Category: politics

City Of Paris Is Fined 90,000 Euros For Naming Too Many Women To Senior Positions

Mayor Anne Hidalgo

Under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, 11 female and five male officials were appointed in 2018 to high-level roles — despite a rule that at least 40% of such positions should go to people of each gender.

The city of Paris has been fined 90,000 euros for an unusual infraction: It appointed too many women to senior positions in the government.

In 2018, 11 women and five men became senior officials. That meant 69% of the appointments were women — in violation of a rule that dictated at least 40% of government positions should go to people of each gender.

In remarks on Tuesday to the capital’s governing body, Mayor Anne Hidalgo said she would deliver the check to the Ministry of Public Service herself — along with the women in her government.

“So there will be many of us,” she said.

Since 2019, French law provides a waiver to the 40% rule if the new hires do not lead to an overall gender imbalance, Le Monde explains. That’s the case for the city of Paris, according to the newspaper: Women still make up just 47% of senior executives on its government. And female city officials are paid 6% less than their male counterparts.

But the rule change comes too late to avoid the fine.

“It is paradoxical to blame us for appointments that make it possible to catch up on the backlog we had,” Antoine Guillou, the mayor’s deputy in charge of human resources, told Le Monde.

Hidalgo, a member of the Socialist party who was first elected mayor in 2014 and was reelected this year, says the aim is to resolve an existing imbalance toward men.

“Yes, we must promote women with determination and vigor, because the delay everywhere in France is still very great,” she told the Paris Council. “So yes, to promote and one day achieve parity, we must speed up the tempo and ensure that in the nominations there are more women than men.”

“In Paris, we are doing everything to make it a success, and I am very, very proud of a large team of women and men who carry together this fight for equality,” Hidalgo added.

Amélie de Montchalin, France’s Minister of Public Service, lamented the fine and called the provision “absurd.”

“@Anne_Hidalgo, the cause of women deserves better!” Montchalin tweeted. “I want the fine paid by Paris for 2018 to finance concrete actions to promote women in the public service. I invite you to the ministry to raise them!”

Source: City Of Paris Is Fined 90,000 Euros For Naming Too Many Women To Senior Positions : NPR

WE are at war, yes!

By CharlElie COUTURE December 11, 2020

WE are at war, yes!

WE, the non essentials, WE, the useless, WE, the nothing, WE, the lights diving in the shadows, WE, the People of the Spirit and Culture,

WE, the restaurant owners, those of mouth pleasures and very short pleasure,

Yes, WE are at war,

WE, the show staff and technicians, theaters and cinemas, WE, the Actors and comedians put to forced arrest, WE, the Musicians, ALL of us who you consider to be sloths but only dream of working,

And all those of the night, this world that lives at night, that dark night that you associate with evil, that medieval fear that accompanies the night when the devil returns, that evil that grows when the sun has set,-now after 20 h -, this viral evil whose definition changes according to your moods, this invisible threat first defined as lethal, but whose danger is now considered in terms of ‘ case s’ (hence the suggestion to resort to massive tests to get impressive large numbers), with the intention of submitting an increasingly sceptical public opinion to be vaccinated as a matter of urgency, despite the ongoing pressure from the media, themselves under surveillance.

WE, whom you deal with an outrageous detachment,

Yes, WE are at war with YOU!

Against the Janus who repeats that he ′′ assumes “, he thinks he’s gifted with absolute super power of seduction, which allows him to spell and foolish all those he meets like a camelot, he the Little Prince so condescending to Screw of the People and the Middle Class,

Yes, yes. We are at war You

Against this orphéon of opportunistic subfives who improvise a cacophonic choir day-to-day, this ribambelle of cynical technocrats feigning to coldly ignore the drama that those concerned with these unexpected decisions,

YOU, whose lenifying and versatile speeches combine both ignorance and absurd,

Against YOU, whose inconsistencies flood us like acid rain on our forest of dreams,

Against your fake promises and announcement effects as a permanent bluff, claiming things one day, and the opposite the next day with the same Trumpist,

Against your inept fanfaronnades and your unannounced decisions,

Against your laws passed in Catimini,

We are at war yes!

