Might be hard to get one:
"French taxi drivers smash cars in strike against Uber" by Alissa J. Rubin New York Times June 25, 2015
PARIS — Irate taxi drivers blocked roads, burned tires, and attacked drivers who they thought were working for Uber, the low cost ride-hailing company, during a day of protests Thursday that disrupted Paris and slowed traffic at the airports to a crawl.
I think it's about more than that. I think the French people have simply had it.
Fights broke out on streets, a couple cars went up in flames, and frustrated travelers found themselves walking to their destinations all over Paris, as well as in major cities elsewhere in France.
With arrests and fights still breaking out in several areas of Paris in the early evening, including at the transport hub at Porte Maillot, many Parisians were scrolling on their smartphones to try to figure out alternative routes home.
The taxi drivers’ energy for the fight appeared unabated on a day that was one of the hottest here in recent weeks and that for many of the protesters started in the early morning hours. Their unions threatened to extend the stoppage for another day.
“We are against the government,” said Nader Moghimi, 49, who has driven a taxi for nine years in Paris. “Their role is to protect us. If Uber is doing some economic terrorism, the government has to react.”
Just don't wave a flag around, 'kay?
“Economic terrorism” is the favored term of Parisian taxi drivers for Uber’s lower prices, flexible hours, and the way it is operating its UberPop service outside French law.
The French government was aghast, with Prime Minister Manuel Valls lamenting: ‘‘These incidents give a deplorable image to visitors of our country.’’
You guys are so worried about image. That's the problem.
Taxi drivers justified their rage, saying Uber’s lowest-cost service UberPop was ruining their livelihoods.
Despite repeated rulings against it and an October law that explicitly outlaws UberPop, its drivers continue to ply French roads and the American ride-hailing company is actively recruiting drivers and passengers alike.
Then JUber is criminal, isn't it?
Uber claims to have a total of 400,000 customers a month in France.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve rushed back from a trip to Marseille to meet with taxi unions, declaring afterward that UberPop must be shut down and its vehicles seized if caught by police carrying passengers.
He said 70 vehicles had been damaged around France in Thursday’s protests and 10 people were arrested.
Cazeneuve said he would meet with UberPop officials to tell them their service is illegal.
‘‘It must, therefore, be closed,’’ he said. ‘‘The government will never accept the law of the jungle.’’
No, they will just bring it to those parts of Africa and other places where they participate in the military operations of empire.
He ordered a meeting of French antifraud officials Monday to put in place measures to immediately stop illegal taxis from servicing customers. Only a decision by the Justice Ministry can ban the app for UberPop, he said.
Earlier, Cazeneuve ordered an immediate ban on unlicensed drivers in the Paris region.
That didn’t phase Uber France chief Thibaud Simphal, who said on RTL radio he was telling his drivers ‘‘to continue.’’ He contended that thus far the justice system ‘‘has not demanded that UberPop be forbidden.’’
Near the Paris airport, hundreds of travelers walked along jammed highways with their bags or got caught in ambushes.
Among them was singer Courtney Love, who was rescued by two men on a motorcycle.
‘‘They’ve ambushed our car and are holding our driver hostage,’’ Love tweeted. ‘‘They’re beating the cars with metal bats. this is France?? I’m safer in Baghdad.’’
Can let me out here. I'm sick of celebrity, the state, and politics being melded into one by the pre$$ here.
Riot police chased strikers from Paris’ ring road, where protesters torched tires in the middle of the roadway and swarmed onto exit ramps at rush hour.
Residents had varying views of the mayhem. Several interviewed on television expressed solidarity with the taxi drivers, but said they shouldn’t stop people from getting to work by creating an “operation snail,” the French term for intentional traffic tie-ups.
What else are they supposed to do to be effective and show consequences?
However, a businessman on the Champs-Élysées, who would give his name only as Anthony, said, “The government has a completely outdated way of thinking. For a European city, at the height of summer, this should not be happening.”
Earlier in the day there were blockages in Marseilles, France’s second-largest city, and Nice, as well as in Lyons.
This is not the first time that European taxi drivers have voiced their anger over Uber by taking to the streets. Last year, more than 10,000 drivers in cities such as London, Madrid, and Milan staged a one-day protest.
