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The Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) represent a broad cross section of French rural, working and middle classes. They are butchers, bakers and automobile makers. They are the folks who grow the food, drive the trucks, build the buildings and fix what breaks. They are France. They have had enough....Climate taxes on fuel to pay for inefficient, variable wind and solar power and other climate fantasies are wasteful job killers, and the folks in the yellow vests know it. They refuse to redistribute more of what they earn through their long, hard labor … in the name of global warming.

You know you've got a problem when your tax schemes are even being rejected by the French. While there's always a danger in reducing the causes of political unrest to a single issue, the plan to impose yet another regressive $9 billion annual carbon tax proved to be a catalyst for the "yellow vest" protests that are roiling Paris. The nonviolent version of the French carbon-tax revolt is spreading globally, too. Last November, Washington state voters rejected a very well-funded effort to pass the first ballot-approved carbon tax ever. The province of Ontario is suing the Canadian government to block...

Weakening of the family generally occurs in an environment of weakening of religion. As France is gripped by civil disorder, many commentators identify, quite correctly, as the culprit the outsized burden that France's bloated welfare state places on its citizens. According a recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the highest tax burden in the industrialized world is in France — 46.1 percent of GDP. In the United States, it is 27 percent, which includes taxes paid at all levels of government — federal, state and local. Welfare state spending in France is 32 percent of GDP,...

The French government on Sunday (Dec 9) urged Mr Donald Trump not to interfere in French politics after the US president posted tweets about the protests rocking the country and attacked the Paris climate agreement. "We do not take domestic American politics into account and we want that to be reciprocated," Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told LCI television. "I say this to Donald Trump and the French president says it too: leave our nation be.

It's from our fussy friends at Bloomberg. So link only.

French President Emmanuel Macron will address the country on Monday as he seeks to placate "yellow vest" anti-government protesters who wreaked havoc in Paris this weekend. On Sunday, workers in Paris and other cities swept up broken glass and towed away burnt-out cars while the government warned of slower economic growth and the judiciary said it would come down hard on looting and attacks on police. On Saturday, protesters, for the fourth weekend in a row, threw stones, torched cars and vandalised shops and restaurants in a protest against Macron's economic policies. The Elysee palace said on Sunday that Macron,...

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannons at yellow-vested protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel after they tried to breach a riot barricade, as the movement that started in France made its mark Saturday in Belgium and the Netherlands. Protesters in Brussels threw paving stones, road signs, fireworks, flares and other objects at police blocking their entry to an area where Michel’s offices, other government buildings and the parliament are located. Brussels police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere said that around 400 protesters were gathered in the area. About 100 were detained,...

Another French aristocrat ignores the middle class. Will he survive? “Global warming is the biggest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it.” —John Coleman, meteorologist and founder of The Weather Channel Paris is experiencing major riots they haven’t seen in fifty years. Protesters say this is the start of a revolution which will eclipse the rioting that occurred in 1968 when France was near civil war. Citizens are protesting a gas tax increase designed to discourage the purchase of vehicles that contribute to climate change. Diesel, the most popular fuel in France is currently $6.35...

At least 700 people were arrested in Paris as 5,000 demonstrators faced off against 8,000 police in another violent demonstration by "yellow vest" protesters.Riots broke out all over France despite the supposed cause of the violence being eliminated earlier in the week by the government of President Emmanuel Macron. The government had been claiming that a fuel tax increase was to blame for the protests, but the government rescinded the increase on Wednesday.Donald Trump believes it was Macron's climate change policies: The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do...

Paris was in lockdown early on Saturday with 'thousands' of French security forces braced to meet renewed rioting by "yellow vest" protesters in the capital and other cities in a fourth weekend of confrontation..... The Eiffel Tower and other tourist landmarks were shut, shops were boarded up to avoid looting and street furniture removed to avoid metal bars from being used as projectiles. About 89,000 police were deployed across the country.

This past week, Parisians in yellow safety vests took to the streets to riot against French leadership. They have defaced the Arc de Triomphe, thrown rocks at policemen and soldiers, and lit fires all over the city. Macron literally had egg on his face and continues to suffer abysmal approval ratings, while the current protests enjoy high approval ratings in the country, despite the destruction. Most commentary (which happened all over France, not just Paris) has focused on the fuel tax increase as the main reason for the protests, as though the French have never paid exorbitant taxes before. It...

