Latest US election witch hunt - transgenders; Betty Bowers video :)

In the past it's been watch out for the gay rapists! Now it's watch out for the transgender rapists! 

The trans-phobia Great Bathroom Panic going across the US right now is nothing more that a distraction from the real issues. Nothing said about climate change, corporate slavery, poverty, crumbling infrastructure and all. No, apparently the biggest crisis facing the US right now are transgendered people going to the toilet :s

 

56% of Australian lemings are "satisfied" with Australia's tax and equity - poll ANU

Australian National University poll: Tax and Equity in Australia

Polling by the Australian National University says that 56% of Australians are either satisfied, or very satisfied, with Australian taxation and equity.

Who are these strange brain dead lemmings? Mindless fools going about their lives and meekly accepting their lot as serfs whilst the corporate world rules over them? This is just the way the oligarchs like it. Entertain the pawns with footy, phones and telly. Give them a few crumbs to argue over in their town squares, whilst they get away with living a life of obscene luxury and wealth.

Actually, it may not be as entirely bad as it looks. Take the top 20-30% of earners for example. They'd be extremely happy at the moment with current tax and equity arrangements. Investing offshore to minimise tax, parking money in superannuation to get taxed less on it, negative gearing a few properties, all at the cost to gov revenue. Yes, I imagine they'd be very happy with current arrangements.

Conversely 35% of people are dissatisfied, or very dissatisfied. Considering that Australia prides itself as a fair socially equitable nation, I think that figure is quite high. 

 

"Piss on the floor at target" GBP - christians, US

This is seriously sick. A US pastor says he will piss on the floor of Target because they're shitting on America (my paraphrasing there).

Pastor threatens to pee on the floor of his local Target to ‘protest’ transgender policy https://t.co/3VnskxMZt5 (Pink News)

— hot 24 (@hot24UK) April 29, 2016

So does this mean he's going to expose himself to little girls in Target as he does so?

This Great Bathroom Panic thing is reaching new heights of crazy. This is beyond crazy though, it's sick.

 

Turnbull blames plebiscite on Lieberal party - whimp alert

Pink News informs us that Turnbull has blamed his own party for the "frustrating" plebiscite, after saying it will likely pass, on a Tasmanian radio show.

He pretty much says "it wasn't me" when he says he wasn't the leader at the time and now that he is, well you know..... Evidently he's still looking for his balls.

The PM added that he understands the plebiscite plan is “frustrating”, but that he was not leader when the compromise deal was agreed. He said: 

“It was the decision of our parties – our party room came to the collective view that this was an issue that the Australian people should be able to express a view on. 

“There’s no question, it’s not the traditional way of resolving matters… it was the view taken by the party room before I was Prime Minister. 

“It’s a view that we’re committed to and it’s thoroughly democratic. I can understand it’s frustrating for people who want to get on with it, and obviously it has a cost associated with it – but it will be a thoroughly democratic process.” Pink News  

*pfffft* 

Just another fuckin excuse. 

Turnbull at war with medics - election 2013

Oh dear. This is another body blow to the gov's re-election chances.

The medical profession is at war with the Turnbull gov against proposed cuts to Medicare due to be implemented on July 1st. Cuts that could mean a pathology visit could attract a $20 co-payment.

As far as I'm concerned that would mean one thing, that I couldn't afford it and wouldn't get it done. Likely my doctor would bulk bill me at the centre involved if that was the case, but what about other people? It'd be the end of preventative medicine for many. 

There's other implications as well, like testing for HIV. Would a working person have to pay to get an HIV blood test? This is completely counter productive to all efforts to reduce HIV infections in the years ahead. It goes without saying that people are most infectious soon after getting the virus, and of course pass it on when not on meds over years if they haven't been tested for it.

MALCOLM Turnbull will go to the July election at war with the medical profession as pathologists, imaging clinics, dentists and doctors all campaign against his budget cuts. 

Pathology clinics have already become campaign headquarters against the government as the industry fights the end of a bulk billing incentive that could see a blood test cost $20 from July 1. 

Nearly 500,000 patients have so far signed a petition against the cuts and the industry today (Thurs) releases a report which shows how it saved the government $2.4 billion by providing free tests last year. 

