Wars start with capitalists wanting more oil, making up excuses to bomb countries back to the stone age so they can steal their resources. It is all about power and greed.
french socialist francois hollande wins presidency
- Thread starter gore0bsessed
- Start date
Regime change in France signals wider shift in European outlook
Europe’s wall of conservative blue saw its first crimson fractures Sunday night as elections delivered a historic regime change to France, showed a newly resurgent left in Greece and Germany, and signalled the end of a continent-wide consensus around debt-cutting and austerity as the main response to the economic crisis.
Europe’s political centre of balance shifted decisively with the election of Socialist Party leader François Hollande to the French presidency, who defeated conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, 51.6 per cent to 48.4.
His presidency marks more than just the end of 17 years of right-wing French leadership.
The new politics could shift relationships with the United States and Canada, with Mr. Hollande promising to push Europe’s focus away from trans-Atlantic military and trade relationships toward a more insular emphasis on co-operation through the European Union. The withdrawal from Afghanistan is likely to become even more rapid, and the Canada-European Union free-trade agreement, championed by Mr. Sarkozy, could move to the back burner.
Mr. Hollande’s victory also may signal an end to an awkward compromise among the leaders of Germany, France and other European states around debt-cutting, rather than growth promotion, as the solution to the euro-zone crisis.
“Europe is watching us,” Mr. Hollande declared in a victory speech. “In many European countries there is now relief. … Austerity is no longer the only option.”
As if to drive home that shift, Greeks delivered a crushing blow Sunday night to the coalition of pro-austerity conservative and centre-left parties, with the strongest returns going to far-left parties.
The shifting tide could also be felt in Germany, when a symbolically important election in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein delivered a humiliating blow to the conservative-liberal coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel at the hands of parties of the centre-left. It could mean that Ms. Merkel will be forced by her opposition parties to co-operate with Mr. Hollande’s demand for a growth-promoting bailout pact – and that European politics will feel very different after Monday morning.
Regime change in France signals wider shift in European outlook - The Globe and Mail
Can't vouch for the validity of this, but make of it what you will:
Where do you really think that the money to pay gvt employees comes from Cliffy?
I'll put it another way: If you decide to 'hire' yourself and pay a wage to yourself without actually earning that money outside your household, how long will it take for the ole savings account to dry up?
Are ya getting any of this?
It was the capitalists that were being overly pressured to float an unrealistic social system that lead to the crash... It wasn't the 'rich' that couldn't afford their mortgages, now was it?
There were many more ways to hide your income in the 50's so very few, if any, actually paid the high percentage of income tax and as soon as the Kennnedy proposed and Johnson enacted (1964), Reagan (1981) and W (2003) lowered those high rates, revenue to the Guvmint increased enormously and job growth was phenomenal. Reagan even had one month in which over 1,000,000 new jobs were created.
The 1% of '79 are not the 1% of '12. We have economic mobility. Many of today's billionaires were not rich, or even yet born, in 1979. Zuckerberg and ilk come to mind. If you want to be rich get off your ass, stop complaining and work for it.
Tell that to 110+ million dead Bolshevik/Maoists.
Regulations aren't a left/right thing. Deregulating was the problem or was it too many were given the opportunity to better themselves but blew it big time?
Stupidity - easy call.
We need a healthy dose of responsible regulation in any economy.
Responsible regs are good if the people who invest or draw from the system are responsible. Human nature is a bitch to get around.
I say let them spend and let them try to borrow more money to spend. But like typical Europeans, when they can't, they will come whining and crying about poor them. If you want to live a socialist dream then you better damn well be self sufficient money wise. Why would any capitalist loan them a nickel?
Right, but that's why we must understand this:
1.) There will always be government
2.) People need to ensure the government is accountable
I've been told we are very economically dependent on what goes on in Europe.
We are very economically dependent on communist China. That must be some big burr chafing the balls of capitalists.
Those guys were not socialists or communists. They were dictatorial fascists of the worst kind. Sweden is socialist. Big difference.
No, the rich were busy hiding their money in off shore accounts and sending jobs to third world countries because of cheep slave labour.
