White House Personnel Changes, Deep State FBI / DOJ Conspiracy to Destroy Trump, and a Word about the Troubles in France

THE REAL NEWS IS NOT ABOUT THE WHITE HOUSE PERSONNEL CHANGES. It's about the latest Deep State revelations. And, a word about the troubles in France. • • • GENERAL MARK MILLEY TO BECOME CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS. The media was full of the story on Saturday. That's when President Trump named Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley to succeed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford. President Trump's tweet said : "I am pleased to announce my nomination of four-star General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff of the United States Army -- as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing General Joe Dunford, who will be retiring. I am thankful to both of these incredible men for their service to our Country! Date of transition to be determined." Four-Star General Milley assumed duty as the chief of staff of the Army in 2015 after serving as the commander of Army Forces at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He has served in several command and leadership positions. Milley, a four-star general, is being nominated to succeed current General Joseph Dunford, whose second term as the nation's highest-ranking uniformed officer will end in the summer of 2019. Former President Obama nominated Dunford and current Vice Chairman Gen. Paul Selva in 2015, and Trump last year re-appointed them for their second terms, set to end next summer. If confirmed by the Senate, Milley would serve as Trump's top military adviser, providing input on US strategy in Iraq and Syria, as well as Afghanistan, where US forces have been deployed for 17 years. Milley, a Massachusetts native and Princeton University graduate, served three tours in Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom and served as deputy commanding general of US forces in Afghanistan. He's also served in Iraq, Panama, Haiti, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Somalia, among other countries. • • • HEATHER NAUERT TO BECOME US AMBASSADOR TO THE UN. There has been a lot of speculation about who the new US Ambassador to the United Nations, and on Friday President Trump officially announced his pick, choosing State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert to fill the roll being vacated by Nikki Haley at the end of the year. TheHill says : "Nauert was reported to be the top choice weeks ago, but when Trump did not announce her, speculation moved to other contenders. As US Ambassador to the UN, Nauert would be a key figure in promoting and defending the Trump administration's foreign policy on the international stage. She was brought into the State Department by former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and kept in the spokeswoman role by current Secretary Mike Pompeo. She was also the acting under secretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs for a few months earlier this year, an early sign that her star was rising in the Trump administration. Nauert attended Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, then Arizona State University. After landing an internship hosting a country music video program in Washington, DC, she stayed there to finish college, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Mount Vernon College for Women. She received her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. • Her relative lack of diplomatic experience could be a sticking point for Democrats. On CNN on Thursday night, Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Senate Chris Murphy said she has "no meaningful experience. She is clearly not qualified for this job, but these days it seems that the most important qualification is that you show up on Donald Trump's TV screen, and if you're successful in that endeavor, then you seem to be a top candidate to get a whole bunch of top positions in the US government." Senate Mazie Hirono -- who, we remember, recently had to have the Constitution explained to her by a committee witness -- similarly expressed concern about her experience. "I would have difficulty because there are those of us that care about people's experience and qualifications," Hirono said on CNN. "I do not know that being loyal to the President is the uppermost qualification. It is for the President, but it isn't for me." • Republicans are praising the pick. Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement : "I've known Heather for many years. She was an effective spokeswoman for the Department of State and enjoys the confidence of Secretary Pompeo and President Trump. I'm sure she will perform well at her hearing and look forward to supporting her nomination." • • • BILL BARR TO BE NEW ATTORNEY GENERAL. