Turnbull's fizzling year 2016, attempts NYE fireworks

It's the end of 2016, new years eve, and the NBN is still nowhere in sight in eastern Sydney, apart from the usual instruction that it's "planned for your area", this despite Turnbull's promise to have all of Australia connected to the NBN by 2016. 

But that's by far just one issue where since taking over from Abbott and heading a woeful election campaign winning gov by just one seat this year, that he has been a profound disappointment and failure. 

Promising strong united gov, he leads one without direction and captive to right wing extremism in his party. 

The early hopes of marriage equality (which he personally supports) were dashed on the rocks as the far right dreamed up a plebiscite idea, leaving the LGBT to have to spend our resources and time to kill it for the sake of our very lives. We succeeded but it was a long and arduous task that saw us denigrated and insulted by gov ministers and extremist christians. 

Turnbull's past commitment to strong and effective climate change died as he placated the far right to remain PM. Even any proposition of pricing carbon for big polluters that would have been an effective mechanism to reduce emissions died a day after it was announced. Australia ends the year with our greenhouse gas emissions increasing whilst the Great Barrier Reef has large portions of it now that are full of dead coral from rising sea temperatures. His gov is now wanting to spend taxpayers money, to the tune of $1billion, to help Adani build one of the world's biggest coal mines that will be shipped through the middle of the Great Barrier Reef.

We had the failed Census, where the Turnbull gov managed to fuck up something that was pretty much unfuckable. However he caused huge angst across Australia on census night as he tried to get it all happening on his fucked up internet. Of course it crashed, the rest was history. David and I eventually did it the old way with a census person knocking on the door with a census form.

We're now having the Centrelink fail of fails, with the gov using "big data" to dragnet innocent civilians into it's claws with false debts and threatening jail without compliance. This issue, is still unfolding but it was a disaster waiting to happen. Innocent people are now clogging up Centrelink phone lines and waiting for over an hour to get through trying to ask Centrelink WTF they're on about going back 6 years and saying they have a debt.

As if all of the above doesn't create enough anxiety for Australians, the Lieberals appear to be on a mission from their god to take apart Medicare brick by brick. We end the year with some pensioners living below the poverty line being demanded to pay $30 to see their doctor.

It goes on and on. It's not even Abbott lite, it just Abbott. The gov hasn't changed policy under Turnbull. The euphoria of Turnbull not being Abbott has long past. It's now into severe disappointment, the likes of which haven't been seen since Kevin Rudd abandoned climate change for political reasons. The polls are entering Abbott territory now.  

Bludgertrack

 

Centrelink auto debt notices described as "clusterfuck" by privacy advocates

Along with other choice words I imagine.

The Australian Privacy Foundation has joined the calls for the Centrelink automated debt recovery system to be suspended. This is along with IT experts, ACOSS, Legal Aid Victoria, Independent Andrew Wilke and Labor, all now calling for the gov to intervene.

The Australian Privacy Foundation described the system as a “clusterfuck”, that wrongly assumed the initial data matching was accurate and then abandoned procedural fairness. 

“There’s so much that can go wrong here that it’s astounding,” the foundation’s chair, Kat Lane, said. “And falsely accusing people of things, and sending them letters, and particularly some of our most disadvantaged people … you’d want to make sure you got it absolutely right before doing that.” 

Lane said the sharing of data en masse should also cause significant privacy concerns for Australians. 

“This is just the thin edge of the wedge, there is a clear plan to do comprehensive data matching of every silo of government,” Lane said. “It’s tracking, you’re tracking your citizens. You can’t live under a rock, we’ve all got bank accounts, we’ve all got tax returns, we’ve got people on Centrelink … you touch the government all the time. 

“But what they want to do is track you, they want to gain efficiencies by tracking you.” The Guardian

If I got some crazy debt letter what in the fuck could I do about it, apart from challenging it of course. How would they expect a bankrupt pensioner to pay anything? 

