Harry

My wife just twisted me into watching Hamilton on Disney plus. It was... legitimately one of the most amazing and best things I've ever seen! I cannot believe how good it is honestly. Floored. Lin Manuel Miranda is a unique talent.

Revisions to Christian porter's Wikipedia page in last few days removing reference to him attending a debate tournament in Sydney in 1988...

Didn't realise you hailed from that far north @Spike

ABC and SMH. Articles of Turnbull's statements and friends of the woman taking a direction towards the need for an independent inquiry, and calling for the accused to step forward and speak publically to the accusations

The woman went to NSW police in February of last year but the investigation stopped in June when she took her own life.... Malcolm Turnbull: "We don’t know for sure that she took her own life, we know for sure that she’s dead. And there needs to be an inquest"

Except scomo has declined to read the evidence presented by the complainant or stand down the minister subject to any inquiry, and said the AFP are handling it when the AFP have no remit to investigate rape. It's a matter for the NSW state police, but conviction is not gonna happen given the key witness is deceased. So this guy will go on unimpeded. He could have committed murder and still scomo would leave him to serve in office until the day he was arrested.

You're suggesting they can't factually report that minister X has been accused of rape by person Y?

What I'm finding outrageous is the extent to which nobody in the media is mentioning the name of this minister due to not wanting to besmirch his name. Nobody gave Weinstein or Cosby or Pell that luxury. Same with the liberal staffer who is advised of raping 3 women. His name is out there on Twitter but nobody will report on it. Makes me wonder the extent to which is driven by fear of the liberal party and their media backers rather than a true commitment to judicial process. If it was Dan Andrews that was accused I feel this face would already be on the cover of the newspapers @Toinho @Devil-Dick Willie

For me that was one of the tougher bits. Was similarly lean during pregnancy, but was hoping the dry spell would end straight after.

So there's been an avalanche of shocking news for the government to deal with at the moment with regards to Brittany Higgins and the issues that have opened up from her coming forward about being raped in Parliament house (learning that the offending staffer had been moved on and is now been accused of raping two other women. This hit crescendo last week with reports that a current cabinet minister had been accused of a historical anal rape offence in 1988 of a woman who had since killed herself. There has been no official disclosure of the minister affected because of the unproven nature of the claims, but it seems in the past 24 hours Twitter has worked out that it's likely Christian Porter, attorney general. Huge if true. This is someone touted as the next liberal PM.

Edinburgh Castle is hard to beat.

Holy moly. Twins! Ok so advice: 1. Have a room that either of your can sleep in for an hour that doesn't have babies in it. 2. Download a couple of engaging mobile phone games and podcasts. Your downtime is important, but alot of it will now coincide with holding a tired baby. So plan for something you can do from the armchair in the babies room for a bit of escapism. 3. Buy your partner 60 minutes peace each day by taking the kids out for a walk without her. Women can experience a crushing pressure from the dependance, and having some time where they can still feel like themselves is huge. 4. With twins, it may be 6 months before your next shag. Prepare yourself, and try to be understanding. 5. BUY SHIT SECOND HAND ON FACEBOOK MARKETPLACE OR GUMTREE. Anything to improve your situation, just buy it. 6. Twins will pay dividends down the line. They'll be great playmates, which will make your life easier.

Huge congrats. Tell us the deets. Also great thread idea mate.