Against billionaire mafias and other giants of Big Pharma,

Against your actual denial of climate threats to capricious consumption and pollution of unnecessary items distributed by the giant Amazon,

At war with an economy of cavalry and racing forward that ′′ invents ′′ virtual billions, and takes us in the short term towards the delusion of an unreal economy, like a dive into a bottomless well.

France is not serene, drowned in a kind of chaos and disgusting caused among others by overprotection of a repressive police and intestine disputes between illuminated specialists as unhealthy as street brawls between bands of alcoholic supporters.

France is not at peace with itself, when the same ones who denounced the laws of the caliphate imposing silence and veil, yes, the same have been banning in the same way for months both theatre, music, the museums, popular meetings (sporting or artistic), and then restaurants, happy and friendly party gatherings, and now Christmas with family and Silvestre…

Aware that the children in schools are learning to go crazy, yes, we are at war, a secret war, an internal war, yet still implosion, but the consequences will be serious.

We guess the rumbling anger and desperate people are ready to explode, ready to blow themselves up, suicidal.

A power so powerful is only by the people’s acceptance or refusal to obey.

From now on WE are at war yes,

To defend our right to continue living with dignity,

To defend our legitimate freedom and our right to think otherwise!

CharlElie Couture

Giscard grasped the 70s mood, but French women won their own rights

The French presidency of Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who died on Wednesday aged 94, was marked by a series of breakthroughs on women’s rights, most famously with the legalisation of abortion in 1975. But was the self-styled “moderniser” a driving force behind the reforms or was he merely in tune with the changing times?

Source: Giscard grasped the 70s mood, but French women won their own rights

“Comprehensive security” law: 133,000 demonstrators according to the interior ministry, 500,000 according to the organizers

A Paris, où d’après le ministère de l’intérieur 46 000 personnes se sont rassemblées, quelques affrontements ont opposé manifestants et forces de l’ordre, contrastant avec un défilé calme [ . . . ]

Continue at: “Comprehensive security” law: 133,000 demonstrators according to the interior ministry, 500,000 according to the organizers

Trump has butchered America’s regulatory infrastructure

Recent rules changes lock into place weaker environmental, workplace safety, and labor standards, and escalate the assault on legal immigration.

In the frantic scramble toward November 3, there’s a huge amount of Noise distorting the Signal. There are the flashback-inducing idiotic “lock her up!” chants at Trump rallies, this time aimed at Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer—who was recently the target of a kidnapping plot hatched by pro-Trump militia members. And there’s Trump’s chilling response, “Lock ’em all up,” the “all” presumably being everyone in the political arena who doesn’t fall into lockstep with Trump’s worldview. There’s Steve Bannon urging Trump’s “troops to back him up” and protect whatever “victory” an embattled No. 45 may try to declare before all the votes are counted. And there’s Rudy Giuliani, who continues to disseminate whatever propaganda tidbits the Russian intelligence agencies care to send his way.

Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to filter out all this Noise. For, if anything, the closer we get to the election, the faster the pace of real change in the political arena will be. The Trump administration is doubling down on its assault on America’s regulatory infrastructure. The New York Times recently reported on a crescendo of rules changes that lock into place weaker environmental, workplace safety, and transportation protections; that eviscerate labor standards; and that escalate Trump’s assault on the legal immigration process.

While it’s standard operating procedure for vulnerable incumbents to try to secure their agenda while they still can, this administration has taken that practice to an extreme. It is essentially bypassing the public-comments period required for major alterations to existing regulations and rapidly implementing fundamental regulatory changes without adequately studying their likely impact.

Continue reading “Trump has butchered America’s regulatory infrastructure” →