A striking contrast on the streets of Paris: A couple sits sipping drinks at an outdoor café as flames burn just steps away. The moment was captured Saturday near the Arc de Triomphe, on the outskirts of rioting that erupted during demonstrations over rising prices, inequality and public spending. Video shows the pair continuing their conversation as a burning trash bin lights up the background.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 19, 2026
The museum itself aestheticizes the message:Des étudiants de l'école du Louvre bloquent l'accès au Musée depuis le début de matinée. De nombreux touristes attendent sur le parvis. #Paris #Louvre #17octobre #24octobre https://t.co/bjFc0dh90W
— Luc Auffret (@LucAuffret) October 19, 2026
🇫🇷 Chers visiteurs, en raison d’un mouvement social étudiant, le musée est fermé pour le moment. Nous vous prions de nous excuser de la gêne occasionnée. 🌍Dear visitors, due to student strikes the museum is currently closed. We apologise for the inconvenience. https://t.co/tNKFk3B9aj
— Musée du Louvre (@MuseeLouvre) October 19, 2026
पोस्ट्स
१२७ टिप्पण्या:
Tourists in Paris
Since she is smoking a cigarette, I'm guessing they are locals.
That video is [chef's kiss] just...oh so French.
Smoking will kill you. Maybe tonight...
"I'm guessing these are, in fact, local residents, because they're smoking, but if they are tourists, they are doing what I think tourists more or less always do. "
This doesn't make my point, but if it did…
If you think it's bad, just remember: They're not fearing for their personal safety. Yet. There's a photo, apparently A.I. generated, showing an elderly white couple on a Parisian street, in their underwear, surrounded by the black-blok thugs that supposedly robbed them of everything, including dignity. This is probably a fairly accurate projection of Europe's future.
yah my guess is residents- plus ça change and all…
Synecdoche, New York is supposedly a word play on Schenectady, New York, a place EXACTLY like that except the house wouldn’t be vibrant yellow…
The woman pleading with the rioters is my fave. Watching someone get mugged by reality pleases me greatly.
They could be tourists - but from eastern europe. Lots of smokers in Bulgaria or Croatia. We can guess they're not Swedes. LOL.
Its looks like everything is quiet and no one is in danger. We just have a few fires that need to be put out. I'd go drink at a paris cafe too under those conditions. Enjoy the quiet and the lack of crowds.
The Roman fire department would rush to a fire and offer to buy the house, at declining prices.
'muricans always hate the French because they don't make "money, money, money" their God. 35 hour work week and everyone gets 5 weeks vacation. OMG, those lazy frogs.
And until Macron gets his way, retirement at 62.
The smartest people in london in 1940-1941 went around and bought up bombed out houses and shops for a song. if the Germans won, it wouldn't matter. If the brits won, they'd be rich.
"Bonne Nuit. Would you like some Allahu Akbar with that?"
Sitting in street cafe drinking wine and eating a good meal is the ideal of Paris put in our minds by endless numbers of TV shows and movies. I've done it, and while enjoyable, it didn't compare to those wonderful Croissants for breakfast.
They couldn’t find one Frenchman, sitting out front in a lawn chair, cradling a shotgun, defending his property?
Needs a thought bubble saying "This is fine" in French.
A tipping point has been reached in France's cities. The rioters don't fear any political office holders or police- they outnumber them by a lot now. The riots may die down when there is nothing left to loot by the end of this week but they will only be waiting for the shops to get restocked and reopened in a month or two.
…yah RC ‘buy when there’s blood in the streets’…except if they win it is still France…
…yah RC ‘buy when there’s blood in the streets’…except if they win it is still France…
‘student strikes’. Heh. Is that a performance piece, louvre?
"They couldn’t find one Frenchman, sitting out front in a lawn chair, cradling a shotgun, defending his property?"
La Police Nationale are trying their best to find him. When they do they intend to prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law.
“They have a fantasy of a place and they believe they can go to that fantasy and they perform the mental labor of believing they have entered into the place they imagined.”
