SocraticGadfly: Prime ministerial and presidential news for the Fourth

July 04, 2024

Prime ministerial and presidential news for the Fourth

British voters are at the polls as I type, which, serious news followers and readers of this site know. Results will not be available until late tonight, British time, if not Friday morning, but we all know Labour is going to win. The question is, the margin. I think they still have an angle for 500 seats, but 550 sounds ridiculous. Many voters wanting options will vote for other parties.

Update, 5 pm Central time, US: CNN says exit polls say 410 Labour, 131 Tories. Good. That's a LOT of people voting outside the box, even allowing for Scottish Nationalist Party seats. 

Update 7:30 p.m.: The Guardian says the LibDems may have picked up more than 60 seats. Meh; see below. The SNP supposedly has had a poor showing, but Nigel Farange's Reform UK reportedly has outperformed the Conservatives in a number of places, either seconds behind Labour or perhaps some firsts. As of 9 p.m., they have at least two seats.

I mean, Labour and the Tories are the same on Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza. So are the LibDems, for that matter. So, that means Farange's nutters, Greens or smaller parties of the left or independent candidates. I'm curious what's going to happen there. With Labour, there's the question of how many marchers after New New Labour's Der Stramer vs old Corbynites will be in the division.

Also, per Twitter friend Rangzen, voting turnout was the lowest since Blair's original win, and around 60 percent. Remember that when Europeans, at least non-continental ones, attack Americans for not going to the polls.

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Macron just got his hat handed to him Sunday in the first round of voting in France's snap election. Already, per that story, his management team is doing a Biden about how well they expect to do in the second round, etc.

It's almost surely headed to cohabitation, but, unlike the previous one 20 years ago, the further left and further right say that defense and foreign policy will NOT remain in the hands of the president. Translation? Different tack on Ukraine.

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Jill Stein got federal matching funds. (Will she use it to buy more Exxon stock?) There is a twist that she can't get it until August, conveniently not until the duopoly conventions:

Just after emailing that our matching funds would soon be on the way, the FEC oddly sent a second email claiming no payments could be made until August, after the nominating conventions. (This is allegedly to allow the FEC to determine whether candidates will apply for matching funds for the general election.)

Yeah, that IS stupid.

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But, the FEC is nowhere as stupid as Brainworm Bobby's stupidity.

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And, will #DementiaJoe have a "good day" or "bad day" with George Stephanopoulos tomorrow in an interview that will now NOT just be excerpted on the evening news but run in its entirety tomorrow night? If it's a bad day, what excuse(s) will the White House have? If it's a good day, what claims of deepfaking or similar will MAGAts have?

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