Comments by "annoyed aussie" (@annoyedaussie3942) on "CNN" channel.

  1. This is sad to see, can't see how this can end peacefully.
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  2. You can't reopen something that was never shut, not a single border was ever shut to US citizens and permanent residents travelling to the US without quarantine.
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  3. 2 died by suicide. This has destroyed people.
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  4. This one is the game changer already in production in about 5 countries with a low profit margin and easy to transport.
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  5. Not his niece , she is fine.
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  6. You are taking an anecdotal sample of 1, those 10,000 dying each week some will be around the age of your friend who was fine. A death rate of maybe 1% for that age and very sick maybe 20% or whatever just means your friend was in the 80% group, it's not a reason not to be vaccinated. I wear a seatbelt when driving however my risk of crashing and dying is less than covid 19. However a Vaccinated person's risk is 90% less of death according to ones starting risk and does cut the rate of serverly ill significantly.
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  7. Best of luck and take care the best you can. Happy Christmas.
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  8. What's more surprising is they found a crowd of "normal" or should be normal Republicans who accept that Trump lost.
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  9. This guy is as tough as hell, pretty sure if it's me I am just crying and "hiding in the basement" but he managed to tell his story to keep fighting for others.
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  10. I think she's not well , hard to say but prepare for the inevitable that happens to us all one day be we royalty or not.
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  11. The interesting thing out of all this is a slight swing to the right other than for the presidency , maybe people don't like you Mr Trump.
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  12. I think Joel indirectly answers your question, he believes anyone who says anything about the dear leader is communist.
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  13.  Am Pat  Are you American, if so you have approximately 400,000 people doing prison time for not caring about their own health, the number is about quadruple that of Australia on a per capita basis based on 2018 data. So much for your freedom, drugs are a health issue. Now in the US you have freedom to infect , no penalties in most states and no prison time for agregious breaking of health orders on Covid 19.
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  14. Actually millions are celebrating right now but they can't be public about it, how many people are happy they don't have to meet that annoying relative they end up wanting to kill at such events? Given the US population it has to be in the millions.
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  15.  @superja67phy27  ok so make your point. Ukraine has labs like any other large country on the planet. What's the issue.
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  16.  @ernieragogini3994  Nobody personally said anything about you or said all Americans are ignorant, so why are you so defensive? For a wealthy country the US certainly has a lot of problems at the moment and it's not one-sided either, consider the protests last year from people aligned to both parties. Take care and try not to react so much especially as nothing that significant has even been said.
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  17. One would think it would be in a locked cabinet, a $20 box and a $5 lock would be sufficient. However I can't understand how a real round could be loaded into the gun because every round should have been inspected again at that time. These lawyers seem to have just said she is guilty of negligence.
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  18.  @oldfogey4679  my observation is in the case of the US having compulsory turn up laws or send in an envelope laws, ballot is secret you can do anything you want with it , would be beneficial because policies are literally being developed in the US to get the turn out to vote which makes them care less about those unlikely to vote and I would suggest radicalizes the policies. In reality most people will vote if they are there. Australia and US removed all segregation officially around the same time, but the US seems to be stuck in the past for some people and matters still unresolved. There's also way too much money involved in political donations in the US, that's very hard to solve it seems.
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  19. Iran has trade sanctions on it and the US position is now Iran you follow the deal we broke and then we will renegotiate. A bit like pointing a gun at another person's head and saying let's negotiate after you have put your gun down but I will continue to hold this gun to your head and agree to nothing at this point in time.
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  20. She's an old battle axe , she stood true to what she said. She never said the word war. She is following the Russian Federation law. That's not always enough but if I had confidence anyone could pull it off, I would think she could.
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  21. Starting to feel left out here, Q has mentioned Venezuela, China, Cuba, Indonesia, Canada and now Italy as having changed the election results, I am waiting for the Australian connection and Q if your reading this please remember the Aussies.
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  22. Veterans when they were in the military and vaccines available were all required to be vaccinated, so they certainly weren't fighting against vaccines.
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  23. In Australia once he recovered assuming that occurs he would be in court facing possible prison time in most states for breaking public health orders, if he was an ordinary person that is.
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  24.  @icare7151  I have 2 questions for you why did China release the bioweapon inside of China, why not release it somewhere else? Why only allow maybe 1,000 cases to go from China to the US and warn them on 31 December well before the release as you call it?
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  25. Had to give that one a thumbs up it did make me laugh.
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  26. It's pretty sad you say that and seems true , for the most part US military overseas are safer than civilian back in your home country.
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  27. He wasn't as far as we know but it wouldn't surprise me if he donated to it.
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  28. OAN and Newsmax people will be excited, maybe they can get a well paid job.
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  29. Knowing his followers, to get on TV because if you wear a mask you get to stand or sit behind the president. For some reason Trump thinks that changes something showing some people are willing to wear a mask. To be fair some probably do think it's a good idea they just hate Democrats more. Most of Trump rally crowds don't wear masks if you see a pan of the entire crowd.
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  30. Longest monarch in the history of the world. After the previous King of Thailand passed she took the crown.
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  31. Well a few , not Tucker but at least Candice Owens suggested invading my country of Australia, DeSantis while not going that far said some disparaging things about my country. It's a strange situation in the US now.
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  32. There was a ruling on the matter about 100 years ago and it was found that the government can make quarantine conditions but that they should be reasonable. If nudists need to wear clothes I think a requirement that some cloth be put over ones mouth and nose is reasonable.
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  33. I don't know why the media so polite, call him a witch doctor which has a slightly different tone but same meaning.
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  34. Hang in there and if you can't then take care of yourself even if it means leaving. Happy Christmas.
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  35. Why the stupid partisan arguments, in Australia there is no daylight between the positions of our political parties regarding the health response. Some differences with other policies however the most hardline state versus the most let's keep things open state are actually the same party. The let's keep things open state has had the largest failure and been locked down the most because subsequent outbreak , the hardline states have only had one lockdown and no major incidents since. The previously soft approach state has changed it's thinking to become inline with the harder line states. Conservative means by it's very definition to take lower risks and change things slowly. The conservative approach is to put restrictions in place , the harder the restrictions the more conservative the approach because it's lower risk. A conservative will used tried methods that work and be very cautious trying something new. Anyway speaking as a conservative who just voted for a state government that is left leaning because they did a great job, so prefer not to risk changing horses midstream which is actually a conservative position. I still support my right leaning Federal government that's also done a great job in assisting the states. Trump has failed so the only risk is Joe might do better.
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  36.  @brotherjames2204  I am Australian, so can't vote in your election, just making a point this is not whether someone is conservative or a lefty it's only about who might do a better job, Trump has failed on this pretty major issue. Australia is very different to the US, far more in favour of fair free trade and against industry subsidies, Trump on this issue would be too far to the left to become a leader of our left leaning political party , the Labor Party (theoretically similar to Democrats). I wish your country the best but until agressive partisanship by both your major parties goes away you can't really improve.
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  37. You take care
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  38. A face mask is a simple dress code addition. I always challenge anyone who says they have the right to not wear a mask in certain public areas as required. Ok walk naked down the street then apparently it's your constitutional right. Being naked is no threat to others if they wear a face mask lol.
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  39. Benefit of the doubt, I have been watching US politics for about the last 2 years and so many make a career out of this sort of stuff, raise money and pay themselves a fortune to help the cause. No idea if she is going to do that but it's a possibility, my guess is she is genuine but I am an eternal skeptic.
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  40.  @saki5073  I'll translate for you , the term "they say" when spoken by Trump usually means "I am going to make something up now" and occasionally it's original meaning.
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  41. Looking from afar , don't blame the "right". Both sides of your politics promote victimhood and violence with no regard to others to change the situation. Case in point BLM protests during a pandemic that were associated with many homicide deaths , heaps of vandalism and actually supported by an open letter from some doctor mob (not the homicides of course). Your lefties and righties are as bad as each other. It took actually agreement on principal between both sides of politics to ensure that the US had the worst covid 19 response of any wealthy nation and one of the lowest vaccination rates of any wealthy nation dropping behind many middle income nations. To give your lefties one ounce of credit at least there's a smaller proportion of antivaxxers amongst them.
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  42. For sure he wrote it, control freaks don't let others do this work for them.
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  43. But supply shortages are just inconvenience actually, pretty sure just like in Australia there's plenty of food, other goods can wait, you won't die if you have to wait a week or two for that piece of designer clothing and hey not having your favorite cut of meat in the supermarket get over it, buy what's available. Inflation coupled with price gouging which occurs in the US is probably worse on consumer sentiment but that's what you get if the government just keeps pumping the economy with money and loading up government debt. Vaccination is the only answer to stabilize things and the US ranks about 40 or 50th most vaccinated with probably the most vulnerable starting population in the wealthy world.
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  44. The problem in a public health sense is it snowballs, then those left have it even worse and more likely to quit. Of course your friend did the right thing , one can only take so much.
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  45. It's a raging bushfire. The embers resemble burning buildings during the riots.
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  46.  @MarkSmith-ud4sd  Trump didn't tell the Democrats why, he said there is no concern so it contradicted his actions which did appear racist. I would have thought the same thing.
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  47.  @X2LR8  Could you please provide the Bernie Sanders quote that calls for any violent act such as arbitrary incarceration, liberation of something, you know your second amendment rights , Trump knows full well what some nutters believe (knowing that a large proportion of US gun owners take this to mean to overthrow the government not personal protection or the stated reason in the preamble of the second amendment which is for " a well regulated militia being necessary for a free state.... ", nothing about overthrowing an elected government whether disputed or not, that's what courts are for)
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  48. Not really, Putin did poorly and his government is in effect a one party system. Australia is a multi party system and all states except one have handled it as well as China while noting that the Wuhan officials didn't handle it well and probably caused some delay. This delay meant nothing to a country like the US which to this day only has voluntary quarantine, Biden says he will change things but I will believe it when I see it.
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  49. @Joker You are joking right? What was American Indian scalping may I ask?
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  50. I don't think it's a racial thing, the game show host was white. He just likes to retweet any conspiracy theorist, he wants 100% of the conspiracy theorist voting block.
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  51. The true vaccine hesitancy rate is low but apathy is somewhat high, pretend you are in Northern Queensland , maybe 3 community cases so far not connected to a family member of an imported case and closest death 600 miles away, how would you take it extra seriously it's not real to you so you will lack urgency and wait for Pfizer which is considered the best and in short supply. Even when that Pfizer vaccine is available you still won't rush but technically you are not vaccine hesitant.
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  52. I found that funny, so many asymptomatic cases and the mighty power of the US to protect itself uses $50 Chinese made thermometers as the first and final line of defense.
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  53. Some American sayings are funny. Because it isn't a saying in Australia my mind immediately interprets it literally and it takes a second to realise it's just some confused American saying. He should use the saying " work your fingers to the bone" if Americans understand that although then Qanon would think something up on that too. You can't beat Qanon, it's not possible, the members need to deprogram themselves.
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  54. It's pretty sad actually, the biggest supporters of the brutal Myanmar dictatorship are Trump supporters and Communist Party of China supporters, a very unfortunate moral alliance.
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  55.  @Uhtredrag1080  Well actually Maine with a population of 1.4 million approximately had 22 homicide deaths which gives a rate of about 1.5 per 100,000 so about 50% more dangerous than the rest of the wealthy world excluding Canada which is a bit worse than Maine. Problem is your looking at it from the inside and it seems good to you in Maine which was your example.
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  56.  @JoeDeglman  Maybe you should just go and look at worldometer covid 19 statistics. Also check which countries are in the Western Pacific WHO region , I am in Australia but just go through the list country by country and you will find that deaths are less than 10% on average on a per capita basis compared to PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region and European WHO region. Take China out if you want and you will see compulsory covid 19 measures certainly do work.
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  57.  @1cyanideghost  yes phenomenon is the right word , just like they have worked out mirages were most likely involved in the titanic disaster, many of these unidentified phenomenon could be optical illusions no different to a mirage on a hot road.
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  58. Oh the focus is off Australia now, Howard Springs quarantine facility a repurposed mining camp which the entire Olympic team went through was the boogie man before, the irony is it was like a resort compared to hotel quarantine which means being inside a room you can't leave and in many if not most cases no opening windows or a balcony.
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  59.  Rob Russell  I am Australian, I can assure no reset occurring here, only ever had a comprehensive mask mandate for 2 weeks the entire time in my part of the country. Everything is open and maximum capacity of venues is 2 per square metre so hardly restrictive at all of course international travel restrictions are very strict but other than that things are normal without the deaths. As far as fat people and people with things like high blood pressure dying because they caught covid 19 or getting pneumonia and dying well you have an unusual interpretation of cause of death, it would be almost impossible to murder someone based on your theory, like if someone gets shot and dies of blood loss you would say the shooting didn't kill them just like those that get covid 19 and die from pneumonia.
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  60. In regards to some indigenous people being taken to an old repurposed mining camp in Northern Territory Australia to quarantine the issue was the conspiracy theorist got to some of them to the point I actually saw a video of an indigenous community member believing people were being taken away to be killed. Yes the mostly US antivaxxer conspiracy theorist have done real harm to some susceptible people. While those indigenous people may live in remote and semi remote areas they do have access to Facebook etc. , some of the same problems in Africa. Those particular people would all be out of quarantine by now and given the uptake of vaccines in the Northern Territory is 95% of the 16+ population has received at least one covid 19 vaccine dose and 30% of Northern Territory's population is indigenous most likely they already vaccinated. It's just unfortunate that people had to suffer due to conspiracy theorists.
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  61. What bastion of freedom, don't you have about 2,000,000 people imprisoned, that's the population of a small country.
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  62. It's a whole different approach to the ex president. He just laughs he knows he is old and looking like a grumpy grandad sitting in the corner or something but totally ok with it to the point of hey this can raise money for good causes.
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  63. It's emotion which can't really be taught. If the US wasn't already disfunctional in many senses it couldn't happen. It would be impossible in many countries for Trump to get anything more than a minor following.
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  64. I don't understand why the Republican Party doesn't just remove him from the party?
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  65. That's great if you achieve that result.
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  66. Exactly and that makes him personally fair game.
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  67. This lawyer is nuts, why is he going into an interview showing his weak hand, prosecutors will be watching this and he is laying out his defense. A lawyer should be keeping his cards close to his chest and not tell anything outside of a courtroom. Now the prosecutor knows exactly the case he's going to make and can run mock arguments for practice. Zero element of surprised for the defense.
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  68. Other than direct victims I feel most for medical workers. You take care and get help for yourself if needed.
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  69.  @The_SmorgMan  your comment is very strange. Vanessa didn't claim every death is due to Trump on this issue only that people follow Trump and sometimes this causes them to die.
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  70. The best part was him squirming at having to acknowledge the Democrats in his state did an excellent job. It wrecks the entire narrative that all Democrats were " in on it" .
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  71. Hey Cai ignore those in the PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region, in the Western Pacific region of WHO it's like we are a different species or something, 14 days compulsory quarantine in all countries versus 10 days voluntary quarantine in the Americas and same with European WHO region. Because of geopolitical reasons it appears we don't want to point it out how well our region has done as in a country like mine Australia will never say China has done well and visa versa, when it's pretty clear to me actually the overarching policies came through our regional office of WHO so we all agreed and behind the scenes actually working well with each other, or it's a remarkable coincidence with a probability of occurring less than winning lotto. Please get rid of that current outbreak, currently it's great , an Australian can travel to Singapore without quarantine only have to wait a day or whatever for negative test but need hotel quarantine on return, it'll be good when ( I hope ) can have more than just Aus/NZ bubble.
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  72. You've removed the vast majority of countries from the map apparently. Asia gone, Oceania gone, Latin America gone. Since I am in one of the regions could you please reinstate us to the world.
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  73.  Go Caps  The irony of your response to a Kiwi , New Zealand is all open mate just like Australia will be soon, one state to go. Travel restrictions exist but other than that internally open and as normal as can be.
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  74. I wouldn't worry too much, I think Biden if he gets in will surprise. He is slower on his feet so to speak because he's old but that doesn't matter, it's a managerial role not a reality tv show. Best of luck from Australia 🇦🇺
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  75. You have no idea how people vote, especially younger ones. I am in Australia and previously drove a taxi. I remember having a conversation with some 18 or 19 year olds about an upcoming election and asked who they were voting for and got an answer then I asked which policies they liked and the answer was I don't know any of the policies I just don't like the look of a certain politician and it became clear also they didn't even know at that point which party that politician was in. You will certainly have young voters just like Australia.
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  76. Different state, however if the laws are equivalent then by rights these people should receive greater sentences, much greater in fact. I am talking relative , a few months is enough for any of these crimes, white collar criminals get far less generally if anything at all.
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  77.  @MutedAds  You seem not to be American, I have made it clear with my screen name and using the term "your", I am Australian.
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  78.  Rob Russell  Well your country and it's behaviour has killed at least 300,000 people who didn't want to die to protect your rights, so you got your wish , I hope you are happy.
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  79. Reading through these comments in this thread, oh my gosh. An average US citizen is most likely in reality working 1 day per week to pay for medical issues as in I expect medical care would have jumped from 16% to 20% in total of GDP including both public and private healthcare, public healthcare in Australia is less than 10% last time I saw the numbers. In Australia it's truly voluntary if we want private healthcare and the publically funded healthcare costs less than the US and is universal. Talk about medical tyranny, the US is number 1. A few of my fellow Australians are a bit tougher than me, we've done pretty good with over 90% of adults double dose vaccinated and don't hold it against some groups including our indigenous community who unfortunately have been strongly influenced by overseas antivaxxers as the Chief Minister of Northern Territory indicated. The Queensland health minister indicated very similar a day ago saying that there's problems with people in some communities not even believing the virus is real at this stage. US citizens, give up your medical tyranny and just get vaccinated, taxes and private insurance that cost a bloody fortune are not the right path and to the majority in the US who are vaccinated sorry you are literally being oppressed by the non vaccinated due to the universal costs imposed upon everyone.
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  80.  @semyonbudyonny1895  really strange question, first I didn't speak of masks and secondly you would be aware that small l liberals is our centre right party. Please clarify your question.
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  81. There are very few if any low income covid 19 denier countries. Don't disparage low income countries and also many people from those countries don't like the term 3rd world, say developing or low income. Just a suggestion or name directly the poor country killing it's citizens with intent for this particular matter.
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  82. How does she get to call herself a doctor or alternatively not get her authority revoked. Pretty sure one or the other would happen in Australia. If I am ever in the US I won't trust your doctor's, 99% are probably great people doing the best they can but if someone like this can call themselves a doctor without authorities taking immediate action there is a serious problem.
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  83. If you followed it deep red and blue were declared by pollsters that is, with only 10% of the vote.
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  84.  @Brian-qg8dg  Strange comment, did you realise you are referencing world wars, it wasn't the US versus the world and actually the US was slow to join both and if compared to Australia lost far fewer troops on a per capita basis. Look up John Monash, he was even given a medal by the US, it's a pity that some modern Americans don't appreciate their allies. If you read the story of John Monash you will realise he saved US servicemen's lives while under his command because he cared more for the troops than was normal at that time and an excellent strategist. He is on our $100 note currently.
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  85. I'll put it this way, you are a very diverse bunch.
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  86. The scariest alignment in the world is between Putin, Xi and some Republicans. If such a Republican became president it might not be good. I don't Trump directly aligned with them however he wanted to emulate the president for life status of the other 2 and seems to admire their achievement of president for life.
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  87. Probably has a back up generator.
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  88. Nah that's free speech which is a requirement for a functional democracy. Other things are required also.
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  89. All the smaller territory should maybe get a partial vote or grouped together, Puerto Rico should just become a full state. For presidential elections just direct vote run by the federal government or at least the federal government makes the rules because currently eligibility criteria differ from state to state , no electoral college.
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  90. Actually they were lost to modernisation. Are you really suggesting Americans want to work in sweat shops making clothes for example?
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  91. I don't think so, I am thinking is it possible he does a runner with air force 1, land it in Russia or something and go into exile giving the plane to the Russians. I know my conspiracy theory is unlikely but I don't think something like this is impossible. He did say at a rally if he didn't get elected he might leave the country and I think he might have been thinking aloud. So without the stealing air force 1 I think he is considering leaving to a country that is sympathetic to him.
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  92. That goes back to a case where for a while that was the case in a Pennsylvania district from memory. All that it was is someone entered the numbers into the wrong district so there were more votes than voters. Obviously the error which changed nothing was corrected.
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  93. Sorry US citizens, this is a disaster for you, the antivaxxers will gain further traction. It's great for the countries that don't have a major Antivax problem so thanks from Australia if it works.
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  94.  @laureebee5226  well there's a lot of Apples in our part of the world, the West Pacific. Australia , my country, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand. Call us the apple countries if you want , Western Europe , US and other Americas countries are the Oranges.
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  95. That part of the story happens in all societies where people have a lot of control without enough safeguards, think back 30 years in any Western countries and the catholic church and orfanages and disability care and of course prisons however prisons were probably fixed about 50 years ago. This unfortunately is human nature and while no systemic in the camps it would depend on luck just like all the places I mentioned above. I think China would be trying to stop this behaviour however they want to cover it up also.
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  96. I hope you recover quickly, best of luck.
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  97. In answer to your second question, the US essentially did nothing to stop the spread, voluntary quarantine counts for nothing. There was even and still is actually an automatic spreading mechanism built into how the very relaxed restrictions work, if you don't like the restrictions in your state or county just go to the one next door where you can take your infection anywhere you want. Total madness. Early on though by the end of February 2020 the US had conducted 500 covid 19 tests, South Korea with about 1 sixth of the population 100,000 tests, Australia my country with 1 thirteenth of the population 10,000 tests. The US was asleep, still is actually cases yet again rising rapidly with hospitalized rising and I think even deaths are rising yet again in the middle of your summer.
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  98. I think he believes it which doesn't make him terrible but misguided or a useful fool.
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  99. They accuse the rest of us as being sheep, particularly regarding covid 19 . Australia and our sister nation New Zealand are the lands of proud sheep with no virus, yep still have the conspiracy theorists here. Qanon is amazing in one respect, it managed to become international yet it's dear leader is Trump. We can say that Trump is spiritual leader of the conspiracy world.
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  100. That's sad.
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  101.  @Petertrottierrealtor  It's not "Western Civilization" it's the US , the only wealthy country to have such problems on any scale. I am in Australia, there are more homicides in cities like Chicago or Philadelphia than a country of 25 million.
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  102. The numbers are inline with those that have already taken the vaccine, so don't trust the poll , just look at the vaccination rates.
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  103. @BostonBruins 88 not sure what you mean, are you comparing some scumbag small time gangsters who used the chaos to burn buildings and loot to Trump. I certainly agree with you Trump is at least as low as those individuals however he was president of a super power nation so not sure you can put him in the same category.
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  104.  @jerrymarasco8878  you're bloody amazing, your country has conscription or the draft in the constitution, so you can legally be sent to die on a battlefield. You are being requested by some Americans to not be a bloody idiot and try not to infect them and crying about your loss of freedom. What a sook.
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  105. NZ please accept Victoria as a new province. Australia is willing to hand it over so long as you accept "as is" in the agreement.
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  106.  @jackboot3946  Australia is not in strife , the other states look upon Victoria as a rogue southern state.
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  107. With glass you are burning gas and or coal, it's not the solution unless reused at the personal level which isn't going to happen, meaning refilling your Glass container at the shop with new product. Glass is far worse for energy use.
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  108. He keeps talking about religion. There's no major religion that forbids vaccines. Seems to me people scared of vaccines are using any excuse.
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  109. Let's just consider the 3% , this is the number who still apparently believe Trump won according to some survey. So this 3% believe anything Trump says. They are ignorant and highly adaptable as far as beliefs go. I watched a few Trump rallies and Trump would often say that Biden will cut some socialist program , either an industry subsidy scheme or for example medicare, at those same rallies with an approximately 20 minute gap he will say how Biden is a socialist and will turn the country into Venezuela or Cuba. So logic is a deficiency in these people. If you can simultaneously believe your social welfare or subsidy will be cut and all your wealth will be taken to provide for others, I'll put it to you how can you not vote for Trump if you believe this?
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  110. Singapore is an interesting case because had an almost identical position to Sweden in the beginning, wash your hands and she'll be right mate. Singapore is the only country I think to do a complete reverse turn on policy and I am very happy you did.
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  111. I am Australian , we had done around 10,000 tests by end of February , so we were a bit slow off the mark. The US had done around 500 tests by the end of February. This is the time period you needed to act, South Korea had done something like 100,000 tests by the end of February. You can't turn back the clock, the CDC et al. were asleep at the wheel to the end of February. When they woke up in March it was too late Trump had already kept advising people the virus would go away.
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  112. Exact same techniques used by antivaxxers every time there's a story about a covid death or government advertising using genuinely sick people, oh they're actors. America unfortunately has 1 million actors that can't perform any more.
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  113. There's a fundamental difference, everyone knows that too much alcohol, sugar and fat are bad. There is no misinformation on this. The other issue is my smoking , drinking and bad eating habits aren't going to cause the death of someone else.
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  114. Unfortunately what was demonstrated in the clip is what separates you from many countries. In any other wealthy country on the planet you wouldn't have high profile politicians behaving in such a manner. In Australia if he was in either of our major political parties he would be disciplined most likely as in told to shut up in no uncertain terms.
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  115. It's called a precaution and they afraid of course it could happen again, just normal human nature.
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  116.  @jaketapper8910  The US government spends more on public healthcare as a proportion of GDP and in gross terms per Capita than Australia which has universal healthcare. The US has a life expectancy 5 years less than Australia, possibly 6 years now. If the reports by CNN saying life expectancy dropped by 1.5 years due to the pandemic [response] then your life expectancy is less than 1 year ahead of China. It's not about the money, it's about policy, the public health/economic response to Covid 19 by Australia has been far cheaper than the US which ran a government deficit of around 15% of GDP last calendar year compared to about 7% for Australia. Just remember it's not about the money it's about functionality, throwing more money at public healthcare in the US would probably produce a low return, it needs reforming.
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  117. The US is now the best at testing by number of tests even on a per capita basis calculated daily I think. Unfortunately I have heard in one state you might get a result in 3 weeks.
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  118. It's the job of a lawyer to "act in their clients interest", nothing about telling the truth. Any statement made will be looked at in light of evidence. All evidence points to they were doing a runner.
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  119. She's a chip off the old block. Tough as hell basically accusing her father of being stupid but much better looking and yes very attractive from my male perspective, a strong young lady.
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  120. Well based on 2018 numbers West Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi have lower life expectancy than people in Mexico and Mexico isn't exactly a great performer on this measure either. China will likely overtake the US life expectancy number in the next few years if it hasn't already due to the US covid 19 response. Because the US doesn't look at it's peers as in other wealthy countries this will be significant because the US does like to compare itself to China.
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  121.  @Maybelove88  it shouldn't though, she is probably a dangerous cult like figure to her followers, and if she does have a significant following, then first of all they won't take precautions to prevent infection and secondly will just take her recommendation of hydroxychloroquine and zinc if they get sick instead of going to the hospital where they might be injected with an anti religious vaccine. In other words she might cause people to die. I think Trump by his words has indirectly done this already because people follow him.
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  122. The scary thing is where you are speaking this from. Western Europe completely failed in the beginning just like the US , but decided something had to change. Western Europe and Canada are the examples that even if you failed in the beginning the ongoing outcomes can be changed. If any vaccine that most likely will come to market isn't highly effective for whatever reason including mutations of the virus this could continue for 2 or 3 years. The conservative approach is to assume the vaccine won't work. Hope for the best but act as if it won't happen. The US currently has no game plan if all vaccines fail.
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  123. Do you consider George Washington to be one of your founding fathers? Well he mandated smallpox vaccine for the military.
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  124. That's about 80% of all populations. The fact she said it means she is now in the minority 20% . I think it was quite brave of her actually, any Qanon friends she had before and are still in that think she is something like the devil , even talking to CNN would be like a high crime. Hope she's ok and any crazy ex friends don't bring her harm.
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  125. Not exactly, one of those people is a Trump devotee who endorsed him.
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  126. A sovereign country are you serious?, Israel and the United Nations don't recognize Palestine as a sovereign country. The borders of Palestine as they are are controlled by Israel, for a Palestinian to enter or exit requires the approval of Israel. Not sure where you are from but do you personally live under such conditions imposed upon you by another government?
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  127.  @ashroskell  Fox plus Trump and as you say certain people working for Fox have done more to advance the cause of the Communist Party of China internationally than anything that China could ever achieve on it's own. I am Australian and the changing of the guard to China doesn't concern me a great deal however it's a lot better if the US is a strong counterbalance. Militarily that should remain the case but in other ways the US is in relative sharp decline, take the key measure of life expectancy, China will very soon overtake the US. This might wake the US up because the US refuses to compare itself to it's peers as in other wealthy countries but likes to look at China. Anyway best of luck, we will see what happens over the next few years.
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  128. China has had a 2 child policy since 2015, so not sure when Biden had this conversation.
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  129. It's greater than that, they don't trust people in the next state let alone foreigner and they don't trust their own state government.
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  130. They missed one, there was at least one other murder committed by an antimasker who punched some guy which killed him because he requested the murderer wear a mask.
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  131. Well the US should treat drug use as a health problem and drug dealing a criminal problem. While it differs in different states my impression from the outside is overall drug use is treated as a criminal problem in the US. Not saying that would solve everything because it wouldn't but improvements could be made.
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  132. Well if you look at it objectively both sides have lost the plot , the lefties last year in the US opened the door for such behaviour. Remember BLM riots in the middle of a pandemic even got some group of doctors saying go ahead, while it actually didn't increase spread because riots were better than any pretend lockdown at getting the majority to stay home the intent was killing people is ok. Then we saw Trump doing it with his rallies and same deal. Now the situation has changed again with the righties making the move. It's all incremental and the partisan divide has gone to a dangerous place noting the killings by both groups in 2020. When multiple killings don't cause alarm then your country is a developing nation, you have money but civil society is poorly developed. The homicide rate is 6 times that of other wealthy nations and yes on a per capita basis. The underlying issue is probably the immense amount of political influence by business lobby groups on the functioning of your country. People are literally fighting to keep bad outcomes and generally using the catchword socialism to prevent any change. No idea what the answer is, it needs leadership from both sides to condemn their own side when something wrong is done and not likely to happen any time soon.
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  133. Seems like overkill to me.
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  134. Was that speech before or after it was found that Novak broke Serbian law by not quarantining as required by law when infected?
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  135.  @delranson2389  sky news Australia is part of News Corporation which spun off Fox News a while back, both controlled by Murdoch family , something like that. Sky News in England was sold off so completely different company.
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  136. Be careful what you wish for, he might win if Biden is not popular by then, now Biden is in honeymoon period.
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  137. 1,000,000 dead according to your CDC in excess deaths since pandemic begun, let's say a reasonable response occurred, that would be only 200,000 dead maximum. How is the million lost souls making you happy and excited?
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  138. I doubt it , look at history with people like Hitler or Pol Pot and many others. They can convince the majority of a population under certain conditions.
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  139. Laws in countries that support free speech people can say anything so long as it's not inciting violence. I am Australian so same thing , however many things occurring in the US now are supported by one party or another which would receive bipartisan condemnation in Australia and any extremists kicked out of whichever major party. In the US this is not occurring at the moment.
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  140.  @mndlessdrwer  Fauci already has FBI body guards I think it is. Not normal for a long term public servant who has worked under both political sides without incidence until recently.
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  141.  @mrsai4740 the US has the worst covid 19 death rate per Capita for a wealthy country and the lowest vaccination rate and highest obesity and lowest life expectancy and most expensive healthcare. Do you see any correlation or pattern here? Maybe the US is disfunctional. Seems vaccines if people take them actually do work in other countries, etc., etc.
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  142.  @KMcKee-qn6bo  In fact it's the smart educated ones that are most dangerous, dumb people can't make a bomb without blowing themselves up or fly a plane. If you look at the successful major suicide bombing campaigns all around the world, there is always a smart chemist in the background which is always the number one target of the authorities because without that person or persons they can't do the bombings.
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  143.  Anonymous  well can NZ please accept Victoria, we are willing to give you that part of our country as long as you agree not to litigate.
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  144. The US is certainly a superpower. Not very good at managing internal issues but a military like no other (China is getting there but isn't there).
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  145.  @andrewrichardson3135  what makes you think China lies about it's numbers, the deaths are consistent with known cases? The lockdown if Hebei province is as a result of cases, impossible to lock large cities down without any cases because even in a 1 party state people would ignore the directive. If there were provinces and cases were being covered up they would be like Wuhan was before in no time.
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  146.  @andrewrichardson3135  I am not saying it's a free country or anything , just about this subject and authoritarian countries that took the virus seriously are very successful so that's consistent too, Vietnam and Taiwan are fairly authoritarian, same with Thailand. You don't have to be an authoritarian country to succeed however, Australia and New Zealand with higher levels of general freedoms of the above mentioned countries are successful too. No evidence any of these countries cover up numbers. The only place where numbers have been covered for a period and this is documented is Florida USA that withheld case numbers during the month of October last year to apparently check the numbers or something, after November 3 this problem was solved.
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  147.  @tweedy4sg  while most of what you say is correct one thing at the time that wasn't known that well was how many the lockdown itself would kill. In a population of 10,000,000 or so with such a hard oppressive lockdown you can expect quite a few people to die. Have to remember all medical care completely halted and even if an ambulance can get to someone on time for an urgent issue for a while no vacant ICU beds. This number has not been published as far as I am aware but it certainly occurred and would be more significant than any other lockdown in the world. In Australia in the first 6 months of the year had 1200 excess deaths and they showed a graph and the only time excess deaths occured was during lockdown and only about 100 deaths from covid 19 so it was not the cause. The causes of death that increased was heart attack and diabetes. The US CDC published excess deaths for January 26 to October 3 and it was 300,000 and only 200,000 were covid 19 deaths, so the rest is the lockdown lite and failure to contain the virus stressing people and less routine medical care I guess, not sure which causes of death rose. So the extra urns due to other deaths was a real thing because it happened virtually everywhere else and we don't know the number because they have not released it. It's things like that that cause some to be sceptical of China.
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  148. Lee universe I look forward to seeing all the naked Americans shortly because apparel taxes have apparently stopped people from buying. This is what you just stated.
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  149.  @SimonKnight1023  Of course vast majority are fine, but almost 0.3% of population dead and having to pay enormous taxes and health care insurance if working in a reasonable job can't be good can it and yes what about the 0.3% that's already died both directly and indirectly?
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  150. Well the American far right or at least the Trump supporters are certainly on that side.
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  151. Damn, I'm only double jabbed and I thought my 5G reception would be great so Bill can track me but I have found no change. Is it the third jab that's needed for triangulation of all the chips do you think?
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  152. Colorado anyone can carry a gun, it didn't help them.
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  153. Anyone who worked/s in the Trump administration needs that proof of being fired by tweet or whatever so they can get another job in the future. Guliani can never get another job I would think, he couldn't be on a committee of a local library.
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  154. It is hard apparently, in your country you can send someone to war or alternatively imprison them as happened in the Vietnam war but apparently all quarantine and mitigation and or containment measures for a virus are unconstitutional, easy solution, draft the entire population which is allowed under your constitution and require them to follow orders. Only joking about that , just pointing out of course public health orders are legal although nobody is going to love them. It's not like Australians and New Zealanders enjoyed the restrictions but getting to where we are now was worth it.
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  155. It's not hard to believe at all, about 30% of Americans believe Trump won the election and that's with completely free media. Of course it's sad though and before the Trump thing I probably wouldn't have believed that could happen.
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  156. He's not a Prime Minister, he gets to hang around for a couple of months.
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  157. I think some cities just have these problems, density and movement patterns. Hard to know exactly but I know from my part of the world 2 cities can have an almost identical response but one has cases rise and the other not, restrictions fatigue may also play a part. Highly variable weather seems to be a disadvantage also.
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  158.  @debbiebrown7140  Virtually nowhere would be locked down if you followed the West Pacific.
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  159.  @janpacana6293  never use the crime rate because it's completely unreliable other than homicide rate. Homicides don't require any reporting. If I get robbed but not harmed I probably won't report it unless for insurance purposes, it's not like I can get anything back.
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  160. At the moment I think you might be correct. I am Australian, we aren't divided like that now and I can't think of any federation around the world with such internal divisions.
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  161. Technically of course it's a lynching which means extrajudicial killing.
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  162.  Am Pat  you seem to be referring to 5,000 people who have to do quarantine, the choice is 5,000 quarantined for 2 weeks or 2,000 dead people, something like that and ongoing restrictions like the case is in the US. Choice seems simple to me, it's not my state but every state in Australia now has the same approach as does New Zealand. Any outbreak stop it ASAP.
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  163. I am in Australia and I can't imagine someone confronting me for wearing a mask if there is no mandate at the time. In the US 3 people have literally been killed over mask wearing that I am aware of and one would think Tucker would also be aware of being in the US media. On another occasion not mask related but covid 19 restrictions on seating at food establishments a lady shot 4 people at a McDonald's luckily not killing any of them. Antagonizing an already volatile population at the very least is unwise and unhelpful even if it's not illegal.
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  164. Appointed by politicians is normal but the highly partisan alignment of the judges isn't. With Australia's equivalent the High Court the Prime Minister advises the the Governor General usually with the Attorney General input but not actually required.
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  165. One reason I believe it has been made clear [at this moment] that the US will not put boots on the ground or in the air is because it would give Putin heaps of propaganda when planes get shot down etc. to say it's the Americans and other allies, UK and Australia would automatically agree to provide some support based on recent history but which country would want to be targeted because wherever those planes flying from would then be a Russian target. I can't see any small Eastern European country wanting that.
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  166. He didn't answer a direct question whether the actions (other than it went too far) were against the rules and talked about humanity. I am suspicious the training is lax. It has been suggested there are systemic problems of police brutality in this jurisdiction the Chief is ultimately responsible if this is the case, he's running the show. Lack of resources might be an issue and that would fall on the police chief and the mayor.
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  167. Technically the indigenous Americans are from immigrants too humans came from Subsaharan Africa but mixed with Denisovan and Neanderthal when leaving Africa and only migrated to the Americas about 20,000 years ago.
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  168. Well he's better at reading than Trump, even Biden is despite him being older. The teleprompters are great.
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  169. Nah can't have him destroy the English language. Sayings like "I can Trump that" or "you've come up Trumps" or " I've got the Trump card up my sleeve" Maybe my last example has already been destroyed and people might think I am planning a violent attack , let's not let him destroy anything more. Maybe you're right and at least in your country and maybe elsewhere these sayings slowly died over the last 4 years.
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  170. Best of luck wherever you decide to move to.
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  171.  @DulceN  Nah many like me came here to read crazy comments.
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  172. Strange comments in this thread it's not an either or, should be vaccinated and if low on Vitamin d or zinc should take supplement and evidence does suggest it helps.
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  173. If you're American you already went through that, covid 19 deaths in India so far are still far less on a per capita basis. The US might have fancy looking hospitals but for 500,000 people and their families it means nothing.
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  174. The risk to children is still low, traffic accidents kill more. This is based on US data. If vaccinated as in over 5 and up to 18 it's really not worth worrying about unless the child has significant other issues. So yes take reasonable precautions but shouldn't become overly worried about the situation. It's the 50+ age cohort who refuse to get vaccinated that's the real problem for societies and to an extent those in that group that refuse to get 3 doses also, indications so far indicate extremely good protection after the third dose.
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  175. The title is wrong it's hardcore "woke" legislation. Excessively worrying about how one race or another might feel is the definition of woke.
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  176. Hang in there the best you can, I know conditions would be difficult in the Philippines. In many ways I feel more sorry for your country and Indonesia because like neighbor and at least you try with limited resources. The US has plenty of resources and a proportion of the population actually fight against success including the big one Trump. I do have empathy for Americans also, especially the majority it would seem that do try. But small majority can never succeed , vast majority is needed. From Australia 🇦🇺
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  177. Nice and good anecdote but really you should have been checked out for brain injury. Obviously it didn't occur but if it had you might not be here. Good to hear your good luck story though.
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  178. Once you hear the words "I don't know the answer to that, I'll get back to you" in one of these types of press conference you can relax. It's probably the most common line used in jurisdictions across the world except for China and previously the US ( still applies to many US states though I suspect). China it's all prearranged so journalists don't get to freely ask questions so I think you can never hear that. US it was for outright deception when Trump spoke.
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  179. I am from Queensland Australia and I am still coming to terms with the concept that people after being tested in some US jurisdictions according to reporters are not required to isolate until results come back. If in some cases as reported it's a week and you can run around Willy nilly , you could very well be positive at the time your negative result comes back. Then because you are really not feeling good you head to the test centre again but this time reinfecting others as you wait for the result.
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  180.  @Jakob_DK  I didn't make myself clear. I was describing the situation in the US in some areas according to reports when talking about testing delays. I'll edit my comment.
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  181.  @JoeDeglman  you don't know what per Capita is do you and how to compare, let's make it simple. In Australia 0.008% of the population has died from covid 19, In the US 0.25% of the population has died from covid 19. Do you understand this concept and how restrictions certainly played a part?
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  182. In the scheme of things that makes him the most honest and decent. And suggest people take his advice.
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  183. Compare the death rate in Serbia to Australia, it's a pretty big difference and although Serbia not bad by European standards some European countries over 3,000 deaths per million, that's terrible.
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  184. While he sort of spoke in a condescending manner he would be correct in what he says and actually stated things in a non biased way "we don't know what's in those closed documents" . It can be the case which I would suggest it probably is that the law itself is wrong , shooting the messenger changes nothing. He wasn't there to comment on the merits or lack of , of the law itself.
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  185. How about banning children having guns so they don't go and shoot up schools. That might be a bit better and no a voluntary code of conduct with gun ownership doesn't actually work as can be seen in the US.
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  186. No it's not, this is how they behave, just like Trump.
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  187. Let them die on the street and refuse them healthcare? This would be leaving them alone , I am not sure you have thought your comment through.
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  188. But that's what the US did, exactly what you are saying they should have done. The US never locked down, just shut bars and restaurants at times that's about it.
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  189. Well in your country the unvaccinated are disproportionately showing up in ICUs and some of them being transferred to body bags after that. Unfortunately society has to pay for that choice , ICU beds aren't cheap.
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  190.  @jeschinstad  All Western Europe and US still have to this day have no enforced quarantine, all the West Pacific from China to New Zealand and all countries in between do. We clearly have a different cultural attitude to such matters. Even Singapore started with a Swedish type approach , it had the ability to change approach, one thing most governments have failed at is to change policy even if they know it works. Japan has done ok but they also slow change and maybe they have lost control now, have to see 5,000 cases a day means contact tracing doesn't work properly any more, they protect the border well though so shouldn't get the really contagious strains but if they do then big problems. Thailand I think will regain control, maybe I am biased because of personal relationship there but they could go either way , Malaysia did really well as well for a long time but lost control. There is no other way to do it and I wish other countries outside our region would follow and at a minimum protect their borders from new strains but they won't, just half measures. Africa I don't follow but seems that they have kept the spread relatively low except for South Africa.
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  191. Think of the Taliban as the Republican Party, they aren't all the same, some Qanon/Trump followers would be quite happy with a military takeover of the US with Trump anointed as President or in other words what the Taliban has done so far is in full alignment with the methods of the Taliban but the Taliban will have moderates also and unlike with Biden the ousted president of Afghanistan was seen as illegitimate by many and seems there was widespread support for the Taliban outside of the major cities, just like Republicans actually. I think worst case scenario isn't going to happen however it won't be as inclusive and moderate as the educated city people want.
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  192. Another Aussie, I'll put my 2 cents worth, I think both candidates and political parties in the US are basically mad and disfunctional. The only thing to really consider is who might do more damage than the other. Best of luck US citizens.
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  193. Still have to pay to put them on air or youtube or wherever they are to be shown
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  194. We realise that and it's not the issue, use the term cultural genocide if it makes you more happy. The term genocide is being used according to the UN definition and doesn't have to mean killing everyone, it can mean stopping their culture by force.
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  195. Americans like a few in this comment thread love high taxes for lower services as long as their perceived enemy misses out. The US for example spends more on publically funded healthcare than Australia on a per capita basis as a proportion of GDP yet it's a non universal healthcare system. Why people enjoy higher taxes for lower outcomes is beyond me, the US life expectancy is 5 years or so lower than Australia which obviously the easiest key measure to go by.
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  196. Reading through the comments I can understand why an American might actually be less likely to know what is going on in their own country, it's partly size, very high homicide rates and other violent crime and what's news worthy. If it's not local news it's hard for most stories to reach even regional news like a statewide news bulletin because let's take Florida as an example, 2019 there were 1334 homicides which is 3.65 per day, in the whole of Australia with about 20% more population in 2020 there were 396 homicides. So just using this one statistic in the 22 minutes to 30 minutes news bulletin Florida can slot in a murder into every broadcast, then there's gun violence not causing death which can be another story etc. etc. but in Australia we can't find either of those events on a daily basis so it's quite conceivable that things that might even make the Australian news about an event in the US might not make even the state news in a large US state because there's a lot more "interesting" stories. Also violence is normal in the US having a homicide rate about 5 times that of the average wealthy country, not much can be shocking under such circumstances. The size of a state probably makes a big difference also, the 4 big US states have so much going on. If talking nationally in the US there were 21,570 murders and non negligent manslaughter in 2020. You could literally have a 24/7 murder channel and probably still couldn't cover every case in depth.
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  197.  @Wombbatts Public healthcare provides all emergency care in most states, not sure about Sydney or Melbourne but anywhere else if you are having a heart attack you will be going to a public hospital. To say that sucks and it's a low standard considering Australia is in the top ten in the world for life expectancy is a stretch and read my previous comment also in conjunction with this one. The US is about #40 in life expectancy, some middle income countries overtaking them now.
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  198. The NAZIS had magazines , films and radio broadcasts. The media type doesn't matter, for Trump it was Twitter, Qanon and Fox. That last one is a bit depressing actually because they changed from conservative to a Trump mouthpiece. CNN unfortunately although not quite as bad is like a Democrats mouthpiece. I have seen both of them pushing news messages by omission of relevant facts to mislead in a story. The problem with the internet is everyone can do it and it's really fast.
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  199. Of course, many vaccines are a 3 dose regimen.
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  200.  @anjaoldnettle2841  30% of the electorate not believing the election results, 6 times the homicide rate per Capita of other wealthy nations, lowest life expectancy of a rich country which has even dropped below that of China a middle income country etc. etc. If you don't see anything wrong with what I just said then you are representative of how a person in a developing country might think about their country and that is that failure is the best we can do.
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  201. This might sound like a hard thing but just tell her based on previous variants including Delta which is still circulating about 10% chance she dies if she catches it and about 1% if vaccinated based on her age(Omicron probably less). Then just don't worry about it, at that age she could die tomorrow from anything. In other words respect her wishes even if it ends up killing her. I say that based on her being very old. Hope you don't find my comment offensive and best of luck.
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  202.  @MJN3013  There's something seriously wrong with the weapon or the person. Could be it was used to kill someone or could be they were a terrorist. As long as they catch the person I expect we will find out. The gun being cocked loaded and apparently no safety is crazy in itself.
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  203. The strange thing is they end up radicalizing themselves. I watched a few recent clips from that YouTube channel and actually generally they are in full support of Biden's actions because they actually agree but then try to pretend they don't agree or the former guy could have done it better. If viewers actually listened to content they would be saying hey great even that channel agrees with our government on this issue at this time. Exception to the rule of course is Comrade Carlson who is assisting the the Russian/Chinese misinformation campaign about the US funding hundreds of secret biological weapons labs around the world. Look at the vaccination rates in Ukraine for Covid 19 , that tells you biological weapons can't be useful because people won't get vaccinated against anthrax for example.
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  204. You're missing the big picture you are 5 times as violent as your average wealthy nation based on homicides. Surge or no surge you are the most violent wealthy nation and also have the title of most locked up citizens yes on a per Capita basis for a wealthy country. Clearly building bigger prisons isn't working. Your social welfare system needs changing and cultural issues.
