It took so long to write this the results came out. Data below is my translation from Tasnim (IRGC news agency).
By 8:20 Saturday, 58,640 branches from 482 counties counted a total of 24,535,185 votes
Candidate Votes Pezeshkian 10,415,991 Jalili 9,473,298 Ghalibaf 3,383,340 Pourmohammadi 206,397
This would take Pezeshkian and Jalili to a second round, held this Friday.
Lmfao the announced numbers are all multiples of three :DDD the odds of that happening on coincidence is hysterically low.
Voter turnout is up in France’s legislative elections. Regardless of the final number it appears lots of people will be voting.
https://www.ipsos.com/fr-fr/legislatives-2024/legislatives-2024-le-direct
Hopefully this wouldn’t backfire. Journalists apparently had the hots for Dishy Rishi back in 20’ so the idea of Rishi manwhoring himself out might turn some voters on. He’s like the Duke of Hastings had the mind of Frank Underwood.
Then again, if the sexiest candidate always won, Buttigieg would be President right now. Which actually wouldn’t be that bad.
After spending last week legalizing bribery and gutting the administrative power of the federal government, our illegitimate Supreme Court has ruled that presidents have “absolute” immunity for official acts, but not for unofficial acts and when there is a question as to which is which, the courts should default to immunity.
They also limited the evidence that can be introduced in trial when it arises from acts that are determined to be official, meaning, as I understand it, that Jack Smith’s election interference case in particular may have just gotten a lot harder to prove.
From the conclusion of Justice Sotomayor’s dissent:
Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop.
With fear for our democracy, I dissent
And Justice Jackson:
The majority of my colleagues seems to have put their trust in our Court’s ability to prevent Presidents from becoming Kings through case-by-case application of the indeterminate standards of their new Presidential accountability paradigm. I fear that they are wrong. But, for all our sakes, I hope that they are right.
In the meantime, because the risks (and power) the Court has now assumed are intolerable, unwarranted, and plainly antithetical to bedrock constitutional norms, I dissent.
The ruling is here, if you’re in the mood for self-flagellation.
(I’ll also add that this is a big, complex ruling with a lot of nuance and people a lot smarter than I am are still debating and trying to figure out what exactly this all means.)
On the plus side, Steve Bannon is officially in prison.
I am glad I’m Canadian. It’s not perfect here, but this is a different level of stupidity.
Just to test this decision: if, completely hypothetically, Biden has Trump over for tea at the White House tonight and shoots him in the head, would Biden have immunity from Trump’s assassination?
And would the scenario change whether Biden personally shoots Trump or authorises a soldier to do so?
Judging by Sotomayer’s dissent, it seems like at least your latter example is within the President’s power, according to this ruling:
The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.
Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.
I say Biden should go ahead and commit a crime and interfere with Republican elections in one of the red states, then pardon himself. If the republicans want to take it to the Supreme Court, they’d have to rule whether a president can pardon themselves. If they say no, then if Trump wins he can’t pardon himself for things this latest ruling doesn’t cover. If they say a president can pardon themselves, then the republicans can’t do anything about Biden interfering with their elections. Give it a try, what’s there to lose?
How about we go the opposite route and ban convicted felons from running for President?
What a radical idea.
No way you would find a majority for this.
Rudy’s been disbarred in New York. 
Good, fuck ‘im.
British election on Thursday. Considering this is almost certainly the end of the 14 year long reign of the Conservative party, you would think this could see rise to a positive or hopeful election. Perhaps give rise to something like Obama’s “hope” when he won the 2008 election. But to me, the mood of this election is one of weariness and hopelessness. The Conservatives are going to lose to Labour not because Kier Starmer is a force of charisma, or that Labour are offering a truly awe inspiring vision.
Instead, we have a Labour party that after being brutually defeated in 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn has instead lurched further towards the right, and is doing everything possible to be as safe as possible to voters. The immigration issue? Yeah we need to stop the boats. Trans people right for existence and dignity? No, we’re going to throw them to the curb, probably because the bean counters told them it was safer vote wise. Two child limit cap on benefits? Keeping that in despite the misery it causes for larger poor families.