Several European cities, including Berlin and Amsterdam, have banned some of the company’s services, saying that they do not comply with local transportation rules.
And in Spain, Uber closed its operations after a judge ruled in December that the company’s low-cost service did not conform to Spanish laws and could amount to unfair competition for taxi drivers.
In response, Uber has asked the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, to intervene, saying the bans violate the bloc’s rules against discriminating between rival services.
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Did you see the look in their eyes?
I wouldn't get in that car if I were you, kiddo.
Might lose your head in France:
"Terror probe after French factory decapitation" by Lori Hinnant and Laurent Cipriani Associated Press June 26, 2015
SAINT-QUENTIN-FALLAVIER, France — At least one man attacked a gas factory Friday in southeastern France, posting a severed head at the factory’s entrance along with banners covered with Arabic writing, officials said. France immediately opened a terrorism investigation.
Here we go again, ANOTHER PHONEY FALSE FLAG OPERATION. This one STINKS from the START!
President Francois Hollande, speaking in Brussels, said one person was killed and two injured in the attack, which began shortly before 10 a.m. when a car crashed the gate of a gas factory in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, southeast of Lyon. The car then plowed into gas canisters, touching off an explosion, he said.
‘‘No doubt about the intention — to cause an explosion,’’ Hollande said, calling the attack ‘‘of a terrorist nature.’’
?????????
The French president said suspect has been arrested and identified and indicated that a second attacker might have been involved.
They will correct that. It's always a lone nut.
The industrial site belongs to Air Products, an American chemical company based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
A security official said a severed head was found posted on the gate at the entrance to the factory, in what appeared to be an echo of Islamic State’s practice of beheading prisoners and displaying the heads for all to see.
Yup, ISIS™ is in France now.
Two flags, one white and one black, both with Arabic inscriptions, were found nearby, the security official said.
Agent provocateurs couldn't make up their mind, or just stupid?
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details to the media, said the head’s body was found near the site of the explosion but the victim was not decapitated by the blast.
France’s anti-terror prosecutor said an investigation was opened into the attack, which he said was carried out by ‘‘a terrorist group.’’
Hollande spoke after watching TV news reports about the attack with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as both leaders attended a European Union summit in Brussels.
Did he catch a cab back to Paris?
France went on high alert after attacks in January against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, a kosher grocery and a policewoman that left 20 people dead in the Paris region, including three Islamic extremist attackers.
Since then, fears of copycat attacks have risen. One person was arrested after authorities said he was plotting to gun down churches in the Paris region.
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Interesting how the attack followed on the heals of this:
"NSA spied on French leaders, WikiLeaks says" by Angela Charlton and Raphael Satter Associated Press June 24, 2015
PARIS — WikiLeaks published documents late Tuesday that it says show the US National Security Agency eavesdropped on the last three French presidents, releasing material which appeared to capture officials in Paris talking candidly about Greece’s economy, relations with Germany — and, ironically, American espionage.
I'll explain the reason for italics in a minute.
The release caused an uproar among French politicians, although it didn’t reveal any huge surprises or secrets. France itself is on the verge of approving broad new surveillance powers, and is among several US allies that rely heavily on American spying powers when trying to prevent terrorist and other threats.
And since we all know the "terrorists" are government intelligence agency creations with direction and funding coming from them and their allies it means some other agenda is at work. Here is the skinny on that.
There was no instant confirmation of the accuracy of the documents released in collaboration with French daily newspaper Liberation and investigative website Mediapart, but WikiLeaks has a track record of publishing intelligence and diplomatic material. It appeared serious enough to prompt an emergency meeting of President Francois Hollande’s defense council, according to presidential aides. The council, convening Wednesday morning, includes top French security officials.
WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson told the Associated Press he was confident the documents were authentic, noting that WikiLeaks’ previous mass disclosures — including a large cache of Saudi diplomatic memos released last week — have proven to be accurate.
Never saw those Saudi things in my Globe (why protecting Saudi, Globe?)!!
So what have they done wrong lately to tick of Israel, because Wikileaks is nothing more than a conduit for Mossad spying (don't even really have to; NSA gives 'em all the raw data anyway)?