The Ernst and Young report shows Australian pathology costs $381m less than the USA, and $45m less than Canada.

“Our campaign will not only go ahead, we will be doing everything we can to make the government see that this is the wrong approach, that will continue election or no election,” Pathology Australia president Dr Nick Musgrave said. 

“Should the minister not realise this is a mistake it will be a major issue during the election campaign,” he says. 

Pathologists see more than two million patients a month which means they will have the ear of two in every ten voters during the lengthy eight week election campaign. Daily Terrorgraph  

Bigot neighbour just crashed into the washing line - Karma aplenty (pics)

Far out! When Karma strikes it really strikes! Ha ha ha ha.....

So........ The bigot neighbours nextdoor that told us we were "those people" over various things, one of them being the carspace that is ours and paid for by us, that we let them use when they bought a car as we don't have one. We gave up arguing about it to keep the peace and wanted nothing more to do with it.

Well.......  Today he's trying to back out of the space, and honestly he just can't drive. I wasn't watching but I heard a bump, David is at the door giving a commentary, and he'd backed into the wall of the units across the driveway, leaving a scrape on the corner of his bumper. Thus:

He then went forward from the wall, still trying to get out and drive off (watch out road people!) and I heard another bump. David said he's hit the washing line. I go and look and it's completely over touching the ground, leaving a dent on the front and knocking off the P-plate onto the grass. Thus (just after his wife pushed it up off the ground):

How fuckin ironically Karma :)  They kicked up a big stink with the real estate about being able to park there in our space, taking photos of it and all, and he can't even back out of the thing. Ha ha ha ha......  

Thank you universe :) 

He left the car abandoned on the lawn as above and gave up, going back inside. I've sent pictures to the real estate requesting a fixit man to come and repair the washing line. The real estate may now charge them for the job :)

*Update: A friend of their has just come around and parked the car correctly on the concrete and off the grass. Good grief, how did this guy get his licence? 

Gov demonises welfare recipients in lead up to May budget clobbering

Here we go again. The welfare people are supposed to carry the budget can.

In the lead up to the budget, the Turnbull gov is saying there's not enough money for dole bludgers and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). So they're going to increase compliance measures to those evil dole bludgers who are rorting the system. All this whilst huge corporations pay no fuckin tax.

Leading welfare groups have attacked the Turnbull government and sections of the media for a spate of stories “unfairly misrepresenting” unemployment benefits data to “vilify” and “demonise” the 800,000 Australians who cannot find a job.

Young Australians gloomy about job prospects and most are averse to risk Read more The welfare leaders pointed to the Daily Telegraph’s Tuesday story headlined “Booze drugs dole rort ... dole grubs shirking work”, and other recent stories including one titled “A quarter of dole recipients shirking appointments and jobs”, both “exclusives” based on government data.

“We are very concerned that the government and parts of the media have been pushing story after story unfairly misrepresenting data and vilifying the unemployed as undeserving dole bludgers ahead of next week’s budget. It has all the signs of a softening-up campaign, demonising people who can’t get a job to pave the way for further ‘crackdowns’,” said the chief executive of the Australian Council of Social Service, Cassandra Goldie.

“This isn’t the way to achieve good public policy. It does immediate and real harm to the hundreds of thousands of people who are already living the reality of not being able to get a job and who are being demonised. I urge the prime minister and his ministers to think about the human impact of these stories.” The Guardian

Firstly. anyone who thinks that trying to survive on less that about $250 a week is a "rort" is severely mistaken. The simple fact is that it's not survivable. Unless you have savings or access to Super funds via severe financial hardship provisions, you're basically fucked. You won't be able to afford to keep renting where you are, and you better home some kind friend or relative is able to let you stay with them for a minimal amount. If you're on your own with nobody to help you'll likely end up homeless. Hardly a life style choice. These are the people the gov is targeting to make up the budget short fall. Just criminal. 

Then there's the compliance measures already in place. Anyone who thinks that complying to the dole requirments is a walk in the park is an idiot. What if you're one of the many people who have been forced off the Disability Support Pension because they tell you you're "not sick enough" according to their criteria? This happens to people in wheelchairs and all, as I've pointed out at times here. Are you then supposed to look for however many jobs a month in a place that has no work even for healthy people? The best Centrelink staff can do for you in such a case is to get a doctors cert off you and relieving you of the duty to find said interviews, whilst still giving you all of less than $500 a fortnight.