The data in this blog can be selective, biased or even fabricated
Ever the opportunists, the usual leftist suspects have joined the immigrant rioters.
Dreary, predictable theater.
Western European culture has reached its senescent stage. The descendants of the people who built the culture are old, dying out, and being rapidly replaced with third-world immigrants who would be living in mud huts if left to their own abilities and talents.
Houllebecq warned about this a dozen years
Literal muslims from muslim countries warned about this just a few years ago. In English.
Gut reaction is that it's a staged photo, not candid truth. I saw that because knowing that there are riots/distruptions is one thing, but having something burning that close to you means anything can happen at any time and it wouldn't take long at all for a group of people to move that far on foot. The only sensible thing is to leave the area. If they live in the area, leave the street and go prepare a bugout bag. Then you can relax...a little.
"and being rapidly replaced with third-world immigrants who would be living in mud huts if left to their own abilities and talents."
Assuming they are capable of making mud.
The Germans wore gray, you wore blue. We’ll always have Paris.
The folks at Triggernometry are talking to a British educator who blames the riots and, more generally, Western hatred of the West on the education system, which teaches history exclusively through an oppressor-vs-oppressed prism. She's right. The education establishment has been taken over by the progressive left as part of what Gramsci (?) call the "march through the institutions." The only question is whether it is too late to do anything about it. I don't know, but I'm not optimistic. Good thing I'm old and childless.
"and being rapidly replaced with third-world immigrants who would be living in mud huts if left to their own abilities and talents."
They would probably still be there living in their mud huts if we hadn't bombed them to get the oil they lived on top of.
Are they really protesting over 'rising prices, inequality and government spending?' I somehow doubt it. But if they are, they will be surprised to learn that after this event prices will be even higher and the government will be strapped for cash as the rebuilding costs will be enormous. As for that inequality thing . . . I guess they can all be equally poor and miserable.
France's government has lost its legitimacy and here comes the 6th Republic. Macron jiggered the elections and suspended their laws to pass a budget by decree that he couldn't even get through the parliament that he had engineered by probably bribing certain candidates to drop out so that his favored candidates could overcome the popularity of Le Pen's party.
Basically Le Pen is going to win in a landslide over this, but my bet is that nothing important will change.
Locals, embodying sangfroid.
Either that or they are Ukrainians or Russians.
Or they are doing the meme.
That time when the sightseeing outsiders are seen as the least of their problems. Where there is smoke, call the fire brigade.
Europeans,
Seeing what is going on in France, I have just one question:
Do you get it now?
RCOCEAN II says "'muricans always hate the French because they don't make "money, money, money" their God. 35 hour work week and everyone gets 5 weeks vacation. OMG, those lazy frogs."
No, some of us looked askance at a nation that sent inspectors to office buildings afterhours to make sure no one was working late. Passion for work and accomplishment was replaced by tight controls lest the nation run out of work to do. This seemed sort of insane.
"Basically Le Pen is going to win in a landslide over this, but my bet is that nothing important will change."
Probably a good bet, especially the second part. The French don't want anything important to change. They want someone to protect their benefits and their retirement system. But nobody can - not in the long run.
I slam, you slam, we all slam Islam.
Every couple centuries, Europe has to wake up and repel the invaders. They may have waited too long this time.
Nobody says you have to work to make "money, money, money". If you don't want to work, then don't. Just don't call for the government to take "money, money, money" from those who do work to give to you.
••Money Manger said...They couldn’t find one Frenchman, sitting out front in a lawn chair, cradling a shotgun, defending his property••
Paris needs more Koreans.
They’re clearly reminiscing of younger days when they were the ones doing the burning.
"Europe has to wake up and repel the invaders."
How many times has Europe been invaded in contrast to the number of times Europe has invaded other continents?
Most recently the 8th Century, the Islamic Moors invaded Spain, and in the 15th through the 17th century, the Ottoman Turks invaded southeaster Europe.
