Gay partner of 50yrs dies not able to marry

It was put to me online recently that achieving marriage equality "takes time" and surely we can live a fulfilled life without being married. My answer was no, and how would anyone feel being denied the right to marry simply because of difference? We're sick of waiting for the Lieberal party to drag itself kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I maintain that the only way we'll get marriage equality in Australia is to get rid of this government.

Here we have a couple who after 50 years together wanted to get married on that anniversary, but because of this heartless gov they weren't able to fulfill that wish. Now Peter has died, with both of them forever denied their marriage. 

Margaret Court says lesbians groom younger ones in tennis

This god botherer just doesn't know when to shut the fuck up. 

Not is so many words, but she says the older lesbians take the young ones to parties, making tennis today "full of lesbians".

She displays such a high level of ignorance on sexuality she has no authority to be making such ill informed and opinionated drivel in a public forum. 

"Tennis is full of lesbians, because even when I was playing there was only a couple there, but those couple that led, that took young ones into parties and things," she said.

 "And you know, what you get at the top is often what you’ll get right through that sport." ninemsn

You can't make somebody gay by them attending parties with other gay people. Anymore than you could make a gay person straight by attending parties with straight people. And to suggest that this is possible infers grooming. 

Same old bullshit. Gays are not sexual predators.

ACOSS responds to Tudge welfare comments (video)

Instead of demonising people on welfare and making the system ever more harsh and demeaning, how about actually creating jobs! Ten unemployed people in Australia for one job. 

Just proves their last election buzz phrase was nothing more than empty rhetoric.

"The Truth About HIV" - BBC documentary

An extremely well done documentary from the BBC. Absolutely worth watching.

You can download the torrent here.

Gov has canned Careers Australia- "Jobs and growth"? (video)

David's nursing course with Careers Australia has bitten the dust because of the gov bean counters in Canberra. It's just lucky for David that he has deferred the course due to some health issues and now doesn't owe anything.

Not so for his classmates. They've had their whole future abruptly canceled in the middle of everything. One class there was only two weeks away from graduating.

They want to give $1 billion to the foreign mining company Adani, but they do this to 15,000 students studying? They don't appear to understand the human cost of this stupid decision.

Thank you Margaret Court for showing the idiocy of marriage equality opponents (video)

Margaret Court is getting a lot of deserved criticism over her train wreck interview last week, in which she accused marriage equality proponents of bullying christians who come out with her sort of drivel. She's a legendary tennis star of Australia, but now is the pastor of a pentecostal church. Although she says her tennis shouldn't be bought into the debate (some now want Margaret Court arena renamed) she does appear to be using her fame from tennis to push her view.

But aside from all that I'd like to thank her for laying out the real driveling reasons why christians don't want the likes of David and I to be married. When they've run out of arguments it seems this is the only thing left; ie "the bible says". In fact she even says to read the first two pages of the bible FFS. Yes, her whole argument is based on a 2,000 year old book written by desert nomads who believed in an invisible sky man. 

It's not even an argument but a religious viewpoint. It certainly doesn't belong in logical debate on the subject. The only effect her beliefs expressed as they are is to illuminate to Australians the sheer bigoted idiocy of why christians are opposed to our love for each other.

"I have nothing against homosexual people... but don't touch marriage." Margaret Court addresses her #MarriageEquality views. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/VWmIBxFmXr

— #TheProjectTV (@theprojecttv) May 26, 2017

Margaret. Enough is enough. pic.twitter.com/Cl1DtC4aSL

— caseydellacqua (@caseydellacqua) May 25, 2017

QLD gov turns on Adani - refuses to give $1billion NAIF loan (video)

An email has just arrived from GetUp saying that the Queensland gov now refuses to hand over the $1 billion loan to Adani.

From the email:

The Queensland Government will not hand the $1 billion NAIF loan to Adani.

 In stunning breaking news, Premier Palaszczuk just announced the Queensland Government will refuse to give the money to Adani.