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich praised President Donald Trump's picks of William Barr for attorney general and Heather Nauert as the next US ambassador to the United Nations, saying both are solid choices for their positions. Gingrich told Fox News : "I worked with Bill Barr back in the first Bush administration and before that and I've watched him ever since. He has great integrity. He is very smart. I think that he will be confirmed readily by the Senate." Gingrich says that Barr, who served as attorney general under late President George H.W. Bush, "brings a level of stability and knowledge to the Justice Department that will be very powerful....He will frankly know far more than most of the Senators who are questioning him. I think he is going to take a very solid position. He will be responsible. He is not there to either be the President's defender or the President's attacker. He is there to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America." • The nomination of Barr to be attorney general stands apart from the other moves because of its obvious relevance to the ongoing investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. The Mueller probe is intensifying by the day and the new attorney general, if confirmed, would have oversight of it. Barr held the position of attorney general from 1991 to early 1993 under former President George H.W. Bush, and the battle lines in the debate over Barr’s suitability for the role are already being drawn. To Progressives and Trump's critics, he has been too willing to endorse an expansive view of presidential power and take partisan stances. Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat who's expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee once Democrats take over the majority next month, released a statement Friday evening noting that he had “a number of very serious concerns” with the nomination. And, to Trump ultra-loyalists, Barr carries a whiff of the Washington establishment of which they have long been suspicious. But other Republicans praise the choice. Brad Blakeman, a Republican who served in former President George W. Bush’s White House and is a supporter of Trump, said Barr was an “ideal choice” because he was both “able and respected.” More broadly, Blakeman added, Trump is in the process of settling on his staff before his focus turns more keenly toward his 2020 re-election hopes. “You don’t want changes in your senior [White House] staff when you are trying to form a campaign,” he said. • American Thinker's Thomas Lifson took another approach to the bIlll Barr appointment. Lifson wrote on Saturday : "My first reaction to the news that William Barr, who already served as attorney general under President Bush 41 was probably incorrect. I groaned, as I suspect many conservatives did, at the thought of a member of the GOP establishment taking on this vital job. Paul Mirengoff of Powerline has worked with him, and describes him as 'aggressive.'....An aggressive AG would be a welcome contrast to Jeff Sessions, particularly since there is so much internal resistance to Trump’s agenda within the DOJ. When absurd redactions are made from documents merely to protect the DOJ from embarrassment, an aggressive reaction from the top is required to overcome resistance. Because Barr already has experience at the DOJ (unlike Sessions) as AG, he is familiar with the procedures, and almost certainly still has people within the bureaucracy that can serve as allies, channeling information to him that would not reach him otherwise, blocked by Deep State operatives. Barr’s first-hand experience also extends to the CIA, another major source of Deep State resistance to Trump, where he worked between 1973-77. Bypassing official channels and their roadblocks, as well as familiarity with procedures and regulations could serve him very well in this sphere. Now, it is always possible that these assets could be liabilities, if Barr is covertly working against Trump. But his history of policy positions suggests he is ideologically sympatico with Trump. First of all, he has refused to appoint a special counsel on 'Iraqgate' and the BCCI scandal. Even better, the one special counsel that he did appoint, retired Democrat-appointed federal judge Nicholas Bua, who was investigating the INSLAW scandal, delivered a report that exonerated the DOJ. He did his job of investigating the charge, and didn’t feel the need to find some crime -- any crime -- to put a notch on his gun barrel. Robert Mueller, so far as can be determined, has still not found any evidence of a crime related to Russia, but is delivering guilty pleas to process crimes. On other issues, Barr is also very much in tune with Trump : In a 2017 Fox News interview, Barr said that Mueller could have been "more balanced" in his choice of prosecutors, a majority of which have either ties to Democrats or have made donations to them. Barr also said James Comey's firing was 'understandable' and that he 'crossed a basic line' and 'transgressed' in his role as FBI director. Barr long has been very supportive of Trump’s view of extensive executive power, and is able to defend it in a scholarly fashion. AT author Mark Wauck pointed out to me in an email the ultimate reason to think that Barr is on Trump’s side in reforming the DOJ and supporting his initiatives : 'The guy is obviously no fool. He knows he's letting himself in for nothing but grief by going for this job, so he probably has a strong sense of right and wrong and duty.' That's exactly the kind of person needed to reform the DOJ." • So, we will be treated to the spectacle of Democrats in Barr’s confirmation hearings arguing that a guy who was unanimously confirmed for AG during the presidency of George H.W. Bush, recently beatified in the media, now is a moral leper unfit for office. Will they bring Prof Blasey-Ford in to recover some memories of him? • Meanwhile, Gingrich said that Nauert, a former Fox News personality, has been working very closely