Now lets look at the other way around:
"Over the last five centuries, the number of distinct wars, campaigns, and major military operations by European states outside Europe runs into the hundreds (and potentially more if every small colonial campaign and revolt is counted separately). " —Grok
I wonder why they are angry. I wonder what has the Somalis leaving their country and coming to America?
***Official AFRICOM 2026 strike tally (Somalia / Horn of Africa)
AFRICOM maintains a public list of strikes (mostly precision airstrikes coordinated with the Somali government against al-Shabaab or ISIS-Somalia). As of the latest available official compilation:
Total for 2026 so far: 86 strikes.
August 2026: 1 strike
Aug. 7 near Jilib (southwest of Mogadishu), targeting al-Shabaab.
September 2026: 8 strikes
Sep. 4 near Buulo Fuulay (west of Mogadishu)
Sep. 5 and Sep. 8 near Quumbi (northwest of Kismayo)
Sep. 14 near Saacow (north of Kismayo)
Sep. 17 in Sanaag (southwest of Bosaso)
Sep. 24 near Quumbi (north-northwest of Kismayo)
Sep. 25 near Welmaro (west of Jilib) and Ali Farhan (northeast of Jilib)
These are predominantly against al-Shabaab in southern Somalia (especially the Kismayo/Jilib area), with limited activity against ISIS elements in the north (Puntland/Golis Mountains region).*** —Grok
We are defending our puppet government there. The "government" is whoever we say it is, even if they don't actually control the country.
Smokes, brandy, a blanky and a nice warm fire.
What a pleasant way to spend an evening out. They even put the phones away and are enjoying each other's company.
Looks like a job for Vlad Tepes.
"France's government has lost its legitimacy and here comes the 6th Republic."
It's bad when you have anything past the sequel:
- 6th Republic
- 3rd Reich
- 8.3rd wave feminism (I think that's what we're on now...)
It screams "we'll get it right eventually, just hang on!"
They have a fantasy of a place and they believe they can go to that fantasy and they perform the mental labor of believing they have entered into the place they imagined.“
Or maybe it’s exactly as they imagined it would be. It’s an expected part of the Paris experience now. Tourists used to go to see the art; now they’ll go to watch the fires. I’m kinda tempted to revisit it myself.
White people are strange this way. I had relatives in Detroit who poo-pooed our warning that their neighborhood was changing and that they should get out while they could. They never did tho insisting that it was transitory thing and way overblown. Had some aquaintences with relatives in South Africa say the same thing. "It ain't that bad" they said.. There were probably Jews who dismissed Kristallnacht too. Human folly, inransience, willful blindness and such have always been a thing, but especially among Europeans.
Reminds me of the time I was in an Eastern European nightclub that got raided by armed gunmen. It turns out they were cops, but it wasn't immediately apparent. Anyway, while sheltering under a table the attractive lady next to me lit up a cigarette. I commented on how calm she was. "Well, I used to live in Libya" was her reply.
"They never did tho insisting that it was transitory thing and way overblown. Had some aquaintences with relatives in South Africa say the same thing. "It ain't that bad" they said..."
They always think it's overblown, don't they. "It ain't that bad" schadenboners are my favorite schadenboners.
Just don't call for the government to take "money, money, money" from those who do work to give to you.
🏆Now do Trump's promised $5000 welfare checks.
From "They always think it's overblown, don't they"...
"This is now an ongoing fight in Austin between these black students and this progressive Talarico supporter, who is now enforcing border security AND utilizing the same police Talarico has pushed to keep defunded."
One must have a heart of stone to read this without laughing.
"Now do Trump's promised $5000 welfare checks."
Okay, sure. "I'm not calling for $5000 checks."
"One must have a heart of stone to read this without laughing."
Bless their hearts! It's a Southern thang...
Reminds me of folks in Madison calmly snapping photos of the sunrise in 2020 while BLM was ransacking their town. And they didn’t even need to travel for the experience!
Just don't call for the government to take "money, money, money" from those who do work to give to you.
The french have a different view. Even the neo-liberals understand they live in a society, not a losertarian all vs. all fantasy. everyone get 5 weeks vacation. The standard work week is 35 hours. Unions are strong, and retirement is 62. Plus, the french have a medical system that covers all.
