Queensland, USA

Whoever wins the U.S. election, Queensland state election 

results show MAGA fever is already a winner here.

 

Major news outlets have templates for a bunch of predictably upcoming stories ready to go. For elections, they'll have rundowns of campaigns and leaders for all the major players ready to publish for all foreseeable outcomes. For notable public figures in their declining years, they'll have obituaries and public tributes drafted, just needing to slot in the applicable date the person in question departs this earthly life. In the U.S., the mass shooting draft is ready to go at a moment's tragic notice. It's standard journalistic practice, enabling news sources to research the background info in more sedate times and enabling them to get the story out faster when it breaks.

After the Liberal National party won today's state election in Queensland, journalists there may wish to draft a future article: "She voted LNP. Then she needed an abortion". Because we've got a pretty good idea how this will go. 

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Dave Grohl for President, 2024

 The first of the 2024 presidential debates just got done, and ouch. I'm not going to analyse the thing because like most of you I couldn't bear to watch more than a few minutes. Trump was exactly how we expected; a torrent of off topic "falsehoods" (it's okay, legacy media, you can say "lies"). There's nothing to be done there. The big worry is Joe Biden. He seemed markedly aged even in the last few months; confused, rambling, frail. It's the sort of decline that happens in the latter years of life, sometimes very quickly. But it's not great for a commander in chief; I'm not even sure he'd be safe to drive if driving was something presidents ever did. I don't see how the Democrats can deny that Biden has to go. It's Joever.

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Getting the disability pension is much harder (and more ridiculous) than you think

We like to think Australia has a semi-functional welfare system, which most people assume includes that those with disability are supported if they can't work. But it's so much harder than people think, with Kafkaesque twists and turns even the strongest of us are barely able to navigate.

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How anti-trans BS gets its wings

Anti trans groups cloak their bigotry in pseudo science, and rely on mainstream media too lazy or underfunded to fact check to get their word out. In truth they've adopted the SOP of Qanon, and deserve about as much credibility.

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Terror of Modern Policing

 You could almost feel sorry for NSW Police. Like their brother cops in the U.S., they've been granted all this military grade equipment, but our thin blue line lacks even the excuse of an armed citizenry to use it against. 

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What God would want 12 year old priests?

Gnocchi Nico I prepared earlier

Last night, after Mr G and I finished another sublime dinner (I know - I cooked it) he rose to take the plates into the kitchen, and I said while you're in there, after you rinse and stack can you wipe the benches. 

He emerged a few minutes later and wiped down the table where we'd just eaten. I said thanks, the table needed that, but can you also wipe the benches. I think he nodded. 

Some time later I went into the kitchen and saw the benches were wilfully, obstinately unwiped; the jars of salt, pepper, thyme, cayenne, and the 83 other herbs and spices I put into every meal were still out, and there was a glob of olive oil, a couple of bits of broken spaghetti, an unwashed knife, and various other detritus one would expect from an enthusiastic but imprecise cook still on the bench. I try to clean up as I go, but I also like listening to podcasts and loud music while I cook and sometimes things get away from me. And in any case, I had delegated final cleaning duties for this evening. Seeking to ascertain where was the weak link in the chain of command, I grilled my subordinate. "I thought I told you to wipe the benches."

"I did."

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Sort of book review - The Death of a President and the pre-history of childhood

The Death of a President, William Manchester's semi-official account of the Kennedy assasination, had a turbulent journey to publication. In the wake of JFK's death, the Kennedy family, realising a deluge of books about the assassination was surely on the way, commissioned Manchester, a journalist who knew and liked Kennedy and whose work the family approved of, to write the official account of the events. Manchester duly spent three years researching and writing the book, interviewing all the key players including Robert and Jacqueline Kennedy. But as publication approached, the Kennedys, deciding the book was unflattering to them, and furious Manchester had sold the serialisation rights, attempted to block publication. They were unsuccessful in this endeavour, allowing us 60 years on to read this sanitised and simpering account of the days leading up to and immediately after Kennedy's death, as seen in the mores of the time. I can't even remember what motivated me to pick this up; the Kennedy assassination isn't a topic that's ever interested me much before, despite the opportunity it offers for endless deep diving and speculation. But reading this now, it's more unflattering that the Kennedys ever realised, and disturbed me for reasons that have nothing to do with who shot why where when. 

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