Clashes as yellow vest protests grow in Belgium and the Netherlands

What gets me is that the power elite KNOWS what they are bringing about, because they have been building bunkers to hide in. But they still continue, with things like bribing U.S. republicans to give big tax cuts to the rich, and do away with regulations that allow them to get even richer at the price of the health and well-being of the rest of us, gerrymandering, blocking the nomination of life-time appointments for judges who are less likely to allow them free rein, etc.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/belgium-netherlands-yellow-vest-protests-2018-12-08/

December 8, 2018, 9:16 AM

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The reasons for the protests are not entirely clear. Neither Belgium nor the Netherlands has proposed a hike in fuel tax -- the catalyst for the massive and destructive demonstrations in France in recent weeks.

Instead, protesters appeared to hail at least in part from a populist movement that is angry at government policy in general and what it sees as the widening gulf between mainstream politicians and the voters who put them in power.

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In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, a few hundred protesters in the high-visibility vests that have become a symbol of the movement walked peacefully across the downtown Erasmus Bridge singing a song about the Netherlands and handing flowers to passers-by.

Sisters Beb and Ieneke Lambermont, aged 76 and 67 respectively, were among them.

"Our children are hard-working people but they have to pay taxes everywhere. You can't get housing anymore. It is not going well in Dutch society," Ieneke said. "The social welfare net we grew up with is gone," she said.

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