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Post by casimira on Nov 30, 2022 19:12:48 GMT
I'm confused by that video.
I don't see President Biden anywhere in sight greeting President Macron and his wife.
Then, towards the end of the video, the captions read, "The last British state visit to the US was in 2007..."
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 30, 2022 22:57:09 GMT
That's because the video is from a British news outlet. It referenced that state visit back in 2007 before mentioning that it was France's fourth state visit, but bizarrely leaving out since when.
I think Macron must have arrived in the wee hours of the morning in the US, so wasn't greeted by Biden with the usual fanfare, which will surely happen at some point. Perhaps Joe was at home helping to set the table for his first state dinner tomorrow, which will honor Macron.
The main thing that struck me in the video, besides how well the Macrons had freshened up, was the tedium of their having to stand on a cold runway in the middle of the night looking all respectful while the US national anthem was played. (why?)
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Post by htmb on Nov 30, 2022 23:42:25 GMT
I’m guessing Macron’s visit will be a bit overshadowed in the popular US press by the arrival of the Prince and Princess of Wales, via a British Air commercial flight, no less. They’re here for the second annual Earthshot Prize Awards Ceremony in Boston.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 1, 2022 4:03:48 GMT
I think Macron must have arrived in the wee hours of the morning in the US I think arrival time was 8 p.m.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 1, 2022 4:14:44 GMT
Really?! That makes the lack of news coverage all the odder.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 1, 2022 4:23:34 GMT
I think it was past Biden's bed time.
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 1, 2022 16:26:24 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 1, 2022 17:46:50 GMT
USA #1?
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 3, 2022 5:32:58 GMT
Macron met with Elon Musk in New Orleans yesterday. That's probably as useful as his meetings with Putin.
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Post by bjd on Dec 3, 2022 7:24:27 GMT
That will make Musk's head swell even bigger than it already is.
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Post by kerouac2 on Dec 31, 2022 16:17:44 GMT
France ended the year having the biggest stock market in Europe. It passed London a couple of weeks ago. At the time of Brexit, the London stock exchange was twice as big as Paris. The biggest company in Europe is now the luxury company LVMH, which has quintupled over the last 5 years. I find this quite embarrassing, because I would have preferred a useful company.
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Post by bjd on Dec 31, 2022 16:53:09 GMT
And isn't LMVH's owner now the richest man in the world since Musk's fortune has halved recently?
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Post by onlyMark on Dec 31, 2022 19:05:26 GMT
Imagine you were born 80 thousand years ago. Imagine you can live forever. Imagine you were saving five thousand US dollars a day (somehow). Somewhere around today you will have about the same money as Elon Musk has.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 12, 2023 13:43:08 GMT
Where was I when a pimply little squirt of a Pretoria schoolboy sat paying attention in class and had no idea he would overtake The Sultan of Brunei and such like, and become the richest man in the world for a short time. I think he is very strange.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 12, 2023 14:11:26 GMT
He must be so furious not to be the richest person anymore.
Today there was an article about Bernard Arnault (the current richest man in the world) and how all five of his children have high posts in his various companies -- LVMH, Tiffany, Dior, etc. Apparently they are all extremely competent so I tremble to think about the business oriented commando upbringing they must have had.
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Post by tod2 on Jan 23, 2023 16:40:19 GMT
I am sure spoilt kids have little brain because it has never been exercised. Every time they try to think their advisors give them the answer..they want to hear.
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Post by kerouac2 on Jan 23, 2023 17:20:52 GMT
Oh, they have brains -- they are just formatted at birth, like giving dogs obedience training.
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 2, 2023 12:22:01 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 16, 2023 21:38:36 GMT
All getting a bit heated I see.
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Post by bjd on Mar 17, 2023 6:00:11 GMT
All getting a bit heated I see. Yes, it has been getting heated for a few weeks already. Even though the government had a perfectly legal right to push through its legislation without a parliamentary vote, it was a political blunder and will just stir things up more. Obviously, Macron and Borne (the PM) weren't sure they would have the votes to pass their law so decided to force it through instead, hoping all the street protests and strikes would calm down. Pouring oil on the fire in this case.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 17, 2023 7:10:34 GMT
In any case, the population will almost certainly not submit without a fight. My friends who are (or were) about 5 years from retirement feel cheated, just as I did when the age went from 60 to 62. And I was lucky to be in the transitional zone, so I only had to go to age 60 + 9 months. Those 9 months felt so long!
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Post by fumobici on Mar 17, 2023 14:05:32 GMT
Very on-brand for Macron, trying to steal pensions from old people near retirement who were depending on them in order to help "balance the budget" while rich people aren't expected to make any painful sacrifices at all. Hopefully, it ends his career in politics.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 17, 2023 14:58:45 GMT
Saudi Arabia has the lowest retirement age in the world.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 17, 2023 15:45:48 GMT
Fumo, you may have to explain to me how Macron is stealing pensions from old workers since every euro collected in the pension funds is paid out again as pensions, with the deficit increasing every year. So perhaps it is the old people stealing money from the government unless the pensions are drastically reduced.
