Macron Fumbles, Mrs. May Delays, and Ocasio-Cortez Becomes the Mad Hatter

FRANCE AND BRITAIN ARE IN REAL TROUBLE. France has a president who is seem as a quasi-emperor, while Britain has a Prime Minister seen as too weak. No matter because both governments are skating on thin ice. Voilà ! • • • LET'S START WITH THE FRENCH CONSERVATIVE VIEW. Yes, there is one, sort of. And its voice is Le Figaro, the daily newspaper and online outlet of the French conservatives, who are many and generally consider themselves "Gaullists," although that label is waning as General de Gaulle begins to fade into history. Here are capsules printed online by Le Figaro on Monday before the 8 PM speech of President Emmanuel Macron. /// President Macron listened to the large group he assembles this morning at the Palais Elysée but "did not reveal what he will say this evening." /// Jordan Bardella, spokesman for the Rassemblement National (RN), which is the new name chosen by the Front National members this summer, said that Emmanuel Macron is "betting his presidency" on his speech on Monday evening. Bardella reminded his readers that in 2017, when it became a choice between Marine Le Pen or Emmanuel Macron as president, the French were warned that it was "either Macron or chaos" and "now we have Macron AND chaos." Bardella wrote that the "gilets jaunes" represent a France that Macon "doesn't know and whom he has treated with incredible arrogance....not a word of compassion or an a mea culpa, but hos continues to tell them, "I understand what you feel." /// The movement of the Gilets Jaunes may be a bit quiet on Monday, but the students are not. The student mobilization is growing, with 450 high schools disturbed, of which 50 are blocked. The union of students, the UNL-SD, has called for a massive strike on Tuesday, which is supported by some labor unions and is being called by the student union "Black Tuesday" for all high schools. /// Four journalist unions have urgently demanded to meet with President Macron because on Saturday they had their clearly labeled "press" helmets, gas masks, and protective glasses confiscated by police in Paris, and some were threatened with arrest if they didn't turn the equipment over. It happened to reporters and press photographers alike, and the union is calling it "inadmissible." /// The French automobile club has demanded that Macron, who lowered the speed limit on all non-autoroutes in France to 80 kph, or about 50 mph, as a signal of support for the environment and greater road safety, return the speed lmit to 90 kph. Many of the speed signs have not been changed but motorists are being flashed and ticketed for speeding nonetheless. Pierre Chasseray, head of the 40 million French "automobilistes," says the collapse of Macron's popularity began when he imposed the 80-kph limit last July. It would be a way to "renew his ties with the French people." Even some local elected officials have refused to change the speed limit in their communes. /// The first several dozen protesters, mainly young men unemployed or very poor, were handed their sentences on Monday for participation in a "group that was going to commit vandalism or violent acts, or for tossing rocks at the police." While Le Figaro does not mention it, there is some concern in France about arresting anyone in a group that has not yet done anything illegal but that is suspected of being enroute to do it -- a sort of incrimination by association, or 'preventive' arrest. • • • THE SMALL BITES AT THE FRENCH WORKERS FINALLY ADD UP. The French call it "ras le bol" (I've had enough). American Thinker's Monica Showalter writes that ABC News reported : "Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Monday the government could delay some payroll taxes, but expressed resistance to restoring the wealth tax or lowering taxes for retirees, among protesters' demands. He stressed that the measures should focus on helping the working classes. 'We are ready to make any gesture' that works, he said on RTL radio. 'What is important now is to put an end to the crisis and find peace and unity in the country again.' " Showalter reacted strenuously to the use of the word "geste" by Le Maire : "Gestures. Seriously, he really said 'gestures.' Even accounting for nuances of language, he chose to say that, and it most certainly can mean 'gesture' as we know it. Like, you know, a Gallic shrug. Given what is going on in France right now, the remark is so stupidly insulting it's likely to inflame more riots, not fewer. By his remarks, Le Maire comes off as having us think there's no crisis here, and the spot of bother in the streets can be fixed through a few mannerly things, some 'gesture' pellets thrown to les déplorables to calm them down." • Showalter's advice is simple : "Listen up, pal : the time for gestures came and went. When you've got 136,000 yellow-vested shopkeepers, truck drivers, housewives, teachers, and farmers rioting across the entire country, wheeling out model guillotines with the president's name on them, singing Le Marseillaise as if it were 1792, and demanding President Macron's resignation, you can pretty well bet that these people aren't looking for 'gestures.' What this guy needs to be thinking about now is keeping heads on pikes out of the picture....What it demonstrates is the Mr. Magoo-like opacity of France's ruling classes -- and their utter unwillingness