I Am Glad We Are Not Faced With A Choice Between A Crook And A Probable Dementia Sufferer For Our Leader!

This appeared last week:

Joe Biden crashed in first clash with Donald Trump - and other takeaways from the debate

John McCormick and Catherine Lucey

27 June, 2024

Dow Jones

US President Joe Biden and former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump participate in the first presidential debate of the 2024 elections. Picture: AFP.

President Biden, battling a hoarse voice and sometimes stammering, delivered an unsteady performance Thursday evening in his first debate against former President Donald Trump.

It was the sort of showing Democrats feared the incumbent, who polls show faces greater concerns about his age and vitality than Trump, would deliver. It lacked the energy and combativeness Biden mustered for his State of the Union speech earlier this year, an appearance that gave Democrats some optimism about his campaign vigor.

The challenger mostly kept his composure, something he isn’t known for. The much-talked-about mute buttons -- put in place because Trump so frequently talked over Biden when they debated in 2020 -- didn’t seem to come into play often.In an election season where many Americans wish they had other options, the face-off allowed the two rivals to highlight the vulnerabilities of their opponent to the slim set of voters who remain undecided.

Their high-stakes meeting in Atlanta, hosted by CNN and moderated by the network’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, delivered some firsts. It was the first modern debate between a sitting and former president, the first featuring a felon, and the first held in a studio with no live audience since the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960.

Those factors influenced the dynamics of a 90-minute show that brimmed with insults and policy contrasts, a face-off held much earlier in an election year than is typical. The race is narrowly divided nationally, but Trump leads in several battleground states.

“Biden experienced the worst opening 15 minutes of a presidential debate ever,” said Aaron Kall, the University of Michigan’s director of debate.

Both old, but one looked older

The two men are just a few years apart in age, but Biden looked older in his presentation during an exhausting evening in front of what was expected to be a sizable television audience. A person familiar with the president’s health said he is suffering from a cold.

Biden also had his share of gaffes. As he answered a question about the national debt and started talking about health policy, he stammered and appeared to lose his train of thought at the end of his answer.

“Making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the Covid. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with,” Biden said. “Look, if we finally beat Medicare.”

Trump responded: “Well he’s right. He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death.” Trump and his allies in the days leading up to the debate had put forward unfounded accusations that Biden, 81, would arrive on stage with performance-enhancing chemicals in his system. It was an allegation Trump, 78, also made before he debated Biden in 2020.

Age is a top-of-mind issue for many voters, and the current president is the oldest person to serve in the office. Trump, if elected, would be poised to claim that record near the end of a second term.

But the challenger, unlike the incumbent, remained robust in his presentation throughout. He also sought to highlight Biden’s stammers, including after a meandering answer to a question about immigration.

“I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence,” Trump said. “I don’t think he knows what he said either.” Asked about the issue of age, Biden had a line at the ready: “This guy is three years younger and a lot less competent,” he said.

Trump responded to a question about his age by saying he would like Biden to take a cognitive test and release the results, triggering a chuckle from the president.

Sharpest attacks

If there was any uncertainty, the debate made clear neither man has any respect for the other, despite their joint status in an elite club of living past and present White House occupants. As they took the stage, neither moved to shake hands as has often been customary.

Biden challenged Trump over reports that he has called Americans who died in war “losers” and “suckers.” Referencing his son, the late Beau Biden, an army officer, Biden said: “My son was not a loser. He’s not a sucker. You’re the sucker. You’re the loser.” Trump again asserted he had never made the comments. Trump’s chief of staff at the time has confirmed he used those derogatory words.

The former president also suggested Biden isn’t fit for office. “He’s not equipped to be president,” Trump said. “His presidency, without question, the worst president, the worst presidency, in the history of our country. We shouldn’t be having a debate about it. There’s nothing to debate.” Biden sought to highlight Trump’s past and potential future legal issues and suggested at one point that the thrice-married man has the “morals of an alley cat.” Soft landing or surging prices The economy is typically listed by the largest share of voters when they are asked by pollsters what their top issues are in this presidential race. Trump talked down the current environment, while Biden argued things are looking up, even though more work remains to be done.

Trump sought to hang the issue of inflation, which has slowed considerably but remains especially painful for lower and middle-income Americans, directly on Biden. “Inflation is killing our country,” he said.

The president pointed to low unemployment and a robust stock market. Economists are no longer talking much about the risk of a recession, something that seemed much more likely earlier in Biden’s term as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates to cool inflation.

“Working-class people are still in trouble,” Biden acknowledged. “We’re working to bring down the price at the kitchen table, and that’s what we’re going to get done.” The president also repeatedly sought to remind viewers of some of the bad things that played out during Trump’s tenure.

