Thursday, May 04, 2017

Poor France.

This link. The story has a flavor of a Ms. LePen question such as, "Is your dog still biting young children?"

"Do you still have that offshore account?" Something like that, but not quite there - yet.

And recourse to the judicial system, in return? Sometimes wisdom suggests a lesser or a different response.

The level of discourse, at least as covered in another item by The Independent, is disheartening:

Before the two candidates took part in the virulent exchange watched by 15 million people, an article suggesting Mr Macron was engaging in tax evasion in the Caribbean haven was published on the right wing website Disobedient Media and started to circulate on social media.

Ms Le Pen raised the allegations in the debate and challenged Mr Macron on whether they were true.

[...] Nicolas Vanderbiest, a commentator for radio France Culture, tweeted: “So the fake news story on Macron’s account in the Bahamas, we can say without being misleading, that it was by the Russians.”

These two, then, are the finalists of a winnowing early election. Deemed by vote counts as the better two from a larger field. Carrying the flag of France to newer shores as the two a nation should choose between.

"Offshore account," then "that's the Russians saying that," suggests election day turnout might be low among those who think, high among those who feel.