with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and has been with the Trump administration for two years, even though she was not in former Secretary Rex Tillerson's inside circle : "She was nonetheless in the State Department working issues, working with the President and his team. I think there is a real sense that she can communicate effectively." • Nauert's selection to be the US Ambassador to the UN fits in well with the new American University and Benenson Strategy Group survey that found that 55% of Republican women say they like President Trump and agree with him on important issues. Newsmax says President Trump is polling "about the same with Republican women as he was two years ago when he won the 2016 election," according to one pollster on Friday. During an interview with Hill.TV, Morning Consult editor Anna Yukhananov revealed the new data : "When Trump was elected, something like 53% of Republican women viewed him very favorably, and those numbers are pretty much the same now," Yukhananov said. "There's been a lot of things happening in that time. I just don't really see the vote changing even if they don't love everything he says." • • • GENERAL KELLY LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE. Fox News reported on Saturday that President Trump says White House Chief of Staff John Kelly will leave his position at the end of the year -- after swirling rumors that Kelly's 17 month-long tenure in the Trump administration was nearing its end. Trump spoke to reporters outside the White House, called Kelly a "great guy...I appreciate his service very much," he added, saying his replacement will be announced in the next few days : "It might be on an interim basis, I'll be announcing that over the next day or two." • Kelly, who previously served as Department of Homeland Security Secretary, was widely reported to have been considering leaving his post. Kelly, 68 moved over to the White House in July 2017 to replace former Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus as chief of staff. The retired four-star Marine Corps general has joked publicly that working for Trump is the hardest job he’s ever had, including those on the battlefield. Fox News said : "Kelly has brought order to a chaotic White House, which has seen a historically fast turnover in multiple high-profile jobs -- like White House communications director, national security advisor, and more. Kelly’s role, though, has lessened in recent months as the President has instead followed his own counsel, and added like-minded aides to his staff. Over the summer, the President said that he and Kelly were 'getting along very well,' and called his chief of staff 'a wonderful man,' amid reports and rumors that Kelly’s White House departure was imminent. The President, at the time, said that he didn’t know whether Kelly would leave, but said 'I like John a lot. I like him and I respect him.' But after the midterm elections in November, Trump said 'let’s see what happens,' about Kelly’s future at the White House, during an interview on Fox News. “The General installed a chain of command that has been really valuable in improving the effectiveness of the White House,” said longtime Trump friend and ally Michael Caputo. “I think the chain of command will remain after his departure, and it is an important legacy.” • Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, Nick Ayers, has reportedly been considered as a possible replacement for Kelly. But, Ayers announced on Sunday: "I will be departing at the end of the year." Ayers revealed the news in a tweet. Its full text read : "Thank you @realDonaldTrump, @VP, and my great colleagues for the honor to serve our Nation at The White House. I will be departing at the end of the year but will work with the #MAGA team to advance the cause. #Georgia" The Wall Street Journal originally reported that Trump and Ayers could not reach agreement on Ayers' length of service and that he would instead assist the President from outside the administration. Ayers and Trump had discussed the job for months. The new hire was to be key to a West Wing reshuffling to shift focus toward the 2020 reelection campaign and the challenge of governing with Democrats in control of the House. The President wants his next chief of staff to hold the job through the 2020 election. Ayers, who has young triplets, had long planned to leave the administration at the end of the year, and reportedly discussed taking the job on an interim basis only through next spring. Trump had developed confidence in Ayers, in part by watching the effectiveness of Pence's largely independent political operation. Ayers instead will be leaving the administration to run a pro-Trump super PAC, the Associated Press reported citing a person familiar with his plans who was not authorized to discuss them by name. With Ayers out of the running, Trump is considering four candidates for the post, including Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, the AP added. Kelly's last day on the job is set to be Jan. 2. • In addition, White House political director Bill Stepien and Justin Clark, the director of the office of public liaison, are moving to roles in Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. • Let's hope that the President is not making a BIG mistake in letting General Kelly go. The General has been a rock and a stabilizing force that has allowed President Trump to be himself. We don't want to lose either. • • • THE RUSSIAN "COLLUSION" PLOT WAS HATCHED BEFORE MUELLER. Robert Mueller seems to have been given the job of making the already-in-place "collusion" ploy work for the Deep State and its Obama-ProgDem facade. TeaParty.org wrote a rather obtuse article on Saturday with the title "CNN Just Says It: Rosenstein and Comey Messed With Trump Because They Wanted Him To Be ‘Reined In.’ " The TeaParty site was quoting an article by Big League Politics (BLP) that said : "CNN is pretty open now about what has been going on in this country -- with their participation -- over the last two years or so of President Donald Trump’s political ascension. Here is the lead of a CNN report headlined 'The frantic scramble before Mueller got the job' : 'In the hectic eight days after President Donald Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and top FBI officials viewed Trump as a leader who needed to be reined in, according to two sources describing the sentiment at the time. They discussed a range of options, including the idea of Rosenstein wearing a wire while speaking with Trump, which Rosenstein later denied. Ultimately, then-acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe took the extraordinary step of opening an obstruction of justice investigation even before special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed, the sources said. The obstruction probe was an idea the FBI had previously considered, but it didn’t start until after Comey was fired. The justification went beyond Trump’s firing of Comey, according to the sources, and also included the President’s conversation with Comey in the Oval Office asking him to drop the investigation into his former national security advisor Michael Flynn.' " • BLP says that CNN, of course, "is late to this story about the plot, but I guess they feel there’s no need to deny it anymore." Then, BLP lays out a series of events that allegedly occurred just after the November 8, 2016, election : "Obama administration Director of National Intelligence James Clapper held a meeting in his last days in office to discuss the idea of going to a Supreme Court justice to block President Donald Trump’s inauguration, according to a high-level member of the intelligence community who spoke with a Big League Politics source. Clapper discussed blocking the inauguration on the grounds that Trump was an illegitimate president due to alleged Russian interference in the election, according to the sources. It is not known whether Clapper ever actually convened a meeting with a Supreme Court justice to discuss the Russia case, or whether he simply discussed the idea of doing so. By the time Trump entered office on January 20, the Russia narrative was already underway. A high-level member of the intelligence community who witnessed the meeting said that Clapper discussed going to one of three female Supreme Court justices to make the case that alleged Russian interference could invalidate Trump’s claim to the presidency." • • • LIMBAUGH AGREES WITH THE BLP ARTICLE. WND reported on Friday : "Talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh on Friday explained what’s behind some of the major political developments of the past two years. The Mueller investigation, the opposition to President Trump’s judicial nominees, the fight over allowing illegal aliens an open door to the United States and others. It’s simply that the Democrats have been dedicated since Trump’s election to stop him and his agenda, Limbaugh said. 'It has basically been a Deep State plot to prevent Donald Trump from being Donald Trump, to prevent Donald Trump from having any kind of success with his agenda at all, with the added bonus being that along the way they can create the idea that Trump stole something like an election or is a thug-criminal and bad guy,' he said. The conflicts between the Washington establishment and the President are escalating now as the current Congress winds down. Democrats gleefully are preparing to open the next Congress in January in the majority with scores of investigations of the Trump administration. Limbaugh pointed out that the investigation into Democrats’ claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 race is coming into focus. He noted the investigation was launched by the FBI and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe prior to the Mueller special counsel investigation. FBI investigations, Limbaugh argued, are supposed to begin with allegations of a crime, but Mueller’s did not. 'There wasn’t any crime mentioned when Mueller was appointed, which violates Justice Department regulations,' Limbaugh said. Mollie Hemingway at the Federalist tweeted her sources saying the investigation was not about uncovering collusion with Russia, 'which they knew was sans evidence. Their purpose : constrain Trump.' Limbaugh said he believes deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein did volunteer to wear 'a wire' to try to trap the President. 'None of this is a surprise to me, that these people simply would not accept the results of the election. They simply would not accept somebody like Donald Trump, no matter what the election results are, no matter what the will of the American people,' he said. 