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  205.  @chocolateking1143  hell no, I don't think you understand agriculture. You let your cattle get sick they can no longer be sold for human consumption, maybe can be cooked pet food at 50c per pound.
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  206. From a foreigners perspective from Reagan to Obama , there was a lot of continuity and they would talk to their closest allies not megaphone diplomacy, basically seeing how many countries they can offend. Not everything Trump has done internationally is bad but his approach is all wrong. His point that allies should contribute more costs regarding military defense is valid but shouting it out publically and trying to humiliate every other country for his base is the wrong way to go about it. What Trump does internally inside the US is even worse contributing to violent left and right mobs instead of trying to bring calm, supporting conspiracy theorist and being the antimasker Infecter in Chief. Trump doesn't lack intelligence , he is just a risk taker who seems to truly not care his actions are likely increasing the number of deaths from covid-19 and certain types of violence. From Reagan to Obama even if they didn't get everything right which is an impossibility, they at least cared and that's the true difference regardless of party offiliation . Best of luck whoever wins, from Australia.
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  207. More than willing , yes certainly, but to openly speak that today means more than usual death threats for the day. Consider his position and what he is going through.
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  208. Unfortunately they will meaning herd immunity may not be reached and the current situation continues longer than it should.
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  209. Why on earth aren't they connected to the national grid? That's just plain stupid, in fact if they adhere to free market principles why haven't they been lobbying for connection to Mexico's grid also. However wouldn't have helped right now because Mexico is in the same situation.
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  210. I hope so but have to say he is extremely brave going back.
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  211. I think this one seems better because of price, supply chain issues because normal fridge temperature, number of doses being available much quicker with it already being manufactured in multiple countries by different companies.
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  212. The problem is in the US and some other countries people have lost the plot, both sides misleading.
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  213. Surprise surprise, Russia is a little bit on the nose now. If Australia my country just decided tomorrow that we're gonna invade New Zealand because they are much weaker than us and we don't like their government pretty sure we wouldn't be hearing about Australian war heroes for the sake of balance we would be hearing about vicious Australian killers who need to be stopped.
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  214. Are you suggesting classism doesn't exist in "Western " countries? I can assure you it does.
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  215. She's already fine with everything based on this clip. I would suggest she's more than fine because of the unexpected attention.
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  216.  Adolf Hitler  While Biden is certainly getting on a bit I expect he will still be alive in about 4years. The guy is as tough as nails.
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  217.  Lee Smith  your question is a little silly when you think about because already answered the vaccines are about 95% effective at preventing deaths. If you would have lived anyway there is no evidence vaccines will reduce this chance.
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  218. Without prejudice what US authorities did was far worse, Trump was involved in a six month cover-up and he was the leader continually saying it's harmless and his followers the lemmings followed him off the cliff. The Wuhan government did the same thing and got sacked which media doesn't ever mention. Trump got sacked I suppose but that's a lot of bodies later and him along with others allowed the virus to spread to every state and territory knowingly. Trump told blatant lies and we know it was intentional from the Woodward interview.
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  219. That doesn't look bad now, pretty good actually on the scale of things.
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  220. Remove one 0 and your numbers will be correct 2.5 chances in 1,000 of being dead already from covid 19. That's not the chance of dying but the chance you are already dead, people are still dying you know at about 1,000 per day.
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  221.  @richarddeckard9804  Thanks for that info , so if I feel like Chinese food before my white supremacist meeting and don't want to stand out at either establishment it's good to wear a t-shirt with 88 on it, it's good luck or good fortune for Chinese superstition. Good to know if I ever encounter such a dilemma. Also probably confusing to each of those groups as it was to me until you told me.
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  222. In a country of 40 million that's bugger all.
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  223. Because the leadership abandoned them. You can't have an army that is leaderless and the soldiers aren't even getting fed properly. Look at the number of police and army that died over the last 20 years, they were certainly willing to fight.
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  224. Wrong way around I think, "stand back and stand by" was what he actually said.
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  225. I am Australian and thinking something along the lines of that but not quite as strong. What the US is asking is Iran unilaterally follows the deal and the US will then change the deal and once the unknown changed deal comes into effect the US will lift sanctions. Although China won't talk to Australia about it's trade sanctions on us for the moment, ( we actually don't know the exact reasons but many demands have been made of Australia ) , it gives the green light for China to do the same to us , even if we complied with all demands which isn't going to happen with things like , in effect removing foreign investment laws and foreign interference laws , China could just say ok you are following our demands thanks for that we aren't going to lift trade sanctions here are are new demands to consider lifting trade sanctions and legitimately argue this is now the new order of things we are only following US leadership. Not saying China trade sanctions against Australia are anything like that of US on Iran, just the principle is the same.
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  226. The murder if it happened probably wasn't in Florida.
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  227. Sawadee
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  228. You are wrong, for almost all people who support Trump it's true. There is an excuse for every number. The US tests more, our numbers are not rising ( for a week or 2 now), Other countries don't count the dead people, every car accident in the US is labeled as a covid death, other less well off countries are incapable of testing, the tests don't work that's why our positivity rate is high and others low, Other countries all have an easier time containing it because they are small and compact or more spread out, the cases are skyrocketing in Japan and Australia (sky rocketing to the point they might see a death toll per capita like that of Hawaii if triple the numbers of deaths, actually somewhat likely. Hawaii and Alaska actually haven't done that bad so far, distance from the mainland is helpful I think), the main stream media, China, WHO are all lying. I think my list isn't even exhaustive yet, I am sure I missed a few other theories, so the US is doing great.
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  229. Speaking with a little bit of tongue in cheek , Australia gave you Rupert Murdoch who produced Fox News and now we give you a bisexual Superman. I think you people will never be happy , what exactly do you want from us?
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  230. After 2 years of covid 19 you haven't worked it out yet. After a PCR test confirms it. How many places are capable of doing such a test , hard to know , it's not exactly something that's regularly tested for.
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  231. It's a bad idea to half do it. Either do it properly or not at all. Anyone who can afford it can fly to Doha or Dubai and then on to Europe or US and undergo voluntary quarantine in the case of the US, being voluntary compliance is extremely low when it needs to be 100%. If one case gets in and spreads to 5 people it's game over and that's probably already happened in many countries but not detected yet. 90% of all Australian cases originated from 2 individual cases.
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  232. You are not giving Trump enough credit. As a leader in a Western democracy you can consider him a verifiable expert at the blame game. Name another leader in any country as good at it as him.
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  233. As far as I know he hasn't been president yet. He was vice president for a while and seemed to do ok.
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  234. I don't see 20 million protestors in Canada, the protestors are a small minority.
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  235.  JM Sabatino  Australian states don't have even 10s of cases a day, maybe the person commenting is a fellow Australian. The five months reference I am guessing is Western Australia and relates to community transmission because they get imported cases of course.
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  236.  @khop502  it's one way to get international attention. Don't they say all publicity is good publicity.
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  237.  @pamdeshane1289  I am not American but my observation is the duopoly of political parties at the moment you need to make a personal least worst option decision. You might consider different party for different positions and best local candidate in the non presidential elections
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  238. Maybe you haven't been near a 5g tower, just wait lol. Sorry to say if robots were controlling those who got the vaccine why is the US still crazy as anything from an outsiders perspective, maybe the robots malfunctioning.
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  239. Thanks
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  240. The US doesn't do much genomic testing, they'll find it when some state has 1,000 cases a day of it. Like the now old saying goes "if you don't test you don't have cases".
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  241. My guess if they win this , they might consider others. I don't think they will go after Trump who was just as bad because some Republicans love him too much so won't be able to make any future sales in Republican led states would be the concern.
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  242.  @zeyzey4903  The West certainly does share information about the middle east and many Australians don't agree with what Israel does and we have protests against it when hostilities heat up. You must be living in a bubble or ignorant of what freedom is because yes some agree with Israel no matter what. I don't like many things Israel has done and don't like what Russia is doing. Any person with a decent amount of humanity knows that both are bad , however many people believe lies in both cases and accept things that are wrong. Not in Australia but in the US many are supporting Putin's expansionary ambition, President Trump and Tucker Carlson a top 10 current affairs media personality. Why can't you accept that Russia is doing wrong when you claim Israel is doing wrong for very similar and I would argue almost exactly the same reason?
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  243. In Georgia the cut off time for international votes coming in just occurred about now. That is US citizens overseas not Russians and Chinese unless Trump got the military votes diverted for alteration. Maybe someone should just start a ridiculous conspiracy theory against Trump along these lines.
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  244. Even al Qaeda wasn't that extreme (ISIS maybe), more like the purge or whatever it was called by Pol Pot in Cambodia, just start killing people.
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  245.  @Didier0002  I watched the video you sent and it wasn't built for covid 19 but repurposed as I previously said. It's her own stupid fault no wonder she lost her job all she had to do was just tell the truth in the first place and she could have home quarantined. A spoilt little princess and the conditions at Howard Springs are pretty good actually, many people have been quarantined in hotel rooms with no balcony and can't leave the room at all. She even got paid rather than having to pay like most, I have 0 sympathy for her.
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  246. Guns might not be the underlying cause however a violent population like the US with guns becomes even more violent.
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  247. Very true, look at median adult wealth by country and average adult wealth. You will see my country Australia is about the same for average wealth, US a bit higher I think but median wealth Australians are more than double that of our US counterparts.
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  248.  @andrewrichardson3135  you don't have to be, there are more internal freedoms in Australia than the US currently and sorry to inform you but you are more authoritarian than Australia already. You have 400,000 health prisoners which is possibly the highest rate in the world and certainly more than double the rate in Australia. Being a drug addict should not be considered a crime in my opinion however it's a difficult issue and not entirely against imprisonment if treatment occurs also. So freedom to infect but being a junkie that hurts nobody should be imprisoned apparently , does that make sense to you?
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  249. It depends on the US state, eligibility even for their federal elections varies a lot, Colorado allows certain prisoners to vote, other states bar voting when a person is still serving a non custodial sentence as in probation. In Australia our federal elections we allow anyone with a prison sentence of less than 3 years I think it is. The worst part about the US federal election is the states having different illegibility because it means not all votes/voters are equal.
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  250. I don't think the PM would be personally approving advertising. Australia has done pretty good at both state and federal levels and virtually no politicisation. Expecting perfection is unreasonable.
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  251. Just because you're a girl doesn't mean you're always right ( except for your partner ) but actually tend to agree, it's too fast a little slower wouldn't hurt.
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  252.  @SimonKnight1023  I have to admit because of my bias towards Americans in some respects I didn't actually recognize your sarcasm, if you were British or Aussie or Kiwi I would have picked it up more quickly I think because more of us behave that way.
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  253.  @christinewelford1842  So you don't believe a country has a right to decide who enters or in other words you want an open border, you would be replaced by lower cost workers. Yes the US requirements (and almost every country in the world) is need to be vaccinated if you are a foreigner to enter. I don't understand how you see it as both sides.
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  254. I don't see why not, Trump blamed everything on other countries all around the world. But you can thank Biden for cheap softwood timber because as Fareed reported previously Biden wacked a tariff on it, no good for your loggers and timber mills though.
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  255. No, contain them. Expelling them just means they spread it everywhere. Campus lockdown, no one in or out.
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  256. He wasn't following because there were 10s of thousands and only 1 or 2 thousand ever made it into the building, he technically was one of the leaders as was everyone in that building.
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  257. If NYC was a country it would have the second highest homicide rate of a high income country in the world behind USA.
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  258. It's not hearsay because he said he heard it, hearsay is someone told me it happened, but it holds no weight because it's contradicted by others, don't know who to believe.
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  259. It didn't come off well however I do think he meant at the same rate as the general American population. Have a go at him for other reasons but I don't think this is one to be overly annoyed about, Biden has had similar slip ups on occasion, doesn't mean he isn't genuine.
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  260.  @puesbien  Looking at the current ages of people in leadership positions in US politics, I do think they could do with some younger people, 40s to 60s I think is the ideal age range, over 70 maybe still be a politician but probably shouldn't be playing a key role, exceptions do apply of course.
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  261. It's called the weather, Florida and some other southern states catch fire in summer, NE in winter. This was even observed in 1918 so not exactly news.
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  262. More than distancing, saying that they should be imprisoned as terrible lawbreakers.
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  263.  @dianad1968  Just a note should always say "Sky News Australia" because Sky News is English and sold by the Murdoch's some time ago and in the centre I think but not sure, Sky News Australia is almost a conjoined twin of Fox News.
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  264. I disagree in part, while mental health services probably are an issue in your country the underlying problems are the function of government and some people feeling that they don't have a voice. Lack of an effective social welfare safety net is a big issue and the most affected young black and white males feel they are being treated unfairly and there is some truth to it. I am a white male in Australia and the same problems here. If you look white males are most likely to suicide along with indigenous people in both our countries and young black males in US dramatically more likely to be involved in gang type violence and young white males in school shooting type violence. As a caveat a significant number of suicides in both these groups are older people. If you look in a patriarchal society female suicide rates are higher than male for example South Korea. Obviously you are a girl but just think about why the males in our countries think like this, especially the young we feel worthless with constant criticism against our demographics tending according to political leaning, eg. right considers black males a violence problem, left considers white males the same. It's not an easy problem to solve if no one listens.
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  265. 100% Everyone has gone quiet on it now but I am from one of those terrible authoritarian states, the state of Queensland Australia where if you do the wrong thing you might get prison time, funny thing you only need to lock up one person for a couple of months and most people get the message, Somebody decided to have a party 2 nights in a row during lockdown and got 2 months prison. In another case one group of girls who brought covid 19 into our state are looking at potentially 5 years prison for lying about where they had been previously, case is pending to January now. The most common reaction to those girls is hope they get 5 years, I don't think they'll get much but it shows if someone takes your freedom, possible lockdowns and business closures you aren't popular in my state, other states in Australia similar. Everything is open and we only had 8 weeks hard proper lockdown.
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  266. There are a couple in China at phase 3 and it's expected if all goes well the University of Queensland /CSL Australia one will go into phase 3 trials early December. It's my state so proud of that, even if I don't have the scientific knowledge to identify a test tube personally. There are actually about 20 or so at a similar stage I believe.
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  267. At best Trump is a sociopath , but given his actions probably a psychopath. Americans are still in denial and giving him the benefit of the doubt, he is happy with the 500,000 people killed by the virus because he could blame China. The US allowed the virus to spread to all major states and territory, in fact every county has had a case. Ok maybe 100 cases came from China however this was known on January 21, just not the extent of the problem. 100 cases plus the cases from Europe which were let in without anything but voluntary quarantine still in place to this day. How is it 100s of thousands dying and Trump encouraging infections didn't alert anyone to who this person is? Now everyone tiptoes around the issue of the insurection , maybe the guy talking like militia members who claim it's their right to overthrow the government should have been a giveaway but apparently not, maybe his obvious delight that a real threat of death occurred to the Michigan governor should have ring alarm bells, he was laughing when his rally mob was chanting lock her up after yet again stoking the flames. Wake up America.
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  268. It's a Canadian company.
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  269.  @thinktransnational  you missed Vietnam a pretty big country with a border with China.
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  270.  Hugh Mungus  In Australia we shut state borders, there are only 4 states in the US with particularly large populations so let's ignore New York, California, Texas and Florida. Actually no change most likely, the US still did pretty bad. Search Dictator Dan Victoria on Youtube and you will likely get the Murdoch controlled sky News Australia, watch whatever video and see what actions they had to take to realise a comeback. The virus doesn't care if you are on an island hence Hawaii and Puerto Rico doing so badly despite them having a combined population similar to New Zealand.
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  271. Q stands for Queensland, we are running the world and don't you forget it.
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  272. The UK and US never had a lockdown, just lockdown lite or a basic mitigation lockdown. See Taiwan , Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand where lockdowns occur until virus contained and quarantine at the border. South Korea and Japan not far behind but maybe flying close to the sun because while the virus isn't out of control in those countries if cooperation levels drop in getting tested and following guidelines they could have big problems. They do seem to "live with it".
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  273. There is a silver lining which you just alluded to. This complete failure in containment, not only in the US but many countries will see new medical research and some of could never be done with low case numbers. Hopefully there is a somewhat effective vaccine but the number of mutations happening all the time it might not be highly effective.
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  274. Nobody knows, they just said it was an estimate or in other words a guess. It could be more or alternatively it might be all gone and that's why the forcing her to work if that's what has happened and fighting like hell to keep control. It only takes an hour to lose $1 million in a high rollers room or even quicker on the stock market, 2008 was an interesting year for the stock market to say the least. March 6 2009 was the market bottom. If I was to bet I would bet a lot of money was lost and ever since they have covered it up, my guess Britney doesn't even know her worth.
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  275. I didn't realise space force went operational yet.
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  276. Knowing the constitution will help nothing. In the end it's just a bit of paper that sets out parameters. Under those parameters as has been decided large corporate donors can literally buy a politician and get them elected, knowing the constitution won't stop people voting for the candidate with the most money for advertising with high quality and focused ads in many if not most cases. Also many Americans are basically superstitious, that's why the antivax rate is so high, no matter how much evidence in front of them they won't believe it. The US form of limited socialism directs a large amount of social welfare through corporations so they can get their cut. Think of the US publically funded healthcare system, more expensive than Australia's universal healthcare system and life expectancy in the US about 5 years less so on the easiest key measure to go off more expensive with a much lower outcome. Channeling public money through big pharma and hospital operators with little accountability reduces the outcome and puts costs up.
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  277. Curious to know what should Biden do to get people vaccinated? Because that's what you are talking about.
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  278. What a silly comment, some of them were " black and brown" . So if you are going to make such a silly comment say I think if the majority were black and brown maybe it would have been different. I would suggest however color had nothing to do with anything and the person calling for the fighting and never backing down also had control over the response. Funnily enough Trump wanted a soft touch on his Trump supporters who he literally sent there. He could have easily had 20,000 unarmed (riot gear and batton only) national guard troops surround the building to protect it however he was the instigator of the riot not protector of the electoral process.
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  279. Really, then why does China refuse to talk to Australia? China has a grievance with free media even, they complained about our media having bad reports on China. This is only one of the 14 grievances but apparently we have to improve first before China will talk to us. Should Australia shut down it's free media and institute China's way of doing things?
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  280.  @quincycamo7577  Let's hope it never comes to the military bit, China is the same to the soviet union before, they might have less nuclear weapons but their conventional military would come close to rivalling the US, and give it 10 or 20 years it probably will. Personally I fear for those nations bordering China, they are taking the sea and maybe they have terrestrial ambitions as well, they always refer back to distant dynasties to justify colonies of Tibet and Xinjiang, parts of Myanmar, Laos , Vietnam and Thailand can also fit that description. Not saying they actually are considering it but on the other hand don't think it's impossible.
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  281. Some truth in what you say and agree with you about US because even after it realised the initial response was a complete failure there was no change of direction, just not overflow hospitals but don't really care how many die.
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  282.  @TheJabbate1  that is the success of Trump he has created devotees like Trump himself is a religious figure. Or in a way fairly close to a cult.
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  283. Fox did it before if my memory is correct. The virus truly doesn't care which incompetent government is in charge, it just does virusy things like jump from person to person through small droplets or contact with surfaces followed by touching mouth , nose or eyes.
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  284. The media represents the people and non biased discussions seem difficult in the US. US exceptionalism which means superiority is a problem because actually sorry but being rich and a big country doesn't make you superior but many seem to think it does. It's ok to be a bit nationalist and proud of your country but to rarely look outside and see how others are doing better or worse on whatever issue is detrimental. I think electing one person to form a government out of unelected officials doesn't really help either. Whether you pick Joe or Obama they will choose those unelected officials and you don't know who they are. There are various reasons for the problems and no easy fix, right now if unbiased news is presented, it doesn't sell.
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  285. Every hospital has so called death panels, just Americans turn it political. If a person is old and frail they will be more reluctant to treat and advise the person themselves and or the family the situation. Most people don't want to keep a family member suffering longer just so they are alive if no realistic chance of meaningful recovering. But what is occurring in California , was occurring in NY early on and elsewhere but not reported is a different story because it's going way outside of the norm I mentioned.
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  286.  @axllaw427  That's sad to see, Malaysia was parallel to Australia the we had the Victorian problem and now if what you say is true Malaysia is very close to losing complete control. I wish Malaysia the best.
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  287. If you understand the US system you will understand why it can happen in the US and can't happen in Australia. The US is to the left of Australia on freetrade, to the far right of Australia on industry policy, to the far left of Australia on border security. On social policies the US is both to the right and left of Australia depending on state. So to an Australian the US is radical no matter which direction you are coming from.
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  288. It's called question time and the US doesn't have it. Australia is very similar. The US has a completely different government model, all your secretaries which we call ministers are unelected bureaucrats chosen by the president. The ministers are the people are asked the questions by both their own side and the opposition including to the Prime Minister. I do think that ministers should come from elected officials, the US system in a way is like an absolute monarchy but you vote for the monarch who then chooses whoever he or she wants to actually be the executive government and it leads to lack of accountability and not doing their job properly because the one that hired them can fire them so can apply pressure.
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  289. Really, US media is now the same as CGTN? Just go back to normal reporting with humans , not text.
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  290. Basically they have been abandoned, they have to protect themselves the best they can.
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  291.  @mackdaddypeypey1  So you must be a physician with dyslexia or some other issue when looking at statistics, it would scare me if you were to prescribe any medicine. Certainly vaccines don't stop spread however they dramatically reduce hospitalisations and deaths. Australia is sitting a little below 100 deaths per million compared to 2,500 deaths per million in the US and actually the gap is still increasing for now with only 10 or 20 deaths per day in Australia with 1 thirteenth of the population compared to around 1,000 deaths a day in the US. Australia might end up with 10% of the deaths of the US on a per capita basis would be my guess, yes opening up and living with the virus is a challenge but high vaccination rates make it easier.
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  292. Louis Tully thanks for information about the Deep Blue states, I have compiled a list which you can feel free to use of states with more than 3,000 covid 19 deaths per million which I guess you consider Democrat run high restriction states. Arkansas 3042 Tennessee 3057 New York 3088 Louisiana 3224 New Jersey 3271 Arizona 3346 Alabama 3356 Mississippi 3511 Feel free to use this list for the next few days, after a while I expect a new entrant of Florida sitting at over 2900 now.
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  293.  @aishabintabubakr4944  Yes what about Howard Springs, 10 times better than hotel quarantine and good enough for our entire Olympic team to pass through. It's an ex mining camp.
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  294.  @MidwestFarmToys  Your point is jurisdiction specific. In New York it's likely spreading in high risk settings like bars and restaurants quite quickly and in theory at least they are all vaccinated. It will simultaneously be spreading in lower risk settings where these rules don't apply and spreading much quicker through the unvaccinated population in such settings. Then there's the behaviour of the local population which is somewhat unpredictable, I am in Queensland Australia a population of 5 million and we are just transitioning from covid 0 to allowing it to spread but hopefully slowly. We just had 59 cases yesterday, the highest number since March last year. My prediction is it will spread more slowly here partly population density, our main city is fairly spread out and people covert no lockdowns noting internally during the whole pandemic about 14 weeks or so of lockdowns and the rest of the time just some minor restrictions other than travel being heavily restricted to keep the virus out. Doing it at this time of year our summer is also an advantage. Currently our major restrictions are like New York need to be vaccinated for restaurants and bars and masks to be worn inside shops and vast majority do follow the rules.
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  295.  @MidwestFarmToys  That just demonstrates that you are easily swayed by propaganda. A few minor incidents in a country of 25 million. We are also a federation and all the clips you might have seen came from 2 cities , obviously not from my state. Some people are rent a crowd though, we actually had a couple of anti lockdown protests while not in lockdown and vast majority thought they were idiots. With vaccination rates in those cities/states that had more problems the first dose adult vaccination rates are above 95% so the literally "hate" the government and went protesting spreading the virus or supporting that would be below 5%. I don't know why you think people hate success, it makes no sense does it. Of course nobody enjoys restrictions but it's about doing what needs doing.
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  296.  @deborahfreedman333  I will ask you one question. As it is required by law that a refugee living in the Gaza strip or West bank , territory controlled by Israel needs permission to travel from Israel the authority of the land and Israeli citizens can travel freely how is this not apartheid? You might say that Israeli citizens include some Muslims but if they marry someone from the West bank or Gaza they can never become an Israeli citizen unlike the normal practice. Something isn't quite right I would suggest and if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck ..... Many Israeli citizens don't agree with their government but it seems Americans must support Israel no matter what even they are the biggest recipient of US foreign aid over time receiving $200,000,000,000. It's interesting how US first policy didn't extend to that country and as money is fungible I hope you are happy vaccines have rolled out far quicker for Israel citizens than US citizens. US is not my country and I do believe in free speech but you might want to explain to poor Americans on the left and right why the US has looked after citizens of another country more than them.
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  297. Now Republicans in this comment thread want to compare themselves to countries that are usually very poor and or at civil war. Really , so not being at civil war and having a semi functional government is now the new American exceptionalism. The only wealthy country in the world which literally has people who compare there country to countries at civil war and think that's a great achievement, in fact exceptional.
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  298. He's about 65, a lot can happen in 20 years and consider the age of your current and previous president. His political career could easily rebound over that time period.
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  299. Why? US citizens are humans and as fallible as other humans. The fact some and possibly many US citizens believe in American exceptionalism demonstrates complete arrogance and a feeling of superiority. Those who actually believe this can't look outside of their own border for the best solutions because if you are superior and the rest are inferior then stupid to look right.
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  300. I heard some analysis that we as in the coalition members didn't train their armed forces, we trained soldiers but remained as commanders , you can't have an army without commanders, so when the commanders (foreigner) left there was no trained commanders plus they lost logistics control on top of that.
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  301. One big difference Star Trek fans know it's fantasy and a bit of fun, this mob thinks Q is real and a violent revolution should take place.
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  302.  @user-ul7li5mu1s  I am confident we won't, while things aren't perfect they aren't too bad. Look at the second BLM rally in Sydney after it was not permitted maybe 30 or 40 people turned up. If that was in a US city of similar size it would have been completely different. Also the language used during that weekend when protests went ahead significantly different, no violence and sticking to state related incidents only , none of the I am in Brisbane but am going to protest about something that occurred in WA. Protesting about an issue in another state is ridiculous, what is the state or territory government supposed to do about issues in another jurisdiction. It doesn't mean keep an eye on issues but things are way different than the US and as I said seems unlikely to go down the US path.
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  303.  @maggie6  You hang in there. I am not Victorian so I can't claim to know how it feels but I know you are doing it tough. Also good to hear that it would seem to only be the fringes making it a partisan issue.
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  304.  @user-ul7li5mu1s  I am from Queensland I just used WA as an example, noting the protests in the US go accross state lines. Due to the BLM protests I did learn that in WA and NT there is cases against a policeman in each state causing the death of an indigenous person and they are or were both facing charges. So actually no issue in my opinion, the law is taking it's course. I don't think saying CCP virus achieves anything, as you know the number of jurisdictions in the world that could contain the virus is in the minority at this point in time. So they couldn't contain it initially, this is not a surprise and could they have done better in the initial stages I would say they could have, but based on evidence could they have contained it to Wuhan without a single case getting out or going overseas, I think that's unlikely. You have more in common with Margaret than me because you are both going through the same situation. I understand you are doing it tough and you seem like a decent person. Hang in there and try your best to be calm, it's not a partisan issue, my government is Labor also and currently in a very different situation. Take care, the rest of Australia wants you to succeed.
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  305. While those taxes are significant nowhere does state plus federal government taxes add up to over $1 per gallon, where is gas less than $2 per gallon?
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  306.  @mjor6406  What are you talking about, I did a quick search , in 2018 5% of the healthcare budget went to research so the remainder is still more than Australia per Capita. Australia has 125,000,000 vaccine doses on order so if they all work out then approximately 80,000,000 doses will be donated, those US companies getting money from everywhere. We are producing 50 million doses of the AZ vaccine but it's recommended only for 40 plus age group, younger to get Pfizer but can request AZ, a bit messy actually however many doses of the AZ are already being exported. Canada will export (not receive ) most of it's ordered doses also and donate them . The US was useless when it counted , all that skill but completely disfunctional, 500 covid 19 tests by the end of February 2020 which compares to 100,000 in South Korea and in second place on a per capita basis Australia with 10,000 tests. The population of the US is 13 times that of Australia so of course no other country comes close in gross numbers regarding research achievements. You might however have heard of something called Wi Fi or Cochlear ear implants or discoveries regarding stomach ulcers or the cervical cancer vaccine first developed in Australia or go way back you might have heard of penicillin developed jointly in Australia and England. We actually did develop 2 covid 19 vaccines, one of which up to phase 2 looked good however it gave false positives to HIV tests so it was decided not to continue due to time it would take to start again using a different protein that would remove that problem. CSL might not be the biggest pharmaceutical and blood products company in the world however they have a market cap of $133 billion AUD so not too bad. I don't know about Canada but Australia at least, punches at a similar level for our size to the US.
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  307.  @kenelisseou9944  I know what Trump was thinking when he said that, ok if we slow the testing down people won't be so fearful and economically it's better. Should he have thought about it before he said it and especially informed the world what he did, yes and I do believe he told people to slow testing down. In that respect people don't need to wait for leaks, just keep listening to him and he will tell you. I did follow his campaign 4 years ago and also looked at his ads on his YouTube channel. English speaking ad stop China and Mexico taking jobs, Spanish speaking ad stop China taking jobs. It's so blatent it's not funny and if his opposition got their act together they could actually use his ads against him, no need to edit other than shortening it and putting subtitles so it's totally clear.
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  308.  @anthonyd4341  Yep it's called the "freedom to infect". Truth is on the US side that actually rang true because there was only ever voluntary quarantine or in other words no quarantine. The US now has the highest per Capita deaths from covid 19 of any wealthy country in the world.
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  309. The evidence from what I understand is in a stable household where a parent has time and not short on money the child can do better , but what happens if it's a single working mum, the child is probably on their own mostly assuming not too young because mum's working and tired when come home. Also the mother might not have a high level of education herself, can hardly be a good teacher then.
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  310. If any variant is found in Australia , South Korea and Japan it's everywhere, it's just because we genomic test all cases and these would be picked up at the border. As the US has an open border and virtually no genomic testing it can spread freely. The US will be the virus's testing ground for strains, a largely willing population to get infected and spread the strains to find a winner.
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  311. We know the lady in the story was told indirectly at least , he's going to die. The doctor may have assumed the wife was smart enough to realise organs shutting down means death but it didn't click in her mind. To me the only real issue is she wasn't told directly as if talking to a child and she actually acknowledged that by saying if he had told me that would have been a different story. So long as "the organs were shutting down" is correct a Tylenol wouldn't have killed him quicker too , just not as quickly.
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  312. I have a similar view , has a guy with a cat that plays video games taken over the world or something.
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  313.  @DvonAntonio  Socialism covers a wide spread of ideas, all that different socialist ideologies have in common is the government interfering with outright free market. The far right are socialist, but they direct socialism to creating big corporations and protecting those corporations from trade as in protectionist, this is the US way actually and China is doing the same. The US has a poor record on social welfare.
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  314.  @equious8413  what would you consider the National Socialist German Workers Party, left or right? What would you call protectionism as in trade tariffs , left or right and is it a socialist action? Both far left and far right support protectionism. Protectionism is directly controlling the means of production as in socialist I would suggest. Did you ever wonder why many Bernie Sanders supporters actually supported Trump over Hillary? Well I would suggest because of those protectionist leanings. Both far right and left are also quite happy to subsidize non economical production in one way or another.
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  315.  @jimmysprinkles1738  to be honest not the young part but she does seem to have a similar allure. So she does look strong and attractive but don't know much about her.
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  316. Slavery only really became non state approved about 20 years ago. There are still millions of slaves in Africa and South Asia, it's just not state sanctioned. Whatever might happen I don't think any country will go back to sanctioning slavery however due to disfunction in the regions I mentioned it will remain a reality for a long time to come. Of course slavery isn't eliminated anywhere in a large country but governments do try to stop it. Your point about WWII etc. sort of isn't relevant to most, they can't forget what they have never seen or experienced, seeing some old documentary one thinks that can't happen again.
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  317.  @joyphillips1821  you know your argumentative style is that of a hardened BLM person because you think that rules don't apply to you. Like the BLM protestors that basically said it's ok for them to protest but not for the equally stupid anti maskers. A position is a position and any person can stand by their position regardless of anything around them. It may or may not be the case Trump is a lame duck president, a vote soon will decide that. Many Americans hate Trump because of the 200,000 body bags which is certainly equivalent morally to errors made with Benghazi. Some would argue more so because dealing with covid 19 was not you have a few hours to make a decision, a decision could have been made at the end of February so over a month to get things right, now look at the US. I am not American so none of my business but I do understand what is decent and honourable and what is not. Making an error versus what is occurring now is different in my opinion.
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  318. No the number is 80% of eligible Australians and we still quite a long way off that.
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  319. There's a problem with your assertion, suicide rates have gone down in both Australia and the US , up to October 31 last year the ABS specifically looked at NSW and VIC and suspected suicides being of course the states that actually had long term lockdowns and suicides were down. What has occurred is more attention has been brought on the issue. Previously I looked at suicides by state and think it was 2019 data my state QLD was at 17 per 100,000 and Victoria was at about 10 per 100,000. The real question is why is QLD so high, I didn't try to find out the age groups but clearly QLD has more problems. Victoria quite possibly has less problems because people like Pat McGorry, Jeff Kennet and Vic governments since. There may well be demographic factors regarding rural and remote communities in QLD but whatever the case the state that got the most attention probably has the smallest problem and people never looked at the rates , just the change in rates which went against their narrative anyway. So I would argue it's not so much about a real effect but the effect of people looking and governments being concerned drawing attention to the matter and ironically not looking where the problem already exists. In Australia for 2020 homicides went down slightly from the previous year by about 5%. Suicides and homicides should be looked at together, in the US homicides have shot up from a very high rate to start with. I would suggest happy people usually don't tend to kill others and it's a cultural thing with gangs and even those mass school shootings in the US.
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  320.  @Cinemaphile7783  Wine is by the vineyard, some quality wine in California and Australia and also they both make the cheap mass market stuff.
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  321.  @Cinemaphile7783  lol ok, I thought you were having a go at Aussie wines.
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  322. It's actually not an anomaly, 10% of people going from India to Australia when their outbreak was bad tested positive so we shut them out completely for 14 days. The testing window for flying is 72 hours so can be caught it after that or fake negative test papers if that's possible in South Africa.
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  323. The technical ability and wealth of today versus 1918 is completely different. In theory this time should have been relatively easy.
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  324. You are missing something called human behaviour and being fussy, people in the UK for example would get the Astrazeneca knowing if you are young slightly higher risk than Pfizer, some young Aussies are getting Astrazeneca but many prefer to wait because no urgency and some older people want the Pfizer as well just for the extra couple of percent efficacy. When there are thousands of deaths around people are more urgent. As stated the other countries successful in containment also slow roll out. Pfizer is in limited supply and only a small amount of Moderna coming soon. I expect Australia will eventually get high vaccination rates but it will take some extra time because of the covid 0 issues making people especially in Western Australia and Queensland unless we have a major outbreak very complacent.
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  325. So far actually nothing too bad has occurred. If and it's a big if the Taliban keeps their word it has actually improved things, girls can go to school and university now. Intelligence by the US clearly failed and US presidents aren't capable of fixing that problem which is actually the real problem. I think it's arrogance and the new superpower China exhibits some of those same arrogant behaviours already, they will probably do a little better than US neo-colonialism but it won't be plain sailing. Some significant evidence based on the Taliban rhetoric that they are following China's advice, words to the effect "the Taliban government will have all members of society in it and the Taliban will have meaningful consultation" paraphrased of course but that's the identical rhetoric that the CPC uses with all the unions other parties who all support the CPC being leaders. Whether the plan occurs we just have to wait and see and see if the Taliban turns on China in the short term to medium term.
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  326. The problem with that court case was that in the judges opinion "no reasonable person would take him seriously" paraphrased. This leads to one of 2 conclusions, either Tuckers viewers are not reasonable or the judge got it wrong and applied his/her standard of reasoning which clearly doesn't happen with 10s of millions of US citizens.
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  327. Regardless of your arguments about the merits of assistance to Ukraine or not you are completely wrong about healthcare in the US, you spend more per Capita on publically funded healthcare than Australia with a genuine universal system. It's not about the money it's how the money is spent, throwing more money at something when the problem isn't about the quantity of money in the first place will just burn more money, probably make the situation even worse. The US is now down to about 46th highest life expectancy , the lowest of any wealthy country, so all that public spending and not counting private spending is achieving a poor result.
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  328. Indirectly that's not beyond the realms of possibilities if pulling troops out of some area causes fighting to recommence.
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  329.  @r.a.6459  I was wondering what was happening in Malaysia because looking like how Victoria Australia was a couple of months ago. I hope your country can succeed especially because you were doing so well before. Best of luck and look at Victoria it is possible to turn it around, they went from about 500 cases per day to now around 15 cases per day. Best of luck and I wish your country well.
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  330. Primarily age demographics and travel and entertainment patterns.
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  331. It's a minority but yeah a bit embarrassing.
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  332. I hope wherever you are now you are happy.
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  333. I have to say it, do you mean people like Trump, he is fat and old?
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  334. A US cultural phenomenon where it's ok to kill others when you suicide, the more the better and you get your 15 minutes of infamy posthumously.
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  335. They are not contradictory, many well educated people join cults for example and in the rest of their life they are entirely normal. If polls are correct then 50 million adult Americans believe Trump won the election and they can't all be stupid it's statistically impossible.
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  336. I remember playing that game many years ago, I liked building heaps of airports to watch all the planes crashing.
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  337. @Boch Gole Fair enough compare to Hawaii an island with less than one third of the population of New Zealand and 8 times the death toll that's a fair comparison, can use Alaska or Puerto Rico also if you think the Hawaiian government was particularly bad. Can choose any mainland state. It doesn't matter how you compare NZ it's done well. I in Australia and our worst performing state will soon be equivalent to your best performing state on a per capita basis because it seems almost eradicated in Victoria now.
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  338.  @mikealbert2527  don't know the number of Chinese that travelled to New Zealand but over 800 imported cases of the virus which is close to double the imported cases in Taiwan. It's all relative and the per capita importations of the virus would be higher in Australia and New Zealand than the US, the virus is truly home grown in the US, not a single state in the US has imposed 14 days mandatory hotel quarantine supervised by the government so don't say anywhere in the US took the same measures, California was stupid for keeping it's border open to other states without restrictions and just imposing restrictions internally. All but one Australian state border was shut as hard if not harder than the US / Canada border.
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  339.  @danielw.8356  Compare to any West Pacific nation you choose from China to New Zealand and all in between, the US has performed very poorly.
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  340.  Paolo G  One thing you are not fair to compare death rates directly when small numbers, we could compare QLD to New Zealand and New Zealand looks terrible and much more community spread, it's whether or not can get it under control and contain any outbreaks, so even Victoria as you know had some serious failures but now hopefully has it under control, same basic stories in South Korea and Vietnam and can happen in Queensland or New Zealand again because absolute perfect quarantine measures are impossible , New Zealand just had a breach with a port worker but looks like contained almost immediately.
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  341.  @beentheredonethatoriginals5673  well why didn't Hawaii , Alaska and Puerto Rico do the same as New Zealand then if it's so simple? They don't compare well to New Zealand or Australia or Indonesia or actually every ASEAN plus Australasian plus East Asian country. Pick whatever country you want.
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  342. @Boch Gole One strong candidate vaccine is being developed in Australia by university of Queensland it's in phase 2 trails so a little slower than some of the overseas ones from China , US and Europe but it's not so urgent in my region in general as it is in the Americas or Europe. Sometimes the quickest isn't the best and the population of Australia plus New Zealand is only 30,000,000 so of course on a per capita basis one would expect on average less than 10% of the breakthroughs would occur here versus the US that's just normal.
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  343.  @tomterrific9459  the problem with the term socialism is it's such a broad term. If you look up 5 different website definitions you will get approximately 5 different versions. A good social welfare safety net isn't contradictory to a highly capitalist society. If you look at the social welfare safety net of Australia and New Zealand it seems better overall compared to the US, many think that this means we are socialist compared to the US , however to give one example we spend less on publically funded healthcare, so that doesn't make sense , spending more tax money on public healthcare would mean leaning further towards socialist in my opinion. Some people the ideology seems to override common sense , no way would I want to be forced to buy private healthcare because I don't trust my public healthcare that much and I have to pay extra tax for that. Private health insurance in Australia gives some extras in some cases and shorter waiting times if it's elective surgery like say a hip replacement. There are several factors why the US health system is expensive but the socialist concept is less of an effect than other issues. I know from Joe Biden and previously Obama what they aim to do is bring in universal healthcare by small increments because going directly to that can't get voted in favour of. Extremely strong resistance to the government being the single buyer of drugs and other pharmaceuticals. Sorry if I rambled a bit.
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  344. @Miapet Dragon  on your last point I 100% agree. Here in Australia in the states but not territories there will be active euthanasia laws in place by the end of this year. Most states already it's the law but waiting for a couple more. If you live in a state that doesn't have euthanasia laws if you have the financial ability consider moving. Best of luck and hope things go as well as they can given the circumstances.
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  345.  @cynsini9211  4 March was the original inauguration date, so there is always an element of truth. I think you guys should get rid of all the official waiting time stuff, to quote Trump it's the 21st century things should be quicker. You could have got rid of him quicker. There is no traveling for weeks on foot and horse to reach Washington DC, do like other countries once the result is known new mob comes in and between the election and a result being known no legislation to be passed but it's only a fairly short period normally.
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  346. Jeffr I know exactly what Fauci did because I can compare it to the Australian messaging. Our messaging was we don't want people to run out and buy masks because they are needed for healthcare workers, when Australia's chief health officer was asked further details about the decision he explained that if people wear masks and become complacent about social distancing it could make things worse so this is part of the decision. We were advised if we are sick to wear a mask but otherwise not. Fauci and Australia's chief health officer had the same information. For whatever reason he did the same thing to Birx and either cut them both slack or condemn both of them, my feeling is under the circumstances they did the best they could noting Fauci and Redfield along with the rest but particularly them can be considered absolutely negligent or incompetent from the January February debacle where only 500 tests were conducted versus 10,000 for Australia and 100,000 for South Korea and on February 26 Fauci was asked why the US had so few cases [relative to Asian countries] and he said because the US had great healthcare and the contact tracing was working well. He never investigated otherwise Australia having 15 cases detected with other countries like South Korea a few more and Japan , Thailand, Malaysia all similar to Australia and the US 15 cases also. The probability of this being correct is about 0%. Obviously we all missed cases back then but you would find Australia probably detected 50% and the US 10% of cases if that noting the US population is about 15 times that of Australia. Those percentage just example nobody really knows except that Italy and US had the worst early performance.
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  347.  @Thephilpw99  What's your comment got to do with anything, Australia did well too handling covid 19 and American for the most part don't hate us for it.
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  348. Nah don't do that, just ignore them or speak something back , violence is certainly not the answer.
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  349.  @cjg1532  what a silly comment, our bodies were made to live to an expected age of 40 without modern medicine, that was life expectancy 100 years ago. That life expectancy hadn't changed all that much for 1000 years but with antibiotics, vaccines and modern farming it doubled.
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  350.  @tg2535  How was Trump fair to the 500,000 dead from covid 19 and associated issues under his watch?
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  351.  @NinaSaneHFX  black and white supremacy don't really exist, it's an ideology. Powerful people have power over less powerful people and some abuse that and some of those do so along racial lines. So you can say it exists on a localised level if you want.
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  352. I have looked through the first 50 comments or so, only one had anything to do with the clip and that was to do with the US welfare state of Israel. US people don't seem to know what's happening in the world or even the stark difference between Trump and Biden. Many countries are thinking we got our ally back again , particularly 5 eyes nations and NATO.
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  353. Distancing and 2 masks isn't complete safety, the risks indoors for example can never go to 0, maybe it's less than 1% but if what is standard 1 person per 4 square metres in a room with 50 people and bad circulation for 2 hours, if 5 were infected that would be a very high risk setting masks or not.
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  354. After literally more than 1 year of Trump misinformation you really don't understand the purpose?
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  355. In response to most comments in this thread, do 2 wrongs make a right? Burning down city blocks and the January 6 insurrection were both really bad and not condemned by the side they came from, do any of you agree or is your violent mob somehow superior?
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  356. As an outside observer they aren't as bad as Fox but yes still bad. In the places that had BLM riots that should have been called out for what it was not "mostly peaceful protestors". Not all BLM protests were violent, 1 thing that surprised me was Alabama and Mississippi were actually peaceful protests and I expected the opposite given the history of that part of the country.
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  357. It's not.
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  358. The "crazies" can't be ignored, hopefully they are monitored. Many say even on platforms like this that they will start a civil war. Now places like this because it's public will get monitored but as we know the most successful terrorists aren't usually public and in your country weapons are more freely available than healthcare. I wish your country the best and hope it doesn't happen.
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  359. That was the age of the electric babysitter (tv). That was certainly an issue for some.
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  360. Well they're down to only 656 deaths per day in the latest CDC 7 days moving average. Near enough is good enough I guess.
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  361.  @TiqueO6  thanks for telling me what 4th estate means. Now after a couple of searches I understand the Canadian 5th estate tv show naming. I had no idea what it was and just thought weird name. In Australia I have never heard of these "Estates" . Seems it might be North American language only if in English, my search indicated some French origins also.
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  362. HIV falls into the description of such a virus, there are many other sexually transmitted infections that also do and they might kill some and with HPV for example some get cancer and die other virus no symptoms for some people but they might become infertile. So what is your actual point other than different people are affected differently?
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  363. It's a 4 minutes clip. You are asking why isn't this a 2 hour documentary explaining the history and problems with Ukraine since being post Soviet Union. Well the answer to that is my original sentence.
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  364. I think he has good chance because apparently the majority of votes left are in cities and mail in votes. Or at least they are about even with 36% left to count.
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  365. In America anything is possible, so maybe. In Australia I think much less likely but not impossible when it comes time for that for us.
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  366. While Ebola is much less deadly due to it being much easier to contain, I find the information you provided interesting. The US failed like Europe in the beginning, but now looking like they will come out better in the end just like Canada which got off to a bad start. I am from Australia and we had great start, but now one state having problems. It's so easy to fail , in a month one undetected case can turn into thousands.
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  367.  @OnyxLynx6  Did you know the Everglades were drained or at least an attempt was made by introducing an Australian plant Melaleuca or paperbark or whatever you refer to it as. Sometimes draining the swamp doesn't go so well and it's considered a terrible weed now. Another species from Australia I think has had mixed results the Rupertuos Murdochas that created Fox along with an international chain of conservative media. Just be careful next time you consider draining a swamp, maybe the method is worse than the swamp itself.
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  368. Lol the Chinese government propaganda machine CGTN investigated themselves, ok it's all good then.
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  369.  @Opinionsrnotfacts574  I am not I am an observer from Australia, I understand from a technical level Trump's support but from an emotional level I think how can people be so callous, because I think once he lied to people, indirectly but intentionally killing his own constituents, that should Trump everything else except maybe a communist which Joe Biden isn't and as I stated appears actually to be to the right of Trump, he certainly is more fiscally conservative if nothing else.
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  370. Rather telling. A normal response would be of course there will be a peaceful transfer of power if the other guy wins don't be ridiculous. This doesn't however mean legal challenges , recounts and increased scrutinization won't occur if the results are close.
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  371.  @bicanoo_magic3452  SARS 1 was far more deadly and therefore easier to contract trace because everyone gets sick and 10% died. Covi sars2 this current disease only kills about 1% give or take and half the people getting sick it can be like a mild flu, so you can continue to work and spread the disease. Another point I just checked 'cause I thought I might be crazy, sars1 was in 2003 so what Obama had to do with that I am uncertain.