to change. This guy should be talking about a serious course change, such as dumping every tax hike permanently, scrapping every bureaucratic regulation, apologizing to the voters, and ending the green regime. Does he really think a few 'gestes' will stop this fiasco? What France needs to be doing right now, what howls for decisive action, is pulling out of the Paris climate accord and following the example of the US, which has stepped up oil drilling while simultaneously cutting emissions to green-happy levels, all through the beauty of free markets. No such sign that sort of thing is going to happen so long as the French ruling elites think that all that's needed are gestures. The French ruling class clearly doesn't have a clue, and like Louis XVI, this sort remark is of the same character as his writing "nothing" in his diary on the day the Bastille was taken. Get ready for some surprises, pal." • Fox News's Steve Hilton said : "You can't treat working people with contempt and expect no consequences. In 1790, one of the most important documents in the history of conservatism was published : Edmund Burke's 'Reflections on the Revolution in France.' Burke criticized the revolutionaries for their focus on pompous high-minded abstractions instead of practical measures to help actual people. Well, now the tables are turned. It's the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, who's wandering around the world issuing high-minded proclamations while the 'yellow vest' revolutionaries on the streets of Paris are intensely practical. As one of the protestors pithily put it, 'we are overtaxed. But at the Elysee, that’s the president’s residence, they spend 10,000 Euros a month on the hairdresser....Guess what Macron said when French workers complained that his new gas tax meant they couldn't afford to get to work? He told them to carpool!" • Hilton sees the French revolt for what it is -- "part of a worldwide populist uprising. In the UK, in Germany, in Italy, in Eastern Europe, in Brazil and, of course, here in America with Donald Trump's election -- and support for Bernie Sanders. Let's remember, working people are saying they've had enough of decades of elitist policies -- like uncontrolled immigration -- that help those at the top but hurt everyone else. But there's something else going on, too -- the elitist fightback. In Britain, they're about to overturn Brexit. In Italy, the new populist government is about to have its budget rejected by the EU. And, of course, here in America the establishment is doing everything it can to get Donald Trump out of office before the next election. Well, here's the takeaway from the chaos in France. If the elitist idiots think that Trump, Brexit, and all these other populist movements are some kind of aberration and they can soon get back to business as usual, forget it. You can’t treat working people with contempt and expect no consequences." • American Thinker's editor Thomas Lifson says : "An arrogant politician expressing contempt for Donald Trump and his supporters experienced a surprising and humiliating defeat in late 2016 in our presidential election. A corresponding scenario seems to be playing itself out again in Paris. A year and a half ago, in the wake of President Trump leaving the Paris Climate Accord, France's President Emmanuel Macron asked for a fight on climate change, in an address delivered in English, making it clear that his target was Donald Trump and the American electorate. As Andrew Bolt, writing for the Herald-Sun in Australia, noted, he asked for a fight and 'he got one' -- but against his own citizens rebelling against taxation intended to drive them from their cars. His words, 'France will not give up the fight,' have come back to haunt him." Lifson quotes the CBS transcript that made it clear that Macron was sticking his nose into American politics, appealing to anti-Trump people to come to France to continue the struggle : "French President Emmanuel Macron blasted President Trump Thursday for pulling the US out of the Paris climate agreement and offered a 'second homeland' to those who are disappointed by the decision. 'Tonight, I wish to tell the United States : France believes in you. The world believes in you. I know that you are a great nation. I know your history, our common history,' Macron said in a statement, delivered in English, posted on Twitter. 'To all scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the President of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland,' Macron said. 'I call on them, come and work here with us to work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment. I can assure you France will not give up the fight.' " • President Trump, never one to lie back and take it on the chin, waited, knowing his moment would come -- and it did with the French protests. President Trump tweeted on December 8 : "Very sad day & night in Paris. Maybe it’s time to end the ridiculous and extremely expensive Paris Agreement and return money back to the people in the form of lower taxes? The U.S. was way ahead of the curve on that and the only major country where emissions went down last year!" and "The Paris Agreement isn’t working out so well for Paris. Protests and riots all over France. People do not want to pay large sums of money, much to third world countries (that are questionably run), in order to maybe protect the