CSN - Citizen Voice Bulletin - Bastille Day Edition - 7/14/2023
Celebrating Bastille Day as France May Spiral Closer to Another French Revolution
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Today is the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, and it is known as Bastille Day. In honor of this day, or to reveal the truth behind this day, we offer an article I wrote regarding the true history of this day. There are a couple of other articles I have written in reference to Bastille Day or the French Revolution in the aggregate section. In reading or researching about the French Revolution, it is good to compare the two true histories of these popular uprisings against the Royal authorities in their time. In relation to this, I refer to a statement I made not long ago about our freedoms: “Over 200 years ago, a nation was created based upon the notion that all people were endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights. That nation should recognize more than any other the desire “...to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom…”
The French people are also facing an existential crisis, as is the United States, but each nation, each population deserves to live out their lives in freedom. But, some only dream of it. That was the dream of the Founders and they were somewhat cautious initially in making absolutist points about the stability or sustainability of the Constitutional Republic they created. Many referred to the new government as an experiment. They took great pains to lay the right foundation for such a government as they were aware of the failure of democracies and oligarchies and tyrannies.
Today, any nation can be attacked by the mob of one sort or another. And mob action was what forced the ancient Greek monarchs to consider the advantages of democracy. But, at the very essence of democracies are mob actions - essentially a tension that shares power between the elitists and the masses. The Founders knew such democracies did not work. In looking back at the French Revolution, it is my opinion that it was not an effort toward freedom, as much as it became a stolen revolution by common people with great elitist aspirations. In the end the poor people of France remained poor to a large extent, and the outcome of the French Revolution was to get another monarch after a brief experiment with a tyrant called an emperor.
We have two articles today. The first article is one I offer to help people understand more about the storming of the Bastille in light of the basics that look carefully at the procedures in 1789 of that attempt to gain freedom. The outcome of the revolution needs to be examined in clear light.
Our second message is from A. Dru Kristenev and is entitled, “Cluster bombs next stop - illegal sales to terrorists.” It provided an examination of the potential (and likely) consequences of the Biden Administration's efforts to supply the Ukrainian military with cluster bombs. It is a thought provoking article, and focuses on a time in which revolution and war still exist in such a time as this. The deliberate and persistent attempt to weaken and destroy Freedom continues, and in my opinion, we have not advanced much as a human civilization from the days of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars that once ravaged Europe.
We also offer a brief aggregate section and we hope readers will follow through from the feature articles to those additional links with more information.
As always, if the perspectives or views of our writers are worthy of others’ attention, please share today’s Citizens Voice with those who may need enlightenment. And, in light of those aggregates and entries today, it is also our hope that readers would please take to heart what
they read through this edition. Read, enjoy, absorb and share.
We remind readers that there will be no Zoom call scheduled for the coming week as vacation time is here. The following Wednesday (7/26), we expect to resume our Zoom discussions.
If readers would like to partake in upcoming Zoom calls and take part in our future discussions, please reach out. Readers who are interested in receiving the Zoom link to the call, are asked to please send a brief email request to this address: d.jamzon@gmail.com
Cars burn on the third night of protests sparked by the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old driver in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, France, Friday, June 30, 2023. ASSOCIATED PRESS BY SAMUEL PETREQUIN
Celebrating Bastille Day as France May Be Spiraling Closer to Another French Revolution
By Dennis Jamison ——Bio and Archives – July 14, 2023
As France came closer to the annual Bastille Day celebration on July 14 of this year, it proved truly ironic that the nation seems to be on the brink of another French-styled revolution. This recent rioting and violence had been sparked by an incident at the end of June in which police shot a 17 year-old boy, Nahel M. when he refused to comply with an order to stop the vehicle he was driving. The protests and rioting broke out in the Paris suburb of Nanterre shortly after the botched traffic stop. The incident was filmed by civilians, and violence quickly spread to other poor suburbs (known as banlieues) and to other major cities such as Lyon and Marseille.
Rioting in France, reminiscent of the violent rioting following George Floyd’s death in Minnesota, has subsided after weeks of setting cars and public buildings on fire, as well as stores being looted. However on the occasion of Bastille Day on July 14, the French authorities will step up security measures. This past Wednesday, France’s Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, made this clear because of the severity of the violence. This recent rioting is reportedly the most serious violence since 2005. The incident that sparked those riots involved the accidental deaths of two teenagers while they were being chased by the police. They also were youths of ethnic minorities, like Nahel who was of Algerian and Moroccan descent. Apparently, the French do not want any interference in celebrating the violence their ancestors perpetrated against royal authorities in “the good old days.”
It is indeed an irony despite whether the recent violence can be justified or not because French ancestors were far more brutal in the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. Those brutal acts of violence in their time sparked the French Revolution. Perhaps the deeper irony however, is the historical illusion that the French Revolution brought true freedom to France. Although the French continue, even persistently, to maintain that this moment in their history is a significant demonstration of their struggle for freedom. It is indeed a display of their desire and struggle for freedom, but genuine Freedom for the French people did not come about as a direct result of the French Revolution. The Marxist-revisionists got away with spewing that narrative for quite a while, but it was the equivalent of applying lipstick on a pig and calling it something it wasn’t. The tactic persists today.
