Following upon the heels of Joe Biden attending a meeting of NATO’s “eastern flank” partners, colloquially known as “the Bucharest-9”, and against the backdrop of China stepping into the picture with “no separation” support for Russia, the Pentagon is noting the anniversary of the Ukraine conflict by indicating additional U.S. troops maybe needed on the NATO eastern flank.

It is important to mention that Ukraine is NOT a NATO country.  The U.S. and Western media tend to avoid noting this uncomfortable fact, but NATO has no obligation to defend Ukraine.  Some might ask why NATO is even involved at all.

With that in mind, France 24 notes there is a possibility of a brigade sized reinforcement group inbound to this region [LINK HERE].  The Pentagon press release is below:

(Pentagon) – […] In response to the most urgent danger to European security since the end of World War II, we have moved swiftly with our allies to further unify and strengthen NATO. The Alliance has bolstered its defenses on the Eastern Flank. Meanwhile, the United States has deployed or extended more than 20,000 additional U.S. forces to Europe and forward-stationed the first permanent U.S. forces on NATO’s Eastern Flank. NATO is more united than ever, and the U.S. commitment to defend every inch of allied territory remains ironclad.

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The team at Rumble Video have taken a strong position in defense of free speech, an open internet and protection of a diverse public square.

Apparently, the French government demanded that Rumble remove content the government does not support. [Source] Rumble said no.

Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski then followed up delivering a statement via Twitter: “The French Government has demanded that Rumble (@rumblevideo) block Russian news sources. Like @elonmusk, I won’t move our goal posts for any foreign government. Rumble will turn off France entirely (France isn’t material to us) and we will challenge the legality of this demand.”

Pavlovski and Rumble being transparent and making the demand from the French government public raises a few questions.

Rumble said ‘no’, but who said ‘yes’?

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It is quite remarkable to consider that almost 100% of these global issues could immediately disappear if the far-left ideologues behind Joe Biden would just unleash the American energy sector.  Alas, the seemingly religious cult of climate ideology will not allow it…. therefore we get these bizarre outcomes.

The U.S. has economic sanctions against oil exports from Iran, Venezuela and now Russia.  The EU is economically collapsing under their inability to power their economies without energy products, a specific outcome of the latest NATO and EU sanctions against Russia.

The green energy programs in the EU cannot sustain the needs of the population.  As a result, German Chancellor Olaf Schultz and French President Emmanuel Macron are asking Joe Biden to lift sanctions against Iran and Venezuela and let Iranian and Venezuelan oil replace the missing Russian oil.  Again, none of this would be needed if the U.S. just developed more oil and gas domestically; but Biden won’t change policy.

(Reuters) – The international community should explore all options to alleviate a Russian squeeze of energy supplies that has spiked prices, including talks with producing nations like Iran and Venezuela, a French presidency official said on Monday.

Venezuela has been under U.S. oil sanctions since 2019, and could reroute crude if those restrictions were lifted.  Indirect talks between Iran and the United States to revive a nuclear deal that could see sanctions on Tehran lifted and its oil exports resume have been on hold since March, but are due to resume in Doha soon.

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Quite a remarkably telling situation when the foreign leaders of France and Canada begin to think they have some political responsibility to deliver their opinions on decisions within the United States government.

Yes, their pronouncements are fraught with stupidity considering their own national laws on abortion were/are much more stringent than the United States, but that belies the point of their insufferable arrogance.  The globalist outlook is structured around their own sense of importance.

The protestations from Macron are particularly ridiculous since France has a legal limit of 14 weeks for abortion [LINK].

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the same man who forced all women in Canada to undergo a vaccine requirement or remove themselves from society, took the hypocrisy of his own “women’s health” policy one step further than Macron.

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The French parliamentary elections were held Sunday and delivered a surprising result for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party.   The RN won 89 seats, far beyond what would be needed (15 seats) to have a consequential impact in the assembly.

FRANCE – […] The results would severely tarnish Mr. Macron’s April presidential election victory where he defeated the far-right to be the first French president to win a second term in over two decades. 

The expected number of seats for Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (90) amounts to a historic breakthrough. Only once under the Fifth Republic had the far right passed the threshold to form a group in the Assemblée (15 MPs), which allows for certain parliamentary resources and prerogatives.

The only time this happened was in 1986, when Ms. Le Pen’s father Jean-Marine Le Pen led a group of Front National MPs for two years. They were elected in the only ever legislative elections using proportional representation.

[…] Falling short of the majority forces Mr. Macron into tricky partnerships with other parties on the right to force through legislation.  There could now potentially be weeks of political deadlock as the president seeks to reach out to new parties. The most likely option would be an alliance with Les Republicans LR.

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The biggest election with global significance is taking place today in France as Marine Le Pen (economic nationalist) challenges current President Emmanuel Macron (economic globalist).  The world is watching this one, because if Le Pen can win it would be seismic in political consequence.

