Paris is burning | Hour 2

What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to three on WBT radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to the Pete calendar show.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support. All right. So what the heck is going on over in France? Well, apparently, I'm not sure folks are aware of this or not, but apparently the French really love to riot. They love them a protest. They protest all the time. Apparently it's like an annual thing. But this year it got a little out of control, which it has done in the past. And this has got a lot of people worried that this is sort of the beginning of the end of Europe. and it might be, uh, for reasons that are actually fiscal, uh, and not, um, not immigration based. Let me say it that way. There's a couple of different dynamics going on here. And I've, uh, I've spent about an hour reading through articles and watching a couple of interviews. So I feel like I am now an expert on France, except for it. It's my birthright to not know anything about geography. Okay. So first up, some of the most, I don't want to say impressive because it has like a, it sounds like a good thing, but it's not. But I mean, it was like the most jarring video came out of a place called Limoges, Limoges, Limoges, Limoges, Limoges, France. France. Again, this is geography, people, so I should not be expecting... Oh, also, I'm not really great on the French pronunciations. In Limoges, the angry young thugs destroyed a piece of French history just because they could and because the authorities were not prepared to stop them. That's according to Jim Garrity at National Review. Limoges is the 30th most populous city in France. So chances are you probably haven't heard of it, okay, because it's not one of the big tourist-type towns, okay? Their town hall there, which was burned to the ground, the big bell tower collapsing in on the roof, engulfed in flames, the town hall called Hotel de Ville, was inspired by the City Hall in Paris. It was a beautiful building. Construction began in 1879. It opened in 1883. As described by the New York Times, the building is, quote, a jewel of late 19th century French architecture. The building featured a metal bell tower, ornate details on its facade, and mosaic portraits of local figures. At the start of World War II, the monument hosted exiled Belgian lawmakers after Belgium surrendered to Nazi Germany. When the Times writes hosted in that report, what they mean is that the remaining and the legitimate Belgian government moved there and worked there while the collaborationist government in Brussels went about the business of rounding up all the Jews. Outside Limoges Town Hall, Belgian flags flew alongside French ones. France, in case you were not aware, they surrendered to the Nazis in 1940. The terms of the surrender allowed some portions of the southern half of France to remain under French civil administration, and this city, Limoges, was initially in the Free Zone in the south during the Nazi invasion of France, but the Nazis launched a complete military occupation of France two years later. They then occupied the city, and the town hall building was a key location for the French resistance. And now the building is gone, burned to the ground. In fact, just outside of this town, the little village of On June 10th, 1944, just four days after the Allied forces landed at Normandy, German Waffen-SS troops surrounded the village and massacred 642 men, women, and children before burning that village to the ground. A bit more than two months later, Limoges was liberated by the French resistance and The building survived two world wars intact until Saturday. The rioters destroyed what the Nazis did not. Now, allegedly, the riots gripping France are about school quality or income inequality. But anyone with eyes and ears knows that's nonsense, okay? These crimes are perpetrated by angry young men who want a chance to loot, steal, hurt people, and burn things. You don't build better schools by firing a makeshift flamethrower into a random woman's face on a sidewalk. You don't create economic opportunities by looting Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and Apple stores. One more bitter irony, he says. Limoges is often called La Via Rouge. Rouge. Rouge. Or the Red City. Do you know why they call it the Red City? It's not because of the blood. No. Mostly it's because of the city's long tradition of labor activism and left-wing politics, which also earned it another name, the Rome of Socialism. OK, you see how much those left wing politics counted when masked protesters who had torched a police car outside Town Hall barged in to set the building on fire. Right. City employees were still inside when the building was torched. When the forces of anarchy and chaos come, nobody cares about your voting record. You're just another target. The riots have nothing to do with fairness or opportunity or the cost of living. They're about power. Right now, on too many streets and too many cities across France, the rioters have the power and the forces of law and order do not. That's a long way of saying the issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution. Fox News Digital traced the roots of the protesters, the roots of these protest groups. Who's involved? Who's amplifying their message? Who's calling on people to participate? And this may come as a shock. Probably not. It's not really the youth. They only make up about a third of the entire groups, a list of all the groups involved. Only like one out of three are youth groups involved. They're not Muslim groups. There's only like two of those. I mean, they are involved. It's the commies. It's the Marxists. That's who's engaging. That's who's leading this thing. That's who's amplifying the message. The party, France Unbowed. It's actually a political party. They have a leader named Jean-Luc Mélenchon. and the party's mayor of St. Denis, named Bally Bagayoko. I don't think that's French. These guys have been whipping up the violence. This party, France Unbowed, was founded in 2016 by Mélenchon, a former journalist who has since become the face of the French hard left. He's been