Not only in France, but also around much of the rest of Europe, Bastille Day, is viewed with a lot of respect – even reverence. In France, ”Le quatorze juillet” (14 July), and formally known as the “Fête de la Fédération” (Federation Holiday) is still special to the French, obviously, as they prepare their security measures to deal with those living in the disadvantaged and impoverished neighborhoods of Middle Eastern immigrants. It is possible those immigrants from the Middle East have their own views regarding such a holiday. Are ancient colonial transgressions coming to haunt contemporary France?
Truly, the shocking takeover of the Bastille, originally a medieval fortress-prison that had often been utilized by French kings to imprison their politically disagreeable or disloyal subjects, is considered one of the most dramatic events in human history. Nonetheless, many do not know the true history of the events apart from the ideologically-based, Marxist-revisionist narratives. The background of the true history is also an irony as what happened in France in 1789 has to be understood in light of the support the American colonists got from the French royalty during our War for Independence. The French monarchy provided money, munitions and uniforms for the straggling “Colonial Army” at the expense of the French people. And, in the fervor for Freedom, the French felt they deserved to be a free people too.
Yet, contrary to the romanticized image, the people that seized the prison to secure weapons to ostensibly protect themselves from the King’s Royal Troops, were not endowed with altruistic ideals and tempered by principled actions. They were motivated by fear rooted in ignorance. As they descended upon the Bastille the French Guard generally held their ground, but some mutinied and started to assist the attacking throng. The commander in charge of the prison, Governor Bernard-Rene de Launay, then halted his soldiers from firing at the crowd because by that time 98 people in the crowd and one defender were found to be slain in the struggle.
De Launay surrendered the prison in order to avoid a bloodbath, but he was immediately seized by the crowd and beaten repeatedly. By this time, the frenzied mob had become uncontrollable with rage and dragged Launay through the streets toward the Hotel de Ville. Reports indicate that it is near there he demanded to be killed, and the mob obliged by stabbing him repeatedly. One may think that the murder was unnecessary because the crowd had seized their objective, but what came next was even more extreme because the mob then cut off his head and stuck the severed head upon a pike and paraded it through the streets. This brutal treatment of de Launay would prove to be a foreshadowing of the Reign of Terror.
Within four years of the storming of the Bastille, the movement toward “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity” sadly deteriorated into the Reign of Terror, a horrific bloodbath under the usurped authority and machinations of the notorious revolutionary, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre and his compatriots. Robespierre led the powerful people’s tribunal known as the Committee for Public Safety that arrested, tried, and executed (beheaded via the guillotine) over 17,000 people.
Eventually, the powerful Committee for Public Safety became even more tyrannical than King Louis XVI. Especially Robespierre, although only one of the absolutist committee, was the only member who had full support of the fanatical “Society of the Friends of the Constitution,” the political party eventually known as the Jacobins, who were among the more radical supporters of the French Revolution. Robespierre was the individual most closely identified with the Reign of Terror. However, even he fell victim to the Committee for Public Safety. Robespierre was beheaded due to his opposition to the atheistic elements within the Jacobins.
While it is undeniably true that following the taking of the Bastille, a month later in August, the people abolished feudalism; and ultimately on August 26th, the people proudly proclaimed the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, which had been crafted by the Marquis de La Fayette in writing an initial draft. Nevertheless, it is also undeniable that the illusive move toward Freedom during the French Revolution devolved into a display of some of the most inhumane atrocities against humanity known to man and a stolen revolution.
An objective reflection on the French Revolution, beginning with the storming of the Bastille through the Reign of Terror, does not yield a clear vision of a glorious fight for freedom – that is murky at best and becomes even more of an illusion the more one digs into the actual events. Indeed, the French Revolution was infused with noble ideals at the outset, supported by many good patriots; yet, despite initial noble intentions, it was transformed into mob action fueled by resentment and hatred, stimulated by those who were good at fueling hatred and fear. And, that hatred and resentment was not only aimed at the monarchy, or aristocracy, but also contempt towards the common people, towards the Roman Catholic Church, and contempt for God exploded in this time. Ultimately, the Revolution manifested a rejection of God, and it should not be viewed as a fight for Freedom, but as a struggle for dominion over the French people.
Additional History –
From The Conversation: What is Bastille Day and why is it celebrated? – 7/12/2021
From Canada Free Press by Dennis Jamison: The Storming of the Bastille did not Yield Freedom – 7/14/2017
From History.com: Bastille Day - Definition, Date & Facts - updated 7/14/23
From The Conversation: The French Revolution executed royals and nobles, yes – but most people killed were commoners – 7/12/2023
We are the last stronghold and our walls are already breached
Cluster bombs next stop - illegal sales to terrorists
By A. Dru Kristenev ——Bio and Archives--July 11, 2023
War material provided to Ukraine to keep the war with Russia alive has been mostly ending up in one of two places... either destroyed by better-armed Russian military or sold on the black market to terror groups.