People expect to pay taxes and get benefits in return.
"The french have a different view."
And how's that working out for them?
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.” ― Thomas Sowell
It's helpful to remember the refrain from the French national anthem:
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu'un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons
The current expression of that aspect of French culture seems a bit more serious than prior ones, but it's not an order of magnitude different. And probably not a good idea to try to understand it through the lens of other nations' troubles with immigration or anything else.
BTW, saw a comment on an article about the current riots saying that the video of the couple in the cafe is actually from the 2023 riots, not the current round. No idea whether that's right, but given the frequency with which this stuff happens in France, it fits.
Elissa Slotkin est une salope.
Just sayin’…
and so is DeeDeeDrivel…
RCOCEAN II said...
Just don't call for the government to take "money, money, money" from those who do work to give to you.
The french have a different view. Even the neo-liberals understand they live in a society, not a losertarian all vs. all fantasy. everyone get 5 weeks vacation. The standard work week is 35 hours. Unions are strong, and retirement is 62. Plus, the french have a medical system that covers all.
People expect to pay taxes and get benefits in return.
LOL! Utopia by government mandate.
It might have worked if they hadn’t imported all those Muslim men.
In the last decade or so over 20 new jobs were taken by foreigners for every one job taken by a native male.
But at least they only have to work 35 hours and they get 5 weeks paid vacation.
They just need to get hired first.
France has been raping The Sahel in Africa for decades. They installed corrupt rulers and used the natural resources to subsidize their economy.
They lived under the protection of the US during that time.
Bush Clinton bush Obama were all corrupt wef servants.
The war in Iraq was a scam and the long term goal of that war was to make Iran more powerful. The US was doing what Britain wanted us to do. George W Bush was a fucking traitor and Obama just consummated the plan pulling us out of Iraq and handing it to the mullahs.
It is time for Europe to be put in their place. Britain is next. Charles needs to be removed from whatever you want to call it and Lloyd’s/chatham house must be destroyed.
D.D. Driver said...
Just don't call for the government to take "money, money, money" from those who do work to give to you.
🏆Now do Trump's promised $5000 welfare checks.
He said that to troll retards like you.
Thanks for letting Trump yank your chain. You stupidly fall for it every time.
Man, taking a drag: it is so lively and sophisticated in Paris. Living is simply more intense. Nothing ever happens back home, nothing is sexy there. Here everything is sexy. (Takes another drag). Here I practically always feel like fucking you, and I probably will one of these days. I love smoking. I hate the puritanical bastards who have banned it back home.
Sound of an explosion. Fire flares up briefly at two different places, casting a glow on buildings near them.
Woman: I too feel like smoking and fucking, as the French say. Or at least, I feel like if you approach me in the right way, I can go through the motions without acting bored. It will be fun. Almost like the Moulin Rouge.
Just don't call for the government to take "money, money, money" from those who do work to give to you.
I don't even know what the fuck any of this mean. All I know is MAGA hates "socialism" unless its served at the end of Trump's cock.
How does it taste, Achilles? 🤤
Once again - on a subject that has absolutely nothing to do with Trump - some douche has to make it about Trump.
"People expect to pay taxes and get benefits in return."
They should have spent some of those taxes on hiring more riot police and firemen.
Some times a troll retard comes along not 20 minutes later to prove one's point.
The unrest in France highlights the need for stronger public services. But the deeper challenge is finding leaders who can persuade people that difficult economic choices are necessary and that the sacrifices will be shared fairly.
Pension reform is a good example. Even after recent changes, French workers still tend to retire earlier than many of their European neighbors. Public pension spending amounts to about 13.4% of GDP, compared with an OECD average of 8.1%, putting pressure on other spending priorities. If people had greater trust in their political system, it might have been easier to negotiate lasting reforms and avoid some of the repeated confrontations.
Agreed Mason G. Re: Sowell, wanting to keep what you've earned isn't necessarily greed, and wanting to redistribute other people's money isn't necessarily compassion. Both positions have to be judged by how fair they are, what’s driving them, and what happens as a result.