environment. Chanting “We Want Trump!” Love France." Macron had his foreign minister express outrage that Trump would "interfere in French domestic affairs" : "We do not take domestic American politics into account and we want that to be reciprocated," he told LCI, a French television channel. "I say this to Donald Trump and the French president says it too : leave our nation be." • So, says Thomas Lifson : "In the process of alienating four fifths of the French public, Emmanuel Macron has combined arrogance and disregard for the lives of ordinary people with the disdain globalists in all the advanced economies express for Trump. Tonight, he will address the people of France, speaking publicly for the first time in a week. He's been meeting with union and business leaders, as well as politicians. Most likely, he will have to back away from some of his warmist taxes. Don Surber maintains a Trumpenfreude list of "people who made the mistake of starting a feud with President Donald John Trump. Each wound up worse for the ordeal." Macron already occupies number 54 on the list, but his entry is on the verge of expanding the bad consequences he is experiencing." • • • HERE IS WHAT MACRON SAID ON MONDAY EVENING. France24, the largest 24-hour news station on French radio and TV, said this : "French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday a 100 euro per month increase in the minimum wage from next year in a major concession to 'yellow vest' protesters who have roiled the country. In his first national address following two weekends of the worst unrest in France in years, Macron sought to restore calm after accusations that his political methods and economic policies were fracturing the country. 'We want a France where one can live in dignity through one's work and on this we have gone too slowly,' Macron said on prime-time television. 'I ask the government and parliament to do what is necessary.' The president's address came 48 hours after protesters fought street battles with riot police in Paris, hurling missiles, torching cars and looting shops. Macron faces a delicate task : he needs to persuade the middle class and blue-collar workers that he hears their anger over a squeeze on household spending, without being exposed to charges of caving in to street politics. Macron showed a much more humble tone. He said people on the minimum wage would see their salaries increase by 100 euros a month from 2019 without extra costs to employers. Pensioners earning less than 2,000 euros would see recent increase in social security taxes scrapped. But he also said he would stick to his reform agenda and refused to reinstate a wealth tax. 'We will respond to the economic and social urgency with strong measures, by cutting taxes more rapidly, by keeping our spending under control, but not with U-turns,' Macron said." • The speech was met with a mix of "okay, he said something" and "it was hypocritical." There was no mention of the +12% unemployment rate or the part-time poverty wages of mostly women and the young, or the need to overhaul the entire retirement system. • The Local, an English online French news and culture outlet, said : "French President Emmanuel Macron gave a 13-minute speech to the nation on Monday evening in a bid to appease the yellow vest protesters. Among the measures he announced was a rise in the minimum wage and a cut in taxes for pensioners. Macron gave a somber speech that was pre-recorded during the day in which he apologized to those people he may have offended with his words and said he accepted his part for the anger that has risen in the country. 'I may have given the impression that it wasn't my problem, that it wasn't my priority. I may have hurt some of you with my words,' said Macron. Among the concrete measures he announced was a €100 a month rise in the minimum wage (SMIC) from January 2019 and a scrap on taxes and social contributions for overtime hours worked. Macron said firms would not have to foot the bill for the increase in the minimum wage. The minimum wage was set at 1,498 euros per month pre-tax in 2018 and 1,185 euros after tax. He also announced that the worse-off pensioners, who had accused Macron of bleeding them dry, would see a cut in social contributions to leave them with more money each month. The cut in taxes would benefit those whose pensions were worth less than €2,000 a month. He also asked companies to give an end-of year bonus to their employees, that would not be subject to tax. 'My only concern is you. Our only battle is for France,' said Macron at the end of his speech that was delivered in a humble tone, as he sought to address criticism of his style of leadership. Macron did however refuse to bring back the fortune tax on the country's most wealthy, which had been the source of much anger. 'To reverse would weaken us,' said Macron adding that he would continue the fight against tax evasion. Macron abolished the old wealth tax which kicked in when assets, savings and real estate totaled more than €1.3 million and replaced it with a wealth tax that only applied to real estate, hoping it would free up cash for the wealthy to invest and create jobs. Many Gilets Jaunes protesters have demanded the old tax be restored but defending his reform Macron said: 'The tax existed for nearly 40 years. Did we live better during this period? The richest left and the standard of living went down,' he said. The president opened the speech by condemning the violence that had taken place across France over recent weeks. 