Am on antibiotics

Ugh. Haven't had a cold or flu for ages, but this one is a doozy. Last three days have got this really red and inflamed throat, along with all the rest of it; croaky voice, aching, headache, fever. Must have got it on the buses. So bad it hurts to even eat or drink anything. 

Saw doctor today and he put me on antibiotics. Don't like taking them as they strip all the good bacteria out of your digestive system and I feel sick from that. But anything's better than dealing with a throat like this.

Why are US evangelical christians abandoning morality to support Trump? (video)

A most interesting interview with an activist against US evangelicals supporting Trump when he's obviously a person who behaves immorally. An angry reaction to progressive policies under Obama (allegedly a "bully" to them) such as marriage equality passing. Trump has managed to tap in to this evangelical disaffection and anger and given them a voice. Trump relied on the evangelical vote to gain power.

I wish I could talk cat :s

It's getting quite annoying. Every evening at the same time Zac has been going to the back door and meowing his head off at something outside. Often I just pick him up and give him a cuddle and he's fine, but sometimes not and he keeps meowing. 

And when he does it he turns around looking at you, like "don't you know WTF I'm saying?"  Along with that he'll even leave the door and come looking intensely at you "Don't you understand?" sort of thing.

I wish I could talk cat!

Panti Bliss interview in Australia (video)

 

Always a unique way of looking at things. Here she talks about Australia's postal survey and Ireland's referendum on marriage equality.

 

The creepiest anti-masturbation video you will ever see

We;re talking total creepsville folks.

The video is edited footage leaked from the Johovah's Witnesses giving severe warnings about the "self abuse" of masturbation. I guess in the context of strict religion that might be understandable, but the depth they go into about the act itself tells me that they know much more intimately about masturbation than they're letting on.

The video is apply titled "Pillowgate" :)

 

Trump tried to borrow Van Gogh for white house, Guggenheim offered a gold toilet instead (video)

The fully functional "interactive exhibit" offered by the Guggenheim

Trump's inferior gold plated toilets that he loves

There is nothing about this story that isn't funny :)

Sooooo, the Trumps wanted to borrow a Van Gogh painting to put on a wall in the white house or their private residence, something that surprisingly is a normal thing for presidents to do. The Trump's choice of painting was a Van Gogh, which they requested from the famous Guggenheim gallery.

However the captain of the Guggenheim was having absolutely none of it. Apparently appalled at the thought of a precious Van Gogh being in the hands of the Trumps, even just for a borrowing, was right out of the question.

The request was rejected. But in it's place was offered another art exhibit at the Guggenheim which had come to the end of it's display period. A solid gold toilet (conjectured at costing about $1 million in gold to make) which was an "interactive exhibit", meaning that it was entirely usable. In fact it was all hooked up in it's own toilet where people would line up outside to use the thing.

The exhibit was titled "America" and was a pointed reference to the excesses of the wealthy few. You know, like Trump, who just loves his gold plated toilets. I can't imagine the feelings I would get about wealth and privilege sitting there shitting in a solid gold toilet. I guess why it was called "interactive" :)

The emailed response from the Guggenheim’s chief curator to the White House was polite but firm: The museum could not accommodate a request to borrow a painting by Vincent van Gogh for President and Melania Trump’s private living quarters. 

Instead, wrote the curator, Nancy Spector, another piece was available, one that was nothing like “Landscape With Snow,” the 1888 van Gogh rendering of a man in a black hat walking along a path in Arles, France, with his dog. 

The curator’s alternative: an 18-karat, fully functioning, solid gold toilet — an interactive work titled “America” that critics have described as pointed satire aimed at the excess of wealth in this country. 

For a year, the Guggenheim had exhibited “America” — the creation of contemporary artist Maurizio Cattelan — in a public restroom on the museum’s fifth floor for visitors to use. 

But the exhibit was over and the toilet was available “should the President and First Lady have any interest in installing it in the White House,” Spector wrote in an email obtained by The Washington Post. 

The artist “would like to offer it to the White House for a long-term loan,” wrote Spector, who has been critical of Trump. “It is, of course, extremely valuable and somewhat fragile, but we would provide all the instructions for its installation and care.” The Washington Post  

Fragile? Egad, the mind boggles at the likes of Trumps overweight body sitting on the thing. 

