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@guest2 As I just explained, I said it CAN go rogue, not that is HAS gone rogue.

And yeah, you can be in a 5 year relationship and not really know someone, millions of people can attest to that. If we want to make strides in addressing domestic violence and family violence we need to see each person in a relationship as an individual. Assuming that Gladys is corrupt because her partner is is a terrible precedent, and something that would never happen if the genders were reversed.

@gypsy while Barnaby Joyce is still in parliament, I can’t see the way Gladys is being interrogated as anything but sexist. He actively abused his power to have an affair and the government stood by him.

I think some of these are just Melania at the low point between injections. But the short one holding his hand is entirely unconvincing.

Poor Melbourne, and poor Dan having to constantly cop backlash for making the only responsible choice. Another cluster just now is such rotten luck.

I didn’t say the electoral college had gone rogue, just that there’s no legal reason why it can’t, which is a massive design issue. And I don’t really care what a bunch of men thought would work a few hundred years ago, what’s important is whether it’s fit for purpose today. And when you look at the state of the US, past presidencies and this shambles of an election it’s pretty clear that the system is clunky and unnecessary at best, and at worst it suppresses voters from marginalised groups and focuses the election on a few swing states, to the detriment of the rest of the country.

@guest2 yes it’s a bad idea in Australia as well, as is our tiered state funding system. These are well acknowledged issues with the system.

@gypsy I don’t think it’s a great idea to judge people based on their partner, nothing good lies that way. But more that that, I think Scomos job is to work with the premiers rather than to get involved in state politics. He should back off Dan rather than laying into Gladys.

@mamamia-user-482898552 but in your desire to treat Jacinda like a male politician, you're ignoring the fact that empathy is actually a powerful leadership skill. I think most politicians would be much better at their jobs if they had empathy, and were able to connect with people. We aren’t going to make the world better for women by discounting what they can bring to a role and trying to fit them into a man-shaped mould.

And he’s actually genuinely great at getting things done in the senate, if he gets in Republicans will work with him in ways they never did with Obama because they’re racist AF. In that sense he could set things up well for Kamala to take over with minimal backlash.

@laura__palmer Biden was the only choice that Trump wouldn’t be able to decimate. He’s not at all inspiring, but he is Teflon to all Trumps scaremongering and allegations. His profile was high enough and bland enough to survive all the mud Trump would sling. He’s also a uniquely great choice during Covid, because he has so much credibility as being an guy who cares’, though they couldn’t have known that when they selected him.

Bernie was the only other real option but Trump would have convinced the country that he would be the socialist end of the world. And Bernie doesn’t win himself any friends, he can’t appeal to the middle (personally I think his policies are more than reasonable, even though he’s an odious old man with a saviour complex ). Elizabeth Warren also lacked the charisma to appeal to more than a fringe group. There’s definitely a missing generation of talent in the Dems.

@mamamia-user-604996320 a child is incapable of making an adult decision, that’s why we call them adult decisions.

Based on the examples you’ve listed it seems clear that you prefer conservative politicians. That’s fine, but it doesn’t mean that the way people respond to Jacinda is invalid just because you don’t feel the same way.

@mamamia-user-482898552 and yet, almost everyone would name the gun reforms after Port Arthur as Howard’s most significant political achievement.

There have been 5 presidents who weren't the person who received the most votes- that should concern anyone from any side of politics.

@guest2 the system didn’t work well in 2000 when Bush’s brother called Florida for him and he was therefore declared the winner, although the vote was actually for Gore. The EC system means that you can win a state by 10 votes and yet get 16 electoral college votes, as if it was a resounding victory. That means that the ‘winner’ doesn’t need to bargain for support or deal with the other 49% of the votes, they can pretend they had a mandate to rule when they don’t. It means that Americans are electing a party that then hands executive power to one man - and unlike in Australia, that position is constitutionally set and he can’t be replaced when he runs off the rails. Americans are being controlled by one person who they didn’t elect, which is what we generally call tyranny. It’s how the US ended up in the clutches of an openly corrupt narcissistic criminal.

Preferences are a way to end up with a winner that best represents how people voted. The electoral college system is a way to end up with a winner that doesn’t represent the way people voted.

@guest2 I actually have no idea what you’re talking about. I can assure you that the only thing that’s okay in my world are gun laws that prevent anyone from being shot.

The Romanian orphanages feel like an inappropriate comparison

@birdie what? The man was released on bail, what more information did anyone need? The family needed to specifically tell the court that their daughter would be terrified to have her rapist free in a small community?

Rehoming your pet on social media is one of the dumbest publicity moves I can imagine. NEVER mess with cats on the internet.

He did overlook that whole thing where Dutton was handing out visas to au pairs though, and those hundreds of millions of illegal sports grants. And now he has the head of ASIC and his tax fraud you deal with- we really, really need a federal corruption watchdog.

@gypsy it’s rare that I defend ScoMo, but that was a state issue and the MP was fired, not overlooked. Australia Post is federal and under Scomo’s remit.

And when you’ve had three major crises in the three years of your government, crisis management really does become the central political issue. Show me a government that isn’t focusing on crisis management right now and I’ll show you a massive death toll and extreme suffering.

@mamamia-user-482898552 I can’t actually give you any policies of our current government except they’re pro-fossil fuels and tax breaks for the wealthy, and I bet most people can’t give you more than two or three off the top of their head. And the vast majority will tell you what they think of Scomo as a person, or Trump or Boris or any other world leader. It’s how people process the world, it’s not specific to Jacinta. Where are the great analyses of this governments policy platforms?

@david s yeah I don’t understand why he thought that was an insult, it’s like saying that living in a democratic country will be like living on Sesame Street. Sympathetic neighbours, puppets and songs about numbers? Sign me up!

@guest2 why should smaller states have the same level of influence? That’s just ridiculous, it’s absurd and inherently anti-democratic that a vote in the Midwest is worth twice what a vote in New York is. And then there’s the fact that the electoral college isn’t even obliged to follow the popular vote, they can go completely rogue. It’s one of the worst systems in the entire world and adds a totally unnecessary layer of red tape to the election process in a country that already struggles to count the votes of the small minority who bother to turn out. The only people who would ever defend it are those who know their side would never win an actual majority.