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Liberty? France to implement stricter speed limits, raise gas prices and increase taxes on cigarettes


connexionfrance.com
Sat, 30 Jun 2018 08:54 UTC
speed limits France
Speed limits fall on 400,000km of secondary roads; the cost of gas and cigarettes will rise; energy tax credit for home improvements; better information for holidaymakers
Each new month brings a raft of changes in France. These are the changes taking place in July.

Speed limits

From July 1, the speed limit on secondary routes in France will drop from 90kph to 80kph. The new maximum speeds will apply on two-way secondary roads that do not have a central separator - nearly half of the French road network.

The scheme, announced on January 9 as part of a wider government plan to reduce the number of road deaths, has generated criticism from motorists and biker associations, but Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has said he is prepared to accept the unpopularity of the law in order to save up to 400 lives a year.

Gas prices

Comment: With Macron's popularity tanking, mass protests and strikes against his governments education and employment reforms, his eagerness to wage war abroad, sycophantic and duplicitous behaviour on the world stage, his governments unseemly meddling with the of the age of consent and 'equal rights', one wonders how much more France will take.

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Recycle

'Waste of cash & state propaganda': French slam Macron's €1.6bn plan to bring back mandatory military service


RT
Fri, 29 Jun 2018 15:37 UTC
macron military
The French aren't embracing President Emmanuel Macron's plan to reinstate national military service by the start of next year. Many have called the proposal a useless waste of money and even something that stinks of propaganda.

Macron has attempted to justify the proposal, saying that national service would promote patriotism and "social cohesion" among France's youth. The plan, which has undergone a number of changes, will now see both boys and girls that have reached the age of 16 serve in the program divided into a voluntary and compulsory stage.

They'll have to do a minimum one-month placement that could involve teaching, working with charities, and traditional military training with the police, fire service or army. The details of the scheme have not yet been finalized, sparking some confusion on what exactly will be compulsory, the exact length and the actual composition of the service.

Comment: As with many of these programs dreamed up by shady politicians, it sounds good on paper, however the true motivations are, as noted above, more likely to do with further indoctrinating children into the ruling establishment perspective - which, these days, is god-awful in western Europe. And they already get 13-odd years of that at school. On top of that there are rumours those participating will be classed as 'in employment', thus lowering France's unemployment numbers:

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Eye 2

'Extremely violent riots': 2 killed, 310 injured and Israeli drone shot down in latest Gaza clashes


RT
Sat, 30 Jun 2018 08:05 UTC
Israeli forces fire tear gas at Palestinian demonstrators
© MAHMUD HAMS / AFP / AFPIsraeli forces fire tear gas at Palestinian demonstrators
Palestinian protesters have shot down an Israeli surveillance drone, amid heavy clashes during the latest weekly Great March of Return protest, in which the IDF killed two people and injured over 300 more at the border fence.

Thousands of Palestinians once again descended on the Israeli-Gazan border on Friday for the latest showdown with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The Israeli forces responded with live fire as rioters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails and also sent incendiary balloons across the fence which sparked at least 15 fires in Israel, the Times of Israel reports.

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Dollar

The state evicts a 79-year-old veteran from his home over back taxes

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 29 Jun 2018 21:32 UTC
old man evicted
A 79-year-old veteran suffering from dementia was evicted from his long-time family home on Friday, and his belongings scattered across the front yard, after failing to pay a $6,000 property tax bill.

"All this is furniture from my living room," Billie McGruder, who lived in the house for decades, told a crew from CBS DFW. "It's out there for everybody to see."

Only two weeks prior to his 80th birthday, McGruder got a knock on the door informing him that it was time to vacate the home he inherited from his parents who bought the house in the 1930s.

"They come to evict me for back taxes," said McGruder.

Tarrant County records reveal that authorities seized his home over nearly $6,000 in unpaid taxes and auctioned the property off to a real estate company for $38,000.

While Tarrant County Precinct 8 Constable Michael Campbell told WFAA that the eviction followed standard protocol, with the property being sold on January 2, 2017, to a new owner, McGruder said he didn't know what was happening to his home in recent months, didn't understand the letters about overdue taxes or realize that his home was being put up for auction.
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Handcuffs

Moroccan organizer of protests in Rif region and Al Hoceima sentenced to 20 years by Casablanca court


Middle East Monitor
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 02:41 UTC
Moroccan counter terrorism BCIJ
Members of the Moroccan counter-terrorism efforts, the newly set-up BCIJ (described as Morocco's FBI)
The Moroccan leader of protests over economic and social problems in the Rif region and the northern city of Al Hoceima was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday by a Casablanca court, Reuters reports.

Nasser Zefzafi, who is about 39 years old, was arrested in May 2017 and transferred to a prison in Casablanca after organizing demonstrations in his hometown of Al Hoceima in what came to be called as "Hirak al Chaabi" in Arabic or "popular movement." He was charged with undermining public order and threatening national unity.

As part of the same verdict, Nabil Ahmijeq, Wassim El Boustani and Samir Aghid were also given 20 years in prison while three others received a 15-year jail sentence.

Seven activists were sentenced to five years in prison and six others were handed a 10-year jail sentence.
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Stop

Tunisian imams discourage pilgrims from completing Hajj as Saudis use money to fund wars


Middle East Monitor
Fri, 22 Jun 2018 09:40 UTC
Muslim Hajj pilgrims Kaaba stone
© Fırat Yurdakul/Anadolu AgencyMuslim Hajj pilgrims try to touch Kaaba stone as they circumnavigate around the Kaaba, Islam's holiest site, located in the center of the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia on 22 August, 2017
The Union of Tunisian Imams called on the Grand Mufti of the Republic to discourage pilgrims from travelling to complete the Hajj this year because of the high costs of the trip and the fact that the money is used by Saudi Arabia to pay for its wars in other Muslim countries.