 

Murphy Brown is coming back to TV! (video)

The much loved Murphy Brown comedy, which ran for ten years from 1988-1998, is coming back to TV with CBS signing up for a 13 episode series.

The show became popular as often the politics of the day and the show would overlap, the most famous incident being the vice president at the time Dan Quayle who gave a speech criticising the show for depicting a single mother without a father, as Murphy played in the role. That incident is in the video below, and Murphy's little reaction to it on the show was priceless. It hasn't aged at all, and looking back at that video now it was very forward thinking and would have been appt to play in the recent postal survey on gay marriage here in Australia.

Another beloved comedy series is coming back for a new installment on its original network. CBS has given a 13-episode series order to Murphy Brown, a revival of the 1988 sitcom with its creator Diane English and star Candice Bergen both set to return. Warner Bros. TV, which was behind the original series, is the sole studio. 

 Bergen will reprise her role as the famous investigative journalist and TV anchor at the FYI network, as Murphy Brown returns to a world of cable news, social media, fake news and a very different political and cultural climate. I hear talks are underway with other original cast members to return. 

The multi-camera revival will come on the 30th anniversary of the original series. Murphy Brown aired on CBS for 10 seasons, from 1988-98, with English leaving after Season 4. The show was known for its political satire and for reflecting current events, regularly weaving in real-life political headlines. It famously was referenced by Vice President Dan Quayle in a speech during the 1992 presidential campaign. Deadline  

 

When Abbott called internet a "video entertainment system" in 2010 (video)

 

I've posted this video before ages ago, but with Turnbull's NBN expanding as a national disaster as more and more are connected to it I thought it would be good to revisit it.  It's a little known video from 2010.

This is where it all began in 2010 when the present gov was in opposition. They released their NBN policy which was basically to provide slower speeds on the assumption that all people wanted to do on the internet was to watch videos. I don't think their attitude has changed any today, with the other day a gov minister saying that we don't need fast internet because Netflix runs on the present ADSL just fine.

It shows the positively neanderthal tech ignorance of this gov. You can find a list of more Abbott quotes about the internet here. Lots of people knew it was far far inferior to what Labor was already rolling out; fibre to the premises giving the capacity of up to 1Gbps.


I would add here too that to get the NBN connected and going on a plan, why are the plans so expensive? The ADSL we get from Dodo is unlimited information for $35 a month. Yet I keep seeing adds for the same on the NBN and it's fully double the price. And once it gets rolled out in your area you have no choice but to switch over to it.

 

PFLAG submission to religious freedom inquiry

This is the submission to the religious freedom inquiry from Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays. The whole submission can be read here.

 

Submission to religious freedom inquiry - The Stirrer

As I did with my submission to the religious freedom inquiry, others are putting theirs online too. This one is from The Stirrer which you can read in full here.

A rubber band will stop lust - christians

Yes folks, it's the miraculous rubber band that can save you from evil dastardly lustings. After a mere 30 days you will have retrained yourself and will be able to shut down lust!

You can start by placing a rubber band on your wrist. Every time you lust after a person, snap the rubber band (you can also quote appropriate Scripture if you like). In about 30 days, you will actually retrain your brain to shut down lust. If you lust while watching pornography, you have neurologically imprinted sexual acts hundreds or thousands of times in your mind through fantasy, and you have sinned against your own body (see 1 Cor. 6:18). The rubber-band exercise will help you fight the urge at every point. Charisma News

Lust is simply a part of being human. If you shut it down you shut down your whole sexuality and just become a walking bible quoting zombie. As if it's possible to "shut down" a part of your humanity like that anyway. All it does is push it inside you but it's always a part of you.

By the way the rubber band picture I found Googling I thought was quite appt. The magic rubber band in the shape of a penis and balls :) Hilariously ironic.

Troye Sivan on Saturday Night Live, US (video)

Gay Australian singer Troye Sivan has appeared on the latest episode of Saturday Night Live in the US. Here's his "My my my" song..

 

Gov minister says we don't need fast internet becuase Netflix (video)

The gov appears to think that Australia doesn't need fast internet because you only need 5Mbps to watch Netflix. What a dead set moron. Another gov technological neanderthal. How do these idiots end up in Canberra? FFS!