'No anger justifies attacking a gendarme, or a police officer,' he said adding that he had given instructions to the government to be tough on those behind the violence. But Macron accepted that behind the violence lay 'anger and indignation' and 'legitimate' grievances. 'This anger is shared by many among us, by many French people,' said Macron. 'Their distress doesn't date from yesterday. We have ended up getting used to it,' he said. 'These are forty years of malaise that have come to the surface,' he added. 'Without doubt we haven't been able to provide a response that was strong or quick enough,' he said. • Many Gilets Jaunes will continue their protests. In fact, they listened and watched Macron's speech at their road blocks on roundabouts around the country. The Gilets Jaunes interviewed by French TV suggested they were not impressed and vowed to continue until Macron resigns. The problem is that many in the movement have become radicalized and are not prepared to stop because of a certain number of measures. Macron went further than many had expected, especially in ordering a 6% increase in the minimum wage, and he tried, not entirely convincingly, to adopt a more humble tone. He may have done enough to peel off part of the support for the Gilets Jaunes and to end the widespread sympathy for them in the wider population. But, even that is far from certain. As one Gilet Jaune said on French TV : "He cannot buy us with 100 euros." The movement is calling for another day of protests on Saturday. • • • THE GILET JAUNE MOVEMENT IS SPREADING -- AMERICA BEWARE. American Thinker's Rick Moran noted that while more than 5,000 yellow vest rioters in Paris faced off against 8,000 police as violent demonstrations broke out for the fourth straight weekend, "the media/government narrative that the protests were about a fuel tax hike fell apart on Saturday as the violence continued despite the government's rescinding of the fuel tax increase. If anything, the protests were bigger. • Moran said : "Violent protesters targeting national symbols is very, very bad news for France. It would be like ordinary Americans attacking the Washington Monument or Lincoln Memorial. France is sick and the government hasn't a clue how to effect a cure. Meanwhile, the 'fuel tax' protests spread to two other nations where the fuel tax is not an issue : Belgium and Netherlands. The Associated Press reported : 'The reasons for the protests are not entirely clear. Neither Belgium nor the Netherlands has proposed a hike in fuel tax -- the catalyst for the massive and destructive demonstrations in France in recent weeks. Instead, protesters appeared to hail at least in part from a populist movement that is angry at government policy in general and what it sees as the widening gulf between mainstream politicians and the voters who put them in power. Some in Belgium appeared intent only on confronting police.' " • Moran gave a word of advice to the AP : "Maybe this will give the media a clue : "In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, a few hundred protesters in the high-visibility vests that have become a symbol of the movement walked peacefully across the downtown Erasmus Bridge singing a song about the Netherlands and handing flowers to passers-by. Sisters Beb and Ieneke Lambermont, aged 76 and 67 respectively, were among them. 'Our children are hard-working people but they have to pay taxes everywhere. You can’t get housing anymore. It is not going well in Dutch society,' Ieneke said. 'The social welfare net we grew up with is gone,' she said. 'The government is not there for the people. It is there to protect its own interests,' she said." • Moran sees a warning for America in these sentiments : "Since 2010, the parties have alternated between victory and defeat with the GOP winning in 2010, 2014, and 2016 while Democrats won in 2012 and 2018. Voters are searching for answers that the politicians aren't giving them. The frustration level is building and there is no consensus -- no middle ground to find. It is either total victory or nothing. Americans are generally slow to anger but one can sense a palpable unease in most of the country, from urban centers to the heartland. Meanwhile, government continues to grow and with the Democrats now in charge of the House, it is only going to get bigger. Will the next economic downturn see Americans from both parties taking to the streets? I wouldn't rule it out at all." • • • PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY IS IN REAL TROUBLE. Money and Markets wrote on Monday : "UK’s May, Facing Defeat, Postpones Brexit Vote. British Prime Minister Theresa May looked set to postpone Parliament’s vote on her European Union divorce deal Monday to avoid a shattering defeat, throwing Brexit plans into chaos just weeks after Britain and the bloc finally reached an agreement. • PM May spoke in the House of Commons at 3:30 PM, announcing the postponement and admitting that she does not now have enough votes to get the Brexit agreement passed. • The Press Association news agency and other British media outlets said May decided to postpone the vote scheduled for Tuesday because "all signs have pointed to a big defeat for the prime minister in Tuesday’s vote -- a result that could sink