@misskylie77 @LucyXIV @Asher_Wolf Are the targeted group living in poverty/can't repay/ignorant of facts known to debtor? pic.twitter.com/l5pLGhjC3e

— Belinda Barnet (@manjusrii) December 30, 2016

.@Centrelink pic.twitter.com/k9ZKWpaLLG

— AUWU (@AusUnemployment) December 20, 2016

This is what @acccgovau says about good conduct for debt collection - is Centrelink in compliance? @AlanTudgeMP #auspol pic.twitter.com/RPwauNKKOb

— Linda Burney MP (@LindaBurneyMP) December 30, 2016

 

Abbott & Bernardi have public hissy fit - at each other :)

So it's gone like this today in the "stable gov" of Turnbull's.

First Abbott had an opinion piece aimed squarely at Bernardi over the possibility Bernardi make split with the Libs and form his own cooky extreme right party. Why Abbott just couldn't have phoned him instead of airing the party's dirty laundry in public is beyond me. He wrote thus:

Tony Abbott has urged his ­“rebellious” conservative colleagues in the Coalition to “stay and fight” in the Liberal Party, warning that it is up to MPs to “fix it, not to leave it” if they are unhappy with the government’s direction. 

Arguing it would be a “catastrophic mistake” to abandon the party, the former prime minister and conservative figurehead said that if any of his fellow MPs left the Liberals, it would deliver Labor “at least two terms” in government. 

He has also counselled MPs that they owe the Liberal Party “respect and loyalty”, saying none of them would have been elected without the backing of the organisation. 

“We don’t owe the party slavish obedience but we certainly owe it respect and loyalty,” Mr Abbott writes in the The Australian today. 

“That’s what John Howard used to say and it’s certainly what I believe. If we think the party is headed in the wrong direction or is making a big mistake, our duty is to try to fix it, not to leave it.” 

Mr Abbott’s shot across the bow comes as MPs become increasingly concerned that conservative senator Cory Bernardi is on the brink of splitting from the Liberal Party to spearhead a new conservative force. The Australian

Remember the Lieberals have a majority of just one in the lower house. Now Bernardi has fired back at Abbott, also publicly but this time on Twitter:

While most on break only person talking up division in Lib Party this past week is @TonyAbbottMHR. Always back the horse named self-interest

— Cory Bernardi (@corybernardi) December 30, 2016

Perhaps this all isn't some master plot by the far right to get Abbott the conquering hero back as PM, as I previously thought. Surely such a plot wouldn't involve a public slanging match, would it?  

@corybernardi Lol!...most entertaining!

Your turn, @TonyAbbottMHR

— Coalition Tea Lady (@ItsBouquet) December 30, 2016

George Micheal "a pervert burning in hell" - US pastor

More love from the extremist christians..... 

Unsurprisingly, Pastor Steven Anderson says about the recent death of George Micheal that he was a sodomite reprobate who is burning in hell now, and lots of other bla about him being a "faggot" and the like.

He also uses the lie that gays are all paedophiles because the bible. Even quotes from one of his songs as proof that George Micheal was a paedophile. 

I liked one of the comments below the video BTW - "Why are so many 'straight' pastors always obsessed with gay male sex? I have a feeling this one is a bottom."

  

"Please Like Me" comedian Josh Thomas on ABC Breakfast telly (video)

I've started watching this show recently, had never heard of it before (we watch hardly any TV) with Josh Thomas. Evidently it's been quite a success overseas too.

Here he is on Australian breakfast TV

 

Our internet is going up $5month to make it "NBN ready" - WTF?

Another one for the NBN lemon files. Turnbull's NBN was supposed to be cheaper, sooner, and faster. Well it's failed on all counts. 

It's not even on the horizon yet where we are in the middle of eastern Sydney, and even when it does get here it's outdated technology. Now I've been sent an email from the ISP Dodo that our monthly $payment is going to increase to make the plan "NBN ready".