Hollande’s office didn’t comment beyond announcing Wednesday’s security meeting, though his Socialist Party issued an angry statement saying the reports suggest ‘‘a truly stupefying state paranoia.’’ Even if the government was aware of such intercepts, the party said, that doesn’t mean ‘‘that this massive, systematic, uncontrolled eavesdropping is tolerable.’’
That is just for public consumption back home. I mean, the hacking was played down!
There was no immediate comment from former President Jacques Chirac, also reportedly targeted by the eavesdropping.
Meaning it goes back a long way!
An aide to Hollande’s predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy told AP that the former president considers these methods unacceptable, especially from an ally. The aide was not authorized to be publicly named.
US National Security Council spokesman Ned Price released a statement Tuesday evening saying the US is ‘‘not targeting and will not target the communications of President Hollande.’’
My print said no comment!
‘‘We do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose,’’ Price added. ‘‘This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike. We work closely with France on all matters of international concern, and the French are indispensable partners.’’
Anyone out there believe that?
Price did not address claims that the US had previously eavesdropped on Hollande or his predecessors.
Ever since documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden showed in 2013 that the NSA had been eavesdropping on the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, it had been understood that the US had been using the digital spying agency to intercept the conversations of allied politicians.
I guess Snowden has run out of credibility so it's back to Wikileaks.
Still, the revelations are bound to cause diplomatic embarrassment for the Americans, even though friends have been spying on friends for thousands of years.
Yeah, it's NO BIG DEAL!!!!!
Late Tuesday, several French politicians posted messages to social media voicing their disgust with the reports.
‘‘And one more time we find out that the US has no allies, they only have targets or vassals,’’ Socialist lawmaker Jean-Jacques Urvoas said in messages posted on Twitter in both French and English. Urvoas is leading the push for France’s new surveillance bill.
Yeah, WHEN WILL YOU LEARN?!!!!!
Hollande said last year that he discussed his concerns about NSA surveillance with President Obama during a visit to the US, and they patched up their differences.
Then the anger is staged, or Obummer is a goddamn liar!
After the Merkel disclosures, Obama ordered a wholesale review of NSA spying on allies, after officials suggested that senior White House officials had not approved many operations that were largely on auto-pilot. After the review, American officials said Obama had ordered a halt to spying on the leaders of allied countries, if not their aides.
The Germans just have to trust him there.
If not? Whole program on auto-pilot?
WikiLeaks, on its Web site, listed the contents of what it said was five selected ‘‘top’’ intercepts of communications involving French presidents — on subjects including a top UN appointment, the Middle East peace process, and the handling of the euro crisis — between 2006 and 2012.
That is where my print ended. The rest is all web additions.
The report also listed in a chart what were said to be phone numbers listed by NSA as top French official ‘‘intercept targets,’’ including that of the French president’s own cellphone, with some digits crossed out.
The purported intelligence reports describe French relations with Germany and the parlous state of the Greek economy. A March 24, 2010, report describes Sarkozy’s frustration at the US refusal to sign an espionage pact: ‘‘As [French Ambassador to Washington Pierre] Vimont and [Sarkozy’s diplomatic advisor Jean-David] Levitte understand it, the main sticking point is the US desire to continue spying on France,’’ it says.
Hrafnsson refused to comment on how WikiLeaks had obtained the documents and declined to go into specifics about what else might be appearing in the French media, but said that ‘‘they can expect more revelations in the near future.’’
Why not just LET IT ALL OUT!? The bogus argument that it will fade as an issue when the alternative media and bloggers can pick it apart for years doesn't fly. Why sit on it for "timely" releases?
Tuesday’s release appeared to be carefully timed: the night before the French Parliament is expected to definitively pass a controversial security bill legalizing broad surveillance, especially of terrorism suspects.
Yeah, it did seem timed but not for that reason. The attack on the gas factory though.... !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yup, need that tyranny now!
Privacy advocates and human rights groups have protested the French surveillance bill expected to be approved Wednesday, which would let the government install ‘‘black boxes’’ to collect metadata from every major phone and Internet company in hopes of preventing imminent attacks.
But the government argues that it is just updating a 1991 law to grapple with modern threats, and has tried to distance itself from US-style mass surveillance.
Think the French are fooled?
The bill was proposed last year but deadly Paris attacks by Islamic extremists in January gave it added urgency for the government.