Labour is utilising something called the “ming vase” strategy, a metaphor of Starmer having to walk a slippery floor carrying a ming vase, to be as careful as possible, not to do anything risky until the ming vase, aka the election, has been delivered. Who knows, perhaps Starmer will be a bit braver once in office, similar to how Biden has seen to deliver some surprising progressive policies after being seen as a very safe choice in the 2020 US election.
Really though, I just wonder who this is for in the end. It takes the Conservatives to drive the country into the fucking ground just so we get a meek opposition to win an election basically by default? A safe Labour party isn’t going to stop those on the right from demonising, exagerrating, and outright lying about how bad and “”““radical””“” a Labour government will be. The Daily Mail in particular makes it sound like the coming of a communist revolution, repeating Boris Johnson’s lies that this will be the most left wing government since the end of the Second World War (which I highly doubt), and the claim that Labour will somehow be in power for a generation. Not sure how that works, they going to get rid of democracy then? Being safe doesn’t work in the face of bald faced liars. Interestingly, Murdoch’s papers are being quite neutral. The Sunday Times has come out in favour of Labour, but The Sun, a paper that has boasted that it has backed the winners of every election since 1979, has so far not made an endorsement, and headlines have mostly avoided the election, instead focusing on stuff like current sport. The Sun especially seems to be a paper that tries to reflect the mood of its mostly working class readers, so the fact it hasn’t backed the Tories, but hasn’t backed Labour either, or may do so last minute relucatantly, feels like a testament of how Starmer isn’t very popular, but backing the Tories risks looking incredibly out of touch. (And while writing this, The Sun’s headline for Wednesday has just come out, with them looking like they are just going to be completely neutral by shouting out Sunak, Starmer, and Farage.)
And ofcourse, the other issue, is the looming appearance of Nigel Farage. Depending on how Thursday goes, there is a chance he could be the true real winner of the election. Yes, his party, UKIP, sorry, I mean The Brexit Party, sorry, I mean Reform, won’t win. And thanks to our First Past the Post voting system, it’s doubtful they’ll win many seats, only in areas with the thickest of their support. UKIP in 2015 won 12.6% of the vote but only 1 out of 650 seats in parliament. But it was UKIP’s support, alot of draining the Tory vote that saw David Cameron gamble on the Brexit vote, and lose badly. You’d think achieving Brexit would see the end of Farage’s relevance (Newzoids was making fun of this back in 2016 by portraying him as a zombie who simply won’t die.) But he’s still around, and still a threat of the far right gaining traction. The worst consequence of this election isn’t Reform becoming a legitimate party, it’s that Farage proves his usefulness as a politician and shows his worth. There is a chance he could become the leader of the next Conservative party. Afterall, with a defeat almost certain, a ton of Tory brass aren’t even bothering to stand at the next election, we really have no idea who will replace Sunak. And since those further in the right seek to emulate Farage’s success, right not just make him leader? It’s sadly possible. And even if that doesn’t happen, it seems like the press loves to feature him, despite his lack of electoral relevance. I’m tired of him being enabled.
As for myself, I live in a Scottish constituency near Edinburgh. In 2019, the SNP won my seat with 36.2% of the vote, with Labour getting 29.5% of the vote, and Conservatives getting 26.5% of the vote. (Although this seat is no longer SNP because our MP defected to Alba. Got to love how changing parties doesn’t immedietly require a by-election, especially for a party run by Alex Salmond who had a show on Russian state TV and now currently has a show on Turkish state TV.) Needless to say, this is not a safe seat, and voting does matter here. I think I will be putting my vote for Labour, I want to absolutely ensure that SNP and Conservatives do not win this seat. I could vote third party but I fear it would be ineffective. But it does mean I’m voting for a party that I am not happy with on several fronts. Not ideal.
I’m just tired man. I just want things to get better and to stop demonising foreigners and trans people.
Sorry man, but only an absolute global upheaval is ever going to be able to drive things completely in another direction. Until then, it’ll all continue to get incrementally worse with brief pauses to take a breath. And everyone who tries to offer the people a solution? As the late great George Carlin said: “If you think there’s a solution, you’re part of the problem.”
This has been such a terrible week that not even this can bring a fleeting smile to my face.
We are fucked. – The Non Deplorables
I can’t be the only one who completely forgot the election is in 2 days right?
