Thursday 31 March 2016

"Border security" a Lieberal farce - Shipping "security" exposed as non-existant (Video)

Far out. All the tough talk by the Abbott/Turnbull gov over "stopping the boats", with Abbott even making deals with the devil in Sri Lanka to "stop the boats" to maintain control of our borders. Turns out ships coming into major capital cities in Australia have zero security. Foreign sea men are able to simple walk on and off the ships and into the middle of the city. 

This is "border security" under the Lieberals. The irony is that under the Lieberal gov Australian sea men are being sacked off entire ships, with the shipping companies allowed to replace the whole crew with cheaper foreign workers. The fact that these foreign workers now have the same freedom of movement as any Australian crew here seems to have escaped them.

Yet they'll spend literally $billions on stopping desperate refugees from ever getting near Australia. 

It's all political bullshit. They manufacture fear for political gain. If there really was a terrorism crisis in Australia, don't ya think the gov would have been much less complacent about this? Watch: 

Maritime Border Security Exposed from Maritime Union of Australia on Vimeo.
 

Corrupt Lieberals funnel property developer money to NSW election, illegally

*click to enlarge
In New South Wales it's illegal for property developers to donate to political parties. 

However Lieberal lies are starting to seriously unravel, with over $4million in donations being held back by the NSW Electoral Commission as it investigates just where all this money came from. Money that is now needed for Turnbulls federal election campaign.

At the centre of this is $700,000 worth of donations which were sent to the NSW division of the Lieberal party, via a Canberra national Lieberal slush fund. Revealed is that the $700,000 worth of donations came from property developers.

Now those property developers are claiming they didn't know the money would be sent to the NSW division (which is illegal to do so) and are threatening to sue the Lieberal party over it.

I think the most interesting thing is that Abbott and Turnbull are both from seats in Sydney, NSW. Now we have a direct connection between the ongoing conga line of NSW corrupt Lieberals, and Canberra. 
The full list of the secret donors involved in almost $700,000 worth of payments at the heart of the NSW Liberal Party election donations scandal has been ­revealed in leaked financial records. 

Documents obtained by The Australian show 73 payments by individuals and companies were funnelled through the Liberals’ controversial Canberra-based trust, the Free Enterprise Found­ation, to the party’s NSW division before the 2011 state election. 

As the NSW Liberal Party ­attempts to reach a settlement with the NSW Electoral Commission in order to receive $4.3 million in funding it is withholding in the lead up to Malcolm Turnbull’s election campaign, the party is facing the prospect of legal action by property developers, furious they were encouraged to make the donations via the trust. 

The payments include major donations from Lang Walker’s Walker Group Holdings, Nathan Tinkler’s Boardwalk Enterprises and Frank Lowy’s Westfield. 

They strongly hit back at the Liberal Party yesterday, saying their financial support was not ­intended for the March 2011 state election in NSW — the only state in Australia where donations from property developers are banned. 

NSW property developer Tim Gunasinghe, who donated through his company Printban Pty Ltd, has not ruled out launching legal action against the NSW Liberal Party and said he was also unaware his donation would be directed to the state division. 

“We were approached by them as a lobby group to help developers try to get through red tape,” he told The Australian

Donations were made via the Free Enterprise Foundation and were then directed to NSW ahead of the 2011 state election, where former premier Barry O’Farrell was elected in a landslide victory. The Australian   
It's worth noting also that Barry O'Farrell had to resign as premier of the state after getting caught out in corruption.

And we're supposed to go to an election over union corruption?

David had his bank card skimmed - all his money stolen from account


*Update: The money has been returned by the Commonwealth bank today (Friday) only two days after it was stolen. He has also made a police statement saying how it couldn't have been anyone else other than the Caltex garage two doors down from us.
 
Something similar happened to me a while back, where I was on Oxford St and supposedly got a cab for $120 way out in Granville at the same time. The bank returned my money.