'Their point from the get-go has been to deny Donald Trump his presidential powers, constitutional powers. It has been to deny Donald Trump his agenda, to deny Donald Trump the staff that he wants to put together, to make sure that there are constant people around Trump that will leak back to them,' he said." • On Friday, Limbaugh reminded us that President Trump fired FBI director James Comey, and Rosenstein then appointed Mueller as special counsel. All of that, Limbaugh said, “looks like” a setup. Then-acting FBI director Andrew McCabe even “took the extraordinary step of opening an obstruction of justice investigation even before...Mueller was appointed. The obstruction probe was an idea the FBI had previously considered, but it didn’t start until after Comey was fired. As much as people think they understand what’s going on here, I don’t think most people have the capacity to understand just how much the Washington establishment -- whatever it encompasses -- just totally despises everything there is about Donald Trump, including the people that voted for him and people that work for him.” • Limbaugh says : “It’s impossible to aptly describe the level of animosity and sheer hatred and fear that has dominated official Washington since election night 2016.” But, as the extent of the Deep State FBI / DOJ plot against President Trump has unfolded -- aided and abetted by then-President Obama through his national security group and his senior appointees at the FBI and DOJ -- it has become clear to all of us that President Trump is the prey of an unconstitutional insurrectionist cabal meant to overthrow him, even though he is the duly elected President of the United States. We understand why the ProgDems spent billions to win the mid-terms and resorted to voter fraud when money didn't work. Their goal was twofold -- cover their criminal corruption vis-à-vis President Trump and finish the job of destroying him. Anyone who voted for a Democrat in the mid-terms must forever bear the responsibility of that vote. Those who illegally voted with the help of the Democrat establishment must be found and punished. They all have played into the hands of a criminal cabal against America. • • • FRENCH TROUBLES. To end this blog, just a word or two about what is going on in France. I have been reading most of what is being written in the US about Saturday in Paris and I have watched the events live on French TV. Let me say two things -- French President Macron has what is becoming an almost insurmountable political problem on his hands that is of his own making; and, France is functioning normally and all of Paris has not become a battlefield by any stretch of the imagination. • Bloomberg gave what for me is the most balanced US report on Sunday morning : "The streets of Paris are returning to normal as crews remove debris after protests by a grassroots movement forced police to fire tear gas and water cannons just a week after extremely violent clashes led President Emmanuel Macron’s government to back down on fuel tax increases. Police arrested 1,700 people nationwide and held 1,200 in custody after containing several late night skirmishes on Saturday. About 179 people were hurt as extreme-right, extreme-left and anarchist elements defied riot forces in Paris, according to the police prefecture. In Paris, at least 920 were arrested with as many as 620 in custody. 'The situation is under control,' Interior Minister Christophe Castener said at a press conference Saturday night. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, at the same briefing, again called for dialog with the so-called Yellow Vests and said Macron would propose new measures this coming week 'to restore national unity.' Museums and shops on the Champs-Elysées were to reopen Sunday, as well as the Eiffel Tower and iconic department store Galeries Lafayette." • Importantly, and accurately, Bloomberg reported : "While the tally of arrests was higher than last Saturday, the violence and number of injured didn’t reach the levels of a week ago when national monuments were trashed and cars burned throughout central Paris. Many arrests were carried out early Saturday as police conducted searches ahead of the protests, seeking to prevent rioting. Tens of thousands of officers were deployed nationwide. An estimated 138,000 people took part in the protest across France of which 10,000 were in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry on Sunday. There were also clashes with police in Bordeaux, which continued into the evening, and in Toulouse along with roadblocks on highways including those near Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand and Albertville." • Paris was not overrun. Bloomberg got it right : "In Paris, protesters were mostly contained to the Champs-Elysées and surrounding avenues, such as avenue Marceau and boulevard de Courcelles, as well as near the Opera district. On boulevard Poissonniere and boulevard Haussmann, some tried to erect barricades, using urban furniture and stones from the pavement, and defying police forces. Rioters looted a golf supply store, making off with clubs they used to smash the windows of bank branches. By early evening, the Champs-Elysées was mostly cleared of demonstrators and some traffic resumed. A few clashes continued around Place de la République, which was largely calm earlier in the day. The violence appeared to have been caused by a mix of radicalized Yellow Vests, as well as unaffiliated anarchists and youths from Paris suburbs. On the Champs-Elysées, many of the more peaceful Yellow Vests chanted for