 

Cat on a hot day

Zac has settled down to his new vantage point on top of the microwave, on top of the fridge. He's even started sleeping up there. However with it being in the 30's today here it's too hot for him to curl up in a ball. More like sprawl out all over the place up there 😸

Men eating ice creams are gay - British telly host :s (video)

Yes folks, apparently a grown man eating an ice cream is gay. Well according to this British TV host Richard Hammond. Never heard of him BTW. 

Don't tell it to the Russians or the thought police will ban all ice creams over there for being gay propaganda. Think of the children being brainwashed into gayness with ice creams! The humanity!

🤗 hello & here's the full richard hammond 'ice creams are gay' piece and yeah, it's awful pic.twitter.com/JhDisRsc1Q

— Ollie Cole (@ProducerOllie) December 26, 2016

 

Centrelink sends single mum $24,000 debt notice

Update: I received a $2200 debt from Centrelink as a result of their ATO data matching program - They are wrong and are choosing to use less-accurate data to generate a debt!  Reddit

The Lieberal war on the poor continues unabated, despite Turnbull's photo op on christmas day feeding the homeless at the Wayside Chapel. The rogue Centrelink computer is still spitting out erroneous debt notices, demanding that discrepencies of up to six years ago are paid back. 

One lady, a single mother on a limited income has gotten a debt notice of $24,000 just before christmas. This because when reporting the income she got the name of the company wrong one time, so the computer thought she was working two different jobs and therefore ineligible for the payments. 

Centrelink has told her she has to start paying it back $60 at a time whilst she searched for her payslips from years before to prove her innocence.

Labor's Human Services person has written to the gov asking for the automated system to be suspended until it's known that the right people are being targeted.

The whole thing is grossly unfair IMO. Corporations pay no tax and the gov goes after us welfare recipients on the lowest of incomes.

One woman, a single mother on a partial parenting payment, received notice of a $24,215 debt two weeks before Christmas, according to Centrelink correspondence. 

“It’s just really upsetting and confronting because, I was thinking, the rate that I paid back Centrelink debt in the past would be about $50 a pay cycle,” she said. “More than that at a time I just simply couldn’t afford it. So I thought, ‘Is it going to be for the next 10 years that I’m going to be paying this back? How am I ever going to be able to get ahead?’.” 

She said she called Centrelink to query the debt. They told her she had recorded the name of her employer in two different ways when reporting fortnightly income. The automated system had assumed she was working more than one job, she said, and deemed her ineligible for the partial parenting payment. 

“It was recorded by the automated system that instead of having this one employer with occasional work, it recorded me as having additional employers and possible income that I was not declaring,” she said. 

Despite lodging a dispute, the woman has been told she must begin paying the debt back, at a rate of $60 a week, while she gathers her payslips for the past two years to use as evidence. 

“They want to get money back from us low-income Australians instead of the Murdochs,” she said. “A lot of people who won’t have the means to question it and are just going to go and pay, or freak out and get very stressed.” The Guardian  

What is going on at Centrelink https://t.co/BUdUSEnPF0 #auspol #centrelink @Baxeybel @knarfnamduh

— Lord Coalton (@LeipzigSyd) December 16, 2016

Turnbull's latest photo op - feeds the poor :s

This man has no shame. After his gov launching 8 attacks against those struggling to survive on welfare, with many people being chucked off the DSP onto Newstart, with the Centrelink computer presently gone rogue demanding details of wages up to 6 years back or pay an imaginary debt, Turnbull makes a show of handing out food at the Wayside Chapel on Christmas day. The hypocrisy is staggering.

