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As a dual-citizen and member of the Labo(u)r Party in both countries, this a delicious result. Especially after the ludicrous character assassination attempts by the Murdoch-Tory media in AU, and the attempted dumb-populism politics of Judith Collins.

National Party will be in the wilderness for a while. The libertarian-propertarian wing will find themselves heading to ACT, the conservative uglies maybe towards the New Conservative Party. Whilst will be left will be a corporatist shell, with most of the middle-class already in the left-leaning big tent of Labour.

Australia is based on a number of assumptions which have nothing to do with facts and figures. You can think of these assumptions as a form of ‘nation think’ and they stop us from moving forward and developing a different culture, political system and social network which deal with the basic necessities of Australian life.

The first assumption is that indigenous Australians did not resist colonisation of their land. Accompanying this assumption is that they had no form of land ownership, they lived a nomadic lifestyle and they had nothing to offer Australian society.

With a month to go, this is how I think it will play out on current predictions and trends.

Keep an eye on Georgia, especially. Not a critical state (that's Penn, Wisc, etc, the "rust belt"), but rather a litmus on how much Trump will lose by.

I remember in the 2008 election contacting a US Dem pollster and suggesting that was winnable in the longer term. They didn't think it was quite ready, yet.

If I were the Dems, I'd be looking hungrily at Texas in the future as well.

Once again, a company has taken advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to attack workers' rights.

This time, it's coal miners in Colombia who have had to go on strike.

Workers at the Cerrejón coal mine are in the middle of bitter dispute with three multinational mining companies, Anglo American, BHP and Glencore.

When the pandemic broke out back in February the union, in good faith, withdrew its list of demands and suspended collective bargaining negotiations.

I've seen a LOT of people opining that Trump is faking his covid diagnosis. Here are a few points to consider:

1) This is extremely damaging for him. His brand is built on strength and manliness. Getting sick plays against that brand. It's especially damaging considering his high-profile refusal to take safety precautions. He's basically Darwin Awarded himself.

A little over twenty years ago I had the opportunity to meet this great man in person after talking to him online for some time via the usenet group aus.politics.

We talked politics, we talked about unionism, we went back to Jika and we sampled a rather interesting Croatian sour plum liquor.

We stayed in some contact over the years. His family should know that he was held in high esteem for his commitment to the cause of working people.

ETU Queensland & NTFollow
24 September ·
Vale Peter John Simpson "Simmo" 3/5/1963 – 24/9/2020

"This is a devastating day for Australia. It's a heartbreaking blow to Australians around the country," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

'... So we're going to give tax cuts to those on incomes of greater than $200K and freeze pensions.'

The lack of knowledge of the basics of macroeconomic theory and public economics from this pack of malicious corrupt thieves is simply astounding.

I do feel sorry for any decent social liberals still in the Liberal Party, and I know that there are some of you out there.

In the last 24 hours Victoria has had 14 new cases of COVID-19. Fourteen! Six weeks ago we had daily case numbers over 700. That’s an achievement largely unmatched anywhere in the world, and it’s happened because most people in Victoria accepted that some short term inconvenience was a fair price to pay to achieve it.

My state member of parliament is an embarrassment to the electorate, and even to the Liberal Party.

29.5K have voted "care" (out of 34K) in his contrived attempt to rig a poll.

Unsurprising to discover that he was unaware that there was a "care" option. Or that he accuses the premier of being "Dictator Dan" (which shows all the cleverness of a six-year-old) and then tries to force people to vote for one option.

The Victorian Parliament would be a better place without him.

Send him a message.

This week we’re discussing the concept of N.O.W – no other way.