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  372.  @bicanoo_magic3452  Your first comment gives us Aussies a bad name. Your second comment you are correct in some of your statement, but completely wrong about CDC US and WHO, we never had enough cases until recently to have data on the issue, we rely 100% on their information. Australia and US did exactly the same things at the same time til mid March. We got serious closing state borders and all international borders with compulsory quarantine. The US now still haven't done any of that. Interestingly Canada is now where we are because of Victoria's failures. Canada started bad but not as bad as US but now same to Australia. Without border closures internally we might be in the same situation as US because of Victoria. The actions in the US in the beginning were complete failures when towards the end of February the US had discovered the same number of cases as Australia, clearly they were totally inept at that point because they certainly had more cases than Australia. Please compare Australia with Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand and NZ, we all successful so far but not without problems in Australia, Japan and South Korea.
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  373.  @larryfroot  yes the 147 was the last published number of average daily deaths over the previous 7 days for the UK based on death certificates not that died within 28 days thing which no other country uses. The UK is at 2,100 deaths per million and US at 2,400 deaths per million now according to worldometer. The gap though is likely to keep getting wider because there's no evidence that the unvaccinated in the US will change their minds without being forced to and doesn't look like that can go much further. The numbers are crazy in both countries, I am from Queensland Australia which is still a covid 0 state but borders opening soon so pretty scary.
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  374.  @markgriff9053  2 points Hunter Biden isn't running for president and Trump is a known liar so maybe he's the boy who cried wolf so can't have pity on him. That's my view from afar.
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  375. Your comment is remarkably similar to Australian politicians about us opening up and "living with covid" , "we need to push through and it will be hard and deaths are going to happen" paraphrased. The number 1 thing is that the community or country is united, even to this day I believe that Australia and Sweden although very different responses and somewhat different circumstances the vast majority support our country's response, the US unfortunately it's probably still below 50% despite a significant government change.
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  376. @Cameron C no I watch CGTN a Chinese propaganda channel and communicate with CPC followers on that channel and often on DW these people talk freely. How do I know that they are Chinese , because of what they say and the consistency, I also am aware of the exaggeration on the western side, sometimes intentional and sometimes not. The methods used by Trump and CPC quite often are identical as this report claims , that is to provide conspiracy theories to the public through official channels while not actually making the claims directly.
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  377.  @emd3271  most people don't get gunned down even in mass shootings in the US which has the highest rate by far in a wealthy country and most people don't die from terrorist attacks, however those 2 things I just mentioned why bother doing anything it affects less than 10% of the people affected by covid 19 so far yet I bet you are totally ok with having police. If you are a US citizen yes you accept deaths easier because your homicide rate is around 5 times that of all wealthy countries except Canada which is about a third of the rate. You accept compared to Australia that you will pay more for publicly funded healthcare yet have a 5 year lower life expectancy. So it's true people from different countries have different expectations and certain countries , in particular the US accept a low standard compared to it's peers of other rich countries. I don't know where you are from but in part your view is probably formed from your personal experience.
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  378.  @emd3271  which country are you from?
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  379.  @emd3271  anyway you take it easy.
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  380. Why do you care? If you look at the US population about 80% have co-morbidities. 69% are overweight and anyone over 70 has health issues of some sort, that's what happens when you get old. The healthy and genuinely fit population is really small.
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  381. So you don't believe the US should have a border. Interesting perspective and a rapid change of position based on your tone. Stop all restrictions at the Mexican border is what you are calling for, mandated that foreigner must be vaccinated should end right. Why stop there if you think there should be no rules just open that Mexican border completely.
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  382. Truly bizarre original comment and responses. You people are so brainwashed.
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  383. No it just wouldn't be helpful. It would be completely counterproductive. Biden will have a hard enough job, if his subordinates start talking of the past it will only be harder. Very sure Biden would have made this clear.
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  384. Conner Productions if you look at the age adjusted homicide rate for Florida it's more than double that of New York for 2019 according to the CDC. If you just use absolute rates without adjustment for 2020 Florida has a higher rate than California or New York. Clearly Florida does allow criminals to roam the streets as you put it.
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  385. The unvaccinated Americans should panic and go get vaccinated. 1,000 deaths a day many of them preventable and filling up ICUS can't be a good thing.
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  386. It's got little to do with spending amount. If you think it does please explain this US versus Australia, Australia spends less on publically funded healthcare than the US as a proportion of GDP but has a universal healthcare system and we have a 5 year higher life expectancy. Double down what I just said with the covid 19 response, the US government had a deficit as a proportion of GDP roughly double that of Australia for the 2020 calendar year and economy shrunk 2.7 % as opposed to 1.1%. Throwing more money at a problem doesn't fix it, fix how the money is spent. While military spending in the US is fairly high it's also designed as an industry subsidy creating jobs to an extent, also helps exports, I don't know the values of these things but the amount spent on the military is not the main problem.
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  387. Unfortunately even the experts making various potential vaccines qualify their remarks to say that they are hopeful and things are looking positive. No scientist is going to say it's a certainty because it isn't. Trump unfortunately will promote the idea that a vaccine is a certainty. If an effective vaccine is produced by early next year that's great, but at the current rate the US will have another 100,000 deaths or so without a highly viable treatment. If a vaccine doesn't come then as the professionals in this clip said it just keeps going.
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  388. I don't believe it's accent, it's a different language, I know my country Australia has AUSIGN . I don't know any sign so no idea how different the various sign languages are.
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  389. If it's an entire lifetime then it doesn't matter. Ignorance is bliss. The problem is if the ignorance is broken in one way or another.
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  390. Looking from Australia, the problem is you are a country divided who has no trust in your own governments regardless of leaning. You have segregationists both black and white who are prominent. A sizable proportion of your country doesn't even believe in a controlled US border but supports a controlled North/South Korean border control spearheaded by the US. Your homicide rate is more than double of any comparable country. Trump makes Obama seem like a fiscal conservative running up government debt like crazy to pay for tax cuts. Both political parties have made a point that protesting yourselves and spreading the virus is important. You have a low level civil war occurring with left and right extremists actually killing people and not being condemned by the side that extremists are on. Both parties extremely guilty of this under the circumstances. Cities in fire but "only a few blocks" is actually an argument I have seen, along with both sides protesting in paramilitary kit and killing people and government workers the police. If you saw 3 blocks of any large city in the world being taken over by a vigilante group and other vigilantes somewhere else supported by the opposing political party and supported by a political party you would think what's wrong with that country , wouldn't you? Government officials not condemning such behaviour is the same as support because they are deliberately subverting the rule of law for political gain.
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  391. Why? It's state sponsored terrorism, to make everyone live in absolute fear. The videoing of it is no different to an ISIS video of the same behaviour.
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  392.  @YouREsoBEAUTIFUL00  Well compare the deaths in Australia to the US on a per capita basis, Australia is below 10% of the US. If you can find anything refuting this I would be surprised and despite Australia's most likely greater infections per Capita currently when compared to the US our deaths are still lower per capita on a weekly basis.
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  393. They want to go backwards , some states are considering mandating leeches for certain ailments. Qanon wants to bring back witch trials and if you consider what they say about Democrats and all foreign leaders drinking kids blood etc. they are basically being accused of being witches.
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  394. You are correct China will be hated by many countries when they own everything, resources all sent to China while local population stays poor and debts to China that they can't pay, exactly why the US is disliked in many countries because they did this in the past.
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  395. 1200 per day isn't particularly low I would suggest.
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  396. I ask you a question how many US citizens caught covid 19 in hospital which caused their deaths, we know it happened to 1,600 healthcare workers and we also know such events have been documented in Australia , Taiwan, Germany and UK. It's an impossibility it hasn't occured inside the US , yet not a single report of it. Is that a cover-up or is it ok because these matters have never been investigated inside of the US, just count the nursing home deaths yet nothing is done, hopefully many get vaccines now but my suspicion is in many states maybe not. Trump did the biggest cover up by telling his followers it was harmless and doing something about it is a Democrat hoax. Bad as the local Wuhan government was , they are a local government not the leader of a superpower and they got sacked, pretty sure they are not popular, Trump maintains a high level of popularity.
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  397. My fellow Australian is in a very small minority here. Most Australians think of Trump if they follow nothing about the US how has the US failed so badly with covid 19 , what is wrong with these people. Trump being the president must have something to do with that. If people actually followed things they would realise the US courtesy of both political parties has completely failed and Trump was the infector in chief, literally telling people at some rallies to get infected. Anyone who heard the Woodward taping of Trump knows that he is a pathetic individual misleading his population. In March Australia PM did a speech when putting Australia into lockdown supported by all state Premiers ( like governor) he said , " you will see a lot of deaths in poorer countries and this will be hard to watch", Trump ok did some speech saying have to lockdown however it was far less intense and 2 weeks later he was encouraging his supporters to " liberate " Democrat run states. Liberate is a term only used normally for armed conflict and removing a dictator, the Michigan governor understands this with the heavily armed protestors going into the state capitol building, Trump said they were good people. What a nasty human literally encouraging his supporters who he knows are armed and can be dangerous to act against political opponents. All Trump has achieved is the largest peace time killing in US history, somewhat like Americas great leap forward. Now I have worked out the Trump supporters call themselves Patriots based on Trump's new idea of a political party the Patriot Party and they say there will be civil war, some of these people are potentially very dangerous, spouting rubbish about the entire planet being communist. They often refer to Australia as a communist country because we haven't killed our citizens with the virus and took measures to protect people. To ordinary US citizens we know you aren't all that bad but Trump cult and Qanon followers are. Inherently most of them aren't bad as such but the brainwashing has made them like that..
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  398. The deaths lag cases by a few weeks. In Victoria Australia when they did the lockdown to get to 0 cases there was a week or so when deaths per day were about half the number of new cases per day.
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  399.  Dems 4 Dinner  Are you joking? He isn't the president.
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  400. "We are slowing the spread and opening up again" that's a great quote, he's a miracle worker. It's actually true in some states to be fair but it has nothing to do with the federal government that discourages mask use and encourages high risk behaviour like rallies.
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  401.  @annettezaleski  Actually there are a few other nations with large numbers of conspiracy theorists similar to the US being Brazil , Russia, Indonesia and probably some smaller nations that don't make international news so much. I am a bit disappointed in my Indonesian neighbors , that surprised me a bit , however some of the misinformation seems to come from a similar source, some Mosques in Indonesia just like some Churches in the US.
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  402. As a foreigner totally agree that a larger proportion than should exist of pure nationalists exist inside that party. An interesting thing that I had never realised is the far left and far right actually meet on certain issues, this is why Bernie Sanders voters voted in large numbers for Trump because of industry protectionism and industry handouts. Those who are extreme especially regarding protectionism hate all foreign countries and everything is some other countries fault. The US has great potential, the problem is a very high level of political disfunction and to be blunt socialism directed to corporations not a social welfare safety net. An example is the CDC it completely failed at the initial response to covid 19, yet on paper the plan seemed no different to Australia in the early days, in fact some indications we followed you, but when testing was completely failing from the CDC nothing was done and the response continued to go downhill from there whereas Australia continued to improve it's response , with 2 states being somewhat problematic , they fixed the problems. It's sort of like once adversity hit, the US and most states just gave up and the CDC and FDA were unable to react quickly.
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  403. Well if I asked you a year ago if you would be ok with 1,000 preventable deaths occurring each day in the US what would you have responded?
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  404. Don't say the world, you mean developing nations including the US. No other wealthy nation has anywhere near your problems although some Western European countries could go down the same path in a relatively short time.
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  405. She's vaccinated though, so as long as she has had a third shot she should be ok despite her weight and because she doesn't look too old. The problem is the unvaccinated, doesn't mean things will all of a sudden be perfect but in Australia we likely have similar case rates but deaths are so far , far lower on a per Capita basis.
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  406. That's incorrect, you can dislike something however accept or respect the process. This is something many US citizens could try to learn. You've seen BLM burning city blocks to the ground in some places and the Jan 6 insurrection. Also a few killings by terrorists on both sides. You fear outside terrorists but you have them within and on both sides.
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  407. Nothing hidden, many governments have paid for likely candidate vaccines to be produced. I am guessing if the vaccine doesn't work it's probably at cost and if it works then at profit.
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  408.  @coffeebucket54  I am happy in my country of Sheep , Australia and in my state no need for masks because no cases. I think one state requires them because they are in the tail end of cleaning up a major outbreak. Anyway not looking too bad 9 cases total yesterday for a country of 25,000,000 and at least one is an imported case. How is Florida doing they don't wear masks either and close to Australia s population?
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  409. Well the US is pretty broke, it mightn't be a bad idea to look for anything to sell.
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  410. If you communicate with Trump diehards and CPC diehards they are the same brainwashed people who can't listen to reason.
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  411. Nah, they had a mask mandate for a while.
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  412. I am not American but I do agree with you. While I don't wish anything bad upon your President I also care for him as he cared for your fellow country men and women.
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  413. That last line or 2 was significant, basically said I sort of agree with him but he is also going about it the wrong way and (indirectly) I do believe the queen cares a lot even if things aren't perfect.
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  414.  @lindaj5492  how so , he was including himself?
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  415. Israel is much safer than the US with homicides at about 1 per 100,000 just like most of the rest of rich countries in the world, US is at 5 probably more in the last year. It's interesting that Americans don't want safety in their own country yet provide full protection of free arms to another. The US can't even secure it's border or provide decent healthcare for it's citizens with a life expectancy 4 years less than Israel, some US states actually have a life expectancy lower than the occupied Palestinian territories. I am not a US citizen but this situation would certainly make me unhappy.
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  416.  @simonfrederiksen104  although I get your point even that isn't guaranteed, look at South Africa as an example I am 47 , that place has never been peaceful in my lifetime, except maybe a short time in the beginning of Mandela's presidency. It just changed from one type of violence to another. South Africa is just one country, many are like that, I just chose that one because it happened to change to democracy.
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  417. That's political suicide if you are correct.
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  418.  @johnsradios484  You've probably said the most sensible response in this thread. I would add to your comment that some US journalists because of what you just said often put themselves in the story and start arguing in a partisan fashion while interviewing rather than just ask questions and get answers , narrate it later, but first get the answers.
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  419.  @PassifloraCerulea  Be quiet passionfruit. No there's no grand conspiracy especially with home testing available in the US it will push numbers down , not up because they aren't recorded unless they get hospitalized.
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  420. Wait until the old fat unvaccinated people start getting then we find out. There's a large number in that category in the US and it's then that we will find out if it does spread as quickly or quicker than Delta.
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  421. They don't lose too much , maybe some political power. It's not like if the civilian government is reinstalled there will be any significant retaliation, observe the people they are protesting peacefully, it's not like the angry mob heading off to hang Mike Pence.
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  422. Not if you live in one of 11 states where more than 0.2% of the population already dead from covid 19.
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  423. I am not American but that's unfair to judge an entire group or in other words act with absolute prejudice. I would encourage you to look at Republican voters against Trump and the Lincoln Project. Not all Republicans support Trump even to the point of saying pick the Democrat we just need this guy gone.
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  424. In response to the replies, we can't change what has already occurred and my opinion is should have done one or the other , partial restrictions of the US achieved nothing. Let's look at economic impact at the government level a budget deficit last calendar year of 15% of GDP for the US and 7.5% for Australia which had strict travel restrictions and real quarantine. For the social and health including mental health impacts they have actually been worse in the the US compared to Australia. If the US was going to not care about a virus spreading rampantly better to have never had the partial restrictions at all , although the best policy was harsh restrictions for both health and economic outcomes, the Western Pacific region of WHO has less than 10% of the death toll on a per capita basis than PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region even if you eliminate China in the statistic. Economically on average we have performed much better too. This was known at the start of the pandemic, one of the US Fed reserve people pointed out that the states that had harsher restrictions during the 1918 flu pandemic recovered more quickly.
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  425.  chocolate milk  You seem to refuse to look at evidence, the US , UK , Spain and France and other European countries have tried what you say. They have hospitals overflowing and restrictions in place often referred to as lockdown, In Australia and New Zealand plus East Asia and many ASEAN countries everything is open deaths are low , hospitals are functioning normally and people are not dying from secondary causes related to the restrictions and healthcare situation. You are literally advocating the deaths of millions of people in my region given the more than 2,000,000,000 population. So it's not going to happen we will not be following the US lead in this matter. You can say that we should kill members of our population ok that's your opinion not shared by the vast majority, who are ok with 14 days enforced quarantine at the border for people entering, which is the only restriction of great significance.
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  426. Sounds like a dead man walking to me, in a metaphorical sense of course.
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  427. The comments here are a bit strange, so many calling for open borders. Look at your own country and consider is your open border if you are a US citizen popular, actually it's not other than to a few far lefties. At least half of the US population would prefer Australia's border policy.
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  428. I am in Australia and these people are all over the English speaking Western Democracy world , UK, Canada, New Zealand. I believe our Australian centre right government is hoping their leader is not re elected. They can never say it directly of course but I am sure they are thinking it and if you compare UN speech to the general assembly we aren't on the same page on many issues. If you see someone comment from Australia that they support Trump there is a reasonable chance they believe this crap. Don't blame the Trump followers because they know no better and most are harmless like the ones interviewed, be a little afraid though if Trump loses the election in a close battle, some sort of terrorist attack killing a few or 10s of people is not out of the question. Take down the leader and hopefully the loose network of qanon goes backwards worldwide because those terrorist risks are not only in the US while they have their leader.
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  429. You know how Trump gave the nickname sleepy Joe. Those who detest this guy should start up the nickname "CHAMELEON GRAHAM". I think it would have a decent ring to it and quite accurate.
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  430. While you mightn't have intended it you are sort of implying if you think someone who is victimizing another is of the same race you would ignore it.
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  431.  @streamylc  Looking from afar , sorry but you are certainly calling the pot black. Both sides of your politics have nutters in them and enablers. If you think I am wrong show me the large and continuous condemnation of BLM/Antifa riots (yes not all did that I am referring to wherever looting and burning city blocks to the ground occurred) , any defund the police advocates and the condemnation of Jan 6. Problem is the supporters of all those 3 things still support those 3 things and haven't been told that's very wrong by their respective sides. Migration trends will usually be from high cost places and or dangerous places to lower cost or safer, there's more lower cost Red states as you call them and they are more rural so perceived to be safer and often are, so you can't read too much into that. Another thing is having Democrat control of small failing jurisdictions is a symptom not the cause quite often, middle class flee and the poor left behind who are more likely to vote Democrat. Anyway best of luck and if you can be critical of both sides it would be good, but unfortunately need the majority to do so for change.
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  432.  @axetwolf8676  Hey mate look at the positive , Melbourne had a hard lockdown for covid 19 , at least you avoided that. I hope for you and everyone this de escalates and after Biden is hopefully sworn in can go back to something similar to the original deal that Trump tore up. From Brisbane Australia. Not sure of your plans or whatever but the weather is better in this part of Australia than Melbourne.
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  433. Nah the claim is that some secret command and intelligence centre. If it's to harass the media which I think it is, best to make a claim nobody can disprove. Also it hampers efforts in the future for media organization, forget about the conflict, if you are a building owner would you rent to a media organization there. I certainly wouldn't, wars are generally not covered by insurance so if you rent to media that company bankrupt if Israel targets it.
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  434.  Zan DeWolf  They have hit more than one, they have taken out 3, how many buildings do you need to see it happening to before it looks like it might be a pattern?
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  435.  @BeegirlsHoneyHouse  If you actually have an effective biological weapon you need to vaccinate your population against it, Russia, Ukraine and the US could never get 100% of their population vaccinated, not even close. An anthrax vaccine does exist and potentially anthrax could be used as a biological weapon if you could vaccinate everyone in your own population.
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  436. Because Republicans do better in rural areas.
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  437.  @lowkey2923  totally agree with , I probably think your comment was a bit soft. Technically there are about a million under his indirect command . He is commander in chief right and considered the head of the military. It's true that if he did something too crazy ( not saying he would by the way) like let's nuke North Korea and Iran , hopefully military people would disobey his order. They can be imprisoned for doing so though , so making up your own mind can be tough sometimes.
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  438.  Ares  Trump is only far right on social issues , but even that he doesn't hold the beliefs. On economic issues he is to the left of Biden most likely because far more protectionist and doesn't care about budget deficits and constantly states how he will subside industry more than the Democrats. However don't know if he believes any of it, just for power quite often. His supporters love the protectionist ideals of Trump and yes industry subsidies (socialism) and like his unfriendly rhetoric to all other countries who are somehow to blame for the entirety of US problems, his attack on the WHO is a standout, only leader in the world to behave in such a manner. Best of luck from Australia.
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  439.  @scottharrison699  No it's not, unless by majority you think Republicans should all now fall behind Trump and Qanon. People are elected to lead in my opinion otherwise what's the point of them being there.
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  440. Should be R rated , didn't you notice the 600,000 horrible deaths.
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  441. Here's the problem most likely 100,000 give or take of them have been killed in hospital by covid 19 in the US. Something like 2-5% of deaths in Australia have been caused by this and documented. If you believe the official statistics of the US or official cases of this occurring being 0 cases well best of luck to you that's all I can say. Edit , I note the first part of your name and you know better from where you are from.
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  442. People have to discern what news is, editorial by someone like Tucker Carlson isn't news it's opinion. Same goes for a lot of CNN content. Problem is both of them don't report the news part properly on regular occasions by omitting critical facts is the usual method.
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  443. Technically it's always a little bit. Viruses are pretty small.
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  444. Most US states did the same having nursing homes with covid 19 positive people and those not yet infected, it's about the cover-up of information, I think evidence of the same is likely to emerge in other states, So far only New York and Florida, I think there are more.
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  445. Nobody can do that job a big section of politicians will let their voters fight to the death literally without advising them the sensible thing to do. The US has always or at least a very long time been like this, the same pattern occured with HIV.
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  446. You accepted Murdoch, he's yours to keep.
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  447.  @harryjohnstone1306  I occasionally watch sky News Australia clips and sometimes they actually seem more crazy than Fox News US. When Trump supporters started saying that they prefer it to Fox that says something. Murdoch controlled media is bigger in Australia as a proportion than the US however the print media here that is Murdoch owned is actually in general ok and nothing like the extreme bias of Fox and as some radio network I never listen to. I do wonder about what goes on in Murdoch's head though because previously he has supported Labor Party in Australia and the Labour Party in the UK (somewhat aligned with The Democrats) but recent years seems to have gone completely partisan.
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  448.  @harryjohnstone1306  never heard about Fox winning a case by arguing that there editorialist commentator isn't taken seriously. That's hilarious.
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  449. They're at about the same as Ronald Reagan's at this point in his presidency. Are you aware of how many states Reagan won in his second term? Of course because of the polarization that won't happen again at this time but it says nothing about his chances of winning in 2 and a half years time.
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  450.  @markstephen1308  so I shouldn't watch CNN or MSNBC or Fox. I am confused, where will I find the mysterious politics of the US.
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  451.  @gemdom6585  not exactly, they are well informed. They know all the conspiracy theories. All that can really be said is the US got it's quota of stupid people. Australia has many stupid people too, it's just they don't seem to be running the show. In Sydney a city of 5,000,000 or so there is an outbreak of 21 one cases and this makes our national news and people get worried. Stupid people will listen and take care, they are not going to look at the international situation for the most part. So don't knock stupid people please, just don't let them run your country and or state. Victoria one of our states is having problems and if they don't get control could end up like a US state, but other states treat Victoria like another country, if you come from there to my state 2 weeks government supervised hotel quarantine at your cost.
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  452. Really bizarre comments, at the moment almost certainly the US governments state and Federal are spending through the roof on healthcare with poor outcomes hence 300,000 excess deaths year to date. Australian , New Zealand , UK, Canada and Ireland all rate significantly higher than the US based up the ultra left wing Heritage organization's Economic Freedom Index. How about looking at reality US people, while being near the top you rate poorer than the countries you criticize. Half of every Trump speech if you ever bother listening is talking about his protectionist anti free trade and policy of industry handouts , or in other words his socialist credentials. Those are socialist things. Feel free to continue paying more in tax for a non universal healthcare system that props up insurance companies and produces a lower life expectancy than other comparable nations.
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  453.  @certaindeed  I don't know the specifics but am generally aware of the litigious nature of Americans and laws that reflect this. This causes significant harm in medicine for 2 reasons, adverse outcomes are not documented properly for fear of being sued and therefore improvements in procedures at a hospital or in general terms for a particular problem in the system or a treatment will be picked up much slower and the other problem it creates is excessive intervention and testing again for the fear of being sued. The excessive intervention can lead to adverse outcomes. This puts a massive strain on healthcare to the point that public healthcare costs in the non universal system end up being in excess of well run universal healthcare systems.
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  454. I was thinking exactly the same thing.
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  455. Polling does indicate that Trump's support is slowly going down , slowly but surely. I think those who live in reality know if he tries to run in 2024 against any Democrat candidate who isn't a convicted killer or something , Trump will lose. That's my take from afar.
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  456. The death graph as you call it proves the opposite, just starting uptick now, deaths lag in most part by 2 to 8 weeks. Barring a miracle cure or that only the young were infected more deaths are locked in over the next month.
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  457.  @goatrockhunters7866  interestingly a quick search indicates Russia does sell arms to Mexico.
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  458. Bot's pretend to be American and it's only interference if the bot is pretending to be American. I am Australian so call me an Aussie bot whoever thinks like that and on this particular issue the President of China went to Wuhan fairly quickly wearing a mask, this does make a difference. The discussion here is about the response to the outbreak , not other issues. In Australia even if not plain sailing we are a Federation like the US and our Prime Minister and state and territory leaders didn't contradict each other etc. and worked cooperatively together regardless of political affiliation.
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  459. In my opinion, not my country but anyone near the capitol building chanting hang Mike Pence should be charged with assault. To me that mob showed all the intention of committing the act and it wasn't a throw away line. Don't know if it's in your federal law but most jurisdictions a threat to kill someone is assault.
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  460.  @JohnFreedman0  I suggest you look at the economic freedom index before considering your fellow commonwealth countries communist, actually Canada is at 9th best well ahead of USA at 20th. The top 3 places go to Singapore then New Zealand and then Australia, so we don't rate too badly my friend. It's true the US has right wing socialism not left wing socialism, as in protect the corporations not the people. China's socialism with Chinese characteristics is not so different to US socialism, they don't really have universal healthcare either.
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  461.  @notimetowaste.1355  You missed the big one they are calling for the Mexican border to be opened without restrictions apparently. Or is it only Canadian and US citizens. Who knows there's no consistency but consistent inconsistency. There's a small mob protesting in Canberra but I can't figure out why they are there, in Australia all vaccine mandates are at the state level other than vaccine requirements for foreigners entering.
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  462.  @jesserotnak7324  it's a pretty big deal to the 1% and their families. People seem to care a lot about the 1% wealthy who will have to pay more in tax if Biden wins. So which 1% should people care about?
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  463. I am Australian and my understanding as borne out by what is occurring is China is fighting a propaganda war against us claiming all sorts of things, racism to the point the Chinese shouldn't travel to Australia because of the dangers. They made this allegation some time ago but never made such an allegation against the USA as far as I am aware. China wants power and influence over ASEAN countries. The US and European handling of covid 19 has shown those countries to be weak countries incapable of running themselves, so don't actually have to say anything. Some claims by China are ridiculous, for example they claimed that an agreement between Australia and Japan that we would have joint military training exercises on each other's soil was somehow threatening, noting that China is a nuclear power with a 2.5 million strong military versus Australia and Japans combined troop numbers about 500,000. I wonder why they don't complain about Singapore training troops in Australia which has been going on for quite some time. I think privately China hoped Australia and New Zealand would fail in the Covid 19 response so then they could assert that they are superior. China has accused Australia of being a bully, which is quite funny except maybe it gets some traction although my thinking is it would only get traction inside of China because other countries would consider it ridiculous that a country of 25 million could bully a country of 1.4 billion. What the Chinese do is actions to infuriate us. An example is after 20 years not a single issue with quality of coking coal and possibly thermal coal but now all of a sudden they have basically banned Australian coal saying there are quality issues with about 60 ships basically stranded at sea. Analysts say China will now be paying higher costs for lower grades of coal. The only silver lining is that China's competitors would be a little more competitive. I am not certain but I think changing from a trade war against the US to then being buddies with the US with regards to agriculture while simultaneously putting tariffs on Australian produce is probably designed to make us angry with the US. They also know because the information is publically available US farmers do receive subsidies and Australian farmers don't on anywhere near the scale of US farmers. We shall see what happens over the next few months, especially after Biden becomes president the Chinese might back off of Australia. That does depend what Biden does a little bit I think.
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  464. Yes it's his tactic, "some people think, there are questions that need answers, he/she is a highly qualified and good person etc." He does it every single time so he can later say I didn't claim that. It shows that he doesn't believe a word of many things he says because otherwise he would make claims in his own name.
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  465. How did this happen? I am Australian and even our most crazy fringe politicians wouldn't speak like Trump and his entourage. The only crazy ones I see are online people and they are few and far between. I have a personal nickname for what's happening in Florida, I call it "The Florida Experiment". A policy of protecting the vulnerable locking down covid 19 free nursing homes where they can't get a visitor unless about to die and the parallel nursing homes as described in a press conference by DeSantis as nursing homes to put the infected in, living either of those situations would be just a barrel of laughs and no other restrictions just open up everything without restrictions and see what happens. The Swedish were considered a bit crazy in the begining but now they look like they are on hard lockdown with their pathetic limits of 50 on gatherings and limitations on people in bars and restaurants. They also have crazy things like contact tracing. Anyone who is in Florida is at risk as soon as you go in public.
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  466. But Edward Snowden is a good guy that should be pardoned.
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  467. It's pretty unfortunate, largest wealthy country in the world by population by a long way and open borders with voluntary quarantine. If a variant of concern gets out of control and evades the vaccines it is most likely to occur in the USA.
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  468. If the person was wearing a full face mask as bank robbers often do it might not have been known. Not saying that was the case that you talk of but just saying it's possible.
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  469. That's already happening anywhere with a serious outbreak, or at a minimum loss of quality of life because elective surgeries go first.
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  470.  Dixon Uranus  There are wealthy families all over the world where the child is expected to marry into the same class. This doesn't mean every family is like that and I am sure you would find the same thing with wealthy families in Japan. Royal families are a bit different and in European royal families now they seem to be more accepting of change.
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  471. Even the same percentages ~ 30% believe it.
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  472. Why does a town of 7,000 people have a mayor?
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  473. This is where the conversation goes off the rails, the US deliberately spread the virus around it's own country because restrictions were considered a bigger violation of human rights than allowing what has turned out to be 600,000 to die as you correctly point out die up to this point in time, this number doesn't include increased deaths for other reasons. If the US had dealt with 500 incoming cases the whole world would be in a better position.
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  474. Actually they aren't, in polling Biden is only 4% less for the white vote. Which also means if voter turnout is high and somewhat accurate Trump doesn't have a chance and it could be a Reagan like victory. Think of Texas which is in play.
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  475. The US has congealed all levels of government in practice and politically also. I don't know why this has occurred in your country but it has. So I would suggest even though it might not be the case your Federal representatives either fairly or unfairly are associated with local government wackjobs , take Minneapolis Minesotta , defund police has turned into paying more for police and a 77% increase in murders in the last year but that's old news. I don't have any answers for your country because it seems political disfunction is the norm and partisanship has reached the levels it did during the civil rights era once again. Saving face is a big problem in the US, you are no different to the Chinese in this way. The day American exceptionalism dies you could start approaching the standards of liberal Democracies around the world , of which on many key measures except wealth per capita you perform poorly. Let's take one issue health, why does your country pay more in government funded healthcare than Australia both as a proportion of GDP and gross amount per capita. Your life expectancy is rated at 46th best and is approaching a 5 year gap between the US and Australia. Clearly something isn't working. Sorry if I am a bit negative, truth is I find out how lucky I am in Australia as an ordinary person. I hope things get better for you. Maybe American Exceptionalism (which is arrogant feelings of superiority) should become American potential because certain aspects of your country give it potential above many others with the resource base both mineral and agricultural along with being the largest wealthy liberal democracy the potential is always there without having to oppress other countries for it to be realised as was common in the past across the board.
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  476. Anti terrorism laws for the most part are for foreigners. As a non American I know your government can watch every thing I do and most likely still does that. Using social media in private chat mode I can choose which government might be watching me, that's how it is. It all came out after Snowden blew the whistle and there was never any discussion even that such activity of mass data gathering should stop on foreigners. Open discussions like this are probably being collected by your government however the US has a bad record of actually finding out who the bad guys are. Old fashioned methods tend to work better or total authoritarian control which is unlikely.
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  477. Yes if you survive , you will survive reinfection most likely, so what?
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  478. The same mob probably has no issue with the draft or as most places call it conscription should there be a need for it. So sending someone's child to face possible death in the name of freedom is ok even if they have a moral objection but having that same teenager or young adult wearing a mask is considered a step too far.
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  479. They would be made from recycled material but check the fine print as some might only be a small percentage.
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  480. You lack confidence in the ability of any US government to become functional. That's what your entire comment comes down to. If the US copied the Australian system for healthcare and went universal it would be cheaper, Australia spends less on publically funded healthcare than the US. Now you can have your trip to Hawaii. If you changed your welfare system to support those in need rather than corporations it would be cheaper, locking up 1% of your entire adult population is very expensive. If you look at incarceration rates by US state and homicide rates and see which states are leaning Democrat or Republican you find the following, Red states higher incarceration rates, higher homicide rates and blue states the other direction on average. So you have these often broke ass crime ridden Republican states spending money on creating a giant prison industry often at way above cost I suspect because many prisons are privatized. Stop locking people up and spend the money on social instead of corporate welfare and you can have 2 Hawaii trips. If you dig down deep you find that Bernie's policies don't actually cost anything if they could be implemented properly, Australian government spending is comparable to that of the US but we have very different societies and priorities.
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  481. "THE OCTOBER SURPRISE" Not taking this one example but all the examples of the closet people against Trump coming out and after each one comes out another one is emboldened. This could be the Reagan landslide but of a different party. Reagan was great and maybe Joe will be too even though realistically only one term. Joe is a fiscal conservative and that is certainly needed in the US along with other countries including Australia my country.
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  482. If you are American this is a cultural issue, if you are old enough and remember the term "going postal" you would realise that after this point in time unfortunately it was an acceptable way to commit suicide, even have another more recent term for that " suicide by cop" . These people are the equivalent of a suicide bomber but tend to have wide ranging ideology. The US has always been violent and has a homicide rate of about 5 times that of comparable wealthy countries. So unfortunately for the moment and your entire history in one way or another that is who you are.
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  483. You could reverse those numbers and it would be Fox, what's your point everyone knows this media outlet is left leaning and the Republican Party is a mess meaning plenty to talk about them.
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  484.  @commonsense9848  of course it's not news, Fareed is editorial, just like Tucker on Fox. It's not intended to be news, some people however don't seem to know what is editorial and what is news.
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  485.  @commonsense9848  I made a neutral comment and to answer your question very directly just taking one issue, healthcare, the US spends more on public healthcare than Australia yet it would appear it's not universal and it would also appear to bring substandard overall outcomes with life expectancy 5 years less approximately. This is not the only key measure issue where the US performs not so well. Both your major political parties don't get it in general terms, maybe some individuals do.
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  486.  @commonsense9848  A nuclear armed country with 1.3 million personnel can't control a 2,000 mile border? If you put every single military person on that border at one time, ( this is not counting your ICE and ATF etc. who can carry out the exact same task) they would be spaced about 3 yards apart. However it's my understanding that most "undocumented" citizens ( in reality they are citizens) enter legally but overstay whatever permit or visa they might have. Direct answer to your question Australia has a different border policy to the US , I would suggest that both major US parties don't get that either and seems that you at least agree with me on that. The 3% of the population being in that category makes little difference to overall health outcomes, it certainly can't explain a 5 year difference in life expectancy. The extra spending is far greater than 3% anyway. The other issues you mentioned well no we don't have the tail wagging the dog, the government runs the show not the beneficiaries of bad government policy.
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  487.  @LeechyKun  Not democracy but free speech, although China it seems won't attack Singapore it has reasonably high levels of free speech and an open internet ( not so free if you protest the government ) . I think they use an element of racism also because only 3 countries can train military in Australia under current agreements but not a word about Singapore. Plenty to say however when it's Japan.
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  488. If Biden refers to them as good people then fair enough. Has he done that?
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  489.  @MarkSmith-ud4sd  I hate to tell you this shocking fact but Trump allowed the virus to go into every single county inside of the US , a country totally infected, 3 cover-up have occured outside of China that I am aware of, Trump covering up the risks and telling he supporters directly to get infected, noting they follow him, many still believe that Biden lost the election, Florida and New York changed or delayed data. So based on a shady country Australia should keep travel restrictions on the US the longest because as shady as China arguably more shady. Trump didn't ban travel from China only Chinese taking a direct flight, many flew via Europe and US citizens exempt from the so called ban and to say some model predicted more deaths than ended up occurring, therefore he saved lives is absurd. You sound like you are regurgitating Trump's own words he is the only person to claim he saved so many lives.
    1
  490. Well you're already going into soft lockdown tomorrow your time, perfect timing.
    1
  491. Fauci only changed fairly late in the piece and the writing was on the wall and also Trump could sack her but not him. In January and February it's known that Fauci and Redfield completely failed due to absolute incompetence or negligence with only 500 tests conducted versus 10,000 for Australia and 100,000 for South Korea. There were 15 ports of entry decided on and one didn't even have the useless temperature check, so 5% of arrival's with no screening at all and I would be certain that there was no information on what to do if you become sick, this is fairly standard procedure in Australia especially if any concerns of diseases entering our country are apparent, it's always been from day 1 to now a complete debacle and only one person I have heard might not fit the political mold of the rest and that's Dr Michael Osterholm who for whatever reason wasn't chosen to be on Biden's current taskforce only a transition advisor. Biden stated that something Osterholm had said regarding lockdown measures that should be taken or something like that was not policy, I think the 2 could be related.
    1
  492. They tried it about 50 years ago but blocked by some smaller state senators from both parties because they didn't want to lose power. The house easily passed it at the time with bipartisan support.
    1
  493.  @stephenpaddock6996  Malaysia and Singapore along with all South Asia dealt the same hand as in ex English colonies, that excuse can't be used forever.
    1
  494. I just remember what happened a few days after Putin said the military training was over and the troops were retreating from the border. Don't believe a word of it.
    1
  495.  @richardjones2750  Everyone knew that, you don't lock down a city Wuhan if people washing their hands would stop the spread. So using the most basic logic it must spread through the air.
    1
  496.  @richardjones2750  You are confused, I have just said anyone who watched the news around 20 January knew because an entire city was being locked down. So of course Trump knew.
    1
  497.  @richardjones2750  That is a question I can't answer because it makes no sense. The "it'll go away like magic in April " if my memory is correct made even less sense.
    1
  498. They weren't all, it was both parties on a countrywide basis , however in both cases they were low numbers.
    1
  499. Well it's not exactly what you suggested but still voter fraud, Zul Mirza Mohamed from Texas has been charged with a large number of cases, I couldn't find any evidence of an outcome so maybe it's still awaiting trial.
    1
  500. It doesn't work with the people that you are thinking of, they are in total denial and say numbers made up, they would have died anyway etc. etc.
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  501. According to worldometer the US is the second most deaths per million of a wealthy jurisdiction of more than one million with 2186 deaths per million and rapidly catching up to Belgium with 2201 deaths per million. The pro Trumpers have stopped saying look at Europe now where things might be really bad but not as bad as the US. It's coming up to winter soon in the northern hemisphere and you are probably in for another bad one.
    1
  502. Not behind you but in a better position. Australia is opening up now and cases are skyrocketing, not sure what is to come but our vaccination rates are pretty good. My state of Queensland Australia had 14% of it's total overall cases yesterday. 500+ for a population of about 5 million, that for us is pretty scary, going from "covid 0" to "covid normal". Singapore tried the same a bit earlier but put significant restrictions back in, I suspect that may happen with us but unlike Singapore with a similar population we are much more spread out not just a city state so maybe we can get by easier.
    1
  503.  @X2LR8  I saw Trump at a 2016 rally supporting violence against protestors even going as far as to say in the old days you could rough them up more and those days were good. Trump said to liberate Michigan and a few other states. The only time I have ever used that phrase used it relates to armed conflict which is what was attempted. Trump constantly pandered to militia groups by talking their language that is they're coming for your guns remember your second amendment rights ( militia groups consider it their right to overthrow a tyrannical government by armed force) . Please advise the quote of Bernie Sanders that implied someone should commit violence against his oponents.
    1
  504.  @MM-tb2fg  Those left and right extremists including Antifa individuals who have killed people over the past year or so are going to prison. What's your point.
    1
  505.  @X2LR8  Well that's your standard then, that's why your country is more than twice as violent as every other wealthy country in the world , generally 5 times as many homicides, Canada is about half the rate and makes the US not seem so bad. You are right though it's seems impossible a trial by his own political party could result in anything and to the original comment most mob bosses never go to prison. Time will tell if the stand back and stand by and fight like you have never fought before helps the Republicans. I am glad I live in a peaceful country with a lot less violence or acceptance of violence.
    1
  506.  @amyk6403  I am sorry twisting the second amendment that forming a militia to overthrow the government if you don't like it is certainly a nutter theory the second amendment itself completely contradicts this "a well regulated militia" that means the militia is regulated by the government itself, a government doesn't regulate a militia to say kill the elected officials if you feel like it. I know your country has about 5 times the homicide rate of my country and probably 6 or 7 times the homicide rate last year as killings went up so I am fully aware the US should be considered a dangerous country in relative terms if I should ever go there but thanks for the warning that you are a dangerous people.
    1
  507. Minimum security prison because he's a non violent offender and he could have use of a telephone, so no problems twitter will still work and can call OAN et. al.
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  508.    I like your comment, in reality nothing will happen I expect but he might have a few creditors chasing him from Jan 21.
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  509.    I think humour is good and I found your comment funny. I am Australian and generally support our conservative side of politics , but it's rare that I ever get offended by comedians making fun of them and they certainly play a role in keeping politicians in line. I am pleased Biden would seem to be your president now but same thing one person commented that in one of his more animated rallies towards the election that he looked like some old crazy guy that escaped from a nursing home and was shouting at the cars in a parking lot , I thought that was funny and truthfully it did look like that. I hope things get better in your country but it will take time. Try to keep your sense of humor even if some outcomes are not what you want.
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  510. If your country failed or the population perceives it to have failed with the covid 19 response your popularity is down and conversely if you succeeded or people perceive the response to be a success you can't lose an election, it's impossible basically. I am in Australia so long as covid 19 is still a problem no state government or the federal government will change parties if an election is held. I am one of them , I am centre right but voted for the centre left incumbent party in my state election because of that reason towards the end of last year.
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  511. It's not the education system, a kid who only gets 2 years of schooling in Africa because he or she is poor would not behave this way.
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  512. What's amazing is Trump is proposing more socialism in business and less social welfare type socialism. That rarely ends well.
    1
  513. I would suggest that's a problem because the rules in each state expand or minimize the numbers of voters through measures such as when , if ever a convicted felon can vote going from some states a convicted felon in most cases can vote even when serving a sentence to you can never vote for the rest of your life. The electoral college is also bad giving different weighting to a vote according to your state. I am Australian and our federal elections are run federally with eligibility the same in every state for federal elections. Although our democracies have significant differences I would suggest that the federal government running federal elections would be more appropriate in the US also for the reasons mentioned.
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  514.  @ancelrick5396  I am aware of what you say regarding the electoral college. It's a pity if you trust 50 different voting systems with different rules versus one set of rules by the federation for federal elections. I realise it would be difficult and trust that a constitutional change would be needed and difficult to pass.
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  515. Of course he did he conceded nothing and made allegations that the GSA person was being threatened which I think is possible but doubt it actually.
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  516. No at least 1, 000 which is ridiculous. Just remember it only affects 1% of people and most of them will recover. That's Trump's own words paraphrased.
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  517. Here's the thing there's thousands of hours of video with sound, present the full speech by the then president and the rioters at least an hour or so of rioters with their chanting hang Mike Pence etc. etc. with all the violence then show examples of reporting by CNN, MSNBC and Fox, teacher makes no comment, just let students discuss. Not appropriate for younger students.
    1
  518.  @seansmith445  You're right, longest reigning current monarch then and to beat that other one needs to hang on for about 2 and a half years.
    1
  519. While I am no fan of Fauci because he is incompetent and is not the person to implement a containment strategy , yes the current situation is his policy, he doesn't deserve threats against him. He is good I believe at labwork and that's where he should stay.
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  520. But this is state so the issues you mentioned are less important.
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  521. I have a strong suspicion many of the protestors are on government handouts anyway.
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  522. That would be millions of people, what proportion of Trump voters are ok with the most egregious methods being used to suppress the vote by increasing inconvenience for no reason other than to in their minds hopefully reduce turnout? I think you would find Trump's base are totally ok with all of this and that the more reports of Republicans in certain states being involved increases the vote actually. It's probably put Texas into a toss up state, by increasing the Democrat turnout and suppressing the Republican vote actually because not all Republicans are happy with this behaviour.
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  523. If the reported number of troops 150,000 is correct then they need medical units even if they aren't fighting, that's a lot of people to take care of and people have medical issues outside of war.
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  524. They denied the handshaking comment , not the not caring about people dying. Sort of indicates priorities I think.
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  525.  MagaLuther King  one of the blokes to gain a Senate seat recently in Georgia might disagree with you.
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  526. It wasn't, must have one rule for all otherwise as we have seen in the US anyone can do anything and that caused about 500,000 deaths and counting, better described as too little too late.
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  527.  SharkTank  which "thing" are you referring to? I will just expand my point maybe that will answer you. Allowing riots by both left and right wing mobs in the US meant it was impossible to ever contain the virus and making sure the well off have complete freedom of movement around the world certainly didn't help. The UK variant is now killing thousands in most of Europe plus US, should have never happened. I am Australian so a few Authoritarian actions in the beginning for most states, then that was it pretty much , people willing to comply, the one state that wasn't Authoritarian at all ended up with the most issues and deaths but eventually got things under control with much more force than originally required. The bushfire analogy is a good one, the moment a decision is made to just let it burn for a while it's out of control and requires double the measures to get results. Hard lockdown Authoritarian actions in the beginning plus border restrictions on all made all the difference and broadly supported.
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  528.  @emanueljames7801  I am unaware of what you say, your claim is there are no covid 19 restrictions because the police can't do anything, 100,000 had to die because of that, very unfortunate.
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  529. Even without tariffs, the uncertainty given a delivery time might be a year and Trump decides to start a trade war with another country. They'll likely lose sales everywhere even countries not affected yet.
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  530. I am not American so emotions come into it far less although Trump amazingly has some international supporters. It starts off funny until one realises that it's real and has support. I think back to Trump going with the Obama is a foreign born muslim conspiracy theory and at the time it's like nobody is going to believe that , what an idiot. Next thing he's president of a super power. I could give a dozen examples of that and it's not only on the US far right. Until just recently I have only sort of worked out what far right is, on many issues they actually agree with the far left, because both are very socialist but in different ways, protectionism and industry subsidies are supported strongly by both far left and right that's why many Bernie Sanders voters went to Trump not Hillary. Far right seems to differ in that it is totally nationalist at the expense of any other nation, far left although misguided because they are protectionist which keeps poor countries poor as well aren't directly hostile to the idea of other countries becoming better and dealing with them in a fair manner. That's enough of my raving on.
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  531. In simple terms they are scared of everything to start with and Trump has played on their fears and made them terrified, the base I am talking about. With the politicians they are for shortsighted power.
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  532. I the message should get out there that if you are obese you are at much higher risk. I heard a doctor saying this maybe 4 or 5 months ago but seems it hasn't got through to the people who it concerns. Anecdotally the young people in good health being shown are always at a minimum of overweight in my observation, not knowing exactly how it is determined if someone is obese or not. Being politically correct and not offending fat people it seems is killing people who don't realise their increased risk. If anyone from CNN reads this maybe a story on risk factors would be helpful, I guess someone has already collated such data somewhere in a seriously affected country, about one third of the adult US population is considered obese so it's a large number. I feel sorry for the young lady and hope she gets through it ok.
