A Good Start

French prosecutors hhave announced their intention to file preliminary charges against Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino in response to Grok's child porn generator function, Nazi propaganda, etc.

French prosecutors who are investigating Elon Musk and his social media platform X have summoned the billionaire to France to face preliminary charges. The investigation is now officially a criminal probe, according to French officials.

France opened a probe in 2025 to investigate whether X has violated French law, an investigation that has expanded following incidents last year when Musk’s AI chatbot Grok started denying the Holocaust, praising Hitler, and allegedly generating child sexual abuse material when prompted by users.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino have been asked to travel to France to face preliminary charges. As the Journal explains, after preliminary charges have been filed in France, an investigating magistrate starts a process that can take months and doesn’t necessarily mean a trial will be held. It’s entirely possible that the case could ultimately be dropped.

French authorities are looking into the “complicity” of Musk in creating sexual abuse images of minors and sexually explicit deepfakes, according to the Associated Press. Grok also allegedly spread misinformation in French, including a claim that Auschwitz wasn’t a death camp during the Holocaust but was used for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus.”

If Yaccarino ends up in the hands of French prosecutors, my guess is that she will sing like a canary, and I would not be at all surprised if she points the finger at Musk.  (It's also the truth)

Pass the popcorn.. 

More Arrogant Than Elon

Yes, I know that concept boggles (buggers?) the mind, but Emanuel Macron just just criticized African leaders for being insufficiently grateful for the presence of French troops in their countries, and the associated looting and stolen national reserves that went along with this over the past 60 years.

Charles de Gaulle is watching from above, and saying, "Mon Dieu!  This one is more arrogant than Charles de Gaulle!"  (de Gaulle actually talked about himself that way)

Macron claimed that Sahel nations, struggling with civil unrest and extremism, owe their sovereignty to the presence of French forces.

He also dismissed assertions that French troops were expelled from the Sahel region, which encompasses several nations south of the Sahara Desert.

………

“We had a security relationship. It was in two folds: One was our commitment against terrorism since 2013. I think someone forgot to say thank you. It does not matter, it will come with time,”

“Ingratitude, I am well placed to know, is a disease not transmissible to man. I say it for all African leaders who did not have the courage vis-à-vis their public opinions to carry it, none of them would be today with a sovereign country if the French army had not deployed in this region.” Macron said

I'd say that Macron is a complete tool, but a tool has a use.

This is Called a Democracy Deficit

I think that this was the inevitable result of the imperial Presidency set up by Charles de Gaulle, it just had to wait for someone more arrogant and conceited than de Gaulle, which as mind-boggling as it sounds, applies to Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron.

His undemocratic selection for Prime Minister just announced a cabinet containing no members of the two parties that got the most votes in the last election.

I'm thinking that Macron is well on his way to ending up like Benito Mussolini.

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier unveiled the country’s new government Saturday, seeking to end months of political uncertainty, if not the accompanying acrimony.

Barnier’s newly named cabinet marks a tilt to the right and will need to maintain enough support across France’s National Assembly to avoid being dissolved with a no-confidence vote. Members of the left-wing alliance that won the most seats in July’s legislative elections — and led the effort to keep the far right out of power — objected that the slate of ministers was undemocratic, representing the election’s losers.

Like Macron, or Barnier for that matter, give a flying f%$# in a rolling doughnut about all of this.

They represent the real France, the urban wealthy bankers and suchlike. 

This sort of, "Let them eat brioche," attitude (that's the real quote), does not have a happy history in France.

………

Two weeks of talks with the various blocs have resulted in the naming of 39 ministers. At the core are 17 senior cabinet members, who together form a predominantly center-right government: Seven cabinet ministers are from Macron’s centrist movement, which finished second in the election, and three are from Barnier’s right-wing Republicans, which finished a distant fourth.

None of the ministers represent Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party, which placed third. But also excluded are representatives of the left-wing alliance New Popular Front, which placed first.

………

Barnier could get by without the support of lawmakers on the left. He has backing from the centrist and conservative camps. But to make the math work, and avoid a censure vote that would topple the government before it even got started, Barnier needed at least the tacit approval of National Rally.

Why on earth would the Fascists in the RN want to do that?

Being complicit in an establishment government, when their entire electoral strategy is based on condemning establishment politics and establishment parties, should be a complete non-starter.

If there is anything to be learned from the fates of anti-establishment parties like M5S in Italy, is that cooperating with the establishment for a few crumbs ends up destroying the party and its associated movement.

Macron, l'état ce n'est pas vous.

Nothing in the Least Authoritarian or Fascist Here

Emanuel Macron is refusing to allow the left alliance that won the snaop election that he called to form a government, because nothing can ever be allowed to make investment bankers and industrialists uncomfortable.

F%$# Macron with Cheney's dick:

France has been plunged into further political chaos after Emmanuel Macron refused to name a prime minister from the leftwing coalition that won the most parliamentary seats in the snap election last month.

