A Dyke A Broad #117

Hello from Paris where protestors threaten to paralyze the country and turn the City of Light into a Town of Teargas... Plus the medical scandal emerging from the transing of kids.

A quick escape between transport strikes.

A castle, just sitting there, in the middle of Angers.

Hello from Paris, where protestors threaten to paralyze the country and turn the City of Light into a Town of Teargas, broken glass, and burning cars over government plans to change the retirement age from 62 to 64. (In the U.S., you can get partial retirement at 62, but benefits don’t max out until 66, going up to 67 by 2028 and 68 by 2037.)

Consideration of the bill ended Friday in the Assembly where lefties managed to overload the circuits of democratic debate by introducing so many thousands of amendments the main article didn’t even come up for discussion. Next stop the Senate.

I confess I turned on the TV to watch the proceedings, but soon turned it off again. The whole thing was bedlam, parliamentarians of the left using their floor time to scream like a bunch of children, then throwing fits while others spoke. They seem unconcerned either by the longterm consequences of strong-arm populism, or by how the optics of their adolescent hijinks made the extreme right party of Marine Le Pen look totally reasonable and adult by comparison.

At this rate her crowd will gain even more ground by the next presidential election in 2027 leading, I predict, to a showdown of populists of the right with a nakedly populist coalition of the left. Yikes.

I understand the concerns of people who don’t want the retirement age raised, or find other aspects of the bill unfair, and I understand why people take to the street. That being said, I hate people who smugly refuse debate and negotiation, especially legislators. That is literally their job. 

And, as a middle-aged unemployed female, I didn’t appreciate how members of parliament noisily rejected aspects of the bill that might have helped me, like an article designed to press companies to employ more older workers. Older people already can’t find jobs, and it would be nice if employers had some encouragement to take us on. 

At least they didn’t suggest us ancients disembowel ourselves, though perhaps that’s next.

The New York Times @nytimes

A Yale economics professor has some ideas for how to deal with the burdens of Japan’s rapidly aging society. The “only solution,” he said, is mass suicide of the elderly, including ritual disembowelment.

nyti.msA Yale Professor Suggested Mass Suicide for Old People in Japan. What Did He Mean?Yusuke Narita says he is mainly addressing a growing effort to revamp Japan’s age-based hierarchies. Still, he has pushed the country’s hottest button.

Whatever. The biggest demos are scheduled to be held March 7. Maybe I’ll put on my bike helmet and goggles and face mask and go take some photos for you. Should be a fun time.

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