On this occasion the only place it could of been done was at the Caltex service station next door. David got some chips and the like there for a couple of the neighbours who stopped by for a bit. Anyway he went to get a packet of cigarettes at about 9pm and his card was decline. Confused he came home to check his account online, and it'd been cleaned out by two ATM withdrawals in Strathfield earlier at 5:30pm (the two transactions 3 minutes apart. That was about 2-3 hours after the EFTPOS transaction at the service station.

So he rang the bank and they're returning the money, but it's in 3-5 days. Not much help now as they took everything. Left him with $7. Assholes. Wasn't a huge amount of money but of course we live week to week. Presently we have a grand total of about $20 between us until next Wednesday. What low life pricks. Stealing off bloody pensioners FFS.

Apparently how they do it is to attach a skimmer to the EFTPOS terminal in the store, which collects the data on the magnetic strip. Then they simply make another card with all the data on it and it's off to clean out the account at an ATM. A lot harder to attach a skimmer to an in store EFTPOS terminal than an ATM on the street. I do wonder though about employees though. David was served by a new guy in there who'd not been there long at all.

I keep telling David to get a multi access card like mine with a chip on it as it's much harder to make, but he's rather old fashioned you know. A chip with paypass the card doesn't even touch the terminal. He prefers that archaic cash stuff. Which sounds safer but you still have to withdraw it from an ATM, which is easy to attach a skimmer to.

Democracy by media as WW3 hatches - John Pilger speech (video)


I've often thought in the past that Pilger was a bit over the top and his use of language overly emotive. In this case it isn't. He appears to have gotten over his self absorption that so often polluted some of his earlier work, almost preaching to people.

Watch as Pilger brings his experience and language skills together in his later life in one of the most truthful, descriptive, insightful and powerful speeches I've seen in many many years. 

He describes the catastrophe of the west in it's continual hugging of the failed experiment that is the US. The present danger of the war machine that is the US in today's world, and the aggression it's military is playing out right now against Russia and China. 

Why are we allies with this crazy war monger nation? Why does Australia feel so in love with this place that in every societal level acts in a way that is so against the way our society acts? From guns to health care, from religion to politics, they have become something deeply foreign to Australians.

Yet our compliant major political parties immorally align themselves to this rouge state. Whilst we sleep. Electing FFS a dickhead like the most bizarre and incompetent PM in our modern history, being Abbott. The Lieberals announce a nearly $200 billion spend on war stuff, and we're silent. $200 billion in a country of only $23 million people. At what point did we all go stark raving mad? 

Whilst the Abbott/Turnbull gov cuts deeply into social services that help Australians.

Talk about a ship of bloody fools.

 

Trans men who were women - pics



If they were in North Carolina it would be the law that these (now men) would have to go to a female toilet.




 

Wednesday 30 March 2016

List of big compamies aghast at North Carolina's gay hate new laws

I wonder how hater Cherl at the Lamp Company feels about Facebook lining up against her lights? Or Google? Or Microsoft? Or a lot of other compnies on the list very well known here in Australia?