May’s deal, her leadership, or both. The pound sank amid the political chaos, hitting an 18-month low against the US dollar of $1.2660." • The vote count problem arises because May's Conservative government does not have a majority in the House of Commons, and opposition parties -- as well as dozens of Conservative lawmakers -- say they will not back the divorce deal that May and EU leaders agreed upon last month. Britain is scheduled to leave the bloc on March 29. Pro-Brexit lawmakers say the deal keeps Britain bound too closely to the EU, while pro-EU politicians say it erects barriers between the UK and its biggest trading partner and leaves many details of the future relationship undecided. Ans Money and Markets explains : "The main sticking point is a 'backstop' provision that aims to guarantee an open border between EU member Ireland and the UK’s Northern Ireland post-Brexit. The measure would keep Britain under EU customs rules, and is supposed to last until superseded by permanent new trade arrangements. Critics say it could leave Britain tied to the EU indefinitely, unable to strike new trade deals around the world." • Postponing the vote gives May more time to seek concessions from the EU. She spoke over the weekend to European Council President Donald Tusk -- who will chair an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday -- and to European leaders including Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, amid signs she was seeking to tweak the deal to win over skeptical lawmakers. “Of course we can improve this deal, and the prime minister is seeking to improve this deal,” said British Environment Secretary Michael Gove. But EU leaders insist the Brexit withdrawal agreement can’t be changed. “The deal is the deal,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Monday. “It’s taken two years to put together. It’s a fair deal for both sides.” • In another twist in the Brexit tale, the European Union’s top court ruled Monday that Britain can change its mind over Brexit, boosting the hopes of British people who want to stay in the EU that the process can be reversed. The European Court of Justice ruled that when an EU member country has notified the bloc of its intent to leave, “that member state is free to revoke unilaterally that notification.” Britain voted in a 2016 referendum to leave the 28-nation bloc, and invoked Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in March 2017, triggering a two-year exit process. But a group of Scottish legislators had asked the ECJ to rule on whether the U.K. could pull out of the withdrawal procedure on its own. The Luxembourg-based ECJ said that, given the absence of any exit provision in Article 50, countries are able to change their mind in line with their own constitutional arrangements and that such a move “reflects a sovereign decision.” It said the British government is free to do so as long as no withdrawal agreement has entered force. Scotland’s Constitutional Relations Secretary Michael Russell described Monday’s ruling as “hugely important. People in Scotland overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU. This judgment exposes as false the idea that the only choice is between a bad deal negotiated by the UK government or the disaster of no deal.” May has repeatedly said the government will not seek to delay or reverse Brexit. Gove, who helped drive the Brexit campaign, said the court ruling would have no real impact, telling the BBC : “We don’t want to stay in the EU...so this case is very well, but it doesn’t alter the referendum vote or the clear intention of the government that we leave on March 29." • • • THE WARNING TO AMERICA SHOULD BE HEEDED BY THE RADICAL DEMOCRAT PROGRESSIVES. Fox News reported on Monday in an article by Liz Peek that : "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez promises that going green -- removing all fossil fuels from our energy mix -- will 'establish economic, social and racial justice in the United States.' In fact, her proposal would cripple our economy and hurt our poorest citizens. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has admirable passion, but needs some schooling in energy economics. The cost of renewable energy is dropping fast, but is still more expensive in many applications than traditional fossil fuels like coal or oil. That’s one reason that adoption of wind and solar power has been slow, and that many countries, including the United States, underwrite renewables with subsidies and tax credits. The International Energy Agency predicts in its 2018 report that 'the share of renewables in meeting global energy demand is expected to grow by one-fifth in the next five years to reach 12.4% in 2023.' The share of renewables remains low because wind and sun power are effective in producing electricity but not, for instance, in powering automobiles or airplanes. Renewables will generate nearly 30% of global electricity in 2023, a big jump from 24% in 2017, but will still account for only 3.8% of transportation fuel, compared to 3.4% in 2018. More important, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez should know that lower-income and minority communities in the US are disproportionately disadvantaged by higher energy costs. A 2016 study by the National Research Defense Council found that low income households 'spend, on average, 7.2% of their income on utility bills....That