G. Dunkel — 400,000 workers hit the streets in France

Workers World
400,000 workers hit the streets in France
G. Dunkel

Ben Richards — Media Silent as Biggest Protests Since French Revolution Sweep France

These are workers protesting a "socialist" government.

As the country prepares to host two million visitors at the showpiece Euro 2016 Football Championship in less than two weeks, labor strikes at oil refineries and nuclear power plants; fuel shortages paralyzing aviation and public transport system; violent street protests; nationwide riots; and a state of emergency until the end of July to cover the Tour de France has proved a major headache for François Hollande — currently the least popular French president since polls began in France. The protests are being called the largest and longest lasting since the French Revolution.… 

Counter Current News

Media Silent as Biggest Protests Since French Revolution Sweep France
Ben Richards

teleSUR — Campesino Protests Paralyze Half of Guatemala

The natives are getting restless.

teleSUR
Campesino Protests Paralyze Half of Guatemala

Agence France-Presse — China tells US to back off: Hong Kong democracy protests are ‘internal affairs’

The United States and China openly clashed Wednesday over the pro-democracy protests sweeping Hong Kong, with Beijing angrily warning Washington to back off and saying it would not tolerate “illegal acts.” 

“The Chinese government has very firmly and clearly stated its position. Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal affairs,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was standing next to him, just before they went into talks at the State Department. 

“All countries should respect China’s sovereignty and this is a basic principle of governing international relations,” Wang said sternly.

“I believe for any country, for any society, no one would allow those illegal acts that violate public order. That’s the situation in the United States and that’s the same situation in Hong Kong.”

Double standard? The US pretty well tarnished its moral superiority with respect to civil liberties and human rights and diminished its soft power. It looks, sounds and feels just hypocritical now.

Amid a tense standoff on the streets of Hong Kong, a Chinese territory, Kerry renewed US calls for restraint by the city’s police.

Where we these champions of democracy during the suppression of Occupy protests in the US? Oh, they were coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security. (Wow, that sounds eerie. Couldn't they have come up with a more innocuous name?)

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reaffirmed the US position. 

“It’s clear that we want the people of Hong Kong to have a broad choice of candidates,” she said. 

“We believe human rights and the freedom of expression is something that’s important not just in China but countries around the world,” she insisted, asked about Wang’s assertion that Hong Kong was an internal Chinese matter.

"Not just in China but countries around the world” What about the US?

What the US media doesn't report and actually misreports is that the agreement regarding Hong 'independence" was a two-systems, one country agreement that gave the Chinese government the right to administer Hong Kong's elections. While the US might have wished for an agreement more to its liking, China is in its rights according to the agreement. The US is trying to foment change in a sovereign country, something that it doesn't brook regarding itself. Why is that not hypocritical?

And as far as I can tell, the HK protestors are being treated less harshly that Occupy in many US cities including NYC and certainly Oakland. Looks like they are being treated about the same as the anti-war protests in DC in the Seventies under Nixon, although we were "just" tear gassed. They didn't have pepper spray then. I'm reasonably sure they would have used it if they did.

The Raw Story
China tells US to back off: Hong Kong democracy protests are ‘internal affairs’

Agence France-Presse

Annie-Rose Strasser — Right-Wing Truckers Plan To Jam DC’s Major Commuter Highway, Arrest Members Of Congress

Getting really nutty out there. Breakdown of civil order looming? Let's see if the security forces treat the truckers as they did Occupy. It's almost certain that many of them will come armed. This could get interesting as they say.

... if the protest grows large enough, it could spell even more trouble for DC: The trucker event is slated to go on for three days, and will coincide with the weekend of the previously-planned Million Vet March, where veterans can express their outrage over the government shutdown.

Think Progress
Right-Wing Truckers Plan To Jam DC’s Major Commuter Highway, Arrest Members Of Congress
Annie-Rose Strasser

Al Jazeera — Spain protesters clash with police

Protesters hurl bottles at police in latest demonstrations triggered by anger at country's economic crisis.

Al Jazeera
Spain protesters clash with police