North Carolina is shaping up to be an even worse disaster than Indiana's venture into gay hate.
Karen Appleton, Senior Vice President, Box 
Brandee Barker, Cofounder, The Pramana Collective 
Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce 
Chip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi Strauss & Co. 
Michael Birch, Founder, Blab 
Ed Black, President and CEO, Computer & Communications Industry Association 
Nathan Blecharczyk, Cofounder and CTO, Airbnb 
Steven R. Boal, CEO, Quotient Technology Inc. 
Lorna Borenstein, CEO, Grokker 
Brad Brinegar, Chairman and CEO, McKinney 
Lloyd Carney, CEO, Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. 
Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb 
Ron Conway, Founder and Co-Managing Partner, SV Angel 
Tim Cook, CEO, Apple 
Dean Debnam, Chairman and CEO, Workplace Options 
Jack Dorsey, CEO, Square and Twitter 
David Ebersman, Cofounder and CEO, Lyra Health 
Jared Fliesler, General Partner, Matrix Partners 
Joe Gebbia, Cofounder and Chief Product Officer, Airbnb 
Jason Goldberg, CEO, Pepo 
Alan King, President and COO, Workplace Options 
Kristen Koh Goldstein, CEO, BackOps 
Mitchell Gold, co-founder and chair-man, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams 
John H. Graham IV, President and CEO, American Society of Association Executives 
Logan Green, CEO, Lyft 
Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator 
David Hassell, CEO, 15Five 
Charles H. Hill III, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Human Resources, Pfizer Inc. 
Reid Hoffman, Chairman, LinkedIn 
Robert Hohman, Cofounder & CEO, Glassdoor 
Drew Houston, CEO, Dropbox 
Chad Hurley, Cofounder, YouTube 
Dave Imre, Partner and CEO, IMRE 
Dev Ittycheria, President & CEO, MongoDB 
Laurene Powell Jobs, President, Emerson Collective 
Cecily Joseph, VP Corporate Responsibility and Chief Diversity Officer, Symantec Corporation 
David Karp, Founder and CEO, Tumblr 
Travis Katz, Founder and CEO, Gogobot 
Brian Krzanich, CEO, Intel 
Joshua Kushner, Managing Partner, Thrive Capital Max Levchin, 
CEO, Affirm Dion Lim, CEO, NextLesson 
Shan-lyn Ma, CEO, Zola 
Marissa Mayer, President and CEO, Yahoo 
Melody McCloskey, CEO, StyleSeat 
Douglas Merrill, CEO, Zestfinance 
Dyke Messinger, President and CEO, Power Curbers Inc. 
Hari Nair, Vice President and General Manager, Orbitz.com & CheapTickets.com 
Michael Natenshon, CEO, Marine Layer 
Alexi G. Nazem, Cofounder and CEO, Nomad Health 
Laurie J. Olson, EVP, Strategy, Portfolio and Commercial Operations, 
Pfizer Inc. Bob Page, Founder and CEO, Replacements, Ltd. 
Michelle Peluso, Strategic Advisor and former CEO, Gilt 
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google 
Mark Pincus, Founder and Executive Chairman, Zynga 
Hosain Rahman, CEO, Jawbone 
Bill Ready, CEO, Braintree 
Evan Reece, CEO, Liftopia 
Stan Reiss, General Partner, Matrix Partners 
John Replogle, CEO, Seventh Generation 
Virginia M. Rometty, Chairman, President and CEO, IBM Corporation 
Dan Rosensweig, CEO, Chegg 
Kevin P. Ryan, Founder and Chairman, Alleycorp 
Bijan Sabet, General Partner, Spark Capital 
Julie Samuels, President, Engine 
George A. Scangos, PhD, CEO, Biogen 
Dan Schulman, President and CEO, PayPal 
Adam Shankman, Director and Producer 
Gary Shapiro, President and CEO, Consumer Technology Association 
David A. Shaywitz, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, DNAnexus 
Ben Silbermann, CEO, Pinterest 
Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft 
Arne Sorenson, President and CEO, Marriott International 
David Spector, Cofounder, ThirdLove 
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO, Yelp 
Bret Taylor, CEO, Quip 
Todd Thibodeaux, CEO, CompTIA 
David Tisch, Managing Partner, BoxGroup 
Nirav Tolia, Cofounder and CEO, Nextdoor 
Kevin A. Trapani, President and CEO, The Redwood Groups 
Ken Wasch, President, Software & Information Industry Association 
Bob & Harvey Weinstein, Co-Founders and Co-Chairmen, The Weinstein Company 
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook
Lovers :)  

North Carolina digs in over gay hate law - posts list of businesses supporting it, and governor rant (video)


Gay hate state North Carolina is digging right in over it's gay hate laws. It's governor has posted a ranting defence of the law pleading victimisation (seriously).



Not only that, but they've also posted a list of hate companies supporting the law. Only those ones willing to put their name to their bigotry of course. Those who really really hate. I note none of them are companies that are big enough to be known here in Australia. The big ones are saying they're going to pull out of the state over it. 