:lol:
French election: François Hollande’s to-do list includes G8, White House meetings
PARIS—In a whirlwind first day after winning the French presidency, Socialist Francois Hollande already has a to-do list that includes an invite to the White House, visits to the G-8 and NATO summits and a World War II ceremony with his defeated rival.
The leftist who has pledged to buck Europe's austerity trend and NATO's timetable for Afghanistan appeared before thronging crowds on Paris' Place de la Bastille in the early morning hours Monday, pledging “to finish with austerity.” Hours later, he was back at work, arriving at his campaign headquarters around 10:30 a.m. local time.
Hollande will officially become president on May 15, the date for the handover ceremony that the two campaign teams agreed to on Monday.
He has his work cut out to fulfil the hopes his victory has stirred on France's left, overjoyed to have one of their own in power for the first time since Socialist Francois Mitterrand was president from 1981 to 1995.
He must form a new government then pack his bags for some quick international travel in Europe and to the United States.
Even before his start date, the president-elect is due to appear alongside Nicolas Sarkozy at a ceremony Tuesday marking the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
President Barack Obama has extended Hollande an invitation to the White House ahead of this month's summit of the Group of Eight leading economies at Camp David, Maryland. After that, Hollande will attend a NATO summit in Chicago, where he will announce he is pulling French troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year.
Among the other international leaders calling to congratulate Hollande was Germany's Angela Merkel, who told reporters in Berlin on Monday that she and Hollande had spoken for the first time late Sunday.
“We said we will work well and intensively together,” she said. On Merkel's invitation, Hollande will head to Berlin just after assuming the presidency May 15, Pierre Moscovici , who served as campaign manager, told reporters.
Merkel cautioned against hopes that the austerity measures already agreed by European leaders could now be renegotiated. “We in Germany, and I personally, believe the fiscal pact is not up for negotiation,” she said.
While some market players have worried about a Hollande presidency, the rating agency Standard and Poor's said his election “has no immediate impact” on France's AA+ credit rating or negative outlook.
Sarkozy is now the latest victim of a wave of voter anger over spending cuts in Europe that has ousted governments and leaders in the past couple of years.
Final results from France's presidential election show Hollande narrowly defeated Sarkozy with 51.62 per cent of the vote, or 1.13 million of the 37 million votes cast in Sunday's election.
Sarkozy, who finished the first round about half-a-million votes behind Hollande, failed in his bid to attract sufficient votes from supporters of the far-right anti-EU and anti-immigration candidate Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front party, with his lunge to the right in the last two weeks of campaigning.
The head of the National Front party refused to endorse either candidate and said she would cast a blank vote. In that, she was followed by more than 2 million others, a total far higher than in previous elections.
Hollande has pledged to tax the very rich at 75 per cent of their income, an idea that proved wildly popular among the majority of people who don't make nearly that much. But the measure would bring in only a relatively small amount to the budget, and tax lawyers say France's taxes have always been high and unpredictable and that this may not be as much of a shock as it sounds.
Hollande wants to modify one of Sarkozy's key reforms, over the retirement age, to allow some people to retire at 60 instead of 62. He wants to hire more teachers and increase spending in a range of sectors, and ease France off its dependence on nuclear energy. He also favours legalizing euthanasia and gay marriage.
Hollande has said his first act after the election will be to write a letter to other European leaders calling for a renegotiation of a budget-trimming treaty aimed at bringing the continent's economies closer together. Hollande wants to allow for government-funded stimulus programs in hopes of restarting growth, arguing that debts will only get worse if Europe's economies don't start growing again.
Sarkozy and Germany's Angela Merkel spearheaded the cost-cutting treaty, and many have worried about potential conflict within the Franco-German “couple” that underpins Europe's post-war unity.
French politicians now turn their attention to parliamentary elections next month. With what appears to be a thin victory margin, Hollande must more than ever count on a healthy majority in June legislative elections — the next challenge for Sarkozy's conservatives.
The Socialists will have blanket control of the country if they get a majority in the decisive lower house of parliament. They already preside over the Senate and hold most regions and municipalities in France.
World News: French election: François Hollande
About what?
The Russian revolution was won by Jewish anarchists. Can't prove who financed them, but the Bolsheviks went in and slaughtered the anarchists and took over with their totalitarian regime. Some of the anarchists escaped and ended up in Canada. They tell a very different story than the official one.
