Rolling Downhill

Little by little, from Pompidou to Valery Giscard d'Estaing, from Francois Mitterrand to Jacques Chirac - who defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen, father of today's Obersturmfuhrer, in the second round of the 2002 presidential election - France saw the quality of its political personnel decline while the influence of the "American Friend" grew.

It was plainly impossible to preserve indefinitely the political, intellectual, and moral greatness of a giant such as Charles de Gaulle.

Then came nonentities such as Nicolas Sarkozy, a curious Gaullist who put France back into NATO, accepting the Empire's domination. Sarkozy was recently sentenced to prison by the courts, although he remains free: between Chile and France... who is copying whom?

Sarkozy gave way to Francois Hollande, whom the people's imaginative vernacular dubbed couille molle (soft ball). A couille molle whose main feat consisted of slipping out of the Elysee Palace at night, furtively, on a scooter and hidden beneath a helmet, to visit his lover. The socialist Hollande drifted so far to the right that, in the collective memory, Francois Mitterrand now looks like a Bolshevik.

Anyone who thought France had hit rock bottom under Francois Hollande received the unpleasant surprise of seeing Emmanuel Macron arrive: an employee of the Rothschild Bank, infiltrated into the corridors of power by Hollande himself.

Macron - a mere trader, or financial speculator if you prefer - was supposed to be the wall defending the Republic against the fascist threat. That was the story. As the parliamentary elections of June 9 just demonstrated, Macron became the highway for Le Pen's triumphant arrival. Her neo-fascist party won 31.5%, which, added to two or three other Nazi-leaning outfits, brings the total close to 40%. Bravo, maestro!

To be fair, these nullities are not solely responsible for the disaster: decades of neoliberal policies, undertaken at the time and pace dictated by the "American Friend," brought about the privatization of almost everything; the impoverishment of broad sectors of the population; the deterioration of public services; increases in the price of privatized utilities within a Europe-wide free market (electricity, for example: +72%); spreading insecurity for the poor sods; record profits for big capital; and the progressive, unstoppable growth of the neo-fascist far right. This phenomenon has been observed not only in France, but also in Germany, Austria, and other countries.

The same causes produce the same effects. Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton over here; Margaret Thatcher and John Major over there; the dictatorship, the Concertacion, and their heirs in the happy copy of Eden... What did you Kast-expect?

All of the above, accompanied by the unstoppable effects of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall; the emergence, development, and coordination of the BRICS countries; and the increasingly evident decline of the "West"... could only engender the crises we are now witnessing: the return of the nihilistic forces of neo-fascism; more and more wars (there are currently 56 active wars on the planet); the conversion of free-marketeers to protectionism, beginning with the United States; and a great deal more besides. No empire dies in peace.

John Mauldin, my favorite financial speculator, tells us that HE had foreseen and announced all this. As everyone knows, traders are the modern prophets:

The Coming Supercyclical Crisis - The Solution Created the Problem - No Way Out

You know I'm highly concerned about government debt in the developed world, particularly the US. I've said for years a crisis is coming. We've blown right past all our chances to avoid it. Now all we can do is imagine what the crisis will look like... and how much it will hurt.

A loose translation: "Hold on tight, Catalina, because the shitstorm that's coming will be mega-galactic"... and how much it is going to hurt.

Confronted with the disaster of which he himself was the architect, or at least the trigger, Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly, confident that he would catch everyone with their pants down.

That is exactly what happened, were it not for one curious unforeseen event: faced with the threat of fascism, the fussy political left, which until then had been divided... took only a couple of hours to proclaim its unity in order to defeat fascism, creating a Popular Front.

You know what they say: once bitten, twice shy...

The implosion took place within the traditional right and Macron's motley crew, which, because of the majority-vote electoral system, would disappear from the National Assembly.

The electoral contest will pit the neo-fascists and their recent supporters on the traditional right against the reunited left, which promises a radical break with the neoliberal model.

The press, radio, and television - in the hands of fascist-leaning oligarchs - announce, on the authority of economists, that all this is creating uncertainty in the financial markets, which is utterly irresponsible.

Raising the minimum wage, taxing billionaires, curbing inflation, funding public services, guaranteeing social security, reducing working hours... all of that is irresponsible and unachievable.

Driving the merchants from the temple... is no longer part of the plan. They traded Jesus for the IMF.

It is far better to forget bourgeois democracy, impose a dictatorship like Pinochet's, rig another made-to-measure constitution, and renew neoliberal dogmatism, thanks to which the financial markets would know nothing but calm and - belching - would declare themselves more than satisfied.

Meanwhile, an impressive popular mobilization is taking place every day, and its strength is asserting itself even beyond the political representation of the left.

Robespierre... comrade... are you there?

The oligarchs' fear can be measured by the lying, totalitarian propaganda poured out - like an avalanche of shit - by trained journalists in the privately owned media. There are no others.

If the Popular Front wins the elections on June 30 and July 7... its influence will be felt throughout the world. Defeating fascism will not be easy. But, as Nelson Mandela said:

It always seems impossible... until we do it!