 For the loan to go ahead, it has to go via the Queensland Government. Now that Queensland Labor have refused to act as go-between on this dirty deal, Turnbull's craven billion-dollar payoff to Adani has been left stranded.

 It's a massive body blow to Adani, who are now desperately trying to extort handouts from governments as the financial sector abandons them.

Politician present at gay tortures, Chechnya

The speaker of the Chechen parliament has been described by prisoners who have spent time in the torture camps, as being present during their torture.

Magomed Daudov, pictured above right has been described as being well involved in the torture.

Human Rights Watch has released its report on the gay purge in Chechnya. According to the investigation, the mass abductions and torture began with the approval of Magomed Daudov, the speaker of the Chechen parliament, who had been told once the first men were detained and their phones checked for contacts of other gay men.

 Most of the former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch confirmed hearing the police who held and abused them refer to Daudov and to orders he allegedly issued about violence against gay men. Human Rights Watch reports that three of the interviewed detainees witnessed his presence at detention sites in Argun and Grozny.

 Novaya Gazeta, a leading independent newspaper that initially broke the news also repeatedly reported about Daudov's visits to the unofficial prison. One of the victims speaking to Human Rights Watch described the following:

 “It was like a chain. They get one person, go through his phone, torture him, make him name some others, get those others, and so it goes… In the place where I was held, we were four [gay men] at first, but several days later we were already 20. At night, when we were left alone, I tried to convince the new arrivals to buck up, deny everything, not name anyone. I kept telling them that the more people we name, the more information we give, the longer we’ll spend in this hell hole, the longer we’ll be tortured… I was telling them, can’t you see, those who talk are tortured even harder… But the torture was bad – the beatings, and the electric shocks especially – very few could bear it without breaking”. Dazed

Gay porn star reveals HIV+ status - video

The personal stories of those who have HIV are a powerful way to break down the continuing stigma associated with HIV. We're people like everyone else.

This is one of those stories.

Proud Zac with the young cats - pics :)

Zac has definitely taken on the roll of proud dad. Above he's very happy that he's shown Cloe how to jump up on things and get on top of the microwave on top of the fridge. Cloe is looking about as it's the first time she's made it up there.

Below Zac is showing his love for Casper with licking :)

Australian political fallout after Taiwan introduces marriage equality

Bitter rich white middle aged angry catholic homophobe Abetz

Thank you Taiwan for destroying the dumbest argument against marriage equality, expressed by one of our dumbest and bigoted bitter white middle aged catholic men politicians in Canberra. 

The ever unfailing Lieberal homophobe Eric Abetz has said that as Australia is part of Asia, and as Asia doesn't want gay marriage, then we should be part of Asia and not get gay marriage.

Well Taiwan just got gay marriage .......

What's more, the court added that the "creation of a permanent union of intimate and exclusive nature for the committed purpose of managing a life together by two persons of the same sex will not affect the application of the Marriage Chapter to the union of two persons of the opposite sex" – almost as though the extension of civil rights to same-sex couples will have zero effect on opposite sex couples. Why, can you even imagine?

 And this is going to cause sorrow in some marriage equality opponents, especially its parliamentary poster boy: Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz.

 See, he has been especially relying on our regional neighbours holding firm on traditional marriage – especially since those seditious New Zealanders got all reasonable about civil rights and personal freedom in 2013.

 Back in July 2015 he articulated one of the most creatively silly arguments against gay marriage: to wit, that no Asian countries had made it legal, and thus we couldn't consider such a thing here. You know, since Australia is part of Asia.

 "The Labor Party and other journalists tell us time and time again that we are living in the Asian century, tell me how many Asian countries have redefined marriage?" the plucky senator opined on ABC radio. "Are we in the Asian century or not? It's amazing how certain people try to pick and choose in relation to debates."