That's when you want to hit the brakes! It indicates a larger agenda at work, one that needs to be rushed through so you don't see it!
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Btw, we went through all this about two years ago, remember?
Of course, I can't imagine WHY such an item would appear in such a timely way in the AmeriKan jew$media, can you?
Talk about an ISRAELI CONDUIT and PROPAGANDA MACHINE!
"France decries report of eavesdropping by NSA; Hollande chides Obama about spying on allies" by Alissa J. Rubin New York Times June 25, 2015
PARIS — The French government reacted angrily Wednesday to revelations about extensive eavesdropping by the US government on the private conversations of senior French leaders, including three presidents and dozens of senior government figures.
That's for their own people, and I don't think they are fooled.
President François Hollande called an emergency meeting of the Defense Council to discuss the revelations published by the French news website Mediapart and the left-leaning newspaper Libération about spying by the National Security Agency.
He spoke with President Obama and made clear “the principles that must govern relations between allies on intelligence matters,” the Élysée Palace said in a statement, adding that senior French intelligence officials would soon travel to the United States for discussions.
And alter thousands of years of human behavior? Good luck.
Earlier in the day, the French government released a spare but strongly worded statement saying that the eavesdropping was unacceptable and that it would not “tolerate any actions that put French security and the protection of French interests in danger.”
What does he mean? AmeriKa is protecting them. They won't tolerate that?
The revelations come as France is debating legislation that would allow the mass collection of data, as well as more targeted eavesdropping by its intelligence services.
The new information, regarding French officials from 2006 to 2012, was published on the website of the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks, which did not say where it had obtained it. Julian Assange, a founder of WikiLeaks, is listed as one of the authors of the Mediapart and Libération articles.
Leaked NSA documents have previously upended US diplomatic ties with a close ally. Relations between Washington and Berlin cooled after reports in October 2013 accused the NSA of monitoring one of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphones, although Germany’s federal prosecutor dropped a formal investigation this month due to lack of evidence.
NSA and CIA wouldn't cooperate!
The Mediapart and Libération articles featured conversations involving three French presidents: Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Hollande. The information that was released was largely predictable, although it certainly was not the kind of information that anyone involved would want distributed to a wider audience.
Look at how the NYT puke has totally bowed to his elite masters.
Notes written by unidentified analysts about conversations in 2012 between Hollande and his prime minister at the time, Jean-Marc Ayrault, show that Hollande was worried about the economic situation in Greece. Fearing that Merkel was too rigid in her approach, he reached out to the Social Democrats in Germany, who were in the opposition at the time.
Oh, this leak was timed to split Germany and France. Why?
Hollande leads the Socialist Party in France, but as a national leader he would be expected to deal with his counterpart rather than with an opposition party.
Sarkozy comes across in the documents as grandiose, expressing the view that he is the one who can “solve the world financial crisis,” according to one cable.
Another delusional $cum of the elite cla$$.
Sarkozy is expected to be a candidate for the 2017 presidential elections.
The White House was quick to release a statement saying that there was currently no surveillance of the French president and that it would not eavesdrop on him, and describing the French as “indispensable partners.” The statement made no reference to past practices, however, and also left the door open for future surveillance — in the case of “a valid national security purpose.”
Meaning they haven't stopped it and just lied to you!
“We are not targeting and will not target the communications of President Hollande,” the National Security Council, which is made of Obama’s senior national security advisers and Cabinet officials, said.
“Indeed, as we have said previously, we do not conduct any foreign intelligence surveillance activities unless there is a specific and validated national security purpose. This applies to ordinary citizens and world leaders alike,” the statement said. “We work closely with France on all matters of international concern, and the French are indispensable partners.”
And if you believe that.....
The French Foreign Ministry formally called in the US ambassador to France, Jane D. Hartley, to express its displeasure. She was to meet with Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister, on Wednesday.
And then the Uber strike and terror attack made all that go away.
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Nothing from the war front in Africa, either.
UPDATE: FRENCH FACTORY 'FALSE FLAG ATTACK'.
NDUs:
Nothing in the Globe today regarding the Uber fallout or the false flag on the factory.
ISIS Decapitation Attack at American Owned Factory in France is a Hoax
I can't say that is a surprise anymore.