@LennaLeprena Reminds me of him getting photo shots at Mardi Gras only to gut Safe Schools and deny us marriage. pic.twitter.com/EsMP26Dpsu

— Peter Hiv (@HivPeter) December 25, 2016

Gay rights are human rights - UN

One of the biggest arguments I've come across online about same sex marriage from the christians, is that gays not being able to marry is not a human rights issue. It was also used recently by African states trying to defund the new UN investigator for abuses against the human rights of the LGBT around the world, claiming that gay rights shouldn't be a part of the general human rights everyone else enjoys.

However the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, tells a different story. She looks back at the beginning of the UN debate on gay rights starting with a Tasmanian man who went to the UN in 1994, claiming that the laws on the books at the time that criminalised homosexuality were a violation of his human rights. The UN agreed.

Watch as Pillay tells the story:

  

Norwegian Trump cartoon (allegedly) banned on Twitter

Not sure why this would be banned (allegedly). But here it is anyway. Feel free to share (I guess not posted directly on Twitter though). 

It's the usual story. By banning something it just gives it more publicity. 

Trump's xmas message by cartoonist Banksy

💪

Turnbull about to fail on internet promise for 2016

Today's speed for me

Well, although the speed today on our ADSL2+ connection is going very well at about 17Mbps, albeit with upload speeds of only half a Mbps, it's still a failure of the Abbott/Turnbull gov's promise of at least 25Mbps by 2016. Indeed he's already failed in the cost, blowing out over Labor's estimated cost of fibre to every home by about $10billion already.

Also, the fact that on occasion the ADSL here is getting today 17Mbps means that the promise of 25 Mbps isn't largely better than what we've already got. WTF is the point of spending over $50billion on something almost on par with what we've already got? 

We were expecting Labor's fibre to the home to be capable of 1Gbps. Adelaide is setting up a state funded city centre internet of 10Gbps. There's no wiz bang in 25Mbps at all. As I've said it's the late '90's equivalent of having dial up, the technology obsolete. Just Hopeless.

The Coalition will deliver fast, affordable and reliable broadband years sooner than l abor. o ur aim is that everyone in the nation should have access to broadband with download data rates of between 25 and 100 megabits per second by 2016, and between 50 and 100 megabits per second by the end of 2019 in 90 per cent of the fixed line footprint – although it should be noted this goal in part depends on nBn Co delivering its current satellite and fixed wireless solutions on time and on budget. Lieberal PDF  

 

An xmas message from LGBT inclusive gay water polo team Tritons - Australia

It's christmas day here in Australia and according to the laws you can't buy alcohol today because of Jesus and the invisible sky man. However by a great effort of planning we were able to get some yesterday and so therefore we're drinking VB in honour of the CUB brewery union victory in Melbourne 💫 So there Jesus myth!

Anyway David and I are feeling a bit brighter today now that the day is here and the build up is over. As I've said it's a very bad time of year for both of us. You just have to try and be positive (oh.......) and trudge through the shit to get past it.

Also a bit of entertainment is good, like this from the Brisbane Tritans polo team. Video below 💖

It’s been a big year for the Tritions, Australia’s third LGBTI and inclusive Water Polo team; who this year dove head first into the sport not only forming their team but starting their first season on a high after winning the Tri State Cup against Melbourne Surge and Sydney Stingers.

Earlier this year the club came up with the perfect way to introduce themselves to the world, by making a parody video to of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Can’t Stop this Feeling’ which got over 3000 views. It was a great way for the team to say howdy and to share some of the fun they are having with us as well. Same Same  

 

US Japanese WW2 camps likened to Muslim registry - Star Trek's Sulu among them

George Takai, as a child and in Star Trek

The great so called saviour of the free world, that didn't bother even getting involved in WW2 until very late in it whilst our men crossed the world to do so being enlisted, jailed families with their children in US concentration camps for years. 

The "light on the hill" became a symbol of incarceration and subtitude for many Japanese descent US citizens, who were born in the US but because of their race were incarcerated for years. Their bank accounts were frozen after being put on a Japanese registry, and soon they were arrested and carted off to "internment" camps.

