lesson, in fact, it became required viewing among pentagon planners looking into how they were going to occupy and deal with resistance movements in afghanistan and iraq. but anyway, um, so this kid, he was more have basically have rock and half out here and, and there were over there a lot of people of the background who came here particularly after the alteri and civil conflict made it very unpleasant to live in places like that some of them were political refugees. the point is that in many cases they were allowed to, to come to france quite easily. sometimes they came on tourist visas, sometimes they were actual citizens. legal status varies tremendously. for example, algeria was considered not just economy, algeria was legally part of france. the same way that alaska and hawaii are part of the united states. it was a full french defaulted mod department, which is like a product. and basically, um, and there were

a lot of white people calling us as of settlers, they call them the p. and well, the, the black sea because of the soil about syria. and they lived there tense by the 10s of thousands there. and they consider themselves fully out here in any way this colonial legacy has left and emphatically enriched france with a lot of people, a move on background. and who came from these former french colonies. it makes for a better. 1 idea of food and culture, it makes france a far more interesting place than they used to be before world war 2. but the problem is there are racial tensions. france views itself, primarily as a french catholic country. this is kind of a, which is brew of a special kind of racism. and it's kind of the content of this nation state and sort of a old generation white french people. so look down on anybody who's got darker skin

or who's not catholic by culture and, and so the police not, you know, even though as the government will point out, they're more diverse. they still in the they've heard of this culture in their ranks that they view for people with dark skin for the people as being trouble as being people who aren't really to play about the room coming up next. a manual ma crown on the ropes. despite his recent re election, the french president is put in a tough spot, and his power is put to the test in the wake of this police shooting. we'll discuss it when we return with ted rall sit tight, the m. o will be right back. the

the, the welcome back to the m. o. i'm a no a chan. despite a manual ma cross only recently, winning his re election in 2022. this way to speed a violent protest could serve as a tipping point in his legacy as president. these riots weakening his party and

strengthening opposition, but perhaps not in the direction you might spake. ted rall is back with us. thank you for sticking around, ted. so let's talk about what a manual my phone is doing about this. i mean, frances burning, i've seen numerous videos online of home giant buildings set a blaze by rioters. some have made comparisons to america's george floyd protest and the bill of rights of 2020. are they really comparable? i mean, you had mentioned rodney king, how is the french president responding to these violent apps? well, the french president is between a rock and a hard place because of what happened earlier this year. people are wondering whether these protests are related in any way to the yellow best protests a few years ago. they've been ongoing, as well as the wide spread protests over his decides. decision to unilaterally increase the retirement age and perhaps from 62 to 64 without consulting parliament

. and there is, there is a relationship, but it's not the relationship isn't. hey, whenever we're mad, we take to the streets and pro molotov cocktails of the cops. the relationship is that the police not to not was used in order to counteract and suppress the yellow basses, as well as the anti pension protests. and because of that now, and there's john down or not have not really been a desirous or as cooperative in terms of defending the states for arguments in that same way. in this particular case, you have a different situation, which is my call has some sympathy for the protests against police violence. he did not approve and very quickly pro. so issued a statement that uh,

that not having bill soup should not have met his end of this way. he disapproved of it. and i think if he didn't already, oh, shit, a favor to the police officer. now if he wasn't literally barely hanging on to power because of their ability to run interference for the states unpopularity in the streets of paris and other major cities, they, he could, he would be free to uh, ship this situation now. but as of this, he can only really issue half hearted, feeble, state ones that are like these. you know, this is terrible. stop. i wish this wasn't happening. he can't issue a full throated condemnation of a national police because if he did were to do so, the cost would probably stands down much in the way that we're seeing in the united states with the cops and standing down after the viola and protest and that the

best, the police movement, even though the police really didn't get divested anywhere of note, they are still so mad about it that they kind of refused to turn up to fight real crime. and that's why do you see a lot of scenes of chaos in inner cities in san francisco, l a in new york and other places like that. so he's, you know, macro is looking at that and thinking, okay, if i come out against the national police, i'm going to have the same problem. and what are they going, what am i going to do? the next time the, the anti enter the pension age increased protesters or some other protest movements gets out of control. we, he was just re elected. but it's only because the french voted against montgomery look at. that is not because they voted for him. he admitted that he knows that he's a very, very weak guy for a guy who has a controlling. he controls the parliament. and he, uh,

