You have to take into account of the population difference (AUS ~25.6 mil vs USA. ~328.5mil), standard of living, GDP, taxation, etc. etc. to make a fair comparison. Going by a straight currency exchange & population diff. of 1 AUD = ~ .73 USD, a very generalized equivalent would be about asking a 3.7~3.8 trillion war chest budget for the USA.

Surprise! Cosby was released from prison today after the state supreme court overturned his conviction.
They said the agreement from 2005 to not prosecute him in exchange for his testimony in civil trials was valid, and when the DA's successor charged him it violated his civil rights. He served 3 years of his 3-10 year sentence.

To be totally honest, I'm disappointed the national guard didn't show up 30 minutes in guns blazing, wounding every person who had smashed their way in. I didn't cheer it, but I was extremely relieved when the police finally seemed to start fighting back instead of just stepping aside for the coup....but I certainly don't represent Democrats or any group.

Just like I'm disappointed we are ignoring our treaty with the Ukraine in which we agreed to defend them militarily from any invasion in exchange for them surrendering their nuclear weapon stockpile. We welched on our clear responsibility to defend them with force, just as the police and guard welched on their responsibilities to defend the building and representatives with deadly force, imo.
Many reports indicate that was following an executive order, or really an unofficial order from the executive (a distinction without a difference), but that's no excuse true or not.

What's with the trampled fence? Were these protestors in a fenced off interstate highway exchange?

I meant the start and stop year are each off by 1.

Circumstantially it looks like maybe her mom called Larry King Live to ask for guidance way back in 1993 (the content of the exchange matches, as does the date, but no names were given). Could be unrelated.
Supposedly neighbors were told. Again, who knows.

If zero corroboration was good enough for Ford (Named first hand witnesses said they remember nothing of the sort), then maybe it's only fair to give Reade the same benefit of the doubt?
The double standard is quite conspicuous.

Personally, I wouldn't condemn anyone without physical measurable evidence on which to decide. Talk is cheap.

Maybe she does exaggerate. She wouldn't be the first.

-scheherazade

Chris D'elia people release emails that paint somewhat a different story to what has been recently reported. https://pagesix.com/2020/06/24/chris-delias-team-releases-comedians-email-exchanges-with-accusers/

Whoa whoa whoa whoah now what are you talking about?

Are you suggesting that when I said "I would like you to do us a favor though" that I was asking you to do something in exchange for something else? How silly it is to think that!

Your republican colleagues all made it very clear for roughly 12 hours of testimony that when that phrase is used that nothing is expected in return. I thought you said you had an objective view on all of this, that you weren't just buying into a bunch of bullshit.

So which is it? Does the phrase "I would like you to do us a favor though" mean that someone wants something in exchange for something else? or does it not.

Wait, don't answer that. I think your reaction speaks for itself. Thanks for at taking the bait at least. Trump wanted an investigation into a political opponent, the word "though" is the part that makes it conditional. It's nice to see your true colors for a change.

Got me on the ice one. I knew salt water would be more dense, but I mistakenly assumed that would mean a faster heat exchange. I didn't consider it might create a halocline strong enough to create an inverted thermocline.

Lol. Oh Bob. I see you didn't get that help you are crying out for.

Schiff isn't the one saying it.
It's the over a dozen Trump administration officials, you know, like the people who gave him a million dollars towards his election campaign to then be installed in his cabinet with zero experience, people that he now calls never trumpers...them, and idiot Trump himself who released a heavily redacted call summary, called it a transcript, and inexplicably left in the parts where he insisted on investigations into political rivals (and no one else) in exchange for releasing congressionally approved aid.

If Trump drained the swamp, it was only to turn it into the world's largest and most ecologically disastrous sewage holding pond.

Great job? On what? Destroying our international standing and standards? There he IS simply the best. Sucking up and capitulating to our enemies while abandoning and distancing our allies? Yep, better than all the rest. Lying to the American people? Better than anyone else. Running a criminal administration for his personal enrichment? No one else could pass the test.

If you call his disastrous work a "great job", what will you call his removal? The best job ever? You are so delusional that just last week you claimed Republicans run the house and Democrats run the Senate so you could blame our badly flawed paperless voting system on those evil Senate Democrats. *facepalm

Wasted billions on 70 miles of new wall.....that's really replacement fence that can be cut through in under a minute with a reciprocating saw, and only where barriers existed. Great. Increased illegal immigration exponentially. Great. Tax cuts/government welfare for the rich but not the needy that exploded the deficit and debt. Great. Failed trade agreements that have cost tens-hundreds of billions only to put us in a far worse position than before he started. Great. Zero investment in infrastructure. Great. Total decimation of environmental laws.
Great. Abandoning our best allies against terrorism to cozy up to dictators. Great. Best of all, he's widened the divide in America more than all administrations in the last 150 years combined, and recently began calling for preparation for civil war if he's not re-elected. Great.

Um...if he's removing deep state operatives, why are they all his people being jailed? More than even any two term administration ever, beating Nixon's indictment and conviction rates in under two years, before the Mueller fallout. Indeed, in that time he has had more than twice the convictions of all Democratic administration officials since 1970....again, before most Mueller convictions. (It bears noting that Republican officials are convicted at a rate >91 times that of Democrats).

What you really meant to say.....No matter what Trump says it is guaranteed to be a lie.

Bob thinks it's related because Trump told him Biden withheld funding in a quid quo pro exchange for halting an investigation of Biden's son, and Bob only listens to Trump and has no memory of or interest in facts if they contradict Trump.

