rubato wrote:The french have better food, thinner women, and more beautiful architecture than we do. I am optimistic that the country of Lafayette and Michel de Montaigne will triumph in the end.
yrs,
rubato
Oh, that's right, you've never been here. Poor thing. Well, it's true we don't have as interesting architecture as France does. But we do have a much more spectacular natural landscape. But that is true versus everywhere in the world.Gob wrote:rubato wrote:The french have better food, thinner women, and more beautiful architecture than we do. I am optimistic that the country of Lafayette and Michel de Montaigne will triumph in the end.
yrs,
rubato
There you have Asperger boy's "Democrat" stance in a nutshell.
Shame he's never been outside his state, he may learn something..
God knows I love France, and all things French, but you're wrong. No country can compete with the beauty, variety, and quality of food, art, architecture, woman, and natural resources found in the USA.rubato wrote:The french have better food, thinner women, and more beautiful architecture than we do. I am optimistic that the country of Lafayette and Michel de Montaigne will triumph in the end.
yrs,
rubato
And you've never been to Australia. Or Wales. Who the fuck cares??rubato wrote:Oh, that's right, you've never been here. Poor thing. Well, it's true we don't have as interesting architecture as France does. But we do have a much more spectacular natural landscape. But that is true versus everywhere in the world.Gob wrote:rubato wrote:The french have better food, thinner women, and more beautiful architecture than we do. I am optimistic that the country of Lafayette and Michel de Montaigne will triumph in the end.
yrs,
rubato
There you have Asperger boy's "Democrat" stance in a nutshell.
Shame he's never been outside his state, he may learn something..
yrs,
rubato
Yeah... and I am one of those interesting individuals found within that circle, in the Mushroom Capital of the World -- Kennett Square PA. What more could you ask for?Burning Petard wrote:To Gob and Rubato, I invite you to draw a circle 100 miles in diameter, centered on Bear Delaware, and explore it for two weeks, preferably on foot, bicycle, public transit bus. Lots of natural and man-made beauty, quirky culture, interesting individuals and history just as ancient as anything in Australia.
snailgate
And he lost 82% to 18% to Jacques Chirac in the final round...After all that has happened in the 15 years since her father took 17% of the vote in the first round,
That's an excellent analysis...Scooter wrote:There is an interesting chart here that gives a breakdown of the electorate in various categories who supported each candidate. A few things that look to have been determinant of the result:
Macron got the votes of 60% of those in the political centre. LePen got 5% of this group, and 80% of those who are "extreme far right". The FN will not grow beyond the fringe without doing something to change this.
LePen was way out in front among voters who decided several months ago, but only picked up 10% of those who decided in the last few weeks or days. Macron locked up three times as many.
LePen placed a distant third to Macron and Filion among voters over 60, who also have much better turnout than younger voters. This one surprised me, I would have thought LePen appeals to fear and a a past that never existed would have resonated with older voters. Instead, they saw through her better than any other age group.
) so an analogy with Trump is misplaced on a number of levels...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 01986.htmlEmmanuel Macron leads Marine Le Pen by at least 20 points in every French election poll since end of first round
Former socialist minister expected to win in landslide after second round of voting
Emmanuel Macron is at least 20 points ahead of Marine Le Pen in every poll on the French presidential election taken since the first round of voting.
Mr Macron, a former minister who set up his own party to run for president, came top on Sunday, with 23.8 per cent of the ballots cast.
Ms Le Pen, the former Front National (FN) leader, joined the 38-year-old in the presidential run-off after coming second with 21.5 per cent of the vote.
But every survey suggests Mr Macron will claim a landslide victory when French voters go back to the booth on 7 May.
Polling conducted by Elabe and Harris both give the centrist candidate a 38-point lead, while Ipsos calculated a cushion of 24 points.
OpinionWay put Ms Le Pen 22 points behind, while Ifop conducted two rounds of polling, putting her 20 and 21 points back respectively.
Leading politics experts believe Mr Macron will “blow Marine Le Pen out of the water” following his successful 'En Marche!' campaign.
Dr Rainbow Murray, [Okay, I admit it's tough to take somebody seriously whose name is "Rainbow"...but even so...] a French politics expert from Queen Mary University, told The Independent it would take a scandal of "significant proportion" to ruin his chances.
Is this you, sg?Burning Petard wrote:...As we approached the main valley I could see two rainbows, the only time I have seen such double rainbows even tho I have read they are not particularly unusual.
snailgate.
My mate Clarkie had a teaching job there, I stayed with him for a while.dales wrote:Anyone here been to Liechtenstein?
Turn around and it's gone!
No country can compete with the beauty, variety, and quality of food, art, architecture, woman, and natural resources found in the USA.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/28/europe/fr ... on-russia/Fears of Russian meddling as France prepares to go to the polls
(CNN)The warning came from across the Atlantic last month.
Richard Burr, the head of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, was presiding over a briefing on the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election when he offered his assessment of who the next target might be.
"I think it's safe by everybody's judgment that the Russians are actively involved in the French elections," Burr told reporters. "Part of our responsibility is to educate the rest of the world."
Burr's warning came to fruition this week with the revelation that campaign staff for Emmanuel Macron, the favorite to become France's next president, had been targeted by suspected Russian-linked hackers
The news did not come as a surprise to the Macron camp, or to experts who say Russia may be working behind the scenes to swing the result in favor of his opponent Marine Le Pen.
But while Russia has denied the hacking claims, fears of potential Kremlin interference now loom large over the election as voters prepare to head to the polls for the final round of voting next Sunday.
Why would Russia target France?
Russia says it has no preferred candidate in the French election, but it has good reasons to support Le Pen over Macron.
Le Pen's anti-Europe and anti-NATO stance are perfectly aligned with Russian interests, and she has consistently called for closer ties with President Vladimir Putin.
Le Pen has also expressed a desire to roll back European Union sanctions levied on Russia in the aftermath of the annexation of Crimea, which she has described as "unfair and silly."
It is a stance which contrasts markedly with Macron, a pro-EU, pro-integration candidate who has said he would keep sanctions on Russia in place, if not add to them.
While Macron has run as an independent centrist, Le Pen has campaigned, until recently, as head of the far-right National Front. She's faced criticism for the fact that her campaign was partly funded by a Russian bank. But she said she had no other choice, after French banks turned her down.
Eyebrows were raised when Le Pen traveled to Moscow for a meeting with Putin last month.
Putin stressed the "great importance" of closer French-Russian ties following the meeting. And although the Kremlin insists it is not playing favorites in the French election, Le Pen's position on Russia is quite clear.
"Le Pen has been very open about her desire to have better relations with Russia -- she's an outspoken opponent of sanctions [against Russia], and she's interested in taking France outside of NATO," said Will Pomeranz at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.
"She has a very populist right-wing message that plays to Putin's narratives -- it undermines Western institutions."[Sound familiar?]
