Le blog de Evan Jones

Here follows a translation of Bertrand Renouvin's background to the dénouement in Ukraine. Europe has acquiesced in its acceptance of US suzerainty, through NATO, of European military policy. Key European states facilitated the bloody dismantling of Yugoslavia and the later destruction of Libya. They have acted as auxiliaries to US military aggression elsewhere.

Australia overnight breaks the contract with Naval Group to supply 12 diesel powered submarines, costing tens of billions of Australian dollars.France suffers double humiliation: one by the US/UK/Australia troika, two due to the wilful subjugation of the French governing class to US imperatives. Here follows a translation of Bertrand Renouvin's condemnation of France's subservience.

Green algae has been a problem on Breton beaches for half a century. So also the nitrates levels in Breton watercourses. Breton intensive agriculture, addicted to nitrogenous fertiliser, produces not merely pig and chickens but nitrates-heavy manure. The situation is at an impasse. Meanwhile, intensive agriculture suffers from its own internal contradictions.

The relatively unsympathetic treatment of La France insoumise is strange. In particular, the orientation of François Ruffin is sympatico with multiple Mediapart journalists. What's going on?

The French public health system, facing ongoing deficits, has long been subject to dismantling in the face of neoliberal ideology and private sector lobbies. Yet this debilitated sector is at the front line in confronting the pandemic, further hampered by Macron's and the government's indifference and incompetence. No lessons have been learned as Macron promises more of the same post-Covid.

Frédéric Pierucci was jailed for 25 months in US prisons, patsy for the US' crippling of Alstom and GE's takeover of Alstom Energy. This was facilitated by various French parties in a complicity amounting to economic treason, given Alstom's crucial significance to the French economy. Now the sellout is playing out in GE's dismantling of capacity at Belfort. Whence the 'dirigisme'?

BNP is in court for the issuing of toxic housing loans to French borrowers in 2008-09 denominated in Swiss francs. The borrowers confront an intolerable escalation of the debt principal. Foreign currency loans were pushed extensively in Eastern Europe in the 2000s, with an ongoing widespread crisis for borrowers. A 1980s precedent in Australia was ignored.

The privatization of the Toulouse-Blagnac airport under Emmanuel Macron's direction in 2014 is a scandal. Subsequent events - the plundering of the airport's financial reserves by the acquirer, the ultimate complicity of the courts in the process - have compounded the scandal. It is a salutary lesson regarding the damage done to the public interest by the privatization of public infrastructure.

Le lobby pro-Israël fonctionne sur la présomption qu’il faut que la raison et la preuve, après quoi même l’humanité, soit abandonnées. Boniface note (L'Antisémite, p.123) : « Si je critique le gouvernement israélien, cela ne peut être à la suite d’un raisonnement ou d’une analyse, mais parce que je suis payé pour. Cela évite de se remettre en cause et permet une confortable détestation. »