 Speaking of picking and choosing, Eric's otherwise been very clear about how Australia is a nation of Judeo-Christian values, so it might seem a smidgen opportunistic to have decided that in this particular example he'd suddenly embrace convenient regional prejudices rather than, say, the examples of all the other English-speaking nations of his beloved Judeo-Christian tradition. Sydney Morning Herald

Taiwan recognises same sex marriage - 1st in Asia

Whilst Australia still waits for the Lieberal party to drag itself into this century, Taiwan is the latest country to move on marriage equality, with the constitutional court there ruling in favour of same sex marriage. They are the first Asian nation to do so.

“I am so touched. Finally we’ve reached this moment. This represents Taiwan’s human rights. This is a step forward in human rights,” said the 60-year-old retiree, who asked that only his first name be used.

 A bill to enforce the ruling is already working its way through the legislature, where both the ruling and major opposition parties support legalization of same-sex marriage. Surveys show a majority of the public is also in favor, as is President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s first female leader.

 Gays and lesbians in Taiwan have formed an effective lobby in recent years, with an annual Gay Pride march drawing tens of thousands. While some conservative religious and social groups have mobilized against same-sex marriage, their influence is much less potent than in the United States and many other parts of the world.

 “The need, capability, willingness and longing, in both physical and psychological senses, for creating such permanent unions of intimate and exclusive nature are equally essential to homosexuals and heterosexuals, given the importance of the freedom of marriage to the sound development of personality and safeguarding of human dignity,” the court said in its ruling. AP

U2 performs on Jimmy Kimmel show - video

A brilliant surprise performance on the Jimmy Kimmel show a couple of hours ago, in the US by U2. You have to watch the whole thing. It's absolutely brilliant.

Indonesia canes two men for having gay sex (video)

The large audience cheers and jeers as the caning is taking place. The men are only 20 and 23. Those doing the caning are hooded. This is deeply sick. 

Very weird Trump picture :s

It's got nothing to do with the story it was heading up, but this picture of Trump has to be one of the strangest I've seen. How can someone even pronounce words with their mouth shaped like a fish? And he's poking his lips so far out you can see the inside of his mouth, eew. 

I even tried making that face myself but couldn't do it. Alas I'm no Alec Baldwin.

Cat sibling love - pics :)

*click to enlarge

Cloe and Casper continue to grow. Casper I think is one of the fastest growing cats I've ever seen, whilst Cloe remains the dainty female. She does like a bit of rough and tumble though playing.

Couple of pictures of brother and sister, and one of Casper next to his favourite cushion :)  They absolutely love each other. Unusual these days I guess for two cats from the same litter to grow up together. 

Life with bankruptcy - year 2

I've been up to my eyeballs filling out the second Statement Of Income for the Australian Financial Securities Authority. Being bankrupt I have to do this so they can ascertain if I'm able to pay back any of the debt I incurred with the Commonwealth Bank the other year when David suffered that discrimination and lost his job. 

It left us right in the lurch scrambling for paperwork to satisfy Centrelink that he was entitled to at least the dole. He didn't even have a birth certificate for identity so we had to send in to Births, Deaths and Marriages in the city to get one issued which took weeks. Then Australia Post lost it and we had to get another one reissued. Then David's work failed to issue a notice of termination which Centrelink needed for him to get anything, so there was even more delays. In the end he went without anything for a full three months before getting a cent out of Centrelink.

All I was getting was the DSP, but as David had just moved in we went to Centrelink as a couple. So as soon as we did that Centrelink in all it's wisdom cut my payments down to a partnered pension well before David was even getting any payments at all. It left us with nothing, not even enough for the rent a fortnight. Centrelink just said he'd be backpaid from when he first applied once all the paperwork was sorted out (it took them a month BTW to do that) and for us to see a charity in the meantime. Seriously, after both of us working 30 years they told us that. It was just lucky I had a credit card with a big line of credit as it got to the point we were using it to pay the rent half the time.

Once he finally got on Newstart the situation was still very dire. My entire partnered pension went on the rent, leaving Newstart of less than $500 a fortnight to live off for both of us. It was diabolically impossible, and we had no choice but to keep using the credit card for basic living. In the end with my health David went on a Carer Payment pension for me, along with the Carers Allowance, and we finally had enough to survive. But it was impossible to pay anything back on the credit card, hence is why I was forced into bankruptcy.

