Interesting comment. They all have their own baggage, as all politicians do. I agree with you about Philippot, who had the most sensible and pragmatic perspective of all of them, although he had a penchant for surrounding himself with vacuous pretty boys, which became the flash point when he outmaneuvered Rochedy during their rivalry to become MLP’s chief lieutenant. Rochedy at least used that as an excuse to leave the party leadership, complaining about the infiltration of the party by gay activists (like Philippot), which was definitely true when the party was expanding. This is not too unlike a lot of the ideological disputes between conservatives and libertarians in the Republican Party in the U.S. Direct appeals were made by the Front National to conservative-minded gays in France, and the press was widely commenting on the surprising popularity of the party to French homosexuals. This was a genuine point of contention inside the party. I wouldn’t say Rochedy is dumb, but he lacked the tactical intelligence and vision to grow the party. I think Marion Marechal-Le Pen and Rochedy are similar, both are very ideologically conservative and closer to Jean-Marie Le Pen in their love of risky provocation. And both are shortsighted purists. As in America right now, the French youth are markedly more conservative than the older generations, but the trouble is building a big tent. MLP and Philippot are the only ones who had that ability. I can’t fault MLP for distancing herself from her father, who always shot himself in the foot and sabotaged her by saying stupid, useless shit and never shutting up about the Holocaust. He couldn’t resist putting his foot in his mouth, and it became tiresome and counterproductive. He wanted to build a small-time boomer party for veterans of the Algerian War to sit around and reminisce and say shocking things, whereas Marine built a party that is a national force in France. The politics is interesting, and there is a lot of family drama…
Florian Philippot is great, all of those people I listed are. MLP has to tiptoe around the issue of the EU and Ukraine though because the French are so skittish on those subjects. The euro is a third rail issue in France, and it was the issue that caused the rift between MLP and Philippot
Democrats really are the masters of projection. They call us fascists, but have normalized thuggish political violence so much that their foot soldiers routinely vandalize cars, burn down cities, and call for assassination when extralegal malfeasance isn’t sufficient to stifle their opposition…
Marion is too independent-minded and provocative to be groomed as Marine’s successor as a party leader in the National Rally (RN). Marine TIGHTLY controls the script and ideological parameters of party spokespeople to maximize political success for the party within the French system. Marine, to her credit, has built the party up from a marginal factor in French politics to a major player. Bardella is a much more disciplined leader for the party moving forward. Marine has gone through several lieutenants: Julien Rochedy (hard conservative), Florian Philippot (moderate, but more anti-EU than Marine), and Marion (who broke with the party to officially support Eric Zemmour).
This was an excellent performance by our CiC. His bold leadership is staggering following the disaster of the previous administration. I don’t think Biden gave a press conference his entire presidency, and Trump just gave a one-hour impromptu press conference with his entire cabinet. The press that vilifies him has never had such an accessible President. And there is so much raw talent on his assembled team. MAGA has a deep bench! We’ve had such a vacuum of leadership in this country for too long, this is incredible! It’s been a long time coming! 🙂
Does anyone else get the impression that Mark Halperin is secretly based? After gaining a reputation for suspiciously even-handed coverage of Trump (and, even earlier, running afoul of the Dem media lapdogs for calling Obama “kind of a dick”), he was forced out at CNN in 2017 at the height of the #MeToo witch-hunts when, classic playbook, a ton of sexual harassment claims dropped against him all at once. In retrospect, I suspect his ouster was actually a convenient ideological purge of fair and balanced coverage of Trump within the MSM. Halperin then turned out to be THE Beltway insider journalist of the 2024 campaign cycle, and he was the only well-connected mainstream journalist insisting that Kamala was tanking, that Dems were hopelessly out of touch and living in a bubble, and that Trump was on the cusp of a historic victory. His coverage was spot-on throughout the campaign.
