The question has been asked many times before, usually by a satisfied partner in totally different circumstances, but: did you feel the earth move last week?
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Strange things are happening in the USA, enough to tilt our planet slightly on its axis, but luckily it righted itself and normal services resumed. What happened? Well, several ground-breaking events:
*students from nearly 3,000 schools walked out and protested against gun violence. In doing so, they have kept the Florida massacre in the news for over a month when it would normally (for the States) last only a few days;
* Florida has brought down legislation for a slight tightening of gun ownership laws;
*as you would expect, the National Rifle Association has lodged an appeal against this legislation;
* a Democrat candidate has won a by-election in Pennsylvania, an area which has seemingly forever voted Republican;
* meanwhile the Donald has fired his Secretary of State and the Deputy Director of the FBI. The White House reality show grinds ever slowly onwards (or is it downwards?).
A number of people, including the Donald and other Republicans, have come out strongly about arming teachers. This may have the unintended consequence of ensuring that any future nutter takes out the teachers first, just in case. There is no easy answer. The solution will take heart, backbone and guts, rather than the lily livers that are usually displayed.
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Closer to home the Melbourne by-election for the wonderfully named federal seat of Batman resulted in a fairly comfortable win for Labor over the Greens after it was not contested by the Liberals. Many commentators were predicting a win for the Greens, especially after Labor’s announcement in the final week about doing away with tax refunds on franked share dividends for people who don’t pay tax, but the voters were apparently unfazed.
Reportedly the Liberals have identified Bill Shorten as Labor’s weak spot and have embarked on a “Kill Bill” campaign, hoping to discredit him in the eyes of the population. They might have to try a bit harder now as the Labor victory in Batman is being described as a boost for Shorten.
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The Liberals had more success in South Australia where they took government after 16 years of Labor rule. It seems the Liberals received the majority of votes in the previous two elections but Labor won the most seats. A recent redistribution has this time rectified this discrepancy.
The real surprise here was the demise of the Nick Xenophon party, South Australia Best. Nick had hoped to win enough lower house seats to set himself up with the balance of power, but at the time of writing he looks like winning NIL, as in zilch! After being a federal power broker in the senate for many years, that is a massive fall from grace for him.
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This week’s dedication is a toss-up between Nick and the Donald, so why not a joint dedication to them both? And how better than to again resort to the late Freddy Mercury’s legendary group Queen with their world-wide hit, “Another One Bites the Dust.”
Feather Duster No 3
T Lobb