Origins of the non-intervention doctrine

Niklaus von Flüe: patron saint of non-intervention, by Paul Widmer / Remarks on the life of Niklaus von Flüe, by Erika Vögeli / Election of a new Federal Councillor / Swiss traditions must not be overgrown by EU law. A lesson from the parliament’s autumn session, by Marianne Wüthrich / Swiss participation in protecting EU’s external borders. National Council marks the red line / UN Independent Expert demands: “Silence the drums of war and disarm for development” / World Congress of the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) was held in York, by Matin Baraki / One war can hide another – after the Caliphate, Rojava, by Thierry Meyssan / Whom does an “independent” Kurdish state serve? / Who is controlling German politics? A new study on the influence of the US-American Council on Foreign Relations, by Karl Müller / Globalisers withdraw top technology from Germany, by Eberhard Hamer / Sovereign citizens cannot be polarised, by Christian Fischer / “Light, air, freedom” – The Ahrenshoop artists’ colony turns 125, by Alfried Nehring.

read more:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article198221.html

See:

http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/CC_20170310_24.pdf

French President Macron’s “politically incorrect” outburst in Ouagadougou about Africans enslaving other Africans is horrifyingly true, but not only does he overlook the EU’s ideological complicity in encouraging illegal migration in the first place, he also conspicuously ignores NATO’s war on Libya that made this entire nightmare possible.

Let’s cut to the chase – no matter how painful it may be for many ears to hear that Africans are enslaving other Africans in the 21st century, the fact of the matter is that the French President is technically correct in his observation. To bring the reader up to speed in case they’re not already aware, Macron was speaking to students in the Burkinabe capital of Ouagadougou earlier this week when he lost his cool during an interactive session and suddenly blurted out the following:

“Who are the traffickers? Ask yourselves – being the African youth – that question. You are unbelievable. Who are the traffickers? They are Africans, my friends. They are Africans. Ask yourselves the question. It’s not the French who are the traffickers, it’s the Africans. So everyone should understand the responsibility, and we’ve started to do that, to dismantle them. But stop the argument saying, ‘It’s someone else.’ Show me a French, Belgian, German person, who carried out trafficking between Nigeria and Libya. This person doesn’t exist. So, these days in Africa, there are Africans who make other Africans slaves, this is the reality. And there are Europeans who benefit from this misery in Europe, it’s unacceptable. In both cases, these are crimes. We are fighting both cases.”

This Trump-inspired declaration was the epitome of “political incorrectness,” made even all the more pronounced by the world’s expectation that the French leader would always conduct himself in a more “diplomatic” manner. Once the shock of what Macron said wears off, however, it’s difficult to argue against anything that he said. It’s indeed true that Africans are trafficking, and even enslaving, other Africans, and that there are also Europeans in Europe who benefit from this atrocious violation of human rights. And, as Macron said, both of these are unacceptable crimes.

What he didn’t mention is just as important, though, and it is that the EU’s soft power has served as an irresistible “pull” factor for many of these migrants and, in the worst cases, future slaves. Africans are leaving Africa because many of them actually believe that the EU is an earthly paradise, not just in comparison to their own countries but in general, and that all of their problems will be solved the moment that they leave the “black continent” and set foot on the “white” one.

Brussels is to blame for this to a very large extent because of the bloc’s “EuroLiberal” policy of blindly accepting and generously providing for any and all civilizationally dissimilar migrants regardless of their desire to assimilate and integrate into their host societies. Sweden is the manifestation of this ideology taken to its ultimate extreme, though “The Frau’s” Germany and Hollande-Macron’s France give the Scandinavian country a run for its money in this ignoble regard.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201712011059617894-macron-africans-libya-smuggling/

This week, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his decision to make changes in the country's legal system "to protect democratic life from ‘fake news.'" France's media watchdog, CAS, will be granted the right to refuse, suspend or cancel agreements with broadcasters that are "controlled or influenced by foreign states," he said, promising that the new law will come into force this year.

"It would be up to a judge to decide which website to close or not to close, and it's unbelievable to have this kind of proposal based on the assumption that the public, the audience isn't capable of checking the information and needs to be guided,” said Berruyer.

"It evidently shows a vision of censure," he said, adding that a campaign on this scale that threatens democratic values is new for the European state. "It's an attempt to shut down all alternative sources of information."

Economist, analyst and author of the 'Fake News' book Philippe Bechade agrees that the tag of ‘untrustworthy news’ or ‘propaganda’ remains at the discretion of the authorities. "When it's against you, you flog it. When it serves you, flatters you, when the media is indulgent, there is no more propaganda there, only approval," he said, while also wondering how one can officially segregate news.

"In economics, it's pretty simple: a number is wrong... But in politics, it can be something extremely complex. And what makes it more complicated is the political agenda, or an attempt to manipulate the opinion,” said Bechade.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/415081-macron-fake-news-experts/

Macron is an idiot...

As tech giants grapple with how to detect and scrub misinformation and propaganda from their social media platforms, French President Emmanuel Macron has a more extreme approach: Block the whole damn website.

In a speech to journalists on Wednesday, Macron said he planned to introduce new legislation to strictly regulate fake news online during political campaigns. His proposal included a number of measures, most drastically "an emergency legal action" that could enable the government to either scrap "fake news" from a website or even block a website altogether, the Guardian and Politico reported.

"If we want to protect liberal democracies, we must be strong and have clear rules," Macron said. "When fake news are spread, it will be possible to go to a judge … and if appropriate have content taken down, user accounts deleted and ultimately websites blocked."

Macron, himself a target of election interference, also outlined some less extreme measures in his speech yesterday. He proposed more rigid requirements around transparency, specifically in relation to online ads during elections. According to the Guardian, Macron said the legislation would force platforms to publicly identify who their advertisers are, as well as limit how much they can spend on ads over the course of an election campaign.