because he was recently re elected. you would think that he would have considerable, our, the truth is this president is on the ropes, and he could go any further. there's no stranger to protest. pre cole bed. we saw a ongoing yellow bass protest for more than a year. we've seen labor protests recently or retirement age pro, tests the french, no protesting, especially when they feel authority has gone too far. but when it comes to these immigrant issues, if we look at the money crowd, funding sites seem to imply that french citizens are actually favoring the cop who shots. now, the officer has already in guard over a $1000000.00 for his defense fund, while niles family is that a fraction of that is growing, but it's still a fraction. is it more of a divide similar to those that we have here, state side where communities of color tend to be economically disadvantaged. therefore they have less to give to nails, family and then, you know,

the privilege whites of france have more wealth. so they're donating to the cops. i mean, can this be explained that neatly to oh, i think it's, i mean, yes and no. i mean, i don't want to overstate the progressive or the. 1 we nature of french politics because as the national police reflects in the popularity of marie le pound reflects, clearly there is a, there is a right, we a very strong right. we orientation tendency also within french politics. and it's been always been a deeply polarized country. you know, it's similar to here it's uh, the, the rural areas are more conservative, the urban areas are more left. and you do, if you're going to sort of try to do the rough, like let's see, who is more popular by looking at who's go find to be, is more popular. you're the, i don't think that's

a very useful way to look at it because the people who are going to support the french cop are going to necessarily be older, more conservative and more rural and with more access to money. and uh, and, and view that as their way to, to express themselves. they're not going to go out in counter pro just and throw molotov cocktails back at the inside police protesters. and at the same time, you're not going to go into um, you know, that, but the, the pro or the, i should say, the pro, not head protesters. they aren't going to view, donating as less useful. but going out and agitating and the street not to mention they're less able to do so because as you kind of indicated and alluded to their manella, they are a, they're, they're, they're more, they're younger, the average age of some of the rest of it was 14 to 18, they're not, they don't have a lot of money to give away. and a lot of them are people of color,

so they tend to have smaller incomes and they're less able to afford it. i mean, it's very analogous, i think, to the subway shocking depths of joy nearly by the former us marine daniel penny, in new york city, where there were rival co, fun bees. and daniel penny did very, very well. i think he got more money if memory serves than his victim. jordan nearly hit his obviously george meal, each death of his drug meal, his family. and there's a um, tennessee, you say, well that means the police officer is getting more sympathy. but i think that's not quite the way it is. i think it's just the, the money is talking towards the forces of reaction because that's the way the class to the division exists. now last on the political front, there has been thousands of arrests, millions and millions of dollars worth of stuff looted in vandalized torch. but

there seems to be one victor here, and that's maureen le pen, you've mentioned her already. and her far right circles, my call is on the ropes. he's a lame duck president. he's got the olympics coming up next summer. house this pan out for the political circles in france as well. everything in politics comes down to timing. if the left, if there were an election held today, if uh, my home were to step down right now and the new uh election were i think the election would be held either a month or 2 is the way this would work. do there's a short campaign period uh it perhaps thats permitted uh you would be um it would be in. 1 to imagine, well, this race would come down to charlotte for me and i'll show who's basically sort of a french, bernie sanders plus plus versus marrying the pen. and probably the pen when, when, although middle shaw would probably come close the hall,

the the center has been completely gutted and hollowed out. but of course, the election might not be tomorrow or in 2 months. the election, but more likely be later on. if it's on the schedule will be 4 years from now, and who knows where it will be by then who the, we probably will have a completely different set of political parties. i mean, french politics has their party exchange lots and they become increasingly personalized. we used to have a system situation in france that resembled the united states, where you have, for example, the socialist party had a number of candidates that were prominent, including of course, false for immediate wrong. it was like $21981.00 if memory serves. and the but, and then you'd have other routes like the rally for the republic and then they would have their own candidates. now like with someone like micro, he had his own personal party basically. and he cobbled together

a coalition with other sort of personal parties. so there's not a lot of continuity, not to mention, to really complicate things. they have these alliances, these for the parties of elections for the left and elections for the right 1st. and then they, sometimes they do that. sometimes they don't do that. little tons party is the national rally, which is kind of an air to the old national front, which was her father's orientation. and so she provides some continuity here. it's all a way of saying, look, it's complicated, even though it's like anything could happen. if you had an election held right now, marie le pen wins. so maria, so time is on marina pence side if there's not much of it left. but if let's just say micro holds on for another year, who knows? it could some mental shows game so, so there's never a discount either the far left or the far right when it comes to french politics. because anything can happen, especially now it's

a big streamline volatile situation. even before all of these protests ted rall, syndicated columnist, cartoonist and officer of to afghanistan and back. thank you so much for sharing your analysis with us. very sad situation there in france, that is going to do it for today's episode of modus operandi in the show that digs deep into foreign policy and current affairs. i'm your host manila chan. thank you for tuning in. we'll see you again next time to figure out the m o the

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