I was Going To Write This Article

…but Beege at Hot Air beat me to it.

The elections in England and France over the past week have been stellar examples of that, with surging populist parties echoing the concerns and voices of a good portion of the citizenry prior to the ballot box. But when vote push came to election shove, and parliamentary election rules being what they are in foreign countries, the feared and despised “right-wing” did make serious gains. But their hopes of election day triumphs were vanquished in both countries by simple math in one – England – and completely legal electioneering machinations by the Left in another – France.

Alas. The right has more seats at the table in both countries, but they do not control the head chair, and this leaves both countries under the sway of pretty liberal Leftist governments, with France being the vastly more radical of the two.

Read the rest for the gory — and I mean gory — details.


By the way:  I’m still feeling sick;  better than last week, but sick nevertheless.

France Goes Communist, Too

As always, whenever there’s the slightest chance that the Frogs will vote for anything other than Lefty government, the normally-fractious Socialists (of which there are many, to cater to all the flavors of Big Brother) suddenly close ranks, declare “Nous sommes tous de gauche!”  and the “Rightwing” party is put back in its place.

Which is what happened yesterday.  Andrew Neil explains:

The traditional French fallback when Marine Le Pen’s populist National Rally does well in the first round of elections as it did last Sunday – of ganging up against it in the second round – was more effective yesterday than anybody expected.

Far from making the hard Right the biggest party in parliament, as was widely expected, the French people gave first place, according to the exit polls, to the hard Left. Almost nobody saw it coming.

Nobody, that is. except people who understand the Frogs and their love of socialism.

Instead of coming first but without an overall majority the National Rally came a poor third.

So, what next?

For all the celebrations on the Left…

 

…France now has a hung parliament, which condemns it to political paralysis or worse for the foreseeable future – a lame duck president and a parliament that will be so consumed by battles between hard Left and Right that coalition government will probably be impossible.

Welcome to Back to the Future, French style. The Fourth Republic, cobbled together in the aftermath of the Second World War, only lasted from 1946 until 1958. During its 12 years there were 21 governments.

Which is probably what we’re going to see in the foreseeable future.

General Charles de Gaulle changed all that in 1958 by creating the Fifth Republic, with a strong president and a diminished National Assembly. He had himself in mind as president when he designed it, though the Fifth Republic has endured to this day.

After yesterday’s elections, France is going to look a lot more like the weak and chaotic Fourth Republic than the stronger, more stable Fifth.

And so it goes.  Pass the vin rouge, Pierre.  Foutu alors.

Movin’ On Up

…or rather, out.  Reader Brad (who lives there) sends me these headlines from Illinois:

“But where,”  you may ask, “is Headline #1?”

Well, you see, it deserves a place all by itself, because #2-5 are just the causes and consequences of #1.  So here it is:

More than 87,000 people moved out of Illinois taking with them nearly $10 billion in income, according to the latest Internal Revenue Service data. For the last six years, the total lost adjusted gross income is more than $47.5 billion.

While 14,486 people moved to Illinois from California in 2022, bringing with them $1.5 billion in income, the latest IRS data shows 31,600 of those who left Illinois went to Florida, taking with them $4.1 billion dollars.

Total lost income out of Illinois because of outmigration was $9.8 billion in 2022. Last year’s IRS migration report found 105,000 fewer individuals, taking with them $10.6 billion. The year before that, nearly 101,000 people left Illinois, taking with them $8.5 billion.

That’s the ticket, folks:  leave the poxy place and starve the bastards out.

Just remember, when you get to Florida, Texas etc., exactly why you bailed;  and don’t vote for the same shit — that would be socialist politicians — in your new place.