DramatistDreamer

According to what I've read Macron started the party 14 months ago. It's funny though that Macron, for all intents and purposes would be considered a Centrist politically- which the U.S. voters seem not to want to vote for, at this time. Both Obama and Bill Clinton were considered Centrists and got roundly criticized toward the end of their terms for policies that were 'too centrist'. Obama, in particular, was not considered lefty enough, when in fact, Obama never claimed liberal status. Macron was to the right of the far left candidate, Melenchon, who the media often compared to Bernie Sanders. Everyone knows by now that Macron was much left of Le Pen, the right-wing candidate. Although Le Pen fared better in the Presidential election (in the 1st round anyway), this time around in National Assembly elections both Le Pen's and Melenchon's parties fared quite poorly in vote totals so far, which is why, in spite of there being another round on Sunday, the totals already forecast a majority by Macron's party. There are vast differences between the French and the U.S. electoral systems. France conducts more than one round and they don't have an Electoral College to contend with. France also tends to have much higher voter participation and the U.S. insists on curtailing voting to a weekday, while France always holds their elections on the weekend to allow the largest amount of people to participate. Also unfortunately, the U.S. has a history of voter suppression, which to my knowledge, France doesn't (in spite of its history of colonialism, racism, etc.). France doesn't allow as much outside $$, if any, to enter into its elections. It's not cheap to mount a campaign but by comparison in the U.S., I doubt that anyone could launch a truly competitive brand-new political party in less than 2 years that ends up sweeping elections. There would have to be many structural changes to how the U.S. conducts its elections before I could be confident that a similar phenomenon could happen. I'm not saying its impossible, I'm saying that many structural changes would need to be made for it to happen. JMO.

Pat Cash will now coach CoCo VandeTrump. Hopefully I'll have "alternative" matches to watch whenever they're onscreen.

@Roman, Whew @ Vicente Fox, he is merciless with the taunts and shade! That was FIRE! He is right about the sophistication of drugs being transported via the dark web and fyi about that, most of those labs producing the deadliest supply of opiods like fentanyl are actually located in China. Some of the most successful Mexican drug cartels use a system of tunnels (similar to ones El Chapo used to escape prisons) to transport narcotics. Those tunnels are comprised of a complex and vast system of underground tunnels, a few of which where excavated before the U.S. was a country! I also saw video of two teenagers who were able to scale the border wall faster than Spiderman! People need to be realistic and stop believing the hype of what Trump claims he can do. Whoop!

You're welcome. I think the decades of reluctance had to do with the fate of the last clergyman to openly align himself with poor folks, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lots of people admire him but I if any are honest, none want to meet his tragic fate. I'm glad that some are willing to step up despite the obvious risks. What I think will help is that this movement encompasses a diversity of people, rather than focusing on one person. This also makes it challenging to focus the movement but there tends to be safety and strength in numbers. On a slightly lighter, more absurd note- LOL

A Guardian article framed it as though Trump were scared to go to the U.K. in light of previous protests and opinion polls (so he does pay attention to the polls, huh?) from the British, the majority who stated that they thought he was "threat to global stability". There's a great deal of merit to this argument but in addition to that, it is also likely that Trump, consumed with "winning" doesn't want to be associated with "losers" right now and May and Farage/UKIP are viewed as the major losers of last week's elections. Trump can't coordinate anything with Corbyn who doesn't want him there, in the first place.

Emmanuel Macron's party, La République en Marche, looks poised to take a majority in the National Assembly. La République en Marche is a political party that Macron started less than 2 years ago. Wonder what Theresa May thinks of this. Speaking of Theresa May and the uncertainty in Great Britain, the British can take heart in one result of the disastrous results for the Conservatives, and UKIP (to some extent): Trump appears to be delaying his trip to the United Kingdom. I guess Trump may not want to be associated with May and Nigel Farage because they aren't 'killers' right now.

@rhinohide Thanks for link, I've got to take a listen sometime this week.

It's a huge achievement for Rafa, don't get me wrong but that match could not hold my attention unless you paid me to watch! The women's final was something of a mess for a set and a half but at least it didn't bore me! People want to moan about how the men deserve more money than the women but I was far more entertained by yesterday's women's final (mess and all) than by the sleep inducing final earlier today. In other news... Craig Kardon and CoCo Vandegweghe split. Kardon will now coach Donald Young. Good news that Young is more receptive to someone besides Mom and Pop coaching him. I don't know whether the final straw was losing to Ryan Harrison in the doubles final (probably not) but whatever it was, I wish Young the best.

Remembering your post last week, @GMac, I found this to be an interesting article, and it may interest you. I've been saying since last year that there are schisms rising within the Christian evangelicals, between those who have decided to cast their lots with Trump and those who refused. The breakaway evangelicals are young and more diverse and they are allied with religious liberals who had mostly stayed away from politics but found themselves so disgusted with Trump's policies that they have decided to become politically active. Religious Liberals Sat Out of Politics for 40 Years. Now They Want in the Game.