The Government’s obsession with punishing vulnerable Australian’s continues today with news that income support recipients will be targeted to pay for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which has already been funded. 

“There was tri-partisan support for the NDIS when the previous Government introduced the Scheme, now it is being used as an excuse to attack income support recipients”, Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert said today. 

“There is no doubt in my mind that there has been a proactive campaign by the Government to vilify income support recipients in the lead up to this announcement and to the budget. I agree with various welfare groups who say job seekers are being demonised in the budget lead-up, this was obvious when yet again we saw headlines attacking people on Newstart. 

“If the Government is genuine about compliance, they must increase funding for the Centrelink phone service and MyGov service, which are under-resourced and failing to keep up. 

“There are people on the Disability Support Pension, Carers Payment, Newstart and Youth Allowance who are trying to do the right thing but simply can’t get through. 

"Rather than once again seeking to save money from the most vulnerable in the community, those that are already living below the poverty line, the Government should start taking revenue raising seriously and stop looking after their wealthy mates”. The Greens  

This bloody nit picking and scrooge mentality from the gov to the most vulnerable Australians, all the while letting off corporate tax dodgers. Look over there, there's a welfare bludger. Nothing to see here though.....

David's cactus plants - pic :)

David has a real talent for this. Just seems to have an eye for it and he knows a lot about them. I'm much better at growing weeds, but that's another story :)

He took this pictures yesterday afternoon. The light caught it somehow just right. 

The recent argument with the closeted bigot neighbours was over their assertion that we'd "taken over" the shared area. WTF? It was a pile of junk there before David moved in, now look at it. A nice place for people to sit. Can't believe they complained to the real estate about that. But then again, they are bigots. 

20yr anniversary Port Arthur massacre - Australia's last gun massacre

Let's hope it stays our last massacre too.

Services were held to mark the 20th anniversary yesterday of 35 people being gunned down by loony Martin Bryant. The main one being at Port Arthur itself. I note that John Howard attended, who instigated the gun buy back scheme and tough new laws to restrict nutters in Australia from ever getting their hands on a gun again.

It was in response to massive community horror, shock, anger and protest as to how this man was able to get hold of the weaponry he had in the first place. I remember being very affected by what happened.

Today we also mark 20years in Australia since our last gun massacre. Again, let's hope it stays that way. 

Australian opera singer Amelia Farrugia, who was at Port Arthur on the day and missed the gunman’s attack in the Broad Arrow Cafe by minutes, performed Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Pie Jesu. 

A minute’s silence was held at the end of the ceremony, marking the time the massacre began. 

After a morning of gentle rain, the sun broke through as the service wound up. 

The day was also marked with ceremonies in Melbourne and at St David’s Cathedral in Hobart where bells tolled 35 times and 35 candles were lit to remember the lives lost. The New Daily    

"Gays love each other like cannibals love their victims" - christians

More love from the christians.......

This is from the cow scat pastor himself, Pastor Swanson, who recommends covering yourself in cow shit to protest outside gay weddings. 

Here he asserts that gays don't really love each other because they're like cannibals who love the way their victims taste. Which isn't love of course. duh. 

This is the same guy who presidential candidate Cruz spoke at the convention, where Swanson ruminated about how exactly to go about killing gays.

 

Lieberals release anti-carbon tax scare add online - election 2016

Abbott campaigns to "axe the tax"

Labor has released it's climate change policies that actually address the issue in some measure and take it seriously. The Lieberals aren't happy.

You see the Lieberal Abbott inspired climate change denial expensive window dressing "direct action" policy is a complete facade and everyone knows it. We who care about the planet see the Lieberals undoing of the Gillard carbon tax as a betrayal against humanity and Australia, yet the Lieberals continue to celebrate it as an accomplishment of theirs.

Now they've released an Abbott style scare campaign against a carbon tax. Now everybody take out your brains and set them on the table beside you, and watch this gormless Lieberal add. Somehow I don't think it's going to work the second time around.