It may be surprising to many, but Star Trek's original cast member Sulu (George Takai) was among them. His family was taken custody when he was a child and they spent three years in a US concentration camp. For the Japanese back then, it started with the registry.

Watch as the Japanese jailing is discussed in the context of Trump's Muslim registry plans today:

 

Bernardi set to Trump Lieberals & form new party - "Australian Majority"

Bernardi's new "Australian Majority" website

Oh my.....👀... It seems the fizza is well and truly fizzling now.

You see despite Turnbull puppet doing exactly everything the lunar right backbench of the Lieberal party wants (ie everything the great majority of Australian's don't want) it doesn't appear to be at all good enough for the likes of extremist right winger Cori Bernadi. He reckons the Lieberals (no this isn't a joke) aren't conservative enough under Turnbull. *faints*

How could any party be any more conservative than this lot? Attack the poor, trickle down Reaganomics, make the wealthy richer, attack workers, unions, bla..... Yet this isn't enough for the Corgi. Therefore, as he's hinted at for a while now, he may split from the coalition and start his own extremist lunar fuck knows how far right conservative party. He's now set up a website for it, believe it or not called "Australian Majority".  

This from the crazy Australian newspaper who consider that it would be a "mainstream" party (WTF are these people on?):

News of the website, which includes the tagline “coming soon”, will further fuel Liberal concerns that the outspoken conservative senator is set to formally split from the party in the new year to spearhead a new conservative force. 

It is unclear whether the senator intends to use the new group as a conservative political activist group to rival left-wing GetUp!, or whether Australian Majority is the foundation for a new mainstream political party. 

Senator Bernardi has remained tight-lipped about his plans for next year, but in further signs the Australian Majority group may be poised to become a political party, the website uses software popular with formal election campaigning — including the Brexit and Trump movements — called NationBuilder. The Australian

It's the Lieberals own fault you know. Bernadi has always been a gullible nutter for anything far right, but that didn't stop them from sending him to the UN during the election of Narcissist fascist Trump. Now he's back all Trumped up (pun intended) fired up over Trumps win and wants to Trump up Australia I suppose. Good luck with that mate 👎 ... 

Being as the Turnbull gov has a majority of only one, this is a huge problem for Turnbull. Another way of looking at it is that I'd guess it's highly likely this is all a big plot by Abbott to take the leadership back from Turnbull to settle the lunar right horses about to bolt. Abbott would come in as the great saviour of the party bla, Trumping Turnbull (pun intended).

.@CoryBernardi has created a website for a new political group, Australian Majority. #9News pic.twitter.com/rVTSg1Yqqa

— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) December 23, 2016

But there's more.....

Not only has Bernardi set the chooks among the Lieberal hens (feathers flying in great internal bitch fights darlings) by implying a split from them, but he has a fellow Abbott ally. None other than Christensen, every much Bernardi's equal in lunar right insanity, has hinted he may be about to "pull the pin on the gov" and leave, no doubt to join Bernardi's party.




Being as this would mean both of them leaving a mainstream Australian political party to become fringe dwellers, as I said I strongly suspect this is all an Abbott plot. Abbott has after all already made noises about keeping in touch with the parties "base". 

Whatever that is. The Lieberals today are a long way right from the Howard reign of terror largely because of Abbott himself, who conned them all by winning against a lackluster minority Gillard gov in the throws of self destruction. 

 

US Breitbart "news" misreports on ACL van explosion

ACL building not "rammed"

Trump's favourite US fake news outlet Breitbart has reported on the exploding van incident that happened outside the Australian Christian Lobby. Predictably it's sensationalist and incorrect. Completely one sided.

The headline screams "Van Explodes After Ramming Australian Christian Lobby Office in Canberra". Um, as we know now it didn't "ram" the ACL building at all. It stopped clear of the building, albeit the explosion damaged windows and the like. See photos. Yet across the world it's being reported  that the van hit the building and then exploded. Fake news. Instead they call it a "car bomb attack".