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  533. From a different angle I have a similar view, prefer the King of Australia to some politician, that head of state leaves me alone. Interestingly in the US the president can still order the death penalty to occur or not, so in the US it can be metaphorically off with someone's head.
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  534. Trump's off the hook unless there's recordings of him barking orders in an explicit way.
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  535. While the event that occurred seems to be wrong , the bigger problem is it now blows up into something bigger than it is. The police officers involved should make a public apology and take victim and mum to dinner or something. But instead the mum is openly saying she wants these police to be made destitute or in other words destroy their lives by making them "unemployable". The US has far too much retaliation in it's culture rather than forgiveness and far too legalistic, lawyers would advise those police not to apologize which in the end is the main thing a normal person would want, now they won't get an apology and if they do it will be at sentencing (if it in any way reaches a court room as the parent of the child clearly wants) and seen as not genuine. There's no such thing as de-escalation in the US.
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  536. Really , turn your back on the mob with the pitch forks, put yourself in their position.
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  537. Surprisingly not, I was going to comment probably but others admit to the same.
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  538. You're not a relation of Zhao Lijiang are you?
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  539. It seems the more that die the more that dig in and resist. I am in Queensland Australia a state that is still essentially covid 0 and although lagging for an Australian state or territory we have got our 16+ age group 86% first dose vaccination rate. Seeing what happened in the states to our south was enough to scare most of us and border restrictions slowly reducing so chance of outbreak is increasing.
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  540. A lot will happen in 2 months, a lot probably means " darkest days" as some have said.
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  541. Sounds like a "police state" not a free state.
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  542. Sorry and this might offend you but the threat isn't invisible and having a life expectancy 5 years lower than an Australian before the pandemic was known, paying more tax for public healthcare than Australia was known. Deciding that voluntary quarantine would work eventually noting we all started at the same point when it failed was known. You can't see the enemy because in a general sense collectively US citizens are there own worst enemy. You as the largest wealthy nation on the planet actually have everything for some.
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  543. It's unfortunate your personal problems at the moment and I hope that turns out well for you. One thing I think people are missing is the remarkable achievement of both Mandela and De Klerk in having for all intensive purposes a peaceful transition to democracy and they both understood that attributing blame to make people feel guilty would have put that at risk. That's my basic view from afar and South Africa while it certainly still has major problems with violence hopefully one day that can get better as it develops into a real democracy rather than a one party state as in the ANC isn't a certainty of winning the national election outright. Having any political party in power too long is generally problematic.
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  544. They already have problems with the UK variant.
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  545. I love the last comment, right now I'm leaning Trump and she seemed to say thank you. Diplomacy goes a long way and I don't believe him for a second, she probably doesn't either but appreciate his diplomacy.
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  546. Law is normally not retrospective except in the case of the " opportunity zones" socialism for property developers who invested or will invest in certain areas often referred to as black neighborhood's but the states got to choose these low income or near low income areas. Backdating when the scheme started so that it was retrospective was open corruption and nobody batted an eyelid and seemed to have Democrat support. The president's pardon power is absolute and nobody questions this, could a future government create a law that imprisoned those people that had been pardoned, they could but it would be subject to constitutional challenge and my guess is the pardons would stand because those people had been legally pardoned.
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  547. Americans are still in Dreamland and this doctor is completely wrong , nothing other than a Chinese style lockdown will have any effect on Omicron once it's in. The guidance is only to slow down spread a bit , not stop it. This is what we are openly told in Australia along with please get vaccinated or a booster shot. Americans should just be told the truth it's so much easier.
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  548.  @daveh322  your comment is fair
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  549. Those "other countries" are developing middle income countries, the US is a developed high income country, that's the difference. No other high income country finds itself in the same position.
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  550. It's not that clear cut as you put it. Fair enough on the election issue but other things are much more subtle.
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  551. No that's not the point, the point is that certain countries including China don't interfere with less powerful nations meaning the rest of the world outside of the 5 permanent members of the UN security council.
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  552. US people speak a different language to Australians. Abundance of caution I have come to understand to mean something along the lines of let it rip but don't look. Still more than 1,500 deaths a week and it's declared over. War zones aren't declared over with that many deaths still occurring. Am I missing something?
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  553. The NRA guy is correct, all semi automatic weapons should be banned because they are killing so many people and functionally not one of them is used for hunting other than homosapiens. As far as self defense outside the home absolutely useless the bad guy with the gun will not warn you like a Hollywood movie. Self defense in the home a shotgun is more appropriate however home invasions while someone is home are extremely rare unless you are a gangster, otherwise it's for theft and they just stake the house until you're not there and rob it.
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  554.  @paulasparrow3571  in theory they were but only 95% from memory. In theory they would have all been given a number to call or what they should tell their doctor so the doctor is aware if they started having any flu like symptoms. Even if all this was done 95% was not enough. From memory the CDC didn't have resources to do it at every entry point at the time.
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  555. Don't think like that. Things although some places quicker than others and at different times are getting better. The US is unfortunately quite divided. I am Australian and my observation is that a large number of people are tired of both political parties. The November vote will be against one or other candidate, not really in favor.
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  556.  @NashiHeartSoulSpirit  technically it appears you only need 4 trucks to shut down 25% of trade between US and Canada. Numbers have nothing to do with it. Just like if someone is in the control room of a major power station, only takes one person to shut it down and would cause blackouts. Yes there's a thousand or so truckers who aren't at all aligned with the majority of truckers represented by the main union who says they don't support these actions. Yes there's idiots all over the world , they even protest against restrictions that don't exist sometimes. Rent a crowd basically, they would protest against anything because they enjoy doing that.
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  557.  @jerrymarasco8878  You are daring a government to require you to wear a mask in public. Ok fair enough what is you threat? Is it to vote for an alternative government next time, to disobey the direction, or something else. Please explain, I am curious what your threat is.
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  558. Well DeSantis and Cruz would want to fill his shoes. I think DeSantis has a chance should the Donald no longer be around.
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  559. You clearly haven't looked at the data of other vaccines, blood clotting events happening with all of them but very rare with all of them including J&J.
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  560. It does, it stops the oligarchs following orders because they can't.
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  561. Similarities with Australian approaches but without the goal of elimination. Because it's political the goal might be elimination but just don't use the word elimination. Seems like a credible plan actually and of course Britain can go to 0 if they want to if some "backward" ex-colony can pull it off. With all the vaccine shots given elimination should be no harder than it was for Victoria Australia, probably a little easier actually and the "lockdown" is much softer but has a longer time frame than Victoria's second lockdown after things were out of control their.
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  562. The misinformation machine in the US has cost Australian governments probably 10s of millions of $ to counter. It tended to be the more remote or rural and some ethnic groups that we're more affected with covid 19 and vaccine misinformation.
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  563. Not American but I suspect something like that because the down ticket votes appear to be a little redder.
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  564. NDTV seems to show it all, is there something I am missing or is it just it is a little known media outlet. Search them on youtube if you haven't heard of them. They might not be countrywide I am not sure.
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  565. It's just standard journalism, someone can on camera pick up a gun and shoot someone live on air and when they are arrested they will be the alleged shooter. I think it covers them in the case it isn't clear cut so just use the terminology as standard. So nothing wrong with using "may" or "alleged" etc.
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  566. Yep and then the virus is free again. A bit like locking American pit bulls away for 5 days without food or water and then releasing them.
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  567. Get ready for protests, people in Adelaide are going to be nervous as they load the nuclear fuel.
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  568. I noticed that too, Australia and New Zealand exist. However in about a month give or take both Australia and NZ will very likely overtake the US. It's the end result that matters the most even if it's a couple of months later.
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  569. That puts things more into context, and he is right. Unfortunately in some areas in the US there is still obvious segregation, both voluntary and involuntary in the case of welfare housing. People need to be brought along not forced. In Australia our copy cat BLM protests by primarily indigenous people were all entirely peaceful and no demands of stupid stuff like defunding police, in the US depending on state this clearly wasn't the case.
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  570. I note a few comments about handling the truth, I am Australian and I don't believe as individuals we are highly superior to Americans and we could handle the truth. The results of the truth is a virus free country internally completely open. The US has completely open borders without any serious travel restrictions domestic or international, is the US full of international tourists? The current Australian governments both state and federal and both sides of politics in Australia are superior in the Covid 19 response when compared to the vast majority of countries.
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  571. Down would be less than 5,000 cases per day, this is come off a new peak of about 70,000 per day. Even on a per capita basis the US is running second I think behind Brazil.
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  572. I haven't counted them but I think more comments about politics. I remember my late mother loved this show.
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  573. The extra cost will be almost nothing, the fixed cost of whatever the US navy is doing doesn't change, they might need to send 1 ship with particular capabilities and remote controlled high depth submarines which shouldn't be that expensive.
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  574.  @live4today390  totally agree, while they don't show a united front against Trump they will be divided. I am Australian so not really apply to my country but the Republicans have to decide are they traditional conservative with things like fiscal responsibility which was not Trump at all, he made Obama seem conservative and free market economy where Trump has outflanked the left side to arrive at a Bernie Sanders position on trade and industry. So the question is what does the Republican Party stand for? To me it seems no principles any more just whatever they think can win votes no matter what. If my last comment is correct it will strongly favor Democrats over time because at least you know what they stand for , which assuming Biden is similar to Obama moderate left at the moment.
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  575.  @jacobasmith8389  ok so someone is going after the lot of them.
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  576. But China is having a Democracy Forum simultaneously.
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  577. Hope you are coping well, take care.
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  578. Homicides up 50% last year in 34 selected US cities. Everyone is being attacked more. Maybe the rise against Asians is disproportionate but make no mistake the US is a very violent country for a wealthy country and focusing on race all the time solves nothing, possibly makes it worse.
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  579. Tucker clearly wanted a job as a comedian and he's quite good at it actually but Fox must have offered him more money to still do his comedy show but pretend it's real.
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  580. Rupert Murdoch has created a monster he can't control in Fox and Sky News Australia isn't much better. The US should be more careful who it let's in, in the future.
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  581. Nah, if someone wanted to attack the US with a bioweapon they would do it now, all you need to do is infect half a dozen Florida Republicans and no need for any sophisticated delivery systems in multiple states. The delivery device is perfect and it would keep spreading through all the US because they would keep denying it's existence and we know the CDC will probably take a month or so to even work out a test, just remember history, end of February 2020 total accumulative covid 19 tests in US 500, South Korea 100,000 , Australia 10,000. I wouldn't bother attacking Australia or South Korea they will react too quickly.
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  582. They want their money back, to cut ties with immediate effect means forgiving all loans and not going to happen , they could onsell the debt I guess but who would buy it.
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  583. Not really, it spreads like wildfire no matter what, look at my State of Queensland once we changed from Covid 0 to an open domestic border on 13 December cases just shot up and this is in a largely compliant population wearing masks indoors as required. Ironically our position on testing is similar to Florida that other Sunshine State. But due to our different early approach we have 8 deaths so far out of a population of 5 million, of course more will die now but we have 90% of the over 16 population with at least one dose of the vaccine. Those who won't get vaccinated in the US aren't going to change their minds except if someone close to them very sick or dead, nothing you can do to help them.
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  584. Far more than you realise, Australia is a declared enemy of China, China hasn't declared the US to be an enemy.
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  585. What are you talking about?
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  586. Mexican antivaxxers must be kept out, nobody calling for the unvaccinated Mexican truckers to be allowed across the border but want all unvaccinated Canadians to jump the queue before such restrictions are universally dropped which is probably years away.
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  587. Not a chance, do you really think they are going to do genomic testing of cases there?
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  588. Actually they probably aren't lying which takes intent , if they truly believe it as these people do it's not a lie.
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  589. Actually a reporter should ask him a question beginning " As outgoing president...." That would set him off I think.
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  590.  @christinewelford1842  I hope you stay cancer and Covid free. Unfortunately even with high vaccination rates the virus still spreads but the higher risk in your case is if in your area unvaccinated rate is high you might not receive the best care in hospital if you caught it and you are susceptible. In Australia it hasn't become political other than a few snipes here and there but nothing on the big issues like vaccines and general restrictions. Without saying it our current position is we are are opening up we can't protect those who won't protect themselves, unfortunately just like everywhere else the unvaccinated dying disproportionately in Australia but we have got to 90% at least of 16+ double dosed, about the same as Canada actually but Canada isn't handling the opening up very well as we can see. It's opposite season though so I don't know what will happen in our winter in the more southern cities. Best of luck to you and take care.
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  591. Wrong word, not dissident , he's a defector who can't return to Russia while Putin is in power.
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  592. What I don't understand is why no vaccine mandate. Everyone being punished because old people in China refuse to be vaccinated.
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  593.  @kristycampbell5986  something 3 months old, I have to say so what, I was referring to the current situation.
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  594. 99% of crypto transactions are for money laundering. So it's an interesting investment betting that money laundering will continue increasing and major markets US, China, EU and Japan will do nothing about it.
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  595. Yes you should have. You want to kill your own citizens, what sort of a person are you?
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  596. Seeing all that video it surprises me only 7 ultimately died it could have been far worse.
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  597. Nu is new too many opportunities to call it the New Variant. They should have given them names of ancient gods, then they'd be more scary.
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  598.  @Yeah-right-2024  What mess is that?
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  599.  @Yeah-right-2024  lol ok , I wasn't aware of that.
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  600. While it does seem unlikely the Israeli coalition can hold , stranger things have happened, I think a wait and see approach is best. Also what's to lose it can't make things worse I would think.
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  601. Yep stay in your information bubble, lockdowns didn't work in China,Taiwan, Thailand, Australia and NZ with less combined cases currently than Wyoming. Keep listening to the Trump it must be our testing. From Australia best of luck.
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  602. I'll pay that one, lol
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  603. You also don't want to be the trigger of a riot. Tomorrow s headline on all news networks world wide " 10 People Killed in Riots in Pennsylvania started by CNN calling the Election" " There is a concern that the riots might spread nationwide like the BLM protesting and riots did earlier in the year"
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  604.  @Sarahslp23  I faced that 2 days ago when sportsbet Australia paid me out on a Biden win. I am surprised how close it has been but in retrospect the Biden and allied campaigns couldn't have done a better job picking up many states with ultra thin margins it's looking like. I don't know how Biden will do but hopefully more calm and if he gets his tax bill through slow down your governments spiralling debt which isn't good.
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  605. They should have let the case be held in Mexico, I think their prisons might be a little less comfortable and less likely of some insanity plea. Extradite him if Mexican officials want him.
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  606. Last CDC reported 7 days moving average of deaths at 656 per day or about 200,000 per year annualized. If that's over well it's an acceptance of giving up, get vaccinated and if you don't we don't care.
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  607. Nobody seems to understand the difference between the news and editorial.
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  608.  @AlexisMitchell87  I understand the sentiment and the feelings but to act violently upon that or even threaten to I don't understand because even if emotionally I think about that, to actually do it is a different story. In Australia we had what I would call copycat BLM rallies about 70,000 estimated people in total around Australia and 2 incidents that I could find , one was someone put a sticker on a police station and other was some people , 3 from memory misbehave and get pepper sprayed. So I think Australia is further down the path than the US. My point I guess is prevention is better than cure, no country can ever be perfect we just do our best. If you look at the Covid 19 response Australia has gone for prevention and the US just wait for cure. Starting point at least officially was actually the same. I wish you and your country the best but there is no easy fix. My country is good but things not perfect here either. So yes extra mental health care is good but the underlying problems should have more attention in my opinion.
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  609.  @lorenrich2525  totally agree she looks much younger to me, her mannerisms and a bit of shyness I think.
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  610. Unless you think MAGA/Qanon are religions with their dear leader Trump what does religion have to do with it? UAE , Chile and Portugal seem to be the highest vaccinated countries, they all have religious rates over 70% as well so above average for religion.
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  611. It's reported the same way on astrazeneca website, they are not "marketing" it in the same way the US companies are, given the really small numbers from all trials I wouldn't take any of them as accurate. But it's enough to say they are good enough given the urgency in some countries.
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  612.  Luan Nguyen  Trump claimed approximately 1 year ago that the vaccines would be ready in 2 weeks and kept repeating the 2 weeks claim for 6 months. It's fair to say the 2 weeks claim was impossible unless no trials similar to the Russian approach. As far as the rest of the response compare Vietnam to the US. I realize you quite likely born in the US but Vietnam might be a country you relate to. If not compare Australia and New Zealand and don't use the island excuse because it just shows even Hawaii failed. Policy is what counted and Trump failed and as this video clip acknowledged he succeeded at one thing handing out loads of money to big Pharma to get vaccines quickly.
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  613. Their might be a little truth in that along with Australia and even Canada who have all managed covid 19 better. So US citizens can compare with other English speaking Western Democracies if they choose to.
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  614. Makes no difference if nobody polices guns crossing the border, just like covid 19. It's clear everyone being able to carry a gun makes no difference like in Colorado.
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  615. I doubt it , more like divided, city people hate them and poor rural areas like them is my guess.
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  616. Hey technically Trump's job performance has improved recently, no telling people to go and get infected at a rally for example and it's not as bad as the flu.
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  617. That's incorrect, he had favorable ratings 6 months ago.
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  618.  @ashenwalker4622  I was using my memory, however my timeline was wrong. Looking at Rasmussen Biden's approval was above 50 about a year ago.
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  619.  @ashenwalker4622  So all the polling organisations colluded to suddenly reduce Biden's poll numbers which you now believe. It's the same polling organisations using the same techniques and you think they lie if you don't like the number but telling the truth when you agree. Do you know how silly that sounds. Also how many Democrat voters do you associate with, my guess is almost none.
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  620.  @ashenwalker4622  ok now I understand you are a conspiracy election denier because you have just indirectly claimed Trump won by a landslide because everyone always hated Biden. I guess there's not much to discuss.
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  621. They are certainly prisons where people are being re educated. How widespread is that type of abuse we don't know because that isn't government policy and I expect they do something about it but also cover it up. The intent is to wipe out Islam from China and leave it in a state run form, same to christianity and less so but buddhism also. Xinjiang is a colony in reality that they want to sinocise as I have seen it described along with other colony like Tibet.
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  622. That's why your country is in such a mess, too many people won't get vaccinated, it's the only proven way to reduce problems.
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  623. No, if you were in the 65+ age group you had a 1% chance of dying from covid 19 since the pandemic started. People are still dying so that number will keep increasing until all infected or dead from any cause. Fortunately most are vaccinated so it is already reducing the deaths.
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  624. That might have been the reason, the cops nervous and scared and put it into wrong gear. They watch the news too and see police vehicles getting windows smashed in with police inside. Things like this are bound to happen with literally thousands of police and national guard around the country and they are outnumbered by a large factor in many areas.
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  625. Seems the minority in charge of the comments today. What do you people call yourselves, "The Q keyboard warriors"? Or do you have some special name for your group.
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  626.  M H  They are free to go to a private hospital for elective surgery and it will likely be cheaper than the US because it's competing against waiting, they could also fly to other countries during normal times like Singapore or Thailand and get it much cheaper. Universal healthcare pushes down the pricing in the free market along with other factors like liability laws in the US being too much in favour of a person who is injured leading to excessive testing etc. because hospitals and doctors terrified they miss something which is in reality normal, doctors aren't gods they can only do their best.
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  627. Wuhan institute of virology or Fort Detrick?
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  628. Didn't know Larry Elder was the political leader of a nation. You're in the US right, people are being murdered at a rate 6 times that of other wealthy nations, that barely makes your news and it's toned down to seem like it's normal because it was worse in the past.
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  629. Did you know Trump increased the black male vote for himself in 2020. Certainly the issue you speak of should be said but it should also be said Trump was divisive and caused people to act violently from his words like on Jan 6. 2 wrongs don't make a right.
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  630. Very likely and don't understand why they don't have election before troops leave, if Taliban takes power then so be it. I have no idea if that's likely but seems they will make up a significant number of elected officials.
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  631.  @lilwayne9392  How many illegal immigrants live in your country? Is it more than 3% like the US? For your premiss to be true there needs to be well over 1,000,000 illegal immigrants in Canada. I have a feeling this is not the case and it would surprise me if it was the case.
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  632. This is madness, it doesn't matter if one agrees with the law, if you come from the party of "law and order" it's your duty to follow the law.
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  633. Since about mid October they only put the Covid counter up when the news is about that. So send a letter or email to them asking them to make it a permanent feature if it bothers you.
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  634. You Americans are so soft, he lied yet again at his rallies previously he made it clear mob violence against protestors who turned up were doing the right thing and pity it wasn't the old days when they could be roughed up more. Now after he incites an insurrection he says he didn't know and condemns his special people. It's a joke don't forgive him he is a loser who contributed with Republican support to 500,000 excess deaths give or take so far from covid 19 directly and other loss of life due to the poor response. He openly told people to infect each other and his devotees agreed. The US government deficit looks ridiculous even comparing to Obama's term and he can't exactly be called a fiscal conservative but Trump was worse. It's probably only a matter of time the USD depreciates relative to other currencies and interest rates rise leaving the US with expensive to borrow depreciating money like Germany and Zimbabwe experienced ( not saying that will occur but the same direction in a much more minor way )
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  635. They use the same techniques as the Communist Party of China and for the select audience they are just as successful.
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  636. I love the summary, if voters intentions were identical to 4 years ago and had voted and turned up the same way it's statistically impossible to get a different result. Well that makes perfect sense. It's like saying it's statistically impossible to get 1,000 Trump supporters to all believe the election was fair no matter the evidence.
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  637. Just keep counting the bodies American boy, you'll be right, right?
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  638.  @terminsane  count the bodies however you please the US has the lowest life expectancy of any wealthy nation. Is it acceptable to the US populous that the US has dropped below China in life expectancy?
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  639.  @Ausar666  fair enough Delta has killed a lot of US citizens and the total death toll per Capita is greater than every other wealthy country on the planet. How direct and plain do you want?
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  640.  @Ausar666  what is false? More US citizens dead per Capita than other wealthy nations on a per capita basis.
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  641.  @terminsane  what violence are the other 30 or so wealthy countries imposing on their citizens including my country Australia?
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  642.  @terminsane  which location are you talking about? Certainly some people who wanted to disobey health orders and attack police had some problem. What exactly was my lie?
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  643.  @terminsane  watched what where? I asked a simple question about location and you are silent.
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  644.  @terminsane  You prefer the American way of protests, BLM burning down cities, fair enough horses for courses.
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  645. Yes the oppressive work environment with 90% vaxxed pressuring the unvaxxed and all these mask mandates and testing mandates if not vaccinated.
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  646. She is extremely low risk for covid 19 given age , sex and not overweight, however mental health could be a different issue, hopefully over time she will be fine.
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  647.  @JeffreyGoddin  Add Xi to your list, Chinese nationalism is just the same there with the same tactics to discredit other countries as Trump used. Being Australian and China's propaganda enemy number one it's easy to see. Australia isn't totally innocent and could be a little more diplomatic but China's outrage against is unwarranted. One thing that plays a part in my opinion is the same thing that plays a part with the China US relationship, that is Australia is the biggest trade deficit country to China and China is the biggest trade deficit country to the US, it's like the tax man nobody likes him but you have to pay taxes, people at a concious and subconscious level think this way with countries that they have trade deficits with and sort of think that country owes them.
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  648. Is Fox still supporting Trump with it's editorial? Same thing then.
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  649.  @paulprahlad3835  One thing I give Fox a bit of credit for is at least with that panel of 5 thing they do , although it's like 4 versus one at least there will be a center left commentator on the panel. Also not all at Fox will automatically support things Trump is doing. I am Australian so just observing and ABC seems to be the least biased with CNN and MSNBC and Fox all very biased. Admittedly I am only watching selected YouTube clips so can't say my opinion is entirely right. CNN I think is the most biased , but still interesting to watch. It would be good to see a truly non biased or very low biased media outlet in the US but unfortunately i don't think you have any. I am not sure if media is following the politicians or visa versa, it's hard to tell.
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  650. I doubt it, he doesn't need any more problems.
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  651.  @ESCOEXCLUSIVE  There has been 2 mass shootings in the news this year in Colorado and in one of the cases the person purchased the weapon a day or two earlier. Anyone just about can go and buy a gun in 10 minutes walk out of the shop armed and dangerous. So don't know what you mean not then.
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  652. Fauci is wrong about the UK, they are delivering both the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine and Pfizer vaccine in the same way. I wonder why he isn't aware of this, I get the impression that he doesn't look outside the US and see what others are doing in detail and always makes excuses why the US must fail (thinks Koreans, Japanese and Australians are some how different so different rules apply).
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  653. Perfect propaganda for the Chinese Communist Party, they don't even have to hide any information, just tell the whole truth regarding certain US incidents in the last 6 months.
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  654.  @nate7778  Your comment is ridiculous. While I understand as I am not American that life has a low value in your country, blaming one or either side of politics achieves nothing because both sides of US politics are responsible for poor healthcare outcomes which includes mental health and high rates of suicide and homicide in certain demographics. Those general demographics with the most problems are both white and black non Hispanic males.
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  655. So that's a great result.
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  656. I think there was nervousness with Obama coming out from Obama or the campaign because of the 2016 experience. So I think they polled after his first rally and it was positive and now Joe and his campaign have probably said go for it whatever you want to help and Obama is totally relaxed which I think shows. Will it change any result who knows but I think people have forgotten they didn't really like Obama that much in the end, 4 years of something quite different has produced a bit of memory loss or adjustment in feelings.
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  657. After things are fixed, not during the crisis.
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  658. One thing made me laugh. Only in China can they lock up bankers even if it was only for a few days.
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  659. Australia has Sky News Australia and they're pretty bad but they haven't crossed the line of being anti vax as far as I am aware but they are certainly antilockdown and literally promoting the idea that New South Wales should just let the virus rip, noting they are having significant problems now and Australia has a very low vaccination rate due to a combination of factors with outright anti vax being low on the list.
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  660. It's not the world it's certain countries and Parts or demographics within. Parts of the US are like Russia and some eastern European countries along with some others.
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  661. Not most likely, possibly.
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  662. Excess deaths is 300,000 year to date. Many of the excess deaths are due to mismanagement of covid 19 causing for example healthcare not being able to operate normally and people being scared to go to hospital because of the virus. Australia my country did have a spike in excess deaths during the initial lockdown , most excess deaths appear to have been heart disease and diabetes related. Suicides in places that I am aware of Victoria and Queensland Australia and New Zealand there has been no change however when extra handouts are withdrawn I think this might change, I hope I am wrong. It has been suggested that suicides may have increased already in the US but I haven't seen any data confirming this.
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  663.  @jeffwolff1015  Really? The only countries to actually lockdown are countries such as China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand. Obviously all those countries along with a few others maintain border restrictions but I would argue not doing so bad, economy is terrible too but without the deaths and everything open. Thailand might have issues if a major outbreak because of political unrest.
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  664.  @jeffwolff1015  With respect you don't understand what a lockdown is. You are talking about the mechanism not the reality, Japan had a voluntary lockdown similar to US policies however they didn't force businesses to close they did it voluntarily, Japan also implemented extreme stimulus measures. Look at videos of Tokyo in March and compare to NY at the time. The US and UK to this day have not had border quarantine or closed borders, all the countries I mentioned including Japan have compulsory enforced 14 days quarantine, normally in hotels. I do agree Thailand might have problems because of political unrest. When you look at case numbers in the countries I mentioned other than South Korea and Japan the cases are almost all imported cases detected at the border. You said South Korea might go into lockdown , and all countries I mentioned will quickly introduce lockdown type measures if required because yes they work and can get control quickly. If you look at the different Australian states the one with a light enforcement policy in the beginning, they ended up with the most problems. In Western countries we can't be Japan enforcement is required we don't work on an honor system. Contact tracing can only succeed if cases low enough. The other thing all these countries have in common is a higher detection rate in the beginning. Much more official cases than Europe and US in February but in reality it was detection of more not that Europe and US were virus free.
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  665.  @jeffwolff1015  I don't think you actually disagree with me however you are singling out one measure as not effective. Without border quarantine or travel restrictions by definition you are not locked down. The US never had travel restrictions and no border quarantine either interstate or international other than voluntary. You do recognize that the US lockdown failed and I agree because contact tracing etc. outside of a few states still hasn't occured. Australia s initial path was that of the US but we diverged significantly as you can see. Our technical capability in the beginning was equal to that of the US. Even though our federal government didn't like it all state borders shut except one. Lockdowns are proportional so if numbers are low enough no need for a hard lockdown, if cases are brought to 0 very quickly like Taiwan, no need for lockdown anymore, they did do a lockdown however closing bars, restaurants take out only and mask wearing. Taiwan had the advantage versus let's say my state Queensland because far fewer incoming cases which might surprise you. So a state of 5,000,000 has had twice as many documented imported cases than Taiwan a population of 25,000,000 so better resourced to deal with the matter. I don't know what the best path might be for the US at this point in time, 300,000 excess deaths already including directly from covid 19 and from secondary effects. The US will not do a hard lockdown and so far looking like no state or Puerto Rico are going to put in travel restrictions with enforced quarantine. New York is apparently going to rely on testing for air arrivals to reduce the incoming cases I guess and maybe that's the best way to go because I don't think any state wants to go covid 19 free. Anyway best of luck , I feel for you and I am happy to be in a covid 19 free state that had maybe 8 weeks hard lockdown in the beginning and fairly low restrictions since other than interstate travel which hopefully comes off in a month or so if all states covid 19 free.
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  666. Why does everyone think Trump is basically an innocent bumbling fool. Trump is an excellent linguist he constantly mentioned "peaceful protests" of BLM and implied on Jan 6 to go and peacefully protest. Trump also regularly spoke paraphrasing the Oklahoma bomber regarding the second amendment and stating you know what it's for (for those who don't know militia groups believe it's to overthrow any government you don't like, yes a tyrannical government is in the eye of the beholder, any government I don't like I consider tyrants). On certain issues but not border security or covid 19 restrictions I consider my governments both state and federal to be tyrants in some ways in my country of Australia but I don't think assassination is the way to go.
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  667. It is actually, it's about sentencing.
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  668.  @hannahdyson7129  Australia is very firm centre right on business and trade, that is a free market economy and believes in social welfare. The US on business and trade is far left or right, doesn't really matter they both believe in subsidies and tariffs on imported goods and the social welfare system must first pass through the hands of corporate America, to give an example healthcare, the US spends significantly more on publically funded healthcare on a non universal system that makes sure private operators make plenty of profit compared to Australia's universal healthcare system which is cheaper but goes for value for money with drugs and equipment and public hospitals for the most part. Just remember 10% of Bernie Sanders voters voted for Trump because he was seen as more protectionist than Hillary Clinton is the main reason I guess. On what might be called social issues Australia believes in the rule of law and is somewhere in the centre on things like cannabis or same sex marriage etc., the US has a lot of divergence on these issues according to which state.
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  669. Medical license for sure but stripped of citizenship is a bit far, he might believe what he is saying, not enough evidence to suggest he is deliberately lying which causes people to die.
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  670. The answer from Republicans is schools should become military compounds run by teachers who are armed and trained by the national guard or equivalent. Why ask the question when you know the answer.
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  671. The last president to effect any serious gun reform was Reagan, banning automatic weapons, problem is semi automatic are just as dangerous, possible more because the weapons and ammunition would have improved since then.
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  672.  Don Nwzad  using the common meaning of third world country, maybe you are speaking the the US, let's compare side by side. Life expectancy, US 78 , Australia 83 Government spending on healthcare US 11% Australia 9% Median adult wealth US $65,000 USD, Australia $180,000 USD (2019 number from credit Suisse) Homicide rate US 5 per 100,000 Australia 1 per 100,000 Suicide rate US 14 per 100,000 Australia 10 per 100,000 (2019 from memory) Minimum wage US $7.25 per hour , Australia $15.36 USD per hour. Australia isn't perfect however it would appear key measures are far in excess of the US for equality and treatment of each other and by the way we are less socialist, check Economic Freedom Index for yourself and see where US and Australia rates.
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  673. Depends if dual citizenship or not.
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  674.  @shauntrailskinner9645  probably because brown can be a white person like an Hispanic person with blue eyes and blond hair. Your racial and ethic definitions in your country are really messed up. Even in the clip a black person was shown but people are colorblind if it goes against the narrative, the protestors weren't all white. George Zimmerman was declared white despite being partially black because it fit the narrative "white man kills black teenager" even though he was also young and they could both be called black. There are many such examples.
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  675.  @billybobkumar9231  What's the relevance of something that happened 50 years ago in a different jurisdiction. I would suggest none. Even you look at different BLM protests in different states , very different protestors and police reactions. I am not American and followed it with much curiosity. Because of the bad reputation of Alabama and Mississippi I searched to find the protests in those states and overall the protestors peaceful not burning stuff down or anything like that and the police light handed when compared to some other states. Then you look at what I consider copycat BLM protests in Australia that had about 70,000 estimated turnout around my country way outnumbering police in most big cities and there was 2 incidents, some people misbehaved in a train station after the protests going home at a train station and were pepper sprayed and in another incident an Aboriginal flag was stuck to a police station so technically vandalism. I arrest occured of a single counter protestor most likely for his own safety. So can't even compare Australia with the light touch approach of the less agressive US states. In the US I don't know what has happened and why people protest quite often a long way away from the jurisdiction of an incident. Not sure what California should do if an incident happens in Florida for arguments sake or what current day California has to do with current day Washington DC with Federal and territory jurisdictions involved.
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  676.  @quincycamo7577  Actually they know we can hurt them but not sure you can. 53% of the internationally exported iron ore is Australian, 69 % of the internationally imported iron ore is China, full on trade war China would hurt from us, cut that supply would be similar to cutting oil. Trade wise we are very different Australia has the largest trade surplus with China assuming you consider Taiwan to be China, the US has the largest trade deficit with China. So hurt as in stop buying stuff off us maybe but they have no choice just like the US has no choice but to buy a significant number of things from China. On CGTN the iron ore issue has been mentioned, they are fully aware of this reliance on one country as is Australia with them in many respects.
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  677.  @shengyuan592  China is refusing to talk, a superpower can exert a lot of pressure, trade sanctions in the case of certain products appears to be what they are doing. If you want another example which internationally most don't agree with is the ongoing trade sanctions by the US against Cuba. Of course a country of 25 million isn't a match with a country of over 1 billion. We do rely on for example the US nuclear shield and gave up our rights to nuclear weapons on this basis. The world order has 2 superpowers and everyone knows it.
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  678. Well depending on the state but give or take 50,000 eligible voters died after absentee voting commenced and before the actual election date. So sure many dead people did vote if they could at the time of casting the vote, this isn't including non Covid 19 deaths which are far more.
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  679.  @Redridge07  your comment is the definition of a death cult.
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  680.  @sharonazevedo344  No , all islands are occupied and they need to stay where they are, do you really think some island wants to invite 10s of millions of infectious people to come?
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  681. He said do whatever you want, hardly a good selling point. Truth is it's better than nothing though because some in that crowd will now get vaccinated even if on the quiet.
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  682. You can't, you are a democracy unless you want to abandon that. It's up to her electorate or the Republican Party in the next election she needs to contend. If she actually commits a crime worthy of removal then that's different, however she ranks way lower than the ex president and it's looking like he won't be bared from office and although she certainly said inciteful things, virtually nobody was listening and she didn't cause the insurrection, the ex president did.
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  683. Lol
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  684. I think this will be the largest non theft loss in history. Go twitter.
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  685. With irony you are correct, the hard core Bernie followers voted for Trump over Hillary. It's reasonable to expect a proportion of them are the crazy Trump supporters now and ok with violence.
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  686. Free from what? Everything is open and other than Western Australia can travel freely.
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  687. Republicans don't want to pardon Assange and Snowden, that's interesting. It's also Interesting Trump was considering it as it would actually be a good thing.
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  688. Wouldn't you prefer to be equal rather than affirmative action for your particular group which means people in the same situation of another race or ethnicity get left behind? Should rich black kids enjoy affirmative action?
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  689. The getting beaten in next cells might not have happened, it's a phycological technique and could be real or just a recording.
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  690.  @andrewgusak123ua  That would be like saying all Americans are just vicious killers who torture people. Many atrocities were committed by Americans in Vietnam including a massacre of about 500 people in Mai Lai. Are you suggesting every American soldier did that? It's as logical as your statement to me.
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  691. In Italy, PNG and Australia we know how to do it when the time comes , just sack him from the top job a 15 minute task. Just get it over and done with.
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  692.  @gordondwyer3641  I haven't provided any maths and just repeated some survey result indicating 3% of the population of the US believes Trump has won, another larger group are not sure but think he won and are awaiting court case results I guess.
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  693. That's the approximate effectiveness of the flu vaccine and people take that. Also the sample sizes are small but it seems a half dose followed by a full dose may be 90% effective based on the limited data so far.
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  694. I don't like your negative comment however you're probably right, when those corporate donors tell them they're not donating for a while they can change their positions rather quickly is my guess.
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  695. No country seems to be caving , the US has threatened invasion or conquering of 6 countries, yet to here a country say yes.
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  696. They do otherwise how do you know.
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  697. Without effective controls or an effective vaccine the second number isn't so unlikely. Think 2 years ahead.
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  698.  David Rabinowitz  how can you create peace with 2 countries that have never fired a single shot against each other? That would be like saying he created peace between Australia and Iceland because we decided to improve our diplomatic relationship, it would be an absurd statement.
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  699. Trump hasn't destabilized the world but he has internationally made it easier for China to use soft diplomacy around the world.
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  700. Because it involves a policeman, however it's unfair to tarnish the whole police force, just like in the US even more unfair riots in other cities with completely different unassociated police.
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  701.  @chriskennedy1557  Ok so you talking about before they found the likely perpetrator. Without going into that particular case because I have no knowledge other than this video clip and your comment. It would have to be because the person was and extremely reliable person and they didn't reach their destination, the police made the judgement that something very likely occurred and they were correct, if for arguments sake it's a teenager between 14 and 17 , most likely ran away or something , not high attention because like you say it's common, same if any person has a history of drug use or petty crime, most likely they have just gone somewhere without telling anyone so low priority. Police won't always get it right they just do the best they can but unfortunately based on what you say they got this one right and seem to have found the offender which was one of them. There is no conspiracy , just police doing their job ( not the bad one of course ). Children below a certain age get extremely high priority too.
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  702. The Republican Party of USA has become a mirror image of The Communist Party of China in more ways than one. Both support oppression of dissent, both support billionaire over normal people, both support a public healthcare system for a minority (government workers) and others have to pay. The US has a highly funded public healthcare system much more as a proportion of GDP or per capita than average, yet a less funded universal healthcare system in Australia has produced a 5 year excess life expectancy compared to the US and China will likely overtake the US on this key measure in not so long. Best of luck US citizens, collectively your destiny is in your hands , choose wisely which path you truly want.
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  703. Here's a novel idea why don't the Republicans just kick him out of the party on Jan 20 after midday Washington DC time. That way Trump can disappear relatively quietly. I say relatively because whatever happens he won't go quietly.
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  704. Well 1 thing is 100% certain, Russia won't be using biological weapons because they can't even get much over half the population to take covid vaccines and had heaps of time, there's not a chance in hell people would be lining up and a 100% vaccination rate of anthrax vaccine, just in case the weapon actually worked. Same argument for the US, so even discussing biological weapons other than throwing dead animals in drinking water tanks like has been done for thousands of years is absurd. Chemical weapons however are a different story, they're effective if far enough away from your own troops.
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  705. For a country that has had increasing government deficits 20 years running I find it strange an investment guy says it's not a problem, [the debt can be paid off] things can be funded from current tax revenues.
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  706. Australia have both politician and medical public servants at state and federal level but they certainly don't contradict each other. Our political parties don't contradict each other either . Only stuff around the edges.
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  707. That's the confusing part he could be remembered for being a great mayor but now he will be remembered for this episode.
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  708. Well according to the CDC moving 7 days average of deaths up 26% on the prior week, ok it's at a low level by US standards at only 1,500 deaths per week but trajectory is bad yet again. Pretty sure some of those dying would be in Florida so probably already have candidates for your suggestion.
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  709. She's a US citizen I guess, it wasn't so different 6 months ago in the US, the virus was rampant and the President at the time was encouraging everyone to ignore the virus and join his rallies etc.
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  710. They say converts often become the most radical, Candace Owens is an example of this being a leftie before now moving to the crazy right. She's quite attractive though, pity about her crazy politics.
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  711. Well it puts him one step ahead of Trump.
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  712. I agree because reports are suggesting that vaccines are actually quite easy to get if you want one in the US now.
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  713. It's not free market at all because they refuse to interconnect to the national grid which naturally increases competition.
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  714.  Calvin Parish  I am Australian and although we aren't doing it perfect some of the schemes in the US are nuts. Even Michael Moore agrees with this, can't remember the name of the documentary and produced by other people but on his Youtube channel , posted maybe a month ago, I can't remember. Both political parties in the US are in on the game, your example is like making ethanol from corn, it makes absolutely no sense, from sugarcane it does however. Michael Moore isn't exactly a crazy right wing person and to his credit willing to criticize both sides of politics.
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  715.  Calvin Parish  thanks for the long reply, I am not as harsh as you and seriously send AOC a letter just explaining things you have directly dealt with that don't make sense, she is a person who will likely read it as long as it gets past her staff who might read it first. To guard against this possibility write the word confidential on the front of the envelope underlined and assuming it means the same thing as in Australia nobody can open it but her unless I guess she authorises that. My impression from the clips of her is she will go into details and consider the matter seriously, not just a person going for votes. Have to send by snail mail though in my opinion because emails are too easily deleted. One thing that would apply to California but not this Texas situation is what South Australia has done, they have the largest lithium ion battery in the world and seems working well with all the systems designed to quickly readjust energy flow. Interestingly they currently have a greater risk of blackout by renewables overloading the system and possibly soon producing more energy at peaks than is used causing the system to crash. Previously they had a heat induced brown or blackouts caused by a lot of wind power that when it got hot stopped working because the wind stopped, maybe same to California , I don't know. You are open to renewables which is good but understand the limitations and the politics which sometimes save no energy and possibly use more in the name of energy savings or carbon emissions.
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  716.  @danferguson71  A human is similar to a rabbit or a bat too, we are all mammals but we significantly different unless you think the Easter Bunny and Batman are real.
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  717.  @truthbetold4350  There some truth to what you say unfortunately. Your president deliberately increased the rate of spread of the virus by his words and actions. The 3% who outright believe Trump won the election believe everything he says. That's a big enough number to keep the virus circulating especially if you add in other likely spreaders including BLM protestors who did the same thing except generally wore masks.
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  718. I disagree because what happens if the government leadership become dictators and start doing bad things? If you can't leave that party they are more likely to be successful in creating a non democracy.
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  719. It's all very easy in hindsight and what is wrong with the government following advice , 90% of the time the advice was great hence Australia's overall success?
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  720.  @sonnyblack0870  Anyone can produce an unsustainable boom with government debt. Just cut taxes and borrow more. The economy started to drop in February and ironically the truly massive stimulus package (borrowing) for covid 19 has kept the stock market up. It's like saying a person with expensive clothes and a nice car and house is rich when in reality they can't afford any of it on their expanding list of credit cards.
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  721. They all can have different meanings on their own so need to be in a sentence to identify the particular meaning that is or is most likely meant. To give an example Ebola is less efficient at killing people than COVI SARS2 in a modern society. You can see the efficiency is at a societal level not an individual level and has a very different meaning. So a slightly different sentence where I still use the same word but different reference. Ebola is far more efficient at killing an infected individual than COVI SARS2. Both statements are true but if you aren't concentrating or thinking about what has actually been said you might get the wrong idea , infact the opposite idea to reality.
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  722.  @ChrisWellejus  they work as in reduce risk, they don't eliminate risk, just like a seatbelt in a car.
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  723. Australia all but one state is good but that one state could get out of control easily. It's really hard to stop. Early on we had an event where one person infected 30 people at a 4 hour wedding function. This is reliable because of how low our infection rate was at the time.
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  724. Florida "the free state", with more law enforcement agencies than an average country.
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  725. Well the US is the only country outside of China self contained enough that if it had gone down the elimination strategy for covid 19 the economy would now be positive year on year everything else being equal noting the US government debt binge under Trump was starting to bite in February when the US economy started to decline prior to the pandemic. However if the virus was eliminated he would have won in a landslide. No Australian government federal or state will change party while this virus is out there because people including myself prefer not to risk changing success. I voted for the first time in my state election for a party I wouldn't normally vote for.
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  726.  @lynnsmith4  Are China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand not countries? They all eliminated it and include China plus Taiwan as 1 country if you want. The issue is it keeps re entering those above countries through quarantine breaches. You are incorrect to say no country eliminated it. The US in the scale of things did virtually nothing , no lockdown and no quarantine in any meaningful way, allowed the virus to spread to all 50 states and 2 major territories. As far as that booming economy it was made from an approximately 5% GDP rise in government debt per annum , so like someone with a house getting a mortgage and buying a Ferrari or something, unsustainable. 2008 had just as much a booming economy for similar reasons and we know what happened then.
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  727.  @lynnsmith4  What is my lie? As far as Americans starving you are richer than Australians on paper why would you starve? You do however seem to agree no meaningful quarantine, to this day quarantine of international travellers going into the United States is voluntary, check the CDC website for yourself. New York effectively has voluntary quarantine even, no officials are going to check at night time. By definition you aren't locked down with complete freedom of travel so those with means like the governor of California just go to another county where business is open. This is the US automatic spread mechanism built into the response. If your state or county shuts it's businesses just go elsewhere to less infected areas to spread the virus.
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  728.  @lynnsmith4  Partial lockdown with no quarantine I would argue is a killer, if the trend continued from the January 26 to October 3 excess deaths as reported by the CDC being 300,000 with only 200,000 being associated with covid 19 then the death toll now would be over 600,000 due to covid 19 and lockdown lite.
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  729.  @lynnsmith4  of course can't shut down everything but you would agree that restriction of foreign citizens from certain countries while allowing US citizens to return with voluntary quarantine which has been relaxed from 14 days voluntary quarantine to 10 days voluntary quarantine has achieved nothing other than very short delays possibly of every strain on the planet. The virus doesn't care about citizenship but it does care if the carrier is quarantined in a hotel with no chance to infect others. The west Pacific countries have low infection rates and in some cases elimination due to policy , nothing else. There is nothing magic in the water in this part of the pacific.
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  730.  @lynnsmith4  ok you take care, I hope Biden changes to a containment policy at least for the international border however not optimistic, seems like it might be all talk.
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  731. Many people will still feel sick after initially taking it like all vaccines as your body reacts to it. That's a minor side effect and short lived.
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  732. Why Australia ? Curious to hear the current conspiracy theories.
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  733.  @aishabintabubakr4944  Howard Springs is in the Northern Territory, what's it got to do with Victoria? Yes vast majority of Australians did support our previous covid 0 policy regardless of political party.
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  734.  @alex35agm  You're too soft mate, in Queensland Australia near the start of the pandemic one person threw a party against the rules and the police gave a fine and advised what might happen if he does it again, the fool did it the very next day, 2 months prison. Sent a great message, with a population of 5 million we have had 7 deaths. Another point is being tough and fair everyone follows, don't have to do much at all. In another case a billionaire took a state government to the high court of Australia because he wasn't permitted unessential travel into that state, he lost. When everyone knows even a billionaire has to follow the rules people know it's fair and even though it might be tough people are far more accepting of the rules.
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  735. Well done , now get it to 28 days so the Border hopefully completely open. QLD standard is 28 days I think to consider an area virus free. Annoying Sydney has had a new case in the last few days.
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  736. Everyone watch out for drivers and pedestrian with "MAGA" hats, don't worry about the old men with hats anymore. There's dozens of comments from this video by clearly MAGA supporters of friends getting killed in vehicle accidents and apparently their death certificates mentioned covid 19. So someone with a Red Hat is likely not only diseased but a road safety issue.