Every chair has sort of a blanket to combat the cold, I guess?
"Both positions have to be judged by how fair they are"
People need to justify the fairness of wanting to keep what they earn? Judged by whom?
So the same Barnacle Jaq (arnacleBay imTay, whatever) who constantly whines about the U.S. supposedly putting ISIS in charge of Syria instead of defending Assad, is now (1:36pm) whining about the U.S. "coordinat[ing] with the Somali government against al-Shabaab or ISIS-Somalia" to keep them from taking control of Somalia.
The only way these two positions are compatible is if Jaq's only principle is that whatever the U.S. is doing at any given time (bombing ISIS, failing to bomb ISIS) is horribly, shamefully wrong. One more reason some of us like to think of him as Timofei in Voronezh.
“People need to justify the fairness of wanting to keep what they earn? Judged by whom?”
You can take a “peaceful Warrior” out of Marxism, but you can’t take the Marxist out of the “peaceful Warrior”.
The Louvre is closed today, in sympathy to the strikers, but that hasn't stopped the creation of some Fine Art memes.....
I heard some interesting commentary today. On balance the odds that La Pen will win the election in 6 months are fairly strong. But it's being presented as 'a risk' (their words) and with that, some gratuitous fear-mongering. She's 'far-right' you know, which is to say, a centrist from 15 years ago. But this presents only people that are worried about being knifed in the street by some crazy, swarthy, open-borders nightmare refugee. These are voters that are driven by fear, but right now, all French people should be filled with fear..
The other side of the political race are the ones pointing out France's unsupportable experiment in Socialism, where people work 35 hours a week, with 5 weeks vacation, and pension at 62. The demographics can't support it, and the nation is descending into irrecoverable debt that it can't repay. And investors are backing away, because, well France.
The swarthy refugees won't work, and won't release the teat they've become accustomed to, either. Those remaining, the young French, see no hope. They seem to have grasped the unsupportable condition and are demanding change. But, good news ! The Socialists are ready to step up and provide a new economic miracle, which hasn't been tried yet ! This is what NPR is reporting on, this attractive and highly viable alternative to Le Pen, which isn't scary at all.
I'll now do Trump's $ 5,000. I wish all welfare were as well spent. At least a lot of it would go to people who earned it and know how to use it for a change. Welfare does not go to such people. Trump's $5000 would not be stolen by fraud and sloth, and a much lower percentage would go to drug abuse and junk food. It's simply better than an equal amount spent on welfare, a low bar to clear.
If the French were smart they would realize that the "far right" is exactly what they need and what they lost that led them to this place of collapsing France. Of course if they were smart this wouldn't be happening, so Le Pen has an uphill climb, like any really effective solutions will.
The rioters ARE the tourists. From what I've read most of them are not from the cities they are burning. They are on holiday, and having a great time. They have the added peace of mind knowing that they are helping the local communities with their tourism and lowering the cost of living there by burning down places people would spend money. What a novel, ingenious, and incredibly selfless plan.
"Far-right" as in so far, they've been right.
"You can take a “peaceful Warrior” out of Marxism, but you can’t take the Marxist out of the “peaceful Warrior”."
You might also note "justification" was inserted into a topic where it was never mentioned. It's almost like the goal was to avoid answering Mr. Sowell's question.
I hope they tipped their waiter well.
If they are locals, probably not.
If the French were smart, they'd use violent methods as appropriate. No need to call out the army and slaughter looters in the street by the hundreds with machine guns. Three things would make a huge difference:
1. Announce a shoot-to-kill order for anyone setting fire to monuments, churches, occupied buildings, really anything at all. If you're holding a lit Molotov cocktail or a lit torch, you get shot. And if you're not holding a flame, but get shot while standing next to someone with a lit torch or Molotov cocktail, well, too bad, you should have stayed away from such people. This policy should also apply to other deadly weapons, like the chimney pieces some thugs were pushing off roofs onto the police.