compared to Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders. He was a member of the French Trotskyist movement and worked as a teacher and journalist before entering politics. Of all the professions, really? A teacher and a journalist? Gosh. Despite his age, the 75-year-old fiery orator is popular among young voters everywhere. and could even reach a runoff against Marine Le Pen in next year's presidential elections. Jim Garrity says, France, this is your history, your heritage, your inheritance. The French resistance represented the best of your country, a proud people not willing to accept someone else's decision to surrender and standing up for themselves when thugs came along and tried to take away their country. Where's the French spirit of resistance now? The duty of the government is to protect the rights and property of the citizens and to maintain public order, and the French government is utterly failing at that. Like the interior minister offered his resignation, and President Macron, he refused to accept it. Of course, that's not surprising. He was at a Celine Dion concert while his country was burning. There, they'll turn those memories into the story of your lives, memories from past family events captured forever to pass down to future generations. Creative Video's skilled team will professionally transfer your family's stories onto easy-to-use USB drives or DVDs that won't deteriorate over time like the old photos and tapes are doing right now. They will create a keepsake video that you can share and copy and keep forever. I can see it now. You're gathered around the holiday table with your loved ones, watching all these memories and people of your lives. You're sharing laughs, maybe some tears, telling stories that make your family uniquely yours. Beat the holiday rush and get your memories in now. Go to createavideo.com or visit them in Mint Hill just off I-485. Your photos and videos are your life told through the eyes of everyone around you and all who came before you. And they will tell others to come who you are. Visit createavideo.com. All right. What have we heard in the legacy media? I saw somebody was reporting the riots and the pillaging and the looting. They were describing it as scuffles broke out. There were scuffles in France. And it's all about schools. It's about education. It's about the children want better classrooms. So let's burn down buildings. Because, yeah, that's not going to cost the economy any money, right? Like, that's just stupid. Also, I don't believe you. I don't believe you. I don't believe that stealing a bunch of purses from the Louis Vuitton store has anything to do with whether or not you're getting up-to-date textbooks in your school. I don't believe you. I believe that the left in coordination with some youth groups and some Muslim immigration groups have been amplifying Marxist messaging and encouraging violence in order to seize power. That's what I think is going on. And if you look at the finances and you look at what they spend, In France, it kind of makes sense. It lends support to my theory. For example, Charlie Cook at National Review, he points out that 60% of the French economy is government spending. 60%. If you look at education spending, France spent almost 200 billion euros, which works out to be 223 billion dollars. on education last year. That's almost 7% of its GDP. As a percentage of GDP, France's education spending ranks ninth highest out of 29 European countries. This does not look like France is skimping on the school kids. They spend almost $ 18, 000 per student, okay? That is higher than the U.S. national average. Now, some schools in France may have some problems, sure. But there is not some sort of compelling argument that France as a country has neglected the education of its students. Here's the thing to keep in mind. France is financially sick. Critically so. It is in a very, very bad spot. OK, because like it has to try to get more more people to buy its bonds because it can't pay for all of the government services that it is funding. And it's not showing any kind of growth. So who's going to invest? Also, Macron, he he like dissolved the parliament. He called for elections and all of this. So that's why you've got this new election next year. And so they can't even try to do things right now because the government is like paralyzed. Also, in the past, apparently every year or so, when the lefties in France rise up in protest and demand more stuff, the government has had sort of a standard response, which has been to put down the protests and Turn the water cannons on them if they get out of control, that kind of thing. March through the streets with the riot shields and get them out of the way or whatever. And then all the protest marchers go home. And then they pay them. They increase all of the benefits. And so what happens, what are they doing? They are feeding the alligator. Right? So if you just get a couple thousand, maybe 10, 20,000 people, you go out there and you make a big show, you march through the streets, you get all angry, you get suppressed by law enforcement, but then you get something. You get some additional government Benny. And so that's been their apparent standard operating procedure for a very long time. The problem is they're financially sick now. They don't have any more money to pay off the protesters anymore. So now what do you do? And then there is the pensions. So apparently, people who draw a pension from the government are making as much as people who work. That is unsustainable. So this is another wealth transfer issue. That has been occurring for a very long time and it's gotten more and more, the amount of the pension has gone up. And so you've created this deficit and they can't fix it. And what that means at a European level is not good. This is not good. Are they going to get some sort of a bailout? Are they going to get a bailout from the European Union or something or the World Bank or whatever? Are they going to get some sort of a bailout from foreign entities? And then what is the tradeoff there? Remember, this was probably, what, 20 years ago maybe when Greece went bankrupt and they got bailed out and