French Politics

I just hope our esteemed POS POTUS doesn't make an ass of himself.

...still can't believe it's gotten to the point where I am hoping the fucking POTUS will behave himself.

I've never seen such, only a military parade. Incidentally, I don't go watch it, because music in lockstep doesn't concern me.

Trump will probably miss the whole "people overthrowing tyrants" message and come back from France thinking "I definitely want military parades now."

Still better than Sarko inviting Qaddafi to the same.

I see what you did there. And now I've got it in my head for the rest of the day.

edited 28th Jun '17 3:10:33 AM by Medinoc

The Brassens version or the Sinsemilia one?

There are far, far worse Ear Worms though.

I was thinking of the original.

In a way, I'm glad Macron invited Trump to France for Bastille Day. It means Trump is spending time away from the USA. I do feel bad for France.

edited 28th Jun '17 9:50:47 AM by M84

Trump had to travel to Europe anyway...my prediction is that this time around he will manage to p... off the US allies enough that a number of issues which were so far overlooked become a topic again.

Eh, all the French need to do is put out a spread in front of him and make sure there's a golf cart available to keep him away from everyone else. Problem solved.

So some asshole tried to drive a car into a crowd near a mosque in Paris, supposedly as revenge for DAESH terrorist attacks. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Well it's not even doing the headlines here, between the politics (where once again LFI ate all the airing time by deciding not to watch the president's speech on Monday), the death of a football team owner/founder, and the reopening of the Gregory case.

I thought that Mélenchon would get to say the stupidest thing of the day when - among actual concerns about Macron being a bit too monarchist in his behavior - he complained that the deputies were, to paraphrase, "treated like slaves" ("corvéables à merci"). Coming from a guy who, right now, earns €5.5k a month while also getting some more money to hire up to three assistants to help him in his job AND who mentioned during the presidency that he owned a €800k, 110 sqm flat in Paris, that rubbed me the wrong way.

But then, Quotidien got to ask Jean-Christophe Lagarde of UDI what he thought of the deputies' wages (because another LFI MP, François Ruffin, announced that he would only use the minimum wages from his salary - so a bit more than €1k a month - and would give the rest to charity, which made it a topic of discussion), and he said that according to him, he earned less than the average salary of French people.

Because, you see, a "normal person" in France only works 35 hours a week, but he said that "I reach 35 hours on Wednesday". Subtext: French people are lazy, but I'm not, so I deserve my money.

Note that Lagarde, during the previous mandate, was among the 150 least active deputies in the NA, and was present during 81 commision meetings in 47 weeks (that's 1.72 a week). To compare, 14 deputies averaged more than 10 meetings a week. Compare Lagarde to François Brottes.

That's not actually a ton of money (US senators make 174k USD a year and receive massive benefits) although that's still laying it on really thick. Like it's fine if you want a pay increase but do you HAVE to frame it that way.

edited 29th Jun '17 3:12:05 PM by Aqueos

You have 100 senators, we have 577 deputies.

And they get more than enough to live. Combining a complaint about their wages with insinuating that French people don't work much is highly distasteful.

Wealthier people like to think their wealth is strictly meritocratic. Helps them feel better.

And contributes to their attitude that poverty only exists in people who are either too lazy to earn real money or too ignorant to know how to properly manage their finances.

Simone Veil, France's most famous and significant female politician, died today.

<< Trump will probably miss the whole "people overthrowing tyrants" message and come back from France thinking "I definitely want military parades now." >>

Sadly, as a young Frenchman : that wouldn't even surprise me either.

Crap, I just realised that I will be in Paris the day after Bastille Day.

The residual ick might rub off on me.

Trump already remarked about wanting military parades shortly after his election.

Yeah, but Bastille Day might reinforce that desire.

I have little doubt that it will.

Happy "Thank France for our independence" Day!

Today we can't make any jokes at the French's expense, since they did help us win against England.

Today, and every day until January 20th, 2021 (hopefully).

Hell, we can't make French jokes ever- you have Macron and we have Trump. Speaking of which, can you give Trump at least a five-year tour of the Bastille? Or maybe even pull a Man in the Iron Mask?