Isn't that exactly what Trump said, that the investigation of him was illegal because Democrats were involved, making it partisan? That since what he claimed was the impetus (or as he says, the oranges) for the investigation was an imperfect dossier the whole thing was illegal?
The impetus for his Biden witch hunt is unambiguously a made up story by corrupt Ukrainians that doesn't fit the documented facts in the slightest, which every professional involved told him clearly, a fake story furthered directly by Trump in public.

In fact, it is hands off for the president. Using the power of the office to direct investigations of political rivals is impeachable.
Using the office to blackmail foreign powers to interfere in our election by starting false investigations for political reasons is a crime.
Taking foreign money in exchange for illegal and corrupt policies that are against the national interests but personally beneficial is treason. He has done exactly that.

But in YOUR mind, Treasonous Trump can do no wrong, and things that were treason when you baselessly claimed Democrats did them are patriotism when Trump brags about them. You can't even understand that Trump openly committed the very crime he was convinced by foreign criminals Biden committed...using the power of his office and public funds to pressure foreign investigations for personal gain...the difference being Trump did it secretly for personal political gains and was caught, Biden didn't do anything besides join international and bipartisan efforts to remove a corrupt prosecutor who wouldn't prosecute corruption. Trump removed a top notch anti corruption diplomat because she wouldn't push for a corrupt and baseless politically motivated investigation of his political rival, exactly what the corrupt Ukrainians had paid him to do.

Trump couldn't come up with any other corruption he wants investigated besides the Biden fantasy he was sold, and when asked exactly what he expected from Ukraine, he said he specifically expected them to investigate Biden, not fight corruption. Same for China, which was not a joke or trolling of the public, his trade advisor admitted he brought it up in official trade talks before he said it publicly.

You keep chanting 'he'll drain the swamp' ignoring he is the swamp thing, and the swampiest administration ever with more corruption convictions than any two administrations combined (an educated guess, might be >2) and more scandals than any 10 combined.

If I weren't sure you were a Russian troll only trying to sew division with ridiculous republican regurgitation of baseless claims based on delusion and corruption, I would be seriously worried about your mental state.

Edit: remember these days in 15 months. When Democrats control congress and the executive, the same "see no evil" tactics will be more than fair play. No matter how unconstitutional their actions might be, no matter how unacceptable, we will see no wrong....just cleaning up the Trump mess. Nothing to worry about.

Batshit crazy Trump, after a few totally unhinged and embarrassing press conferences, this morning went on TV asking China, who he says is our enemy, to investigate Biden, his finances, and business dealings.
He claims Biden's son took $1.5 billion from China as a board member of an investment fund, but the facts are he wasn't even paid to be on the board, didn't own any of the fund until 2017, when he bought 10% for around $400000, making the total value of the fund $4 million, not $1.5 billion.....but Trump is incapable of not exaggerating monetary figures.
This makes 6 known instances of him asking foreign powers to interfere in the election by smearing his political opponents for his personal gain. You know....attempting illegal and illicit collusion.

I know, because Trump did it you're going to insist it's perfectly fine, legal, moral, ethical, and patriotic to do that.....

So......

What do you think about the Democratic candidates asking Merkel for Germany's help pressuring Deutsche bank to publicly release all Trump financial records, including taxes and records of exactly who has made major deposits to his accounts (hint, you don't want that info investigated)....to investigate the entire Trump family for unconstitutional corruption? You know, like sweetheart deals in China, Russia, and Saudi Arabia for Trump's children, who have actually made millions off the quid pro quo gifts they got from hostile foreign powers in exchange for arms deals, removing sanctions, recognizing Crimea as Russia, etc. from Trump. That would be fine too, right?

THNX

I do believe it is.

If my world is not very habitable in the first place and I have the option of setting fire to some rainforest to build a farm, sell me some clean air and Orangutang habitat in exchange for good karma and poverty, please.

On the other hand if I make decisions that impact hundreds of millions of people on a daily basis without much recourse to anything in particular (party line? military commanders? local clans? religious leaders?) what does a teenagers speech on the opposite side of the planet change for me? Its just completely off the playing field of making important decisions.

I hear her cry, now calm down and look for ways to actually improve the situation, please.

Suing Argentina for breaking childrens rights? Not bad, human rights cases were actually a good method to fight communist regimes in the 70s and 80s. Just a very slow grinding method.

It's an extreme solution certainly, but not without merit. I doubt there'd ever be a willing acceptance of such a plan though, so a slightly more realistic solution would need to be moderated some. How's this for dystopian-but-not-quite-genocidal:
Worldwide lottery, a small percentage (total of 500M - 1B maybe) wins the right to live in what will be the new model of the world: something like what we have now, but with drastically reduced usage of non-renewable resources (until they can be replaced completely) and a target of zero negative impact on the environment as a whole. Still some version of democratic (generally at least), freedom of whatnot and such, open travel to the degree that sustainable transportation options allow, all the (again, sustainable) mod cons. I suppose different countries / regions could still run things according to their preferences, as long as the net-zero goal remains.
The other lottery entrants, the non-winners, don't need to die, hooray! They will however live on something akin to reservations, as serfs, without the right to further reproduce. These poor bastards, in exchange for not being outright murdered to save civilization, are to be consolidated into agricultural communes to do whatever they can to regrow the world's flora and fauna until they all eventually die. Their goal is not net-zero, but as far into the positive as possible. It would all be overseen according to some grand scheme(s) to be as beneficial for the overall future of humanity and life on Earth in general as possible.

Probably also unworkable, but preferable to megamurder?

There was this joke about Brezhnev (which might have originated earlier but what do i know) where Brezhnev comes up with this awesome new detente initiative and proposes that the two superpowers should exchange their generals, namely that the USSR should give the US general Voroshilov and general Yegorov in exchange for General Motors and General Electric.