The world isn’t getting any better, Jay, but it may be getting sillier: Back when Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a big swingin’ deal on the Russian neo-imperialist scene, he had a birthday party at which he was presented with two symbolic gifts: a sword and a globe. The message was lost on no one.

Marine Le Pen, in contrast, took advantage of her Covid downtime to become a professional cat lady. No sword, no globe, but a genuine diploma in cat-breeding. That is a thing that exists.

I wouldn’t bet on Le Pen, because France is not the daffy cat lady of European countries — with all due respect, Spain is.