The article also fails to point out the police investigating the incident have made it very clear that it wasn't politically, religiously, or ideologically motivated. They simply report on what Shelton has said, quoting the Daily Terrorgraph here:

The Australian Daily Telegraph reported that the van was “carrying gas bottles,” and produced an explosion upon impact, powerful enough to blow out some of the windows from the building. 

“Police contacted me and told me that someone has driven a white van into the carpark of our office and it has been loaded with gas cylinders and then it has been detonated,” Shelton told the Telegraph. 
He added that none of his staffers were in the building at the time of the explosion. 

“We have had the normal trolls on social media and even had death threats sent to our Canberra office over the year but I am very concerned someone would do this,” he said. “It is a relief the building was unoccupied at the time and we are all very thankful our staff are all safe.” 

“Obviously this is very unsettling to us but also to anyone in Australia, for this to happen in Canberra, our nation’s capital is very disappointing. It is something I thought would never happen here, I can’t believe it.” Breitbart

Note again there was no impact of the van on the building. Before finally giving a glowing reference to the ACL, quoting them so:

The Australian Christian Lobby describes itself as seeking “a compassionate, just and moral society through having the public contributions of the Christian faith reflected in the political life of the nation.” Breitbart

Nope, butter wouldn't melt in Shelton's mouth according to Breitbart. 

However the LGBT here in Australia well know what a bigoted and homophobic asshole he can be. I think the ACL thinks more about gay sex than we do :s

Breitbart is the media outlet Trump has given glowing praise of.

Photographic evidence clearly shows Australian Christian Lobby HQ was not “rammed”. Care to retract your false statement @LyleShelton? pic.twitter.com/2RkgJNFZpI

— squig (@squig_) December 22, 2016

 

ACL's Lyle Shelton blames lefties for exploding van :s (video)

WTF? Seriously, WTF? 

A van has exploded outside the Australian Christian Lobby headquarters, the driver burned severely was dragged out of the van (turns out he got out himself and walked 4km's to the hospital - another Shelton lie?) and is currently in serious condition in hospital and unable to speak further with police. The police have said that the explosion had nothing to do with politics, religion, or ideology:

.... ACT Policing released a statement saying they had established the actions of the 35-year-old male driver "were not politically, religiously or ideologically motivated". Sydney Morning Herald

That's a pretty clear statement, cut and dry, black and white. As the police are the one's investigating the incident they are the ones who would know the most about it one would say.

But not the head of the Australian Christian Lobby, Lyle Shelton, who has accused left wing politicians using "incendiary" language as a motivator for the explosion. Pretty bloody rich coming from him, who has accused gays of being like Nazis and causing another stolen generation of children.

You know how it is folks, christians just love to feel persecuted. It seems Shelton will jump at any opportunity to feel so. Even after he's heard what the police had said about the explosion, he still infers that it's because of the marriage equality debate and being called a hate group and bigots, which they are. 

He has no right to accuse anyone in any political sphere for this explosion, and for Shelton to do so is itself incendiary.

"I stress I don't know the motivation of last night's attack but I'm very concerned members of Parliament, particularly on the extreme left, refer to us in the Parliament as hate groups [and] as bigots. That doesn't help the situation. If there are people who are a bit unhinged out there, that sort of rhetoric doesn't help that," he told Sky News. 

"I think as a society we've got to have civil debate and we've got to stop the name calling and the slurs." 

The ACL has itself been accused of using offensive and incendiary language. 

In May, Mr Shelton suggested same-sex marriage and Safe Schools were comparable to the atrocities of the Holocaust, saying such things reflected "a failure of those of us who know better". 

"The cowardice and weakness of Australia's 'gatekeepers' is causing unthinkable things to happen, just as unthinkable things happened in Germany in the 1930s," he said. 