So this Income Statement the gov wants off me each year (not sure how long, 3-5yrs) is a full comprehensive income and asset statement for the last twelve months. And they want everything, giving little more than a week for me to send in the completed form. Bank statements for the last month, Centrelink statements, last years tax return, just everything.

I've chosen email rather than snail mail to do it, but even without paper it still takes ages to get everything together. Each time I sit down and think I'll spend about 20 minutes on it the time stretches out to a couple of hours. Would be hopeless without the internet.

The white collars caught ripping off gov $165m - arrests and jail (video)

This is extraordinary. One of the biggest scams in Australia's modern history.

I've been seeing bits and pieces about it online but until now haven't had the interest to look into it. But OMG when you watch this video if you're like me you'll feel a bit dumbstruck. 

I'm reminded in my mind at this point of the robodept fiasco where us poor and sick were targeted by a flawed gov computer program that was strong arming us to pay back unproven debts to Centrelink. You can't get blood out of a stone. Indeed there was at least one young life lost to suicide over an alleged $18,000 debt. 

The thing is, if you're targeting welfare recipients for money you're talking about chook feed. Honestly, there's just no meaningful money in it for the gov bottom line. In essence the gov is using us as a cheap target for political gain, demonising us as bludging welfare cheats. Truth is it's extremely hard to rip off Centrelink as there's so many hoops to jump through it's just about impossible I'd say. The statistics reflect that with the number of Centrelink clients charged with fraud being very low. They'll catch you in the end so why would anyone bother?

Yet we get robodebt, newspaper headlines of us being a burden to society, and now the latest they want to drug test people before they receive a cent from Centrelink.  

This story gives a great insight to what's really going on.....  At least none of them have suicided......

 

Japanese killed 333 whales this yr sth Ocean - Sea Shepherd only ones there to stop (video)

Dead whale on Japanese whaling ship this season, from video shot by Sea Shepherd helicopter

This video a summary of the Sea Shepherds efforts this year in the Southern Ocean off Australia's south, which is a breeding ground for whales. They migrate every year to those waters, passing along Australia's eastern coast and even attracting whale watching tourism, where people are taken out on boats to see them coming up.

Unfortunately, thanks to the Japanese whalers, who for some strange and bizarre reason appear to think it's their cultural right to come and slaughter these whales off our southern coastline. This year they killed over 300.

The other year the international community deemed it illegal for Japan to do this. We considered this a big victory against the killing. They had been using the "scientific research" defence in saying that that was why they were killing them. What bullshit! This has been going on for decades, I remember growing up in New Zealand and as a child thinking how absurd it was for Japan to give such a lame reason for slaughtering them.

So when that "scientific research" became illegal, Japan simply implemented another "scientific research" program slightly different than before, and today that is what they're using to kill whales off our coast for their Japanese dining tables. 

The Australian gov refuses to do anything for fear of offending Japanese delicate sensibilities, being our so called allies. The only people standing between the whaling ships and the whales is the Sea Shepherd.

  

LGBTQI explained - The Weekly (video)

As always on The Weekly this is very comedic. Personally I lost the plot when it went past LGBT, but everyone knows what I mean when using those four letters. To me adding letters is trying to further define sexuality, which in my view can be undefinable in a general sense. Maybe we should just put an asterix at the end of those four letters for everything else that my be included in that?

 

Debra Messing accepts GLAAD media award with fiery pro-LGBT speech (video)

Debra Messimg appears to be really getting around since the new Will & Grace series has been announced. Here she accepts a GLAAD award for media, and gives a very strong speech about the current state of the US. As always with her humorous as well. She just seems to be naturally funny :)

Brandis intervened in Adani Native Title court case (videos)

Brandis has interfered politically in the court case against Adani by traditional owners of the land they want to mine. Outrageous. 