everybody was raging against austerity? How dare you make me work? I am merely a 35-year-old able-bodied male. I can't work. This is a problem. And the left is using it, dare I say, seizing upon it, pouncing, if you will. All right, real quick. Every government number gets revised, right? Every projection gets walked back. Gold does not file corrections like GovCo. Revelation Gold Group helps families hold physical gold and silver, including in a tax-advantaged gold IRA. It's real. It's in your name. And 10 minutes... tells you if your retirement account qualifies. If you want to learn more, go to calendarmetals.com. That's calendarmetals.com. There is a link in the podcast description. Or if you want to talk to somebody, you can call 888-465-3049. From the text line, I will get to the documenting of the groups behind the French rioting. the fiery but mostly peaceful rioting and looting. First, Stan says, France had instituted emergency curfews, which they say are designed to restore public safety and protect commercial and residential zones from further destruction following widespread property damage, arson, and looting. One of two things is true. Either they possess the capacity to do this all along and for some reason did not, or this is just PR, placate the citizenry for now. Either way, this does not bode well for France. To think we liberated them from the Nazis only to have them give it away, only this time they might wind up speaking Arabic as opposed to German. And then John, with a meme of Macron, recognized a Palestinian state. He didn't know that Paris would become its capital, though. Yeah. Alan says, is this from this hour? All right, I'm going to go. Macron said these are the worst protests in France's history. I'm thinking that I remember something about some guillotines, though. Do the French treat their revolution like the Chinese treat Tenement Square? No. No. Doubt they're going to have that. Brent says I've. Wait a minute. OK, this is on a different topic. Don't think France recovers from this and will fall. uh, should cancel NFL should cancel the game or play in the States. Oh, do they have a game over there? Interesting. Huh? Um, do, do, do, do, do, do unnamed redneck says you do such a wonderful job pronouncing some of the things you pronounce. Thank you. I, I appreciate that. I do try. Um, Jeff with a G says, so the beautiful 19th century buildings in France survived World War I and II, but are now destroyed by World War Woke. Sheldon says, during Black Lives Matter, Roy Cooper allowed the exact same thing as what's going on in France, but on a smaller version. People will still vote for him because they have a short memory. Sean says, it's funny because when I heard CNN report on it last night, I heard the phrase mostly peaceful. Yeah. Not surprising. John from New Jersey says these student protesters are anything, but there were so many cries of Aloha snack bar that any, any thinking person here should know what is coming. Footage of a looted grocery even showed the pork products untouched. Red green is on the March. Yes. So there is a, there is a confluence. This is the red green Alliance. All right. So, Let me do this. This is from Fox News Digital, Asra Nomani. She says, as France's fiery student protests merged with a nationwide revolt on Saturday, a communist leader and academic, Vijay Prashad, celebrated the unrest with a message linking protests across three continents. Paris, New Delhi, Buenos Aires. And then he borrowed a line from the British punk band, The Clash, quote, let fury have the hour, anger can be power. Prashad was important not only for what he said, but for who he is. He is the executive director of Tri-Continental Limited. That is a nonprofit. And that nonprofit is funded by, anybody, anybody? Yes, Neville Roy Singham. Once again, the same guy that's funding the anti-data center stuff, the same guy that's funding the DSA in America, same guy, American-born Marxist tech tycoon who lives in Shanghai and who married one of the co-founders of the left-wing group Code Pink. The message captured how France's riots have become part of a wider international narrative of rebellion, kind of chaos incorporated, if you will, amplified by a transnational network of communist and socialist organizations stretching from Europe to Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America and North America. A Fox News digital investigation has identified 54 organizations and movements in France's October student protests and their wider network of supporters and international amplifiers, including communist parties, revolutionary socialist groups, labor unions, environmental activists, Muslim student advocates, Palestinian solidarity organizations, and international media outlets. Of the 54 organizations identified in this ecosystem, 16, or about one in three, are student or youth organizations, including communist youth groups and a Muslim student association. The remaining 38 are all adult-led commie groups, labor unions, political parties, revolutionary left organizations, advocacy groups, and international propaganda outlets. They include... Remember the yellow vests? Remember those moon bats? They wore the yellow vests and they would stop traffic and stuff. There was also... the far left socialist political party, France Unbowed. They've used grievances over school conditions as a pretext to mobilize a broader political struggle against capitalism, government austerity, policing, and military spending, right? This idea that France is on some sort of government spending austerity plan is laughable, just absolutely laughable. Fox News Digital has learned an international coalition of 28 communist and socialist youth and organizations are galvanizing students and youth for a coordinated strike across 12 countries in Europe under the slogan, fight for our future, not their wars. They're calling for walkouts, demonstrations, assemblies, blockades, and occupations. Among the international amplifiers for this mayhem are organizations within the Singham Network, including TriContinental, which was named for a communist convention that was held in Havana, Cuba in 1966. Along with Code Pink, along with