He has also said same-sex marriage would create an environment for children that was akin to the stolen generations, whereby Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes. Sydney Morning Herald 

Police statement

Photographic evidence clearly shows Australian Christian Lobby HQ was not “rammed”. Care to retract your false statement @LyleShelton? pic.twitter.com/2RkgJNFZpI

— squig (@squig_) December 22, 2016

Australian Christian Lobby fire: pic.twitter.com/9sOwykWRTE

— David Marler (@Qldaah) December 22, 2016

Are Aussie drivers/cars better than other countries? - comparitive crash videos

I don't want to be Aussie-centric folks, but for a bit of entertainment I was watching some car crash videos on YouTube. I happened to come across some Australian ones that I'd never seen before with dash cams, as they do in other countries.

As I watch these on occasion I couldn't help noticing the difference with overseas car crashes. The Aussie video I kept thinking "how the fuck did they not hit that car?" and the like.

Australian cars are expensive to own. They have to be completely roadworthy and attested to that by a qualified car mechanic company. It's also very hard to get an Australian licence (unless you buy it as my neighbour appears to have who can't even park or back out of it) so I guess we're very pedantic about being safe and doing the right thing on the road. 

Most of our roads too in the country are just two lanes with one going each way, but 100/110kmph speed limit. It can take quite some concentration on some of those roads, I can attest, to go at that rate.

So there's the combination of the law saying your car must be roadworthy to get insurance and stay on the road (the cops can impound it if not) and the experience of drivers on adversary roads. 

Yet with all the foreign videos (driving stupidly on the wrong side of the road I might add, ha ha) it's chaos and a free for all demolition derby.

Below are two videos to compare. First one Aussie, next one some northern hemisphere thing.... 

 

VP Mike Pence & the christian radicalisation of the US

Some may say this has been going on for years, and I guess it has. But this is the pinnacle of christian radicalism in the US at a level never before seen. Pence is choosing Trump's cabinet, no doubt why the choices he's made have sent everyone into fits of aghastness. The world is horrified at what we're witnessing over there. 

The reorganization puts the urgent task of selecting cabinet officials and key West Wing posts in the hands of Mr. Pence, whose loyalty to Mr. Trump and deep contacts with the Republican establishment on Capitol Hill are seen as critical to navigating the often politically treacherous transition period. New York Times

We're now talking about the possibility that abortion may well become illegal in the US, and fuck knows what's going to happen to vulnerable minorities such as the LGBT. The land is going to a maniac christian rule, a theocracy deserving of the middle ages and the christian crusades. A christian war against those who aren't christians, and fuck The Enlightenment.

It took humanity hundreds of years to slowly move beyond these sorts of wars, and trying to please an invisible sky man. Both sides thought they were on god's side, both fighting their own version of god's will. Secularism meant we moved past that and looked to science, logic, and proof rather than stories of talking snakes and a 6,000 year old earth.

No matter for a radical christian like Pence who believes the earth is just 6,000 years old because the bible. Facts don't matter anymore. Science is heresy because the bible. How they explain a sun a million light years away before that light reaches us is beyond me. Nope, it's all about the sky man and the book and going to war over it. Welcome America back to the Middle Ages.

Welcome US to theocratic corporate serfdom like you've never known before in the history of your nation.... 

 

Cat on a microwave :)

Sometimes I wonder if Zac is part kangaroo. He's a very good jumper with excellent balance.  He's 2 yrs old now.

We reorganised the kitchen a bit and put shelves next to the fridge. First he decided to use the top of the shelves as his new cat vantage point to observe all the kitchen happenings. He's smart, sits there watching everything you do fascinated and taking it all in. 

Then the other day I was looking everywhere for him, thought maybe he'd escaped outside like the Houdini he is at times. After a while I finally saw him, way up top on the microwave on top of the fridge FFS, just sitting there perusing the world looking at me, like "what?" 

He'd jumped from the shelves straight up to the top of the microwave on the fridge. He's OK getting back down on his own too. 😼