France Brought to its Knees…

…by an actors’ and stagehands’ strike. They are protesting proposed changes in their pensions; the woman in the picture below is holding a sign that quotes Berthold Brecht, who was a despicable human being, even for a Communist: “If you don’t take part in the struggle, you take part in the defeat.”

It is hard to see how France can remain solvent when even the most modest efforts to restore fiscal sanity encounter fanatical resistance.