Just a few things….
Macron’s Defense Chief General de Villiers has quit over defense cuts by Macron, to the tune of $980 billion – er, MILLION. I don’t think the French actually have $980 billion unless you count the wines they never sell.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-politics-defence-idUSKBN1A40KR?il=0
He did say (before it was removed) something about ‘Je sais quand j suis baisée, mais je ne suis pas le stupide’. If I ever find that quote, I’ll post it. Some bird dog at Reuters removed it. Pfft.
However, he has been replaced with General Le Cointre: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-politics-defence-appointment-idUSKBN1A410O?il=0
It seems that the stresses on the French military are plus que difficile for the Frogs. They’re not only partnering with allies (US, Jordan, etc.) in the Middle East, but they’re also being used on the home front against jihadis, assisting le gendarmerie, among other things. As this progresses, Macron may find himself in over his head. Tourism in France is a big deal. Threaten the Louvre and you just may be toast.
As it is, French Foreign Minister LeDrian is asking Qatar to stop funding terrorists and shut down the Al Jazeera network. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-gulf-qatar-france-idUSKBN1A00EI
However, the Qatari are refusing to do so, as well as denying that they have anything to do with funding terrorists. (Wasn’t there a computer system named Qatari?)
Meantime, Russia (Vlad Putin) is still quite annoyed that the US government will not release diplomatic properties it seized in December 2016 in New York and Maryland.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-usa-sanctions-property-idUSKBN1A30H5
The Russian government says it is “ready to retaliate”, but did not define exactly how it intends to do so.
I’d like to know more.
Will they cut off the flow of caviar? Advise the Bolshoi Ballet to avoid visits to the USA? Maybe stop those tourist runs along the Road of Bones to Irkutsk? Thank the Baba Yaga that vodka doesn’t spoil, eh?
Perhaps it would be more productive to ‘speak’ to Vlad about his deals with Norkiland for providing armored tracked vehicles to the waddling goofball psycho who runs that haunted country, and not do any more ‘deals’ with him until he stops building missiles.
If those missiles can reach Japan, they can also be built to reach Moscow, Vlad. The only good snake is a dead snake.
Category: Foreign Policy
Are the French still going to fight to the last Legionnaire?
J’espere que oui, m’sieu!
Sounds like Macron has a “Foutez La France” agenda.
Je pense que Macron est plein de merde.
Well, the French voted for him. Every nation has the ruler it deserves.
Oh no. Does that means we deserved 0b0z0 for the last 8 years?
So it would seem.
Defense cuts of one TRILLION?? Are you sure you didn’t mis-type an “m”-for million for a “b”-for-billion?
Ouch! Typo! My bad! It IS $980 million.
The B & M are SO close together, surely I can be forgiven?????
Are you referring to the B&M racing transmissions?
🙂
Close enough for government work!
That figure came straight out of the article Ex-PH2 was quoting from. The one trillion dollar cut will obviously cover a fairly long time span, probably a 10 or 15-year budget cycle, or even longer. Even so, that is still a huge chunk out of their defense budget; no wonder the French commanding general decided to quit…
Oops, I re-read the article; as ex-PH2 mentioned above, it is indeed 980 million, NOT 980 billion…
I fixed it. 🙂 See above.
Too much catnip, not enough caffeine.
You are not supposed to sniff the catnip, Ex-PH2
Catnip tea maybe?
It was chocolate-covered catnip. I couldn’t help myself.
“waddling goofball psycho”. Love it!
Yeah it’s $989 million not billion. That is a pretty YUGE typo.
This is France trying to reduce debt on the backs of their military because their social programs are unsustainable. Good luck with that considering they now occupy their own streets with the military due to social program stupidity in the first place. Within 39 years France will be fighting a civil war.
39 years? You think it will take that long?
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Heehee! I think my pantry’s only good for one year. I use up everything very quickly.
I’m sorry about the crappy embedding, that didn’t quite work out the way I meant it to.
It works just fine.