The president had hoped consultations would break the political deadlock caused by the election that left the Assemblée Nationale divided into three roughly equal blocks – left, centre and far right – none of which has a majority of seats.

After two days of talks with party and parliamentary leaders to break the stalemate and allow him to name a prime minister with cross-party support, Macron’s decision not to choose the New Popular Front’s candidate was met with anger and threats of impeachment.

Threats of impeachment are not enough.  Start the impeachment process, even though the mechanism is next to impossible to execute. 

………

A government formed by the leftwing alliance the New Popular Front (NFP) – comprising France Unbowed (LFI), the Socialist party (PS), the Greens (EELV) and the Communist party (PCF) – would lead to an immediate vote of no confidence and a collapse of the government, Macron said explaining his decision.

That's a lie.  While Macron's party (Renaissance) would likely support a vote of no confidence with near unanimity, it is far less likely that the right wing RN would do so, because while Marine Le Pen is a deeply evil person, she is not an idiot, and voting no-confidence would set back the party for years.

Macron seems to think that he is king.

He needs to study his history, because it has not been kind to the kings of France for the past few hundred years.

It's in Mélenchon's Court Now

French President Emanuel Macron has finally accepted Prime Minster Gabriel Attal's resignation.

So, it's up to the left wing coalition, which has the most seats in parliament to form a government.

All they have to do is get their sh%$ together, which for any left-wing party is no small feat.

In addition to that, they need votes either from Macron's party or the right wing to get the majority necessary to appoint a prime minister:

President Emmanuel Macron accepted the resignation of the French government on Tuesday, July 16, and asked Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to head up a caretaker government for now. It will "handle day-to-day business until a new government is named", the Elysée Palace said, after Macron's centrist alliance was beaten in snap parliamentary polls earlier this month. It will stay in place for a number of weeks, until at least the Olympic Games are over.

Following their resignation, Attal and other cabinet members will be able to take their seats in Parliament and participate in any coalition building. The Assemblée Nationale reconvenes on Thursday and will start by filling the chamber's presidency and other key positions.

French politics have been in gridlock since this month's inconclusive snap election with parties in the Assemblée Nationale scrambling to put together a governing coalition, and no successor to Attal in sight.

A broad alliance called the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) which includes Socialists, Communists, Greens and the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) won the most seats, with 193 in the 577-strong lower chamber. Macron's allies came second with 164 seats and the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) third with 143.

Macron told Tuesday's cabinet meeting that it was the "responsibility" of his allies to come up with a proposal "for a majority coalition or a wide-ranging legislative pact." This, he said, would help preserve his government's "economic achievements" and favor "social justice."

………

The divided NFP alliance has been scrambling to come up with a consensus candidate for prime minister. But internal conflicts – notably between LFI and the more moderate Socialists – have thwarted all efforts to find a personality able to survive a confidence vote in parliament.

The Socialists are basically the equivalent of the Social Democrats in Europe, and I'm pretty sure that they are not interested in negotiating in good faith.

If the NFP gets much of what it promised, the phony left like the Socialists relegated to the dust bin of history, so they do not have a much an incentive to play nice.

I am not optimistic about the NFP's prospects, which would advantage to Marine Le Pen and her merry band of Fascists in the long run.

It Was Inevitable

The government of Niger has revoked the operating license of the French government owned nuclear fuel company Orano at the Imouraren mine, likely because it has not done anything to develop its concession, and hence deliver any royalties, for nearly a decade:

Orano said it has been excluded from the Imouraren mine in northern Niger which sits on an estimated 200,000 tonnes of the metal, used for nuclear power and weapons.

Mining was meant to have started at Imouraren in 2015 but development was frozen after the collapse in world uranium prices in the wake of the 2011 Japanese nuclear disaster.

The Niger government did not immediately comment on the company's statement. But it had vowed to review mining concessions in the country and the mining ministry had warned that it would take away Orano's licence if development work had not started by June 19.

A week before the deadline, Orano told AFP that "preparatory work" had recently started at Imouraren.

Yeah, like 3 porta-potties, I guess.

………

The junta vowed to review foreign mining concessions in the country after it took power in July last year.

The military rulers have also turned against France, ordering out French troops based in the country and increasing criticism of the former colonial power. Niger has increasingly turned to Russia and Iran for support.

Chinese, Australian, US, British, Italian, Canadian, Russian and Indian firms have secured uranium mining licenses in recent years. In 2022 there were 31 prospecting permits and 11 mining licences.

The Azelik mining company, majority held by Chinese interests, is increasingly taking over uranium mining in the north of the country that have been suspended for the past decade because of poor profitability.

Considering the terms of the concessions that prior regimes in Niger gave to French interests, the term larceny comes to mind, I am surprised that they could not make the numbers work.

There have been a string of coups in the Sahel over the past few years, and anger over the continued French economic and political dominance over their former colonies has been a driving force behind the military overthrow of these government.

To the Juntas now ruling these countries, hating on the French is both good policy and good politics.