This is treating the symptom rather than the cause. The issue is inflation, not pennies. Get inflation under control, reverse the devaluation of our currency, and the issue will be resolved. This is a band aid for a much deeper problem…
She is such a pathetic woman, and we are all very lucky that Trump made her a historical footnote. After their systematic gaslighting regarding Biden’s cognitive decline was exposed, the media immediately shifted to another Orwellian gaslighting campaign when they tried to elevate this zero-substance San Francisco crack whore into some cultural phenomenon, a hyper-competent “joy” candidate, and all she had to do was stay out of the spotlight while the media did the heavy lifting. But with each public appearance, as has always been the case with Kamala, the more people saw, the more obvious it was to everyone that she is an absolute moron with zero substance. Her cringeworthy word salads horrified even her greatest media lackeys. Praise God that the media’s two greatest frauds during the 2024 election, the myth of Biden’s mental fitness and the myth of Kamala’s political competence, were exposed and our Republic saved! 🇺🇸
He’s fantastic! I actually think he’s a possible prospect for commander-in-chief after Trump. Somebody’s gotta carry the MAGA flag into the future, and he’s young, photogenic and gets all the lefties’ heads exploding! I’m very impressed with Trump’s choices for his second administration 🙂
These people are so smug and insufferable it’s hard to watch, but it is HILARIOUS that they unironically focus-grouped such a disastrous, self-defeating (and accidentally true) slogan for Kamala: “Down with democracy” Just wow! 😮
I hope this is true! And, if it is true, Harris’s dismal support from blacks could help explain the odd trends we’re seeing in the early vote totals, which is weak Democratic turnout in urban areas (thanks to blacks not showing up) and Republicans comparatively SURGING in rural areas. If the black vote for Harris is as depressed as this poll suggests, it’s doomsday for the Democrats. Harris is also bleeding support from Catholics, Latinos (no surprise, since they’re mostly Catholics) and, perhaps surprisingly, Arab-Americans. Harris seems to be collapsing. She thought abortion would be the issue that would rally her supporters, but that issue only electrifies college-educated white women, voters who were already HIGHLY MOTIVATED to show up on election day to vote for her anyway. Looks like she’s toast and the Democrats are only starting to realize the looming disaster for their party!
Apparently the mic was out for 17 minutes, and when the glitch was resolved, Trump delivered a joke in the spirit of Reagan’s classic line “I am paying for this microphone”. This has to be comms!
On the other hand, the Democrats have been trying to cover for Harris’s unbelievably thin home stretch campaign schedule by building a narrative about Trump’s “erratic behavior” during minor disruptions at his recent packed house rallies, and this technical issue might be an act of deliberate sabotage trying to support their carefully crafted and completely dishonest pre-fabricated echo chamber narrative…
Sacre-Coeur, or Basilica of the Sacred Heart, in Montmartre. It was built during the Third Republic as an apology to God for the moral degeneration that led to France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune—and it was built at a high point of the city, dominating the skyline of most traditionally leftist neighborhood of the city, on the Left Bank of the Seine. French leftists HATE the cathedral (seriously, the history is fascinating), but it is the second most popular tourist destination in Paris after the Eiffel Tower. A beautiful building!
The Democratic Party is in total meltdown. The party elite and their propagandists in the media who shielded Biden from any legitimate scrutiny, who refused to take seriously the Hur report (in fact, vilified Robert Hur for even suggesting Biden’s mental deterioration) and downplayed his already pudding-brained pre-debate appearances, particularly the G7 summit, have created this monster. Biden rightly won their stacked primary, and now he’s an albatross around their neck. They tried, over the last few days and with the help of their media assets, to fabricate a story that Biden had privately agreed to drop out. The classic Pelosi “wrap-up smear”, to float a false story and have it “verified” from multiple media sources all echoing the same made-up story. But Biden is pushing back. His ego is hurt and he’s pissed at Pelosi, who’s gone all mob boss trying to give Biden an offer he can’t refuse. This blatant disloyalty and gameplaying is only making Biden dig in his heels. The infighting is beautiful. And, of all things, the far-left Democrats—Bernie and AOC and the squad—are championing Weekend at Bernie’s over smoke-filled rooms and party mega-donors reversing the results of the primary in order to swap out the Biden with their preferred corporate candidates. This is AMAZING! ❤️
Good! Their product has been absolute shit since the end of the 90s, and I’m a huge lover of movies and Golden Age Hollywood. Go woke, go broke, assholes! 😌