marseillaise. The comedian is set to release a video message via his YouTube channel tomorrow, 10th January 2013.

Dieudonne's friend and colleague, French Jewish comedian 'Jacky', explains the situation to the waiting fans.

Reader Comments

kksalm · 2014-01-09T13:26:03Z

I hope he's coming to America soon

Somebody book this guy now, ASAP!
Surely he could perform in the U.S. of A. to the amusement of us all.
Couldn't he? Let's find out! It'll be a hoot!

Have a nice day...

sass · 2014-01-09T14:55:38Z

Haha, that's funny kksalm.

Why would authorities do this at last minute when people are likely to be furious and riot - could it be that they want a rumble?

Why aren't the people rioting? This is the ongoing question for everything these days. Fu**ing sheep.

Niall · 2014-01-09T16:02:27Z

They're not rioting because they have more sense than you!

Don't you get it?

"Once they have got you violent, they know how to handle you." - Lennon

passiveactivist · 2014-01-09T15:58:58Z

cause they want

to prove that he is a menice to society by marginalizing his follows just like the fbi naming ICP's juggalos as a 'loosly knit hybrid gang' whatever that means. when they seriously dont like what they see and know theyre limited on what they can do about it its nessisary to create a demon with which to identify said personality. the two cases are acctually strickingly similar. a few people who affiliate with the juggalos have done some bad things and perhaps some of the people making quenelles in questionable places didnt do it with the best intensions, buts its the demonizing of the makeup or gesture that lets them shut it down so to speak. thats exactly what they where looking for was a chance to say see we were right hes definatly antisemtic and his fans are violent which would have instantly shut all the other shows with no one left to ? if it was a good idea. but just like with ICP, i doubt hes going away without a fight. hopefully not a physical one as some might suggest but rather a quenelle rally to show them once and for all "Trust me this is not a salute to anyone or anything but rather a serious statment about the micromanegment of the world". irronically as someone else notted someone should really let Valls know what happens when you use the word reverse. opposite anyone? seems theyre showing solidarity towards the holucast.

sass · 2014-01-09T18:03:28Z

@ Niall, no I don't get it. There is a time for fury, and the time is well overdue. I wouldn't take anything that John Lennon says either, just another channel for keeping as passive - don't YOU get it.

Really, is it necessary to assault my intelligence just because I am apparently not as smart as you?

sass · 2014-01-09T18:21:51Z

@ Niall also - and, you know what? Perhaps chaos and vigilante "disorder" would not be as bad as they keep telling us it will be.

Anything's got to be better than this.

If we trusted our innate ability to survive and create our own order, like is probably natural, we'd do a hell of a lot better than having the race at the mercy of the psychopaths at the top. The "order" they create is artificial and deeply incompatible with our inherent natures, and, by robbing us by disconnecting us with our inherit natures is how we are controlled. How would it be if the animals at the zoo rioted? The keepers would stand aside and let them go, because in reality without their flimsy tools - infrastructure (cages/fences), rules and manufactured environment, the keepers are mere cowards, and no match for the natural forces of primal instinct for freedom and the instinct to flourish.

Niall · 2014-01-10T05:50:56Z

The problem is that they won't "stand aside and let them go". They'll do what psychopaths always do. And the results are predictably disastrous.

What might work though is a 'revolution in consciousness' - that is, people individually decide to no long believe the lies, then, as we're seeing with this quenelle gesture, they communicate their psychological resistance to each other.

No mass demos on the streets, no riots, no storming the Bastille... they key is for people to recognize, within themselves, that they're tired of the lies, let each other know with a wink and a nod (or a quenelle!), then disengage from or ignore their system by not believing it anymore and gradually stop 'feeding the beast'. Reacting to it by rioting is feeding the system energy with which it increases its hold over people.

It's a long shot, I know, but I'm actually pretty optimistic that masses of people (well, 'a mass' of people!) still have, or increasingly will have, this inner conflict going on, and that it can produce unexpected results.

The only way out is the way in: [Link]

pavlink · 2014-01-10T07:30:44Z

So How Do You Fight This ( back )?

I wonder how long all of these sorts of programs would persist if a nice little matrix-style web repository were to show up with all these pictures of all these people and everyone around them, tagged much like you tag people on Facebook, complete with names and locations and dates and times, available to the world with nothing more complicated than a search or even just a browse of a given area of the world?

No unlawful intent of course, no trespassing, nothing of the sort. Only images, places, times and names when these folks stick themselves out in public, just like the rest of us. It's simply "you think you should be looking at us because you're curious and you assert that there's no unlawful intent, well, we're curious too." I think it would be kinda cool to see Joe Bank Executive's mug in this place or that; heh, we can live vicariously through them as they vacation in Antigua. Maybe we'd get to see one of them experience snow in 80F weather some day too. Wouldn't that be a toot, er, hoot.
[Link]

sass · 2014-01-10T00:42:53Z

Those whose moral and intellectual standards can rise no higher than to whine "the law is the law," would do well to consider the exchange between Sophie and her prosecutor. The Nazi functionary declares: "Without law, there is no order. What can we rely on if not the law?" Sophie responds: "Your conscience. Laws change. Conscience doesn't."

From recent article posted on sott

Mariama · 2014-01-10T06:52:42Z

Sophie Scholl and her fellow students didn't riot, did they. They wrote leaflets and distributed them all over Nazi Germany.

There are people that say that the pen is mightier than the sword.

Mariama · 2014-01-10T06:33:22Z

This crowd was so well-behaved and cheerful. They didn't look angry to me, although the mass media of course claimed they were.
Dieudonné certainly knows how to deal with tyranny. What a great idea to ask the people to stay calm and sing the Marseillaise. We should all do that here at SOTT!

Chapeau, Dieudonné. Well done.

FUCK BIBI !! These protests remind me of Kent state protests against another genocidal war, Vietnam.

Gator

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ReRan

Puppet Masters

UPDATE! French appeals court overturns lower court's revocation of government's ban on Dieudonné's stand-up comedy tour... minutes before first show due to commence

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