#Auspol

LNP MINISTER SAYS AVERAGE PERSON WANTS SLOW #NBN

It’s typical of the Turnbull Govt to lecture Australian consumers about what they want and need.

Truffles Turnbull & his mob are totally out of touch. pic.twitter.com/yRqGAH1CD0

— TOM IN OZ (@SirThomasWynne) January 21, 2018

 

Tax churches, not give them more freedom to discriminate - National Secular Lobby (video)

The National Secular Lobby is a newly formed group to address the issues involved in Australia's supposedly secular society and the role of religion influencing gov decisions. 

What immediately comes to mind in that is the Australian Christian Lobby which appears is linked at the hip to the present gov. Who could forget the conga line of gov far right christians introducing defeated amendment after defeated amendment to the marriage equality bill that passed parliament last month? All of them designed to introduce discrimination in to Australian law at a federal level to override state anti-discrimination laws. The unelected and unrepresentative Australian Christian Lobby was of course pushing hard for this, even going to the unheard of measure to write it's own discriminatory marriage inequality bill in an effort to replace the consensus bill that was before parliament. A religious overreach if ever there was one.

The religious freedom review will report back to parliament early this year. However it comes at a very inopportune time for religion almost immediately after the findings of the royal commission into child sex abuse, which saw the commission proclaim that 7% of Catholic priests were paedophiles. One would think that the public would be against churches being a law to themselves and wanting even more freedom to do so.

Now the National Secular Lobby has suggested that churches in Australia should be taxed like everyone else, and are in fact presently avoiding $20 billion a year in tax. Why not? Not taxing churches goes back to the 17th century when the church of England was born, the crown saying it wouldn't be taxed. It's an anachronistic law not belonging in modern Australia clear on the other side of the world from England three centuries later.

And also that the religion shouldn't be allowed to put it's discrimination into Australian secular law, which is what it will be trying to do in the religious freedoms review. It's time to increase the separation of church and state as religion is increasingly at odds with the large majority of public opinion. Religion needs to have less power in the public sphere, not more. The majority of Australians don't agree with them and don't want their rules invading our lives. It not justified, particularly that it's the secular society they live in that gives them the religious freedom that they already have.

Rather than sinking Australia deeper into a ‘soft theocracy’, federal parliament would do better to work seriously towards the separation of Church and State, and begin winding back excessive entitlements of mainstream churches. It would include reassessing the huge sums they avoid in tax, and go a long way to alleviating the financial pressure on the great majority of hard-working Australians. 

 Since federation, churches of every faith pay no tax, which includes most state and federal taxes — the levies, charges and taxation imposts paid by citizens and businesses. Many of these benefits flow from 17th century English law, giving tax exemptions to the (then) newly formed Church of England. Such largess was based wholly on their charter to “advance religion.” Little has changed. 

Religion avoids assessable taxes (excluding genuine charitable works) to the tune of some $20 billion each year — sufficient revenue to fix the budget deficit. All governments ignore this elephant in the room for fear of alienating the churches, but it’s a tempting idea — for hard-working men and women — to have religion finally paying their way, rather than giving them more freedom to discriminate. 

Australia is one of the last western countries to have finally removed historical discrimination against the LGBTI community, when we tentatively legalised gay marriage in December last year. So why on Earth would the federal government impose new discriminations — contrived by religious lobbyists — to allow Christians in the marriage industry to refuse retail and other services to same-sex couples? 

The safe bet is that Philip Ruddock’s ‘Religious Freedom Review’ will recommend further concessions to benefit a religious community already highly privileged with exemptions from anti-discrimination and taxation laws. But the Ruddock proposals will still need to play out on the floor of parliament, and defeat for the Prime Minister will be costly. That may well happen. 