This from the email:

Without this ‘land deal’ being registered, Adani can’t move ahead. And right now, they have nowhere to go without the assistance of the Federal Parliament.

 We have a knockout punch, but Brandis and the Federal Government are doing everything they can to stop us from throwing it.

 The good news is, we are now underway with legal proceedings, and Adani and the Queensland Government are in our sights.

 At the very least they will be tied up for many months in litigation and will not have an ILUA to proceed with.

And we can win this. Adani did not negotiate and achieve our free, prior and informed consent. And we have four strong legal grounds against Adani’s pretend ILUA.

 As the law stands, Adani do not have a document that could even be considered legal. This is why the Turnbull government has been in hyperdrive trying to push the ‘Adani amendments’ through the Senate.

 But now, in an act of extraordinary political interference, Brandis has reached into the court to intervene in our case and delay the proceeding.

 This puts beyond doubt that Brandis and the Turnbull Government, backed all the way by Queensland’s Palaczszuk Government, are working in billionaire Adani’s interests. Again, they are making Native Title - and Traditional Owners rights - all about Adani’s coal mine.

 They are unrelenting in their support for the Carmichael project. But so are we in our determination to defend our country and safeguard the future from this mine of mass destruction.

 We will not surrender. No means no, Adani.

 Stand with us as we fight these corrupting and destructive influences, and protect our ancestral lands and waters.

More here:

Youth spokesperson for the W&J Traditional Owners Council, Ms Murrawah Johnson, said, “Adani didn’t negotiate and achieve the free prior informed consent of the W&J people. The meeting, which Adani and its barrackers claim achieved consent, with a 294 to 1 vote, is as fake as its ILUA. It is not a true expression of the W&J Traditional Owners.

 “Over 220 of the attendees at Adani’s meeting are people who have never been involved in the W&J claim or decision making, and who are identified with other nations and claims, or didn’t identify an apical descent line.

 “Many people were bussed in and paid for at Adani’s considerable expense. The majority of the claim group, which have three times rejected an ILUA with Adani, refused to participate in this stitch up of a meeting. They stayed away.” she said. Wangan and Jagalingou (W&J) Traditional Owners Council

Aussie denied entry to US & jailed overnight because her diary notes (video)

The latest Aussie victim of the US paranoia over foreigners has come to the fore this week. Molly Hill was going for a 90 day trip to the US to see her boyfriend there, the 90 days being such a while that she had to quite her job in Australia to do so. She had a return ticket to Australia bought and paid for at the end of this period.

However, it appears on the strength of calendar diary entries where she wrote about leaving her job, the US border maniacs interrogated her for hours and denied her entry. Eventually locking her up in a prison overnight where she was mixed in with the regular prisoners complete with prison clothes, and unceremoniously sent back to Australia the following day. 

She wasn't even allowed a phone call to call her boyfriend, who had been waiting all day at the airport without a clue what was going on. He eventually found out not from any US authority, but via a message sent by the Australian Consulate to her mother in Australia that Molly had been detained. Her mother then rang the boyfriend at the airport from Australia to tell him what had happened.

WTF is going on over there in the US? With "friends" like this who needs enemies?

“It was very surreal.” Molly Hill speaks about being detained and sent back to Australia by US border officials. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/Pvp0TNINca

— #TheProjectTV (@theprojecttv) May 18, 2017

Trump election caused Will & Grace to return - Debra Messing (video)

Well at least something good has come out of the Trump election. Debra Messing of Will and Grace, soon to be returning to the telly, says it was that skit they did about Trump that was the catalyst for the new show.

Chechnya accused of gay genocide in ICC

Some may consider my use of the word genocide in respect to what Chechnya is doing to gays over the top. But in fact I'm not the only one to use such language.

The International Criminal Court has received a complaint from 3 French gays rights groups accusing Chechnya of just that.

The absurd assertion by Chechnya's leader saying there's no gays in Chechnya is about as brain dead lying as him saying that they're not being persecuted. Wherever you will find humanity you will find gays. We're a natural part of humanity.

