French MPs To Launch “No Confidence Vote” Against Unpopular Macron

Authored by Joseph Jankowski via PlanetFreeWill.com,

French Members of Parliment are set to launch a No Confidence vote against Emmanuel Macron as the President has become plagued by plummeting popularity poll numbers and nationwide unrest.

The vote will stem from left-wing opposition parties, such as the French Socialist Party, far-left Defiant France, and the Communist Party, who have all agreed to work together on the effort.

“We’ve decided to work together to file a no-confidence vote [to the government] next Monday,” First Secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure said of the matter, according to Express UK.

“During the coming days, we will seek to increase the number of signatories. We have to show that other ways are possible.”

The assembly would hold a no-confidence motion within 48 hours of the request.

Under article 49 of the French constitution, a vote of no-confidence is a means for the National Assembly, on its own initiative, to force the government to resign.

Macron’s centrist Republic on the Move party has a strong majority in the 577-seat house, putting the no-confidence effort in an uphill battle.

Macron had faced similar votes in July after video surfaced of his personal bodyguard beating a May Day protester while wearing police gear. The president ultimately dogged the repercussions as the votes were defeated, solidifying his majority.

Both the popularity rating of Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe are at staggering lows in the face of the Yellow Vests protests that kicked off November 17 over proposed fuel tax hikes. The protests quickly became a broader rebuke of the French President and his government’s policies.

Satisfaction with Macron hit 23 percent in November, down six percentage points on the previous month and matching the lows recorded by his socialist predecessor François Hollande in 2013.

Philippe’s approval rating fell by 10 percentage points to 26 percent in November.

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Activists Force Santa Barbara City College VP to Take Leave For Using the N-Word While Explaining Why It’s Bad

SBCCSanta Barbara City College has placed an administrator, Vice President, Lyndsey Baas, on leave because she used the n-word during a meeting.

The context greatly ameliorates the seriousness of the offense. Baas had been discussing the problem of black students being called this word on campus, and she related a story that involved someone else using the epithet.

This happened during a November 14 meeting of a gender equity working group. When student activists heard about it, they were furious.

“Lyndsay Maas repeated a story a student had told her about a racial slur that was aimed in the student’s direction,” The Cal Coast News reports. “Five days later, several people speaking at a Santa Barbara Board of Trustees meeting demanded Maas resign.”

These people included former student trustee Krystle Farmer and Black Student Union president Naiha Dozier-El, according to The Santa Barbara Independent. The activists “talked about not feeling safe or welcome on campus and shared experiences in which they were called the n-word, were spit on, and were monitored by police in school spaces.” They called on the administration to “just believe us.”

Maas was a strange target for such frustrations, since it was describing this very problem that got her in trouble. Nevertheless, Akil Hill, a staffer in the admissions office, demanded that SBCC President Anthony Beebe take action. “She made a mistake, and there has to be consequences,” said Hill. “You can’t continue coming to work like nothing happened.”

Beebe eventually placed Maas on leave, though many want her to resign as well, according to The Independent. Maas did not respond to a request for comment, but released this statement:

That word should never be used in any context as it only serves to perpetuate racism, and I was complicit. I recognize that I need to reflect on what took place and do thoughtful, informed work to educate myself. I will spend my future at SBCC more aware of how words can cause pain. Additionally, I will continue to be a part of the changes needed to help battle on campus racism.

Complicit? This sounds like a forced confession. In any case, I don’t accept that there’s no conceivable reason to ever use the word itself. What if you need to tell a child, for instance, that this is one of those words you just shouldn’t say?

I don’t know whether Maas is an effective vice president for the college, and I wouldn’t necessarily grant an administrator the same protections as a member of the faculty. But she shouldn’t have to resign for using the n-word while explaining that the n-word is bad.

The college did not respond to a request for comment.

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Can the Democrats Really Win 2020 with a New Green Deal?

