The lower houses in the states control the presidential election. If you assume the cheating goes on in those states then Trump can still win if he keeps the state houses controlled by the GOP.

Here’s a breakdown of the lower houses (State Houses or Assemblies) in key battleground states for the 2024 election:

1. Arizona:

• GOP-controlled: The Arizona House of Representatives is controlled by Republicans. The GOP holds a narrow majority in both chambers of the state legislature?
• .

2. Georgia:

• GOP-controlled: The Georgia House of Representatives is also dominated by Republicans. The GOP has maintained control of both the state House and Senate for many years, despite the state’s growing competitiveness in national elections?

3. North Carolina:

• GOP-controlled: The North Carolina House of Representatives is under Republican control, in line with the state’s Senate, making the General Assembly GOP-dominated
• ?
• .

4. Michigan:

• Democratic-controlled: In 2022, the Michigan House of Representatives flipped to Democratic control for the first time in years. Both the state House and Senate are now Democratic?
• .

5. Pennsylvania:

• Democratic-controlled: The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is narrowly controlled by Democrats after the 2022 elections. The Senate, however, remains Republican, creating a divided legislature?
• .

6. Wisconsin:

• GOP-controlled: The Wisconsin State Assembly (the lower house) is controlled by Republicans, even though the governor’s office is held by a Democrat. This makes Wisconsin’s legislature Republican-leaning overall?
• .

Summary:

• GOP-controlled lower houses: Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin.
• Democratic-controlled lower houses: Michigan, Pennsylvania.

These legislative compositions can impact how these states handle election laws and processes, which is crucial in the tight 2024 race.

Australian takes charge of Disney.

Former Morgan Stanley boss James Gorman will take charge as chairman

A banker from the suburbs of Melbourne has been given the responsibility of steering Disney through one of the toughest succession dramas in corporate America.

A devout Catholic former union chief has sparked a mass walkout from an [Australian Catholic University] graduation ceremony as he spoke out against abortion and same-sex marriage.

It would seem you don’t have to be a Catholic to attend & graduate from ACU.

What’s the point then?

(Not having a go just at Catholics….the same question could/should be asked of the church owned school systems.)

‘Peter Dutton and the Liberals calling for Senator Thorpe to resign for telling the truth is contemptible,’ she said.

?It’s been a very long time since a liberal leader has had the guts and the conviction to call out loudly an opposition member – particularly of the female variety – for disgraceful behaviour.

Well done, Peter Dutton.

@TaraBull808

This TikToker covered Diddy parties in detail along with which celebrities attended them, including Jay Z, Beyoncé & Simon Cowell.

She was found d?ad at 36.

RIP Kyle Marisa Roth

I’m looking for some guidance here.

Mme Zulu’s daughter is staying with us for a few days. She has had an indigenous family, move in to public housing, two houses next door.

“I’m not a racist, I just hate all you white conts.”

How do you deal with that?

Crisafulli: me-tooing into office?

Tony Smith, The Spectator (Australia), 22nd October 2024

With polling day nigh in the Queensland election campaign, Opposition Leader David Crisafulli has appeared incredibly weak, vacillating, and indecisive on many things but none more so than the life and death issues surrounding babies born alive after a late-term abortion. On too many occasions to recall, he has displayed a predilection for ‘me-tooing’ almost every wacko policy that Labor has embraced including 50 cent public transport fares in the south-east and vowing to keep the ruinous royalty imposts on coal, amongst the world’s highest, despite opposing them at the time of their duplicitous introduction.

Even on the nuclear energy initiative flagged by federal Opposition leader Dutton and which has growing nationwide support, Crisafulli has also gone to water, embarrassing the feds. He has form in not reading the mood of the electorate uncertain as he was about the Voice to Parliament and initially sucked into state Labor’s Treaties imbroglio until the referendum 70/30 against the Voice in Queensland put paid to those fancies.

So terrified is Crisafulli and the LNP of governing and addressing crippling debt as an alternative to the economic wreckage, bulging public service, and union scandals delivered by Labor that he appears only capable of bequeathing more of the same with a tweak here and a tweak there on crime posited as an instant fix. Good luck with that.

In effect, there is a split match between he and Miles who nicely leaves an incoming LNP government, which is all but certain, no mandate to do anything but try to fix up the mess Labor has created within the strictures Labor has imposed. In effect, he has catapulted himself face-first into a neat trap setting himself up for inevitable dispatch next time around.

With just under a week to polling day, it is fair for electors seeking a change to ask whether this man is capable of standing firm on a single principle, other than the goal of getting elected. So come Monday October 28, while Mr Crisafulli will likely be ensconced in the front office in George Street, he may as well be playing the fiddle in central Queensland when it comes to the exercise of power.

