"Allez vous faire foutre"

About a year and a half ago, when our president withdrew the United States from the Paris Accords/Climate Change agreement, France's president, Emmanuel Macron, promised that “France will not give up the fight.” And he invited American "scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president of the United States" to come to France where they would find a "second homeland."

I expect the number who did that was roughly equivalent to the number of Hollywood types, who after promising to do so, actually kept their promise and moved to Canada.

Now, a year and a half later, the people of France are expressing *their* opinion on this and a whole bunch of other, not unrelated, subjects. And they are expressing those opinions loudly enough that French President Macron felt the need to send 8,000 policemen (along with armored vehicles) to Paris to quell both their complaints and the complainers themselves. And at the same time to pretty much close down the French capital's more upscale business and shopping areas as well as that famed city's tourist attractions.

President Trump, as is his way, has not remained quiet about about all this. But French President Macron has.

The later's "quiet", however, has not been complete. There are people who he has been speaking to.

Whom?

France's business leaders. France's big union leaders. And that nation's politicians.

Tonight though, after a week of nearly complete public silence, President Macron plans to address the French people.

There are several points to all the above that are worth taking note of.

First, the "who"s in all of this. As in who is on whose side.

Doing so we'll see that in France it is pretty much the same as it is with us here.

On one side are the business leaders -- the internationalist 'big wigs' -- along with the leaders of the major unions, and of course, there as here, the politicians. And these are all strongly supported by pretty much all the major media.

On the other side, both there and here, are the common people. The nobodies. Those who have been pushed out, and pushed about, and told to -- and fully expected to -- just remain silent and accept things as they are.

All, of course, for (as we have been endlessly told) "the people's own good."

For a long time all that was heard from the people of France was... silence.

But no longer. Today the average working Frenchman has begun to speak. To give an answer. And that answer is pretty much always the same.

"Allez vous faire foutre."

Roughly translated into English that means...

"Screw you."

We might wonder, though. Are the above "facts" really, as in my introductory expression, "fun" facts?

The answer is both "yes" and "no."

Rebellion, in truth, is often as ugly as the things done to raise it. And the battle of words -- what most of us still prefer -- can, and sometimes does, turn to something uglier: Violence and the destruction of property.

Those things are certainly not fun.

But it has also been observed -- and this throughout history -- that that the end result of even such violence is often in the long run greater peace, along with greater life opportunities for a greater number of people.

The battle in France has now taken that turn. Or begun to. It is"on the streets."

So far, here in the USA, it is still mostly in our homes. In softly spoken words. In humorous expressions.

These next several months, though, promise to be interesting. Very interesting.

Here, as in France, the powers that be are retrenching. International business interests and politicians are even vocally uniting against the people, and against the man we elected to do OUR will. The will of "we the people."

We are expected to be silent. We are pressured to be the same.

Unpopular truths are not to be spoken.

We -- the common man -- the "nobodies" -- are ridiculed. We are called names. We are made to feel alone. Outcasts.

But many of us wear that as a badge. As a thing of honor.

We "deplorables."

We who really have the power. If only we know it and are willing to bear it.

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