Jara

Just listening to Planet America - looks to me like there may well be enough in the early votes and postals to get Biden over the line - if the Supremes let him.

Fair enough - in part. The Dems may well have done the same thing - who knows? - but it's a bit rich to say it's irrelevant. It demonstrates that the Republicans are unmitigated hypocrites and liars - look at the contradictory statements of Mitch McConnell in 2016 and in 2018. Hypocrisy may be irrelevant to you, but it's not to me. Edited - oops - Hardtack - we crossed in mid-air, re the liar McConnell

Hey Trisul, have a look at this clip: 2016, Cruz saying they can't replace a SC judge in an election year, 2020 saying they have to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_hxRPeb1iI

Each to their own, but I'm thrilled to be seeing two Victorian teams in the GF. State needs a boost. At least this way it's guaranteed that one large group of supporters will be happy.

The '10' was rhetorical - I can't be bothered doing the maths, but any system which gives 40 million people the same number of representatives as 500,000 is weird. That said, it's their country, they can do what they like with it. Trouble is, it tends to mean they do what they like with us - elect people who do nothing about climate change, foe example, which threatens us all. Plus they elect Trump, which threatens the contents of my stomach. Catholics? Each to his own, although having grown up one, I'm a bit suspicious, especially of the sort of creepy cult Barret is a member of (we've got our own local variations - I've seen em up close - too close for comfort, really - I grew up in one of the slummier areas of Melbourne - pervo priests everywhere) Working class? I'm one of them.

feel free to howl me down

Yes, I know about ours - I've grown up with it - but all I was saying was that I was surprised how weird America's was - it's ten times worse than ours. It's why they get all these redneck yokels in positions of power. I mean - California and Wyoming same number of senators, and they choose which fundamentalist Catholic gets to sit on the Supreme Court? Jeez... I'm sure it's not news to a man of the world like your good self, but it was to me.

I'm surprised Trump isn't more sympatico, being a person of colour (orange) himself.

Well I don't know- you're the one who used such unpleasant terminology as 'snake' and 'lying little piece of work' - - I thought you might have a reason for such language. Given that you couldn't come up with one, I can only assume the worst.

Great comment. The people who feel that instinctive dislike of Harris (like calling her a snake simply because she side-stepped a question about the Supreme court, or Trump calling her a 'monster') do so for one reason: she's an eloquent, forthright woman of colour.

"Comes across to me...'? Hard to argue with that. The Supreme Court? A break, please....I see politicians not directly answer questions every day of the week - doesn't mean they're snakes. I'd say Trump is afraid of her. Funny how her main achievement thus far has been drilling Gorsuch. Now, because of Trump's stacking the Court, he could well be sitting in judgement of her becoming Veep. American political system is weird. I hadn't realized how weird until I read about the Senate. I knew it was a State's rights House but my god - every State gets two senators? Really? So every redneck just about gets his own senator (Wyoming - pop. 500,000 gets as many as California - pop. 44 million) ? I realize that was what they had to do to bring a group of disparate colonies together in 1776 but it's certainly weird. Stack away, I reckon.

Just catching up with this thread. Each to his own, I suppose, but I don't get it. Why is Kamala Harris a 'snake'? A 'lying little piece'? What are you basing that on? (I'd hardly even heard of her until a few months ago)

Well if you insist, but they are rather intimately connected.

Obviously, for the reasons I outlined above: the businesses paid by the Morrison Government to protect the elderly put their own profits above the lives of those in their care.

Hey Wrecker - thanks. Hope you and yours are well. Sure, I realize it sprang from the quarantine hotels - all I'm saying is that the poor management of the for-profit aged care system was largely responsible for the spread into the places where the vast majority of the deaths occurred. Morrison can't just bury it in the sausages. We know people working in aged care - sounds frightening - no PPE (a friend of my daughter's was told she had to supply her own PPE - in May!) - no infection training, no RNs on duty, staff who'd only done a 6-week course, casual hours - all so that a handful of ASX-listed companies could make a profit. I'm not excusing Andrews one iota - most amazing thing - I said on another post - my wife works in Emergency at a public hospital - they still haven't all got individually-fitted masks - (they're being phased in, but it's taking ages to fit all the staff) - can you believe it? Virus has only been raging here for seven months...

Hey Wrecker Hope you're doing well. Are the death rates really that similar? Some numerate person might want to do the maths (sorry, I'm hopeless - most embarrassing) - we've lost 800 out of 6.5 million, they've lost 215,000 out of 328 million - theirs looks about three-times worse to me. Also, don't forget that 80% of the Victorian deaths happened in for-profit aged care homes for which the Morrison Government had responsibility for infection control. In the Andrews-controlled aged care homes there were no deaths. (no way am I denying that the Andrews government was largely responsible, but I don't want people to forget Morrison's role. As it stands, Andrews is crucified 24/7 by the Murdoch hacks, while Morrison gives a quick 'oh, sorry bout that', then gets back to the sausage sizzle) The relevant Liberal Minister won't talk to the press, and Morrison wouldn't allow his staff to even appear at the Ruby Princess inquiry.

....me

This is the best part of it for me. Especially Scully. Hopefully this means the filthy liar will finish his disgustingly overpaid career without a premiership.

Goal of the year and mark of the year.

My only problem with the article was its calling Fox a 'news organization'. If that's a news organization, so was Goebbels's Der Angrif. The only reason I won't be happy to see the end of Murdoch is because Lachlan is said to be even worse.

How bout some Iso strategies? Ours include: 1) Break out the games. With my family, that includes pumping up the footy, putting up the billiard and table tennis tables and getting out the frisbee (we live right in the bush, so plenty of room at our own place). 2) Youngest daughter started up an online Iso-garden group with her friends: figure we'll be needing fresh vegies pretty soon. 3) Starting a family bird-watching and plant ID journal. Any other ideas welcome. Hopefully we'll still be sane when this thing wears itself out.

Well said, Frankie. Weird as we are, we're a mob. And like Moonshadow said, stay home. Physical isolation doesn't have to mean social isolation. And tell the bludgers you see out there to keep their distance. My wife is a nurse in an Emergency Department - we were rapt to see they've closed the pubs and clubs - they're putting her life at risk just so they can get smashed.

good luck, mate - hope it doesn't get you down

It's an elephant in a matchbox

Thanks, Bing. I was wondering about that (I only saw the headline from The Oz quoted by our colleague Jakovitch) - I guessed it was something like that - I've seen quite a few people charged over the years - mostly just dimwits who don't even know what a TFB is - or people who know nothing about fire - burn waste and don't realize it will still be smouldering the next day. We always report them to the police these days. You also get kids around poorer housing estates (the fires I saw last week were believed to be in the latter category) - the real mad arsonists (see Chloe Hooper's book The Arsonist) aren't that common. I've noticed a lot of coverage about this recently (eg on 3AW this evening) . Overall, I suspect it's just another weapon in the deniers' armoury for deflecting the blame - ie it's not climate change, it's arsonists - or exploding cow poo - or greenies.