Wally, if neg reps are so unimportant, why do you hand them out like some deranged panic button pusher?
Its a myth that right leaning governments are fiscally responsible, while left leaning aren't. Tommy Douglas was left leaning, but fiscally responsible:
Tommy Douglas, revered today by many in Canada as the founder of the Canadian medicare system, was a longtime leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). Like much of the so-called Old Left, Tommy Douglas was surprisingly socially conservative. For example, medicare was initially adopted in the province of Saskatchewan largely as part of a pro-natalist, pro-family policy. Tommy Douglas also argued for what later became called "workfare" – being appalled by the idea that able-bodied men should receive government money without rendering some kind of constructive labor. He also hated deficits, arguing that fiscal prudence was necessary "to keep the bankers off the government's back"
ESR | May 1, 2011 | More to the left – more to the right
Wealthy powerful people have convinced the gullible among us, that the more wealthy and powerful they are, the better off the rest of us are. They use their control of the MSM to program us with ideas that benefit them. Some people like the majority of the French have smartened up and elected someone who represents their interests. If enough countries do the same thing, then the wealthy will either have to carry their tax burden or move to undeveloped countries.
How conservatives lie about government - Republican Party - Salon.com
I have nothing against wealthy people. I'm probably in the top 10% myself. But I know I should pay more taxes, and people wealthier than me should pay a lot more taxes. The poor should get a decent education so they become more productive and pay more taxes.
Instead the tax burden has been shifted to the poor and middle class, while the wealthier get weatheir and the poor get poorer. France and Greece have rejected that model. Good for them. When are a majority of Canadians going to wise up?
BTW, Clinton handed Bush the biggest surplus in US history. Bush handed Obama the biggest deficit in US history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24sun4.html
Tommy Douglas, revered today by many in Canada as the founder of the Canadian medicare system, was a longtime leader of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). Like much of the so-called Old Left, Tommy Douglas was surprisingly socially conservative. For example, medicare was initially adopted in the province of Saskatchewan largely as part of a pro-natalist, pro-family policy. Tommy Douglas also argued for what later became called "workfare" – being appalled by the idea that able-bodied men should receive government money without rendering some kind of constructive labor. He also hated deficits, arguing that fiscal prudence was necessary "to keep the bankers off the government's back"
ESR | May 1, 2011 | More to the left – more to the right
Wealthy powerful people have convinced the gullible among us, that the more wealthy and powerful they are, the better off the rest of us are. They use their control of the MSM to program us with ideas that benefit them. Some people like the majority of the French have smartened up and elected someone who represents their interests. If enough countries do the same thing, then the wealthy will either have to carry their tax burden or move to undeveloped countries.
How conservatives lie about government - Republican Party - Salon.com
I have nothing against wealthy people. I'm probably in the top 10% myself. But I know I should pay more taxes, and people wealthier than me should pay a lot more taxes. The poor should get a decent education so they become more productive and pay more taxes.
Instead the tax burden has been shifted to the poor and middle class, while the wealthier get weatheir and the poor get poorer. France and Greece have rejected that model. Good for them. When are a majority of Canadians going to wise up?
BTW, Clinton handed Bush the biggest surplus in US history. Bush handed Obama the biggest deficit in US history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24sun4.html
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Well the TSX was flat today; there were no triple-digit losses on Canadiian markets as some cried in paniced prediction. Whodathunkit? The sky didn't fall.
Personally, I wish Hollande well. Freedom fries anyone?
Well, Walter, why not give me a greenie for my being right?
Personally, I wish Hollande well. Freedom fries anyone?
Well, Walter, why not give me a greenie for my being right?
Wait and see what Germany has to say when Hollande tries to pick their pockets, that's when the sh*t will really hit the fan..... The impact on the markets is far from over
As do I, but Hollande was elected on a platform that is not doable... Hollande will come out OK regardless of the ramifications, it will be the average Frenchman that may get the prostate exam for (potentially) a very, very long time.
You may be able to get a heaping basket of 'em in Paris in the next few years... There is lots of money on the sidelines looking for bargain-basement acquisitions in a prime city like Paris... Ya just might be enjoying a lot more US culture in the city of lights if this unfolds as Hollande has promised.