Oui Oui  🌻🌻🌻

Vive La France:  So it turns out that having Vlad Putin as one of your backers, at least in France, isn’t a good thing.  Over the weekend centrist French President Emmanuel Macron won a second term beating right wing candidate Marine Le Pen by a wide margin, 58.5% to 41.5% and Le Pen actually conceded.  The pundit class, who had pushed the narrative that the election would be very close and was possibly even ripe for an upset is now bemoaning that the xenophobic Le Pen broke through 40% mostly because they need to whine about something.  Sure it’s depressing that 40% of France voted for Le Pen given her history of Russian canoodling, anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant rhetoric but who are we to criticize? Worth noting,  Macron’s victory makes him the first French president to win reelection in twenty years, especially impressive given that going into the election his approval level was down around 40% after dipping into the 30s, kind of like the guy currently serving as our president.  In other important international news, the war in Ukraine rages on, particularly in the south and east and the stories out of besieged Mariupol are beyond horrifying.  Though President Biden didn’t visit, both Secretary of State Blinken and Defense Secretary Austin did make the trek to Kyiv to meet with President Zelenskyy where they promised more military aid.  In addition, Blinken announced that the US would be reestablishing a diplomatic presence in the country.

Home Front: Back in the USA, politicians continue to do their thing.  The Former Guy wants us to know that he never really trusted GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy anyway so the fact that Kevin spoke against him after January 6^th doesn’t really bother him that much.  We really don’t know whether the FG will back the squirrely Kevin for Speaker if or when the Republicans take back the House as a result of the midterms and neither does Kevin.  That level of uncertainty is a problem, not because any of us gives a rat’s patootie about Kevin, but because last week’s leak of Kevin’s admission that the FG was out of control and needed to go leaves Kevin even more reliant on pleasing the FG than he already was, hardly a good thing for our democracy. By the way, Kevin’s says he only said those things to placate Liz Cheney.  In case you are wondering who leaked those tapes of Kevin badmouthing the FG, it wasn’t Liz who insists that she didn’t even know that those conversations were being taped.  Right now the smart money is on the very ambitious, FG loving NYS Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who ascended into Cheney’s pumps after the Wyoming Congresswoman was ousted from Republican party leadership for being righteous, well righteous about condemning the FG ‘s coup activities. While most of last week’s focus was on Kevin and his momentary candor, it was also revealed, or maybe the better word is confirmed, that Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz, Ohio’s Gym Jordan, Texas’ Louis Gohmert, and Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry were all involved in meetings and calls with the White House on Insurrection Day.  That tidbit comes from a deposition provided by former Chief of Staff/election fraudster Mark Meadows’ aide Cassidy Hutchinson who also mentioned that others including Freedom Caucus members Margie Q, Arizona’s Andy Biggs and Alabama’s Mo Brooks participated in some of those calls or meetings.  By the way, don’t expect much to come from last week’s Margie Q hearing, the one in Georgia that is supposed to determine whether or not an insurrectionist like her can serve in Congress.  Sure she repeatedly lied on the witness stand, but she won’t be punished. She’s already out fundraising on her “persecution,” even throwing around some of the overthrow the government terminology that she claimed to know nothing about.  While her district is expected to vote her back in in the fall, North Carolina’s Madison Cawthorn may actually be facing an uphill battle.  Over the weekend some pictures of him in women’s lingerie hit the twitterverse.  His right wing, religious supporters can overlook lies, orgy assertions, his divorce from his Russian honeypot and the many times he’s been stopped for speeding without a license, but going to a frat party in drag, probably the most innocent thing he’s ever done, that might be their tipping point.   

Midterm Madness:  Democrats in Utah have decided to endorse the candidacy of conservative Evan McMullin.  The former CIA operations officer is running as an independent, challenging Republican Senator Mike Lee who is up for reelection.  Democrats have decided supporting McMullin makes more sense that endorsing a Democrat since no Democrat can win a Utah statewide election.  McMullin, who challenged the FG during the last presidential election won’t say who he will caucus with but does say that he will vote independently. While we still don’t know who all the Senatorial candidates will be we do know which states are the ones to watch.  Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina all have open seats due to Republican retirements.  Republicans are targeting newbies Mark Kelly in Arizona and Raphael Warnock in Georgia.  New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto are also considered vulnerable as is Wisconsin’s crazy as a fox Republican Ron Johnson.  Also, there’s the autocracy of Florida where Democratic Congresswoman Val Demings of Orlando is challenging Republican Marco Rubio. As to Georgia, over the weekend the Republican gubernatorial debate went a bit off the rails as challenger/former Senator David Perdue attacked onetime FG mini me Governor Brian Kemp for failing to overturn the results of the last election.  Perdue who was ousted from the Senate Jon Ossoff insists that his loss, like the FG’s, was due to all that massive election fraud that wasn’t and that it’s all Kemp’s fault. Worth noting there was a time that Perdue was considered a rather normal politician.  No longer. Who ever wins the Republican primary will face off against Democrat Stacey Abrams who is spending her time registering more Democrats.