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  737.  @Doom444  As an Australian I like your comment the less who know about us the better. Point everyone in the direction of the US or Europe , the leaders of the free world.
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  738. How is this relevant to the video?
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  739. New York has rules similar to parts of Australia and France as a whole as in need to be vaccinated to go to a bar. The local sentiment would be even worse in New York or France than if Australia let him play unvaccinated because of precedent.
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  740. You don't get the nuance, the "travel bans" by countries that aren't going to prevent the virus getting in has little effect. I agree with the WHO on this point but also point out certain countries like Australia can keep it out for a long time if we increase travel restrictions to the same as previously. Hopefully it's no worse than Delta although the WHO declaring it a variant of concern indicates that a high possibility it could be worse.
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  741. Money for infrastructure, not food except absolute disaster. USAID has destroyed agriculture in Africa because farmers can't compete against free food so stop producing and it's a vicious cycle designed to prop up US farmers.
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  742. I wonder if US citizens are aware of Aesop's fables and in particular the tortoise and hare story, "operation warp speed" has morphed into the unionized Republicans "operation go slow". How on earth did the US drop so far, all of the tortoise countries with wealth have overtaken you, Australia, Japan, etc. look at us now, leaving the US for dead and unfortunately in a somewhat literal sense. Listen to some old slave from Greece, he had a point which is still valid today.
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  743. Because Trump has too many followers so impossible to sell the product to Republican states for a long time. Trump already dumped Rudi blaming him, Trump will be Trump and blame everyone but himself.
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  744.  @Dick_Interritus  You're comment about farming is incorrect, socialism or subsidies in that sector mostly cause overproduction of low value crops and increase the land value which is based on the subsidy preventing or at least making it more difficult for new entrants. Take one of the worst subsidies in the US, corn for ethanol, it's absolute madness it doesn't save the environment or produce anything of high value , ethanol and stock feed. At the same time the US is importing mostly low value I think ground beef from Australia. For arguments sake wouldn't it make more sense to not export soybeans for stock feed in China and grow enough of your own beef rather than importing it (low value beef is still a lot more valuable than stock feed). I know the thread and video not about this topic but you brought it up.
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  745.  @Denidrakes69  You got the exchange rate around the wrong way.
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  746.  @Dick_Interritus  Maybe in some cases Australian taxes are higher but if you search "Wikipedia List of countries by tax revenue to GDP ratio" you will see for 2020 Australia and US both had 27.x%. Then look at the columns of government spending and government debt and you will see US gov spending is greater and debt to GDP is on a continuous rise. Another fallacy you seem to fall for is about healthcare costs, the US spends more as a proportion of GDP on publically funded healthcare than Australia, so based on your comment you are paying tax for healthcare greater than Australia for no benefit. That's crazy I prefer lower taxes with a benefit for all who need/want it and if I prefer extras I can still pay for private health cover if I want to.
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  747.  @Dick_Interritus  So you don't believe the published data of the US and or Australia, well there's no convincing you then. If you are referring to Howard Springs a converted mining camp that all our Olympians went through for quarantine just like anyone else, except it's far better than hotel quarantine which most people went through as a concentration camp you couldn't be further from the truth. As you would be aware all countries in the Western Pacific region of WHO had hotel quarantine except maybe the French and US protectorates. Our deaths are less than 10% of the PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region on a per capita basis. So 1 million dead so that you didn't have to quarantine and your right to infect remained in tack. The Queen could technically remove a Prime Minister but needs to have a reason as in the government can't function however it's the Queen's representative the Governor General who would actually do that as happened in the early 70s when one party in the Senate cut funding from the government so the assessment was made that the government couldn't function so the government was dissolved and an election called. Usually in a constitutional democracy a PM will be removed and replaced within the party by a simple vote electing a new leader but obviously from the same party. By the way our Monarch's title is Queen of Australia and technically she is also the Queen of each state within also, so I could call her the Queen of Queensland, my state. In her capacity as Queen of Australia she has nothing to do with the UK she just lives there and is a citizen there. If Australia went to war with the UK I wonder what she would do, probably tell us both to cut it out.
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  748.  @Dick_Interritus  No the PM to get the boot from the Governor General was Gough Whitlam and not sure when but it was before Whitlam a PM named Harold Holt and I don't think they ever discovered what happened to him. With taxes even income taxes the Australian system is so different you can't actually do a side by side comparison. Obviously the US being more socialist and less of a free trading country you pay more for many imported goods. With income tax I'll just point out with dividends, in Australia we receive what is called an imputed credit, this means the dividend is paid with the tax attached that the company already paid and our company tax is 30% which is much higher than the US, this credit will be applied to my personal tax and I may get a refund or have to pay more according to my tax bracket so if I only make it into the 22% tax bracket or whatever I will get a refund so for arguments sake $70 dividend with $30 tax credit I will get a refund of $8. In the US although the company tax rate is lower you will never get credited for your share of tax already paid by the company and might need to pay up to 20% on top as income tax plus a state income tax on top of that. So as far as income tax goes tell me your circumstances and I could usually tell you which country would be better for you , Australian states can't have an income tax because of constitutional constraints thank goodness. Our tax systems create different behaviours, Australian companies pay higher dividends and US companies tend to hoard money and reinvest it to try and achieve gains through capital gains which are taxed differently in Australia and USA. So I believe whatever you read was probably correct but unless it pointed out all the significant differences of which there are many, unintentionally misleading.
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  749.  @Dick_Interritus  As far as how tax money is spent, it's a case by case basis, so for public healthcare it's far better spent than in the US but from the extremely little I know South Korea and Japan do better than Australia with this. Does the Australian or Queensland government waste money and make big mistakes on occasion, of course , every government does anywhere in the world, it's a matter of how bad and more importantly do they learn from the mistakes and try not to do it again and on average Australia and my state of Queensland is performing pretty well. I am actually taking a one man fight to both my state and federal government's at the moment regarding strata title properties, yes we are as bad possibly worse than many US states, don't know what happened with it but that apartment tower collapse in Florida could happen here and nobody can legally be held responsible. My background is listed investments in 3 countries Australia of course, Malaysia and Thailand, these listed investments are all regulated to a high standard, strata title properties there's no rules at all in my state, gain power you can do whatever you want, no possibility of being sacked or banned for unlawful behaviour because no provision for that. By unlawful behaviour I am referring to listed company standards because of course nothing is unlawful in the QLD strata title industry. You know you threw me a curved ball, I expected to be fighting you but you didn't fight , you actually discuss things in a normal manner. I know comment sections are dominated by those with strong right or left opinions who tend to be highly aggressive, in some ways I want what cannot be, a lot more people making comments who are somewhere in the centre. One thing about you which tells me you are really a genuine person is you saying my family benefits from some sort of agricultural handouts or subsidies or whatever but you don't think that's good. A hardline partisan never admits anything, that would be losing face.
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  750.  @Dick_Interritus  Your description of yourself just reminds me of me relatives, my late mother was a nuclear scientist who at some point in time before I was alive actually worked at our only nuclear reactor Lucas Heights, I never discussed much about her life but I remember her once saying she used (can't remember exact words) a computer that was housed in a building, that's a computer with valves and she said it was hard to use ( in retrospect I am thinking that was a pretty big understatement, a $50 budget smartphone probably has 1000 times or even much more the computing power now). My brother got degrees in Physics science and Computer engineering, he never used the science part but worked for German banks in computer programming. I on the other hand basically just passed high school, not dedicated enough for academic things. Anyway Happy New Year and hope all goes well for you, take care.
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  751. They are not trying to control it , it's only a short lockdown lite or mitigation lockdown. Lockdowns to contain the virus are mostly in West Pacific countries and very successful for the most part , only Indonesia and Philippines significantly struggling at this point in time because of very dense living conditions where it's probably impossible to stop the virus.
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  752. Not really, most of the other deaths will be to do with lockdown lite. In Australia we had about 1,200 excess deaths in the first 6 months of 2020 and deaths from respiratory disease was actually lower than normal in that time period which of course includes covid 19. The excess deaths were mainly attributable to Diabetes and heart disease and the graph shown showed the excess deaths were in March and April as in the lockdown time. You could search for it if you want it's on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website. The ongoing lockdown lite that never seems to end in your country was/is far more damaging than a proper lockdown for a much shorter period and of course much fewer covid 19 deaths which affects the mental health of people also.
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  753. Civilians don't arrest people or get shot at. It's all easy to say oh I would have done x y or z but are you certain in a split second decision and you are being shot at you couldn't make a mistake? Maybe you should become a policeman because you are perfect.
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  754. Sometimes Americans are super polite and respectful. It's only in the US someone would keep speaking "yes Ma'am".
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  755. I reckon that could be significant, the $400 million is only the debts he is personally liable for, there might be a lot more out there and who knows how international it is. The hotel businesses other than the US where people stayed for the presidents ear probably aren't doing so well. If for arguments sake you were a foreign banker you would wait until January 21 to make a call on any loan. If there are big debts the various bankers probably all know and will move quickly because speed sometimes makes a difference in what can be recovered.
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  756. Observing from afar, the problem seems to be much worse in NY and LA areas and the perpetrator seem to mostly be another minority that you observed in the clip.
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  757. @Pop Corn No the virus has disproportionately killed people in the PAHO Pan-American Health Organization and European WHO regions , Africans are in Africa so by your analogy people in the Americas and Europe are stupid. I am in the Western Pacific WHO region and we have the lowest death rates of any region so we must be smart, including our indigenous populations. There's some truth to the last part of my statement, in Australia very early on remote indigenous people requested significant travel restrictions into their communities and it was done.
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  758. It happens every election someone commits small time voter fraud, what's your point?
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  759.  @thehorde2908  I am Australian and centre right on the political spectrum I guess ( as political positions don't really align internationally and Trump falls outside of mainstream Australian politics because of various reasons including being a proponent of big deficit spending prior to covid 19 and protectionist) All the interviews I have seen said there is no widespread and or systemic voter fraud and so far no evidence to the contrary. Maybe an individual or 2 used the words no voter fraud and again so what it changes nothing, you are literally arguing over a single word.
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  760. Well it's like those weapons displayed, modern technology can do more damage more quickly, so while the tools aren't the cause for example guns, give a violent society plenty of guns it will exacerbate the problem. The US is by far the most violent wealthy nation at least at the moment.
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  761. Reading the comments in this thread it seems there is a major shortage of mirrors in the US, maybe China could export some to you. Both your political parties are making things worse and the overarching policies are common to both parties , not a single lockdown and not a single day of compulsory quarantine at any border or even when sick. Don't blame Murdoch media, my state Queensland Australia only has Murdoch press . You tend to find Murdoch media is mostly a follower not a leader, they give people what they want, so Fox News or Sky News Australia are only preaching to the converted. Queensland, 7 covid 19 deaths for a population of 5 million, it can't be the media's fault otherwise I have to say our Murdoch print media played a part, but more likely they represent the readers.
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  762.  @dqmachine2624  The Australian border will remain largely closed at least until next year, it's looking like it will be about January before we can all be vaccinated, some Moderna coming soon to add to supply of Pfizer and Astrazeneca we using currently. A big factor in how we open up could be whether or not New South Wales gains control of it's outbreak which after each passing day is looking less likely although they have dramatically stepped up lockdown enforcement activities so maybe they can surprise, over 400 cases yesterday. If NSW regains control border will be slower to open, our public hasn't been told yet that even with vaccines probably 2 to 5,000 will die if the border is opened. China is discussing the same thing and they having problems with Delta variant also. If you have a true compassionate reason as in visiting sick relative or something you could apply for that but no guarantee they would say yes. Maybe I start to become paranoid but if the next variant to come along evades vaccines and more deadly we all back to square one or maybe worse. Best of luck and take care. Hopefully next year sometime the world starts to move in a positive direction.
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  763. Police need to collect evidence first, when they arrest him they only have a certain amount of time to charge him otherwise they need to let him go, there will be differences by state but that's what needs to happen and also need to know which state, the police aren't even certain of that yet.
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  764. You are correct however like the other comment here 70,000,000 or so Americans still like the guy. Q followers around the world like him too and they exist in my country Australia and probably your country but fortunately not large in numbers. Trump is like the high priest of Q. Foreign Q followers sort of hate their own countries because basically all politicians in the world who are not Trump are a part of the global cabal and deep state etc.
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  765. Banned is probably the wrong word without qualification. People coming from every country to Australia must have an extremely good reason , not a holiday, either a returning citizen or diplomat I guess and a few other exemptions. So a normal US citizen or citizen of any country can't come here and if anyone does come here 2 weeks mandatory government supervised hotel quarantine I am pretty sure. In the way I think you mean , of course US citizens are banned, citizens of every country are. For anyone of any country other than a head of state maybe to think they can currently travel around the world freely , they are just completely ignorant. In Australia you can't travel freely internally, 14 days mandatory quarantine in many cases when crossing a state border, including government supervised hotel quarantine in some cases.
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  766. No, not unless ASEAN decided that was the right thing to do, after all they were the leaders of the agreement.
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  767. Most likely they aren't, the numbers will not be accurate , however authoritarian left leaning countries have way outperformed other countries on average regarding this matter. Non left leaning or nominally left leaning authoritarian countries are a mixed bag , the US for example is authoritarian with other health matters like drugs (400,000 health direction disobedient prisoners) but decided that freedom of movement and no precautions to infect others was important on this occasion.
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  768. The last part of your statement is irrelevant , the US spends more on publically funded healthcare as a proportion of GDP than say Australia for example and has spent more on handouts during the pandemic than Australia. The first part of your comment is correct, things are disfunctional.
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  769.  @newsoul8626  100% agree with you, but military spending has nothing to do with anything regarding healthcare and handouts. If you have followed things reasonably closely there was massive creation of companies at one point when it didn't seem to make sense, guaranteed they were mostly created to receive government handouts and a report suggested $400 million in handouts actually went overseas. No government is perfect, Australia did waste some money too, but the scale of the waste in the US on a per Capita basis was far worse. I don't know how your country is going to stop corporate welfare and ridiculously relaxed rules, drug dealers with degrees can still get paid, how on earth Doctors can receive anything more than say a commemorative pen for dealing large amounts of "legal" drugs is beyond me. The Fentanyl epidemic is from mostly legal drug dealers.
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  770. I think you meant he keeps lowering the bar.
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  771. For reference Florida is about 3.5 times the population of Victoria Australia.
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  772.  @crystalgiddens7276  I am unsure what point you are making to me. I don't like those impolite people calling you "Karen" that's racist and possibly sexist in my opinion. What do you think can a black or Asian lady be called "a Karen"?
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  773. I am Australian my observation is both sides are very much to blame, excuses for the killers amongst MAGA on one side and excuses against BLM and ANTIFA killers on the other. About 20 inner cities in the US have a homicide rate above 20 per hundred thousand, that's worse than a lot of poor developing corrupt countries. I can't see how your country can change because the division is real and having a national homicide rate 5 times that of other wealthy nations should be seen as a tragedy but it's seen as a way to score points over ones ideological opponent. Best of luck, take of yourself and I wish your country the best but can't at this time see how progress can be made.
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  774.  @janpacana6293  reporting rates will vary widely.
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  775. So he's just a looter that supports overthrow of an election. Just because he didn't do the hard work of barging through barricades and break and enter in the building , normally I would suggest you are just as guilty. If I loot a shop after someone else breaks the door down I think I am just as guilty.
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  776. The US isn't the world and it was created from subsidies and protectionism particularly now.
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  777. Not at all , have you ever heard the terms "the deplorables" or "clinging to guns and bibles" , while I reckon the people who have reacted against her are being ridiculous, 1000's of comments on Fox News take on this, her reaction will cause her problems in the future I suspect.
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  778. Exactly, people don't normally walk around with a birth certificate or passport and proof of address.
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  779. Odd maybe old duck doesn't sound to offensive to me.
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  780.  @isaaccrabtree3996  catch 22 there, if you improved mental health people wouldn't see the need to cling onto their semi automatic weapons that they want to keep because they are paranoid. No other wealthy country in the world has this issue.
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  781. He can't be wrong because he said he didn't know. He said what he wants to happen and why, sort of a very soft prediction.
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  782. I see so many comments about BLM protests and that's correct. Unfortunately in your country both political parties have been ineffective and sent different reasoning for different agendas. So here is a novel idea vote against anyone who has contributed to this regardless of party, particular Federal and State politicians who made things worse.
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  783. Americans are generally inward looking and don't like change, they want to dream into reality some apparent golden age that they think existed previously. Just to take one issue which stands out like dogs balls. US publically funded healthcare is more expensive per capita than Australian publically funded healthcare which is universal excluding dental. The US has the lowest life expectancy of any wealthy country in the world so using the most obvious metric it's the most expensive public plus private healthcare system in the world with the lowest outcome for a wealthy country. Looking from afar it's pretty obvious why and this is bipartisan policy by the way, the Democrats aren't organized enough to change anything. The US government literally refuses to buy drugs and treatment options at a reasonable price, the market which is a monopoly for emergency care is able to set prices in most cases. Drugs are put to market not based on efficacy and cost effectiveness but according to the ability of drug companies to market their drugs to consumers who believe they aren't paying. In the private insurance sector for healthcare every time costs increase for healthcare the insurers see the the next pot of gold because insurance is actually a commission business, higher costs equals higher premiums and higher margins and the government won't say a word because the insurers will just say but costs have gone up. Many Democrats say spend more money and Republicans say it's the best system in the world already which it clearly isn't because it's not communist or other ridiculous arguments, they literally want to pay more tax for healthcare that they might not even be entitled to. Republicans and Democrats have met in the middle on this issue because the overarching system agreed to is bipartisan policy. Crazy people like AOC literally just want what the rest of the wealthy world has at a cheaper price than you pay now. In any other country including middle income countries, AOC would be considered the only normal one and the vast majority of other Democrats and all Republicans as radical big government spenders with some sort of socialist agenda because the public healthcare isn't universal.
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  784. Where did they find this crowd, they not booing or threatening to hang him.
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  785. I wonder how the 5 EYES is going, not sure my country Australia or the other allies would be keen on sharing any information other than terrorist related information at the moment.
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  786.  @user-ul7li5mu1s  you surprised me with that last response. I am not so sure those parties are compatible.
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  787. Well a certain number are required to die in the US from gunshot wounds because the second amendment apparently allows for that or something, yep it's truly tragic. As far as masks in schools they are far less relevant than vaccines and in almost all cases it's the unvaccinated adults that die possibly leaving them orphans which is also tragic.
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  788. This seems to be an US and Western Europe (ex UK and Ireland) and Japan problem. The rest of the world the problem is getting vaccines not people refusing to take it.
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  789.  @trina7274  One thing many people don't realise is that they can be the unlucky one. Based on probability your son is probably 1 in 1,000. If 10 million people like your son were to be infected maybe 10,000 are unlucky and get sicker than expected. Hope you and your family stay well, being pretty crook like your son might be uncomfortable but as long as he recovers then it's not so bad in the scheme of things. Take care.
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  790. If they were tested daily then no need because takes 3 days or so for incubation.
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  791. While Sky News Australia is annoying at times it's just simply not wreaking havoc. Australia has a well functioning democracy where both political parties at moment don't cross certain lines. Murdoch hasn't been one of ours for years. I am in Queensland where 100% of our printed media is Newscorp , we might not be perfect but we're doing ok , with that amount of influence we should be like some radical Republican state equivalent and we simply aren't.
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  792. Hopefully he does on Fox too if he can.
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  793. Fiscal responsibility? Only Trump could make Obama seem like a fiscal conservative extremist.
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  794. If he's 100% innocent the best option is full cooperation with the police.
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  795. What's with these nutters, it will make it harder for anyone to change anything when peaceful protesters (riots by my standard) are roaming the streets.
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  796.  @mjor6406  I never said Australia ended up creating a viable vaccine that's being used so we are in agreement. Money doesn't buy common sense all the "woke" intellectuals of PAHO Pan-American Health Organization and European WHO regions have millions of deaths on there hands because open borders and as mentioned extremely slow off the mark in a lot of cases. Less than 10% of the per Capita deaths from Covid 19 in the Western Pacific WHO region even if you eliminate China compared to those other regions although struggling now.
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  797.  @mjor6406  Your comments are strange, I said no Australian developed vaccine and you keep carrying on. You're happy with your country that's great, good for you and I am happy with mine. You keep talking about how the US government is more socialist than Australia as in lots of government spending and other manipulations. I agree it is hence it's lower rating in the economic freedom index.
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  798.  @holyland6380  I don't think Trump is good at listening. He took some words of Fauci and then extrapolated the positive outcome ignoring Fauci's caveats. Fauci despite his faults is at least an honourable person.
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  799.  @dongyuxiao9235  you're being ridiculous, you just stated China has a 0 crime rate and everyone is happy, all China has achieved is crime rates and suicide rates of most of Western Europe and Australia and New Zealand and corruption China is worse than these countries. The US plus China are not the entirety of the world, yes they might both be superpowers but that's as far as it goes.
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  800. The very last comment on the clip he is wrong, it's not about agreement, it's about accepting the decision as in democracy, whether it's about the President of the US or a decision by a school committee if that's the accepted process in that state/school.
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  801.  @pamdeshane1289  I read your link. So what is your position? You say enough is enough. Is it your position just infect them , who cares or maybe the US should consider taking the actions required to at a minimum stabilize numbers like NY or California and then take higher risks in nursing homes that might kill them but at least risk is lowered somewhat.
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  802.  @pamdeshane1289  I come from a virus free state in Australia and possibly a virus free country soon with cases of community transmission below 10 in last day. So my perspective will be different, the best is a hard lockdown for 6 maybe 8 weeks and get rid of the virus so things can go to "covid normal" which will still require compulsory hotel quarantine for people entering your state from another country or infected state. I know that's impossible in the US because you haven't had any hard comprehensive lockdowns and your country is completely divided. The next best option might be like that of Sweden which is a middle position when compared to the US , they did a much harder lockdown on nursing homes than the US and limits on gatherings are still 50 I think and reduced capacity in restaurants etc., but realistically the US will not take the Swedish approach either because too strict for many states. Protect yourself and best of luck is all I can say. Make sure if you can that your friend receives or weeks help if needed. Businesses everywhere have gone under including Sweden because not enough customer, so they are certainly not alone, regardless of the approach a country took. Have a good day and try not to stress.
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  803. 2 parts, Japan has a high level of vaccine hesitancy to begin with and in a relative sense fairly successful at containment of covid 19 although have basically lost control now. Other than China which is an aboration to an extent all countries that did well containing the virus have low vaccination rates. When people are dying around you it tends to reduce vaccine hesitancy or increases the effort someone and the government will go to to get a vaccine. I am in Australia, I am not vaccine hesitant but the Oxford Astrazeneca vaccine is not recommended for my age group which means a bit of effort to get it so haven't got around to it yet. I can also wait for Pfizer but that's probably months away.
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  804. Probably because of negative feedback and also people actually realising it's and I hate to say it , even certain Trump supporters believing it because in mostly rural states where controlling spread is easier they just waited and in some cases took actions to ensure the virus spreads. Hawaii and Alaska should have no cases because they are detached from the mainland and compulsory quarantine they would have no cases because small easy jurisdictions to manage. But freedom to travel without restrictions and the freedom to infect was really a bipartisan national mantra. Best of luck Americans look after yourself personally because no government is coming to your rescue any time soon.
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  805. Yes you are correct many would prefer living in Australia but unfortunately about 800,000 can't say a word they are dead. If the US was as successful as Australia you would only have 28,000 deaths as of now accounting for our different population sizes. Many also wouldn't like that inflation isn't such an issue , free healthcare and lower taxes to pay for it etc. etc.
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  806. Any reputable news source is fine, just not right wing opinion which isn't news.
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  807. The problem is it tends to kill old people so unlikely to make any change based on the survival of the fittest theory. They can still reproduce little baby Republicans.
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  808. They never had a monopoly, but they are a superpower in that regard.
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  809. Think of HIV it was in Africa for at least 30 years before being discovered in the US so it's no necessarily the case. It can be the particular mutation occured in Wuhan making it much more contagious. The B strain was far more contagious than the A strain and now B117 strain AKA UK strain is much more contagious again along with some other strains it seems. Nothing is simple and assumptions of what might of probably happened are still just assumptions. In Italy they couldn't even find a single case until February 21 but clearly it had been there for a month or so due to the numbers.
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  810. It's not a tragedy other than euthanasia being illegal and because of that this event occurred.
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  811. They mentally didn't have a choice, it's a cult however were the Charles Manson murderers not charged for the same reason, of course not. Being a member of a cult isn't a defense in my opinion. These people believed that after 20th of January the military might come to seize there assets because of the communist takeover about to occur like it did in Cuba, yes at a few rallies Trump did say as much and specifically said the US would become like Cuba or Venezuela. If you believed Trump would you not try to do something especially if you owned property? 40% of these people were apparently either business owners or professionals of some sort.
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  812. You mustn't be old or fat or have other condition and live in a bad neighbourhood. On both scores the US performance is bad, you are sort of admitting to choosing your poison.
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  813. He could be kicked out of the party that's about all.
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  814.  Daniel Drader  he won't be, the standards are pretty low in that party currently.
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  815. This guy is clueless, quarantine has worked and failed after Delta. Western Pacific WHO region countries have Less than 10% of the per Capita death toll of PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region countries. 90% better should be considered successful. Being an island makes no difference, Hawaii has done very poorly compared to a country like Vietnam for example although Vietnam is struggling now.
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  816. He said that they are very special people, now his legal team says they should be put in prison and it wasn't Trump's fault. I wonder if they will get special treatment being special people and all.
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  817.  @EpicAlcatraz99  your views are interesting, both Israel and Palestine are actually far more peaceful than many US cities, I am guessing you are a US citizen and support the giving of $200,000,000,000 to Israel as foreign aid yet you don't care for your own country people and can't even secure your own southern border which has far more killing on both sides of it than the Israel internal borders will ever have.
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  818.  @EpicAlcatraz99  If you understand history the US agreed to offer the nuclear umbrella as long as other countries agreed not to have the bomb , you can't just back out of agreements if you want to be seen as a civilized country. All small and medium countries are at the mercy of US and previously USSR and now China. There is a difference however between being a counterbalance to the other superpower and creating a welfare state of another country being Israel. You are incorrect about US violence, I think you would find Chicago has more killings than Israel and occupied territories combined. Same applies more broadly to some southern US states.
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  819.  @EpicAlcatraz99  What a strange comment, what country are you referring to because Palestine isn't a country and you make it sound like inner city Chicago or something, this behaviour isn't a daily occurrence if you happen to be referring to Palestine. You are far more likely to be killed by covid 19 than any rocket attack. Your apparent reference to Palestine as a country is completely ridiculous, it's more like a local government, Israel is the government in charge. If Israel cared for it's own citizens maybe 5,000 people wouldn't have died from Covid 19. But hey US $s are giving them vaccines so all is fine.
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  820.  @iqbaltimol2676  Yes Australia does have that rule for federal parliament. It caught some people out a couple of years ago , many who didn't realise that they had dual citizenship. I am technically a dual citizen because at the time of my birth my mother was a New Zealand citizen but I haven't done anything about it so unregistered I guess. One prominent politician was kicked out for being in my situation. I didn't know I was a dual citizen until that case.
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  821. There was a supreme court case on the matter of public health measures around the time of the Spanish flu and until or unless that is overturned a mask mandate is legal , however in practice the Federal government can't actually enforce it because no capability to reasonably do so it would need cooperation of states and local authorities.
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  822. Yep , most Canadians are vaccinated. It's unfortunate that some still don't listen to the science and keep dying.
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  823. Bernie Sanders supporters voted more for Trump than Hillary because of Trump's protectionist trade and industry policies , normally considered left wing but now apparently free trade and business is a left wing thing according to Trump supporters.
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  824.  @cjvaye99  Do you see the irony in your own statement, you chose one of each , a less socialist country in Ireland and a slightly more socialist country in Sweden. Check the US rating in the Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom Index. It's not too bad but certainly a long way behind Ireland and not far in front of Sweden.
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  825.  @equious8413  no party or country is completely socialist or having no Socialism, such a system doesn't exist except for arguably North Korea is 90% + socialist because the government control almost everything completely. The start of welfare for the masses which was the old age pension was generally about 100 years ago for many countries.
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  826. @Hayle Seyton a communist is a full on socialist especially if truly pure communism where the government controls everything. Communists believe in public ownership of everything and everybody is required to work for the state , everything gets distributed evenly. In other words much like the Soviet Union was. A moderate socialist is basically what you find in especially northern Europe government has significant involvement in running things and provides good social services but not against capitalism , just capitalism must fit within that context. Limited socialism is the system in Australia or US as in a bit more towards free market and a more limited welfare safety net at least in theory, low levels of industry protection and high levels of economic freedom. The economic freedom index to me is the best guide available of how socialist a country is, it's not a perfect guide for that as it includes corruption for example which isn't really socialist or not. I think that's really a US thing using communist and socialist completely interchangeably , in Australia I think most people wouldn't do that.
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  827.  @equious8413  simple definition of Socialism is controlling the means of production [by the government] so I don't agree, I am happy with that definition.
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  828.  @equious8413  don't be grumpy, ok so you are interested in possibly an Australian type system where socialism is directed to the needy, obviously being Australian I agree with you. I didn't know what type of socialism you would prefer until just now and seems if you are being genuine maybe you would be ok cutting subsidies to business to pay for social welfare although that's not needed that much, the US for example spends more on public healthcare than Australia yet life expectancy is 5 years lower in the US and it seems your public healthcare isn't entirely universal. The other thing is saying you are on the left doesn't mean all that much centre right and centre left are closer together than they are to the extreme of their own side. I am guessing you are towards the centre but not sure.
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  829.  @equious8413  you taught me a new acronym UBI, which I guess you mean something like what we call the dole in Australia, a payment for the unemployed that doesn't have many conditions to it and never gets cut off.
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  830.  @equious8413  ok , yes I did assume you were American. I don't know much about Canada but assumed it to be somewhat closer to Australia than the US as far as how the government operates and the overall general position on things.
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  831.  @equious8413  ok so UBI is a concept of something more substantial than the dole and more along the lines of a low but comfortable income if one doesn't work. I don't see automation as a big problem but transitions can be a problem like truckers for example will become redundant in high income countries in the not so distant future, the technology already exists to replace them. I think a bigger concern in some countries is the extreme wealth of some and big gap as in someone worth $100 billion , that's bigger than many countries and too powerful, not sure what the answer is but maybe a death tax of 50% or something for everything over $10 billion, kids getting a billion each minimum should be ok. In reality they might give money away before they die but that's just as good as long as some redistribution occurs. I don't think this has become an issue in many countries yet but I think it's already an issue in the US and a few other countries.
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  832.  @equious8413  I have to say your comment of 99% taxation is pretty radical, however the point that nobody needs more than $1 billion to survive is certainly valid but again outlawing it is not really an option.
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  833. The most likely bigger effects are the secondary effects of having the virus rampant, less other hospital care leading to more deaths and more mental health issues which may lead to more suicides.
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  834.  @jgroovy1973  Australia we say leftie and it's not particularly derogatory, it's more a statement of fact. Our political spectrum is quite different to the US though, both our main parties are more central than the US I believe, take trade for example, the US actually is far left and far right at the same time, that is protectionism, the center left and right should be arguing for freeing up trade in the US but seems that section of your politicians are sort of dead silent now. With Obama Biden administration quite an effort was made towards being in the TPP , now we have the CPTPP which is a scaled down version without the US obviously, so Biden seems to have moved from his previous position most likely for pragmatic reasons or populism because it wouldn't be popular now in the US.
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  835. Then clearly you won't be buying any more Tesla shares. Trump won the vote in low income brackets, people on welfare disproportionately support Trump.
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  836. It's about 70% less deadly is the approximate consensus. If unvaccinated and particularly over 60 or so a reasonably high risk is still there. I am in Queensland and we went from covid 0 to open so our preliminary data is good based on high vaccination rates and no natural infection. The US is quite different because of the amount of natural infection.
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  837. Creating enemies is interests?
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  838.  Christopher Lawn  I am Australian and Trump couldn't make preselection in either of our major parties. He could get into a fringe party. Australia has had no cases of community transmission of covid for 5 days or so now. The US just topped 100,000 cases. The death rate per capita is over 20 times that of Australia. Even Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska have worse death rates than Australia's worst performing State and they are all separated from the mainland if you want to say it's because Australia is an island. Australia is also slightly more urbanized than the US so it's not population density either. So don't which country you come from and if killing your own citizens is acceptable , I pity your country if your leader is even worse than Trump.
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  839.  Christopher Lawn  the US economy isn't booming and Trump is a protectionist, Australia is a free market economy, see Heritage foundation economic freedom index. US citizens travel overseas a lot less than Australians so having quarantine at the border would have been comparatively easier actually. Trump loves deficit spending running US gov debt up at record rates before covid 19. Australia we aren't like that , there is at least a bit of an attempt to balance the budget. As far as can Trump be blamed for the monumental failures on covid 19 response, no but he lied , no Australian politician did that, he supports all conspiracy theories. I don't know if he is racist but he stirs people up something that's unacceptable in mainstream Australian politics. We know the US has a homicide rate 6 times that of Australia so stirring an already violent people gets people killed. The El Paso shooter wanted to stop the invasion so definitely riled up by Trump who used the exact same words. Anyway no more Trump in the Whitehouse shortly at least according to sportsbet in Australia , I have already been paid out for the Biden win.
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  840.  Christopher Lawn  Just search sportsbet Australia pays out Joe Biden win. You will see I am telling the truth. Trump might have got the most black votes for a Republican presidential contender which is very small in comparison to Democrat contenders like Joe Biden. I don't care about people who came from or descendants of people from Spanish speaking countries. A totally irrelevant demographic to me and it covers all racial demographics anyway. Thank goodness in Australia we wouldn't treat Spanish or Spanish speaking immigrants as special.
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  841.  Christopher Lawn  I am just an average Australian, I don't want Australia to head down that path any further than it has already which in a relative sense it hasn't. It's absurd you know. Some immigrant comes from Spain and he or she is somehow special but if come from 20 km away in France , they aren't special or 1000km away in England somewhere they might even be seen as the opposite. I am not running for a political seat and in the US race and ethnicity stuff is out of control. As I am sure you would agree the left and right in the US are both bad when it comes to this. With sportsbet if they turn out to be wrong which is a very slight possibility then of course have to pay those that betted on Trump but they can't get my money back ( my brother bet for me actually)
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  842. They used rapid tests which are not as sensitive as the pcr test. I saw the New Zealand PM talking on that matter today. In Australia and New Zealand we won't use that test until or unless it can have the same accuracy as the tests currently used.
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  843. China, Japan et. al. , It's called credit.
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  844. No it doesn't help the US if China stuffs up.
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  845. Whatever the rules are it should be federal and not state by state. Australia has different rules for state elections but federal elections are carried out by the federal government with one rule for all. Republicans are wrong that enfranchisement of more people counts against them. Depending on the issue Australia could be considered to the right or left of the US . The US under Trump actually lurched to the left on trade and industry policy and although I don't think it's a personal belief to the right on social and religious issues. To me he seems to have no real belief system, just populism and what he thought would get most votes.
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  846. It is better now but wait a month or so after all foreign troops gone it could revert back to what it was.
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  847.  @brooklynbummer  So you think girls shouldn't go to school? This is just one example that is better in my opinion.
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  848. Asians are the highest earning racial group in your country, lots of them are in the upper 10% , what a racist thing to say. Asian American households earn 30% more on average than white and therefore impossible none of them are in the top 10%.
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  849. Not really, the US form of limited socialism is quite different to say my country Australia and we rate higher than the US on the Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom Index as do all other 5 EYES allies, meaning as a proxy measure because includes rule of law also which isn't necessarily capitalist or socialist the US isn't as capitalist as you might imagine.
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  850.  @rochelimit55555  just search economic freedom index in the internet, it should come up.
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  851.  @rochelimit55555  Yes you've found it obviously. My point is the US behaviour is not about capitalism in a direct sense. The US tends to tax and give handouts often in the form of bailouts to industry but cares less about people. So a welfare safety net is seen as socialist yet subsidising say a bank isn't even though subsidising the bank due to failures is actually more socialist. People often describe it as corporatism which from my understanding is socialism directed towards corporations who in particular lobby governments for money. Any just throwing my opinion at you that true capitalism with the majority of socialism directed towards the needy or for other public policy reasons is good and don't judge all capitalism as the same.
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  852. Join "The Feds" and you can.
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  853. At least it's bipartisan now, have a blue map for test positivity rates and a red map for rising case numbers.
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  854.  @ludivinapilar2032  Agree people are being too harsh on the police there, they are just pawns in Trumps game and better to be diplomatic even if it means agreement with rioters or taking a selfie with them, they are being delayed and calmed down at the same time. If however corroborating evidence comes out they assisted and or have shown direct support in communications then that's a different story and they should be prosecuted which makes them worse than the rioters other than those that committed murder.
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  855.  @farooqkyeyune8507  you have to consider South Africa or India and some other countries very differently to US or other high income countries. Living conditions of the less well off are significantly more cramped. I don't think you would see someone turning up in a food handout line in a BMW like you do in the US.
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  856. There is hope, more independent than Republican and Democrat combined.
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  857. Well it will likely increase your chances of a bad outcome, people who got flu and covid 19 together they worked out were approximately twice as likely to die. But because they are still both covid 19 the chances of a duel infection would be pretty low , maybe almost impossible.
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  858. I think what Mike Bryant meant to say was there are significant disparities of mental illness based on ethnicity and sex. The suicide statistics prior to the pandemic and absolute rise of Qanon bear this out. Highest suicide rates are white non Hispanic male followed by black non Hispanic male. Suicide rates amongst Asian and Hispanic American are quite low and not heavily towards one or another sex.
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  859. Lol
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  860. You must be in Venezuela then , otherwise you are subject to world pricing.
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  861. He only said that to subdue the police so he can get past them.
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  862. This is news to Trump mobs and BLM mobs, they certainly gathered in large numbers freely.
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  863. Oh Satan doesn't like metric system, in Australia it's 1.5 metres lucky we are safe. Maybe that's why the US having problems.
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  864. What about Alaska, they give sloths a good name for being pretty damn quick.
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  865. If I was a terrorist group I would use Twitter now because Elon is virtually saying he will protect me from the FBI by not cooperating.
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  866. @Mr A So you're a fan of elimination of federal police. That makes far left Democrats appear to be near the centre with defund police, other than like 3 of them they didn't believe in elimination of police.
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  867. @Mr A did you watch the clip, absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing.
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  868. @Mr A seems you didn't watch the clip or you saying it's all fake, which one is it?
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  869. @Mr A don't have to believe everything, is it possible 7,800 people are conspiring to commit a crime with Biden. Like I said the most amazing dictator in history, never happened before, I think impossible that Biden controls 7,800 FBI agents and who knows how many election officers. This guy is like superman if you are correct. Such absolute control of both the Democrats and Republicans at all levels , the most amazing things I have ever heard. Maybe, just maybe he doesn't control about a 1 million people and literally just won an election.
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  870. Well nothing on CGTN yet, they are thinking how to respond or maybe they realise they can't break the alliance. Have to wait and see.
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  871. It's just a recognition that optical illusions exist and are real, just like on a hot road. Another thing I am wondering is what altitude is the camera, above a certain height at a given time and place the temperature is below 0 celsius, since these images seem to be taken at altitude, some might be as simple as an ice crystal forming or landing on the lense or cover of the camera and all these people saying look that proves aliens are flying around, American will believe anything.
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  872. To fact check the fact checker, he contradicted himself saying the majority of illegals entered legally eg. had a visa and then said the majority were not overstaying visas. I think he meant work visa not visa, or not counting what is effectively an automatic tourist visa in some cases. America is crazy letting the illegal immigrant situation get out of hand, same response to covid 19 , do nothing until it's too late.
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  873. It's somewhat in the hands of the Republican gods. Unfortunately some are not leading and encouraging vaccination, they just saying it's up to you.
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  874. If they went on strike for 24 hours you would see maybe 5,000 dead people so they can't.
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  875. I think it's crazy rich countries talking about or vaccinating those under 18 when people in poorer countries haven't vaccinated their elderly population yet.
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  876.  @gokuwasthebesthokage9875  you must be young, have you ever heard the term "going postal" it relates back to a mass shooting in a postal building in the 80s I believe it was.
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  877. People have to get out of their extreme bias , how is police investigate crime , find out it's allegedly one of their own , then arrest that person a cover up, explain it to me maybe I am stupid but doesn't seem like a cover up to me, in fact the opposite.
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  878. It means Georgia public service is busy counting votes, all hands on deck for the recount. Jane has been personally tasked with looking after the states covid 19 statistics and she works part time 3 days a week
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  879. Chinese do support it, they believe the US has 200 secret bioweapons labs in secret locations all around the world etc. etc. They believe covid 19 probably came from the US and second choice Australia or Italy. Have to remember it's easy to convince people of things if you can shut down and censor all argument.
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  880. Money doesn't fix everything, the US spends more on government funded healthcare than Australia but it's not universal. Throwing yet more money at it will change nothing, the US has the lowest Life expectancy for a wealthy nation. So most money spent including privately and lowest outcome. The US has spent more on Covid 19 response than any other wealthy nation yet has the highest per Capita deaths of any wealthy nation. Throwing money around doesn't increase outcomes at all, first fix the underlying problems which will actually reduce overall spending on healthcare as an example.
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  881.  @chltmdwp  The US life expectancy is a long way from 80 years.
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  882. Just protect yourself and family, if you didn't have a comprehensive lockdown 'til now it's fair to say it's not going to happen and like it or not the Democrats are only marginally better, masks only slow spread and are not a panacea. I wish you the best of luck from Australia that decided on a different course.
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  883. I think you are touching upon voluntary voting with a low turnout because it changes the numbers significantly and I would argue the politics also, I am Australian so very high voter turnout and compulsory to turn up or you might get a small fine, there is no advantage to appealing to the far right or left elements because it could lose your party the election , people once they are at the ballot box usually cast a valid vote which considering the alternate party is still centre means might change vote, US they actually try to appeal to far left and right so those people turn up to vote and it doesn't cause the center left or right to change sides because the other party is trying to appeal to it's extreme also, this is why Q candidates are actually winning and looks like it isn't really losing Republicans many votes.
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  884. Not really, it's just his profile and being rich, plenty of minimum wage and unemployed Trump supporter like him but nobody is going to listen to them other than each other.
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  885. I doubt it however if the Russians had information they would feed it to somewhere so it can be found, so indirectly they might. Trump did more for the Communist Party of China than they could have ever hoped for or dreamed for. I have been following the Chinese propaganda youtube channel CGTN for a while and they don't really need to make anything up about the US, just tell it as it is, Xi however is being remarkably friendly towards Biden and the US at the moment so I do wonder what that's about. The Chinese keep emphasizing how they want to talk to Biden and at the same time I think it's still the case that the position towards Australia is we are not to be talked to and trade sanctions on certain products remain. That channel expressed the wanting to be friendly just as it was announced the virtual meeting of the Quad leaders together for the first time, so Prime Ministers of India, Australia and Japan plus Biden. From an alli's perspective far prefer Biden, far more consultative and more stable and you know the US is on our side for certain, with Trump not sure who's side he was on, America First disregards allies. Anyway that's my opinion and I think on average Australians would have a similar view.
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  886. You are the first positive comment I have seen, I am secretly hoping the Gates family will be seeking political asylum in Australia, while many Americans do support them the ones that don't are large enough in number that the US doesn't deserve such lovely but imperfect human beings.
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  887. To Americans out there these potential terrorists are around the world now. Qanon has followers in many countries , so it can really be described as a potential international terror network, problem is like they stated most are harmless sympathiser , how to find the potential terrorists.
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  888. One thing is Trump is highly literate and an extremely skilled salesman. He might be many things like a terrible leader who is literally causing some citizens to take risks which will cause them to become non citizens. For someone to sell such an idea you must be highly literate and a skilful wordsmith.
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  889.  Fortescue  I think he does read and has literally studied other populist leaders because his skill is too good at manipulation and follows an identical path to them. I could be wrong which means he is a genius at what he does, although looks like he will lose he still has a chance this election, his base are devotees they are not mere supporters. Biden has 0 devotees which is a good thing. Once he lied with intent to his devotees saying it's actually less harmful than the flu and it's all over etc. , I am not American but to me that's crossing a line that can never be crossed, encouraging people to in some cases cause their own death or death of a relative and we know it's happening and Trump can't be that stupid he doesn't know, he just doesn't care.
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  890. Put yourself in the position of being the medical staff or secret service staff. How are they supposed to control Trump? If any doctor or nurse quits they would be seen as traitors especially if Trump dies and very bad for job prospects. Trump is putting all of them or at least many of them in an impossible position. I don't really think the doctors really want to be involved in Trump's spin machine.
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  891.  @bobarnold5992  The irony of your comment is the Philippines has the third highest deaths per million out of the 28 countries in the Western Pacific region of WHO. It's all a matter of perspective. We all have border quarantine for 14 days, China and Papua New Guinea have recently changed to 21 days and other measures though that aren't voluntary.
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  892. At the end of September the excess deaths was 300,000 for the US year to date, so one can assume that a significant proportion. The secondary deaths are significant also due to poor public policy meaning ongoing lockdowns which causes mental illness and other possible causes of deaths and reduced healthcare. In Australia there was a spike in deaths from the lockdown which mostly seemed to be heart failure and diabetes as reported by ABS ( Australian Bureau of Statistics). The data released is only first 6 months so not sure how bad the Victorian situation may have been from a second hard lockdown.
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  893.  @Africanknight88  I think the US and much of Western Europe could be looking at a continuous ongoing disaster, open borders with voluntary quarantine and large numbers of antivaxxers in US and France in particular. If the virus mutates around the vaccines or not enough vaccinated there will be more troubles ahead.
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  894.  @mars9075  that's one way to produce American exceptionalism I guess.
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  895. But if Biden won and died or quit during the presidency there would be a constitutional crisis and a decision would need to be made about Obama becoming President.
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  896.  @thegreatredrover6340  I did see it explained but to be honest my memory not the greatest, there is no problems Obama running for vice president. Obama can't run as president for a third term because of some rule I think, not sure it's a constitutional amendment though. I can't remember what the video said in the case Obama was vice president and the president stopped being a president.
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  897.  @jamesbecker3420  You're both mad, Australia and New Zealand looking on thinking lucky we had a containment policy, it's neverending outside of the West Pacific and arguably Africa. Every country hopes for effective vaccine because although maybe Western Pacific nations are doing well it's far from normal and of course significant travel restrictions and no international tourists damaging some countries more than others.
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  898.  @jamesbecker3420  According to someones personal situation things can be very different and in big cities it's much higher risk of catching it and much more business directly relying on consumers. Without an effective vaccine I can't see the US situation improving in part due to major political division. Australia we were very fortunate the federal government and all state governments regardless of political party cooperated even if they didn't always agree. In one way and not diminishing the heartache it did cause , it was a bit funny all but 2 states shut there borders and the federal government didn't really like this but as is the case in the US both the state and federal governments have these powers. By shut meaning only essential travel and freight and 2 weeks hotel quarantine in many cases of it's a person coming into the state. These restrictions have dramatically reduced in most cases but one state has kept a real hard border with all other states.
    1
  899. Trump has to win 3 out of 4, to me that's statistically virtually impossible.
    1
  900.  @bobjohnson904  Well the far right regime in China appears to be doing something similar, maybe they could just purchase their systems. I am not saying far right in a sarcastic manner.
    1
  901.  @peachdaddy  No 0.3% is the number already dead, they haven't stopped dying although Omicron is less deadly so the rate of death will decrease and most are vaccinated now but not high vaccination rates. So what is your 0.3% mortality rate supposed to mean? Many US states are above 0.3% of the population dead from covid 19 anyway.
    1
  902.  @tttgaming8762  Ok he infected his troops with a live virus through the skin , is that better for you. Would antivaxxers prefer to be injected with live virus capable of reproduction? This would surprise me very much.