Screw the French. Next time they need help, tell them to ask Belgium.
Well, the Frogs had their chance to make a smarter choice. Instead they picked Madame Robinson’s boy-toy and his kumbaya agenda. Slash the defense budget while increasing your military commitments? Oui, oui, brilliant!
How much ratfucking do you think the French army will take before they get into a Bastille-storming mood?
Tres peu, mon ami. Tres peu.
Not sure why France has nuclear subs, an aircraft carrier, expeditionary fighting capability when they can’t keep Paris safe.
Probably a matter of the difference between the ruling class and the people.
France has the capability to be great. The people of France have the character traits to embrace greatness. The leaders of France, not so much.
YMMV
If the people of France had the potential to be great they would have voted for someone else.
French politics sux more than ours. They had 3 socialists, of different degree, running for office.
That’s the problem with French conservatives. They are still socialists.
There have not been a free market capitalism candidate in France in the last 100 years.
Did the Soviet Union ever invade France? There you go! 😉
Realistically I guess we could say the same for our selves, did our entire DoD stop OBL on 9/11?
They keep on getting the following letter:
Dear France,
You’re still our bitch!
Signed,
Germany
Don’t be ragging on French Wines Ex-PH2. Never met a sailor yet who knew about anything other than Mad Dog 20-20. The only problem with French Wines is their production is down at the vineyards where grapes are crushed by the tender toes of maiden virgins. Seems to be a high demand for them these days.
Don’t be ragging on French Wines Ex-PH2. Never met a sailor yet who knew about anything other than Mad Dog 20-20. The only problem with French Wines is their production is down at the vineyards where grapes are crushed by the tender toes of maiden virgins. Seems to be a high demand for them these days elsewhere, 72 at a clip.
Oh, mais non! I mentioned only ‘the wines they will not sell’. They always keep the best for themselves.
During op Steel Pike in 1964, OKIE 3 tied up at the La Pallice camel and as we went on liberty, A Fortyish aged woman walked up to us and wanted to know if we were German sailors. This place had the U-Boot pens and I was thinking that maybe she was looking for a past German sailor/soldier whom we may know if we were German. La Rochelle had a nifty place with a red light over the doorway that this 18 year old snipe went into.
Well, well, well. It seems that Hungary and Poland, both in eastern Europe, are getting tired of Brussels dictating the terms of their existence to them, and are buddying up with each other against the EU.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-politics-judiciary-hungary-idUSKBN1A70C1
It appears that it took only the Brexit to crack the nutshell of the EU. The article says that, per Orban, Hungary has spent about $1 billion to deal with migrants, among other things.
A conservative wave moving through Europe is perhaps underway. This should be very, very interesting.
Stay tuned.
Here is an accompanying article that outlines the judicial reforms going on in Poland. Poland is a major NATO ally. In case anyone was not alive in 1989, that’s the year that Lech Walesa led the effort to overthrow the communist regime governing Poland.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-politics-judiciary-idUSKBN1A70E4
Good for the Poles.
As for Brussels, there is no stupidity like ideological stupidity.
Not sure I would call it conservative. Nativist, perhaps. Those folks are getting tired of seeing their culture derided while large groups of immigrants refuse to become assimilated to the host country’s norms. For this they are called bigoted and racist.
Stop me if any of this sounds familiar.
I saw this coming a couple years ago when Eastern Europe started kicking up a fuss over Merkel’s open invite to free immigration. A lot of folks in Europe are finally waking up to the danger posed by unlimited immigration of unassimilated peoples.
According to this morning’s news from Reuters, the Spanish government is worried that Catalonia, a northeastern state of Spain, is going to secede. Los Catalanes have made up their own flag, too. Spain’s central government is concerned that it will have a negative impact on Spain’s economy.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-catalonia-idUSKBN1A809T?il=0
This is becoming more and more interesting with each passing week. Poland and Hungary are fed up with the diktats of Brussels and los Catalanes want their independence. I haven’t checked on the Basques. Maybe I should do that, eh?