OcasioCortezWikimedia“This is going to be the New Deal, the Great Society, the moon shot, the civil rights movement of our generation,” declaimed Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) at a “Solving Our Climate Crisis” townhall this week. She was referring to the idea of a Green New Deal, which Mother Jones describes as “a complete realignment of the U.S. economy for a carbon-free future.” Not wanting for ambition, Ocasio-Cortez added this goal: “We can use the transition to 100 percent renewable energy as the vehicle to establish economic, racial and social justice in America.”

Ocasio-Cortez and her allies have yet to propose any Green New Deal bills. (The first step, she says, is to create a House Select Committee to devise the relevant legislation.) Until then, we’ll have to rely on the leftist group Data for Progress’ vision of what a Green New Deal would look like. By their lights, the feds should aim for 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035 by shuttering all natural gas and coal-fired generation plants. All fossil fuel emissions should be ended by 2050. All new passenger automobiles for sale in 2030 should be zero emissions vehicles; all rail, vehicles, and aviation should be totally fossil-fuel free by 2050. Other parts of the Green New Deal include reforesting 40 million acres of public and private land by 2035, greatly expanding mass transit systems, upgrading local water supply and management infrastructure, expanding federal regulation of the waters of the U.S., and requiring that all materials be recyclable by 2040.

The centerpiece of the New Green Deal would be the creation of 10 million new green jobs in its first ten years. “A Green New Deal requires a massive workforce for the construction, operations, and administration of projects, and a federal job guarantee program can ensure there are enough workers to meet that need,” says the Data for Progress proposal. “A job guarantee is a legal right that obligates the federal government to provide a job for anyone who asks for one and to pay them a livable wage.”

Pointing to problems that may need to be addressed is all well and good, but when it comes to how to pay for the proposed vast transformation of the U.S. economy, the Data for Progress folks basically punt. The most that the Data for Progress report does is hand-wave toward repealing the recent tax cuts and rolling back military spending. But guaranteeing 10 million green jobs alone would require roughly to $500 billion annually, assuming full-time employment at $15 per hour.

The Data for Progress proposal cites some polls that supposedly show that Americans back a Green New Deal, including 64 percent support for a renewable electricity mandate, 71 percent for EPA regulation of carbon dioxide emissions, 74 percent for vehicle fuel efficiency standards, and 55 percent for a green job guarantee. But would Americans really support higher fuel and electric bills along with higher taxes to support this ambitious program? An October 2017 poll from the University of Chicago strongly suggests not. While 61 percent of Americans in that survey think that climate change is a problem, the pollsters report, “questions on how much they would personally be willing to pay to confront climate change (in the form of a monthly fee on their electric bill) reveal great disparity. While half are unwilling to pay even one dollar (emphasis added), 18 percent are willing to pay at least $100 per month.”

“The Green New Deal is one of the most interesting—and strategic—left-wing policy interventions from the Democratic Party in years,” writes Robinson Meyer at The Atlantic. Meyer thinks that the green jobs guarantee will be so seductive a lure that voters will hardly notice that their taxes have increased along with the costs for heating and cooling their houses and fueling their cars. Perhaps, but given the French workers’ fierce reaction to a relatively minor 12 cent per gallon increase in their gasoline taxes, this proposed “left-wing policy intervention” may be less “interesting” to U.S. voters than progressives like Ocasio-Cortez suppose.

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May Refuses To Delay Vote On Brexit Deal Despite Near-Certain Defeat

Despite losing an unprecedented Commons vote to hold her government in contempt earlier this week, UK Prime Minister Theresa May is standing by her position that her deal cannot be altered in any meaningful way – and that’s a huge problem for everyone hoping to avert a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

May

After meeting with her cabinet on Thursday, May reportedly acknowledged that the deal might need to be amended to allow Parliament some kind of veto over whether to enter into the backstop – which would keep the UK inside the EU customs union after December 2020, when the Brexit transition period is expected to end. However, she is reportedly still insisting that the only options on the table are “no deal”, “her deal” or “no Brexit”.

However, BBC Political editor Laur Kuenssberg said the possibility that Parliament takes control of the process to try and find “another way through” is looking increasingly likely.