I wonder how Cheryl at the Lamp Company's business is going to go after publicly outing themselves as haters of the LGBT.
Here is the list of businesses willing to be listed publicly: 

Sallie Caldwell, S & S Cleaning Service, 
LLC Reese Cao, XG Technologies inc Jennifer Champion, 
Total Life Changes Sam Cowles, Main Street Investments, 
LLC Mark & Lora Godwin, Mark Godwin Family Farms Inc. 
David Griffin, Griffin Tile & Marble Inc. 
David & Judith Hale, Lighthouse Electric of Charlotte 
Marilyn Harding, Marilyn H. Harding, LPC, PLLC 
James Hartsell, Edifice Inc 
Dusten Harward, D Harward Marketing 
Debra Hasty, Hasty Home Resources 
H. Ralph Henderson, Omnichannel Productions 
Tim Herlihy, Occupational Health Concepts 
Rebekah Hopkins, Beethoven's Piano Revelers Studio 
Jana Huffstetler, Collision Center of Stanley County 
Gregory Humphrey, Heaven’s Best Carpet Cleaning 
Cheryl Jones, ICI Lamp Company 
Sergey Kholod, Serglandscape Company 
Tony Mazzone, Comfort Security 
Adam and Michelle Mills, Mills Inc. 
Bill Montross, Christian Business Men Connections 
Jesse Newton, Green Branch Construction, Inc. 
Kristina Nieshalla, CB HPW Realtors 
Ronald Obie, WCRG 
James Potts, Overhead Door Co. of Charlotte 
Justin Reeder, Superior Wash Southeast 
David Benham, Benham Real Estate Group 
Lila Sanacore, Prayerful Touch Massage 
Doug Schmeuszer, Sunbelt Packaging LLC 
Tim Steele, Thermal services, inc. 
Gretchen, Tate, God’s Glamorous Girls 
Lisa Todd, Todd Group 
Keith Vance, Vance Resource llc 
Maria Vari, Strategic Resource Development 
Elizabeth Walker, Oexning Silversmiths, Inc. 
Paul, Weaver, AWPC, Inc 
Michael Wolff, KC Solutions Group 
Keith Zimmerman, Hanesbrands, Inc.  
Haters   
*Note: I have used 1950's grey for this post.*

Honestly, I can't get my head around the sheer stupidity, ignorance, and hate expressed by these people. How can a human being hate another human being so much that they're willing to reject and discriminate against them in such a vile way? In 50 years (if these businesses are still around *coughs*) they're going to be looking pretty fuckin stupid.

 

Zac fell asleep watching the fish - pics :)


We had a bit of a late night last night with some neighbours over. Zac was a bit overwhelmed by it all. Afterwards when it was all quiet he decided to sit and watch the fish. After a bit he just couldn't keep his eyes open anymore and feel asleep where he was. Awwwwwww....  :)

 

ACLU to sue North Carolina over LGBT discrimination - Rachel Maddow


As the state's economy is about to lose $bazillions with companies leaving over the new LGBT discrimination law, the ACLU is about to sue the state citing clear legal precedence against the hate law.

 

Been seriously depressed today


It's been building up for days I think. Where today I've spent most of it in bed, simply incapacitated from depression.

There's been a lot of things going through my mind lately. Am not happy at all with my daughter cutting me off and blaming me for her behaviour over the years after her mother died (my wife). In a few weeks it'll be the ten year anniversary of her dying. In a way I'm glad she hasn't been alive to see what our daughter did to me as it would've broken her heart, poor dear.

David and I want to get married but have presently just about given up hope of it happening any time soon. So we've chosen to go through the very romantic type thing of filling in a form and sending it off, paying $50 for the privilege of registering our relationship in NSW. This is simply because we can't get married. Perhaps one of us should ask the other "Will you be my registered partner?" :s   How absurd. My own daughter got married last year, but I can't.