Macron to resign, while the more violent ones saved their vitriol for the police." • What kept Saturday(s protests in Paris under control was the determination of the French gendarmerie (a national branch of the French military) and local police to stay on top of events. They used more mobile units and searched out suspected protesters before they reached the demonstrations. Police performed random pat-downs and found hammers, gas masks and pétanque balls, but a spokeswoman for the Paris police prefecture said in an interview with BFM TV : "People have well understood that if they want to demonstrate peacefully, they have to submit to these checks.” The police also used portable metal "walls" and military vehicles to block off and protect the Arc de Triomphe that was disfigured last Saturday and to seal off the presidential Palais Elysée. • Most agree that the continuing and mounting citizen anger is largely caused by President Macron's push to "save the planet" ecologically at the expense of the French working people and by his refusal to engage in any meaningful dialogue or discussions with the Gilets Jaunes, who are, after all, only poor workers who earn as little as the equivalent of $1,700 per month and are being asked to pay more for the privilege of driving to those pitifully paying jobs. Bloomberg got it right again when it reported : "For France, it was the fourth straight weekend of nationwide protests. They began last month to fight higher gasoline taxes and have now spread to other demands, reflecting complaints about purchasing power and a general dislike of Macron. After the president this week retreated by canceling a fuel-tax increase planned for January, members of his government and even some members of opposition parties had called on the Yellow Vests to ignore calls for fresh protests after last weekend’s demonstrations led to widespread vandalism and car burnings across Paris." BUT, Interior Minister Castener was speaking truth when he said on Friday : “The movement has given birth to a monster.” The grassroots movement Gilets Jaunes -- named after the vests that all motorists must keep in their cars -- has led to sporadic blockades of roads, fuel depots and warehouses since the first “day of action” November 17. It’s organized through social media and has no leadership, but has the support of three-quarters of the French public, polls show. The movement’s demands have also expanded to higher pensions, an increase in the minimum wage, a repeal of other taxes, the restoration of a wealth tax, a law fixing a maximum salary, and replacing Macron and the National Assembly with a 'People’s Assembly.' While political parties have tried to show their support for the movement, the Yellow Vests have rejected any political link. At first the government dismissed the movement, saying the higher gasoline taxes had been compensated by cuts in payroll taxes. Then it sought to highlight its contradictory demands, which include fewer taxes and better services. As popular support for the movement rose and violence spread, Macron returned from a G-20 summit in Argentina last Sunday to hold a series of emergency meetings that led with scrapping next year’s fuel-tax hikes, a rare retreat for the stubborn 40-year-old." • IT IS TRUE that all of Paris's top tourist attractions -- including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum -- shut down for the day, fearing the kind of damage that hit the Arc de Triomphe a week ago. Christmas markets and soccer matches were cancelled. Subway stations in the center of Paris closed and the US embassy warned citizens to avoid all protest areas. BUT, away from the few center city areas where the Gilets Jaunes and ultra-anarchists gathered -- just a few blocks from the Champs Elysées -- people were Christmas shopping, strolling with their children, and sitting in cafes, drinking wine and chatting. • AND, even elected officials are beginning to chastise Macron for remaining invisible and silent. The mayor of the city of Saint-Etienne, a town in southeast France hit by violence Saturday, castigated Macron for failing to speak out, saying it "feeds the resentment. This silence becomes contempt for the nation," the mayor, Gael Perdriau, of the opposition conservative party, said on BFMTV. "He has a direct responsibility in what is happening. He can't remain closed up in the Elysee." • DEAR READERS, one final note -- the Gilets Jaunes movement spread to Belgium and the Netherlands this past week. Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannon Saturday at yellow-vested protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel. The protesters in Brussels threw paving stones, road signs, fireworks, flares and other objects at police and about 100 were detained. And, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the country’s “Yellow Vest” protests were a serious blow to the nation’s companies and economy. “It’s a catastrophe for business,” Le Maire said Sunday, while visiting shops in Paris a day after the destructive protests. “It’s a catastrophe for our economy.” • It is also a catastrophe for the European Union elites who are for the first time witnessing the organized fury of electorates and citizens ignored and milked for elitist projects that are meaningless for them. They are called Gilets Jaunes in France and Europe --they might be called the Deplorables in America. Elites everywhere should beware.