    1
  903.  @jtmcl3395  read my last comment which clarifies the matter.
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  904. Whether Fox News USA sells into certain markets is up to them. Maybe there isn't a high demand in the UK for Fox News USA.
    1
  905. Have to solve the underlying problems. The US has locked up 1% of it's adult population and nothing has changed. Locking people up isn't a strong deterrent, they don't care.
    1
  906. I reckon her management of the riots was terrible however on this issue she is right.
    1
  907.  @noah1322  a country that isn't in the G20 approximately can pretend they are neutral. If you're in the G20 and say you are neutral you are saying you support no one regardless of size and it works the other direction why should any country support you. India has moved towards supporting borders though (in Asia Pacific) which makes the abstention on UN votes condemning Russia seem a bit like can't trust them.
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  908.  Ana  Your point is what? That young people are at low risk in general. We know that but they spread it to others who will die.
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  909.  @lyndad1255  Hang in there my Victorian friend, you will soon join the rest of Australia's low cases and restrictions soon I hope. I have to say although yes contact tracing did fail early on I am amazed that Victoria got cases down from about 500 per day to about 15 now give or take. Best of luck.
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  910.  @lindseystein9676  don't agree with you that how far right a country is has anything to do with anything. The number of right wing extremists might correlate though as I expect it would with left wing extremists as to how effective a strategy is because in a well functioning society those people both on the left and right extreme are small in number and not too aggressive. So to me it's more likely to do with how coherent a society is. If you look at Taiwan versus Mainland China you will see almost identical following of the rules even though one is far more authoritarian than the other. Success helps too and the neighborhood (surrounding countries or states) being successful. If Germany was in the West Pacific it would be doing better.
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  911.  @r.a.6459  It sounds like you will get on top of it. Hang in there and stay positive the best you can despite any increased restrictions. We are in a select group of countries that so far have succeeded in containment.
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  912. In history books in 100 years time this episode in the US will be known internationally as the US Great Leap Forward, in US history books the events will be missing.
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  913. It's interesting that a Republican Governor is interfering in business and taking away the right and usually obligation to protect there crew and passengers on cruise ships. It's truly bizarre and the sort of thing an authoritarian regime would do but even worse because even authoritarian regimes try not to cause deaths by stomping on people's and businesses rights that are of no risk to the dictator.
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  914.  @mikehall6912  Authoritarian policies like rule of law? Compulsion and coercion to vaccinated? Well all Australia is open except Western Australia, economy is better than the US big government model. Homicide rate maybe 1 fith of the US, publically funded healthcare cheaper than the US, amazing you big tax and spend most likely Republicans who actually don't even believe in the rule of law as you defended those tourists on Jan 6 beating the crap out of police and vandalizing a public building, just like BLM/Antifa. You want to support the behaviour of BLM/Antifa you are nuts. Also you actually have far harsher penalties for criminals and even the death penalty, pretty authoritarian actually with 1% of your entire adult population behind bars it's not working is it. Edit: oh and forgot the one thing you hate, a controlled border. You love your open border.
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  915.  @mikehall6912  So you support the freedom to infect people with a virus, well done 1 million body bags from the virus and the poor response. Freedom to kill someone with a virus isn't a freedom that's recognized even in the US.
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  916.  @mikehall6912  You're right allowing teenagers to shoot up schools with semiautomatic weapons and others to kill whoever they want in other mass shootings , I don't understand that concept, the US has a homicide rate about 5 times that of other wealthy nations which is unacceptable from Japan to Australia to Germany to the UK. The US is the odd one out here. As I said the freedom to infect plus the poor response has killed 1 million yet you don't see the issue, homicides are up big time, hardly a harmonious country. The US is now at the top for Covid 19 deaths per Capita for a wealthy country. Dead people aren't free unless you have some strange religious idea like those that you might have infected and indirectly killed will go to heaven for the sacrifice they made for your freedom, not sure they had a choice in the matter however. Why do you bring up vaccines, I haven't commented on vaccines?
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  917. The failed US response was transparent if nothing else, so I doubt it but maybe I am wrong.
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  918. Actually you can be sure it's not as bad. The US is a developing country in a civil society sense.
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  919.  @christinebenson518  What is progressive views? I ask genuinely because political arguments are all upside down at the moment.
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  920. Have you heard of "snake oil salesmen" pretty sure they had good write ups in Newspapers , have to go back pre modern civilization so 5,000 years ago to avoid organised disinformation campaigns.
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  921. They will be, obviously governments have to pay but with GAVI I think every wealthy country ex USA at this stage has pledged or provided actual funds for poorer countries to have equal access.
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  922. Look how many death sentences were carried out by Trump, he did literally go on a killing spree.
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  923. Have they died or we just counting cases now not the hospitalizations and deaths which is what matters. 1,700 cases in Queensland Australia today , about 20% of all our cases, while we have a few in hospital and the number will increase I can't see 0.29% of our population dying like Florida.
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  924. But your parents would've hated it.
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  925. The crazy thing is you were quick to produce vaccines along with European partners but people in other countries taking them while about a third of your own population won't. While not predicting the future Australia opening up and getting massive case numbers in one state by our standards but there is relative calm because that state also passed 90% double dosed for adults.
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  926. The question is how many are economic refugees? Not saying none are leaving because of fear but certainly a lot see an economic opportunity and if you noticed majority fleeing are fighting age men, not women and children. People risk there lives crossing the US border and that's for a far lower net gain.
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  927. Unfortunately your country is the furthest behind or in front depending on perspective on this issue in the world. It's literally destroying large parts of your society. The BLM protests and counter protests where people were literally killing each other. There were what can mostly be described as copycat protests around the world and to give an example in my country Australia it was estimated that about 70,000 people attending a protest day around the country, to do with indigenous people and the protests were all based on individual issues in the state they were protesting in. The 2 incidents that occurred were someone put an Aboriginal flag sticker on a police station so technically vandalism (nothing was done , I guess they pulled it off after the protestors moved on) and 2 people were pepper sprayed in a train station on the way home , that's it that I ever heard of. Other than those 2 extremely minor incidents nothing it was all peaceful. No idea how you can move forward but having functional government would help with a consistent welfare safety net and universal healthcare, get everyone the basics and it doesn't have to cost more, the public universal healthcare system in Australia is cheaper than the government funded healthcare system the US has and we have about 5 years extra life expectancy now, China is only 2 years behind the US in life expectancy, they will overtake you soon. Enough of my rambling and hope I didn't offend you because you seem like a decent person.
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  928. He has raised expectations as has Fauci that a vaccine will be available late this year or early next year. Maybe production might be occurring but if you can't vaccinate the vast majority at once and as has been suggested the vaccine might only be effective for 6 months it's more of the same possibly.
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  929. Well I'm Australian and certain republicans of the DeSantis clan identify me as a communist. While not keen on that description at least his mob won't visit Australia even when the border opens up. My comment is as relevant as yours lol.
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  930. One thing not mentioned is an after dark rally is the same or similar risk to indoors, no UV light and usually the air is still unless seaside. This is why you can hear noises for far longer distances at night.
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  931. There is always an element of luck in success or failure. If you are born in a rich country you already in the top 20% just by birthright. A person born in a subsistence farmer family can normally just hope for survival as a main goal.
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  932. Being a cameraman he certainly would be and the thought it could have been me would have gone through his mind more than a few times.
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  933. After people come back out the battle of the variants can resume. The good money is on the UK variant for speed and South Africa variant for vaccine avoidance. Interesting the US is like China can't have the virus variant named after location of discovery, have to have beautiful bird names.
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  934. Argonaut your statement is harsh but true. I am Australian and I have been looking at many key indicators of a successful society in countries of similar per capita wealth and government systems (FIVE EYES countries) we all trust each other . On every single metric the US underperforms other than number of billionaires. Road deaths, life expectancy, homicide rate, literacy rate, HIV infection rate and yet other than Canada at about 5% extra government spending we are all at about the same level of socialism. The answer to your question is the government system and constitution. A 200 plus year old constitution considered like the Model T Ford in its time is now going up against Lamborghini Westminster governments. Some African countries are now out performing the US head to head in areas like the homicide rate. One American commentator stated that some city might end up like Somalia regarding homicide rates, problem is latest data puts US homicide rate overall at a larger number and if you look at some cities about 4 or 5 times the rate of Somalia as a country. So randomly drop me in Somalia or I must stay in inner city Chicago I know which I would prefer as far as my safety is concerned.
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  935. When your citizens become smarter than a 5th grader it might occur, might have to wait a while.
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  936. I think you're the most obese large nation in the world , so a little less food wouldn't be a bad thing.
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  937. Actually the first detected case was from Botswana. Don't know if the lab was in Botswana which is a small country.
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  938. It would cost money but it's doable, have to pay to comment and no comment posted until checked. Can do the same for video, no live stream. Or someone fully verified can comment so can be held to account directly. When it crosses country borders however that's really difficult.
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  939. I thought it was funny him saying Biden beat Obama, hang on a minute weren't you the other guy in the race. Somehow I don't think Obama will get jealous about that, he's probably enjoying the clobbering Trump got in the popular vote.
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  940. Government should be run like a business not as seems to be the case in the US more than in other wealthy nations , government run on behalf of business interests which is the complete opposite of running it like a business. A business hates to be overcharged by other businesses, some governments don't care if they are constantly overcharged for services.
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  941. Yes they were prior to the conflict and so what?
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  942. It's also taught them most likely the US isn't making such weapons because no doubt they would have wiped themselves out by accident.
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  943. I disagree with you on one thing, you teach a 10 year old child the basics of history they will have only the emotion of thinking that was wrong. They can't relate to it in any other way than that unless their parents have taught them to be racist already and not allowed them to have friends of a different race. 10 year old children just want to eat and play. Teenagers the same will apply but outside forces like the media and or community if it's a bit racist can cause problems.
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  944.  Baron Bar  I looked up your link and eventually found the information and it says the Palestinian Authority shall vaccinate to acceptable international standards. There is 2 points here , there is no international standard and because Palestine isn't recognized as a country they can't access Covax. Unless you are some sort of international law guru it's completely unclear what happens under this circumstance, Israel has said that they will help the non citizens after all vaccinations are done with their own citizens. Just because Israel claims something doesn't make it correct and the language as I pointed out in the Oslo accords does not cover the current circumstances. As a good will gesture however since they are a welfare state of the US having received $200,000,000,000 over the years one would think that they could be a little kinder to the people under their control nationally.
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  945. This has helped Communist China more than any other event in history because many Democracies are looking a little shaky right now but in particular the US.
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  946.  @adversarysatan8059  Put yourself in the shoes of a small developing nation that needs help right now. The US under Trump has said openly the US shouldn't help anyone and I don't care my citizens are dying versus China sending vaccines out and showing they can control the virus in there own country. There are only two "Western Democracies" in the world to be in the same position but we don't have much sway in the scheme of things , that's Australia and New Zealand. Communist China doesn't look so bad when comparing to the US. China does seem bad to an Australian but we are a rich country who doesn't need help. But if you compare on just pure economic and keeping citizens alive and disregard human rights issues and democratic principles China is better at this point in time. This is why I say Trump has done more for the idea of Communist China than any other leader. If I wanted someone to help possibly convert the world towards my thinking as a Chinese Communist I couldn't wish for a leader of the US any different to Trump.
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  947. That bloke talking about "red flag laws" is correct. The only way at a minimum is to ban all new sales of all semiautomatic weapons to everyone except law enforcement and possibly extremely limited security type license. Otherwise it's no different to the US approach on healthcare, highest total spending with lowest life expectancy. Much higher than average OECD spending on publically funded healthcare yet it's not very universal. Same for Covid 19 response, half the country decided to fight against public health measures and you have the largest per capita deaths of any wealthy country. These things aren't rocket science, just do things properly. Turning schools into prisons with armed guards and high walls around the playgrounds, armed patrols I would suggest isn't good for children's mental health. Just locking classroom doors is bad enough you are teaching them to be scared. If you half do it the gun advocates will point out despite the half measures gun violence is up because it probably will be and shooters who want to target student aged people will find other places to kill them like busy playgrounds outside school hours or should they be also military garrisons.
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  948.  orion Loses  it gets better than that, sewerage is being tested, so if it's found in the sewerage then a call for people to be tested in the area goes out. I think in the US that might not be helpful at this stage.
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  949.  @alexhughes3698  Seems rather familiar. A bunch of Iraqis defected and advised of the chemical and biological weapons all over Iraq and the sophistication of the systems. They are to this day American citizens.
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  950. People speculating too much, as far as we know the gun was hidden somewhere, not in the bag or the locker but somewhere else.
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  951. If it goes ahead it will be like the Australian tennis open times 1,000. For sure athletes and entourage turning up positive and need to be quarantined ( locked in hotel rooms for a couple of weeks) . It's just going to be a complete mess, athletes no doubt like in that relatively small Australian event will be complaining about everything especially their hotel prison rooms , the food, the room itself, for 2 weeks if they positive. If the government caves into athletes demands and gives them any relaxed standards then the Japanese public will become very angry.
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  952. Montenegro has 630,000 people , it doesn't even qualify as a large city. They must be pretty aggressive if they could start WWIII.
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  953. It's not the first time, so those who exclusively blame the current mob of Republican s are wrong, the same thing occured with HIV in the 80s.
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  954. Actually have to disagree on something, while I am completely happy with the decision the Queen of Australian being one of her other titles is totally within her rights to speak her mind and her Australian subjects are too.
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  955.  Matt Darrington  Your words are very concerning, as in I am concerned for your personal well being, I did look up that person you mentioned and he is a nutter. He's one of these people who hate success, he literally seems to think we should just go down the infection path like the US and kill 30,000 people to protect protect freedoms. The Australian Prime Minister has an approval rating over 60% . My state government in Queensland Australia had a 70% plus approval rating for it's handling of covid 19 , 6 deaths in a population of 5,000,000 and about 450 cases of community transmission. Australia isn't going to listen to the guy you mentioned , he is just a fringe conspiracy theorist, however got enough support to start a political party which is 500 members in any state to register in that particular state. If Trump had behaved like the Australian Prime Minister and protected lives and not tried to protect corporations and the freedoms of the wealthy he would be the most popular president at least since Reagan but he chose a different path and that's on him. When nothing happens on January 20 don't harm yourself and seek help if needed. Having such a belief can be very harmful when it's proven to be untrue. The US public has demonstrated at this point in time with all the military on the streets and the majority seem completely ok with this, that they would have been capable of a success with covid 19 restrictions required just like Australia if the correct leadership was in place. Trump let the virus spread to every major state and territory without any actions to stop it other than warp speed vaccines which isn't going as well as expected. Best of luck and take care.
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  956.  Matt Darrington  I am uncertain of what homelessness has to do with what you are talking about. I did however have a quick search and to my surprise the official rate of homelessness in US versus Australia , the US it was about one in every 600 people and Australia one in every 200 people so on this particular measure it seems the US outperforms Australia. It is rare for the US to outperform Australia on key measures relating to the less well off and or general population other than average wealth at this point in time. So explain to me the relationship between homelessness and Trump, I honestly thought there was/is no relationship.
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  957. As an Australian the situation I see is truly bizarre. Old white guy meets 2 presidents and is polite. Old white guy apparently invited by 2 presidents because of having a Spanish grandfather or something. I certainly agree it looks pretty racist, old white people being invited to the Whitehouse purely based on having had some Spanish or colony of Spain heritage.
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  958.  @Sneedmire  I am from Queensland but keep hearing of the interconnectivity between Bondi and the Western suburbs , parties and lots of travel between. Maybe some tract of land encompassing those areas would be suitable.
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  959. If you're American you are forgetting which country you are in, consider the example given which was pre meditated murder with a gun, lady got offended went home to tell her man and they came back armed and killed the security guard.
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  960. Elon should have paid the $1,000,000,000 fee to break the deal, turns out it would have been much cheaper.
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  961. Good
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  962.  @ianw0ng  I like your comment a bit humour helps
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  963.  @danielw.8356  Well do you not believe China is the second most authoritarian government in the region after North Korea? If you come to the same conclusion as me you would agree it is and if other non authoritarian governments can achieve good results a more authoritarian government can actually do it easier. Not sure which of my comments you were responding to but it applies to any of them.
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  964. @Boch Gole The Australian approach we looked towards other countries and still do as well as sharing all data and experiences between the Australian states and NZ. Dr Fauci , the US CDC and WHO would all be areas along with direct interactions between health officials around the world on occasion that information is collected from. Due to low case numbers in Australia and New Zealand we of course can't gather a great deal of data. So of course we look globally for information and to not do so would be ignorant.
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  965.  @mikealbert2527  Never has a country contained such a virus inside it's borders and it was known on Jan 21 that this was the case, so then it's up to every country to do there own containment measures which if were done well at the start means containment like all but Indonesia and Philippines in the West Pacific.
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  966. Not at all. Look at cults throughout history , many well educated intelligent people in them. It's about emotions taking over from logic.
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  967.  @thedebatemechannel4746  I'll make one comment to your long passage, the US is the second best propaganda machine the world has ever known, CPC China is the first.
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  968. If you have MS there's things you can do that might help. The best correlation I have ever seen regarding behaviour and a disease is MS and per capita dairy consumption, far better correlation than smoking and any particular disease for example. Search by country milk consumption and look for yourself, after doing that cut out dairy if you think it could be a factor. Go on a preferably medically supervised elimination diet and cut as many harsh chemicals from your life as possible, use things like bi carbonate of soda and vinegar for cleaning. Bicarbonate of soda might not be as powerful but it's a great substitute for laundry detergent. Although I haven't got MS doing as I suggest above has helped my situation, I have cut all harsh cleaning products and by coincidence I am intolerant to dairy. Best of luck and I suggest you have nothing to lose by trying and maybe gain improved symptoms or even an improved outcome.
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  969. @Evets Sirrah It's good to hear, Biden must have excellent engineers with all these tunnels, so you can be assured if a bridge or something is Federal it will be sturdy.
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  970.  @Bandomeme  Trump's bad actions came into play in March, he wasn't responsible for initial failures in any way as far as I can see, the money was there and the approval was there for the CDC to do it's thing which it failed dismally at. Could the US have turned things around if Trump was say the equivalent of the Premier of Queensland Australia or the New Zealand Prime Minister, I honestly think yes it could have been turned around in a reasonable time frame but required good leadership. Mediocre leadership like that in many European countries although not as bad as Trump, in most cases but not all , almost the same results. So if you put the French President or Italian Prime Minister in charge of the US you would still have the same end results.
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  971.  @PanzyTheOne  As far as Trump throwing away the pandemic playbook , he didn't, however some defunding did occur so less people available and less chance of advanced information, which would have made no difference as far as I can see because the playbook test and trace was done completely unsuccessfully. Fauci stated how well this was being done on 26 February because of the good US healthcare system , test and trace the US didn't have many cases. If you think Australia has done badly well that's your opinion which seems to be entirely partisan. What do you think of Biden stopping foreigners enter from some countries yet allowing US citizens from those same countries enter without hotel quarantine meaning will achieve nothing in prevention of any new strains entering?
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  972. Other than state ownership , China is far right on the traditional political spectrum. I am confused by Western left leaning parties being more sympathetic than right leaning ones as appears to be the case.
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  973.  @Thephilpw99  you mentioned other nations, I consider my country Australia and also Vietnam, Taiwan (although not looking good at the moment) and New Zealand to be other nations/jurisdictions who have done similarly well to China, we are all part of the Western Pacific WHO region where it appears we cooperated and decided on 14 days mandatory enforced quarantine usually in a hotel and the worst performing country in the region the Philippines has just passed the 10% per capita death rate of the US. The PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region decided upon no travel restrictions and 10 days voluntary quarantine, the office headquarters is in Washington DC so pretty sure the US had something to do with that decision, both the left and right side of politics in the US agreed with this decision so actually no division on a regional level or within the US. The European WHO region had the same policy to PAHO. A little knowledge goes a long way or it's just mere coincidence that 70 countries or whatever it was had policies that aligned with WHO region.
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  974. But they don't, people who are dead from gun violence or covid 19 aren't free unless you consider death to be freedom.
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  975. That's not the problem, if the virus isn't gone it could get worse and or mutate around a vaccine, you might be vaccinated against current strains but no herd immunity or non pharmaceutical measures it will keep on going.
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  976. The ID thing while might cause small improvements here and there is really not the issue because if someone wants to commit fraud with forged signatures they can, no election can properly check every signature, no ID required in Australia and we do fine also. It's about trust mostly and people just doing the right thing and accepting the outcome , Trump has successfully broken this trust along with his loyalists. Get 10 people at any election in the world to collude of course they can dump a box of ballots for example, it is however extremely rare and normally will only ever happen on a wide scale if a dictator is being deposed through the ballot box. Kim Jong Un for example doesn't need to cheat, he is popular in his country and banning any non aligned party helps too.
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  977.  Leeroy  do you understand associated issues or in other words lockdown lite which kills people as does a proper lockdown but a proper lockdown kills far less because it ends relatively quickly, lockdown lite just keeps going. The excess deaths from January 26 to October 3 were 300,000 according to the CDC and only 200,000 were covid 19 related leaving 100,000 people dead from lockdown lite policies. If you look at countries that eliminated the virus deaths are down or in other words life expectancy increased because the overall effect caused less problems like the flu. Violence was also up with homicides up about 50% in 34 cities in the US in 2020. I am not saying Trump is to blame for everything but he certainly contributed significantly, to the point of encouraging people to get infected by what he said at rallies in particular and he knows his devotees will do whatever they think he wants, hence many capitol insurrectionists saying that they believe Trump wanted them to do it.
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  978.  Leeroy  so the extra 100,000 dead from lockdown lite don't matter , fair enough that's your opinion.
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  979.  Leeroy  Being on an island makes only some difference, the islands of Hawaii and Puerto Rico and Alaska because no mainland connection have done badly too, just better than average for the US. If you want to compare to Vietnam, China and Thailand with more borders that are difficult to manage ok fair enough, the US completely failed.
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  980.  Leeroy  China certainly had some initial failures and the Trump like propaganda campaign by the CPC to blame the US or whoever isn't good, yes I certainly put those 2 together regarding propaganda which causes harm. You wanted northern hemisphere countries with land borders to compare to so I listed some. Yes Europe has done as bad as the US for the most part. If you look at the WHO regions , it might be these regional organization that had a great effect , so PAHO which looks after the Americas and the European WHO office which puts countries into 3 separate groups. Last time I checked all the top 40 worst deaths per 100,000 from these jurisdictions, South Africa was just outside that top 40 at the time. China corrected the situation after initial failures, the US and Europe did no containment measures until recently the UK has instituted some hotel quarantine and so has Canada. I am fair and you would be correct to say Biden's policy differs little to Trump , borders still wide open and no hotel quarantine. The US and most of Europe only have one trick up their sleeve that's vaccines and if that fails back to square one. While it's likely vaccines will do the trick it's not a certainty if some variant/s evade it.
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  981.  Leeroy  hey why are you so angry? If you think the US is doing fine then you would have no need to be angry
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  982.  Leeroy  where are you from? The US is a basket case that's just fact , just consider virtually any key measure and they perform badly. China certainly is laughing at the US performance. China of course is still far poorer on a per capita basis but they will continue going up for a while yet I think. The life expectancy in China now is only a year and a half behind the US.
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  983. The Tianamen Square Massacre is referred to as "the event" by the CPC, maybe Republican can copy that term, it would be suitable I think.
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  984. The media should just lump the Entire West Pacific together. More than 2,000,000,000 people with a few countries virus free ( other than imported cases) about 1,000,000 cases in total in East Asia plus ASEAN plus Australasia. Less than 100,000 deaths. Then see if they can argue their way out of that one.
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  985. If the shoe was on the other foot the crowd would have broke into some " lock him/her up" chant.
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  986. Forget about far right websites, these plans were in therealDonaldTrump youtube channel. Did nobody monitor this?
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  987. Well of course there are Black supremacists in BLM and white supremacists in MAGA , what is your point , they are both bad and both organizations supporting whichever one are bad also. MAGA and BLM in their current forms should both be destroyed. Not American so I don't have any emotional attachment to the issue , just following things after lockdown in my state and country and even no lockdown continue to follow.
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  988.  @ReggaeRedeemer  Not condemn or disown the white supremacists , same thing with BLM and black supremacists. Both supremacists have certain things in common like supporting violence for their cause and segregation, not all supremacists are like that but they certainly tend towards that direction. Trump directly appealed to such people to the point of people committing terrorist acts in his name, he disown them but not really, always a day or 2 late and deny all responsibility. The bloke with the Vikings helmet or whatever you want to call it is defending his actions saying Trump sent him and asking Trump to pardon him. All over the internet as in open forums like youtube it's now being said that the military is going to stage the coup d'etat and arrest the Democrats. Not going to happen but what will those Qanon Trump supporters ( his base ) do next?
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  989. Nothing to do with police brutality, just one copper it looks like committed a murder, not some widespread issue, murderers come in all walks of life unfortunately. Should people protest against butchers because some butcher killed someone, it actually makes the same amount of sense.
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  990.  @rinan.13  If one blames every police person for the actions of one then they are a completely intolerant person of prejudice, most people who hold one prejudice will hold others. The virus really doesn't care what reason someone is gathering in a group for, maybe things could be handled better but in the end you want that group gone , whatever the groups cause might be. People in various jurisdiction around the world were not permitted to funerals due to various restrictions and that's close relatives, why do these people need special treatment?
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  991. The lefty media shouldn't overstate things, what McConnell and Barr are doing is important so that more Trump supporters accept the outcome. They both know from information available it will amount to nothing, wait a week or 2 and they will say not enough evidence. This is actually important because 40% of your nation give or take actually don't accept the result now.
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  992. I am not American but my take is that Omar would not be my preference because of her political ideology, but Trump's attacks are disgusting and somewhat dangerous because some of his extreme followers actually aren't against violence. This is not to say Trump's followers are all like that because people vote according to what they consider most important. Best of luck Americans and consider your vote for President carefully.
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  993. Both was looked down upon, this is why even 10 years ago Charles isn't highly popular. Being a royal isn't an easy job, everything is supposed to be a fairy tail.
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  994.  Brand Bioc-har  covid containment by Trump? Australia country of 25 million 28 cases of transmission inside the country. New Zealand 5 million people 3 cases of transmission inside the country. How is the US containment going or is there an actual deliberate intent to increase infection rates by holding large political rallies encouraging others to do same with big events? I can't even identify a mitigation policy by Trump.
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  995.  Brand Bioc-har  What lockdown issues? Everything open outside of Victoria and probably 1 month they completely open too. Restrictions do exist and as a reference they are less strict other than travel when compared to Sweden.
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  996. I have seen some comments say any Trump will do. His base or at least some of them considers the Trump family royalty.
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  997.  @davidmurphy563  I have just been looking at wealth by country and came across a list done by credit Suisse that shows mean and median wealth by adult on a Wikipedia page. The US has the highest difference between the two numbers at 6.5 times and 3rd for mean wealth and 22nd for median wealth of adult population. Thailand was close second which surprised me a little. This put some perspective of why the number of Americans are angry, it's basically the wealth gap, the shrinking middle class should now be referred to as what middle class in the US context. I know it's off topic you talking about but it is related indirectly to the politics in your country. Australia was number 2 for median wealth and number 4 for mean wealth so very different. That's I guess partly why people outside of the US including myself find it hard to understand because our average very close to each other. My dad used to say there are lies damn lies and statistics and it's true, if you miss a crucial factor it can severely skew ones thinking.
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  998. Interesting comment, big government spending is progressive. If that is accepted Trump is the most progressive President in history. Debt has skyrocketed, with plenty of protectionist and corporate welfare policies to create manufacturing jobs (dead end jobs mostly).
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  999. The US system is very different, the President is equivalent technically in power to the Queen of all the constitutional Democracies mentioned. She has never interfered or vetoed anything and in the cases of Aus , NZ and Canada the governor general rarely if ever interferes as the Queens representative ( one case in Australia a Prime Minister was sacked because the alternate party held power in the Senate and cut funding so the government couldn't function) so on rare occasions it might happen. Presidents exercise veto power quite regularly and the operation of government is carried out by hand selected officials who are unelected rather than elected officials with a constitutional democracy. A constitutional Monarchy as practiced in many countries under Queen Elizabeth is superior to the US system I would suggest. The leader of a government , the Prime Minister can be sacked really easily by their own party it's just a simple party room vote so nobody has too much power.
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  1000. Given his experience you would think he would be more compassionate to others. Why didn't he just shut the border and keep covid 19 out, Texas clearly knows it's rights, it's keeping interstate electricity out.
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  1001. By a normal election process, I hope you mean and by sanctioned I hope you mean loss of votes.
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  1002. He can't get that much protection, he trusts/hopes the Taliban doesn't harm him. It's no different in any country, an army can kill anyone should they want. He probably does have security but that would be to reduce the chances of someone else assassinating him, a political rival or something.
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  1003. I wouldn't accept any position offered to me if it was by Trump at this point in time.
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  1004. It's not a trial like in a court room, he did nothing wrong but it doesn't look good. It's the same on the other side.
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  1005. I think most do actually.
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  1006.  @susancorvalan6765  the rare cases of voter fraud which couldn't change any election results were bipartisan actually, both examples of Democrats and Republicans doing it.
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  1007. Regardless the paranoia here there is no chance votes can't be counted if post marked by election day and arrived within the time frame unless fraud is proven to have occured in the post office putting back dated post marks. Pretty unlikely I would think although technically not impossible.
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  1008. After the vaccines were available about half or something, but they make up 80% of the population.
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  1009. Qanon Shaman in plain English is Trump's Witch doctor. Not sure why people so shy to say this. Trump is the God of Qanon, try to find anyone they agree with other than Trump and his other followers.
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  1010. Lanko your comment is extremely strange. Go and look up the homicide rates by state and you will see despite mostly Republican states supplying guns to gangs in Chicago for example the Democrat states are much safer unless you believe Republicans only kill family members so the general public is actually safer in Republican led states despite the higher homicide rates.
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  1011. Depending where, in Western Europe they are in a similar position. I am in Australia and have been following the US. Here in the West Pacific regardless of government type population densities, cultural differences we have had a similar response, responses from much poorer countries like Vietnam , Malaysia and Thailand make the US seem particularly incompetent. The alternative argument that my country and others of similar response might turn out to be somewhat true but as of now with the best performing countries in my region and a population to match or far in excess of if you include China and Indonesia ( Indonesia is not doing all that well but looking better than US) we have combined deaths that don't even come close in any way shape or form. I think our conservative approach so far is the best approach.
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  1012. High level judges are always appointed by politicians in every democratic country at least however the judges themselves appearing to be highly engaged in politics is unusual. It's no different to choosing the head of the military of course politicians do that but again you would hope they don't have significant party alignment otherwise they can just do a coup d'etat if ever their chosen political party loses.
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  1013.  @ColdHawk  Well the biggest mainstream news organization in the US is Fox News and since until about a week ago they were extremely pro Russian to the point of supporting Russian invasion of Ukraine pretty fair to say any bad stuff you wanted to find on Ukraine is on that mainstream channel.
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  1014. History could suggest the US might have reached a current trajectory of continuous relative decline, both sides of US politics are digging a deeper hole for disfunctional government. Trump's economic boom was government debt funded and never last forever. Social stability in the US is by countries of a similar wealth non existent, homicide rate of 5 or more times per capita than Western European and Wealthy Western Pacific countries. While Biden might be ok in 4 years all the structural problems of the US will still exist so it certainly isn't a given, Americans have an extremely high tolerance for forgiving anything, just like people in a poor corrupt country who think no choice/hope. 4 years people will have forgotten about January 6 event, almost a given there will be riots with killings somewhere during Biden's term and or domestic terrorist attacks. I hope for your sake Trump doesn't come back and both political parties consider moving away from the current non free market capitalist approach and towards limited socialism for those in need and not corporations. Per capita you are a very wealthy country just above Australia on paper but it's poorly distributed due to socialism for the wealthy or in other words corporate subsidies for chosen ones. The median wealth of an adults according to Credit Suisse in 2019 and can be found on wikipedia was about $69,000 for US and $181,000 for Australia, quite a large difference. Also look at Australia versus US on the economic freedom index, which is a reasonable measure of how capitalist a country is , so don't blame capitalism, blame your type of socialism.
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  1015.  Palatinus88 03  Yes we know that , that's the purpose of counting them.
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  1016. South Africa is slowing down vaccine shipments because of major vaccine hesitancy issues.
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  1017.  @christopherwalker5017  Well then why aren't you at 90% vaccinated for eligible?
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  1018. Are you referring to the MAGA crowd who are dropping like flies because they want the freedom to stay with their mob and not get vaccinated?
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  1019. Thanks Suzanne for being ready I guess. Many of your overseas counterparts are going through a very rough time.
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  1020. They never said he tested negative, only that he is not infectious by the standard. It doesn't mean he can't infect someone and saying no evidence of the virus replicating just means the latest test didn't indicate more virus than the previous test. Obviously if your body is fighting the virus to get conclusive evidence of replication would be extremely difficult unless the patient is going backwards and the body is killing the virus at a lower rate than the replication.
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  1021. We discover all variants here because every case is genomic tested. The case would be in quarantine. Not sure about giving variants nice bird names, should names like vulture, crow, magpie, pigeon, names that indicate hazard not beautiful to watch. In fact snake names would be better.
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  1022.  @ranthony2714  The only healthcare that it's probably essential the government runs is the emergency hospitals, other healthcare can be private , it just needs to be regulated properly, take drugs , I don't think there are any major government owned drug makers on the entire planet. If you look at the top 10 countries in life expectancy they actually have all the different systems from 100% private but highly regulated Switzerland to mixed models like Australia or Spain and totally public it would seem in Italy. So in the end it's the effectiveness of government and it's regulations regardless of the model, the US model is mixed and the government just hands out money left right and centre, more public healthcare spending per Capita than Australia but it's not universal healthcare. You might be confused I said Australia was mixed but it's backbone is the universal system but those who want extras like a private room or less waiting time for elective surgery go private. All emergency hospital care in Australia is run by our state or territory governments. For Covid 19 I believe this played a part in our response because if a state fails they're paying. In the US this was disconnected to a large extent with private and Federal government paying directly to the healthcare provider.
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  1023.  @ranthony2714  I think we are viewing things from a slightly different perspective, I am just looking at the cold hard numbers in a holistic way, life expectancy to me is this number because it takes into account prevention of disease as well as how functional the medical care is. From your comment you seem to be considering things like perception as in how happy people are with the services. Obviously covid 19 required a health response and showed stark differences in how health was considered and effectiveness of health systems along with the regional WHO offices overarching approaches. Canada as a large country stands out in a good way in it's response for the PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region but would be the worst country based on deaths per million in the Western Pacific region of WHO. At least Canada is rated in the top 20 for life expectancy so pretty good, the US ranks 46 however that's likely to drop when new numbers are worked out because of their covid 19 response with direct plus indirect deaths both increasing.
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  1024. The US isn't "the west" , which Western European countries have problems in their countries?
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  1025. I think people are missing the main point and that is that doctors and nurses are under a lot of mental strain, as he said normally he would take it in his stride but on this occasion he is basically admitting he had thoughts of I don't want to treat this patient. He didn't act on the thoughts but having the thoughts shook him up a bit which is why he basically told others.
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  1026. Damn , a true contender for Trump's rhetorical devices. To convince more than 70 million people you must have some sort of a gift. Not sure Cruz is as good, maybe a wannabe Trump.
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  1027.  @TheKenzhang  they can't and would be at least 4 months to achieve the same, China never had hundreds of 1,000s of cases a day.
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  1028. Take care of yourself through this tough time.
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  1029. It's not targeting non white people as such but targeting the lower socio economic group I would suggest based on the behaviours of this group. Pretty damning words though we need to change voting laws to have a chance of winning.
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  1030.  @johnnylightning1967  Interestingly if you listened to any mid west or rust belt Trump rally he made it clear that Joe is most likely not as much a protectionist and will sign free trade deals and not give industry handouts. Now while Trump's position during such rallies might be considered extreme because he was actually saying Joe is the man for the free market and I am for socialist protectionism, going by Obama's credibility on free trade Trump was a far lurch to the left. Check out the Economic Freedom Index by Heritage Foundation and see how " far left" New Zealand and "moderately left" Australia compare to the so called far right champions of the free market. Trump is the most socialist president since the true change in direction under Reagan and every president since bar none towards free trade. Trump wants some socialist Utopia of all these factory workers with millions of jobs, go watch some old Soviet propaganda if that makes you feel good. Love him or hate him Joe isn't going to do anything radical in my opinion and to a soft extent Joe is more free market friendly than Trump on most issues.
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  1031. Intelligence is irrelevant, many cults have intelligent membership. This is a matter of acting with the emotional part of the brain not the logical part.
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  1032. The invisible enemy is communism and he is fighting on the side of the virus in case you didn't notice, literally promoting it's spread. It's a reds under the bed campaign which depending on your age you might or might not be aware of the saying. Joe is to the right of Trump on economic issues if you actually dig down.
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  1033. Not completely close but have quarantine like Western Pacific WHO region did. Until Delta variant we were fine but because PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region and European WHO region had no quarantine in almost all countries. Unless everyone does it , it's not going to work. Consider this new variant to be in Europe and the Americas already, hopefully it's not worse than Delta.
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  1034. Have you ever heard the saying keep your friends close and your enemies even closer, I am not American but I would suggest that saying is quite reasonable. Watch Fox at least the YouTube stuff and chat to the people in the comments section, find out what they are thinking. Good idea to just chat, no insults.
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  1035.  @UserUser-ww2nj  What you say about border closures is not a maybe , currently your country actually encourages spread by locking down counties or states or cities and then allows the highly infected to just cross whichever border to continue the spread. It's absolute madness but total bipartisan policy. With Australia's experience the 2 larger states wanted to do the same however over time they changed their position to the rest of us and any state with an outbreak will have people in those local areas of possible infection not able to travel to any other state without quarantine or an exemption like medical care not available locally as an example. The soft lockdowns in the US hurt the local area economically and spread the virus to other areas. The 3 jurisdiction that could do it fairly easily is Puerto Rico and Hawaii and Alaska because no daily interstate travel and not physically connected. It would also help their economies because vaccinated people (assuming vaccines as good as they say) and others willing to quarantine for 14 days would like to holiday or stay for a while in a covid free zone I would suggest.
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  1036.  @UserUser-ww2nj  Americans have a perception they are free but actually they are far more authoritarian than Australia and UK, look at the number and how they treat prisoners. Ironically they have more than double the number of health offenders on a per capita basis in prison when compared to Australia, drugs is a health crime that doesn't directly hurt anyone else . You look at a US police force and they are like Northern Ireland was many years ago and they are paramilitary forces when required. Also the social services in the UK and Australia are better and it's not about the amount of money spent because we all have government spending at about 35% of GDP however this will blow out everywhere for the last calendar year but moreso in countries with a failed response to covid 19. The US does spend more on the military though but not enough to explain the bad social services.
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  1037. Having dual controls isn't entirely unusual, of course Biden drive it but if the Ford guy thinks he's going to hit a wall or something he will hit the brake. Another or alternate reason might be they want to sell it to right hand drive markets also , so good to have a prototype that is both for demo's.
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  1038. Anecdotally it seems some Russian soldiers are probably going AWOL and abandoning their military identity. Quite a few stories of Russian "running away" which seems unlikely they can't run all the way back to the Russian border and Ukrainian still have vehicles to catch up with them. They need to eat also.
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  1039. Unfortunately in the US that isn't good enough. Some doctors are out there promoting alternative treatments also. They might be a minority but they do exist.
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  1040.  @marydumas5350  That's good if you say at least some of them have suffered consequences.
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  1041.  @marydumas5350  you misunderstood I think, I am not saying good anyone dying but that doctors who can't or won't do there job properly are sometimes suffering consequences as in losing their job.
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  1042. You only have less than 1 sixth of the deaths though. Rolling 7 days for deaths UK , 147 and US, 1032.
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  1043. Search Osterholm Update if you want to listen to a "top notch" person.
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  1044.  @ilnaeas  Travel isn't being banned, just like every other time it doesn't apply to US citizens and permanent residents. Then only voluntary quarantine or in other words not quarantine.
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  1045. If you haven't done it from day one it's not going to happen now. The so called travel bans aren't because completely full of holes. The restrictions required are like Western Pacific WHO region countries do with 14 days mandatory enforced usually hotel quarantine upon arrival. With this variant Australia hasn't reacted yet and actually currently some states have moved to home quarantine only. We will see if our position changes back to what it was which of course our governments would hate to do.
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  1046. Actually they should be treated the same way as every wealthy country does except the US on healthcare for example. What sort of idiot would agree to pay above market rates for pharmaceuticals? Answer: Republicans and Democrats in the US.
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  1047. Her advocacy might have killed 100 people and now that she's dead we have to keep quiet. If a serial killer did that people would be dancing on their grave. Pointing out the antivaxxer advocate deaths is nothing and the families of these people should actually be ashamed of their relative. The person is dead anyway , no need to worry about the hurt feelings of the family who didn't care about others.
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  1048. You are describing a Stopgap quick fix that solves virtually none of the US's underlying issues, for social welfare and equity the US is 40 years behind other wealthy nations at least and it's not about money, take healthcare the US spends more than most countries on publically funded healthcare however it doesn't seem entirely universal, if you are in a certain income bracket , that is medium low to medium it can bankrupt you if you get sick or injured and this is coming from comments I often see plus my basic knowledge on the subject. The US is the second best propaganda machine in history after the Communist Party of China. Both the US and China are great for billionaire, I pity the peasants in both countries.
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  1049. @S J I am not American but I would say don't worry about the US becoming a dictatorship anytime soon, one thing that didn't fail was the public service didn't bend to Trump's wishes, technically declaring states of emergency etc. could have been done but it didn't happen, probably the generals said words to the effect that's an unlawful order Mr President so I don't need to comply. This will be discovered in 50 years I believe it is after documents become unclassified. As far as your point about guns an authoritarian regime doesn't need to take guns off people, in fact it's in their favour , it gives an excuse to execute people extrajudicially , if nobody has guns there's no excuse for killing people , you need to fill up prisons and to be honest they are already a significant burden on the state because they are overflowing at the moment.
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  1050.  @marshamarshamarsha4567  Australia is doing fine thanks.
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  1051. An oil refinery will produce LPG ( mix of butane and ethane usually) not Natural gas or CH4 so you seem unaware of what you are talking about.
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  1052. Americans are so divided, the judge is just doing his job and doesn't want a mistrial. If it was in Australia he would probably be found guilty almost automatically, he was illegally carrying a loaded fire arm but of course comes down to individual state laws.
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  1053.  @ANHON888  CPC has a large majority support, no idea why you think they don't. China is in many respects like the Republican Party at the moment and the followers are similar, Chinese believe that covid 19 started in Fort Detrick and the US is involved in a major cover-up. Does any of this sound familiar, it should because Trump did the same campaign. China is a 1 party state that has continuously improved the economy in recent years and most people's welfare ( as long as you don't disagree with the party) of course vast majority support their government and all it's actions.
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  1054. Data seems ok for now and no reports of any severe adverse effects in any of them. I agree waiting a bit longer is better.
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  1055.  @mikewolf8909  Emergency use is only where these vaccines are at now which by itself means we don't guarantee this yet , I am in Australia and there will be no emergency use. The date we are being given for starting to use vaccines is March and I am thinking that part of the time frame is that's the earliest these vaccines can get full approval. So only trial approvals now but Australia is no good for phase 3 trials because no cases. For some countries including the US I think emergency use is appropriate but not ideal of course.
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  1056. It comes from propaganda actually, the US is the second best propaganda machine in history behind the CPC Communist Party of China. Once you teach your population that they are superior and that they shouldn't look outside their own country or compare to anyone else because they are already superior. China does this too but with a very distinct racial element but they are as the US was before it got superpower status still looking outside at the previous superpower , the UK and trying to be better. China only looks at the US and considers all other countries in the world inferior and the US to be inferior in certain respects. In any other wealthy country in the world there would be a bipartisan action to call for immediate action on what's failing and statistics which are terrible when judged against peers being other wealthy nations. 6 times the homicide rate compared to all other wealthy nations except Canada which is only a third of the homicide rate of the US. The lowest life expectancy of a wealthy nation with the highest overall healthcare costs to go with it. The US is about 5 years behind Australia in life expectancy and a little under 2 years ahead of China as of 2019 according to UN calculation. CNN did a report saying that life expectancy in the US had dropped by 1 and a half years over the course of 2020 because of the pandemic [response] , if this is true it's possible China now has a higher life expectancy than the US. If the general populous of the US could stop thinking because of brainwashing that you are exceptional maybe things could improve because no country would want to accept being on the bottom compared to it's peers.
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  1057.  @lspthrattan  The last third or so of your comment suggests you completely understand what I have said. Maybe to add more context even though you have no care in looking at others to see if better or worse. We have got vaccinated to 90% + of 16 years and over, you need to achieve this first task and then although at a completely different starting point you can open up genuinely in a consistent but painful manner, the US as a whole doesn't actually have any plan, some governor's/legislatures doing one thing and others the exact opposite. It's nothing about being ghoulish, we couldn't have kept travel quarantine and restrictions forever and also fully aware people will die once these measures cease or reduce in a dramatic way. There needs to be a balanced approach which is actually different for every country and or jurisdiction.
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  1058.  @lspthrattan  The situation in the US is unfortunately you are fighting each other and not enough vaccinated and the highest per capita deaths from covid 19 of any wealthy country. Tell me what I got wrong in that short statement.
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  1059. Trump was openly against the rest of the world including allies so if Biden does absolutely nothing most of the world would prefer that to what was prior.
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  1060. Not laziness, he isn't lazy at all, misguided and a scammer he is. Scammers often work harder doing the wrong thing than the work required to do the right thing with better results.
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  1061.  Laurie Cardiel  I do think one thing has occurred which would have happened more slowly if the US and others weren't seen as so weak at this point in time and that is what appears to be the complete takeover of Hong Kong by the communist party. While countries have condemned what China has done including the US we are in no position to do much about it at this point in time. From Australia wishing you the best and try not to worry too much about what Trump may have done , just be happy in 68 long days he loses his position.
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  1062. It does sound less violent actually because when the word cut is used it implies slashing someone, face, arm whatever but the point is might disfigure someone and cause a bit of pain but unlikely to kill them ( unless of course is the throat but that implies that the person wielding the knife has subdued the other already). You only need to stab someone about 2 inches in anywhere in the abdominal or neck area and they might die. Stabbing is way more scary.
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  1063. @Joon Park It's quite funny actually the Democrat rallies they say we only want a few attending and socially distanced etc. And for some reason they listen. Trump supporters should understand this if nothing else they listened to their dear leader saying covid 19 is less harmful than the flu and he wants big rallies like never before and he got bunches of people turning up maskless and doing the "lock him/her up" chants, a bit like some cult meeting.
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  1064. Not so sure, Israel is already paranoid , having him there would make them a bigger target.
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  1065.  @nonsibi1087  Your last comment is interesting and also consistent with the 1918 flu pandemic, the states with greater restrictions recovered more quickly, the US and Australia for that matter haven't really started recovery yet because our governments just running giant deficits hiding the real picture.
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  1066. Suicide rates in your country are on the increase, maybe the nastiness should be reduced because that's what's killing people.
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  1067. Publically and privately you get different answers according to another clip on CNN and it makes sense, self preservation in public, in private the majority would prefer Trump just fades away. They should stand up to Trump publically , maybe short term pain but would be long term gain, now it's the opposite going to have long term pain unless the Democrats stuff up even worse.
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  1068. Don't give people false hope, 4 week claim is ridiculous especially in a non compliant society with open borders. If you want to know what it takes look at how Victoria Australia got cases from about 100 cases per million people per day to 0 with about 12 weeks of hard lockdown and that was with interstate and federal government support. Maybe can cut 2 weeks off it because of vaccines, so minimum something like 10 weeks with nightly curfews , police and national guard stopping all but truly essential travel across state lines etc. etc. To continue to offer false hope at this stage of the game is truly reckless and will make the situation worse if some governor does this half arsed approach which will fail.