2. Get out the tear gas drones, and announce that anyone defacing a monument will be gassed from above. If tear gas causes him to cough so hard that he loses his grip, falls on his head, and dies, too bad. Leave the monuments alone.
3. Arrest and jail the organizers and paymasters. It's all organized on social media. How hard can those be to infiltrate?
Meanwhile, mass arrests of rioters need to continue, with no bail. I've read that the legislature is considering a law that would make an offender's family liable for every penny of damage, so that any family on welfare would be reduced to a very low minimum level until the total Euros in reduced welfare payments adds up to the total cost of the damage done, however long that takes. They need to pass it. Parents would surely do a much better job of controlling their teenage thugs if not doing so meant the whole family living on Ramen, oatmeal, and tap water for 5, 10, 15, or 20 years.
Lived through the protests here in Hong Kong, what the video and still coverage never showed you was that if you turned the camera around normal life was going on. To the viewer in the US it looked like the whole city was in flames, but that was not remotely true, mostly people went on as normal
I should add that my Point #1 is justified by the fact that burning down buildings will undoubtedly kill people, if it hasn't already..I've read the death toll is 2, but no one's saying how they died. Even if no one died when the Limoges town hall was burned down, someone easily could have: fireman, night watchman, overnight cleaning crew, sleeping neighbor whose apartment was too close to the building, gawking neighbor standing too close when the tower fell. It's only a matter of time before burning buildings leads to a body count.
"To the viewer in the US it looked like the whole city was in flames, but that was not remotely true, mostly people went on as normal"
'Round these parts, people go on as normal with nothing in flames, regardless of which way you look. But maybe that's just here...
"Lived through the protests here in Hong Kong, what the video and still coverage never showed you was that if you turned the camera around normal life was going on."
How many historic buildings did they burn down in Hong Kong?
𝘗𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥...
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘩𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴.
Such a nebulous phrase - "stronger public services".
Just what exactly do you mean by that? I would mean a constabulary or internal armed force doing it's job and stopping people from rioting, burning down buildings, destroying monuments, etc., by ANY MEANS NECESSARY! Specifically including deadly force as a first choice option.
A whiff of grape is an excellent choice for clearing a street of rioters.
Mason, sorry for any confusion. I didn’t mean to suggest that people need to defend keeping money they’ve legitimately earned. I agree with Sowell’s main point. I was simply distinguishing between individuals taking someone else's money and taxation and redistribution through government. Those policies should be judged by their fairness and results, rather than assuming that wanting to keep your earnings is greedy or wanting to redistribute other people's money is compassionate.
France is proving Thatcher's observation about socialism- you eventually run out of other people's money.
"I was simply distinguishing between individuals taking someone else's money and taxation and redistribution through government."
Obviously, I can't speak for Mr. Sowell but it seems to me he's not talking about "individuals taking someone else's money", which would be "theft", would it not?
So- why is it "greedy" (see: more leftists than you can count, opining on "fair share") for someone to want to keep the money they earned but "not greedy" to use the government to take it from him to spend on what you want?
The USA ratio of debt to GDP is higher than france. Both in total, and for 2025. If France is "drowning in debt", we're even worse. And we're working 40 hours a week not 35 like the French. LOL
Oh, and here's their "Socialist" healthcare system:
"French citizens pay for healthcare through a combination of social security taxes deducted from their income and small out-of-pocket costs that are usually covered by a top-up private insurance plan called a mutuelle. Because the state heavily subsidizes medical care,
French citizens face some of the lowest healthcare costs in the world, paying an average out-of-pocket amount of just 7.8% of their total healthcare expenses"
Boy that thar socialist healthcare never pays boy. Wah, the free market rules! LOL.
I wonder who is bankrolling all those black hoodies and pants they all seem to be wearing. Très chic.
This isn't about socialism.
This is about a ruling elite who imported a foreign army to defeat their domestic opposition.
Socialism has nothing to do with why there are riots in Paris right now.
This is about burning down the country before LePen takes over and making sure there is no chance National Front can be successful.