Current voter turnout is recorded as moderate (63% range) with rural areas running higher turnout than urban areas.  Forecasters were predicting around 71% voter turnout.   GBNews is on the ground with a report:

Marine Le Pen is a long shot.  If she wins it would be massive.

We will not know the early results for a few more hours, around 4pm ET.  Some other data below…..

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One week from tomorrow the presidential election in France will be decided.  Polls put the race between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron in a statistical dead heat, and combined with the recent Hungary election outcome – that has many bureaucrats in the EU very twitchy.

No doubt this race would have major ramifications if Marine Le Pen could end up victorious.  Factually, the Western alliance military operation in Ukraine could fundamentally change.  A post-COVID shift toward increased nationalism in France and the European Union would be very problematic for the forward plans of the professional political class and corporate globalists.

ASSOCIATED PRESS – […] If Macron falters in France’s April 24 presidential runoff between the two, the far-right could be at the helm of the European Union, an abhorrent idea to most leaders in the bloc.

Experts say a win for Le Pen would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the EU. Not only would her coming to power damage the democratic values and commercial rules of the bloc, but it would also threaten the EU’s common front and sanctions in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

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As expected, in the France election no candidate achieved 50% of the vote.  That sets up a runoff election fifteen days from now to determine who will be the next president.  Reuters Article Here – Guardian/MSM Article Here

In the primary race the final results are not yet announced; however, current President Emmanuel Macron has approximately 28% of the vote, and challenger Marine Le Pen has around 24% of the vote.  No other candidate was close enough to change the top two outcome.

In the head-to-head matchup, the race is essentially tied, well within the margin of polling error (as above).  Interestingly, Le Pen has flipped the 18-to-34-year age bracket and now holds majority support in the younger voting bloc.  Perhaps, due to young French citizens feeling the outcomes of the professional political left thirsting for unilateral power during COVID.

There was around a 65% voter turnout according to most early analysts.  The general election is essentially a coin toss based on the current polling.  The final vote to determine the winner will take place April 24th.  It will be a very closely watched event by leaders around the world.  A Le Pen victory would be seismic in the world of politics, akin to Trump’s victory in 2016, and that outcome is a strong possibility.

The professional political left are apoplectic.

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Last weekend, it was the Hungarian election that surfaced as the first contest between globalism -vs- nationalism in the “post-COVID” era.  This weekend, it is the election in France that will indicate how the French people feel about similar issues of the totalitarian, fascist or corporate state, i.e. “globalism.”

There are a multitude of parties and coalitions in France represented by multiple candidates.  However, if no candidate wins 50% of the total vote tomorrow, only the top two candidates will advance to the second round national election on April 24th.  Those top two candidates are likely to be current French President Emmanuel Macron (globalist wing) and Marine Le Pen (nationalist wing).

Currently Macron holds around 25% and Le Pen around 23% (individually) for the first round, with multiple candidates holding smaller percentages of the remaining vote.  Therefore, it is almost certain that Macron and Le Pen will advance to a head-to-head matchup on April 24th.  That’s when things will really become important for the larger battle of globalism v nationalism.

The two candidates have faced off before, however, this time the pandemic response by Emmanuel Macron could likely tilt the election in favor of Le Pen.

SIDEBAR – I predict we will see Barack Obama enter the French presidential election again, as an influence agent, between Monday of next week and April 24th, just as he did the last time in order to try and convince the French people to stick with Macron.  Foreign interference in national elections (think Russia interfering in U.S. elections) is a horrible thing, a terrible threat to democracy, except when the U.S. globalists need it.

When the U.S. leftists, Democrats, need to influence the Canadian election, suddenly election interference is a good thing.  When the Democrats need to influence the Mexico election, no big deal. When the U.S. leftists need to influence the French election, or Egyptian election, or Israeli election, or U.K. election, no biggie, no biggie, no biggie.  Their hypocrisy is boundless when they know the media will let them pretend not to know things.  Watch for it, I’ll bet one donut the U.S. will pull out all the stops to support Macron. I digress…back to the point of current France.

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Behind the headline is a qualifier that most will miss. “We will urge the companies affected not to follow Putin’s demand.”  The problem for the G7 political leaders is that most of the transactions are between private companies.  The heads of the U.S, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and the U.K, can stake a position, but the ultimate decision around the transaction in the hands of the private company buyers.

Russia can set the terms.  Whether the G7 political leaders shout ‘breach of contract‘ is seemingly a moot point.  In the big picture, the politicians have already breached the terms of prior trade agreements with sanctions.  Russia can turn off the supply or demand payment in rubles as terms of sale.

BERLIN (AP) — The Group of Seven major economies agreed Monday to reject Moscow’s demand to pay for Russian natural gas exports in rubles.

German energy minister Robert Habeck told reporters that “all G-7 ministers agreed completely that this (would be) a one-sided and clear breach of the existing contracts” for natural gas, which is used to heat homes, generate electricity and power industry.

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