The French government expects the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) protests in Paris this weekend could be more violent than ever, despite President Emmanuel Macron buckling on fuel tax hikes. The Élysée Palace, seat of President Emmanuel Macron, announced to French media they are expecting “great violence” on Saturday as Yellow Vest protestors have announced “Act IV” of their nearly four-week-long protest against the Macron regime that was initially sparked by a rise in fuel taxes, franceinfo reports. According to the Élysée, they expect “a hard core of several thousand people” to arrive in Paris on Saturday with the intent to...

PARIS - France hunkered down for another wave of potentially violent protests on Saturday as embattled President Emmanuel Macron planned to address the nation next week over public fury at the high cost of living, senior allies said. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the three-week-old “yellow vest” revolt had “created a monster” and vowed police would have no tolerance for violence, with much of Paris in lockdown and tens of thousands of police deployed nationwide. Castaner warned that radicals would likely again infiltrate the protest movement - a backlash against high living costs but also, increasingly, a revolt against Macron...

... It is likely that the economic ideas of the Yellow Vests are primitive and driven by resentment. Macron has suppressed the capital tax on financial assets, which had probably reduced overall tax receipts by driving rich people from France; but in conjunction with an increased tax on the consumption of a vital commodity, he gives the impression (not helped by the fact that he once worked in finance) that he unduly favors the rich at the expense of the poor. Many people I know want six impossible things before breakfast. They clearly see that high taxes on individuals and...

French President Emmanuel Macron has scrapped a fuel tax rise amid fears of new violence, after weeks of nationwide protests and the worst rioting in Paris in decades. An official with the Elysee palace told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the president decided to get rid of the tax. Edouard Philippe told lawmakers that “the tax is now abandoned” in the 2019 budget, and the government is “ready for dialogue.” The budget can be adjusted or renegotiated through the course of the year. Three weeks of protests have left four people dead and were a massive challenge to Macron....

They call themselves the "Gilets Jaunes," or yellow vests, in French. They're mostly young, male and extremely angry, and they've been marching in the streets and rioting in Paris and elsewhere, protesting yet another bunch of taxes on gasoline in the government's never-ending battle against global warming. Who says no one cares about climate change? If you think of the French as people who will suffer any indignity in the name of more government, think again. Many young French, watching their standards of living decline under a socialist president's high taxes, are fed up. This latest round of taxes on...

France suspends controversial fuel tax after weeks of unrest By James McAuley December 4 at 6:40 AM PARIS — French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced Tuesday that the French government would temporarily suspend the controversial carbon tax plan that triggered weeks of often violent protests around the country. To help curb climate change, the government had proposed a slew of new carbon taxes that were slated to take effect in January 2019 and were designed to wean consumers off diesel and other polluting fuels and to favor electric cars. But the price hikes those taxes represented triggered a wave of...

One of France’s most revered monuments, the Arc de Triomphe, was stormed and vandalised on Saturday during the 'Yellow Vest' demonstrations, in one of the worst instances of unrest Paris has seen since the protests and riots of 1968. The interior of the Arc de Triomphe, the 19th-century arch that towers over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the western end of Champs Elysées, was ransacked. The statue of the Marianne, the symbol of the French republic, in display at the entrance of the Arc de Triomphe museum was smashed. A video shared on Facebook shows most of the...

PARIS — "Yellow Jacket" protesters blocking access to 11 fuel depots belonging to one of the world's biggest oil companies have left gas stations running dry in France. At least 75 of the company's 2,200 gas stations were out of fuel, a spokesman for energy giant Total said Monday. For more than two weeks, protesters angry over gas taxes and the high cost of living have been blocking roads across France, impeding access to fuel depots, shopping malls and some airports. Riot police were overrun on Saturday as protesters brought chaos to Paris' fanciest neighborhoods, torching dozens of cars, looting...

BREAKING: WATCH: Paris: A group of French police officers remove their helmets to show solidarity with the French people against President Emmanuel Macron, as anti Macron protests continue throughout France.