But his greatest campaign failure and lack of principle has been on the issue of late-term abortion, that is permitting the destruction of a child at up to 22 weeks for any or no reason at all other than the wish of the mother.

He has been constantly peppered with questions by the media on abortion generally with Labor conflating abortion into it being a woman’s sole choice, keen to avoid specifics about the point in pregnancy at which that choice can be made.

Yet he and all but two members of the LNP voted against discretionary abortion at 22 weeks when the legislation was debated. His stock answers these days are that there will be no changes if he is elected, ‘next question, please’. This against the background of stark and horrific first-hand testimony from a nurse detailing in horrifying detail, the specifics of abortions where the child is capable of sustaining life if properly cared for.

Just a few months ago, Ms Louise Adsett, a midwife with 14 years of experience, described in heartbreaking detail the plight of these babies – some of whom survive for hours after birth, only to be abandoned in ‘witches’ hats’ or kidney dishes, where they take their final breaths alone, unloved, and uncared for.

‘These babies deserve better,’ she declared, underscoring the urgent need for change.

Her evidence not only calls into question the morality of current abortion laws but also the very humanity of a society that permits such atrocities to continue unchecked.

The testimony was delivered during a Queensland Parliamentary inquiry into the Termination of Pregnancy (Live Births) Amendment Bill 2024, which seeks to enshrine protections for babies born alive following an abortion, ensuring they receive the same medical care as any other newborn.

As Adsett’s harrowing account made clear, these were not isolated incidents but rather the result of a broader systemic failure. She recounted one case where a baby boy, born alive at 21 weeks, fought for five hours before succumbing, with no attempt made to save him.

In another instance, a baby was allegedly left to die in a ‘dirty pan room’ because the hospital was understaffed and the mother declined to hold her child.

This evidence provided a shocking indictment of the current laws and contemporary society’s apparent indifference to the most vulnerable amongst us. Yet one cannot imagine that a properly informed majority of Queenslanders on both sides of the political divide would not regard the current practice as unconscionable.

So Crisafulli, armed with that evidence, had the opportunity to stare down the media hyperbole and Labor whip-up with a simple answer. Labor is saying let these babies die. The LNP is saying we will be the voice for those without a voice. We won’t let these children die.

But he fudged, he withered, he filibustered, and shrank even further from a principle to which had adhered so short a time ago.

Labor supports abortion-to-birth and it’s surely not unreasonable to conclude that Crisafulli’s weakness under media pressure throughout the campaign suggests he regards late-term abortion as something less than a first order priority.

Increasingly, he appears a weak man, destined to spend his time in office, rather than in power, at the helm of an LNP that will be gone from sight next time around.

Good piece; but “increasingly”?

Unfortunately, for those of us watching Queensland politics first hand, Crisafulli has appeared a weak man right from the start of his tenure.

If I were his editor that piece would have taken a different tone.

does cause disruption and temporarily increases inflation

No.

The inflation rate in 1877 was -1.87%. The inflation rate in 1880 was 2.00%. The 1880 inflation rate is lower compared to the average inflation rate of 2.41% per year between 1880 and 2024.

The period 1870 to 1890 saw massive increases in protectionism globally.
The reason why late 20th / early 21st century trade liberalisation, anti- protectionist policies saw low inflation and high growth was because the world had mature industries that could be transferred to low wage countries via trade liberalisation and gain a one off benefit of that globalisation and cheap Chinese labour.
In addition, the trade liberalisation of that time was accompanied by deregulation of financial institutions, which lowered costs and reduced friction, As well as changes in how consumer prices were measured which masked the real rates of inflation. Not to mention the historically low interest rates due to the effects of the long term debt cycle of the last 20 years.
Whereas in the late 19th and early 20th century manufacturing was undergoing a revolutionary technological advancement. Systematic research into the properties of materials, the introduction of moving assembly lines and cheap labour as from the American south to feed into plants meant that industrialisation was the way to go almost everywhere. Similar to the current advancements in technology. Today, the advancements in computers and the internet are reliable drivers of productivity. In these circumstances it means that protectionism will lead to re-industrialisation everywhere, increased productivity, lower costs and more robust supply chains.
De- globalisation, re-industrialisation is the way to go.
And just like in the 1880s it will reduce inflation and drive up living standards. It will divert investment money out of housing and speculation into productive assets, lowering housing costs and increasing job opportunities for the younger generations.

If I were Dutton I’d counter with a low, flat rate income tax that could be split between parents on a single income, allowing mothers to spend more time at home with their children.