The whole insane hijacking of Safe Schools by extremist politicians in the federal gov also went a long way to express just how powerless the LGBT still are in this country. The wacko lunar right extremists can still clobber us with their bigotry and hatred. I'm sick to death of the angry, bitter, white middle aged Catholic men in Canberra who want the world to conform to their 1950's ideology. Although calling it an "ideology" is probably too much of a complement. Self righteous, self absorbed wankers who think they're morally superior, whilst behaving immorally. After all, morality isn't a rule book, it's how you treat people. These people seem to take great glee in treating us badly. Slaming doors in our faces. Kicking us when we're down.

*sigh*  Anyway, not long before I see my psychologist. Thank fuck it's free.  

 

David and I. Australians. We want to get married......

Tuesday 29 March 2016

"Bathroom panic" the foundations of North Carolina discrimination laws


You know one person who I've not heard of in this, is Caitlin Jenner.

Anyway the whole thing revolves around toilets, and the completely wrong notion that if you don't discriminate against trans people then paedophiles will take advantage of the law and enter said toilets.

In others words, complete ignorance.

 

The movie Dopey Dutton paid $6million for - The Feed

Dopey Dutton

WTF? Dopey Dutton has paid $6million in public money to make a 90 minute film to discourage people from seeking asylum in Australia.

I assume refugees will be able to watch this whilst taking a break from fleeing for their lives? 

 

Abbott steals wave from surfer - breaks surfer etiquette


Note the expression on the teenage girls face as Abbott drops in on her wave. Not impressed. He didn't even apologise to her. I guess you don't have to apologise to the plebs when you've lived such a life of undeserved privilege :s

 



Being homeless under the Lieberals - Waleed Aly, The Project


Waleed talks of the absurdity of well intentioned laws against begging, when the Lieberals have pulled the guts out of funding for homeless services. Welcome to homelessness under the Lieberals.

 

Man does anti-gay rant to taxi driver


It happened in the US but that's not the point. Wherever it happens, why do these macho boys use teh gayz as language to insult people? Replace the word "faggot" with "black" for example and it takes on a whole racial slur. Why do some think it's OK to slur using sexuality?

To me it simply says he's insecure about his sexuality. Perhaps that's one of the reasons he's behaving in such a hateful and aggressive way?

 

Abbott "excused torture then, now he’s excusing war crimes” - Tamil Refugee Council

War crime civilian deaths "unavoidable" - Abbott. Sri Lankan government troops near the town of Mullaitivu, the epicentre of the civil war, in 2009. Photograph: Reuters
Where the hell is wet fish slap Turnbull? Abbott has gone rouge yet again and has put the Abbott/Turnbull gov right in the shit over his comments in the Quadrant article the other day. Retarded as they were, obviously those who suffered under the Sri Lankan regime are deeply offended at Abbott saying that torture and deaths of Sri Lankans were "unavoidable". 
I’m sure that the Sri Lankan president was pleased that Australia didn’t join the human rights lobby against the tough but probably unavoidable actions taken to end one of the world’s most vicious civil wars. Quadrant
Predictably the Tamil Council has been scathing of both Abbott and the Lieberal party for not pulling Abbott into line over it. It's typical Abbott, managing to offend an entire section of a country's population in one single sentence. The below quote goes on to say Grant wants Lieberal Julie Bishop to publicly reject Abbott's comments.
Tamil Refugee Council convenor Trevor Grant told Guardian Australia “he excused torture then, now he’s excusing war crimes”.

Grant said Abbott’s comments were “predictable but despicable” as Abbott had “a history of aligning himself with the brutal [Rajapaksa] regime”, referring to their cooperation on stopping boats of asylum seekers from Sri Lanka reaching Australia.

“For Abbott to say that sort of thing flies in the face of all known facts, put out there not just by Tamil groups but also by independent investigators of the UN.” The Guardian
The Tamil Refugee Council convener is not alone in condemning Abbott, with groups lining up to put the boot in to Abbott and demand an apology from the Abbott/Turnbull gov.
Australian Tamil Congress national spokesperson Sam Pari said “it is disappointing that rather than upholding human rights, Abbott chose instead to please the Sri Lankan president who failed to protect and promote international human rights law and international humanitarian law”. 