is more than triple the 2.3% spent by higher-income households for electricity, heating and cooling.' Were we to ditch coal, natural gas and oil in favor of higher- cost renewables, electricity prices would soar, especially harming just those folks whom the young progressive says she wants to help." • Ocasio-Cortez has more than adequately proven her lack of any practical understanding of either economics or government. And, she seems not to bother doing even a minimum or research. Liz Peek points out that : "Evidence of the staggering costs imposed by green policies is provided by other IEA data, which compares electricity costs in different countries. In the United States, the cost of electricity for households earlier this year was $129 per megawatt. In Germany, a country that leapt into renewables with enthusiasm, and imposed hefty taxes to squelch demand for fossil fuels, the cost is $343.59. Does Ms. Ocasio-Cortez really want to impose a near-tripling of electricity costs on Americans? Ms. Ocasio-Cortez might want to visit France, a sympathetic left-leaning country, which is currently convulsed by people who are really, really angry over recently-enacted green policies of the kind that she might embrace. President Emmanuel Macron raised taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline, hoping to make driving more expensive and thereby discourage fossil fuel use, setting off the worst rioting that country has seen in a generation. The lesson for Macron, for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and other policy makers is that people may be concerned about global warming and increasing emissions, but they are considerably more worried about making ends meet. It is not the high-income elites who are taking to the streets, breaking store windows and burning cars -- it is middle class and blue collar people who think Macron has no sympathy for their travails, for their ever-higher cost of living and, in particular, for the cost of their commute. Note that 70% of the French people support the protests, while at the same time 79% of the country, according to a poll conducted last year, fret about climate change. The lesson for Macron, for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and other policy makers is that people may be concerned about global warming and increasing emissions, but they are considerably more worried about making ends meet. Polling on the subject bears this out. While a global Pew study found that 54% of people in 40 countries thought that climate change was a 'very serious problem,' a survey conducted by the UN at about the same time, which elicited almost 7 million responses, showed people ranking climate change the least of their concerns. Global warming came in dead last behind better education, better health care, better job opportunities and thirteen other issues. Even in the US, where 6 of 10 respondents to the Pew poll say their community is already being impacted by climate change, the issue ranks 17th in a list of policy priorities." • And, environmentalists who love to bash President Trump please take note -- Liz Peek tells us that : "Because of abundant natural gas displacing coal, the United States is the only major country in which emissions have been dropping over the past decade. We are not the problem. It is China, whose carbon output is already nearly twice that of the US. A recent report from the Global Carbon Project blames a predicted rise in worldwide emissions this year on 'a rise in coal consumption in China, which accounts for more than 46% of the projected increase in industrial CO2 emissions in 2018. The US is blessed with abundant energy, an important competitive advantage. The Trump White House pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord because the demands of that agreement would have destroyed that advantage and hobbled our growth, while demanding virtually no commitments from China. Americans are sensible people. We want clean air and water, and we want to curtail the carbon emissions that appear a danger to our world. But, we do not want to sacrifice our economic well-being on the altar of climate dogma. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should be careful before promoting policies that would build a cleaner planet on the backs of American workers." • • • DEAR READERS, do not expect the Gilets Jaunes to go away quietly, planning how to spend their extra 100 euros per month. And, do not expect Prime Minister May to go away quietly, accepting defeat at the hands of a coterie of socialist-marxists under Labor leader Jeffrey Corbyn, who has no idea what the Brexit deal should look like or how to negotiate a "better" one, as he keeps promising. I expect Mrs. May to win at the end of the day -- because there is no better deal around the corner, and because bringing down the Conservative government would, as every conservative in Britain knows, cause the UK to enter into a period of economic decay that would make the Brexit deal look like the veritable goose that laid the golden egg. And, unlike Britain and the EU, France and its meandering president will be forced to give the Gilets Jaunes a better deal. And, Ocasio-Cortez is on her way to becoming the Mad Hatter of the radical socialist Democrat Left. Because there is power in numbers -- whether the numbers relate to energy costs, referendum votes, or French protesters.