Such an outcome will reinforce the triumph of marriage equality, and throw into stark relief the failure to grant religion further discriminatory rights. It may even flag an end to the ‘age of entitlement’ for churches and embolden enough MPs to think seriously about breaking with 17th century tradition to begin taxing religious profits. Most certainly, that would come as welcome relief to working Australians who continue to subsidise private church enterprises through their hard-earned taxes. The AIM  

"The New Gay Slang" - by the Order Of Sodomites (video)

I have so many YouTube subscriptions that I can't possibly go through the latest one's in one day, let alone a week! My latest tactic in that is to go minimal and bring it down to less. It's hard though I like them all, but on going through them I do find ones that I haven't watched for months even though I like them so I'm starting to unsubscribe from them.

On my wading through my YouTube subscriptions today doing that process, I found this little gem from some months back. The guy reading is trans so he's wearing women's clothes, his beard hasn't gone yet (shock/comedy factor?). The act is called the Order Of Sodomites. This one is bloody hilarious!

It's the summer break for most of January for much of Australia. I'm actually pretty happy about that as the intensity of last year has burned me out somewhat and I need time to recover and take stock. Yes we won marriage equality but our civil rights will be threatened by the religious freedom review early this year and must be addressed as we fought for our rights for marriage equality. That however is not now and I need to recognise the need to step back for a bit. 

 

Channel 7's Nazi reporting - Angry Aussie (video)

You'll love this if you're one of the many people pissed off about Channel 7's coverage of neo-Nazi's in Australia the other day, with social media being flooded with outrage.

So the story goes like this. There's a state election coming up in Victoria. Victoria presently has a popular Labor gov. The federal gov decides there's an imaginary African gang crime wave crisis in Victoria (there's not) and blames Victoria's Labor gov for this fictitious crime wave. Leaving many in Melbourne scratching their heads in disbelief at how absurd the federal gov could get.

Dopey Dutton claimed that people in Melbourne were to afraid to go out to restaurants, which promptly saw a flurry of tweets from people eating out in Melbourne. Dutton doubled down on it though much to the amazement of everyone. Dutton has even gone as far as to interfere with the independence of the Victorian judiciary, criticising magistrates for giving sentences he asserted were too light. 

Just when we all thought the lunacy couldn't get any more loonier, up pops this neo-Nazi group in Melbourne saying they're going to roam the streets in vigilante groups to address this fictitious African gang problem. And guess who got "exclusive access" to a meeting of these neo-Nazis? Yes, Channel 7. And they went ahead with it, calling the group "right wing activists" and not even challenging them on their ridiculous stupid lies. In other words they gave Nazis a platform, like they were normal.

 

Wallaby seen on Sydney Harbour Bridge (video)

 

A wallaby has been seen crossing the Sydney harbour bridge, before being pusued by police and eventually caught for it's own safety. Poor thing ended up being terribly stressed but is now under observation at the vests at Taronga Zoo to be released when it's well.

There an ABC video of it here, with it thwarting the police efforts at capture. 

Also this one from Twitter

How Aussie is this?! A wallaby has been spotted hopping along the Harbour Bridge https://t.co/e2a0Spc6rs pic.twitter.com/eWwPtFCB3C

— The Australian (@australian) January 15, 2018

Americans: "OMG do you Ozzies have like kangaroos hopping around your city streets??"
Australians to other Australians: *following epic eye rolling* "Can you believe how stupid Americans are?"
Wallaby: "Hold my joey." pic.twitter.com/S380RjHYjv

— David Alexander (@davidFalexander) January 15, 2018

Billie Jean King rips new asshole in Margaret Court over LGBT (video)

*Update: Margaret Court's husband has protested. Oh the poor fuckin dear. I've just watched a doco made in the 2000's about gay people murdered in gay hate crimes in Sydney in the late '80's to early '90's' It only scratched the surface of the murders, now 88 in that time that the New South Wales police have re-opened for investigation citing the appalling lack of police work done at the time. The doco I'm talking about you can watch on YouTube here if you so desire. The lack of police action because they were gay could be argued as criminal, or dereliction of duty. But of course the NSW police were likely promoted and had a long career in the force.

These christians feigning persecution are only doing it to further their cause. They don't care about anyone except themselves. They just looooooove to pronounce that they're persecuted to gain sympathy. The truth is that they haven't the faintest idea what persecution is. During the doco linked above Wayne Tonks was shown again; the murdered gay school teacher who was David's first boyfriend. He was killed in 1990.

These people need to recognise that comparison. I cried watching that doco. I'm a very empathetic person and when David is affected so am I.