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  1069. When you tell people at rallies a communist takeover is coming and the US will become like Venezuela or Cuba, that in it of itself is inciteful. If one believes Trump he has just said Biden is going to seize your personal property and some did believe him.
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  1070.  @ea9373  You're in the wrong country, most countries encourage both to some extent, some more than others. I was looking at a Singaporean government thing and they were going to do a public health campaign because the obesity rate went from 12 to 15% ( can't remember exact numbers but that sort of range) English speaking majority white countries and middle eastern countries are the fattest out of wealthy countries, US might be worst at about 35% but the rest of us aren't far behind around 30% when it comes to obesity as an example. I do agree with one thing you say about the US, because it's seen as indirect and not their cost it's possible that state governments often don't care about the health of their population.
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  1071. Slavery?
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  1072. Let's say 2 / 10 by regional standard, only one country worse in Western Pacific WHO region and that's the Philippines. Sorry to say but pretty much whole PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region scores a 1 using the same scale.
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  1073. That's a bit mean.
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  1074. I thought you were going to say you'd really like to know who their drug dealer was.
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  1075. He's saving face like a Chinese Communist. Chinese are known for their stubborn behaviour and to never admit fault under any circumstances. Interestingly Xi in the end apologized for the treatment of the whistle blowing doctor and wore a mask back in February I think it was. On this issue despite the initial failures which the US shared they don't look quite so bad now. If China could have stopped it why couldn't the US ? Is China that superior? This is what must be believed to suggest they could have stopped but the US couldn't.
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  1076.  @snowfox4704  Well Mexican truckers are required to be vaccinated crossing the border but haven't heard a peep out of anyone saying that they shouldn't need to be vaccinated. Make your position clear do you agree that Mexican truckers shouldn't need to be vaccinated? That is what you are calling for i thought yet as one of your fellow travellers indicates you might have a different view on that border.
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  1077. The wrong side of history is the largest peacetime killing this century due to US policy not an uncontrollable natural disaster. If China killed 1,00,000 people due to their ideology people would be up in arms. US and European ideology which by the way controls policy at WHO has failed. While the initial response in China wasn't perfect it makes the Communist Party of China look light-years ahead on this matter. Donald Trump has done more for the CCP and it's ideology than any other person in history.
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  1078. For US cherry pickers and excuse makers please Choose any country you please in the West Pacific ( not US territory) any East Asian or ASEAN or Australasian country and see how successful you are, in fact why not just add them together, West Pacific 2,000,000,000 people and about 1,000,000 cases and less than 100,000 deaths, US population 330,000,000 , many millions of cases and 220,000 dead.
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  1079. To any Europeans or Americans can anyone explain what a half assed attempt at restrictions is going to achieve? I say this from Australia however applies to all Western Pacific WHO region countries pretty much, if you aren't going to do a job properly and it will have 100% chance of failure why do it all? In the case this is worse than Delta the citizens who have been fed BS will just be more angry in my opinion than doing nothing which at least is honest.
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  1080. I think if you are over 40 or overweight according to BMI chart or other health condition you shouldn't be doing the job at this point. Those who work now could get time off later to make up for any unfairness.
    1
  1081. He admitted helping out with a people smuggling ring, must have nice associates. Rather ironic considering Trump's immigration policy was about the only thing he got right but managed to destroy what was actually popular by selling his policy for the most part as "they are all criminals or most of them anyway". Biden is going to possibly restart the economic refugee program which destroys those countries that they are coming from because it's middle class keeps leaving , a teacher will move to the US to pick fruit or something as an example, so sad.
    1
  1082. Then when you get pulled over just fully comply with directions, never ever seen harm come to someone who has done so. You pull a gun or something well guess what.
    1
  1083. Yes I have read comments of that in youtube comment sections. January 20 was supposed to be the day because all the military around Federal Capitol Hill was to start "arresting/executing" people. He or she used that exact wording I put in quotes.
    1
  1084. What would you call the following locations? China, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.
    1
  1085.  @peteranderson6068  How may I ask has Trump stood up to China?
    1
  1086. It's not a lie and listen to the wording carefully. Basically it's reasonable to assume he tested positive however the viral load indicates that he is a low risk (not no risk) of spreading the virus. Saying the virus isn't replicating is a wild out there claim, maybe true , maybe not and maybe the tests are picking up dead virus only. I think we can be certain he tested positive otherwise they would just say directly he tested negative no need for all the other crappy wording . Just watched the end of the clip and they got a doctor biased towards Trump. CNN should do their homework and find a doctor not at all associated with Trump because they might as happened here put a nice spin on things. So now the US has real bonified "spin doctors". Quite amusing from Australia a very safe distance away, but it would be unsettling if I was a US citizen because if there is a direct attempt to mislead on this , probability says it's a character trait and a normal course of behaviour so will do it on any issue.
    1
  1087. @Pat Ho you're right it means some Trump supporters accept Trump seems to be a goner until the supposed evidence of tens of thousands of cases of voter fraud is proven. I am wondering how many affidavit actually have lies in them. There will certainly be some.
    1
  1088. Leader in general terms about technology maybe but in practice clearly not, 500,000 people dead. Not a perfect health response I would suggest.
    1
  1089.  @ilovevag8437  The only restriction of significance is travel where I am and yes miss that. High vaccination rates will reduce that restriction over time noting if Australia was a US state we would be somewhere in the middle as far as vaccination rates go but still climbing every day, haven't hit any wall yet.
    1
  1090. Maybe he can get a new nickname, "Trump lite"
    1
  1091.  @99dynasty  Australia didn't have it worse at all, maybe you can argue Sydney and Melbourne compared to some US cities but nowhere else. The effects of the massive death rate in the US is significant and the riots whether they be BLM/Antifa or Jan 6 indicates things are not ok in the US. Homicides up massively too from a starting point of 5 times the rate on average compared to other wealthy countries. Don't know how our schools will go in a few weeks when they open now that we have gone to minimal restrictions similar to the US and case numbers similar but much higher vaccination rates.
    1
  1092.  @patricksmith4148  Everything is open except still restrictions on Western Australian border. Everywhere else cases just like the US but we have much higher rates of vaccination, have to wait and see but only the New South Wales hospitals struggling so far with a peak expected in the next couple of weeks, my state Queensland doing fine for now but our peak likely around first week of February or so. Main problem with health systems so far exactly the same as the US, workers catching the virus and quarantine or self isolate.
    1
  1093.  @99dynasty  It really depends where you are, I am in Brisbane, the third largest city and subtropical like Florida. We held onto Covid 0 until 13 December last year and now in our state of 5 million there's 20,000 cases a day or whatever, just like the US the real number will be much larger than recorded number. We had 10 weeks lockdown in 2020 at the beginning and 2 times 2 weeks lockdown in 2021, so here nothing really. Melbourne which is the second biggest and densest city which is about the same latitude but south versus north as New York had massive problems, in part because Victoria took a more relaxed approach to begin with and their contact tracing failed, they had apparently 200 days of genuine lockdown throughout the pandemic. The reason I mention the latitude is it definitely plays a role because the subtropical or tropical climates no big peak whereas the more temperate areas to cold areas all had massive infection peaks, look around the world where the hospitals overwhelmed. Overall though people well supported by government largess if in lockdown and majority including in Melbourne supported the actions. Our deaths are less than 10% of the US so far on a per capita basis and I would suggest that that will remain the case even though of course we getting a lot more deaths, my state has had 3 deaths since our opening, doesn't sound like many but we only had 7 prior to that and of course it's going to accelerate over the next few weeks.
    1
  1094.  @patricksmith4148  had to give you a thumbs up. Your story amusing. There's small elements of truth in Sydney and Melbourne when they locked down.
    1
  1095. I don't think so and the polling is also likely to be more accurate because they have adjusted the weightings of likely voter groups. I am not American so no first hand feel but to me this is looking like a landslide win for Biden because I think human nature will mean some polls will have actually overcompensated for errors last time and voter turnout for Biden will be more than expected. Comment back to me on Nov 5 when I predict the result will be clear. Maybe I am completely wrong so you can laugh at my prediction then.
    1
  1096. Atheists are generally not involved in this stuff it's mostly other religious people, in particular Abrahamic religions at the moment.
    1
  1097.  @studebakerhoch4397  Ian is using a number that is probably correct but irrelevant. If you have twice as many recorded infections but they die at only 75% of the rate then you have a lot more dead people. Florida is one of the worst for deaths per million. There's lies damn lies and statistics.
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  1098.  @troubledsole9104  How about spaghetti gate it even has the Chinese connection according to the story (which appears to be a myth) that noodles were brought to Italy Marco Polo.
    1
  1099.  @billcasey9672  I think it's more simple than that, the Chinese sent some assistance to Italy in the early days of the pandemic when they were the first disaster zone outside of China. When discussing Australian covid 19 response which essentially is/was the same as China Trump supporters would say Australia is communist because we were successful.
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  1100.  @ssaw88  have you ever compared the US to other wealthy countries? By the way Trump ran up the debt far quicker than Obama and now probably Biden is going to accelerate again, have to see first of all does any tax reform happen and then is it effective/reduces debt/doesn't harm business through unintended consequences. As far as the border goes yep Trump was right , actually it was copying the Australian policy, however he managed to stuff it up by being too inflammatory causing much resistance, actually the majority of US citizens would prefer a controlled border.
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  1101. The ingredients are innocuous [in the quantities given]. Very important to include those words because that's how they spread misinformation, just like if I told you your hamburger has lead and cadnium in it which it does would that sound scary, answer is yes but if I say it's less than a microgram of each in almost all circumstances and even if you become vegan like a cow you will still get some of course because where do you think the cow absorbed those elements.
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  1102. What a strange thing to say " I felt like I was a foreign correspondent" Has he not been watching the news for the last year with authorities attacking the media. The last time an Australian media person was attacked was when Trump cleared the mob for his photo op, in that case it was the federal authorities that attacked him. Do CNN reporters think they have immunity in their own violent country or something. Does CNN believe that an unruly mob who supports the authorities who attacked journalists would be better behaved? The US has a homicide rate 6 times that of Australia and much more violent than any country of similar wealth. Maybe CNN should send there reporters around the world so they can have a better idea because they are just like their violent American friends and can't accept that "American exceptionalism" is harmful and dangerous because it is basically being superior to all others and in denial of reality.
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  1103. Not never but not in that election. I think previously there were some issues but so what. That's why he said I don't care.
    1
  1104.  @TSimo113  Actually you do , the US has taxes on alcohol and tobacco. Now you want to socialize the costs of Covid 19 to the entire community even when someone makes the choice of not getting vaccinated. Make them pay if you believe in free choice.
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  1105.  @TSimo113  Ok so Republicans are the liberal nanny state, I wouldn't have expected that comment from you. The federal tax might not be all that much but it's still $365 per year for 40 or 50 years so about $15,000 per smoker based on one pack of 20 per day. As far as deciding what is taxed and who pays etc. that's what governments are for, I am Australian so on goods we are very low taxed , we genuinely have free trade, the US is a somewhat free trade nation so a lot of taxes on goods with import duty and also you paying subsidy for ridiculous things like producing ethanol from corn. That's Republican territory , seems you might want to redefine big L Liberal. If you respond I am curious what you will say. One very big difference between Australia and the US is Australian states are extremely limited on taxation measures , can't have sales tax or any form of duty like that on alcohol or tobacco or any income tax. Those are all rights reserved by the federal government under our constitution. If you are unsure of my claims regarding economic freedom please search Economic Freedom Index by Heritage Foundation. A country has to have a balance and of course governments of all shapes and colors will subsidize or tax according in part with their ideology, Australia while being truly a free trading nation also has high "sin taxes" for the public good and supported in both cases by both our major parties.
    1
  1106.  @YouREsoBEAUTIFUL00  please be specific, what exactly are you referring to. I can hardly answer you if you don't tell me what you actually disagree with.
    1
  1107. They could be attacks within, Putin certainly has enemies inside Russia and many Russian against the war.
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  1108. That's true mob mentality, people were scared to openly go against the mob position, it's not believable that 0 would actually take the vaccine, it's almost like taking the vaccine is like shooting heroin or something and you don't want your neighborhood aware of the fact.
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  1109. So doctors, nurses and tradespeople are slaves, what a silly comment.
    1
  1110. Oakland CA has had 100 homicides so far this year and that's for a population of 440,000. England and Wales had 695 homicides from 1 April 2020 to 30 March 2021 with a population of 50 million or so. The overall US homicide rate is at least 5 times other wealthy nations. The US doesn't see this as a problem and just says that's because of gangs. Given the overall rates I would expect the problem to be worse for every demographic, male or female in the US versus the UK.
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  1111. Nothing about race and nothing about Asia, maybe you are a US citizen where the homicide rate is about 5 times that of all other wealthy countries except Canada. Maybe it's your nation.
    1
  1112. You have a naive view of human nature. Nazi party was voted in and very popular for it's ideas.
    1
  1113.  @LuisAlbertoRodriguezGoff  I didn't say they had a majority, they got in government with a coalition. Democracies somewhat often become non democracies because at the time a number large enough want that. There's a significant number in the US who want an authoritarian regime lead by Trump installed by a military coup d'etat. They are small enough in number not to get their way at least for now.
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  1114. At the start of your comment I thought hell no, we might have sent Rupert Murdoch to the US some years ago but you wanted him and doesn't mean we want one of yours coming here. Fortunately our Qanon membership isn't too high at the moment but if Trump arrived on our shores no doubt it would skyrocket.
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  1115.  @SeeingHimNow  I know
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  1116.  @brandonyul1570  The people getting killed from the virus or gun shot wounds aren't exactly free are they and in general they are not volunteers sacrificing their lives for you. Consider others , being vaccinated reduces your chance of spreading it, yes it doesn't eliminate the chance but something is better than nothing and if you have a gun safely store it at home.
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  1117.  @brandonyul1570  Yes they "were" free until they got killed. So you think Americans are like free range livestock? In Australia we have a different view almost universally.
    1
  1118.  @brandonyul1570  They got sick and died because someone infected them and a 10 year old kid shot to death was certainly killed, like a free range chicken, didn't see it coming. It's interesting how your allies disagree with you and suggest Cuomo killed people but then again consistency isn't really a thing of your mob ( just a guess you are a Trump supporter that most likely supports a Trump dictatorship)
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  1119.  @brandonyul1570  Your questions are bizarre, no need to answer you as you think you already know and I can't convince you of the real situation. Pretty sure your questions are Rhetorical.
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  1120.  @brandonyul1570  I watch CGTN sometimes too to see what the far right Chinese propaganda machine is up to, your suggestion that if someone watches news outside of their own country that means they want to live there is ridiculous. Americans should watch more foreign news rather than the mostly highly partisan local news you have. Having some knowledge of the world is a good thing rather than always looking inwards.
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  1121. His last comment literally said if you are not willing to lie you are considered a RINO.
    1
  1122. Normal, there can be video of someone shooting someone, it will still be alleged.
    1
  1123. Americans are very uncomfortable talking about death. 1 million dead from covid 19 and it's response and barely a peep and the right to infect was never impinged. A story that 25 people might have had a few days shaved off their life all off a sudden it's a big issue.
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  1124. Let's hope they're wrong about deaths about to go up, barring some miracle cure deaths lag cases by 2 to 8 weeks for the most part so wishful thinking will do nothing.
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  1125. The US is unique for a rich country. While vaccine hesitancy might be 1 issue that doesn't make the US unique because one issue on it's own can seem to happen anywhere. The US in healthcare generally when judged holistically has the worst healthcare system of any wealthy nation, non universal expensive with widely varying outcomes leading to the lowest life expectancy of comparable nations. So why do people in a collective sense insist on paying more tax for public healthcare than say a country like Australia but don't expect it to be universal. Why does it not bother people that it would appear a middle income country China now has a higher life expectancy than the US. As far as the Chinese or Russians doing something why would they bother , we can look back to HIV in the 80s and same thing in general terms occured, the Russians and Chinese could not have had any possibility of disruption back then. The US is doing a fine job at dividing itself , it doesn't need any outside help and actually is causing disruption elsewhere, Qanon appears to be American and the dear leader of Qanon is Trump, unfortunately lots of Qanon people around the world.
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  1126. This reminds me some time ago when Putin was prime minister of Russia for a while. He wasn't president because of 2 consecutive terms limit and seemed to be running the show however, but Putin has the right idea change the constitution. Trump flagged that maybe he could be a 3 term president, maybe if he lives to a hundred or so he could have 4 terms. Make no mistake Trump hasn't given up on his ambitions.
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  1127. For 88 he looks damn good, that's about 10 years greater than US life expectancy.
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  1128.  @Robert-ns7id  Not many Russians because on their censored media they got Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump supporting Putin and they would also believe the big lie and think Joe Biden has seized power and not supported by the majority of Americans.
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  1129. I would think even if it was possible this current process would remove the possibility because of double jeopardy.
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  1130. Well they're not allowed to obstruct others and hold a country hostage. They can peacefully occupy a park or something and leave everyone else alone.
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  1131.  @samuelminick4594  Usually nurses can't go on strike, at least of they work in a public system that's the case. We are not talking about striking , if a pilot blocked a runway yep they'd be in prison pretty quick I expect. Shut down a large international airport and the authorities won't have much patience.
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  1132.  @samuelminick4594  Of course it's illegal, you can't just shut down ports roads or railways. Nowhere on the planet allows such actions which are normally part of war actions. One could literally gain control of a country with 1,000 people with the anarchy you speak of, shut down power, transport and communication only takes a handful of people.
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  1133.  @samuelminick4594  Yes you are talking about civil war basically and you seem to think any 1,000 people can just seize power if they want.
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  1134. This might all be a complete waste of time, Trump will not be removed from office due to Republican support of him which is the only measure that can stop an all powerful person exercising their lawful powers. Therefore it's not unlikely and in fact would be highly consistent with previous behaviour he pardons every last one of them on January 19 , it's all Federal crimes it would appear due to being on Federal property and definitely the property crimes against the building is only federal.
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  1135. It's about the only thing Trump got right, but he managed to stuff that up by creating division . I think there are environmental concerns but much of that can be solved by highly guarded or monitored gaps to allow for wildlife to pass freely if that's an issue. The US should secure it's border, the harm caused on the human trafficking and loss of the middle class in sending countries hurts both sides, with the US having all the cheap illegal labor to support the agricultural industry which is receiving subsidies in a lot of cases. So technically subsidizing the use of underpaid "undocumented" labor at the expense of the lower socio economic group of US citizen. Rich people can have cheap cabbages and tomatoes I suppose.
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  1136. The US has the same laws but they don't have rule of law. You would find however if other countries had political leaders move in the same direction we could have the same problems. If there isn't bipartisan support that this behaviour is unacceptable then difficult to stop it. If Trump can stand at a rally smiling when his mob says lock her up regarding the Michigan governor which did occur the bar has moved pretty low. He said personally Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton should be locked up and no pushback. That is calling for political violence and nothing, it's now normalized and this wasn't the KKK, Proud Boys or Antifa or similar mob this was the president. But to me whenever a person regardless of side of politics has protestors who support the person who is in power protesting you have a serious problem, the NAZI " brown shirts " is the most well known historical example. Why would one protest on the side of the police and military who are controlled by their favoured leader, surely they can look after themselves.
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  1137. Not maybe, definitely.
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  1138. They'll up the trade sanctions on Australia. China has up to now been friendly to the US and I would be surprised if that changed.
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  1139. Didn't you know he's the Terminator Mark IV , developed by Skynet ( AKA Microsoft ) . When he went to "hospital" to receive "REGENERON" it was for an update and the 5 yearly battery change. Maybe when Trump concedes you will hear "I'll be BACK" then you might believe me.
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  1140. This isn't about China, the plan is tariffs on all imported goods. Maybe extra tariffs for China.
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  1141. Yes it's not really like a bush fire. It's more like burning the felled trees to clear land.
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  1142. The Singaporean speaking out would have been considered carefully. The consideration would have been could the US retaliate against Singapore. The reason countries like mine Australia stay fairly quiet is we don't want to bring on a trade war against ourself.
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  1143. Why not ask the police involved in the other 44 cases of people becoming unconscious due to choking over a 5 year period in that police department, maybe they can answer because they did the same thing. The police chief was totally aware of this and Clearly approved of it because no policy changes. I don't trust that police chief for a millisecond. This is a case of closing ranks and throwing one individual under the bus, a true scapegoat.
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  1144.  @shawn_mf166  Why do you compare the US to countries with vast slums and no money. India has managed to slow it but it's impossible to stop it, Brazil like the US just let it rip. The China let it out is ridiculous , it's truly amazing that less than 1,000 cases ever got out of China if you exclude Taiwan. No country has ever been able to stop a respiratory virus from spreading to other countries in the history of mankind. Every country was aware it was outside China as of 15 January with a case detected in Thailand. As far as flights leaving China the US government wanted it's people home and the US government facilitated this, was China supposed to not let them leave? What was China to do? Maybe China believed the wealthy countries would be able to manage people entering their countries. From Australia one of the hardest hit countries with 15 cases on 20 February, can you remember what Trump said at the time as the US had also detected 15 cases. The initial failures are that of the federal government, Trump reduced the capacity of a pandemic response which was initiated by Bush and Obama carried it on reinforcing the need. Trump is the outlier, Bush or Obama would have done a better job.
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  1145.  @shawn_mf166  I haven't given my opinion on what the US should do now, only commented on the failures that created the situation. My opinion is you should follow Sweden nationwide plus masks because infection rates are so high however states that want greatee measures to still be allowed to do so. Following Sweden would mean higher restrictions in some places. Best of luck.
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  1146.  @shawn_mf166  it's true many European countries are disaster zones also.
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  1147. There are 2 logical conclusions about what is occurring, Biden is the smartest criminal mastermind in history getting a minimum of 5 states to conduct widespread election fraud including by 2 Republican run states and getting 5,000,000 extra votes out of thin air in the popular vote literally making this Biden seem like he would outsmart Einstein in his prime of life in a minute or Joe Biden won the election because more Americans in states with a higher number of electoral college votes preferred him to the alternative. Let's just say Biden looks a bit dopey at times especially because he is getting on a bit so I think 1 scenario is a little more likely than the other.
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  1148. You got half way with the medical thing. Priority also for insurance companies, hospital companies and pharmaceutical companies, as long as they're healthy profit wise all is fine.
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  1149. What do you mean?
    1
  1150.  @CuriousDiscourse  Without other measures the so called border closures didn't prevent any deaths. You don't get to have one of the worst case loads and deaths in the world and claim that's an excellent job. Not a single state managed to keep the virus out or to very low numbers.
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  1151.  @CuriousDiscourse  the US has the same state federal relationship as Australia. Yes you can say every governor inside the US mainland did poorly also. Initial failures were at the federal level though with a completely inept CDC great at theories ( Australia listened to them and WHO primarily I believe) and completely useless at implementation. Australia detected 15 cases by February 20 the same as the US. There were no serious quarantine measures at any border state or federal other than voluntary measures by people entering. An absolute failure all in all especially the smaller states who had a lot more time than California and the NE states near New York.
    1
  1152. I am impressed with Canada, although off to a bad start your per capita new case numbers are about the same as Australia, we have a bad outbreak in one state causing problems now.
    1
  1153.  @AllPeopleUnite  I read a good comment some time ago, Australia and New Zealand being liberal democracies and yes authoritarian to get rid of the virus it was sort of all about the Great Reset starts here etc. etc. and someone commented (paraphrased) , "well if there was going to be some Great Reset why did they open everything up and no masks and everything open, seems it's not going to happen" . Hang in there hopefully the vaccines work and no variants escape them all, looking positive but it's not a certainty. In Australia now all that we have achieved if a state government had 100 deaths they will lose the next election, vaccine or no vaccine. Our vaccine rollout has started, I think only border, hotel quarantine and some medical staff pretty much so far, so it's good because in a few weeks a quarantine breach becomes much less likely. Observing from afar the US population has sort of resigned to whatever happens, happens and hopefully good news soon.
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  1154. Now I understand all the rhetorical attacks on the Australian government by Trump supporters along with unusual allies of Communist Party of China loyalists and rusted on Labor voters (Australian Labor Party is centre left like Democrats). 2 things niggle Trump about Australia, we handled covid 19 far better and AUKUS would really piss him off.
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  1155.  @vercoda9997  you're wrong all foreigners are puppets of the US, China only talks to the US.
    1
  1156. He included India and can say the 5 countries in ASEAN threatened by China in the South China Sea aren't happy about it.
    1
  1157.  lipingsky duerer  Hello Q . I just learned a little about you yesterday.
    1
  1158. Please take this as dark humour or stop reading. In some ways the internal turmoil in the US is quite entertaining, if I was to stop following things for a few weeks it's ok just like a soap opera, buildings and or cars burning, troops (paramilitary police or military) on the streets and it's real. It's somehow more interesting when it's real however hope things there improve or a bit worse so there is bipartisan agreement for change. Take care.
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  1159.  @avaparker9603  many federations I believe have a Senate system where smaller population states have the same number of Senators. Australia has that also. We don't have a president so that doesn't apply to us. Personally I think the US presidential position itself is flawed because one person chooses the entire government that is all the secretaries (called ministers elsewhere) and can hire and fire them at will and they need not be elected officials. In some ways Trump has made it very clear how powerful the position is even giving secretary positions to family members , which normally only happens in dictatorships. The US Congress and Senate to use Westminster system terminology are backbenchers. Just like our backbenchers they don't have to do anything just turn up when they are sitting. I agree that the US president should be directly elected and as pointed out take some power off them and give jobs to other elected officials wouldn't be a bad idea in my opinion. Your president is akin to an absolute monarch because he or she chooses the entire cabinet and has absolute power over them. So an elected Monarchy instead of by birth. There are few absolute Monarchies left in the world.
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  1160.  @avaparker9603  About 40% of governments according to Wikipedia have a bicameral system, which will have directly elected officials chosen by numbers of votes in an electorate and for the upper house or Senate normally representation from a secondary governments jurisdictional area or in our cases states. I think 2 houses of parliament is good. As I said previously don't agree with an elected monarchy and the cabinet being unelected. Why do you object to states having an equal say in the checks and balances? Anyway I think a bicameral government is the right way to go for any large country with states or provinces.
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  1161.  @Southeren  I reckon you might be from Mississippi or Alabama.
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  1162. Interesting Louis, you're an antivaxxer so why would you care about Trump, you don't trust him and have some delusional belief that "Trump's vaccine"is killing people.
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  1163. Soldiers are required to take all vaccines the military deems fit. This has always been the case. Covid 19 vaccine is no different to all the other vaccines they are required to take. If you're an antivaxxer you can't be in the military.
    1
  1164.  @billypardew2337  why would a country infect it's own population deliberately, surely they would release it in enemy territory? They also contained it quite well with only hundreds of cases getting out of China with warning. The evacuation flights were the responsibility of the country doing them, China couldn't detain foreigners but foreign governments didn't quarantine anyone, that's on them not China.
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  1165. Trump was very easy for the CPC to understand, they have a lot in common actually. Biden is difficult for them to understand and deal with because you can't just show him some shiney beads and other countries come into play, Trump was isolationist and didn't care even about allies.
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  1166. She is right on one thing, CNN should choose it's words more carefully. When cities were burning from rioters CNN couldn't get the words the protests have turned violent out of their mouths and continued to speak the myth of peaceful protestors, if a city is on fire and you continue to protest then you at a minimum are protecting and supporting the violence, the rioters can just blend in no problems, set a building on fire and rejoin the march. CNN might as well have been seen as rioter propaganda network. Same goes for Fox news coverage of the insurrection , especially in the aftermath, they might as well have been called the Trump information service or something.
    1
  1167.  @mikel1784  Your name and birthday and address identify you on the voting roll as a citizen, the ID itself only needs to be reliable to prove it's you, not prove that you are a citizen because that has already been proven or at least in theory it has.
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  1168. Covid 19 is far more consequencial for the world because affects all countries of the world moreso than both the GFC or the 9/11 terror attacks. 9/11 and associated terror attacks around the world affected less than half the nations of the world. To an American maybe psychologically 9/11 was worse than the other events.
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  1169. It's a US cultural thing, I am not American but understand that much , that it is common there and not elsewhere.
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  1170. Yes you are missing a few things , there is no gap in fact the US is currently a net exporter of oil and oil is priced internationally and oil companies are not subsidizing US consumers.
    1
  1171.  @andrewhazlewood4569  We are Australian , Sky News Australia the equivalent of Fox isn't taken seriously and to be fair the printed press , newspapers are ok, I will consider Financial Review or The Australian the same , both quality balanced national newspaper and from slightly different ideology. The local papers maybe a bit different, but as a Queenslander with basically only Murdoch press we are doing ok.
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  1172.  @Nofearforever21  media companies don't get your data , facebook keeps that, facebook just has to give some money to the media companies. Nobody is forcing you to watch or read any news, what are you talking about? We are not talking re education camps here.
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  1173. They looked exactly like many of the BLM mobs, threatening and intimidating.
    1
  1174. There's plenty of different alphabets too.
    1
  1175. Well the few hot spots is every mainland state. Hawaii and Alaska are doing ok, so technically it's only the wrong emphasis, should be we have a few areas doing well instead of a few hot spots.
    1
  1176.  @richardhorn7688  If 13% of people 65+ died in a period of 2 years I would be surprised. The other thing is bad habits aren't very contagious.
    1
  1177. With such low case numbers for now they would genomic test them all.
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  1178.  @danielkelly5038  They won't tell you here in Australia either now that our cases are through the roof but previously under covid 0 they genomic tested every case, not sure if patients would ever find out but my guess is they might because I am thinking the doctors would be told and then tell the patients. Doctors need to be told to collect the statistical data regarding variants. When cases are really high they just use statistical averages I guess. The US CDC is publishing data about Omicron severity and there's no other way they could do it.
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  1179. Why is this being played down so much , it's not just the direct deaths that matter. While not suggesting a solution to get to excess deaths you need to add about 30% to the Covid 19 deaths because of secondary deaths due to reduced healthcare in other areas and although I don't know the exact reason with Australia's initial lockdown deaths spiked and excess deaths for the first 6 months of the year were from heart disease and diabetes. We will have to see what the data is for the final 6 months because unfortunately one state needed a hard lockdown, however all other states remained open with some limited restrictions. The US is in a worse position and what is occurring will have a more severe mental health impact than in Australia I would suggest and even the state that did a second lockdown at least they knew it would end being as bad. The false hopes that in your winter the 20,000,000 doses of vaccine given to 10,000,000 people by the end of the year will solve everything is more than a little optimistic given your population. Many people are wanting financial support which doesn't seem to be forthcoming causing more mental illness than would otherwise be the case and people will work sick and infect others if desperate. Best of luck to you all and look after numero uno because the government isn't coming to rescue you any time soon.
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  1180. I wouldn't think she is traumatized, only a bit of shock and fear for an hour or so. He never did anything to her in the end thank goodness.
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  1181. It should be looked at in perspective, vaccination rates lower than Mississippi and Alabama and no natural infection immunity unlike Mississippi and Alabama, for NSW , VIC and NZ to open up would make those US states seem in a pretty good situation. In other words for now it's called no choice.
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  1182. It's not due to Trump but the CDC proved itself to be great at theory and terrible at implementation of a plan. If you listen to what Fauci said on February 26 that the US was doing well and not many cases because of good health care and contact tracing you realise everyone failed. The problem is when the failures were apparent nothing was done and Trump certainly contributed to this and probably exacerbated it. If Trump did nothing the health outcomes would probably be not as bad but he discouraged mask wearing and campaigned against governor's who were trying to get things under control.
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  1183. It's actually a great propaganda piece whether willing or not, his worst concerns of bad treatment is having to cut his own hair, I think a lot of US prisoners who number in the millions who saw this clip saying I want to swap prison. He has even had one shot of a covid 19 vaccine which is an absolute luxury to most of the worlds population.
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  1184.  @jaydoggy456  I have a question for you. Australia spends less on a per Capita basis for publically funded healthcare which is universal when compared to the non universal US publically funded healthcare. So my question is why do you like paying more tax for a service you might not receive?
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  1185.  @jaydoggy456  You've answered the question, you want to pay higher taxes for something you don't even want. Strange for me I like lower taxes and still have the choice of buying whatever I want. Australian life expectancy is 5 years longer than the US so enjoy your time while you've still got it. Best of luck with those higher taxes you enjoy paying to support your ideology.
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  1186. That shows she is real American. She should have just said Chinese but didn't want to for some reason.
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  1187.  @milicajokic6617 But the US government pays for those US weapons, pretty bad economics. Israel currently gets $3.8 billion per year and 74% I believe needs to be spent on US military equipment. Because Israel builds the wings for the F35 jet the US is in a net sense doesn't even get all that money for weapons back, in theory Israel could be getting the entire amount currently, depends what they getting for those wings.
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  1188.  @congener496  No both parties have the same approach. They also spend a lot on getting public opinion so they can roll out policies effectively. Have to remember we are a federation and just like the US different states are at different points on the political spectrum, I am in Queensland and generally we fairly conservative compared to say Victoria which is full of lefties and this is regardless of which political party.
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  1189. I wouldn't be so sure, I think it will have an effect on sentencing.
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  1190.  @briankh2007  I did pay close attention and the legal expert said it has no chance of getting them off but he seemed to be agnostic or at least didn't give his opinion on whether it helps to be released on bail. I am not going to claim to know US federal sentencing guidelines however normally in liberal Democracies sentencing takes into consideration 3 things if the judge has leeway as in not a mandatory fixed sentence, punishment as a deterrent, rehabilitation so they don't re-offend and protection of society as in the risk that if released they might re-offend. If a very hardline is taken anyone who spoke of or took particular actions to commit murder or kidnapping could be charged with those attempted offences depending what the law allows. My personal view even though this might sound a little authoritarian throw the book at them all if sentencing guidelines permit, maximum sentence for every one of them that even put a toenail in that building for trespass minimum, but not the death penalty because I don't believe in that. Under the US system the president of the day could pardon the lessor offenders when the risk has subsided and a reasonable time period had passed and agreed in a bipartisan manner.
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  1191. The images are insightful as in they have spread out, however the explanation is an hypothesis which may or may not be correct. In some cases if they weren't given enough food for example they might be searching for food for arguments sake. Being near buildings though means can't fire missiles at them without risking hitting the buildings.
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  1192. Have to change the game rules, quadruple the spread rates in Europe and US and have Western Pacific countries containing it.
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  1193.  @Icecream_ghost  The biggest problem with the new CDC study is it's time constrained as in 90% of those with previous infections had them in the preceding year and it was with Delta variant and we know that catching Omicron is far easier for everyone although less deadly by about 70% it would seem so far. The CDC recommends everyone over 6 months getting the flu vaccine every year and everyone catches the flu in their lives. Australia has the same recommendation but also has a strong recommendation for certain groups, below 5 and above 65 if by age and of course healthcare workers, more vulnerable people etc. Everyone saying that the next variant will be less deadly is just parroting a proven to be flawed theory, if that was the case the flu could kill nobody and there wouldn't be such a thing as a bad flu year because it's been around for 1000s of years, the 1918 flu pandemic was in the end just a mutation coming from an animal they believe and many mammals can get covid 19. Of course I hope the next variant is less deadly and overall it should be due to natural immunity (the weakest and or unvaccinated dying off already and survivors getting increased immunity) and vaccinations but there's no guarantees. The US despite it's higher natural infection rates is having more deaths per Capita than Australia now with much higher vaccination rates but virtually no natural immunity. While our demographics are a little different, obesity rate about 35% in the US versus about 30% in Australia, they are fairly close (Japan has an obesity rate of 6% or so, Sweden 20% as examples). We will have to see what happens in 6 months and it's our winter, maybe things won't look so good then and that's why the US likes to compare to the UK which is doing better now because of their higher vaccination rates. Their demographics from previous infections is probably very similar to the US overall.
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  1194.  @stevenleonard7219  Just out of curiosity with the different vaccines did you find that the side effects were significantly different? I ask that because I have had two AZ shots but will get either Pfizer or Moderna at some stage, I am 48 male and only just over 3 months since second dose.
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  1195. The US has too many different police forces all coming together like a Hollywood movie talking about jurisdiction etc. etc. So I review my earlier opinion that Hollywood movies are ridiculous, they are accurate for the US.
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  1196. They are causing as much economic damage as BLM did in the US, just because it can't be seen doesn't mean people and businesses not being harmed. Well done some right wingers you've managed to become what you claimed to detest even demanding that the US have open borders and no vaccine mandates for foreigners. Interestingly not much talk about the Mexican border, I wonder why.
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  1197. Well first time I've heard it, I only watch occasionally on youtube though.
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  1198. It depends on the contract and monitoring of the contract, private enterprise will produce better and cheaper outcomes, however if the parameters in the contract are wrong then it can end up with really bad outcomes. If it's purely focussed on cost what the government might have done with intent is outsourcing failure so they can pretend they aren't to blame. The government wrote the contract and if it has been followed to the specifications the government is to blame, if it hasn't been followed to specifications and this has been ignored by the government and or no reporting required the government is still to blame. Only if the company broke the contract and deceptively covered up their non adherence to the contract is the government not to blame. We shall see what the case is eventually, Governor Abbott is clearly putting all the blame on the company now but my suspicion is it's the government's fault as it usually is. Governments of all persuasions in capitalist societies have the same failures.
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  1199. Americans are so outspoken, even if I think my Australian state is the most corrupt in my country I am not going to speak it so openly.
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  1200. You have the most expensive criminal justice system on the planet and police forces in your country have not been defunded even if some were calling for it. Locking up 1% of your entire adult population isn't cheap and isn't working, you have a homicide rate 5 times that of the average wealthy country. You need to fix the underlying causes which would end up defunding the criminal justice system because you wouldn't have so many people in prison.
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  1201. Yes everyone knows that difference is almost all countries of the world don't do that now, can't change history though, every country was brutal 150 years ago with widespread slavery throughout as an example.
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  1202. I disliked your comment for the hell of it, I am also curious how many disliked your comment.
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  1203. Southerners as in Southern hemisphere, 2 of them in particular.
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  1204.  @moatazgoubarah7424  Well a suicide bomb or mass shooting suicide is the same thing, same motive just different means. This can happen anywhere however in the US it is relatively common and in other first world countries over the last 20 years or so although rare has tended to be religious extremists.
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  1205. Sad to see that
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  1206. Lol, even DOGE doesn't pretend that.
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  1207. The clip has absolutely nothing to do with what you just said. Australia taking good care of it's ordinary people and according to some survey result we are more against China than the US, probably something to do with trade sanctions against us.
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  1208.  @montoyali  You've been listening to Zhao Lijiang too much, the US doesn't force Australia to do anything. China fundamentally misunderstands Australia and is incapable at this point in time of understanding why we have the positions we do, they are used to dealing with poor and or corrupt nations which do to a large extent shut up and do as they are told. Australia is partly to blame too because we don't understand them but the person I mention above makes things impossible, he is doing damage to China's reputation around the world. Australia isn't the only country to effectively have trade sanctions but we have had the most and it's probably highest profile. Australia is an influence of calm in the region especially with Joe Biden at the helm in the US who will listen to Australia amongst others to a far higher degree than Trump who cares for no one. Consider Australian and New Zealand view towards Vietnam, we resumed diplomatic relations in 1975, the US took until 1995. Fundamentally nothing has changed and China choosing to bypass the entire region and say they only talk to the US is really damaging. On the Covid 19 issue it was decided by region actually or a remarkable coincidence, the Western Pacific region of WHO has 4 countries extremely closely aligned on the matter, China including Taiwan, Vietnam , Australia and New Zealand. I don't know what discussions went on and by which countries but we all agreed to 14 days mandatory enforced quarantine usually in a hotel, PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region and European region of WHO all agreed to 10 days voluntary quarantine and we can see the results is less than 5% deaths per capita in the Western Pacific region of WHO compared to the other 2 regions I mentioned. So behind the scenes you might find even Australia and China in full cooperation on the matter of the response.
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  1209.  @montoyali  I don't know the details but when you say some Senator say something, well so what, they don't represent the government, you have just given an example of how China doesn't understand, we don't listen to our backbenchers why is China. I did look up who you were talking about because I was unaware of it. If a backbencher makes some remark it gets ignored but China thinks it's some big conspiracy. Backbencher is a politician with no position, just elected member nothing more than that. Of course out of 220 people who in total , so maybe 180 backbenchers there will be varying views on things and remarks said, nothing remarkable about that, however it might be remarkable in China if a backbencher was to criticise Xi for example. Even if you don't listen to Zhao directly, I don't either clearly indirectly the info comes through, people share things he posts in the hundreds of millions of users on the social media platforms in China.
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  1210.  @montoyali  No Zhao Lijiang is the official spokesperson for foreign affairs , what he says or displays is the government position. It's completely different to an elected member of the party who holds no official position saying something, same applies to the US although different democratic structure and ministers (secretaries of this and that) aren't elected they are chosen by the president, so if the president or his ministers speak that's official, in effect all elected officials at their federal level except the president are actually backbenchers. Calling Zhao Lijiang the spokesperson by definition means it's the government position even though technically he isn't in government I believe but more akin to one of those US ministers. Freedom of speech allows the calling out of the bullshit , in China they bullshit even more and nobody can say anything.
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  1211.  @montoyali  The reason that the CPC can bullshit more is because nobody can really criticise, talking amongst friends doesn't count which Chinese people often note they are free to discuss things privately. I can find within the same documentary type format arguments that say Australia should just comply with China as well as the widely held and strengthening position , stuff China no way in hell we are going to crack down on our media even the parts the majority consider to be a little crazy. How many times have you seen Chinese media highly critical of the agressive actions in the South China Sea or criticisms of economic coercion policy, that is trade sanctions against any country who China has a disagreement with? So to give Trump as an example he bullshitted all the time and it lost him reelection because the free media was free to criticise.
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  1212.  @montoyali  you too
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  1213. It's to slow it down however in the US there's no quarantine so pretty meaningless because only some will make any effort at all to isolate, the ones getting tested are doing that for family members, many will catch the virus in those queues for testing though.
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  1214.  @TheEnd-eg6wq  I just looked up your CDC and it says they reckon 125 million to 171 million infections so average about 145 million. I think they don't have a clue, the pandemic should be over for you guys because add in part of the vaccinations , because will be some that vaccinated and infected at some point and should have very high immunity levels against death. The deaths of over 1,000 per day don't seem to fit with the numbers of people who should be dying in my opinion. However if their number is correct then you should be nearing the end of hospitals overwhelmed in various areas of the country pretty soon.
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  1215.  @PassifloraCerulea  Now you're being silly check the "covid 19 dashboard Queensland" over 5 million PCR tests and about 2,500 cases, seems like there's no false positives or at least that they are insignificant. Do you really think 2,500 cases in a population of about 5 million is way over the top?
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  1216. Hope not, but possible.
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  1217.  @fishon279  Truth represents about 30% of your entire population who can spout the same words verbatim, the only other group I have seen as consistent and loyal and will believe anything is Communist Party of China loyalists, there is a lot of crossover with these groups ideals, they both support for example the military coup d'etat in Myanmar. They like authoritarianism, far away from supporting democracy or freedom.
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  1218. Why doesn't CNN do a just slightly in depth report. Here I'll get you started, 100 USD billionaires in the Chinese Parliament and as of middle of last year approximately 600 million people living on $5 USD per day according to the government. For the most part these people living on $5 are happy because now they don't fear starving and with the recent introduction of universal education even the poorest people can now at least have some hope their children will have a better life. University Marxist groups are banned and the Communist Party in name only doesn't permit socialist discussion hence the "Socialism with Chinese characteristics". The government of China is stoking Chinese ethnic supremacy and refers to any ethnic Chinese person anywhere in the world no matter how many generations they are American for example as "Overseas Chinese". Imagine if Germany were to start referring to all people of German ethnicity around the world as "Overseas Germans" , there would be an outcry that Germany was trying to reincarnate the 3rd Reich. Watch this space and just remember history. That said most ethnic Chinese who were born in other countries are not loyal to China at all but this isn't universal.
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  1219. Well whichever states are doing that you should be happy, the insurer wants to know so if you are vaccinated you pay less insurance next time and the non vaccinated the insurance goes up. The states where this wasn't asked probably everyone's insurance will go up the same because verifying those vaccine cards will take forever.
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  1220. According to some websites it takes around 15 seconds of you are highly skilled weather permitting. Essentially they were a 1 shot weapon and apparently if you could you might have a few weapon's and therefore a few shots , someone can run at you 100 yards with the bayonet before you can reload. In a group however you get a few volleys off.
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  1221. Trump is one of a kind I think of major country leaders at the moment.
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  1222. All Australian media outlets supported it so Guardian Australia or Fairfax support it. It happens to be Murdoch media is the biggest private media group but it doesn't follow that it's somehow only them. As far as your comment about some US surrectionist thing Sky News Australia could be accused of that and rightly so in my opinion but that's only a very small part of the media group.
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  1223. Indirectly it's antivaxxers fault and they are in parts of Europe and US mostly.
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  1224. It's a hub and spoke logistics system, the mixing happens in Vegas but the actual spread will be elsewhere mostly because they don't stay long enough to get very sick and bring it home. My guess the staff all vaccinated so probably not much spread inside Vegas.
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  1225. Arms was a fair weather weapon (if it's raining the powder gets wet) called a musket. A musket might be able to be reloaded every 20 seconds or so by a skilled marksman in good weather and probably had reasonable accuracy up to 20 yards or something with it's low velocity ball of lead. Maybe the founders didn't envisage semi automatic weapons that are highly accurate to 300 yards with high velocity bullets and only need to reload every 30 shots.
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  1226.  kaiss-K -Ci  under Trump's watch Iran proved they could have made a weapon by enrichment of 1600 pounds of uranium to 20% , so they could have done a smaller amount to 90% required for a weapon no problem. So they have 300 pounds or about 150 kg of U 235 enough to make 75 nuclear weapons. A nuclear weapon only needs about 2kg of enriched uranium to about 90%. Just remember enrichment is logarithmic as in to 20% is over half way there to weapons grade.
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  1227. Agree but depends in part what you mean, people like to compete in things , most know they haven't got a hope in hell of winning a medal but going there representing your country even if you don't even make it through the first heat is still enjoyable. This year might be different, maybe you can be 20th rated marathon runner and 15 of the higher rated runners get covid 19 and you are in with a chance.
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  1228. Sorry Godzilla , you're just jealous.
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  1229. If I was a conspiracy theorist I would have to conclude that Fox news is being controlled by the CPC (Communist Party of China) , because they are running far more effective disinformation campaigns than China could ever achieve externally from their own propaganda machine. One thing I have noticed is Trump and CPC supporters are actually one and the same , just change the place from Wuhan to Fort Detrick and visa versa and the conspiracy theory is identical. There is however plenty of crossover , China doesn't run conspiracy theories against itself and Fox runs conspiracy theories against the US , so they end up reporting the same conspiracy theories against the US sometimes.
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  1230. Not sure he can because it was raised to pay campaign debts and a little bit on campaign legal fees. If he spends it paying his personal or business debts it might be a crime.
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  1231. Way way more.
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  1232. As an Australian this story gives me mixed feelings because it points out we have idiots here but this is the story of a reformed person which is good. I think if their spiritual leader Donald Trump is voted out they will subside but a risk of violence by some at that point in time.
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  1233. It's a bit like that, alternate between Fox and CNN and you can get a good handle on all partisan spreading events .
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  1234. Not bad.
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  1235. I take issue with one thing, not only chat rooms, Trump's Youtube channel people openly talking about an armed insurrection of some sort. To so openly threaten violence demonstrated they thought it was totally ok. It's true that armed militia threaten this continuously by stating they have the right under the second amendment to arbitrarily remove a government. The second amendment states a well regulated militia, so apparently the government has agreed they can be overthrown should a militia decide to do so. Maybe the government should specifically point out it is for helping the government in a time of need like an invasion or something, the ballot box is for deciding leaders. Muskets were used back when the second amendment was written, so a fine weather short range low velocity weapon with a reload time of a minimum of 15 seconds under perfect conditions by someone highly skilled, not sure the founding fathers were thinking of AR 15s or nuclear weapons for that matter which can be transported by an individual so it stands to reason if it's absolute one can bear a nuclear weapon on a trolly.