“We had an economy that was in free fall,” he said. “The pandemic was so badly handled. Many people were dying. All he said was, ‘It’s not that serious. Just inject a little bleach in your arm.’” Trump at a Covid briefing in 2020 pondered whether treatments involving light or disinfectants should be studied.

Abortion

Trump continued his effort to stake out a Republican abortion position after the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade galvanized voters in support of abortion access.

First he praised the justices he put on the court for the ruling, repeating a baseless claim that “every legal scholar” wanted Roe v. Wade overruled. But then he stressed that he supports exemptions to any abortion law for rape, incest and the life of the mother, arguing that while some don’t agree, “you’ve got to get elected.” Trump also appeared to commit to allowing the abortion pill to remain available across the United States. “The Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill. I agree with their decision to have done that. I will not block it,” Trump said.

Biden, who has made abortion rights a central plank of his campaign and has targeted Trump for appointing three justices to the Supreme Court that overturned Roe, seized on Trump’s statement that the issue should be left to the states, saying it was “a little like saying, ‘We’re going to turn civil rights back to the states.’” The ruling has unfurled a patchwork of laws across the country, and created uncertainty over related issues, including the future availability of abortion pills from mail-order pharmacies. The debate came shortly after the Supreme Court said it would allow emergency abortions in Idaho without deciding key issues in the case.

No rapport

During the commercial break, Biden and Trump remained at their lecterns and looked ahead as photographers took photos, according to a White House pool report. The candidates didn’t say anything or make eye contact with each other.

Toward the end of the debate the two began bickering about golf, as older men sometimes do. “He can’t hit a ball 50 yards,” Trump said of Biden. That prompted a retort from Biden: “I’m happy to play golf with you, if you carry your own bag.”

Dow Jones

Here is the link:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/joe-biden-crashed-in-first-clash-with-donald-trump-and-other-takeaways-from-the-debate/news-story/a0a3adc98329426667195742b0723c7f

I just found the whole thing pathetic and sad – and a serious worry for Australia going forward with either of these men in the Oval Office.

David.

I Have To Say I Am Very Grateful To Have Had Our Legal System Stay Largely Away From Abortion Rights

This appeared a few days ago:

Supreme Court allows emergency abortions in Idaho but leaves big questions unresolved

Laura Kusisto

28 June, 2024

Dow Jones

The Supreme Court officially announced Thursday (Friday AEDT) that it would allow emergency abortions in Idaho without deciding key issues in the case, closing an unusual episode in which a draft of the decision accidentally became public a day earlier.

Since the court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, ending federal protections for abortion, the inability of women in some states to access abortions in medical emergencies has emerged as a top issue, shifting public opinion on abortion rights and galvanising political opposition to bans on the procedure.

The Supreme Court’s non-decision, in which a majority voted to dismiss the case as “improvidently granted,” will do little to end that debate or provide clarity to doctors struggling with how to interpret lifesaving exceptions to abortion bans.

Three different camps of three justices expressed a range of views on the case. In the end, the court voted 6-3 to ditch the case without a ruling.

By stepping back from the case, the justices reinstated a lower-court order allowing doctors broad discretion to perform abortions in Idaho in medical emergencies. The action won’t change anything for physicians nationwide.

The Supreme Court had two abortion cases on its docket this term. It ended up deciding nothing of substance in either of them. The other case involved a challenge to decisions by the Food and Drug Administration to expand access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which is used in the majority of abortions in the country. Earlier this month, the justices said the plaintiffs, anti-abortion medical associations and physicians, didn’t have standing to bring the suit.

The continued legal turmoil could affect races up and down the ballot in November. Abortion has been an important motivator for some voters over the last couple of years and Democrats are trying to persuade them that it remains salient. Republicans plan to focus attention on other issues, such as the economy and immigration, but have struggled to counter emotional stories of pregnant women denied abortions when faced with medical crises.

“Because Trump’s Supreme Court majority overturned Roe v. Wade, women are being turned away from emergency rooms and forced to the brink of death before receiving the care they need,” a senior adviser to President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign said Thursday.

A spokeswoman for former president Donald Trump’s presidential campaign said: “President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion.”

The Supreme Court had taken up the Idaho case to decide whether the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires doctors to perform abortions to stabilise a seriously ill patient, even when state abortion bans only allow the procedure if a patient’s life is in danger.

The Biden administration, which sued Idaho, had argued the act requires hospitals to provide an abortion to a woman at risk of long-term disabilities, including infertility or kidney damage. The state argued the federal law doesn’t mandate, or even mention, abortion.

