Searching For An Australian Identity, through discussion of A Country Practice continues in Television comments.
Zoom and Botox
The New Daily reports that ‘Zoom calls have Australians rushing for cosmetic surgery’. Evidently the demand for cosmetic surgery has tripled during Covid lockdown as ‘we are seeing ourselves from a completely different angle for hours a day. As a result more wrinkles, more unattractive angles and perceived flaws are coming to our notice.
Sales of beauty products have increased. There is more cosmetic work on teeth being investigated by those unhappy with their smiles.
Oh dear, and here am I informing people about zoom talks, and being involved in them myself. And, yes. I slap on make up at 9.00pm to join the talks. One useful product of seeing myself is that I realise I am touching my face all the time, so am even more committed to sanitising while out and about. Perhaps others take this more pedestrian, and useful, approach too – but The Daily News is probably less interested in this undramatic result of zoom.
Presidential Update 14/10 – Bob McMullan
The notable thing about the polling in this last week in which so much has happened is that not much has changed. To quote Hamlet the Trump rallies appear to be ” sound and fury signifying nothing.” ( For those who know their Shakespeare the preceding sentence will also resonate!). I have made an attempt to classify the battleground states by their probability of delivering a majority for Joe Biden.
A Pennsylvania Wisconsin Even the outlier Trafalgar polls suggest Biden will win these two. These would take Biden to 262 electoral college votes.
B Michigan Nebraska 2nd district The margin in both of these has been consistent and substantial. These would mean 279 EC votes and a narrow Biden victory.
C Florida North Carolina Arizona
Biden has been consistently ahead in all three of these although by narrower margins. Florida and North Carolina have improved significantly for him since the debate. The gap in Arizona has narrowed but has been the most consistent of the three. These would take Biden to 334 EC votes and look like a very big win.
D Ohio Iowa Georgia Maine 2nd district
These would be the icing on the cake. Biden has recently got in front on both RCP and 538 averages in Ohio and Iowa. Campaign activity certainly suggests they are in play. Georgia looks competitive but hard to call. The Maine district just has insufficient quality polling to be confident.Winning all these is unlikely but if Biden did win them we would be talking landslide, 375 to 163!The important reservation remains the outlier polls which if correct would mean a very close result.For those who remember the shock of 2016 let me remind you that Hillary Clinton led at this stage on average by 6 points with 14% undecided or going to minor parties. Biden leads by 10 or more with 6% to minor parties or undecided. None of this proves anything about what will eventually happen, but it describes the current situation and the possibilities.I will have more to say about this next week, but for those hoping to watch the results on the night ( next morning here) the key state which should give an early indication is Florida. Their vote counting arrangements should lead to a comprehensive early result.
The Wife by Meg Wolitzer is reviewed in Book Reviews.
Vice Presidental debate
Kamal Harris and Mike Pence met across screens – agreed to after much fulminating by the Republican organisers. Kamala is treating the pandemic as it should be – social distancing , wearing a mask, ensuring that her enforced situations with Republicans who seem to have learnt nothing since President Trump’s illness -something might have been expected despite ignoring the swathe it has cut through (Americans 217,086 deaths (Morning Joe, MSNBC, 9/10/20). In % terms that would be around 14,000 in Australia).
The debate was reflected upon on Facebook and the Australian Guardian (Theguardian.com, Oct 8) amongst other outlets. Although the fly that settled on Mike Pence created a lot of discussion, it was the Guardian article argument that interested me.
Although The Guardian stated that ‘Harris wiped the floor with him’ , The writer, Jill Filipovic found the debate ‘frustrating’, referring to the sexist manner in which Pence conducted himself. Some contributors to Facebook found that this was a weak argument, made to excuse Harris’s failure to win the debate.
I thought Kamala Harris behaved as a person debating another competitor for VP. She got on with it, using her talents to win, obfuscate, deliver the arguments she wanted to deliver. I doubt she felt patronised or anything other than her desire to be in the winning team. And she did – she does not need sympathy, patronising, or excuses. She is a winner, resoundingly so.
The fly went on to confer with Amy Conan Barrett during the hearings into her nomination to be a Supreme Court Judge. We do not know whether the fly received more fruitful and clear answers than those given to Democrat Senators.
Robin's Room 