 

Our climate emergency - The Greens

Greens leader Richard Di Natale spoke at the National Press Club on the climate emergency we're now facing on this planet. The Greens have been at the forefront of progressive change, particularly in recent times with the national discussion now about housing affordability and negative gearing.

Here Natale says the Greens are aiming to do a similar thing with fossil fuel subsidies to the big polluters in Australia, making it a national conversation.

 

*Full speech here. 

Dopey Dutton dithers over Manus Island - PNG has ruled detention centre illegal

*Update: Australia is the only reasonable destination for refugees on Manus Island
 
Dopey Dutton in this interview hasn't the faintest idea WTF is going to be done now with the asylum seekers currently locked up on Manus Island, after Papua New Guinea ruled Australia's detention centre there illegal and ordered it's closure.

Yes, it's world in crisis for the "Pacific solution". The supreme court of PNG ruled the gulag unconstitutional and therefore illegal, ordering the PNG and Australian gov's to close it. The reason for it's illegality? Because it broke human rights conventions, you know basic things like holding someone in jail for years without charge and the like. 

Now the fate of those in the detention centre is up in the air. Dutton, despite acting all cool and calm, has no idea where to go from here. 

 

Waleed Aly calls out Turnbull on negative gearing (video)

Waleed gives an informative report on what negative gearing is and what it does. As I've said, Turnbull has scored an own goal with this one. This now is a clear difference between the main parties and a huge election issue.

Negative gearing shut you out of the housing market? Is it time we #ShutThisPartyDown? By Waleed and @twhittyer.
https://t.co/9EjXQHqu5G

— #TheProjectTV (@theprojecttv) April 27, 2016

 

Poll 52/48 to Labor - Essential Research

link

It appears after the hovering, where the polls were sort of a bit stuck at 50/50 for three consecutuve Essential polls, even Stevens old buddy Bert, voters are continuing to make their mind up about the Abbott/Turnbull gov. This latest Essential Research poll has a decided movement yet again against the Lieberals and their conga line of 1950's back benchers running the show.

I note there are two things in the explanation at the bottom of these results (above) that make things even worse for the Lieberals. 

The first being that this is an average over the last two weeks, so in a sense isn't current to particularly right now and the reaction after Turnbull's train wreck on national telly last night. 

The other is that the preferences have been distributed just as they were at the 2013 election where asshole Abbott was swept to power at the hands of the corporations in his heyday. Those preference flows are very unlikely to be distributed the same way this election in the same favour to the Lieberals. 

Men read mean comments posted online to women - men shocked

This is the sort of thing that happens when people don't know who they're hating face to face. In this case men writing disgusting comments to sports reporting women. 

When people aren't actually face to face with someone, or haven't a clue about them (in this case sports dick heads in front of the telly) they are free to hate them in any way they themselves see fit.

Advice for guys behind the telly watching sport and putting down women - get to know them. You might actually get some romance and even sex that way you know.

Advice for people sitting behind the telly panicking about a non-existent toilet issue about trans people - get to know them. You might actually understand they're not a danger at all.

Advice for people sitting behind the idiot box and having conniptions about gay people with HIV daring to breath the same air as you - get to know them/us/me. I hope you understand we/I are not the terrible threat you may think I am.

People who read some of my ravings here online may think I'm being hypocritical here, but not so. Believe it or not everything I write on this blog I'd say to the face of the person involved. I don't care if it was Obama, Turnbull, or a neighbour. Everyone's the same to me. BTW I'd never use the C-word, except on rare occasions that barely even happen in life.  

 

Turnbulls disaster interview 7:30 report, ABC - election 2016 (video)

OMG. I keep asking can it get any worse for the Lieberals? Thinking obviously that it can't. And then it does.

So Turnbull gets on the national broadcaster the ABC's 7:30 report last night with the idea of preaching to us all about how exciting it is to be a property investor in Australia with the market distorting negative gearing left alone. I didn't see the whole interview last night, but the snippet was enough:

Coming up on #abc730 High-income earners benefiting from #propertytax concessions 'beside the point' says PM #auspolhttps://t.co/jwLY8R3ikZ

— abc730 (@abc730) April 26, 2016

Again.... Oh...... My....... God......... Yes folks, it just got worse for the Lieberals. Much much worse...... 