More than a dozen states now have bans on most abortions. All of them have some type of exception if a woman’s life is in danger but a handful don’t allow one if her long-term health is at serious risk. Republicans and anti-abortion groups have said such laws balance the mother’s suffering against the needs of her unborn child.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said he tells doctors around the state that they are empowered to use their good-faith judgment in difficult situations.

“I think they have been told incorrectly by some of these pro-abortion lawyers in the United States that they’re going to be prosecuted all the time and that is just not the case in any way,” Labrador said.

Though the Supreme Court ducked the issue for now, the justices will have to confront it again soon. A US appeals court in New Orleans ruled earlier this year that the federal emergency-care law doesn’t mandate abortion care and Texas should be allowed to enforce the full scope of its near-total abortion ban. The Justice Department has already filed an appeal with the Supreme Court.

In an embarrassment for the court, a copy of the Idaho decision was very briefly available on the court’s website Wednesday before being quickly removed. The court acknowledged the error.

Three justices in the court’s centre – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett – effectively controlled Thursday’s outcome, saying time had shown the court had taken up the case prematurely.

The court’s three liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – also voted to dismiss the case but said they believed federal law pre-empts state law in cases where a woman’s health is at risk.

The three most conservative justices – Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch – said the court should have decided the case and ruled for Idaho.

– Catherine Lucey and Alex Leary contributed to this article.

– Dow Jones Newswires

Here is the link:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/the-wall-street-journal/supreme-court-allows-emergency-abortions-in-idaho-but-leaves-big-questions-unresolved/news-story/61c3ed767cacc4eb0b94c5aee8f8399a

I really wonder why the matter of pregnancy termination cannot be a matter exclusively between a patient and their doctor, Just why the State in the US has to involve itself in sch a decision eludes me.

While ever each of the 50 States has its own set of rules and laws we will never see consistent sensible outcomes.

Personally I hate abortion but I recognize that for some women it is a freedom to decide that is both individual and vital and virtually always the source of much careful consideration and unhappiness. I feel very sorry for all those battling with such decisions and the legion implications.

Really Government has no place in such decision making except to facilitate a full range of options needed to assist individuals in such a situation, and to make sure they know their full range of choices.

David.

Yet Again We Are Reminded To Stay Alert In The Health Sector!

 This reminder to stay alert to ‘evil-doer’ attacks appeared a day or so ago!

Cyber protection boosted in critical healthcare sector

Tom McIlroy Political correspondent

Jun 28, 2024 – 5.17pm

Australia’s healthcare sector will get increased cyber protection under an Albanese government plan to establish a new intelligence centre, using a model already in place in the banking and finance industry.

The Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (ISAC) is part of an effort to upgrade the country’s cyber safeguards at a system level, especially across high-risk industries. Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil announced $6.4 million in pilot funding this week.

The ISAC will host a platform for high-speed sharing of threat information. It will connect big businesses, non-profits and government organisations working in health and hospitals, speeding up indicators of cyber compromise, and spread information about successful responses and preventative measures for cybercrime.

Intelligence agency the Australian Signals Directorate hosts a national system which can feed information into the ISAC when appropriate.

Ms O’Neil said government intervention to kick-start the model for high-risk sectors was long overdue.

“Healthcare providers tend to hold highly sensitive data, and they often struggle with building and funding strong cyber protections. That’s why healthcare providers are one of the most common, and most damaging, targets of cyberattack. This is a pattern we see all over the world.”

Health care networks in Australia and overseas are clearly in the sights of hackers, with some in Ireland, North America and Europe already falling victim to debilitating attacks.

“Make no mistake – we expect Australian healthcare providers to step up and protect our citizens wherever possible. But government, too, needs to give them a hand,” Ms O’Neil said.

Labor could look to extend the model to other critical sectors in the future, include energy and water systems.

Michelle Fitzgerald, the chief digital officer at St Vincent’s Health Australia, said the industry had approached the government about boosting protections.

“There’s a lot of focus on the data but in the case of healthcare, we’re also working with patients every single day. So it’s an additional dynamic and brings additional risk.

“We need to co-operate and share knowledge because we’re up working against a very sophisticated global sector.”

In December, St Vincent’s Health revealed it had sustained a major cyberattack, losing data to cybercriminals who gained access through a compromised account.

The breach was considered similar to the one that crippled insurer Medibank almost a year earlier.

St Vincent’s operates hospitals across NSW, Victoria and Queensland, including three public and 10 private hospitals and more than 25 aged care facilities. The company employs nearly 30,000 people nationally.

Applications for the federal government’s grant round are open until late July.

Here is the link:

https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/cyber-protection-boosted-in-critical-healthcare-sector-20240627-p5jpbb

Good to see the Government has recognized that the health sector is one that requires special help and is putting its money where its mouth is!

These issues are a wake up call to everyone in the sector!

David.