Since the bill, in its current form, appears to be headed for almost certain defeat. In recognition of this unavoidable fact, conservative leaders on Thursday reportedly said they would “welcome” a delay of the planned Dec. 11 vote to stave off a massive defeat that could bring down May’s government. But even though the odds remain heavily stacked against her (100 Tory MPs have said they would vote against her deal, and that was before the release of AG Geoffrey Cox’s legal advice, which confirmed many Brexiteers’ worst fears about May’s deal), No. 10 Downing Street asserted on Thursday that the vote would proceed as planned, according to Reuters.

“The vote will take place on Tuesday as planned,” May’s spokeswoman said. The House of Commons leader, Andrea Leadsom, also told parliament the vote would go ahead on Dec. 11.

The day before the vote, on Dec. 10, the EU’s top court will deliver a judgment on whether Britain can unilaterally halt Brexit.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier said on Thursday the deal was the best Britain will get, while British finance minister Philip Hammond said it was “simply a delusion” to think the agreement could be renegotiated if parliament rejects it.

May used an interview on BBC radio to press on with her bid to persuade lawmakers to back her deal.

“There are three options: one is to leave the European Union with a deal…the other two are that we leave without a deal or that we have no Brexit at all,” she said.

In one potential concession, May said she recognized that there were concerns among lawmakers about the so-called Northern Irish backstop and she was looking at whether parliament could be given a greater role in deciding whether to trigger it.

“I am talking to colleagues about how we can look at parliament having a role in going into that and, if you like, coming out of that,” she said.

At this point in the Brexit deal debate, May’s insistence on holding a vote on the deal as-is despite its almost-certain defeat verges on the irrational. Why hold a vote on a deal that’s doomed to fail?

We can think of only one reason: To help justify holding a second Brexit referendum – or the cancellation of Brexit altogether. Wall Street firms, it seems, would tend to agree. After all, JPM on Wednesday raised the odds of a reversal of Brexit to 40%.

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Crude Collapse Stalls (For Now) As Inventories Unexpectedly Tumble

While all eyes are focused on Vienna and the OPEC+ meeting, inventory data will likely not be completely ignored following Tuesday’s surprise API-reported crude build.

With refinery utilization surging, there’s a danger of an oversupply of gasoline, says Bob Yawger, futures director at Mizuho Securities USA. “The market needs to see a draw”

API

  • Crude +5.36mm (-900k)

  • Cushing +1.44mm

  • Gasoline +3.61mm

  • Distillates +4.32mm

DOE

  • Crude -7.323mm (-2mm exp) – biggest crude draw since July

  • Cushing  +1.729mm

  • Gasoline +1.699mm (+1.75mm exp)

  • Distillates +3.811mm

The 10-week trend of crude builds is over as DOE reports a surprisingly large 7.3mm barrel draw (the most since July) but at the same time builds were notable at Cushing and for products…

 

WTI traded between $50.50 and $51 as we moved into the DOE data (as OPEC pessimism dominated after Saudi Arabia’s energy minister backed a smaller-than-expected supply cut) then right before the data, this headline hit – *OPEC WON’T HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER MEETING TODAY: DELEGATE.. However, the big draw prompted some buying in futures…

Oil production growth took a small breather last week after a magnitude 7 earthquake in Alaska struck on Friday, affecting oil producing and transportation assets in the region. Alyeska Pipeline Service shut the 800-mile Trans Alaska Pipeline System for seven hours while Hilcorp Energy temporarily shut some of its operations, which include oil platforms in Cook Inlet.

 

Finally, here is Bloomberg’s latest summary of where things are in Vienna:

  • For now, closed-door talks among the ministers are still ongoing

  • OPEC may propose a production cut of 1 million barrels a day and seek extra contributions from Russia and other non-OPEC members

  • But there appears to be sticking points. Some countries are seeking exemptions from the cuts

  • We’re told we may get no communique or press conference todayand it’ll all be wrapped up after a meeting with OPEC+ countries tomorrow

  • Libya’s representative at the talks left the secretariat while the meeting continues, saying he had to catch a flight. Unusual

And now this…

  • *OPEC WON’T HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE AFTER MEETING TODAY: DELEGATE..