Local media reported General-Secretary of the Union of Tunisian Imams, Fadhel Ashour, saying: "It is better to spend this money to improve the conditions of the Tunisian people."
Saudi Arabia uses the money of Hajj in the aggression against Islamic countries such as Syria and Yemen, which is contrary to Sharia.

Comment: Any attempts to inhibit the Saudi's brutal assault on Yemen should be applauded. See also:

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USA

The sad state of childhood poverty in America

Joseph Batory
Daily Times
Thu, 14 Jun 2018 18:34 UTC
hungry children, poverty,homelessness
For the children and the flowers are my sisters and my brothers,

their laughter and their loveliness would clear a cloudy day.

And the song that I am singing is a prayer to non-believers,

To come and stand beside us, we can find a better way.

-- From a John Denver song: 'Rhymes and Reasons')

-

As a nation, we have lost our way! In the "political wheeling and dealing" of Washington government's elites, far too many of these elected officials continue to pursue only their own self-serving interests. Getting re-elected is all that matters to these people. So the agendas and subsequent support of rich and powerful individuals and groups have become their priority rather than the common good and the critical needs of our nation.

One of the "buried issues" you never hear very much about in Congress or the White House is the appalling rate of poverty among children in the United States. But the primary advocate for children in America, Marian Wright Edelman, leader of the The Children's Defense Fund, has been relentless in her demands for better treatment of the poor children in our nation. Here is what she wrote to the newly-elected president in January:

Comment: Being a poor child is a direct result of having poor parents. What's one of the main drivers of poverty in many cases? Single parent homes. Unless there is an increase in responsible behaviors amongst men and women throwing more government money at the problem is unlikely to break the cycle of poverty.

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TV

Why media reporting on Venezuela is biased and inaccurate

Joe Emersberger
Fair
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 19:36 UTC
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
© European Press AgencyVenezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
A review of Alan MacLeod's Bad News From Venezuela

For almost 20 years, the US government has been trying to overthrow Venezuela's government, and establishment media outlets (state, corporate and some nonprofit) throughout the Americas and Europe have been bending over backwards to help the US do it.

Rare exceptions to this over the last two decades would be found in the state media in some countries that are not hostile to Venezuela, like the ALBA block. Small independent outlets like VenezuelAnalysis.com also offered alternatives. In the US and UK establishment media, you are way more likelyto see a defense of Saudi Arabia's dictatorship than of Venezuela's democratically elected government. Any defense of Venezuela's government will provoke vilification and ridicule, so both Alan MacLeod and his publisher (Routledge) deserve very high praise for producing the book Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting. It took real political courage. (Disclosure: MacLeod is a contributor to FAIR.org, as am I.)

Comment:

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USA

America is dividing against itself, again!

Star Parker
Townhall
Wed, 27 Jun 2018 12:01 UTC
Eagle vitriol flag
© David Foldvari
On May 22, 1856, Representative Preston Brooks entered the floor of the United States Senate, approached abolitionist Senator Charles Sumner, and beat the senator with a cane, almost taking his life.
Brooks was provoked by a passionate anti-slavery speech that Sumner had delivered in the Senate three days earlier, in which he assailed Senator Andrew Butler of South Carolina, a relative of Brooks, for his pro-slavery stance.

This sad and gruesome history is related on the website of the U.S. Senate, which concludes saying, "The nation, suffering from the breakdown of reasoned discourse that this event symbolized, tumbled onward toward the catastrophe of the civil war."

We ought to be concerned that again, today, the nation appears to be flirting with this uneasy territory where "reasoned discourse" is breaking down.
The president's press secretary, Sarah Sanders, was asked to leave a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, where she was having dinner because, well, she works for Donald Trump. Stephanie Wilkerson, owner of the Red Hen restaurant, said she asked Sanders to depart because "there are moments in time when people need to live their convictions. This appeared to be one."
But what exactly are the "convictions" that Wilkerson was living in this incident? That you refuse to talk, associate, do business with anyone you disagree with? This is America?

Comment: Until Americans can step back, look at the big picture, recognize the congelation aspects of civil strife that lead to confrontation and then actively choose to recalibrate, the aspect of civil war increases in option and intensity.

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Russian Flag

SOTT Focus: The Resounding Success of the World Cup is a Great Victory for Football but an Epic Fail for Russophobes

Neil Clark
RT
Thu, 28 Jun 2018 19:07 UTC
world cup 2018
© Kai Pfaffenbach / ReutersMexico fan kisses a toy trophy, Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia, June 17, 2018
The 2018 World Cup is shaping up to be the best ever. It's a far cry from the negative media coverage that surrounded the Mundial before it began, which sought to de-legitimize Russia's hosting of the event and put fans off going.

Has there ever been a World Cup that has left so many people with egg on their faces.

We were told by indignant neo-cons and virtue-signaling Western 'liberals' that it was a disgrace that Russia, a country of which they did not approve, was being allowed to host the tournament. It would be like the 1936 Nazi Olympics, MPs and media pundits assured us. 'Putin's World Cup' would be the worst World Cup ever.

Fans who went would be in fear of their lives as three out of every four Russians was a racist, homophobic football hooligan and the fourth was like Frankenstein's Monster. England's players could be drugged in their hotel to "slow them down."

In fact, the World Cup has turned out to be absolutely brilliant.
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