People have been working hard to convince the unrepresentative swill in Canberra to vote down the plebiscite in the senate. The numbers are tight but it's looking like the plebiscite will be defeated by about 4 votes according to Australian Marriage Equality's Alex Greenwich. However anything could happen in this senate and complacency shouldn't be a thing when dealing with it. You can send an email via the PFLAG webform against the plebiscite here. It's got over 400,000 emails sent so far and sends a powerful message to the politicians.
The plebiscite has passed though the Lower House and now the Senate is all that stands between us and a hurtful, expensive, divisive and unnecessary plebiscite that isn’t even legally binding. Please send a message to Senators from your state asking them to vote down the plebiscite. PFLG webform
As the world nail bites heading into the US presidential election, early voting is underway and record numbers of Latinos and Democrat voters are turning out to vote. The Democrats have troops on the ground organising people to get to the polling booths. Trump on the other hand, who doesn't appear capable of organising the proverbial fuck in a brothel or even spending the money to do so, doesn't have the ground force to counter this. This could very well be the final fail in the Trump campaign. Would intention to actually turn up and vote even be reflected in pre-election polling? I dunno, but it's an interesting thought. Unlike Australia voting isn't compulsory there.
@HivPeter Pete My conservative m8 in NY says Trump just hasn't got the ground force 2 get him up to the 271 electoral votes
Once again the LGBT are used politically in an attempt to gain votes. We're people, not bloody political footballs, and that goes for both sides of politics. In this pro-Trump add, the gay flag is burned saying that Trump will stop anti-gay Muslim type people from coming in to the US. I'm sure I'm not the only gay in the world who would find it highly offensive for us and our flag to be used to promote Trump, burning the flag and all.
The gay community is worldwide. Don't these people realise that gays in other lands can see their vile add?
Countries in Africa have banded together to oppose a new United Nations position created to address violence and discrimination against LGBT people around the world. Unbelievably, they say sexual difference shouldn't be linked to human rights. How one can separate the two is beyond me. It's well known that Africa has been the target of US fundamentalist christian missionaries for some time now, who've gone over there and created the homophobia that now exists there.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - African states launched a bid at the United Nations on Friday to halt the work of the first U.N. independent investigator appointed to help protect gay and transgender people worldwide from violence and discrimination.
The 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, created the position in June and in September appointed Vitit Muntarbhorn of Thailand, who has a three-year mandate to investigate abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.
In an unusual move, African states circulated a draft resolution on Friday in the 193-member U.N. General Assembly third committee, which deals with human rights, calling for consultations on the legality of the creation of the mandate.
"We therefore call for the suspension of the activities of the appointed Independent Expert pending the determination of this issue," Botswana's U.N. Ambassador Charles Ntwaagae, speaking for the 54-member Africa group, told the committee.
He said the group was concerned "non-internationally agreed notions such as sexual orientation and gender identity are given attention, to the detriment of issues of paramount importance such as the right to development and the racism agenda."
Ntwaagae said that sexual orientation and gender identity "are not and should not be linked to existing international human rights instruments."
Reuters
OMFG! I absolutely love this guy. He's the equivalent of Angry Aussie in the US, but much more experienced. Watch as he saturation bombs the current US signs of fascism, with the FBI evidently in cahoots with Trump, and tells it like it is. I laughed so hard through this clip. He hits every nail on the head. He is a true US patriot.
Where the fuck is somebody's head at to wear a T-shirt threatening to kill any gay person who comes near him? What's more he can't even spell - "approch" FFS.
In any case it looks like he's breached the hate speech laws over there. Unlike the US where preachers can demand gays be killed and get away with it.
A Canadian man who is part of a group called ATG (Anti-Gay) has defended a t-shirt he wore which threatens to kill gay people.
18-year-old Ottawa native Julien Clément, who says he is not homophobic because he is “not scared of them,” was seen wearing the t-shirt at Saunders Farm last weekend.
“If you’re gay,” advised the t-shirt, “don’t approch [sic] me, I’ll kill you.”
Whitney Martin, who took a photo of the t-shirt, said:
“It’s hate speech in writing. It’s threatening to kill someone because of their sexual orientation. It’s not okay.