 

 

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Trump’s Ill-Advised Slams on GM

Trump MouthPresident Donald Trump has gone after General Motors for its recent announcement that it would mothball several American plants and layoff thousands of workers. But Trump’s slams are ill-advised.

GM has been doing the right thing for a change: It’s proactively responding to shifting market realities so that it doesn’t have to come rattling its tin cup in Washington again, I note in my latest column at The Week.

If Trump really wants to help GM—and protect auto jobs in the long run—he should stop calling himself Tariff Man and make trade peace with the world, especially America’s neighbors and China.

His steel and aluminum tariffs have hurt domestic carmakers, his newly renegotiated NAFTA will raise costs of cars just when demand is plummeting, and his threats to further hike tariffs on Chinese will hurt the pocketbooks of working-class Americans without boosting their job prospects.

Go here to read the whole piece.

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French Companies Bribe Workers To Stop Rioting As Wave Of ‘Deadly Violence’ Expected This Weekend

France’s “Yellow Vest” protests have evolved from simple expressions of anger over Emmanuel Macron’s since-canceled gas-tax hikes to deadly expressions of rage against the entire French status quo and its ineffectual “president of the rich”. As demonstrators rioted across the country, trashing its capital, vandalizing one of its most sacred monuments and brutalizing police (as well as their fellow citizens).

France

All of this is happening against a backdrop of economic decline as consumption has fallen off a cliff during the crucial holiday sales season. French shares have tanked as images of the chaos have been splayed across cable news.

Macron

And a proclamation by the Elysees Palace on Thursday could further degrade confidence: Macron’s office said the Elysee expects a movement “of great violence” on Saturday,  warning that a hardened core group of several thousand demonstrators are coming to “break and kill” when during the fourth act of the  “yellow vests” protests, Franceinfo reported.

Amid the chaos, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has devised a brilliant plan to try and placate French citizens, which would (in theory) make it less likely that they would join the protests.

Speaking at a conference in Paris on Thursday, Le Maire said he had met with the CEOs of French companies, who agreed to give their workers a one-off tax free bonus.

Le Maire said the bonus would be a “pay-back” for their efforts for the economy. Le Maire also said “anything to increase the paycheck” of workers has his support, (though he claimed measures to “artificially” increase the minimum wage would lead to job losses). “We’re going through a crisis that shows that the dikes have been breached, France no longer is spared from the populist wave,” he said, which is why France needs “stability” in fiscal policies.

We now wait to see if the French people’s deep-seated rage toward their supremely unpopular president can be soothed with a wad of cash. Meanwhile, leaders of the Yellow Vest movement are demanding to meet with Macron on Friday afternoon ahead of further protests this Saturday. “Macron must listen to his people,” one said.

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This banking scandal is awful… even for Wells Fargo

I guess none of this should surprise me anymore.

Our old friends at Wells Fargo are involved in yet another banking scandal. And this one is really bad… people wrongfully lost their homes and ended up on the street.

But before I get into the details of this particularly atrocious mishap, let’s have a quick recap of Wells’ “greatest hits.”

Back in April, Wells was hit with a $1 billion fine for selling 570,000 clients auto insurance they didn’t need and also charging mortgage borrowers erroneous fees.

By the bank’s own estimates, as many as 20,000 of those clients may have had their cars repossessed as a result of their inability to pay for the insurance Wells Fargo illegally stuck them with.

On the topic of repossessing vehicles, last November, the bank came under fire for illegally repossessing vehicles owned by members of the military.

Then in October, Wells Fargo got grilled by federal regulators after recommending investment products that were “highly likely to lose value.” The bank also pushed tons of customers into higher-fee retirement accounts that were bad for customers but more lucrative for the bank.

That same month, the bank fessed up to “erroneously” charging late fees to more than 100,000 borrowers, even though the delays were the bank’s fault.