Why this idiot leader has decided to commit genocide against our LGBT community is beyond me. Perhaps he's brainwashed with religious hatred, or perhaps he's simply projecting his inner hatred of his own gay self. Or perhaps it's simply about demonising a minority for political gain.....

Whatever the reason, he's committing genocide against my LGBT brothers and sisters.

Chechnya has been accused of carrying out a genocide against gay people in a complaint filed at the International Criminal Court.

 Three French gay rights groups blamed the Russian republic's leader Ramzan Kadyrov and state officials for a "wave of persecution".

 Stop Homophobie, Mousse and Comite Idaho France urged the ICC to investigate the persecution of gay men, citing the case of a teenager reportedly thrown out of a ninth-floor window after his uncle discovered he was gay.

 Etienne Deshoulieres, a lawyer representing the three gay rights groups, called Mr Kadyrov “the architect” of a “genocide”.

 He said the Chechen leader was "the organiser of torture camps with the desire to exterminate homosexuals". The Independant

Renting in Sydney is "dire" - official

Red alert!

No fuckin shit Sherlock.

This is a disaster of the gov's own making from both sides of parliament over decades. Negative gearing (allowing people to reduce their tax if the property makes a loss) has seen housing become an investor asset that doesn't even require tenants. Indeed there are thousands of properties across all Australia's major cities siting vacant, with the investor simply claiming the non-rent back on tax. All this whilst the real estate people rave on about a shortage of rental properties. WTF?

Just to give an idea about how this is all going bloody pear shaped, in the last 12 months Sydney house prices went up by 20% last year. Not that there's a property bubble or anything :s  Honestly, people think this won't end and property will just keep going up and up.

Luckily, our rent is modest for where we live. The rent went up $10 just now but meh..... BTW we pay over 50% of our income in rent..... Not that the gov gives a flying fuck about it......

Incidentally, at 30 percent, you’re officially experiencing “housing stress”. This is defined as the point when the cost of your rent begins to impact your ability to pay for other essential services. Things like transport. And electricity. And food.

 “The situation remains dire for low income households in metropolitan areas across Australia,” says the the report. Love it when financial reports use words like “dire”. Junkee

Gillard misogyny speech revisited

Today I felt like going back to where prime minster Julia Gillard, Australia's first woman prime minister, tore Tony Abbott to shreds in parliament.

You know when everyone is thinking something but there's only one person who actually has the guts to say what everyone's thinking? Well this is one of those times.

One of the most interesting things about this is the look on Tone's face (then opposition leader). He starts with the laughing it all off manly thing, but by the end of it looks like he's been slapped in the face by Gillard.

This is truly a famous moment in Australian politics :)

Trump's Watergate? - Comey's "smoking gun" (videos).......

Emperor with no clothes 

My fellow Australians..... 

We have a Leaker of the free world who's not all there. His mental state is obviously at odds with anything called sanity. He's not capable of the high office he's been given.

Pretty much like our Tone's. But much worse. He's got access to nuclear weapons.

Our US brothers have recognised this. The Resistance in the US is growing, and now even main stream media over there are openly mocking the president and wanting him to go. 

To my fellow brothers in the US,

All I can say to that is the western world gives them all our support in that. 

We got rid of our stupid Abbott PM in 2 years over nothing but disastrous polling, and it was done by the the ruling gov itself which elected a new leader from their own party.

Australians call on the US Republicans to do the same. Elect a new president from your own party; one that can cope with the job. Are you men or mouse? 

Honestly, we poofs have more backbone than you (that'll get the Republicans going?). 

Telstra to refund NBN clients over slow speeds - NBN lemon files :s

The chooks are coming home to roost before the NBN is even rolled out across all of Australia. The Lieberal butchering of a once grandiose infrastructure build for all Australians is now failing, with people paying their ISP's to upgrade to higher speeds that the National Broadband Network can't handle on their premises. 

