TheNextReport

Today, the circus was in town again -- The damage from the government shutdown has begun to take a foul turn. ts toll. The message: an economy that is not paying its workers is an economy that's headed for the dumper. All aboard!

Just when we thought it safe to go back  to Paris...or Bordeaux...or Toulouse... with everything collapsing around him, French president Emmanuel Macron tried a dribbler. In baseball terms, that means getting the ball back to home-plate before another player (most often the pitcher, catcher or first baseman from the opposing team can do the same. In this case it didn't work. Acting on a plan hatched by the previous government, the proposed cure in French politics turned out to be an attack on the third base line, more suited to a remark by the man guarding third than anyone. The awarding of 100 euros monthly has the rancid aroma of a bribe. The SMIC, the Salaire Minimum Horaire as it is known in France as a bribe) adds some money to the monthly check workers get Macron, who received 70% in some areas of France when he was elected, was not as popular this time.

Just when we thought it safe to go back  to Paris... with everything collapsing around him, French president Emmanuel Macron  tried a dribbler. In baseball that means getting the ball to home-plate before another player (most often the catcher from the opposing team can do the same, In this case it didn't work. Acting on a plan hatched by previous governments, the proposed cure in French politics turned out to be an attack on the third base line, more suited to a remark by  than Woodrow Wilson. The awarding of 100 euros to that the SMIC, the Salaire Minimum Horaire as it is known in France) The the  response by the maddening crowd? "c'est pas just.!"  It was called "Too little, too late Macron, who received  a count of a 70% in some areas of France when he was elected, was not as popular this time.

Tears flowed onto the streets of the Champs Elisee yesterday, as they have been so often in French history;  so often in France the weeping came, the elder cobblestones were being excavated, recruited to act as projectiles aimed at the police. Now did the batons fly, finding bones and flash cracked and crumbled. It was not the first time the French people had thrown rocks and invectives at each other. The vast social revolution of 1968 comes immediately to mind; there was that matter in 1870 when the Kaiser and his hungry Prussian troops entered Paris and ended up dining on rats and other available proteins. The culprit this time? You guessed it---taxes. That little five-letter word so often at the root of social unrest. This time, it was a proposal to raise taxes on carburants--those ranting, carbon-based fuels no one really likes; the ones that eventually spell doom for the planet. Thinking he could do something crazy (like planing for the future by learning from the past) French