European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 654

On February 04 2017 01:31 Dangermousecatdog wrote:
We must place a travel ban on all Counterstrike players from entering France. GET SMART FRANCE.

Btw SoSexy, whatever happened to your promise to never post again if it turned out the Munich shooter wasn't a muslim terrorist. Yet here you are again.

That said, this does bear the hallmarks of both a terrorist attack and that of a mentally disturbed person.

Meanwhile in UK, a Royal Marine commando is being charged with terrorism offence, hiding a massive stash of weapons and ammunition, including claymore mines and mortars.

On February 05 2017 04:25 Nyxisto wrote:
That's exactly the kind of strongarm politics that nobody outside or inside of Germany wants. Assertiveness in foreign policy is okay if the situation dictates it and there is good reason to take the leading role, but in no way should we act like it just because we want to. This is the childish shit that dictatorships do.

And I'm pretty sure the public support for nuclear weapons is in the negatives. We don't need them anyway with the UK and France being nuclear powers.

On February 05 2017 09:41 Sbrubbles wrote:


Sounds expensive, with very dubious gains to general welfare, if any.

PARIS — Not long ago, Philippe Vardon was an anti-immigrant activist best known for carrying out shock propaganda operations, like occupying mosques or serving pork-laced soup to the homeless in Nice, the southern French city that has a large Muslim population.

Today, he is a top general in the sophisticated social media campaign working to get Marine Le Pen — the leader of the far-right National Front party — elected as president of France.

The National Front has long been at the cutting edge of digital communication — it was the first party in the country to put up a website in the mid-1990s — and has invested aggressively in its social media operation. The investment is paying off as Le Pen boasts the highest social media “engagement rate” (measured by likes and follows) of any presidential candidate, while commanding legions of online volunteers in France, Europe and beyond who work each day to amplify her message.

Le Pen’s web-centric insurgent approach mimics methods used by other outsider campaigns. The Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom and the electioneering efforts of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the U.S. all made creative use of social media to short-circuit traditional media.

Yet in France, the National Front’s online campaign remains unique. Bigger and more professional than social media operations of rivals including former Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, her web machine stands alone notably due to the ruthlessness of its negative campaigns, and the fact that so many “global populists” are willing to amplify them online.

If the polls are to be believed, Le Pen is likely to win the first round of the presidential elections in April, but lose in the runoff two weeks later.

Its epicenter, known as l’Escale (“The Stopover”) to insiders, lies in a tony apartment building in western Paris, a short walk away from the Place de l’Etoile (POLITICO was offered a tour before being told one would not be possible). There, amid batteries of Apple computers, some 15 permanent web staffers work in a studious atmosphere to craft, package and broadcast Le Pen’s “official” campaign content, branded “MLP2017.” This group is tied to a wider circle of volunteers who relay the message and broadcast their own unofficial content.

But at the heart of the operation are the message-makers, people like Vardon. Described by his colleagues as the party’s “king of agitprop,” Vardon is a key member of the “Ideas and Images” unit in Le Pen’s presidential campaign. Operating in tandem with the web staff, this small group of senior National Front officials provides the fuel for the party’s social media engine, carrying out research, crafting memes and coordinating the party’s effort to discredit opponents.

If the polls are to be believed, Le Pen is likely to win the first round of the presidential elections in April, but lose in the runoff two weeks later. What Vardon and his colleagues are hoping to do is translate their online advantage into enough of a boost at the ballot box to upset that prediction.

Experts, burned by shock results in the U.S. and the U.K., concede that Vardon just might have a chance. “What we observed during the Brexit campaign, and then in the U.S. presidential election, is that the winning parties also had very strong social media campaigns,” said Albéric Guigou, head of Reputation Squad, a social media consulting agency. “In France, the National Front clearly has a major advance in this area on its rivals, both in terms of popularity and their methods.”
A campaign is born

In interviews with POLITICO, members of the ideas and images unit described their offices as a “creative space” that functioned like a startup. Its members credit Vardon with dreaming up one of party’s biggest online campaigns: #LeVraiFillon (or “#TheRealFillon”) — a multi-platform effort dedicated to “unmasking” former French Prime Minister François Fillon after he won the conservative party’s primary in November.

On February 05 2017 10:37 Sbrubbles wrote:


A percentage of GDP is quite a bit, and the argument for humanitarian efforts is a much clearer one as a gain in terms of both global welfare (refugees who are suffering gain some respite) and in terms of local welfare (Germans who feel a duty to help peacefully feel like they did so).

I don't see an active Germany with a nuclear arsenal, spending an extra percentage point or two of GDP on more guns, as necessary for either guaranteeing its own sovereignty or for international insertion of its goods and capital, therefore it's a waste of good taxpayer money and a pressure to its neighbors to do the same.

On February 05 2017 20:32 TheDwf wrote:

Verify what?