Telstra is the first ISP to say they will refund said customers for their upgrade that the NBN wasn't able to deliver, and put them on a slower cheaper plan according to the speeds they're actually getting that is as much as the NBN can provide to their premises.

What a fuckin lemon of an NBN. What national tragedy. The biggest infrastructure project in the history of modern Australia, and all it took was an Abbott/Turnbull gov to destroy the thing in a relatively short period of time. How much is this going to cost to fix over the next 20 years or so? It's just fucked.

BTW, it's been quite an effort here to post this very post ironically. We're still on ADSL2+ here in eastern Sydney which is progressively getting worse and worse as more and more is demanded of the system here. It regularly just drops out; I mean it won't load anything despite the PC saying it's connected. 

Been going good all day but just as I try and post here (typical) the drama starts. I've had to save the HTML twice into a Word document and shut down the PC. Second time I did the modem as well. Apparently doing that resets the connection or something, I dunno. FFS, this is 2017. When is this gov going to finally succeed in dragging itself into this century?

Telstra has become the first retail service provider to offer financial compensation to thousands of angry NBN customers who have received substandard internet speeds.

 The telecommunications company admitted that one per cent of its NBN customers – about 7900 people – had been promised speeds that were unattainable, blaming the varied NBN technologies for the inconsistent speeds across the network.

 In a blog post, Telstra Retail group executive Kevin Russell said it was “critical” that customers did not pay for speeds any higher than what their home or business was able to receive.

 “The vast majority of customers are seeing the performance we expect. However, we identified a subset of customers on fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) who have taken up a ‘speed boost’ who are not receiving the higher speeds we expect,” he wrote.

 “We’re in the process of proactively contacting those customers to move them to a speed tier their NBN service supports.

 “In any cases where we believe that customers may have paid for a ‘speed boost’ they haven’t benefited from, we’ll be reimbursing … any ‘speed boost’ charges they have incurred.” The New Daily

"The Russian Connection" - Randy Rainbow (video)

What a strange time this is, where the US president is telling Russians intelligence in the oval office that he won't even tell us, and some Americans think northern Australia is North Korea. Hope they know where to send the bombs if Trump goes bananas.

As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2017

@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/agdtLkSwSq

— Peter Hiv (@HivPeter) May 17, 2017

Some Americans think Nth Korea is in Australia - graphic :s

*click to enlarge

In an experiment requested by the New York Times, Americans were asked to locate North Korea on a map. The above graphic is the result of over 1,700 people answering.
As you can see, some of them thought it was in Northern Australia. WTF? That's where all those US troops are FFS!

The countries are listed by name below where Americans thought Nth Korea was. Those did know where it was were much more likely to want negotiation.

Americans try to find North Korea. https://t.co/GdlqFDGGPH #NorthKorea #0urWorld pic.twitter.com/0Bc0PRG1EC

— Norbert Elekes (@NorbertElekes) May 15, 2017

Will and Grace trailer for new show (videos)

Will and Grace will be back on TV for a brand new season soon and have released a "revival" trailer. The original video was blocked and only viewable in the US, but as usual a quick Google search bought up one playable everywhere :)

George Takei Aussie interview on Star Trek (video)

He's coming to Australia for some event and has given this interview beforehand. He just seems to keep going and going this guy.

Impact of attacks on Safe Schools and it's axing in NSW - Jenny Leong (video)

New South Wales state MP Jenny Leong of the Greens, expresses support for young LGBT in the wake of the NSW Lieberal gov axing the program. She relates the consequences of elected leaders in the country being opposed to the anti-bullying program and responsible for it's demise, on the mental health of those who were being helped by it.

Cloe has discovered the heater - pics

Cloe and Natasha have become good friends. Must be a female thing sticking together against the boys, Zac and Casper. Cloe and Natasha sleep together a lot through the day now, usually on our bed but also now in front of the heater. Of course Cloe has been learning all the various cat poses for being in front of heaters. Above Zac looks over his family.

BTW the toilet rolls in the background, that's from Casper taking them out of rubbish bin in the bathroom to play with.

*click to enlarge.