In 2016, employees at some of Wells Fargo’s California branches got busted for selling sensitive customer info, like Social Security numbers, to identity thieves.

And in late 2016 and throughout 2017, Wells Fargo had its notorious “fake account” scandal, where its employees opened extra accounts for millions of customers so they could hit their sales goals and earn a bonus.

And then there’s the time Wells Fargo froze my account for sending a simple wire transfer.

I don’t know what else to say about Wells Fargo (and basically every other big bank) anymore… other than I’m outraged with their behavior.

Consider Wells Fargo’s latest scandal…

This week, the bank said a “computer glitch” caused 545 of its customers to lose their homes.

The “glitch,” according to papers the bank filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, caused the bank to incorrectly deny 870 loan modifications (around 60% of which went into foreclosure).

Basically, people asked the bank to change their mortgage to make it more affordable, and requests that should have been approved weren’t… with the process taking months before the borrower got the final “no.”

Seriously?

“Oh… sorry about that. Sorry you lost your house, your family and your job. Our bad… computer glitch, you know how it goes. Real sorry.”

CBS interviewed one of the victims, a guy named Jose Aguilar.

Jose fell behind on his payments after trying to fix a black mold problem in his home. He asked Wells to change the mortgage to lower his payments. While waiting for Wells to process his request, he fell further behind until the house ultimately went into foreclosure.

He and his wife split up. He had to move into a friend’s basement with his son.

Then, three years later, he got a letter from Wells Fargo saying, wait for it:

“Dear Jose Aguilar, we made a mistake… we’re sorry.”

I’m sure Jose was relieved Wells Fargo was sorry after literally ruining his life (they did give him a $25,000 check… which obviously doesn’t come close to making up for the mistake).

Once again I’ll ask… how does anyone actually do business with Wells Fargo anymore? These people are outright criminals (if you or I committed any of the acts above, we’d be behind bars).

And it’s not just Wells Fargo. Pretty much every major bank in the world has been found guilty at some point of some type of fraud.

But people still trust these criminals with their money.

The public has been institutionalized to believe you have to hold your money with a big bank.

But in reality, you have so many other choices.

Instead of holding money in a bank account, you can earn 100x more interest buying short-term Treasury Bills. You can hold physical cash or gold.

There are options to crowdfund loans of every type.

You also don’t have to trust these banks with your retirement (in fact, I hope you don’t). They limit your investment options and saddle you with erroneous, high fees for nothing.

With a little effort, you can take control of your retirement and take your money out of the hands of the major financial institutions.

If you qualify, you can open a solo 401(k) – it’s a cheap and flexible structure that allows you contribute tens of thousands of dollars each year and invest in all kinds of assets (even real estate and private equity).

You can also borrow money from your retirement account under certain circumstances.

Self-directed IRAs are also a great option (though they’re a bit costlier and less flexible).

It’s important to understand, as always, you have options… you just have to do a little more work in order to stop the abuse from Wells Fargo and the like.

Source

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Trump Says Approval Rating Would Be 50% Higher Without Mueller’s ‘Presidential Harassment’

As he does most mornings now, President Trump criticized Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his Russia collusion probe ‘witch hut’ in a tweet Thursday morning. Implying that Mueller has continued his probe for purely political reasons, Trump claimed that his approval rating would be 50% higher without Mueller (this despite the fact polls have shown that almost nobody is paying attention to Mueller any more).

Trump accused Mueller of “Presidential Harassment”, and suggested his approval rating would be 75%, instead of 50%, if Mueller’s Russia probe wasn’t distracting from the Trump administration’s many accomplishments (including tax cuts, regulatory rollbacks and higher military spending).

“Without the phony Russia Witch Hunt, and with all that we have accomplished in the last almost two years (Tax & Regulation Cuts, Judge’s, Military, Vets, etc.) my approval rating would be at 75% rather than the 50% just reported by Rasmussen. It’s called Presidential Harassment!”

Trump stepped up his attacks on Mueller in the days before Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to charges of lying to Congress in exchange for agreeing to cooperate in Mueller’s probe.

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