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  1236.  @gabemendoza1052  Other countries are watching the US in real time and for diplomatic reasons not speaking their mind. Lowest life expectancy for a wealthy country despite highest health spending and above average public health spending. That's just one example of your disfunctional system. Hopefully things change but unfortunately could be bad to worse, have to wait and see. Best of luck.
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  1237. Sorry you guys are mad in a collective sense, left and right having giant rallies. Both groups are human and can catch it and spread it to the vulnerable. Contact tracing at a BLM or Trump rally, LMAO .
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  1238. Hope you and your friend going ok. Take care.
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  1239.  @anjaoldnettle2841  I think your last comment is fairly accurate.
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  1240. Very true previous presidents and opposition figures in Ukraine all united. Meanwhile in another land an ex president wannabe dictator is siding against Ukraine.
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  1241.  @ernestchacon4928  Hey it's just a suggestion and my screen name was many years ago me annoyed with my government. I keep the name because I am usually annoyed about something. To make my point a little more strongly even though it would seem most people have made up their mind being a little more diplomatic can't hurt and there is a slim chance something you say somewhere could change an undecided voters position. Although not equivalent for my Queensland state election in Australia I intend to vote for our left wing Labor party, something I have never done in my life because they have done very well with the Covid 19 response. The thing that actually caused me to take my current position was an ex Premier of the party I generally support (sort of similar to a governor) said we should follow Sweden, which would have meant more restrictions than currently exist in my state. In other words unless the current leader of that party denounced the statements by him I can't trust them. If you've read this far sorry for rambling on and I hope you are ok with your upcoming Presidential election regardless of outcome. Can only do your best and polling and betting markets indicate a close race.
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  1242. So now Texas go down the authoritarian route and mandate that private organizations can't protect employees and customers. Basically an authoritarian regime that kills. Texas and Florida giving China a run for it's money, another Great Leap Forward. The US is now number 1 deaths per million for a wealthy nation, just overtaken Belgium in the last day or so according to worldometer. Well done US, lowest life expectancy for a wealthy country behind middle income China, highest homicide rate for a wealthy country by a factor of about 5 times on a per capita basis, one of the most expensive public healthcare systems in the world but not really universal. It's possibly the fall of the US Empire occurring in front of the world's eyes.
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  1243. Blame Reagan , he shouldn't have let that Aussie in. While I actually believe on balance noting the amount of Murdoch media in Australia is greater than the US as a proportion it hasn't been a negative here, I have to say on balance it might have been/maybe is in the US.
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  1244. If your president isn't removed he will likely pardon all the special people. For whatever reason people aren't alarmed that this will likely occur. How can he openly do exactly what I just said previously with other pardons yet everyone including Democrats believe him when he says they should be arrested, yes he needs the list of who to pardon. Trump should never be underestimated and anyone Republican or Democrat who doesn't follow through and remove him only have themselves to blame. The only check and balance with an US president is removal otherwise he is just an elected king under the laws of the US or that beloved constitution. I expect he won't be removed and pardons will occur even possibly the murderers.
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  1245. I think for US now it's mostly people don't want vaccines, most of the rest of the world because short supply. The US isn't in a good position because so many things are still unknown.
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  1246. This is called reporting, if you want pure editorial which CNN does quite a bit actually find a clip that suites your taste. Al Jazeera has come out with a different position to AP.
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  1247. Cover up number 3 on Covid 19 , The ex president of course, Florida not counting cases particularly well in October 20 , sends armed raid to whistleblowers home to gather evidence of releasing government information ( don't know what happened , haven't followed it) and now we find New York disinformation campaign. Wuhan China local government covered up also and got sacked. China and the US are morally equivalent when it comes to covid 19 cover up behaviour, in fact the US is probably worse because 3 known cases is systemic behaviour. Probably a lot more state governments have done it one way or another.
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  1248.  @nondhimmi1  I don't agree sky news is scum but they were completely counterproductive rabble rousers when Victoria was going through it's most difficult time even inviting some commentators in virus free states suggesting Victoria become Florida or something. If they did it after the fact and Victoria was all good then totally ok with that but the commentary that lockdowns don't work has remarkably disappeared when at 5 cases per day rolling 14 day average and their Donald who can do no wrong up at 60,000 cases 7 day rolling average, fair to say adjusting for population won't help much. Fortunately I think very few followed the sky news Australia mob. Congratulations to Victoria, almost home free it seems.
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  1249.  @oinkoink5080  the reason for your government not opening quickly is, put your mind back 5 months, you were at about the same situation then and remind yourself of 2 months ago and what happened. An abundance of caution is certainly needed because strict lockdown can't happen again.
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  1250.  @oinkoink5080  no many states have had outbreaks from quarantine failures, the failure in Victoria was contact tracing. New Zealand just had a quarantine failure a few days ago with a port worker. Quarantine failures will keep happening it's detection and containment through contact tracing that matters and truthfully Victorian contact tracers are the most experienced now, places like NT or SA are at high risk because never done contact tracing along with WA if they ever open their border.
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  1251. @Diana p and due to those restrictions in Victoria an extra 3,000 people still alive give or take. I think the majority of Victorians would be happy and proud of that and by the way I am not Victorian.
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  1252.  chocolate milk  So how about reality and not knowing who is sick and going to spread the virus killing people and no reasonable way to determine who is exactly sick because can't test millions of people in one go? Would not fighting the virus so all can be free more worthy than protecting freedoms knowingly causing deaths of people who didn't volunteer to take that risk?
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  1253.  chocolate milk  I am Australian and believe that the sacrifices made are reasonable to save 15,000 lives, freedom for one that disregards the freedom of others is certainly not freedom to the victims. No Victorian was ever at risk of starvation or something and what is appropriate for Cameroon or any other country is only relevant after considering all circumstances. If Cameroon is typical in Africa a less aggressive approach than Australia is probably appropriate because life expectancy is less and therefore much lower risk to general population and as you point out other considerations like food and general health care may be higher. I hope where ever you might be your country is doing the best it can under the circumstances considering the local situation. Do I have criticisms of other rich country for example the US with 300,000 excess expected deaths year to date,? Yes, it is not good however I do acknowledge the right of the US to make their own stupid decisions. I wish you the best , please take care.
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  1254.  chocolate milk  the life expectancy in your country is about 60 and obesity rate about 16% and GDP per capita is very low so based on all of that it's probably best your country focus on other things but offer strong health advice about protecting the elderly. Australia has 80+ years life expectancy and 30% obesity rate and very significantly higher GDP per capita so the government feeds the people so to speak if in lockdown. I don't disagree with your country's policy for your country and am unsure why you object to my country's policy on protecting it's citizens the best it can as your country appears to be doing.
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  1255.  chocolate milk  Just for future reference Australia is in the southern hemisphere unlike your country, look where South Africa is on a world map and then look to the east over the Indian Ocean and you will see Australia. Not so sure why you think Australia should change course and cause the deaths of 20,000 of it's citizens based on the USA data and to be blunt Trump seems to be a leader you would love with 300,000 excess deaths in this year so far under his presidency. In Australia outside of Victoria who is at the end stages of containing covid 19 there is no mask mandate anywhere that I am aware of but in my state of Queensland we are encouraged to wear one of sick and consider wearing one on public transportation for example. I wish the best for your country and would hope that your government tries to improve people's lives. The level of poverty makes it a lot harder of course and if corruption is a major problem which you are implying to an extent I hope it can improve and you get a government that isn't bad.
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  1256.  chocolate milk  just we know if the West Pacific region implemented Trump freedom policies 2,000,000 plus people would die in my region, what is difficult for you to understand? The effects of policy will kill knowingly so that is pretty direct.
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  1257.  chocolate milk  if you read all my comments I stated Cameroon should probably take a different approach due to demographics, I am unsure why you disagree when I am agreeing with you. I am also uncertain given the per capita gdp how travel restrictions affect Cameroonians should a border quarantine policy be introduced which is not going to happen anyway. Please stop with your moral superiority and accept some wealthy countries and 90% plus of the Australian population agree with current policies even if we don't agree with every single measure. We don't live in fear because protective measures are in place.
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  1258. @doof goobins 50% of the US population aren't "healthy", just counting fat people it's 36%. So to say only unhealthy or old should get the vaccine means actually everyone over 50 or so and a significant number below 50. If you're over 50 you'll have some condition or another.
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  1259.  @justpray365  The cartels buy there weapons in Texas, it's estimated 90% of illegal fire arms in Mexico originate from the US. As there's no gun register either in Texas or nationally anyone can just buy a gun and sell it to the cartels. I wouldn't be surprised in fact my guess is that the cartels own a few gun shops in Texas so they can launder money and have unlimited supplies of weapons which they sell to ghosts. Critical thinking is very high amongst some it seems. The US is arming the Mexican cartels probably through multiple channels, just as states like Texas arm the gangs in Chicago.
    1
  1260. Probably couldn't find survey results anywhere, should he just make up some numbers for countries?
    1
  1261.  @quintonliu1146  No they weren't, no New Zealand and had Sweden. For your info 5 eyes is US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
    1
  1262. So you support running up US government debt to help billionaires?
    1
  1263. He hasn't picked any family or extended family members? What's going on. He isn't going to follow a Trump tradition?
    1
  1264. You are a corn and soy socialist republic. That's about all you export to China and is subsidised. To demonstrate you are a reputable democracy the last thing that should happen is imprisonment of an opposition party, that's authoritarian dictatorship take over. Trump won in a legitimate election and now he has lost its that simple. Any state charges or charges relating to his business dealings will just continue on to conclusion , but forget about making him and associates political prisoners because what you say you don't want to be seen as you actually will be.
    1
  1265. The US has 5 times the homicide rate of the UK and in both cases borders open and disregard for life has killed about 0.2% of the population, of course this gathering should not have occured, killing another person in the name of Freedom is also wrong.
    1
  1266. Come out of house isn't defense, that's offence.
    1
  1267. Because they are often out of touch and have no idea what they are talking about, sort of like a king in a castle who thinks he knows how the peasants feel and what they want. The problem here is it's gone way beyond that to objecting to issues that are clear and should be non political like vaccines. Australia hasn't suffered this problem, our problem is a little different, success has reduced the desire to take vaccines because people see no point and the risk return individually is lower however I think vaccine hesitancy even under this different scenario is still less than the US, hard to know for sure because of our limited access to vaccines so far which is unlikely to change.
    1
  1268. It's about numbers. Trump believes he will lose less voters than he gains by doing this. He might be correct. So the question is how many Republican voters does he lose versus getting the entire white racist voting block. If he loses 2% and gains 4% then it's to his advantage. It doesn't mean the other voters are racist but they vote for him for other reasons.
    1
  1269.  @btd_blazeit123oof7  the US has about 5 times the homicide rate of comparable wealthy countries except for Canada which is about half as bad as the US. So the US is the most dangerous wealthy country and more dangerous than a lot of middle and low income countries.
    1
  1270. Unless Trump is impeached and found to be unfit for office he is all powerful especially with others, it's highly questionable that he can pardon himself but he can an will have a big pardon list on the 19th or on the morning of the 20th. I don't think it would be beyond Trumps moral values to pardon every single person who committed a crime including murder at the federal Capitol building. We have to wait and see and Republicans who are not going to remove him are complicit if it occurs because they are not stupid and know who he is.
    1
  1271. Search vaccine hesitancy rates and look at prepandemic statistics and it will move up your list.
    1
  1272. Thanks for your comment, that's exactly the impression I get. Yes Wuhan government do the wrong thing and the lockdown was too draconian initially which probably caused some deaths but at least it occured and the national government did something , including sacking the Wuhan government. Despite the comments and possibly excluding the US most people don't blame China. I am in Australia and we did the same things and got the same results. We do get called communist though because some American believe that containment of the virus is only for communists which is ridiculous, has nothing to do with politics or at least it shouldn't.
    1
  1273. Before people go crazy over Murdoch, Australia has less than 1 fifth of the homicide rate of the US, almost 5 years extra life expectancy, universal healthcare that's cheaper for the government than the non universal healthcare of the US. Don't blame one person, he doesn't control you and forgot the most relevant one covid 19 free and approximately 8% lower government deficit to GDP. Americans man the news desks at Fox and people sit up and listen , Australians man the news desk at Sky News Australia and we mostly ignore them. You can't blame others for the vulnerability of people not to make a judgement and being a blind follower. Murdoch media is far bigger in Australia as a proportion than the US and we are doing ok.
    1
  1274. I am not a parent but I would say it depends on circumstances. If your child and everyone in the household is healthy and not overweight or above 40 then the risk is low enough to take. But if your household has anyone not inside those parameters it's better to act with caution.
    1
  1275. To be fair consider how the US has behaved at least 2 states covering up numbers or delaying them. No proper reporting whatsoever of people catching covid 19 in hospitals. Not a cover up just check nothing and it doesn't exist.
    1
  1276. They don't watch this channel, have to wait until the great editorialist Tucker Carlson gets onto the matter.
    1
  1277.  @streamylc  Yes I'm from Australia, to sum up my point would be both sides of your politics accept extreme views which should never be accepted and the majority of Americans seem to be ok with this and their chosen side. I am uncertain why you mentioned socialism, both your political parties are protectionist at the moment, that's actually something they agree on and from an Australian point of view I think it's a bad idea, see Australia's ranking in the economic freedom index by Heritage Foundation compared to the US. I think you are well meaning but maybe unrealistic at the moment at least, the hope is something changes the direction of the US.
    1
  1278.  @streamylc  Actually your last explanation helps me understand where you are coming from. Anyway I wish you and your country the best, maybe something will happen that changes the general course of things, eventually something has to happen and I hope it's positive that's from 2 perspectives, for your country and for the world, a US collapse would have significant effects especially to do with China and Russia and their expansionary goals in my opinion.
    1
  1279.  @streamylc  thanks
    1
  1280. This is becoming like a few seasons of the apprentice rolled into one. Your fired is becoming a daily thing, no need to wait for new episodes.
    1
  1281. Actually you are wrong, it's the reaction and continued denials by 45% of sitting politicians which is the wake up call. January 6 event didn't happen according to almost half the country. The largest mainstream media company in the US also takes the line that nothing happened that day.
    1
  1282. It's true it's not the internet. Hitler and his counterparts in other countries never had the internet. The internet makes things really fast. Not all powerful people are bad though.
    1
  1283. I wonder that a little too, maybe because he is more open about it than they can find in the US, which is obviously the holy ground that Trump walks upon.
    1
  1284.  @rayskidmore1786  You never heard of Persian carpet or cats and also the misnamed Tahitian lime actually came from Persia. So you can sit on a beautiful carpet stroking your beautiful cat while having a refreshing drink. I am sure other things too.
    1
  1285. It's not racist it's nationalist. Previously viruses were often named by there place of discovery. Queensland Australia we have 2 , Ross River fever, a mosquito born disease that occasionally kills people and the far more deadly Hendra Virus a suburb of Brisbane. This virus has infected people going from bat to horse to human, no known cases of human to human transmission and mortality rate in the range of avian flu or Ebola although due to the very low case numbers it might not be accurate although the mortality of horses was in the same range. Hendra has a horse race track that's why a suburban setting was a relatively major outbreak place.
    1
  1286.  @jocelynstuff1947  That's not true a virus can become more or less deadly as long as it doesn't become too deadly. Have you ever heard of Flu pandemics that kill more than usual numbers of people, well that's a virus becoming more deadly.
    1
  1287.  @JaayTea2595  China did alert the world with the Wuhan lockdown in January, however I agree with the statement towards the end if they had been transparent at least some other countries would have taken it more seriously. I think the West Pacific countries ex mainland China were very transparent and also willing to tell of errors which we all learned from creating relative success.
    1
  1288.  @sophiawilson8696  Wuhan lockdown was 23 January so what are you talking about, cases were discovered outside of China in many countries by 21 January, so every reasonable person knew it was dangerous and already here in any medium or large country.
    1
  1289.  @CJDcow  Huh what are you talking about, what does Trump's domestic failures resulting in his election loss have to do with anything? Biden wasn't running to be president of China so not sure how anything relates.
    1
  1290. So Alabama and Mississippi are lefty states are they? Check out their deaths per million.
    1
  1291. You like the seen but not heard approach. That's what my mum said of me when I was a kid.
    1
  1292. If you've ever read the disclosure statement for an investment fund it always says "past performance doesn't predict future performance" , same applies here, just because the Democrats haven't done it yet doesn't mean that a future or even the current Democrat leader won't do it. Go back 30 or 40 years and nobody would have predicted what happened during and after the 2020 presidential election.
    1
  1293. Delta isn't gone and it's the main killer at the moment. Think of Delta like a mass shooting at a school and Omicron is like an annoying teacher or something telling kids to do homework and all that.
    1
  1294. More peaceful in a sense yes but actually more disruptive, shutting down 20% of an entire country's trade is bigger than most trade sanctions countries get put under. This is the equivalent of the trade sanctions against Cuba. If it goes on for a month hundreds of thousands of workers out of a job and both US and Canada going down at a rapid rate and running up wartime style government deficits, crime on the increase , suicides increasing etc. make no mistake how disruptive this is.
    1
  1295.  @UrbanLikwid  how about the million lives lost from the bungled covid 19 response? To be fair 900,000 because about 100,000 unavoidable in the US situation. Million is the CDC excess deaths which Jan 6 and BLM riots in some areas had an infinitesimally small contribution. Having hundreds of thousands out of work causes more suicides and domestic violence and possibly homicide. There is cause and effect and shutting down significant proportions of economies does kill people indirectly.
    1
  1296. Does Biden control the weather now, that's really impressive. Let's see if he can stop tornadoes and hurricanes to show it wasn't a fluke.
    1
  1297.  @kelperdude  I know Biden did and that cold snap in your country would qualify as a dark winter I am thinking.
    1
  1298. Yes of course but like China they are untouchable. China is creating it's own enemies without the help of the US.
    1
  1299. 26k comments at the moment i post this . Wholly hell
    1
  1300. There are about 600 million people living on about $5 USD per day as of last year in China according to the Chinese Communist Party and they are totally confused like you, the party has about a 90% approval rating and there are 100 billionaires in their parliament. A US Republican Party dream.
    1
  1301.  @nikhilnewse3318  are you calling Fox News a Democrat controlled organization, interesting take on the matter for the most watched news source. I was referring to Republican Billionaires who do want to keep wages low and crush unions etc. just like they do in China. It's good to know some US Billionaires believe in treating the less well off better or you would become like China in 5 minutes given the amount of control lobby groups have in Washington.
    1
  1302. As was stated it's already "infringed" last time was by Reagan banning automatic weapons.
    1
  1303. Deaths per capita not per case , maybe the gentleman should have a look at US versus Japan in this regard. It's a hundredfold difference.
    1
  1304. You can't undo the vaccines and unless a variant evades the vaccines at least deaths down to about 700 per day, can't go much lower (seasonally adjusted to some extent) if more people don't get vaccinated .
    1
  1305. They are lonely being the only "blue state" completely surrounded by red states.
    1
  1306. Everyone's missing the point , a government agency not connected to any political party so truly independent should be doing it.
    1
  1307.  @justingates4985  Nothing to do with capitalism, look at the top 4 jurisdictions in the economic freedom index all have done well with covid 19 , the next 6 of the top 10 haven't done so well. It's true that communist countries have also done well regarding covid 19, I would suggest covid 19 doesn't care for politics, but can spread easily is a country with certain areas of disfunction.
    1
  1308. The "war" was not a hot one, but hearts and minds, of course lost big time and I agree with you, no other choice. Now have to wait and see if the Taliban keeps it's word and how the changing of the guard to China plays out.
    1
  1309. I don't think it costs anything extra, the staff already getting paid. Might as well give them something to do. Maybe it'll save money if less traveling.
    1
  1310. Georgia looks very lonely with no friendly neighbors.
    1
  1311. From my understanding you have 4 police forces, the US literally has thousands, probably the only country in the world where local governments control and largely fund police and it just doesn't work. Of course needs some sort of national register which again probably exists in every other country in the world.
    1
  1312. There was a youngish black guy in the mix. No while some of the mob were certainly racists there were plenty that weren't. Race should be ignored because what can occur now if authorities think like that is a potential terrorist will be missed because wrong profile.
    1
  1313. That he's an Aussie or that he is a migrant from South Asia? It's said that 63% of Qanon supporters in the US are white, as the population is 70% white , if the numbers are correct then minority groups are actually over represented but only by a small margin. Qanon is an equal opportunity cult, if nothing else at least they aren't racist.
    1
  1314. To get to 90% celebrating needs a lot of non christians yet some of those christians still scared. What do they want?
    1
  1315. What amazes me is this was a problem in the 80s in Australia now we have independent electoral commissions for each state plus for the national government. How do you still have this problem in 2020? It's like the US just refuses to change.
    1
  1316.  @lazarmarinkovic7611  It shows he is of poor character, would Serbia want Australian to enter who breaks health directives which can kill people? Can anyone enter Serbia and lie on the visa application and nobody cares? Based on your question to me why should you care whether or not Australia let's your citizen enter Australia.
    1
  1317.  @tromblon1  Novak seems like a generous guy so shouldn't take that away from him but that doesn't entitle him to ignore the law otherwise every billionaire would be completely above the law, they just have to donate something. In reality very rich people while not being above the law have means that normal people don't have, if Novak was just an average tourist coming from Serbia he would be gone already, need 10s of thousands if not more than $100,000 to make court challenges.
    1
  1318.  @lazarmarinkovic7611  Australia isn't his country , what on earth are you talking about. Also read my last comment , I said in response to another he seems generous but that is no excuse for other behaviour, they have nothing to do with each other. If you think he is owed a status above the law due to generosity then it's not a gift but buying privilege, I prefer to think he's a generous guy and it was a gift without conditions.
    1
  1319.  @lazarmarinkovic7611  Novak has acknowledged that his entry declaration was a lie about not being in any country other than Spain for 14 days, but blamed his staff and he has also admitted he broke quarantine in Serbia. The previous judgement had nothing to do with these 2 issues which were discovered after and by the media I believe. Novak has accepted he has done wrong but instead of apologizing profusely offering to pay maximum fine and begging to stay with a full apology to the Australian public he thinks it's all ok and will fight legally. That's his choice but he can't expect Australian people's sentiment to support him. If an Australian got caught crossing an internal border and lying on the declaration regarding covid 19 restrictions they got a fine or prison. Novak isn't being treated any more harsh than any Australian but his sense of entitlement is off the charts.
    1
  1320.  @lazarmarinkovic7611  breaking quarantine could kill someone, you do realise the purpose of quarantine right. That is bad character. Would you want Australians who have no regard for anyone entering Serbia? But the border declaration as I said was a lie. You agree with Novak's absolute sense of entitlement and that's your personal opinion even to the point apparently breaking the law in Serbia which could kill someone is totally ok as long as you are a tennis star. You said he donated for the covid 19 response in Serbia , so theirs no excuse he didn't realise the problems with the virus even if he is an antivaxxer.
    1
  1321.  @deborahfreedman333  My comment wasn't as clear as it could have been, I mean people who have gone to hospital for one reason not being covid 19 and coming out in a body bag because of catching covid 19 in the hospital and dying because of it and of course if they are in hospital they will almost definitely have health problems to begin with. 0 cases of this have been confirmed in the US and if anyone believes that 0 cases of that occurred they are misguided. Even Vietnam was more open about this occurring.
    1
  1322. 500,000 dead, the plan worked. If the plan was to allow that many to die with a federal government deficit one of the highest in the world at about 16% of GDP for calendar year 2020 it was hardly a plan.
    1
  1323.  @someonenew3547  Every US state has large numbers, you don't get to be top 10 deaths per million in the world without a lot of failure. Keep pointing fingers that'll solve the problems.
    1
  1324. Normally I like Dr Gupta but he seems completely ignorant to the measures taken in different WHO regions. PAHO Pan-American Health Organization region and European WHO region both had a policy of open borders and no quarantine only some voluntary scheme, it's not rocket science to work out under such circumstances the virus will spread and in the Western Pacific region of WHO of which I am a part of in Australia the deaths per Capita from covid 19 even if you exclude China is less than 10% of the aforementioned regions, quarantine at the border and for infected individuals works and lockdowns as required , the evidence is overwhelming. However Delta changed things significantly because of its extreme transmissibility so many countries lost control when it gained a footing.
    1
  1325.  @subtle_duckness2623  fair enough, the cases in the following countries were greater than the US or any European countries as of 20 February, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Australia and China. Ok I didn't manage to get 5 with 20 cases or less per day unless you consider Taiwan a separate country to China so up to you if you delete post. You might notice a higher number of new cases in Australia and China however these are because of imported cases and China it's usually 0 for community transmission internally and Australia it's a mix but the internal transmission cases are less than 20.
    1
  1326.  @ianrichie7746  there are actually many island nation's that have no cases but fairly small populations. You could go to Thailand they are opening up for tourists but I have seen the quarantine system and it looks like they might get some outbreaks because too relaxed , which of course can change the rules.
    1
  1327.  @subtle_duckness2623  if you search covid 19 time lapse you will have some videos come up and one of them I found shows a graph with case numbers by country.
    1
  1328. I think things much more simple than that right now, China just wants some discount stuff. Food is an international commodity, cheapest is best, iron ore and coal the cost in most cases delivering to market in China from Russia far more expensive and takes years to build the necessary rail infrastructure. They want cheap oil, gas and food while they can get it, simple as that and Putin being in a weak but strong as in can control what happens makes Russia the perfect victim for now.
    1
  1329. This is different to McConnell and Barr, who haven't made any claims and have acted in the best interest of the US by making sure a process occurs that will satisfy at least some Trump supporters. What Pompeo has just done the opposite so when as likely is the case and all legal avenues exhausted he will then be seen as someone like Trump who keeps Trump supporters thinking they have been duped. This is bad based on my observation from afar.
    1
  1330. I think you are wrong because the longer a person takes to achieve the ultimate aim of being a Prime Minister or President depending on the system of government the better they tend to perform and surprise because of all the experience and mistakes they have personally made over the years and they also know where the biggest problems are that need fixing. Hopefully you are not correct because having both US political parties be in complete disarray is good for no one.
    1
  1331. People protest against their own government normally and since governments are opposed to this unlike the mixed messages with Israel who exactly would the protestors be protesting against, no point protesting against China, it's not like the protest will be broadcast inside China.
    1
  1332.  @Raviraj-dc5mh  Muslim countries if you are talking about them have their own problems and are poor or authoritarian themselves. You can't expect them to care really especially as in some cases their own country even worse like Syria or Afghanistan, it's up to the middle class in the wealthy democracies of the world.
    1
  1333.  common since  the US is currently equal fifth with 2 other countries for deaths per capita of total population from covid 19 and when it's looked at objectively has a bipartisan approach of open borders and voluntary quarantine in all cases. Maybe your media should do a non partisan story of 1 year of absolute failure but not going to be popular because everyone will look bad. Cover ups are the next best thing I guess and it shows intent rather than intent plus absolute incompetence and disfunction of the US. It's my personal opinion an in depth story covering all failures with this situation for Americans to get rid of "American exceptionalism" wouldn't be a bad thing. American exceptionalism is really bad in my opinion, homicide rates , life expectancy, poverty of bottom 20% of population etc. etc. is all excused because you are exceptional and don't need to look outside the US for what might work better. I am Australian and I probably offended you but the US really needs a wake-up call of some sort. Edit: maybe "American Exceptionalism" could be the title of the documentary.
    1
  1334. We don't know Chinese Communist Party is a secretive organization, they don't even release the number of people they kill via the death penalty.
    1
  1335.  @lingard1744  proof of what? All I stated was CPC is secretive and doesn't even advise how many people are killed by death penalty. Is there something incorrect in what I say?
    1
  1336.  @lingard1744  did I say anything about genocide, no point talking to you, I am sorry but you have decided to do my thinking for me and present my arguments, please continue to do this , you don't require me.
    1
  1337. What do you mean cases too low? That's a strange statement, if you contain a virus and stop it spreading it goes away.
    1
  1338. Problem is 1% already cut off from the presidential election, those citizens that live in Puerto Rico.
    1
  1339. Being the most violent wealthy country by a factor of 5 based on homicides you're going to have to do a lot of talking and thinking. The answer is actually all around you in every other wealthy nation. Consider that you also have the title of the most people in prison for a wealthy nation and almost all nations. So just locking people up isn't working. More consistent handouts for the needy including ex felons because in many states they get out of prison get no support and then of course commit a crime sometimes intentionally to go straight back in. Universal healthcare wouldn't be a bad idea and it can be cheaper than your current publically funded healthcare which is more expensive than Australia's genuine universal healthcare. Change to an egalitarian society, not sure how that could occur but at the moment the US certainly isn't that, wealth and privilege are seen as something to be looked up to and if they do the wrong thing that's considered ok, poor people tend to beat on other poor people as a rule. Just a couple of ideas.
    1
  1340. I think what Fareed said here pretty much sums up US political doctrine. While every country has the same issue the US seems incapable of change, it doesn't matter how bad the situation gets for example with inner city crime , nothing gets done, to clean up crime there will be some innocent victims, so instead 20 or so inner cities have homicide rates above 20 per hundred thousand and nothing gets done other than let's have less police from the left and let's just keep them out of the suburbs on the right. Neither side has any credible plan, it's like people in those areas have been abandoned. 20 per hundred thousand homicide rate doesn't look good in a poor corrupt developing country.
    1
  1341. The deaths start to lower or increase about a month after a health measure (such as bars opening or closing for an example that has a dramatic effect) is put into force or removed and continue for another month or so after the effects are first noticed. See Victoria Australia as a good case study on what occurs with good testing numbers giving as accurate a picture as can be done. Of course consider number of nursing home outbreaks as this is the worst setting.
    1
  1342.  @787UrbanApparel  One can see if someone wears a mask, pretty hard to verify if someone is wearing a condom.
    1
  1343.  @787UrbanApparel  you're the one who brought up the condom issue and although can't cheat death there's no reason to have everyone run towards it. I was pointing out that people wearing condoms is rather different and as long as it's consensual completely different. You not wearing a mask can kill another who didn't consent to the risk. Anyway time will tell if Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand have chosen the correct path of containment as recommended by WHO or pretty much all others who have the technical capability who have chosen a different path. I love the idea of freedom that exists in these countries with tight restrictions when required and far lower restrictions overall.
    1
  1344.  @787UrbanApparel  I am Australian, our country made the choice of containment. Assuming you're from the US your country decided no containment was necessary. I don't expect or think it's possible at this stage due to political reasons for the US to change it's course. Masks are the last line of defense after all other things have failed although can assist in slowing any outbreak but in it of itself will never contain the virus. The US as you know is relying on a vaccine as is every country to get back to normal, if that doesn't occur there is still a very long way to go of more of the same.
    1
  1345.  Calvin Parish  You completely miss the point you are probably one of these folks shouting fake news when listening to editorial opinion which isn't news. When Don Lemon or Tucker Carlson are not news presenters and there opinions in both cases are for the most part highly biased. With the news itself CNN and FOX being at opposite ends of the spectrum what they both regularly do is report stories with improper context so they don't lie they just forget to mention something important and highly relevant. It backfires though quite often , for example playing the race card continuously isn't helpful especially if people listen to it too much, the insurrectionists had some racists in the mix , however it appeared to me the majority probably weren't and yes ethnic minorities of all shapes and sizes were involved. According to some poll Qanon supporters of whom most will support Trump has 63% white non Hispanic meaning actually in this group non white people are over represented. Trump actually saw small improvements in his relative vote in predominantly black inner city areas, it's been suggested it was to do with defund the police however could it be Qanon supporters actually.
    1
  1346. Soft is the wrong word, why are some paranoid about the vaccines? Well you take a natural fear and have influential people exacerbate that fear and or belief in conspiracy theories. To use a natural example is a big snake or a mosquito more scary? Based on our instinct the big snake is more scary but in reality the mosquito is far more dangerous, in almost all cases of snake bit fatalities you need to step on the thing or disrupt a log or something it's sleeping under, mosquitoes just keep coming for you no matter what and carry various diseases.
    1
  1347.  @edmaphis9805  So you are suggesting that the mostly Republicans and black people are following the Democrats and not trusting the vaccines because Trump apparently promoted them. This doesn't make sense , I thought Republicans trusted Trump and they're still the same vaccines.
    1
  1348. On a different subject the aerial view of the protests all bunched together just feet away everyone practicing perfect social distancing on the baseball field.
    1
  1349. Even if you don't like the guy he is doing the right thing. Wait a week and Barr can and as far as we know will come back in a week or so stating no significant issues that would change the result have been found. If he doesn't do this Trump supporters will be less likely to accept the outcome.
    1
  1350.  @mantis10_surf85  Wrong sunshine state.
    1
  1351. In countries with a prime minister they can be removed any time, who cares about a glorified backbencher?
    1
  1352. That's what Trump said in an interview. It is quite funny though.
    1
  1353. To me it looks like some Republicans are using the excuse of the lawyers to not directly go against Trump. Maybe a couple more will follow with the actual impeachment process , not acknowledge that Trump is guilty but vote in favor based on the legal arguments presented, blame the legal team. It doesn't matter who the legal team is actually, everyone knows Trump used the same language as militias use, yes those groups who say they are there to overthrow governments if they think they are tyrannical, they never actually use the words not elected fairly, they are not in favor of democracy actually despite their misguided and possibly dishonest interpretation of the constitution. The founding fathers didn't create the second amendment so that if someone is unhappy with the government you can just seize power. It says in the preamble of the second amendment " a well regulated militia" that means the government controls the militia not the other way around.
    1
  1354.  @NIGHTHAWK-8050  how do you know someone will kill you on your behalf?
    1
  1355. The pillow guy believed his own BS I think so not a sociopath, just crazy. This fellow could be a psychopath if he doesn't believe what he is saying or just crazy like the pillow guy if he does.
    1
  1356. Well the UK has about half the new cases per population compared to the US, we will see how both countries go over the next two months or so.
    1
  1357. But you're number 1 for homicides for a high income country.
    1
  1358. Yes our region did the right thing. It's funny and sad at the same time the behaviour especially of the US, all the Trump supporters and other antivaxxers turned on Australia but now they are going silent. There's far softer rhetoric about Europe for some reason. I think you should open your border however because your vaccination rate is really high and it's summer, opening in April as the weather starts to cool is more risky in my opinion.
    1
  1359. Then how did Japan , Taiwan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand come out so good. My country Australia is having problems in one state now but we are not in denial and know how bad it could become.
    1
  1360.  @mypillowguy445  now, if they had access to CNN or Fox or any other news network everyone new on 20 January when Wuhan was locked down. This is not in dispute. Cases had already been found outside of China at that point in time so it was also known with a high degree of probability that there would be infections in the US.
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  1361.  @spzaruba5089  it's unfortunate that the political duopoly in the US is totally disfunctional. Both political parties in the US are behaving like spoilt children ( not saying all politicians are bad). If your point is regardless whether Democrats or Republicans were dealing with this issue failure was inevitable I think you have a point. Really the US needs a new constitution. The electoral college is hated by many and you elect a quasi king or queen. Under the Westminster system a government is made up of elected people and nobody has real power. In the US system the President (quasi king) runs the entire government choosing usually unelected officials to be secretaries (ministers). 200 years ago this was probably the best democratic system available like a Model T Ford of it's day, versus a Ferrari of today. Extreme left and right inhabit your duopoly of political parties because other parties are effectively excluded. Your Federation of state versus federal responsibilities is not clear and there is a heap of overlap which is completely inefficient. Just some food for thought for you.
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  1362.  @generalfluffyproto  It doesn't show what you assert of a cover-up of the pandemic but a cover-up of the problems they faced and the failures at the time.
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  1363. The behaviour of people can be very localised. Anywhere there is a single racial group and especially if lower socio economic demographic people will be more racist.
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  1364. Trump is genuine threat to democracy around the world, first he gave the biggest boost ever to the CPC by failures in the US on Covid 19 and his ranting and raving. China would privately like Trump being in power for that reason. Whether good or not many countries look to the US not elsewhere when it comes to democracy and currently it doesn't look as attractive based on that one country. It's also a high risk Trump comes back in 2024, the steady decline of the US will likely continue under the Democrats and Chinese economy will be pretty close to overtaking the US in 4 years and for reasons of jealousy this will annoy many Trump supporters even though average wealth of Americans will still be 3 times that of China. It's like they want others stay poor. Hoping Trump isn't back in 4 years for your country, he will likely just accelerate government debt again to create another artificial boom being the biggest non war time raiser of debt in your history.
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  1365. Hispanic just means heritage from Spanish or actually Portuguese speaking ex colonies usually. Got nothing to do with race and it's also personal identity, grandchildren of such migrants mostly just call themselves American and probably black or white or whatever.
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  1366. Sorry mate but the trolls are almost exclusively isolationist Americans who don't believe in allies. There's a good chunk of them over there. Fortunately Biden isn't the same as the former president.
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  1367.  @CommaCam  Look at the comments on the Fox News clip of the same thing and to give them credit they showed the whole thing not just Biden and the comments are consistent to the comments here in my opinion.
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  1368.  @CommaCam  I'll agree on one thing there's going to be some foreigners in the comments section. By foreigner I mean not from US or UK or Australia in this case because involves our 3 countries.
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  1369. If only Geobbels worked for a different organization. He was a smart guy ahead of his time actually.
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  1370. How so, CNN hasn't made any prediction?
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  1371. I would add one more thing to your list, functional government. To give one example comparing to Australia the US spends more per Capita on publically funded healthcare than Australia yet your healthcare system isn't universal. You are right about freetrade and especially in the context of your other problems with neighbors to your south, stop importing people for cheap labor and trade with those countries instead, let their economies rise up which is more humane than continuously removing their middle class for unskilled labor. I see the bleeding hearts not realizing the damage this is doing and very unpopular amongst low skilled workers in the US.
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  1372. Hopefully nobody is developing biological weapons, all you need to do is infect a few staffers in the Whitehouse and they will distribute the weapon willingly throughout the country.
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  1373. Because evidence suggests it increases protection, he used the term "wicked protected".
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  1374. Sawadee
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  1375. Normally only dignatories view the popular events anyway, normal people are virtually locked out so TV is the best option if you want to see some event.
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  1376. Your first 2 points are completely irrelevant, your third point might have some relevance in whether Trump was aware of his actions which of course he is claiming to be unaware of. I think showing posts on his youtube channel with people talking of armed civil war if Trump isn't reinstalled could be helpful because wouldn't someone be monitoring his social media.
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  1377. So is their age and life expectancy, did you want a 20 minute interview? Not many would watch it because attention spans these days are low.
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  1378. How come Americans use crap fuel? That clip showing the gas pump called Octane 91 premium and all the other choices were worse. In Australia Octane 91 is regular and the lowest grade and premium is Octane 98.
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  1379. Things change. If you want to go back 200 years slavery was universally accepted, in various forms.
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  1380.  @ronvara2929  Are you kidding, a country that practiced binding women's feet , ok China is Utopia the only heaven on earth. There are even photographs of this so not exactly ancient China. Slavery was outlawed in 1910 in China but since slavery didn't exist why was the law made?
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  1381.  @frankblangeard8865  I am Australian , just saying things change.
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  1382.  @ronvara2929  ok fair enough a 10 year old girl would choose to cripple themselves. Yeah to 19th century China the only free country.
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  1383. So Trump has moved to the back of the herd again, now he isn't even the leader of the sheep or the shepherd , he just follows the sheep now.
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  1384.  @dorianshadesofgray  that's because of lockdown, look at Mississippi and Alabama with much higher vaccination rates than anywhere in Australia and they have a lot of natural immunity on top of that. NSW and VIC would make Mississippi and Alabama look pretty good if the virus was let rip.
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  1385.  @istvanglock7445  Another Australian here and whether or not Boris Johnson is good , he certainly shouldn't be compared to Trump, Trump is in a league of his own for a liberal democracy (ex) leader. Viewing from Australia of course the UK government stuffed up covid 19 as bad as the US however Johnson never told people it's less deadly than the flu and virtually suggesting people get infected. He has compassion if nothing else which can't be said of Trump and haven't heard of him attacking Australia on anything, Trump was a nationalist who insulted all nations friend or foe. I agree the vaccine rollout looks better in the UK than EU and US. Maybe not a high bar to reach but better than nothing, same goes for finally having hotel quarantine, poorly executed, not comprehensive and 10 months too late but better than the US situation. Time will tell I guess if the UK vaccine strategy works better than the US , my thinking is it won't be worse and might be better.
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  1386. 95% approximately
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  1387.  @JohnFreedman0  I don't know much about Canada other than when it comes to trade you have a temperamental unpredictable neighbor. Trump whacks tariffs on you and now back to the on again off again pipeline, it's a bit like that massive Russian pipeline with a couple of kms to finish. I don't understand why the US and Canada at least don't have completely free trade, under the CPTPP and the Australian-US FTA you both would appear to have a freer trading position with Australia than with each other. That trio at the top of the economic freedom index are aggressive free trade advocates, we keep trying to stack deal after deal on top of each other, so virtually impossible to unravel, between the 3 of us we literally have 4 different free trade agreements stacked on top of each other, a bilateral one with each and 3 multilateral agreements on top.
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  1388.  @JohnFreedman0  OK so the silly trade things are 2 sided, both Canada and the US seem similar towards each other. Looking at the WIKI page on Canada , you have quite a few free trade agreements, China not being on the list is notable though and the FTA with the US as you describe isn't as good as it could be. Anyway best of luck particularly with your big neighbor.
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  1389. Yep unless it's all semiautomatic weapons it's going to keep happening, it's true handguns because of much lower velocities might not kill the targets as easy but really to these gunmen that's usually not an issue, they just keep shooting targets until they stop moving even with the more powerful weapons and usually have heaps of ammo remaining because it's difficult in the school setting to get into multiple class rooms usually.
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  1390. I don't think so, it would actually be the closest he has come to conceding if it occurs.
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  1391. This is an example of the worst part of US racism, all whites are guilty if they don't kill white suspects who most likely didn't resist arrest. There are about 10 examples per year of both white and black people who are unarmed being killed by police for whatever reason. White people and Black people in the US commit approximately the same number of homicides and therefore encounter the police by number of individuals about the same number of times. Until you accept facts and stop acting as if every white person should be killed nothing will ever change , just as you are a significant cause for Trump supporters because poor white folk are guilty from the day they are born , Trump is the best thing in propaganda terms that ever happened to the CPC of China. I am not American but can see , my own country isn't where you are but at risk, when people act with such intolerance as you do.
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  1392.  @chrisquinn394  I don't think your assessment of getting milder is correct, back in the 1918 pandemic you either died or got immunity, so it was more a case of the population getting stronger at fighting it not the mutations. Flu pandemics in 50s and 60s actually killed a lot of people so viruses can mutate to more deadly. We don't know what the variant after omicron might be maybe it's more deadly but as more of the population has immunity through vaccination or natural infection it might appear less deadly, but an unvaccinated person with no history of infection might be at higher risk than with Omicron.
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  1393.  @chrisquinn394  Yes I didn't say it was your random opinion , just that the evidence actually doesn't point in that direction as I explained. Everytime there's a bad flu year the mutation is bad and more deadly. The virus will stay within a sweet spot or a range on the deadly scale but it will go up and down within that range. Covid 19 started off within that range clearly and hasn't moved outside that range although Delta has been more deadly compared to the original Wuhan variant to younger groups mostly through ability to infect it seems. The theory of becoming less deadly only if it goes way outside the range, if a variant started to kill 10% of people guaranteed actions would be taken to make sure it's stopped no matter how hard those actions would be. In the current situation killing about 1% of infected not accounting for age many politicians don't care and think letting it spread is ok.
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  1394. Smerconish doesn't understand the word exotic, it means foreign, don't think they travelled internationally.
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  1395. He didn't have to go to Trump rallies, the internet meant half a world away he could become a "member" .
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  1396. Sad to know it was a Ukrainian plane.
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  1397. If you take the 5 richest US citizens, I am pretty certain 3 will definitely vote to increase taxes on themselves and 2 could vote either way. Truth is the money has to come from somewhere and Trump's massive deficit spending leaves no choice but to do something. There are some billionaires who are driven by pure greed but I think you would find most aren't and can understand the situation of the country and will vote according to what they think is best for the country , whichever way they choose to vote in this election.
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  1398.  @jesserotnak7324  Why not? I am not pretending to be American, quite happy for you to comment on Australian issues if you want to. I think it's good to get perspectives from everywhere, but preferably should be respectful.
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  1399. The US is a strange beast, the most violent by far wealthy country in the world based on homicides and a call for less police. Overwhelming force as in numbers without the militarisation of police is what's needed. Chicago has a clearance rate on homicides of about 50% or at least that's what it was. So a professional killer as in a hit man would probably never get caught , the police appear too busy or something. One thing I think is a big issue is many police forces in the US are too small to be viable and the elected Sheriff situation, an elected Sheriff would find it hard to prosecute his or her donors. Anyway I have rambled a bit , if you are American best of luck, hopefully one day things will be sorted out.
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  1400. Have you ever heard of the Vietnam War. Ukraine has approximately the same population as Vietnam had 50 or so years ago, US troop numbers peaked at over 500,000 and that's not counting other allies including South Vietnamese. How did that war go with the US having far higher troop numbers than Russia has now.
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  1401. So some Canadians support their own destruction. Everyone wants restrictions eased and you indicate a slight majority think that should occur now. Do Canadians believe in open borders now? Very interesting that you don't believe a country has the right to restrict entry to whomever they want on the conditions they want. People crossing the Mexican border should just go straight to Canada now, that's apparently what Canadians want or haven't they thought this through.
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  1402.  @369universal4  To the 60,000 extra Canadian alive now due to the governments actions it does matter even if they don't know it.
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  1403. No need to be embarrassed, all countries have people do and say silly things.
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  1404.  @quid-pro-quojoe_4969  Are you joking ? Maybe 1,000 cases came from China that's whether travel ban or no travel ban. The US managed to breed the virus to infect whatever million we are up to now. If one case got in it would still be the same as 10,000 cases getting in with no plan.
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  1405. There are over 2 million foreign workers. It's not a lot, however it depends on how they died and they wouldn't as a rule be old because they are still working.
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  1406. No the PCR test detects all covid. A genomic test is required to determine strain and the US doesn't do this testing to use Fauci's words as much as they would like and hopefully can improve on that. Extremely likely all strains are inside the US, still no quarantine at the border only a voluntary scheme pretty much guarantees this.
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  1407.  @sonicspeed9164  That's great Trump involved in executive orders paying for the vaccines, pity his followers don't trust the vaccines and by extension Trump.
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  1408. I think there is a long goal here too, make it so no building owner dare rent to media because you could lose everything. It's apparently not the only building housing media to have been targeted.
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  1409. That's not true, look at Lincoln Project and Republican voters against Trump. I would encourage you to look at Lincoln Project's youtube channel, some pretty hard hitting ads of the style of Trump himself.
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  1410. Fox doesn't lie on facts actually but does use omission sometimes like CNN to give a slant. Editorial content however is something different and it's a pity many people don't understand the difference. If you watch the news on one particular issue as reported from CNN and FOX and you combine the information in the case one or both put a slant on it you will get a pretty accurate and complete picture.
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  1411. It doesn't stop them breeding because it mostly kills older people, so I don't get your logic.
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  1412. Maybe a bad idea but it went nowhere other than maybe 2 or 3 jurisdictions out of thousands and the majority of Democrats don't support it anyway although they could have spoken up a bit more.
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  1413. Yep I am a globalist deep state operator or on the other hand a bored keyboard warrior , it's up to others to decide.
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  1414.  @kemartyndall1800  ok I can be both LoL
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  1415. When is the GOP going declare the "War on Puppets"?
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