I dont think Trump has the resolve to pull that off TBH. He's too lazy, but i suppose there will be people like Bannon and Miller that would rally around him and present him with a piece of paper to sign to make it happen so never say never. Recent polling has suggested around half the GOP base identify more with trump than with the party, so the potential is there. Insiders would be hoping Trump isnt the future, but be keeping up appearances with the voters, and also recognising Trump still has a huge impact in their sphere. But to play the devils advocate, why Trump should be the future. Trump just turned out a record 74 million voters, and only lost the election by around 45,000 votes combined across Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin. And although Biden wasnt an inspiring candidate at all, he did do enough, in midwest states which Clinton lost, to turn around the result from 2016. He has cred in those states in a way most dem 2024 contenders do not. The likely nominee in 2024 being Kamala, a California democrat is probably going to lose those states again to Trump. Whilst the lie of the ïllegitimate" election result has faded, the voter fraud notion is being seized upon by republicans for new voter ID laws which will be impactful in 2022 House and senate elections, and 2024. The GOP did well in legislative elections in 2020 putting them again significantly more in control of this years redistricting, which will see more gerrymandering, and probably eliminate a few democratic house seats. Amounts to putting the GOP in a favourable position to take back the house in 2022. The other branch of government is the senate, which has a massive small state bias. Dems winning big states by huge margins counts for nothing in the senate. 2 senators per state, and the median state for the balance of power in the senate (Ohio, Iowa, Florida, Georgia) is around 6 points more conservative than the country as a whole. The 2022 draw is rough, but 2024 is better, and those biases put them in good stead, especially if the guy at the top of the ticket is good at turning out the base. So honestly I can see Trump being a strong contender to win in 2024, and consistent with the decay of conservative politics he is more representative of their coalition than a Harvard guy like Ted Cruz or Josh Hawley, or a "true to conservative principles" outsider like Mitt Romney or Adam Kinzinger. That said, I think he will probably be in legal and possibly financial trouble by then so is probably an outside bet.

Another interesting point about Trump being the future of the Republican party. He's so lazy and so self centred. Why would he use his energy to try to go out campaigning hard to try get Trumpist politicians elected? What's the point of that for him? That's as much or of character for Trump as saying He'll acknowledge the losing result of the election.

Shocking and surely devastating news for Alisson.

It won't be scot free. Impeachment was only a political measure, with political consequences. But its damning that so few in the GOP truly compete to win the contest of ideas with their voters - by actually standing up for right and wrong. (Most behave like they think their voters are maniacs and they dare not say anything to let on that they know better. The Georgia senators being a typical example.) Totally separate to that impeachment trial is criminal prosecution to which Mueller laid a clear road map on obstruction of justice alone, let alone the many other things done since or before he took office. He's also being investigated in Georgia, New York and DC and will probably get hit with charges for all three. It's a big statement given he's been dodging accountability his whole life with so much success but I think there is a fair chance he'll be bankrupt, in prison or discredited/irrelevant by 2024 primaries

I was confused by Interpreting "I've got nothing but kids speech" as some kind of exclamation by you which didn't make sense.

More than fair enough mate. Welcome

Looking good man

When fear of defamation lawsuits meets crazy guy.

As you say Cruz knows better, but this play shows his contempt for the trump voters he's trying to win. He thinks they're dumb enough to believe it, and he wanted a viral outrage response. I may be wrong but I'm not entirely sure people have taken the right lessons from the trump era. The GOP politicians seem to think the voters wanted the policies and rhetoric of Trump, but I think they may just have been all in on Trump because they liked his belief and confidence and tough guy personality. Trump voters were willing to hang Mike pence. They hated the establishment. They mostly got behind Trump doing a 180 on most conservative views/positions on things and followed him anyway. Was it because they want authoritarianism, and white supremacy or is it just because the GOP supporters are a cult of personality more than policy? I.e. Could Arnold Schwarzenegger run in the Republican primary in 2024 and pull that same Trump base towards support of more moderate conservative positions on issues? Does he have more appeal to the trump base than a lame, nerdy Harvard guy like Ted Cruz who's willing to try to talk like Trump and go all in on fascism in order to achieve his goal of becoming president?

It's kind of funny seeing Fauci's joy to just be able to relay facts without worrying and angering the president

The real irony of this is 1. Cruz expressing concern for the voters of Pittsburgh, PA, when he voted to have the entire Pennsylvania vote count thrown out (and they voted heavily for Biden) 2. Pittsburgh maintained its commitments to the Paris agreement even when trump abandoned it, so they clearly have no issues with this action.

Maybe the bit in the debate where he mentioned beau and Trump tried to turn it into an attack on Hunter...? I never heard of Trump going after him about the car crash and the death of his wife and daughter. That would be a low even for Trump