That's enough revolution for now.

ADDED: My post title is my own cheeky interpretation of Drudge's use of Napoleon to represent Macron. But what connections are people making, other than that Macron is young (39) as he takes office and so was Napoleon? Here's WaPo:

Not since Napoleon has anybody leapt to the top of French public life with such speed. Not since World War II has anybody won the French presidency without a political party and a parliamentary base....

He was, it is true, extraordinarily lucky (luck being the quality that Napoleon said he most preferred in his generals). He benefited both from the flameout of Socialist President François Hollande, who decided not even to contest the election, and from a surprise series of personal scandals that dragged down the center-right’s candidate, François Fillon.....

AND: My post title assumes it was Le Pen whose rise was revolutionary, but consider this from The Guardian:

The 39-year-old [Macron] has vowed to bring a youthful “revolution” to French politics but also to return to the historic tradition of a strong leader who can “embody the nation”. He believes that ever since King Louis XVI’s head was chopped off in the revolution, France has been constantly trying to compensate for the lack of a true leader figure who could personify France.

Doesn't that put him on the counter-revolutionary side?

Macron, a centrist political novice, who had never before run for election and until three years ago was unknown, believes he can fill the role of republican guide of the nation.

Macron’s first public gesture as president was to deliberately, solemnly make a long walk alone under spotlights across the Louvre’s Napoleon courtyard to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the European anthem. It was a carefully coordinated reference to the style of the late Socialist president François Mitterrand, who presented himself as a kind of republican, elected monarch.

Every new French leader wants to contrast the style of the president who went before. If the Socialist François Hollande – who was once Macron’s mentor – was a plodding “ordinary bloke” who described himself as “President Normal” and turned his own door handles at the Elysée instead of waiting for a butler, Macron wants to bring back what he styles as a lofty poise and distance.

But it seems (from this distance) that Le Pen was the contrast to Normal and that people chose more normal. Did they seek normal and get a lofty monarch?



I hadn't noticed before that the Ode to Joy was the European anthem. Is it odd for the new president to do his victory promenade to the anthem of Europe and not France?

Donald Trump did not walk out on election night to the sound of the U.S. national anthem, but of course the music was American. Do you remember what it was? It was not "I'm Proud to Be an American." Listen:



It's the soundtrack to the movie "Air Force One" (in which Harrison Ford played an action-movie-hero President of the United States). He left the stage to the sound of the Rolling Stone's "You Can't Always Get What You Want," which, I guess, was reaching out to those who were shocked and disappointed, though I'm sure many experienced the line "You can't always get what you want" as a taunt and rankled at "But if you try sometimes well you might find you get what you need." I can hear the anti-Trumpist crying This is not what we need.

By the way, Trump's use of the song did not prevent New York Magazine's David Marchese from ranking "You Can't Always Get What You Want" as #1 of all 373 Rolling Stones songs:

There’s formal wit (the boys’ choir and French-horn lines), Mick’s keen and clear-eyed lyrics (he hits on envy, hope, spite, cynicism), Keith’s foundational riffing, and the rhythm section’s subtly powerful groove.... Also, how perfectly Stones-y is it that the best the band says you can hope for is the possibility of getting what you want? “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is more moving and deep than anything else from the band’s classic years, more ambitious than anything that came before, and more authentic and fluid than anything that would come after. When the tempo picks up, it’s sexy, too. Look, maybe “Gimme Shelter” was the band’s true peak, and that song lives in the darkness the Stones knew so well, knew better than any other band, but I’m putting this song at the top. It lets a little light in. Lord knows we need it.

And here are the lyrics to "Ode to Joy" (written by Friedrich Schiller) in case you want to think about how weird they are for a political anthem (but be aware that the lyrics were not adopted as the European anthem, only the music).

"French President François Hollande announced Thursday that he will not run for re-election, citing his unpopularity and likely inability to garner enough support."

That's pronounced gar-NAY in French.

Hollande's popularity is at 4%. I just typo'd "poopularity" for some reason. Must be my French accent.

He is the first French president since the war not to attempt to run for re-election.

François Fillon, the right’s presidential candidate and the favourite to win next spring, said Hollande had “admitted with lucidity that his obvious failure stopped him going any further”. Fillon, who last week called Hollande’s presidency “pathetic”, said Hollande’s presidency was ending in a “political shambles”.

"The war" means The Second World War.

"The well-coordinated series of terror attacks on Paris left more than 129 people dead..."

That's from a CBS News article, "ISIS claims 'blessed invasion' of Paris." Obviously, "blessed invasion" is inflated propaganda from ISIS, but I want to question the characterizations we're seeing from our own politicians and journalists. I keep seeing expressions of respect for the sophistication of the Paris attacks, and I want to question it, because there is a temptation to say, when attacked, that the enemy must be very smart and strong and determined.