This is up there with SSJoe's "Poor people don't drive cars", or his condescending and patronising instructions  on how to buy a property saying "get a good job". In this case, Turnbull pretty much says "Poor people don't have investment properties".

Turnbull has shown to all of Australia that he's no different. Living the high life, he hasn't the faintest idea what it's like to struggle to pay basic living costs to keep a roof over your head, or eat. He's about the 1million Australians with investment properties vs 22million Australians without. 

I do wonder when I see such a mind blowingly fuck up of a train wreck interview as this, could this be a moment in the election that seriously loses it for the Lieberals? Like Hewson's disastrous birthday cake interview? We shall see, but this can't be described in any positive way.

It ties in with all the corruption issues, and one rule for the Canberra crowd and another for everyone else. They get to pay off a Canberra home with their staying away from home allowance FFS, whilst they live in the place. It paints the picture of pollies with their snouts in the trough, pushing away everyone else who gets anywhere near it.

Turnbull has painted himself into a corner now, with now way out. Many Australians dumbstruck and angry at his true Lieberal colours now expossed in the glaring spotlight of an election. 

Update: A much fuller video of the negative gearing Turnbull train wreck:

 

Cats on a lap :)

Is getting a bit cooler at nights in Sydney now and the old girl Natasha comes running in to the lounge room when she hears the foot rest of the chair go up. I'm supposed to keep my legs up as much as possible you know :) ........ 

So Natasha is lounging on my lap and legs, and young Zac jumps up on the leg rest beside her. Young Zac has gone a bit punk in his early life as he's developed a habit of licking himself too much and fur comes off. But even though he's gone punk, he's still a loving cat at heart and proceeded to wash Natasha's head and neck for about half an hour. Much to Natasha's pleasure. 

 

Turnbull digs in over anti negative gearing Grattan report - costs $11billion yr in gov revenue

*Update: Turnbull out on a limb over negative gearing - Canberra Times
 
Australia's negative gearing, on current figures means Australia has about 8% of it's residential property sitting vacant, whilst rich landowners use the system to minimize tax. The Turnbull gov has said that the May budget won't touch it.

Now it's in the news that the lost revenue to the gov from negative gearing is $11billion a year. To have property's sitting idle whilst real estate agents increase rents and property prices claiming a shortage of rental and properties to buy. A system that distorts the market, for one of the most fundamental rights of people; to be housed.

BTW our rent is going up $20 a week in June. We'll then be paying $400 a week between us. We're currently both on pensions with David as the carer of me (we couldn't survive with David on Newstart and we had no choice but for him to apply for the Carers Payment, which he qualified for). Yet all we get off the gov is how exciting it is to be a property investor in Australia FFS.

The well-respected Grattan Institute released a report on Monday, Hot property: negative gearing and capital gains tax reform, arguing that the government’s dire warnings that rents will soar and property prices will crash if negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount are wound back are not supported by the facts. 

It has raised the temperature of the already heated debate over housing investment policy, coming just one day after Turnbull promised not touch negative gearing in his May 3 budget.

The treasurer, Scott Morrison, also hit out against the report, which claims the government’s dire warnings about changes to negative gearing are wrong. 

Turnbull says current policy settings are helping “mum and dad investors” and that Labor’s policy – to restrict negative gearing to new housing and to cut the capital gains tax discount from 50% to 25% – would send rents soaring and property prices crashing. 

The Grattan Institute report shows negative gearing largely benefits the wealthy, with the top 10% of income earners before rental deductions getting almost 50% of the tax benefits. 

It also shows the current regime allows investors to reduce and defer their personal income tax, at an annual cost of $11bn to taxpayers. The Guardian  

 So who would you trust on this? The Grattan Institute which has researched it all, or Turnbull saying that Labor is wrong over it?

The Grattan report "Hot property: negative gearing and capital gains tax reform" is here (PDF).

The federal politicians negatively gearing… good god look at Queensland's Barry O’Sullivan https://t.co/FQVjUyO5Kc pic.twitter.com/Vxlg4tB1K5

— Mark Di Stefano (@MarkDiStef) April 26, 2016

Rich electorates benefit most from negative gearing tax minimisation

People are actually rallying to support Great Bathroom Panic law - US

This is going to look even more stupid, ignorant, bigoted, and just plain crazy in a few years time. Unbelievably, incredulously, a large group of people have actually attended a rally in North Carolina, US, to support the Great Bathroom Panic (GBP) sweeping the USA right now. 