Human Rights Watch Australia director, Elaine Pearson, said Abbott’s comments were unacceptable and offensive. 

“The UN has described the final stages of the war as a bloodbath – tens of thousands of people were slaughtered in indiscriminate shelling. To suggest that war crimes are ‘tough but probably unavoidable’ is giving a green light to abusive leaders and armies everywhere,” she said. 

“It is a slap in the face to the tens of thousands of victims of wartime atrocities and their families.” 

Abbott said Australia and Sri Lanka “became even stronger partners in the Abbott government’s most urgent initial task: to end the people-smuggling trade that had resulted in more than 1,200 deaths at sea, more than 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat and more than $10bn in border protection budget blow-outs”. 

Labor’s foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, said: “I think it would be a good thing for the foreign affairs minister to have a few words to Abbott about some of these comments. The Guardian 
Remember folks, we're in an unofficial election campaign.........  This all must be music to Labor's ears. Abbott is of course to campaign on his own in marginal Lieberal seats. Far out.




Monday 28 March 2016

No trans in bathrooms because paedophiles - North Carolina (video)

Unless you're LGBT

WTF? What the hell does being trans have to do with paedophilia? Are trans people not supposed to go to the toilet because paedophiles may "take advantage" of trans non-discrimination? Are trans people supposed to endure discrimination to stop peadophiles? What a ridiculous concept.

A case of legislators making laws about something they know nothing about.

 

Abbott goes full retard in breathtakingly stupid article re his PM-ship - Quadrant

A beach protest against Abbott's climate change denial

I think this is the most anti-history history I've ever had the misfortune to come across from any Australian prime minister. It's like some demented Monty Python script gone horribly wrong. The thing is, Abbott actually believes this deranged shit he's writing. In reality it merely confirms to Australians why he was turfed and why we'd never want him back; he just doesn't have the faintest idea of reality.

I must admit I've only skimmed through the article, as to read the thing in detail would be just too much mental torture. But take this paragraph for example:
I suspect that the Malaysian prime minister was pleasantly surprised with my apology for the way his country had become collateral damage in an Australian domestic argument over people-smuggling. Likewise, I’m sure that the Sri Lankan president was pleased that Australia didn’t join the human rights lobby against the tough but probably unavoidable actions taken to end one of the world’s most vicious civil wars. Certainly, both countries became even stronger partners in the Abbott government’s most urgent initial task: to end the people-smuggling trade that had resulted in more than 1200 deaths at sea, more than 50,000 illegal arrivals by boat and more than $10 billion in border protection budget blow-outs. Quadrant
Yes folks, according to Abbott the end justifies the means, and he was right not to moralise to Sri Lanka about it's gross human rights violations. According to Abbott those violations were "unavoidable". 

So what are these "unavoidable" human rights violations that Abbott didn't see fit to mention? A very quick Google search and here we have it:
Torture, Rape, Arbitrary Detention, and Enforced Disappearances
"Unavoidable actions" - Abbott

Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act is an extremely broad and unclear law that essentially allows police to justify prolonged detention without trial. This act was especially abused during the civil war, for many Tamil citizens were detained under suspicion of “terrorism.” Sri Lankan authorities have acknowledged holding almost 500 alleged former LTTE members without charge for what they termed “rehabilitation”. In addition, hundreds of other Tamil prisoners remained in administrative detention pending investigation into their suspected links with the LTTE; many had been detained for years. It has also been reported that torture and other ill-treatment were used in order to obtain confessions of LTTE involvement. More recently, new evidence was published by Human Rights Watch that rape and sexual violence was used as a broader torture during the conflict. To make matters worse, over 20 alleged enforced disappearances have been reported, including the abduction of Tamil businessman Ramasamy Prabaharan, who was taken just two days before the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear his complaints against arbitrary arrest, detention and torture by police in May 2009. Human Rights Report Card: Sri Lanka
How in the hell could Abbott just ignore this? Remember, he calls himself a christian.... 