Somebody had the migrants figured out years ago:
Ils viennent jusque dans nos bras
Égorger vos fils, vos compagnes !
When we were in Paris in '17, I would have been disappointed if the waiter at the hotel restaurant hadn't sneered at my choice of wine (none) with dinner.
RCOCEAN II said...
The USA ratio of debt to GDP is higher than france. Both in total, and for 2025. If France is "drowning in debt", we're even worse. And we're working 40 hours a week not 35 like the French. LOL
France sounds pretty cool.
You should move there. Then we could take you seriously.
"The USA ratio of debt to GDP is higher than france. Both in total, and for 2025. If France is "drowning in debt", we're even worse. And we're working 40 hours a week not 35 like the French. LOL"
And how's that working out for France? Asking again.
WE were told they mad about school.
So stealing high end merchandise fills the void?
Actually- France is not only in dept -but their economic growth is stagnant.
USA - we have too much debt (Thanks to the dems giving it all to illegals and mob fraud) but the USA has much better economic growth.
France is 1/5 the population of the U.S. and it's GDP is 1/9th.
Mason, fair point. Sowell was talking about taxes, not ordinary theft. I made things more complicated than necessary. I agree with his objection to automatically labeling people “greedy” for wanting to keep their earnings while assuming that advocates of redistribution are compassionate. My only thought was that we should judge tax and spending policies by their fairness and results, not simply by the motives we attribute to their supporters.
Interesting, that you think that 'fairness' can be discussed objectively, without taking any due consideration of 'motives'. I'd be interested to see how the discussion re-distribution arrives at its definition of 'fairness' before the back-and-forth starts.
Singapore has 2x the GDP per capita. But they're just a small country - unlike 'murica. So take that Singapore!
"My only thought was that we should judge tax and spending policies by their fairness and results..."
"Fairness"...
Is it fair that a small percentage of people pay a large percentage of the total amount of income taxes collected? Is it fair that some people pay no income taxes at all?
"Results"...
Like the numerous reports of fraud in government programs that result in tax dollars being diverted from their intended recipients?
"I'd be interested to see how the discussion re-distribution arrives at its definition of 'fairness' "
I'll start the discussion by objecting to the term "re-distribution". Income is earned, not distributed. When "re-distribution" is used, it makes it sound like the money just falls into peoples' laps at random.
Where are the gendarmes?
As someone alluded to earlier they're trying to find a Frenchman sitting out front in a lawn chair cradling a shotgun, defending his property, and shoot him.
The thing about Le Pen is that she’s actually not not particularly conservative fiscally. She opposed raising the retirement, and for awhile advocated for age 60. This really isn’t sustainable. She also supports the 35-hour work week and the like. She is strong on enforcing and reducing immigration and other things in that area. But in other ways, she really does seem more left of center, if you will, economically. I’m unsure that she will do as good a job as people seem to think. Just my two cents as to what I’m seeing.
Singapore's population is nearly identical to Washington DC. Washington DC has a per capita GDP nearly 3 times Singapore's. San Jose, Seattle, and San Francisco all have much higher GDPs per capita than Singapore.
To prevent S.S. from going bankrupt in the U.S. in the early 2030s (5 years from now) and forcing everyone to take 70% of their normal benefit for life, we would need to deny all benefits to anyone with a net worth over 1 million starting now.
It's not in any way fair, but I would be willing to forgo mine if it stayed means tested and gave people a good portion to invest themselves. In other words to fix it. That threshold of 1 million is pretty low for a retirement. Especially if most of it is your home. SS is doomed, especially because it's untouchable. It will collapse before automation can save us.
I intend to redistribute all my wealth. I just insist on choosing who it will go to. I think a lot of us would be cool with it under those terms.
Sometimes I think part of the problem is our commitment to peaceable change. If the political class wants to throw their hands up and declare SS insolvent and unsupportable, too bad, so sad, and all youse guys are the chumps, then they ought to be willing to see some of their quality of life sacrificed too, some of them, with rope and gravity. The problem is the incremental adjustments over the years that invariably shift upsides in one direction, and downsides in another. One becomes weary of realizing they are the source of upsides for others, but the recipient of the downsides.