No wonder European leaders are decrying the gift of cluster bombs to Ukraine. The warheads have been condemned for the potential to indiscriminately slaughter troops and civilians by inflicting horrendous bodily damage. Because the dozens of “bomblets” that each projectile carries fly in all directions, the destruction is widespread from the point of impact.
Convention on Cluster Munitions treaty
For these reasons, the munitions have been banned from use in battle by the Convention on Cluster Munitions treaty, an agreement to which the United States, Russia and Ukraine are not signers. Because of the 120-plus countries that have declared cluster munitions to be inhumane, the use in battle is basically categorized as a war crime, even to the point that previous Biden administration press secretary, Jen Psaki, declared Russia’s use of them to be so in 2022.
According to Reuters, the use of cluster bombs has been evident in conflict and terror incidents from Western Europe, Israel and Morocco to subsaharan Africa.
The fact that cluster bombs have found their way into the hands of terror groups in the past initiates contention regarding Europe’s disapproval, in particular, that Ukraine not be supplied with the controversial weapons.
Arms delivered to Ukraine over the last year have reappeared in other countries, apparently resold on the black market to paramilitary and terror organizations, the profits likely staying in the hands of Ukrainian agents. Corruption among Ukrainian officials (Zelenskyy is no choirboy) has been rampant for decades and has not been checked by so-called anti-corruption agencies. Zelenskyy’s attempt to gain higher ground by tossing his former patron Igor Kolomoisky under the bus only added to the charade.
Arms originating from the United States and Europe meant for Ukraine have been traced to the Lake Chad basin, the Nigerian President Buhari warned in December 2022, raising alarms.
Tracking arms smuggling from Ukraine to organized crime gangs in Europe
A year ago, the EU created the “EU Support Hub for Internal Security and Border Management” to track arms smuggling from Ukraine to organized crime gangs in Europe. And, for the duration of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Israel has abstained from selling arms to Ukraine for the logical reason that they could make their way to Iran that supplies anti-Israel terror groups Hamas, Hezbollah and others.
What if there’s another agenda behind the continual flow of arms and funds to Ukraine, mainly from the United States. With the possibility that anti-personnel cluster bombs could be detoured to crime and terror gangs (as the EU and Interpol are convinced), increased violence in the streets of Western Europe is a given.
Most recently, France has been set afire by unassimilated migrants that have self-segregated
into suburban communities where police have been unable to enforce the law – No-Go zones. Were immensely destructive arms to be added to the rage seething in breakaway migrant European neighborhoods, how eager would be international organizations – UN, WHO, WEF, for instance – to offer their “solutions” to the violence?
Already, these treaty and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) believe they are “stakeholders” in global society despite representing a mere fraction of a fraction of the world’s population. That hasn’t stopped them from funding massive incursions of illegal migrants to Europe and the United States whose cultures are, in many cases, anathema to the faith and cultural traditions the newcomers bring with them.
Disrupting the civility of western society by fomenting violence among displaced migrants is a walkaway plan for the cadre of power-hungry organizations to implement digital IDs, currency and surveillance of individuals’ interactions--economic, social, medical and religious--claiming it will provide safety and security.
Social media tyrants running Blackrock, Vanguard, Google and Meta, and traders with economic stranglers Soros, Gates, Bezos, Schwab and the master subsidy recipient, Musk
This is the path down which every despot has traveled through ancient history but certainly within recent memory. The Chinese Communist Party template would have been the envy of every self-appointed savior going back to Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Chavez, Castro or Mao. Currently it is the partner of social media tyrants running Blackrock, Vanguard, Google and Meta, and traders with economic stranglers Soros, Gates, Bezos, Schwab and the master subsidy recipient, Musk.
Government officials are transitory but no less corrupt as Biden and his administration demonstrates. Insiders working to dismantle the West in favor of short-lived financial gains are too many to locate, operating as they are on every level of finance, education, governance, healthcare and religion.
Biden providing cluster bombs to Ukraine isn’t generosity or even good citizenship on the global scale. It is another scheme to generate deeper disaffection and anguish among self-isolating enclaves, encouraging victimhood that erupts into violence. The more alienation is sown and “victims” fed devices of destruction, the more likely will social order dissolve, allowing imperial force to eliminate individual freedom. Evidence of this policy is already haunting the streets of San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles and European hubs.
The agenda isn’t new and it’s not hidden. The problem is whether individuals are noticing, not just in the United States. The battle lines of criminal and terrorist cells are being drawn in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and further abroad.
We are the last stronghold and our walls are already breached.
From Frontpage Magazine by Victor Davis Hanson: Our French Revolution – 4/6/23
From Canada Free Press by Dennis Jamison: Reflections on the French Revolution: A Model for U.S. Civil War? – 7/16/2020
From Frontpage Magazine: Credentialism, Crisis and Censorship: How the Left Eliminated Debate – 10/26/2022
From Reuters: France steps up security for July 14 Bastille Day festivities after recent riots – 7/12/2023
From Reuters: France fetes India's Modi at Bastille Day celebration – 7/14/2023