Thousands gather in prayer, celebration on Halifax Mall behind the #NCGA legislature to support #HB2 @WLOS_13 #ncpol pic.twitter.com/quWeY9ldeU

— Evan Donovan (@EvanDonovanNews) April 25, 2016

Even though if anyone has half a brain and can be bothered to look in to the issue at all, the GBP is nothing more than a law looking for a non-existent problem. To see such a large turnout as this at the mere suggestion that the GBP may come to an end with the democrats working towards it, says a lot about sheeple.

Do these people realise how utterly dimwitted they appear to the rest of the world? How embarrissing for this US this is, as it paints a picture of a population (in North Carolina at least) that is brain dead. Worrying about the toilets when they've become serfs to the corporate oligarchs :s


 

I'm taking a Glock .45 to the ladies room. It identifies as my bodyguard. #BoycottTarget @Target

— Liberty Lawyer (@AnitaStaver) April 22, 2016

 

 

Due to HB2 legislation in N Carolina,we are DOUBLING our efforts.PLEASE HELP > https://t.co/2iYVGIDTU4 <Save Lives pic.twitter.com/LU3KIJxe6p

— STOP-Homophobia.com (@WipeHomophobia) April 25, 2016

 

Inject trans people to cure them - FOX New's Great Bathroom Panic

Good grief. The most absurd thing about this is the guy actually seems to believe what he's saying.I'd call it flailing around grabbing at none existent straws myself.

Mind boggling moronic logic, similar to arguments against gay marriage that use hypothetical situations that supposedly will follow when gay marriage is law. For example he wrongly asserts that trans people "choose" to change their gender, when in reality they're simply changing their body to who they actually are inside. Certainly far from a "choice". He then uses the above mistaken logic to say that others will change their age by choice, and even that someone may get a body covered with tattoos and say they're black. Like saying "black face" makes you black FFS :s

But the most nuttiest thing he says is that trans people should be injected to cure them. With hormones of their birth body. Like they used to with lesbians and gays and it didn't work. Can you imagine telling for example, a trans person who has finally come to the point they were born in the wrong sexed body, that they'd be injected with hormones to make their body even more so? We're talking suicide here.

But what do these ignorant assholes care? Everyone has to be how they expect everyone to be for them. If they're different it's wrong for them. These are the sorts of people that would find great pleasure in administering the now rejected aversion therapies of shock treatment, induced vomiting and forced self defecation to "cure" people, when all it did to them was bring immense suffering.

NSW young Lieberal compares gays to incest - defended by gov MP Kevin Connolly

NSW MP Kevin Connolly (right) with premier Mike Baird.

Edwin Nelson (right)

New South Wales gov minister Kevin Connolly has defended one of his staffers for comparing gay marriage to incest on Facebook, quotes as in the above photo, in the Rouse Hill Courier local paper. 

His staffer, Young Lieberal Edwin Nelson started a Facebook furor before deleting his account, comparing gay marriage to sex between a brother and sister.

In the post, Mr Nelson wrote: “A quick question to my left wing friends out there...is it wrong for two homosexual men who are brothers to sleep with each other?” 

He went on to write “if you answer no, then what would you say to two brothers and sisters sleeping with each other (sic)”. 

Before the Facebook post was deleted, Mr Nelson defended the status in several comments. 

“Homosexuality can have detrimental effects on others when they choose to adopt children,” he said in one of the comments. 

“The argument for homosexual marriage are the same as for homosexual incestuous marriage,” another comment stated. Rouse Hill Courier  

ACL starts new group like US's Alliance Defending Freedom - Australia

Never a more exciting time to claim gays are Nazi's

The Australian Christian Lobby had it's national conference on the weekend, with Treasurer Scott Morrison speaking as well as some gormless nutter from that US Alliance Defending Freedom. It was a thrilling time for all the far right loony's, albeit at least one of them nodded off with all the excitement (above).

Being as they had an Alliance Defending Freedom person speaking all the way from the US, I guess they thought this was a good time to introduce their new off shoot organisation of the ACL. Australia's very own Alliance Defending Freedom, although they've chosen to call it the "Human Rights Law Alliance". 