I obviously agree that rich people should be paying more, but they almost never will. They just move their money to another country, and they will always be faster than any government, and there will always be greedy other countries happy to keep their money safe for them.
Democratic Kampuchea totally abolished money under the Khmer Rouge. For some reason, that didn't work either.
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Post by bjd on Mar 17, 2023 16:39:24 GMT
Indeed, those currently working are paying the pensions of those who are retired. The money stays in the pension fund. Supposedly, the problem is that there are ever fewer workers paying into the fund while people are generally living longer.
That said, it's true that allowances should be made for people who do back-breaking work (like construction workers) or work a lot of shifts, for example. Some changes have been made but it's really hard to know exactly what is going on. A failure of proper communication on the government's part to explain with numbers the current and future projections, in the face of opposition led by the leftiest unions and the political extremes blocking parliamentary discussion by adding thousands of amendments.
There is also the problem of different professions getting their own pension systems. There were 42 of these groups. Some, like train or subway drivers should probably retire earlier, but notaries' clerks also got to retire at 60 when everyone else had gone to 62. Working in a notary's office is not that tough but obviously they had a powerful lobby.
This whole thing has become a political issue going way beyond retirement pensions.
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Post by fumobici on Mar 17, 2023 17:17:12 GMT
Fumo, you may have to explain to me how Macron is stealing pensions from old workers since every euro collected in the pension funds is paid out again as pensions, with the deficit increasing every year. Pensions are an explicit promise made. Worsening the terms of the promise unilaterally and reneging on the promise is literally stealing from those who the promises were made to. Doing it autocratically against the wishes of the elected representatives only makes it more obvious and foul.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 17, 2023 17:44:20 GMT
Unilaterally? Are there no elections in France? Macron's principal promise in the last presidential election was pension reform, and he happened to win the election, and he is keeping his promise, just like Mitterrand did when he abolished capital punishment in spite of the completely negative majority public opinion. Sometimes you have to do unpleasant things for the good of the country rather than pandering to public opinion.
We all learned this back in 1981 when we elected Mitterrand with his very leftist programme that we loved. Two years later, the country was bankrupt, almost all of the wealth had fled the country and Mitterrand had to cancel many of the economic things he had done, such as the nationalisation of all banks and big industry. We couldn't even use our credit cards in the neighbouring countries for a year, much less anywhere else in the world. It was like what happened in Greece in 2009.
That's what happens when ideology disconnects from economic reality. Unfortunately, a lot of the people now in power as well as those protesting in the streets weren't even born in 1981 or were still toddlers. They still believe in pipe dreams. Naturally, it is exhilirating to give them a try, but the consequences are often horrific.
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Post by fumobici on Mar 17, 2023 18:10:55 GMT
We all learned this back in 1981 when we elected Mitterrand with his very leftist programme that we loved. Two years later, the country was bankrupt, almost all of the wealth had fled the country and Mitterrand had to cancel many of the economic things he had done, such as the nationalisation of all banks and big industry. We couldn't even use our credit cards in the neighbouring countries for a year, much less anywhere else in the world. It was like what happened in Greece in 2009. Oddly, the philosophical underpinnings of Mitterand's strongly anti-Keynesian economic policies were anything but leftist.
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Post by mich64 on Mar 17, 2023 18:28:34 GMT
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper did pass a change in the retirement age in Canada in 2012 from 65 to 67 when he was in Government to take effect in 2023. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau changed it back to 65 once he was elected.
We can collect a reduced amount of our Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) at age 60 if we wish to retire early, and you can also get a larger amount if you decide to retire at age 70. We too have many professions who are unionized and have an additional pension plan, if so, your CPP can be clawed back at age 65, if your pension is over a certain amount you do not receive the full amount of the CPP even though everyone contributes from the age of 18 when employed though payroll deductions. We also receive a separate pension at 65 called Old Age Security (OAS).
It is usually not sustainable to retire with only CPP and OAS so people are encouraged to invest into Savings Plans that are also income tax deductible. We have always encouraged our nieces and nephews to put any savings they can into the Savings Plan while still letting them enjoy their youth.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 17, 2023 18:30:58 GMT
We all know that he wasn't a leftist, Fumo, but he was elected with the communists and he applied policies worthy of Lenin or Castro. I approved of it at the time and then voted Trotskyist for the next 20 years, until we made Lionel Jospin lose to Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002 for the first round by the 1% that some of us drained off. From that moment on, I became a realist.
I remember how you despised Biden.
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