La Belle France

Arrias led it off this week with his call for a look at how business is done here in the United States. It is a topic that cries out for a little introspection, but we have been merrily beating that particular equestrian beast for a while, so we thought we would open things up with a minor parallel from France this morning.

The French had their version of a General Election in August. Results were mixed, depicted like this:

We will see how that works out, but you can see that under the bright red of conflict in Ukraine and Lebanon this morning, there are great tectonic shifts in the old order of how things used to work. We now have country-club Democrats and working class Republicans, and the new mix of the old orders will produce a new synthesis of what is normal.

And what isn’t.

Mr. Biden lost track of events during the press conference in which he was supposed to introduce Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of thw world’s most populous nation. And Democracy. He instead appeared to think he was waiting for a question from reporters, saying “I want to thank you all for being here. Now, who am I introducing next? Who’s next?” After a few awkward moments, an announcer introduced Modi who gave a weak smile at the unusual circumstances.

We thought that was an inspirational story about how things can change in the context of a century. There has been talk of performance in the United States Secret Service, among other institutions, so we will leave with a tribute to two individuals in American history who were named “Cassius Marcellus Clay,” though not at the same time.

We are probably in the middle of another historic change, so perhaps we can take a little intersectional inspiration, you know?
Forward!

Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com