Breakthrough News, which is a New York-based media outlet which promoted coverage of the weekend's mayhem in France with the headline, Anti-Macron Protests Rock France. In an interview with Breakthrough News, Singham's wife, Jody Evans, co-founder of Code Pink, promoted a planned November campaign in Washington opposing U.S. military spending. Remember this. Remember this. I'm going to come back to this because it's going to tie into the next hour's topic. So, who are these groups? Well, under the youths, under youth groups, you've got the Communist Youth of Greece group, very concerned about French schools, the communist youth of Greece, La Jeunesse Communiste, that's a communist group, the Raised Fist, it's another group, they are, in case you weren't clear, they're revolutionary communists, the Communist Youth Union, Students of Alsace, which describes itself as politically independent, the Muslim Students of France, the Federation of General Student Associations, the Student Train Union Federation, left-wing organization, linking high school grievances to the treatment of anti-Israel activists and union members. They chant, only one solution, the revolution. Just in case there was any doubt whatsoever about their leanings there. the Regional Student Coordination, the High School Students Group, the High School Renewal Group, Youth for Equality and Democracy, Solidaris Students, Student Union, National University Student Union, the National Union of Students of France, and the High School Students Union. Like, guys. Can we not consolidate some of these groups? I feel like you guys are, like there's a lot of overlap in what you guys are doing. You know, how many unions do you all need? Do you guys get government subsidies or something if you unionize? It's got to be the case here. Or, and this is actually probably the case, whenever you get a bunch of commies together, they splinter apart pretty quickly because they all have slightly different interpretations of the manifesto and what real Marxism looks like and what best way to go about enacting the revolution. And so they just kind of break apart over time. And by over time, I mean almost immediately. You see it in the DSA as well. They've got all these different caucuses and they're just like varying degrees of commie. It's like, really, you guys... Like we can never be a part of that communist caucus because we're this other communist caucus and we disagree on this one thing, but it's a big thing. So we can't be part of the other communist caucus. So those are the kids groups, 16 of them, all the rest of them are adults. And as you might imagine, they are communist as well. They are all socialist as well. I got a message from Scott. who says, Pete, is this a perfect example of Cloward and Piven happening in real time? Yeah, but I mean, that's a pretty good guess. Cloward and Piven, American sociologists, they promoted this plan in the 60s that you basically just, you burden the state with so many demands that it eventually collapses. And then that's how you get The Revolution, and you get Universal Basic guaranteed income, right? But it's– yeah, and they did– and they were talking about it through bankrupting the system by putting so many people onto the welfare rolls and public assistance and all of that. which France has. I mean, when you have so many people in France that are reliant on government programs, this is what happens. 704 number says, it's interesting to listen to the man on the street interviews with rioters in France. They sound a lot like Democrats. Interesting. I'm sure it's a coincidence. All right, so I ran through... the dozen or so youth organizations that are part of the schools protest, it's not about schools, the vast majority, two-thirds of the organizations that are organizing these protests are actually all adult organizations, such as the International Communist League, a communist publication called Je ne sais du monde, France Unbowed, that is a socialist political movement. The new anti-capitalist party, the revolutionary communist organization, the French communist party, the party of the indigenous of the republic, a decolonial political movement, socialist equality party, that's Trotskyite, the revolutionary communist group, the permanent revolution movement, They're revolutionaries. The World Socialist website. Then you've got... Those are the explicitly commie socialist ones. Then you've got Muslim student and pro-Palestine organizations. There were two of these. The French Jewish Union for Peace. A Jewish peace and Palestine solidarity organization... that publicized support for high school students who joined the protests. And then there's another group called Palestine Emergency. And then there are the labor unions, teachers' federations, and farmers' groups. CGT Education. That's the General Confederation of Labor. The CFDT, Public Education Training and Research Organization. General Confederation of Labor, National Confederation of Labor, Peasant Confederation, that's a farmer's union, Unitary Trade Union Federation, National Federation of Education, Culture, and Vocational Training Workers Force, the Workers Force, the SUD Education, Left-Wing Education Union, National Union of Secondary Education, Saladares Trade Union, The National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions. Guys, again, can you consolidate some of these unions? Then you got Amnesty International France. The Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions and Citizen Action. The September 26th Movement. Extinction Rebellion. They're environmentalists. Federation, that's why you burn cars, because that's what Gaia Earth loves. Federation of Parents' Councils, the Yellow Vests, National Private Hired Drivers Union, Earth Uprisings, Human Rights League. And then you got Breakthrough News and the Indian Alliance Paris. Both of those media outlets are part of the Singham Network. Okay? That's who is at the heart of this network. And it's not just in France. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them, too, and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to the Pete Kaliner show dot com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.