“We all have the right to free speech and to express our opinion, but that right doesn’t allow us or protect us from threatening a group of people or promoting hatred against this specific group.” Towleroad
As the world watches scared shitless and hand wringing at the Trump comeback and the actual possibility he may become president, it appears that despite the Trump rhetoric his campaign has stalled 3 points behind Hillary. The Australian Budgertrack polling aggregate confirms the last poll of the New York Times/CBS Newspoll, giving the same result with Hillary on 48 and Trump on 45. The US is deciding to dodge a bullet here. Or more like a nuclear bomb.
With just a few days to go, the latest presidential election polling suggests the recent turn in favour of Donald Trump may have passed its peak.
The last two days of national polling have taken some of the edge off the recent turn against Hillary Clinton, who is now projected with a lead of 48.0% to 45.0%, compared with 47.1% to 45.3% in the previous post two days ago. This causes North Carolina to move back into the Clinton column, and leaves Donald Trump hanging by a thread to Florida and Nevada. The Poll Bludger
Had the last yearly examination of my butt in the ongoing anal cancer study that I've been a part of for the last few years. In about 3-4 months I have to go in again to go over all the results with the doctor in charge and discuss whether I need to go into their regular anal cancer screening program.
The news was good today. Doctor couldn't find anything up there cancerous. The biopsy's taken over the visits have likely in themselves stopped cancer from developing. Turned out it was a good study to participate in as I had high grade cancer cells with a big possibility to go on to develop into anal cancer. Which I imagine and am told is an extremely unpleasant thing to have and be treated.
As I've said here in the past, the the thrust of the study is to look at ways of treating anal cancer among HIV+ people before the cancer develops. Despite the HIV meds doing marvelous things these days and bringing people back to health, the rates of anal cancer among HIV+ men haven't changed.
In the final New York Times/CBS Newspoll poll to be taken before the US election, the poll has come in with Hillary remaining 3 points ahead of Trump at 45/42. This is pretty much in keeping with the Australian Bludgertrack aggregate of polls showing Clinton around two points ahead. At this late stage in an election most people have made up their mind one way or the other and will stick to it no matter what comes out in the media.
I don't understand here in Australia why the US presidential elections are so long and drawn out. If we have a six week federal election campaign that's considered very long. To have a man like Trump given a platform over months to preach hate is simply counterproductive to democracy. The divisions he's created run deep. The same poll also shows disgust and repulsion with this election by a large number of US voters. In the likelihood of a Hillary win the political waters will remain toxic for some time to come. The sort of hate that Trump has unleashed and fostered in his campaign isn't just going to go away overnight.
In a grim preview of the discontent that may cloud at least the outset of the next president’s term, Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump are seen by a majority of voters as unlikely to bring the country back together after this bitter election season.
With more than eight in 10 voters saying the campaign has left them repulsed rather than excited, the rising toxicity threatens the ultimate victor. Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic candidate, and Mr. Trump, the Republican nominee, are seen as dishonest and viewed unfavorably by a majority of voters.
While her advantage has narrowed since mid-October, Mrs. Clinton still has an edge in the survey because of a commanding advantage among women and nonwhite voters. She has the support of 45 percent of likely voters while Mr. Trump has 42 percent. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian nominee, has slipped to 5 percent, and Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, is at 4 percent. New York Times
With just days to go now, Clinton still remains ahead of Trump in the Bludgertrack poll aggregate. It's actually not unusual I suppose for the polls to tighten up on election day, but Trump? Seriously? I can't believe how close the US is coming to self immolation. That's the only word I could use to describe the US electing Trump as their leader. Needless to say the world is watching on closely with much aghastness at the possible train wreck unfolding in front of their eyes. A Trump presidency would have huge implications for US alliances around the world, let alone any country Trump decides is an enemy.
Another two days’ worth of national opinion polls has Hillary Clinton down 0.3% to 47.1% and Donald Trump up by the same amount to 45.3%, while the state-level results produce no change to a situation that credits Clinton with the barest of victories in the electoral college, by 272 votes to 266. However, as the table below shows, this factors in wins for Trump by the barest of margins in Florida and North Carolina, with other particularly tight results including Clinton’s lead in Colorado and Trump’s lead in Nevada. Poll Bludger
The minister relates how he's received a flood of complaints about the Centrelink reviews being conducted by the Turnbull gov. In his short speech he tells of a person who was told by Centrelink to prove that he still didn't have arms, to keep getting the DSP. He is a thalidomide victim and has had no arms since birth. Another person, after losing their leg in an accident, was refused the DSP because Centrelink said his leg would grow back. If you listen to a lot of the media, some people think all you do is walk in the Centrelink door and they throw money at you. I wish it was as hard for the politicians to get gov money as it is to apply for the DSP.