"I wonder who is bankrolling all those black hoodies and pants they all seem to be wearing. Très chic"
According to Michael Yon, the military blogger, you can figure out a lot by going early, see who groups together, notice if they are all wearing the same shoe, or an armband, or. whatever. Look for the guy with the bullhorn.
Take the highest resolution camera you can find and take a lot of pictures. If you see a guy on a radio, try to figure out what frequency he is on, and monitor it.
Usually there are multiple groups trying to take advantage of a large demonstration and turn it in their direction. A lot of times, if they want to discredit a demonstration, they will make sure that a lot of violence that normies hate takes place, think J6.
If they are looking to overthrow a government, they will fund demonstrations for weeks, often out of USAID, build it towards a crisis, then unleash violence on the crowd in such a way as it looks like it came from the police. This was the Kiev model, which worked, and the Tehran model, which didn't. But it works when there are operatives capable of carrying out a coup during the chaos, after making it look like the government cannot control the crisis. Tehran was able to disrupt communications by disabling Starlink, which can be done for an area the size of Tehran. And the armed Kurds they sent to increase the trouble were ambivalent.
Remember that the longer the chaos continues, the weaker the government looks, and the more unpopular it becomes. The Minnesota riots were designed to make Trump look like a weak leader who was being turned on by the population, when it was really organized chaos, funded by wealthy individuals hoping to benefit from a Biden presidency. They weren't wrong.
Mason, those are fair questions. Higher earners pay a large share of federal income taxes, but income and wealth are also heavily concentrated. And federal income taxes are only part of the overall tax burden. Social Security payroll taxes, for example, become regressive above the taxable wage ceiling. Government fraud is a serious problem and exactly the kind of issue we should consider when evaluating programs.
What counts as fair is something citizens can reasonably disagree about. We debate it through our democratic institutions, looking at who pays, who benefits, and what actually works.
I use “redistribution” in its usual economic sense, not to suggest that income isn't earned.
Going back to Sowell, wanting to keep what you've earned isn't inherently greedy, just as supporting redistribution doesn't automatically make someone compassionate or greedy. That's why I think fairness and results matter more than assigning motives.
IMHO, tourists would be too afraid to go out on the streets. I think these are Parisians, NOT because, Mon Dieu!, they are smoking, but because they are trying to do something normal when chaos is all around them, kind of a magical thinking moment. Btw, as a former smoker, I would be smoking and drinking, too, in that depressing situation.
Timmeh,
The issue isn't "can Starlink be disabled", it can*, but rather "Does the Iranian government or the IRGC have one or more of the required systems?
------------------------
"Caveats:
1. Over a much smaller are than "Tehran". by at least an order of magnitude and maybe two. Thus while you could interrupt communications in the immediate area of a focused protest (think: the federal courthouse in Portland) you can't interrupt the wider-area sorts of useful communication ("everyone appear at the parliament building in one hour")
2. It's not complete blocking or jamming, but rather a big increase in packet loss. Thus voice might be unusable, but texting ormm, short emails, brief blog or FB posts will get through though with lower throughput
_
"Higher earners pay a large share of federal income taxes, but income and wealth are also heavily concentrated."
How is income concentrated? What does that mean? And why are you adding "wealth" to the discussion?
"And federal income taxes are only part of the overall tax burden."
Sure, but it helps keep things clearer by taking one issue at a time rather than trying to discuss the overall tax burden.
"Government fraud is a serious problem and exactly the kind of issue we should consider when evaluating programs."
With so much money is being stolen, the first thing to do is shut everything down. Once you have identified where the stolen money went, recovered it and prosecuted the guilty parties, you can move on to evaluating whether these programs should even exist.
If you went to see your tax accountant in March and he told told that your financial advisors helped themselves to $90k of your retirement funds over the past year, are you going to focus on evaluating programs, or what?
The French are quick to take to the street to protest against the status quo and against any attempt to change it.
टिप्पणी पोस्ट करा
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.