Alliance Defending Freedom The Human Rights Law Alliance

Notably the name gives not the slightest clue what it's all about, being us evil gays who dare to exist in the same Australian community as them. Using words like "human rights", "law", "freedom" and "fundamental rights", a casual observer would think they were just a lovely bunch of people.

A close look at their brand spanking new website however gives somewhat a different view.

Increasingly, the Courts are being used by activists to silence and even punish opponents with unpopular opinions and beliefs. Laws that directly encroach on fundamental freedoms are also becoming more common. 

Left unchecked, this will threaten our way of life. Our democracy cannot flourish unless every citizen is free to express his or her opinions without fear and intimidation. 

The Human Rights Law Alliance is a not-for-profit alliance of Christian lawyers, professionals, institutions and supporters whose purpose is to defend and promote the freedom of religion, conscience, thought and belief of Australian Christians, Christian organisations, and churches. HRLA

In other words, "Whaaaaaa..... Why can't we demonise teh gayz like the good old days?" Or as said by the Lieberals "People have the freedom to be bigots".

Gee thanks USA, for another christian fundamentalist piece of lunacy that you've exported to Australia. 

New organisation Human Rights Law Alliance is being announced at #ACL2016 - is an initiative of the Australian Christian Lobby

— Chris Pycroft (@chrispytweets) April 23, 2016

 

Oil companies knew of CO2 global warming in the 1960's

This has to up there with big tobacco. Oil companies were well aware of concerns over CO2 emissions causing serious environmental change on the planet back in the '50's and '60's. 

Yet of course they waged a well funded war on the science that they helped to create later on to protect their incomes. 

You can find the  Elmer Robinson and R.C. Robbins report from 1968 here. 

page 109

 

"Trustworthiness and authenticity" the most important now - election 2013

I don't particularly agree with everything she says, but journalist Leigh Sales of the 7:30 Report, gives a very astute commentary on the current political climate in Australia and what it means for this election.

Australia can at times be somewhat of a mirror of the US. Much of what is going on in the US is reflected in Australia. The anger, frustration, and fear going on in both countries feeds firmly into election attitudes and voting patterns. As Sales says, this comparison can only be taken so far as indeed Australia is definitely not the US. But never the less, these emotions will find an outlet come election day.

She concludes that the most important attributes of leadership today in this election will be trustworthiness and authenticity. Most interesting.

She leaves it open but blind Freddy can see just who's more authentic. Turnbull has abandoned himself to keep his job, doing the bidding of Team Abbott in exile least he offend the precious extremists and lose power. Shorten however has made no secret of his labour roots and no secret of his current policies shaped by those.

As far as trustworthiness goes, people continue to desert Turnbull. The euphoric trust placed in him on turfing Abbott has been replaced with bitter disappointment. Shorten is relatively unknown to a lot of the electorate, apart from the Murdoch efforts to paint him badly. The electorate may however decide someone as authentic as he says he is, is more trustworthy as well.

So if the nation is feeling angry, anxious and betrayed, what does that mean for the election prospects of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten? Can they learn anything from the rise of Trump and Sanders in the US? 

The fact is that many of the issues fuelling the national mood - here and in the US - have no easy answer. Technology WILL cost some people their jobs. Demographic pressures WILL mean fewer dollars for governments to spend on services. 

In the US, Trump and Sanders are offering broad brush and populist "solutions" to Americans' concerns. Yet the reality is, for some people there will be no fix, only adaptation. Any politician who says that can happen without pain for some voters and without a change in what the government can hope to deliver in the future is lying. 

Most voters don't have the time or inclination to explore every policy issue in depth and to meticulously weigh up all the alternate paths. That's what they trust leaders should do. They want a prime minister on whom they can rely to handle the detail and think about the big picture, not just fret over how tomorrow's front page will play out or how long they can keep their grip on the top job. They want somebody running the nation who outlines what they are going to do, explains why it's necessary and then does it. 

Against that backdrop, the most important qualities Malcolm Turnbull or Bill Shorten can strive to display are trustworthiness and authenticity. And in that regard, despite the fast pace of change in this era, for politicians some things never change. The Drum