When was the last time any of christians ended up murdered like this because of who they are? I won't reveille the details only known to the police (and David I guess with a few others), but that pic is much worse than it looks.....  This was in eastern Sydney in 1990.

 
__________________________________________________

I have to start this post by saying I don't follow sports at all. I don't have a footy team, I don't sit watching cricket all day (particularly after that asshole Ricky bloody Ponting), and I hated playing sports in school. In New Zealand it was evidently assumed that the rules of rugby union were imparted on you magically at birth and you therefore never had to be taught them. Much like all the other sports played in school. I invariably went to the outfield in all these stupid games just to get as far away from them as I could. Once I got really adventurous and entered the fray in rugby. For a split second I even got the bloody ball! Only to be clobbered by the opposition in some rule that I didn't have the faintest idea. I think rugby union is about how hard you can clobber people :s  I was little for my age too which helped in the clobbering. But I digress......

So I'd never heard of Margaret Court, some fossilised Western Australian who legend told me was a legendary Australian tennis star from decades ago, having some tennis stadium named after her in eastern Australia called the Margaret Court Arena or something.. Since winning all those matches way before my time she had retired from tennis and become a pastor of a wacky fundamentalist Pentecostal church in WA. 

Despite most of Australia not even knowing who she was, but with the help of explanatory media giving her the platform, She used the platform of the postal survey where everyone could vote on our LGBT lives to preach here fundamentalist hate across the country. It was appalling as she used her past fame to preach that message, with you know all the tired old bla that these bible bashers come up with. At any other time us LGBT would have laughed it off, but in the context of the postal survey it was an obscenity. It appeared to us that christians knew no bounds in their hatred and despising of us, very much those christians who counted themselves fundamentalist Pentecostals. The time she chose to voice that hatred was really hurtful.

Needless to say many other Australians have voiced their feeling of being completely appalled by what she's said. Lots of tennis people too, who I myself am equally ignorant of who they are as Margaret Court as I just don't follow sport at all. 

However one name that rings a bell is Billie Jean King. From somewhere in the back of my head I remember long ago when she was some sort of legend in tennis (I'm 55 you know). I looked her up on Twitter and she's based in New York so I'm assuming she's one of the good Americans. 

In Australia for the moment she's taken to Margaret Court with a ten by four :)  Thank you America for producing this lovely truthful lady xxx

Having a stadium or a tennis facility named after you comes with responsibility— including a responsibility to be welcoming and hospitable to all people. Read my full statement on the Margaret Court Arena: https://t.co/p7puH7z0vN.

— Billie Jean King (@BillieJeanKing) January 12, 2018

 

 

Troye Sivan new single "My my my" (video)

 Oh my..... I've leave it up to your own imaginations when you watch the video. Let's just say he's a young gay man who looks to be exploring his sexuality :)

 

Cats waiting to be fed

*clic to enlarge

They make it known when it's time to eat. They act together too, Natasha being the ring leader. This is last night when I was battling Turnbull's internet on the PC. Zac and Natasha both jumped up on the little table next to me. Often too Natasha will stare at you constantly until she's fed.

 

Daughter & husband in Queenstown, New Zealand

Daughter is now in New Zealand's south island staying in Queenstown there near the bottom. The first picture below is the view from where they're staying, and the one below that is an hour's walk to Queenstown itself.

I've never been down the south island myself. After the upbringing I had in Taranaki all I wanted to do was get out of the place and away from my asshole family. 

I notice Queenstown is very near Fiordland, the bit on the left with lots of waterways. That's where they filmed the latest Alien movie (as well as Sydney) for those scenes where they found the alien ship. It rains all year there, highest rainfall in the world, only a couple of days a year sunshine. Why it was raining in the movie I suppose. 

Trump & son Oprah inverview 2009 - dumb and dumber (video 2009)

I guess the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree folks. All the more interesting with rumours flying of Oprah 2020.


 So in 2009 Oprah had an interview with Donald Trump and Trump Jnr. The subject in this clip is about Jnr using the Trump name and how he thought it had a stigma attached to it. However that's not exactly what Jnr said, saying instead that the was a "stigmata" associated with the Trump name. 

