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Post by robeiae on May 7, 2017 6:32:39 GMT -5
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Post by Vince524 on May 7, 2017 9:34:54 GMT -5
Gotta play the odds.
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2017 15:32:03 GMT -5
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Post by maxinquaye on May 7, 2017 21:04:26 GMT -5
Tsk. You should have trusted me.
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2017 21:18:41 GMT -5
Tsk. You should have trusted me. From now on, I shall trust you with the faith of a tiny trusting child. Can I have a cookie? And will you read me a bedtime story?
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Post by maxinquaye on May 7, 2017 21:33:23 GMT -5
The real nailbiter was always the June elections. I have no clue what is going to happen in those. Presidential elections are easy. June elections can devolve into "That awful Francois up by the road once refused to open his gate to let my geese through, and now he's running for the Assembly? We'll see about THAT! Giselle, start the tractor!"
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Post by Deleted on May 7, 2017 21:41:29 GMT -5
Well, I mean, what kind of heartless monster would refuse gate passage to geese? Francois sounds like an authoritarian fascist tyrant! While I do not condone what Giselle is about to do with the tractor, I can understand it.
You will have to report on the June elections. They sound fun.
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Post by Amadan on May 8, 2017 10:52:20 GMT -5
Look, geese are foul critters. I wouldn't open my gates to geese either.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2017 11:01:08 GMT -5
*revs tractor*
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Post by maxinquaye on May 8, 2017 15:48:48 GMT -5
Anyway, it was always thus, regardless of what Giselle does with the tractor, that unlike in the US the National Assembly is the ultimate authority in France.
A president without majority support in the Assembly is a glorified ribbon cutter. That would have been doubly true had Le Pen won. The Assembly would, quite brutally, have clipped her wings.
It is somewhat true of Macron too. Although his party is expected to capture 250+ of the Assembly's 579 seats, it's not certain. His party is only one year old. If he fails to get a majority, then he can't appoint a Prime Minister. If he can't appoint a prime minister, then the opposition will, and the power of the French state will fall from the President to that opposition Prime minister because, unlike in the US the ultimate authority in France is the Assembly.
Macron could spend the next five years impotently railing from the predidential bully pulpit while the lawmakers ignore him and do their own thing.
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Post by Deleted on May 8, 2017 16:10:57 GMT -5
Perhaps we need to get Giselle over here with her tractor.
Oh, wait. That might be not so different to the way things are here. Only here, Giselle has a monster truck instead of a tractor.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2017 7:04:51 GMT -5
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Post by maxinquaye on Jun 13, 2017 14:21:17 GMT -5
I have been so busy lately that I have neglected following France. Right now, I'm supposed to be on assignment. The internet here costs €5 per hour, so writing this is madness. It's like €0.01 per word. Still, I have been so busy that I've neglected France.
That said, I don't think this is necessarily good. Any government needs competent opposition. If for no other reason than that the stupid stuff that all governments come up with don't slip through if there's a bunch of people there waiting for the government to slip and make stupid decisions.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 13, 2017 15:01:09 GMT -5
I have been so busy lately that I have neglected following France. Right now, I'm supposed to be on assignment. The internet here costs €5 per hour, so writing this is madness. It's like €0.01 per word. Still, I have been so busy that I've neglected France. That said, I don't think this is necessarily good. Any government needs competent opposition. If for no other reason than that the stupid stuff that all governments come up with don't slip through if there's a bunch of people there waiting for the government to slip and make stupid decisions. 5 euros an hour? That is insane. isn't there a nice cafe with free wifi? I agree with you that competent opposition is a good thing. I do not like it when (as now) all the branches are in the hands of one party, especially given how polarized our parties in the U.S. have become. If I'm not mistaken, at least the crew in France right now is fairly moderate, right? That's better than having the alt-extremists controlling everything.
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Post by maxinquaye on Jun 14, 2017 2:43:28 GMT -5
5 euros an hour? That is insane. isn't there a nice cafe with free wifi? I agree with you that competent opposition is a good thing. I do not like it when (as now) all the branches are in the hands of one party, especially given how polarized our parties in the U.S. have become. If I'm not mistaken, at least the crew in France right now is fairly moderate, right? That's better than having the alt-extremists controlling everything. Well, technically it was SEK 50, but nobody knows anything about SEK, and since €1 = abt 10 SEK, it's easier to write that. Anyway, it was pouring down yesterday. I was desperate enough to pay it, but not desperate enough to go out into the deluge and walk 100 meters to an internet café. I'm not sure everyone appreciates how radical this Macron revolution is. In the history of the fifth republic, this has never happened. Or in the 4th Republic. France has basically replaced all its existing parties in one election. The Les Republicains, the Socialists, the Far-left and the Far-Right have all been smashed for this La République en Marche-party. The problem is, of course, that one-party states rarely function well. France is close to having one party hold a super-majority in the assembly, the presidency, and so on. One party can now completely change the constitution to whatever they see fit.
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