And there's this doozy:
I was determined not to let our response to Russia dominate the G20 in Brisbane, held immediately afterwards, which turned out to be a diplomatic triumph for Australia. It was quite a breakthrough to obtain from the world’s biggest economies even a rhetorical commitment to boosting economic growth by getting debt and deficit under control. Quadrant
A "diplomatic triumph"? Good grief, call the men in the white coats! It was anything but. Abbott did all he could to keep climate change off the agenda, but the US and China chose to announce their joint climate deal during the Brisbane G20. No doubt Obama meant this to seriously embarrass Abbott and his climate denialism. Fuck knows what Obama said to Abbott behind the scenes.....
Associate Professor Peter Christoff, a climate policy analyst from the University of Melbourne, said the US-China deal had "embarrassed" the Abbott Government.

"Look, I think the Abbott Government has been severely embarrassed by this announcement and no more so than at a time when it's quite clear that the Government has been trying to keep climate change off the agenda at the G20," he told The World Today.

"It immediately leaves the Abbott Government with a problem, because the Direct Action plan that it's proposing is incapable of meeting targets like the ones that we should be aiming for." ABC
Obama even went on to make a big speech about climate change when he was here. Both mainstream and online media was full of mockery for Abbott over it. It was I guess a "diplomatic triumph" for Obama and China, but in every sense for Abbott it was an unmitigated diplomatic disaster. 

How about this one, following straight on from the above G20 "diplomatic triumph": 
AS INTERNATIONAL tensions mount and as flashpoints multiply, Australia’s most important geo-political role is supporting and encouraging the United States. As the current situation in Syria demonstrates, US absence from any major trouble spot creates a vacuum that less high-minded countries will eventually fill. Of course, the most effective form of encouragement is an offer to assist. Quadrant
As this paragraph suggests, yes we all remember how Abbott wanted to jump the gun even from the US, and offered to bomb Syria even before Obama asked. What's more he tried to cover that up and lied to the Australian people, pretending that the gov was considering it. 
But senior government sources have told Fairfax Media that the driving force for the formal request received last week from the United States for the RAAF to join the air campaign in Syria came more from Canberra – and in particular the Prime Minister's office – than from Washington. 

Visiting remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, Mr Abbott said the government was still considering the request but expected to make a decision within the next week. "I had a request from President Obama some weeks ago to consider strikes into Syria," Mr Abbott said. 

"After that, I asked our military officials to talk to the Pentagon and in the wake of those conversations, a formal request for Australian involvement in air strikes in Syria has come. We'll consider this and we'll make a decision in the next week or so." Sydney Morning Herald
Abbott thought Australians wouldn't have agreed to him pushing Obama to join in Syrian bombing. He'd have been right in at least that. Indeed it was big news when it broke in the papers that Abbott had done so. 

However that's where the truth ends. It's the US itself that created this whole knee jerk mess in the Middle East. For Australia to join another stupid war of US making would be controversial here to say the least. For an Australian PM to push the US for us to get involved is unthinkable and a betrayal of our trust as Australians.

Once again, we have Abbott trying desperately to rewrite the history of his gov (his Quadrant article is 3,700 words long). In doing so he's just making himself look ever more stupid and ever more out of touch with reality.

What's more he's doing this during a long election campaign. Will Australia then vote for a party with Abbott trying to make an impossible come back?  

 

 

Sunday 27 March 2016

We've decided to register our relationship

We've been together over three years now and marriage equality in Australia seems no closer than it was when we met. 

I suggested to David that we register our relationship as at least that's something. He agreed and we're going ahead with sending the form in to births deaths and marriages. 

Takes about a month and $50, but for the peace of mind that it provides it'd be well worth the money.