Under scrutiny, Facebook and Twitter have taken steps towards increased ad transparency. In October, Facebook started requiring political advertisers to disclose more information about who they are. That month, Twitter announced it would start disclosing more information about ad campaigns, including the total amount spent as well as who paid for them. Twitter also announced it would let users see more information about targeted ads specific to them, and require political ads to be labelled more clearly.

Macron's legislation might hold tech companies more accountable for the proliferation of misinformation on their platforms. By requiring more transparency from political advertisers while capping how much money can be spent on political ads during elections, it's possible the government could curb the spread of misinformation online. But a social media kill-switch feels less like a champion of democracy and more like a desperate, knee-jerk reaction to newfound frustrations with poorly policed platforms.

Read more:

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/01/frances-president-macron-wants-to-blo...

Macron is an idiot...

“I have decided that we will change our legal system to protect [our] democratic life from this ‘fake news,’” Macron said. “During the election period, on the internet, content will no longer have exactly the same rules.”

RT: Some angry reaction to Macron’s plan from the public, but surely fake news is something that needs to be addressed. Macron says the move will protect democracy, strengthen French legislation. Is that fair to say that this law will do that and not have the reverse effect?

Nikola Mirkovic: No, I don’t think so. Unfortunately, when Mr. Macron speaks about fake news, he is targeting a social network. He is targeting free speech on the internet. If this really was about a law condemning fake news when he was talking to the journalists, then he should start talking to the journalists of French mainstream media who spread fake news on a daily basis. He didn’t do that. Why? Because a lot of these French mainstream media belong to oligarchs who are Mr. Macron’s friends and who put him in power: people like… Pierre Berge, who is now deceased. All supported Macron in the mainstream media during the campaign, and there was no information, there was no law against fake news at that time. Why, now that he is in power, he is not targeting mainstream media? Because they are going in the same direction as he is. He is targeting people on the way who have different opinions, who have alternative points of view, to merge with this mainstream media. I think it is totally preposterous by Emmanuel Macron to suggest something like this. This is anti-constitutional. Don’t forget that in France, The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen says that freedom of speech is one of man’s most precious rights. And why would we have a president of the French Republic that should be above the Constitution, above the Declaration? And this is why a lot of French people are actually mad when they hear this.    

RT: The French minister of culture recently said that the law can help protect the work of journalists. What will this law change?

NM: They are suggesting, so far, saying that during political campaigns, it will be easy to take down false information, that you can go to a judge to get an information ban from the internet, you can ban a website; people are also saying that they would stop media that would be state-sponsored from other countries from airing in France, which is actually quite crazy when you think that France has one of the major, biggest networks in the world of… state-sponsored, I would say, propaganda by Radio France International, for example, and all major countries do this. These are some of the examples that we have been hearing so far on how they can take information out of the web. And don’t forget, who is to say what fake news is or not? This is dangerous, this is actually ‘1984.’ We are going to have people who are already in power and who are going to be saying “This is true. This is not true.” This is exactly a ministry of propaganda. If we really are in a democracy, then all people should be able to express their opinions, whether they are from the left, from the right, from whatever political sensibility. Everybody has to be able to express themselves. And don’t forget that we have never had so much access to information [as we have] today. When there is fake news, if people are old enough to vote and to understand the politics of France or the world today, then they are old [enough] to get the information, to debunk fake news themselves. And they don’t need Big Brother to do that for them. 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/415214-france-macron-fake-news/

The iconic French bread should be recognized by UNESCO as one of the world's cultural treasures and listed as "intangible heritage," France's President Emmanuel Macron said Friday.

Read more: Vive la baguette — from a drive-through

Macron voiced his support for the baguette's UNESCO bid while meeting representatives of the national confederation of baking and pastry at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris. The bakers launched the idea after UNESCO assigned the "intangible heritage" status to the special method of dough twirling practiced by pizza makers in Naples.

Read more:

http://www.dw.com/en/emmanuel-macron-calls-for-unesco-status-for-french-...

Titled "Macron tries to become Napoleon 2.0 and offers to rob Germany," the article warns that at the end of the day, Macron's ambitions may lead to a full disintegration of the European Union.

READ MORE: EU Needs to Reform Itself to Compete With Big Powers — Macron

Danilov recalled in this regard that it was mostly US journalists who drew parallels between Macron and Napoleon due to the French President's push for "preparing to challenge the whole of Europe," which they warned is fraught with grave consequences.

"The fact is that in order to gain control over EU structures, Macron needs to be in charge of the European Parliament, which, in turn, will give him a serious lever of influence on the European Commission — the structure that plays the role of 'the EU's  government.' Moreover, Macron himself cannot and does not want to leave his presidential post, which means that he needs to 'hack' the EU's political system," Danilov pointed out.

He referred to the statements of the so-called European working group "created by the ambitious French President to penetrate the political systems of European countries." Danilov said this indicates that "Macron is preparing to become a pan-European political puppeteer."

Apart from money-related issues, Macronmay face the main problem, pertaining to the fact that his plans run counter to those of the German political elite, which is seeking to create a European federation under Berlin leadership, according to Danilov.

"'The European Reich' does not need an ambitious banker with the habits of Napoleon, which means that the new German government will seek and finally find the necessary political and administrative levers to sabotage Macron's attempts to put the European Parliament under his control," Danilov stressed.

READ MORE: Macron Vows to Keep Corsica French Amid Nationalist Calls for Greater Autonomy

He did not rule out reaching a consensus between Berlin and Paris, which Danilov suggested will most likely be clinched after "a serious fight which may unfold in the political and media space in the near future."

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201802251061974787-france-macron-eu-control-plans/?

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