*bangs head against desk*

 

Public to pay for Foxtel cable maintenance even if NBN ditches it - Turnbull's Telstra deal

This whole National Broadband Network being fucked over by Turnbull is seriously starting to stink like a putrid rotting fish. Namely, how Murdoch's Foxtel is coming out of it all.

It's well known that Murdoch wanted fibre to the node as he didn't want the internet competing with his Foxtel. Ex PM Kevin Rudd who's original broadband plan was for fibre to the premises, wants a royal commission into it.

Now it's come to light that the cable that Turnbull wants to use For the NBN where it's available in cities and the like, will be maintained by the taxpayer. The cable TV that just happens to be what Foxtel uses for it's pay TV service. In fact contractually, even if the NBN ditches using the cable (which could happen given the problems they're having with the cable TV interfering with the NBN signal) taxpayers will still have to pay for that cable maintenance which Foxtel uses. 

At every turn in this whole Turnbull NBN fiasco, Murdoch comes out on top.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull faces expensive embarrassment if NBN Co cannot rectify problems that have halted the rollout of the HFC network he championed, as the company confirmed taxpayers will be forced to pay to maintain it for Telstra to broadcast Foxtel, even if it is ditched from the NBN.

 NBN chief executive Bill Morrow suddenly hit pause on the rollout of broadband delivered over pay television cables last week, due to mounting issues with service dropouts, delaying the roll out to an eventual 3 million metropolitan areas by an estimated six to nine months. 

However, as Labor ups its campaign for NBN to drop HFC in favour of fibre to the curb technology, NBN confirmed to The Australian Financial Review that it is contractually bound to maintain the ailing network for as long as Telstra wants to keep using it for pay-TV transmission. Australian Financial Review

What possible reason would Turnbull have to make such a deal, other than to give Murdoch what he wants?

A national scandal.Turnbull killed NBN model by replacing FTTP with FTTN to appease Murdoch. Needs Royal Commission. https://t.co/wEHmrxBW4i

— Kevin Rudd (@MrKRudd) January 8, 2018

 

The Trump-ets are losing it (video)

*Update: Miller had to be escorted off the premises by security after the interview.
 
I dunno what to say to this. I thought we had political disaster interviews in Australia but we got nothing on this. I guess I'd say we're witnessing the Trump US administration going down in a flaming heap. The sight of a White House person trying to defend the indefensible and re-write future history is indeed a sight to behold. Rarely have we seen such a blatant display of an emperor with no clothes. His enablers will go down in history as such.

 

Calls for Australia to close it's Vatican embassy over child sex abuse in Australia

During the royal commission into institutional child sex abuse in Australia (which became largely an inquiry into the Catholic church with 60% of cases coming from it alone) it became apparent that the Catholic church was using the Vatican's status with Australia as a nation state and thereby using that to protect it's paedophilia priests from prosecution here. 

The royal commission requested documents from the Vatican of child sex offender priests held by the "Holy See". The Vatican refused, using Australia's diplomatic recognition of it as a nation state to do so. 

There are now calles for the Australian embassy to the Vatican be closed.

In an opening address on February 6 to the 16th, and final, public hearing into the Catholic Church, counsel assisting the royal commission Gail Furness, SC, confirmed the Vatican had refused a request to provide files of all Australian church abuse cases referred to the Holy See. The Vatican advised in 2014 it was “neither possible nor appropriate”.

 Letters made public by the royal commission show chairman, Justice Peter McClellan, wrote to Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin in April, 2014, saying the Vatican files would help the commission understand the extent of clerical child sex allegation referrals to the Vatican, and the action taken by the church in each case. 

Cardinal Parolin declined in July, 2014, in a letter to the Australian embassy at the Vatican, saying the request to “undertake the substantial burden of locating, reviewing and copying all files regarding every accused Australian cleric appears inconsistent with international practice”. 

 He ended his letter to the Australian embassy by reaffirming “the importance of reciprocal exchanges of information between sovereign states”. The Herald

 In other words the Australian gov is letting them get away hiding Australian child sex abuse by the church, by recognising the Vatican as a nation state.
 

Wikileaks put "Fire and Fury" manuscript online for free (link)

*Update: the link stopped working. Drat, I should have saved the PDF!
 
