Why do COVID patients require not one but two ambulances, plus a police escort, to ferry them from home to hospital? Well, it works like this: one ambulance to confirm the diagnosis, the second to transport the patient, and the police to keep the peace when the afflicted's kin become particularly emotional. That's just one weird aspect of these very strange times indeed

Hong Kong's restiveness is China's nightmare as it tries to hold together 1.4 billion people from fifty different sub-nationalities. This is where the unprecedented and overwhelming size and stamina of the current protests matters enormously. Scale is what China is all about, and the knock-on upheavals, should the demonstrations be suppressed or allowed to continue, are earth-shaking

The Green New Deal would shut down US industry and exports. Unemployment -- at six-decade lows under Trump -- would skyrocket. Open borders would likely see another ten million poor immigrants within a year. These prospects make a coven of congresswomen very happy indeed

At some point on Saturday evening -- early if the bookies' current 5-to-1 against a Coalition victory is any guide -- Australia will have a new government, a new leader and a newly acquired green tint to the rash of fresh policies and spending about to be implemented. Here's a guide to the near future, written with tongue jammed only minimally into cheek.

Tear down a venerable and working institution for no good reason and what comes next? No one really knows, although given the nature, character, record and arrogance so many of the loudest republican advocates seem to share, it is no great challenge to make an educated guess

Unpleasant and arrogant they might be, but the Greens keep putting runs to the board, not to mention adding zeroes to the nation's electricity bills. What a crying shame conservatives aren't goading these economic and cultural vandals to the point of emotional overload and beyond

It is not clear the Liberal Party will continue to exist after its seemingly inevitable electoral drubbing. Clearly the PM should go or be pushed if won't. But which contender might do more than fill his smallish shoes while leading a renewal of the principles to which the Coalition once was pledged?

Women work , own property, vote, pursue their educations, and choose with whom and how often they have children -- developments cemented in the West only over the past century or so. The consequences of women being selfish in the way men have always been selfish are yet to be seen

Oblivious to Gaia's needs and rights, old people have long burdened society with their selfish expectation of a warm and toasty, carbon-spewing radiator by the rocking chair. Finally, in Victoria's proposal to legalise assisted suicide, we see the first step towards addressing this societal curse