The labor unions are trying to maintain the momentum against French President Emmanuel Macron’s unilateral decision to raise the retirement age.  However, despite nationwide majority support, on the 11th day of a national strike there are fewer protests disrupting commerce.

On the positive side, the offices of Blackrock were targeted and torched.  So, we know the focus is generally on the right multinational target.  Meanwhile, President Macron is in Beijing, China, getting slapped around by the panda paw.

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PARIS (Reuters) -Clashes erupted in Paris next to a Left Bank brasserie favoured by French President Emmanuel Macron during a day of nationwide protests against a pension bill that he has pushed through despite widespread opposition.

La Rotonde, whose awning was briefly on fire as protesters threw bottles and paint at police, is well known in France for hosting a much-criticised celebratory dinner for Macron when he led the first round of the 2017 presidential election.

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For his opening monologue and first interview tonight, Fox News host Tucker Carlson outlined the ramification of non-western nations now trading in alternative currencies to the U.S. dollar.   {Direct Rumble Link Here]  As the dollar diminishes in value, and as an outcome of Biden using U.S. treasury bonds as part of the sanction regime against Russia, various non-western nations now perceive holding dollars as exposing themselves to risk.

Carlson is joined by Luke Gromen who accurately notes the dollar as a global trade currency may continue, but foreign nations holding U.S. treasury bonds as an asset will likely start contracting.  The result of U.S. treasury bonds returning after maturity with no repurchase, would be an inability of the U.S. to borrow against their sale. This could, perhaps likely will, severely diminish the amount of money the U.S. congress can spend.  WATCH:

None of this should come as a surprise to those who have paid attention. Factually, in March of last year, one month after the Russian sanctions were announced, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Deputy Managing Director said the sanctions against Russia are likely to undermine the US dollar’s global dominance as a trade currency.  Everyone could see this coming.

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No, despite the historic rhyming, we have been assured it remains 2023 not 1629.  However, King Charles has cancelled his trip to France amid an angry revolution that has broken out in several regions of the country, including Paris.

(International News) – United Kingdom King Charles III’s state visit to Paris has been postponed amid the mass protest against the unpopular pension reforms.

The King had been scheduled to arrive in France on Sunday on his first state visit as monarch, before heading to Germany on Wednesday.

This decision was taken by the French and British governments, after a telephone exchange between the President of the Republic and the King. According to the French president’s office, this State visit will be rescheduled as soon as possible. (link)

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History tells us the French ‘do revolution’ quite well, the current status of the protests against President Macron’s unilateral pension reform cuts are no exception.

Worker strikes have hampered France for over a week in protest to: (1) the pension reform; and (2) the undemocratic way it was enacted via unilateral fiat by the French President, Emmanuel Macron.

Today the worker strike turned to massive protests in the streets throughout several regions.

As the day wound down, those protests then turned violent as the ultra-left-wing “Black Bloc” anarchists began attacking police.

(Reuters) – PARIS, March 23 – Police fired tear gas and fought with violent black-clad anarchists in Paris and across France on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of protesters marched against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the pension age.

The ninth day of nationwide protests, mostly peaceful, disrupted train and air travel. Teachers were among many professions to walk off the job, days after the government pushed through legislation to raise the retirement age by two years to 64.

Demonstrations in central Paris were generally peaceful, but groups of “Black Bloc” anarchists smashed shop windows, demolished street furniture and ransacked a McDonald’s restaurant. Clashes ensued as riot police drove back the anarchists with tear gas and stun grenades.

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Garbage is piling up on the streets, ports are blocked, fuel is running in short supply, transportation of essential goods and services have been brought to a standstill; these are the outcomes of a general labor strike that has been happening in France as a result of protests to Emmanuel Macron’s unilateral pension reforms.

It might seem like a small issue pushing the retirement age back two years for French citizens, but it’s not really about the pension reform – the bigger issue is about this “new democracy” in the aftermath of new powers assumed by the French president during COVID-19.

President Macron used a special constitutional article to push legislation through Parliament last week without a vote.  He now faces two efforts to engage a no confidence vote with only tepid support from his totalitarian allies in government.  The people of France are not only unhappy with the pension reform outcome, but they are also furious about the nondemocratic process – a familiar and growing sentiment that extends far beyond the borders of France.

While the protests did carry the customary French socialist-leaning violence, the issues underpinning the anger are felt by more than just the radicals.  The larger network of ordinary French workers has now begun using the power of the people to shut down the economics of society.

Trash is piling up in the streets as sanitation workers refuse to work {LINK}.  Ports and critical energy infrastructure like refineries are also shut down, and things are starting to get sketchy amid the social and economic fabric that generally goes unnoticed.  Indeed, you might say, ‘the peasants are revolting‘.