The tell all book "Fire and Fury" has been put online by Wikileaks for free. In the form of a PDF, you can read the whole book here.

I haven't looked at it yet but are we really that surprised at the revelations folks? People have been saying ever since he was elected that he never wanted to be president. The guy has been a charlatan all his life. Bankrupt about 4 times with delusions of grandeur. Can't even run his own life let alone the life of the most powerful man in the world.

I got a lot of blowback from some in the US straight after Trump was elected as I was trying to convey the horror that we felt down under at such a complete imbecile racist fool for president. However everything I said to disbelieving Trump voters has since come true. Trump's presidency is anti-gay, reckless, pro big end of town and trickle down, disorganised lurching from one self inflicted crisis to the next, patently stupid and with the wolves of justice barking at the doors. His foreign policy consists of little more than comparing dick/button sizes.

Come on America, get rid of this moron. He's unfit to lead the free world. In fact he's unfit to organise his way out of a wet paper bag FFS. If the US is ever going to be "great again" then it really does need to look at how it's electoral system allowed such and idiot to become their glorious leader and see that it never happens again.

 

Pulse shooters wife knew he was planning to attack club well beforehand

An FBI statement taken off Omar Mateen's wife, Noor Salmon, just hours after Mateen killed 49 in Pulse, she says she saw Mateen preparing for the attack and knew he was going to the LGBT club Pulse.

The judge is deciding whether the FBI statement is admissible in court. 

If true one wonders how someone of religion in good conscience not go to the police to warn them of what was to unfold. Yes Mateen was a nutter who should never have been able to get his hands on a firecracker let alone a gun. But why would his partner not want to stop Mateen before he killed 49 people? You'd think she'd be just as guilty as him for letting it happen.

Storms are god's wrath because gays - Cow Scat Paster Swanson (audio)

Yes folks, Cow Scat Pastor Swanson, from the US (known for his fetish fantasy of covering himself in cow shit at his son's gay wedding if it happened), is back again for another round of far right christian cowshit folks. This time is he isn't demanding the death of gays, which is never far from his lips. He is however blaming us for evilly sneaking "indoctrination" text books in to California's public school system.

You see the global warming precedents that we're seeing now in the form of severe storms and extreme weather, aren't really caused by that lefty conspiracy global warming. No, it's because there are new text books in California schools non-judgemental of gays. Oh the humanity!

Swanson caught my attention some time ago when he did a sermon at an event during the presidential election campaign where Rubulican candidates shared the stage with him and spoke at the event. The sermon called for gays to be killed because the bible.

During that event he also preached that if he had a son who got gay married he'd turn up at the wedding dressed in sackcloth and ashes and covering himself with cow shit. And he reckons gays are sick and evil :s

 

Auckland NZ 35yrs ago and today (my pics compared to daughters)

So my daughter is still in Auckland with her husband and has taken pictures out and about there. She's been emailing me what they're going to be up to and I've sent her the odd scanned picture that I took about 35 or so years ago and she's sent back a couple of identical ones taken today by her

This first one is my old photo from the early '80's at the top of Mount Eden, which is an extinct small volcano with a crater in the middle, all grassed over now of course. When I lived in Auckland they used to graze sheep on it but I don't know if they still do, although I do see the sheep trails in the crater.

*click to enlarge

And this is the one she took today. Notice how the city centre has grown over the decades.

This next one is from the top of Mount Eden looking south east to One Tree Hill in the distance, another volcanic activity thing also extinct. Despite the oldness of the picture and the wonders of today's image filtering programmes you can actually make out the one tree on top of it, which has been a major Auckland landmark. Hence the name One Tree Hill.

And here is my daughter's picture she took today from about the same spot. Notice that some asshole has chopped down the one tree on top so it's no longer there (some sort of racial protest against whites/Pakehas over it being the wrong sort of tree FFS). The tree underwent two chain saw attacks, one in 1994 which it survived, but the second one in 2000 was fatal and it had to be chopped down.

They went out on the harbour today over to Auckland's north shore Devonport and she took a photo of their harbour bridge. Of course Sydney siders refer to the thing as a "mechano set" after the Sydney harbour bridge over here :)