But was it really so difficult to send a bunch of men out all on the same day to hit soft targets — 4 restaurants, a concert hall, and a stadium? There are so many restaurants, completely unguarded and accessible, predictably full of people. Men with guns/explosives hit 4 restaurants in one city, not 100, not 1000.

The concert venue was another soft target, and the scene was chaotic. Many escaped. If the building were sealed up before anyone knew they were under attack, it would have been sophisticated, or if the entire building were demolished, killing everyone. But it was only men with guns rushing in, causing what damage they could, with (apparently) absolutely no plan for their own escape.

The stadium was the big target. The president, François Hollande, was in attendance. The attackers got nowhere near him. In fact, the attackers apparently scuttled whatever big plan they might have had, blowing themselves up at the gates. The huge crowd didn't even know there was an attack. Hollande slipped out and the crowd watched the game to the end.

What's scary isn't that the attacks are sophisticated, but how easy it is to hit a bunch of soft targets in one city, and how big a deal it is even when it's sloppily done and mostly unsuccessful. That's how it looks to me.

Hollande: "It is an act of war that was committed by a terrorist army, a jihadist army, Daesh, against France."

"It is an act of war that was prepared, organized and planned from abroad, with complicity from the inside, which the investigation will help establish.... France, because it was foully, disgracefully and violently attacked, will be unforgiving with the barbarians from Daesh... [France will act within the law but with] all the necessary means, and on all terrains, inside and outside, in coordination with our allies, who are, themselves, targeted by this terrorist threat."

From the NYT's "Hollande Blames ISIS for ‘Act of War’ on Paris."

Why won't French President François Hollande have dinner with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Rouhani's trip to Europe.

Because Rouhani insists that no wine be served.

This has something to do with the French love of wine and something to do with a French "domestic culture war, with its right wing raising alarms over 'Islamification' that has spilled into its deep national relationship with food."

"More than three million people have taken part in unity marches across France after 17 people died during three days of deadly attacks in Paris."

"Up to 1.6m are estimated to have taken to the streets of the French capital. More than 40 world leaders joined the start of the Paris march, linking arms in an act of solidarity."

World leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, EU President Donald Tusk, and Jordan's King Abdullah II joined the beginning of the Paris march.

"Paris is the capital of the world today," French leader Francois Hollande said.

No leaders from the United States? That's weird.

ADDED: Drudge, linking to the Daily News (which points out that Eric Holder was in Paris):



AND: I suspect that Holder (and other American politicians) don't want to seem to be supporting what might be perceived as hate speech.

"They said they wanted to die as martyrs. They are behaving like two determined terrorists who are certainly physically exhausted..."

"... but who want to escape with one last big show of force and heroic resistance. They feel trapped and know that their last hours have come."

They = Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, the main suspects in the Charlie Hebdo massacre, who are now surrounded by police and in communication with them. The police are speaking in terms of negotiation and surrender. There is at least one hostage. How do you negotiate or try to capture the Kouachis alive when they have told you clearly that their mission requires them to go until they attain the end they call martyrdom? It would be good to deny them that satisfaction, and I hope the French police have some techniques that make it more likely that the hostage(s) will survive.

How can so much time have passed without stopping these men? In the United States, we would expect the police to stop them at least at the point when they emerged from the building where they carried out their massacre. We're told French President François Hollande looked "tense" as he conceded that "France is... shocked... that the perpetrators of these acts have not yet been arrested, and I am speaking before you as operations are ongoing."

***

I think "massacre" is the right word here, not "mass murder." It should be recognized as a military operation — France is under attack — not some individuals who lost their mind or their temper and transgressed into the everyday evil we call murder.

"European politics were jolted as seldom before on Sunday when France's extreme nationalists triumphed in the European parliament elections..."

"... which across the continent returned an unprecedented number of MEPs hostile or sceptical about the European Union in a huge vote of no confidence in Europe's political elite."

France's Front National won the election there with a projected 25% of the vote, while the governing socialists of President François Hollande collapsed to 14%, according to exit polls.

The French First lady said "she wanted to weather the storm with him in the fashion of Hillary Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal."

... when Valerie Trierweiler first heard about President François Hollande’s secret affair the young actress Julie Gayet.

But then she changed her mind. The First Lady is now "in negotiations, including legal ones" to end her relationship with Hollande, but she will not be getting a divorce. Do you know why?

"French voters elected François Hollande as president on Sunday, giving the country a Socialist leader..."

"... who has pledged to shift the burden of hardship to the rich and resolve the protracted euro-zone sovereign-debt crisis by softening the current prescription of austerity."