(Reuters) – Several French refinery sites were still blocked from delivering products after two weeks of strikes in France, causing production to be disrupted while the government requisitions workers at the Fos refinery, and power supply was also disrupted.

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Following upon the heels of Joe Biden attending a meeting of NATO’s “eastern flank” partners, colloquially known as “the Bucharest-9”, and against the backdrop of China stepping into the picture with “no separation” support for Russia, the Pentagon is noting the anniversary of the Ukraine conflict by indicating additional U.S. troops maybe needed on the NATO eastern flank.

It is important to mention that Ukraine is NOT a NATO country.  The U.S. and Western media tend to avoid noting this uncomfortable fact, but NATO has no obligation to defend Ukraine.  Some might ask why NATO is even involved at all.

With that in mind, France 24 notes there is a possibility of a brigade sized reinforcement group inbound to this region [LINK HERE].  The Pentagon press release is below:

(Pentagon) – […] In response to the most urgent danger to European security since the end of World War II, we have moved swiftly with our allies to further unify and strengthen NATO. The Alliance has bolstered its defenses on the Eastern Flank. Meanwhile, the United States has deployed or extended more than 20,000 additional U.S. forces to Europe and forward-stationed the first permanent U.S. forces on NATO’s Eastern Flank. NATO is more united than ever, and the U.S. commitment to defend every inch of allied territory remains ironclad.

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The team at Rumble Video have taken a strong position in defense of free speech, an open internet and protection of a diverse public square.

Apparently, the French government demanded that Rumble remove content the government does not support. [Source] Rumble said no.

Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski then followed up delivering a statement via Twitter: “The French Government has demanded that Rumble (@rumblevideo) block Russian news sources. Like @elonmusk, I won’t move our goal posts for any foreign government. Rumble will turn off France entirely (France isn’t material to us) and we will challenge the legality of this demand.”

Pavlovski and Rumble being transparent and making the demand from the French government public raises a few questions.

Rumble said ‘no’, but who said ‘yes’?

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It is quite remarkable to consider that almost 100% of these global issues could immediately disappear if the far-left ideologues behind Joe Biden would just unleash the American energy sector.  Alas, the seemingly religious cult of climate ideology will not allow it…. therefore we get these bizarre outcomes.

The U.S. has economic sanctions against oil exports from Iran, Venezuela and now Russia.  The EU is economically collapsing under their inability to power their economies without energy products, a specific outcome of the latest NATO and EU sanctions against Russia.

The green energy programs in the EU cannot sustain the needs of the population.  As a result, German Chancellor Olaf Schultz and French President Emmanuel Macron are asking Joe Biden to lift sanctions against Iran and Venezuela and let Iranian and Venezuelan oil replace the missing Russian oil.  Again, none of this would be needed if the U.S. just developed more oil and gas domestically; but Biden won’t change policy.

(Reuters) – The international community should explore all options to alleviate a Russian squeeze of energy supplies that has spiked prices, including talks with producing nations like Iran and Venezuela, a French presidency official said on Monday.

Venezuela has been under U.S. oil sanctions since 2019, and could reroute crude if those restrictions were lifted.  Indirect talks between Iran and the United States to revive a nuclear deal that could see sanctions on Tehran lifted and its oil exports resume have been on hold since March, but are due to resume in Doha soon.

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Quite a remarkably telling situation when the foreign leaders of France and Canada begin to think they have some political responsibility to deliver their opinions on decisions within the United States government.

Yes, their pronouncements are fraught with stupidity considering their own national laws on abortion were/are much more stringent than the United States, but that belies the point of their insufferable arrogance.  The globalist outlook is structured around their own sense of importance.

The protestations from Macron are particularly ridiculous since France has a legal limit of 14 weeks for abortion [LINK].

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the same man who forced all women in Canada to undergo a vaccine requirement or remove themselves from society, took the hypocrisy of his own “women’s health” policy one step further than Macron.

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The French parliamentary elections were held Sunday and delivered a surprising result for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party.   The RN won 89 seats, far beyond what would be needed (15 seats) to have a consequential impact in the assembly.

FRANCE – […] The results would severely tarnish Mr. Macron’s April presidential election victory where he defeated the far-right to be the first French president to win a second term in over two decades. 

The expected number of seats for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (90) amounts to a historic breakthrough. Only once under the Fifth Republic had the far right passed the threshold to form a group in the Assemblée (15 MPs), which allows for certain parliamentary resources and prerogatives.

The only time this happened was in 1986, when Ms. Le Pen’s father Jean-Marine Le Pen led a group of Front National MPs for two years. They were elected in the only ever legislative elections using proportional representation.

[…] Falling short of the majority forces Mr. Macron into tricky partnerships with other parties on the right to force through legislation.  There could now potentially be weeks of political deadlock as the president seeks to reach out to new parties. The most likely option would be an alliance with Les Republicans LR.

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