The witness says she personally saw the sexual assault by Trump, and that Trump warned the 13 year old not to say anything about it to anyone. Trump is due in court next month regarding the case. Surely America, you couldn't vote for this guy...
Both witnesses say they worked as “party planners” for billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who paid them to “attract adolescent women” to events he hosted at the Wexner Mansion in New York.
Tiffany Doe says in court documents that she lured Jane Doe to a party with the promise of money and meeting contacts in the modeling industry.
She claims in the documents that she personally witnessed the girl being forced to engage in various sex acts with Trump and Epstein, who she said were aware of her age.
“I personally witnessed four sexual encounters that the Plaintiff was forced to have with Mr. Trump during this period, including the fourth of these encounters where Mr. Trump forcibly raped her despite her pleas to stop,” Tiffany Doe alleges.
Tiffany Doe said she also witnessed Trump forcing Jane Doe and a 12-year-old girl identified as “Maria” to perform oral sex on him and then physically abuse both of them afterward.
The woman said her job duties required her to “personally witness and supervise encounters between the underage girls that Mr. Epstein hired and his guests,” according to court documents. Raw Story
As if allegations of sexual assault by adults weren't bad enough, there's also this story. A woman claims that Trump raped her when she was just 13. This is an ongoing case, but in the unlikelihood of Trump becoming president he will be elected so as the accused in a child rape case.
It now appears that the US presidential race has tightened considerably, with the Bludgertrack aggregate currently predicting Clinton on 272 and Trump 257. How the fuck a sexual predator would come back like that is beyond me and beyond stupid on the part of those in the US planning on voting for him. In any case my feeling is that he's too far behind to come back and win.
The latest reading of my presidential poll tracker is rather a lot different from the last, which is about half due to a very substantial shift in the polls in Donald Trump’s favour since the beginning of last week, and half due to me changing what had been a very conservative smoothing parameter that was ironing out short-term volatility, including the recent turn to Trump. It so happens that Trump is now credited with narrow leads in most of the swing states, such that Clinton’s now modest lead on national voting intention is projected as an extremely tight outcome in the electoral college of Clinton 272, Trump 257. It wouldn’t surprise me if the model was overshooting in its present reading of the move back to Trump, which can be a difficulty when sharp reversals occur, but we should get more clarity on that score over the coming days. Poll Bludger
I've had to spend a couple of days in bed with it. Have been having this terrible back pain, aching and sore. Just seems to have come out of the blue.
David suggested it may be nerve pain caused by the shingles I got a few years ago. It was misdiagnosed at the start and so wasn't treated until it was full blown. I ended up going to Emergency it was so bad and they were the ones who correctly diagnosed it as shingles. My regular doctor had been on holidays so I just saw one locally very near home. Unfortunately the guy was incompetent, said it was an allergic reaction to something and gave me allergy cream FFS.
Anyway the pain has been so bad, a couple of days ago I was lying on the bed nearly crying from it. My whole back was hurting, even my arms and legs.
I guess I'll have to have a word about it with my doctor next visit.
David and I can't afford going to the movies, but this is released on Friday in the US and Nov 8th here in Australia. Perhaps the loc...
About me
After 30 years of very physical full time work in the printing industry our print dept was outsourced and we all lost our jobs. As I'd gotten HIV beforehand and was having trouble attending and doing work I discussed with my HIV doctor whether I should apply for the Australian Disability Support Pension. He agreed,and I became a DSP pensioner under the new Gillard rules of adherence that now sees 75% of DSP applicants rejected.
Have been diagnosed with PTSD, severe depression, chronic kidney failure, and of course HIV. I'd become suicidal in 2009 after 3 extreme life events in a row; My best friend killed herself in the US (I don't make friends easily BTW), my teenage/young adult daughter had me charged by the police with a minor problem, and I was diagnosed with HIV. All in three weeks.
Some say god won't give you more than you can bear, my reply is "Well what happened to me?" If not for the HIV support here in Australia and me being able to have access to it I'd likely be dead by now. Unbearable pain often causes suicide, no matter physical or mental.
Today I've not worked since being made redundant. I remain with episodes of depression and panic attacks, sometimes severe. I may be fine and happy to leave the house, at times I'm paralised in bed, secure and safe and not willing to face the world.
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