All the information and forms you need to do this in NSW are here. 
Adults who are in a relationship as a couple, regardless of sex, can apply for registration of their relationship, provided at least one of them lives in NSW. Adults in both heterosexual and same-sex relationships are eligible to register. NSW Justice, births, deaths, marriages  

NRA rewrites fairy tales with guns - US


It appears the US National Rifle Association will stop at nothing in their quest to brainwash the US public. Now they're starting young. Perhaps as with fast food outlets or tobacco, they realise that the younger you get them  the easier it is to hook them.

One of them is called Little Red Riding Hood (has a gun)
Red loved the woods, and was happy to walk through them. Usually, there would only be the sunlight and the squirrels, but there was a dark side to the wood. There were shadows, there were beasts, and there could be danger. One birthday not long ago, Red was given her very own rifle and lessons on how to use it—just in case—to be sure that she would always be safe. So, with a kiss from her mother, rifle over her shoulder and a basket for her Grandmother in her hands, Red took a deep breath and entered the woods. NRA Family
I'm speechless. ...... Only in America..........  

Yes, there's nothing like the "NRA Family". Family bibles and guns. 

I wonder how parents would feel if the tobacco industry rewrote Little Red Ridding Hood with cigarettes? Or rather pudgy Little Red Ridding Hood with a basket full of Big Macs and coke?

This is child abuse. 

 

Christians to have their heads cut off - Jim Bakker

Bakkers buckets of tribulation food

Far out. Totally nuts. Forget teh gayz in North Carolina. Apparently christians will soon have their heads cut off for being christians. Also they will be machine gunned for praying :s

Just a side note, Bakker is well known for selling his survival buckets of tribulation food (or should I say vomit looking slop) so of course he's going to rave on about doom and all. *sheesh*

 

 

Backlash to gay hate bill passed by North Carolina, US - Rachel Maddow


Rachel Maddow interviews the mayor of Charlotte, NC, over the hijacking of their legislature to bring in the most hateful  anti gay laws in the US.

 

Ex Lieberal PM Hewson questions Turnbull's election "masterstroke"

Strangely the main stream media has been falling over itself to praise PM Turnbull for his so called masterstroke in calling an election. It's left me scratching my head, as to me it was simply Turnbull trying to get re-elected before his polling went further south. Pressing the panic button so to speak.

Ex PM Hewson also joins the likes of me who seriously doubt the PM's strategy here. Turnbull has a lot on his plate, and the old Howard clearing of the decks hasn't materialised with Turnbull. He has the complete shambles of the marriage equality plebiscite that nobody wants, the budget that all seems to hard prescently but is being bought forward a week for the election, and Abbott who simply refuses to lie down and die a political death.



On top of all this is the latest in the Lieberals conga line of corruption, with Arthur Sinodinos now in all sorts of hot water over corruption allegations. Incredibly, it appears that large Lieberal donors were approached to buy the man a house FFS. What was that about evil union corruption again?



Hewson is now saying that far from a masterstroke, Turnbull is engaging in a very risky strategy. Is it brave or stupid? We shall see.....

It could blow up in his face. Like I suspect Sinodinos is about to.
"In the interim he has got to deal with issues like (Arthur) Sinodinos, (Tony) Abbott, backbench issues and a budget that has been neutered as a pre-election budget rather than a reform budget," Dr Hewson told Sky News on Sunday. 

He compared it to when former Labor Leader Julia Gillard announced the date of the election almost a year in advance, elevating the opposition in terms of media coverage. 

One headache for the prime minister is the ever presence of Mr Abbott. 

The former prime minister quickly made his mark when Mr Turnbull announced the July 2 poll, saying the government would be campaigning on policies that were introduced under his leadership. 

Reports suggest that Mr Abbott will be electioneering in marginal seats on his own tour in the absence of being given a proper campaign role. 

Dr Hewson believes that could be a mistake. 

"He won't go away, so I think you give him a role. Define the role very carefully and encourage him to be judged by his performance," Dr Hewson told Sky News.  ninemsn