Announced this right before theRG final? LOL, Stan.

ESPN might also need as much Meldonium as Sharapova since they made a deal to stream Wimbledon qualies for the first time ever, pretty much based on the announcement that Sharapova had made that she would be playing qualifying. Oops. Does this mean that they won't try to back out of this though?

Sharapova is out of the entire grass season.

Some more good news, albeit lesser known, from the U.K. election. Election results: Record number of black, Asian and ethnic minority MPs elected to parliament

There is a high probability that Ostapenko could turn out to be an Ivanovic or a Majoli and there is the same likelihood that she'll have always have one major more than Halep will ever have. I'm not sure what Halep's problem is at this point and I'm no longer interested in finding out. Her ignorant remarks on equal prize money lead me to believe that perhaps she has a self-esteem issue. She's going to have to figure it out on her own and solve it. I'll be watching other players who actually know their worth and talk, act and play like it.

Told you I don't trust Simona Halep. Congratulations to Jelena Ostapenko who seized the title. Simona needs to shake Ilie Nastase loose, he's bad karma and her caping for him doesn't help her cause.

@DRW50 Sorry, I was being sarcastic with that comment about men and women being judged equally in politics. That has yet to happen in any industrial country's politics that I've ever read. Sorry if that didn't come through clearly. Also, as for Tony Blair, his election was as much of a reaction to John Major (who himself began on very positive footing) as any aspects of Blair's personality. He and the Labour party were regarded as a change from the previous party in power, The Tories and there were great hopes when Blair was first elected. One could even argue that Blair's presumed youth (he had a young family) was seen as more of an asset than his personality. I was in England during the end of John Major/Conservative's time and I also returned early in Blair/Labour's term. There was very much a hope and optimism that Blair would be part of a turnaround for the country that had been mired in scandal.

The assumption that male and female candidates are judged by the same criteria-- that would be a first. Blair is probably too busy counting his oil $$$$ to seek an entry back into British politics. So much the better. Also, I would think that both Cameron and Clegg being out on their as*es less than a year of each other would be some proof that for Brits, charisma being regarded as a major decision point in choosing a candidate is conditional upon other factors, they can take it or leave it. They're not Americans, who are regarded perennially insistant on having a beer with a candidate before they can vote for them.

Brits aren't Americans- the likeability factor only goes so far. This is a country that deferred to Thatcher for years, who was described as many things but likeable would not be one of them. I don't think you can paint British voters with the same brushstroke as Americans, especially in this case. The long and short of it is- May ran a "dreadful campaign" by all accounts, even some of her fellow Conservatives mentioned this. She was stiff and wooden on the campaign trail and dodged debates, while Corbyn tamped down any of his usual impulses to appear 'too lefty' and presented himself as a stable, approachable, sensible presence. The word "avuncular" was even used to describe Corbyn, at times. As for Ruud, she may be in line for another position within the Parliament, but as I watched the votes being tabulated and saw that she barely managed to keep her seat, that idea of her challenging May seems like a Tory fever dream. The DUP is likely the only party that would step up to form a coalition government with the Tories. I mean, look what happened to the Liberal Democrats (and Nick Clegg) last time they stepped into the void.

Gimelstob tweeted this out yesterday. No doubt, she likely carried that team to victory.

Speaking of the U.S. as a cautionary tale, some people quipped that images like this helped May and her party to lose votes/seats.

@JaneAusten I don't see May stepping down. She is already meeting with the Queen to try to form a government. Boris Johnson won't be selected because xenophobes are being pushed as far away from Parliament as possible, as evidenced by UKIP being practically locked out of Parliament with only 1.9 % of the vote. JMO, but that troll who suggested Johnson seems totally ignorant about what's been going on in the last few months and isn't worth listening to. I mean, they voted for Trump...need I say more? Said troll needs to 'stay in their lane' and continue to bury their head in the sand and spend their time making more excuses for Mango Mussolini's foolishness.

@Nothin'ButAttitude Please don't listen to trolls who don't know anything about what they're talking about.

Anna Soubry, a Conservative MP, in an interview with the BBC, just suggested that Theresa May might want to consider her position within the party. She said that the Tories ran a "dreadful" campaign. BBC seems to want to suggest that there may be calls with the Conservative party for May to resign. This may be a bit premature but there seems to be great uncertainty regarding May's status right now.

Hung Parliament: Q&A guide to what happens if no-one wins the election In 2010, there was a Hung Parliament and the Conservatives had to form a coalition government- they made a deal with the Liberal Democratic party.

I'm not in the U.K. but yeah if Conservative party lost, May would likely have to resign. Honestly, I'm not so sure of her status right now. Conservative is in the lead and they're expected to maintain it but Labour made a lot of gains. Most importantly, the Conservatives won't have a majority, which likely means a Hung Parliament.