Gay Aboriginal politician - Northern Territory, Australia (video interview)

Well it doesn't get any more Australian than this; an interview with a young Aboriginal gay politician from the Northern Territory. 

He describes what it was like coming out in an Aboriginal community and what it's like to be a gay politician up there.

As I've said here many times, where ever you find humanity, you will find gays. Including in the oldest living culture on earth, who have lived here for 40,000 years.

IA interviews Greens senator Lee Rhiannon on Lieberal budget 2017 (video)

The media outlet Independent Australia has gotten a press gallery pass at last, with Dr Martin Hurst now able to report from Canberra along with the main stream media press gallery.

Here he talks to Greens senator Lee Rhiannon about WTF was this budget that's just been bought down by the gov. Very interesting.

Migraine

I've been out of action from yesterday afternoon and most of today, lying in bed as the pain from a migraine went to my head and also affected my rather sensitive back. Realised at the beginning of yesterday that it was the 11yr anniversary of my wife's death, so I guess that could have something to do with it.

Also feel really sick from it, like I'm going to throw up all the time. 

Came on quite suddenly when I was coming back from the shops. My vision went all weird, so much so that I couldn't see straight, and the last bit of walking from the bus stop I felt like I was going to collapse.

Made it in the door, ended up bursting into tears on the lounge saying "I'm sick of this". David was really good and understanding. Dunno what I'd do without him.

Couldn't get to my appt today at the eye clinic about the cataract in my left eye. Tried, but felt very dizzy standing up and still feeling sick. Had to ring them and reschedule. 

Aboriginals protest against changes to Native Title Act for Adani coal mine (video)

Aboriginal people have sent a clear message to the politicians in Canberra. The gov, after a recent court ruling in favour of Aboriginal people over mining companies and blocking the way for Adani with it's sham agreement with Queensland Aboriginals, want to make changes to the Native Title Act so that the Adani mega carbon bomb coal mine can go ahead. Outrageous.

"Land rights not mining rights" is a clear, concise message to federal Labor not to back the gov and coal companies over indigenous Australians. Aboriginal people remain the oldest living culture on earth, being in Australia for 40,000 years. 

 

Putin supports investigation into Chechnyan genocide of gays (video)

Most likely there's been too many reports about it to deny, despite what the tin pot Chechnyan dictator claims. I mean how could you believe a word that comes out of that guys mouth? He says there's no gays there, seriously? Wherever you find humanity you will find gays. The way a society treats it's minorities says a lot about that society's morality.

Ironically the place is mostly hard core Muslims, those who would profess to be moral because of their religion. 

Internet rage!

Today has been a long day battling fuckin technology! Ugh, it's just lucky I'm a patient old fart with this sort of thing or I may well have bought out the hammer and destroyed the whole thing in a fit of rage! Honestly, it has been nightmarish.

Sooooo, the other day the old router died, leaving David and I with only one LAN connection and no WiFi. We had to take turns being connected to the internet, a completely unworkable situation. Luckily there was some money left over from David's super withdrawal to address the problem, and I proceeded to go and get a brand spanking new all in one modem/router from a Dodo kiosk.

I went to them as they're our ISP and it'd be easier to set up with my technologically challenged mind. Three easy steps it said on the box. Sounded much better than when I battled through setting up the secure WiFi with the other one. You just plug it in and it magically sets itself up they said at the kiosk.

Actually it was pretty easy to get it up and running. Just as soon as I realised I'd plugged the internet phone line into the wrong socket. Soon we were both using our computers again simultaneously. 

But the problems began. The internet seemed to just drop out for periods and nothing would connect. At times it was like dial up. The new smick machine seemed that it was a bloody technological lemon. 

Then it happened. This morning I tried getting online and the bloody thing just wouldn't connect, despite the PC saying it was connected. Not even the home page would load. Turned the new machinery off and on with some effect; I'd get about 2 minutes of internet and then it wouldn't connect again. Then the net dropped out altogether and wouldn't connect at all. It was at this stage I thought of the hammer.

Tried over and over, turning everything off and back on (usually works that) and getting cryptic gibberish messages from Windows diagnostics which I had not the faintest idea WTF it was saying. After a couple of hours I gave up and rang Dodo for help.

The call centre technical dept was actually very good. Got through straight away on the phone. However then began about an hour and a half of me trying various things suggested by the guy only for every one of them to fail to connect. At one point the phone battery died and I had to rush into the bedroom to get the charged handset next to the bed. Eventually even the technical guy was stumped and had to go and get help himself from someone even more tech savvy than him. 

At that point whilst he was away and me listening to Dodo hold music, the internet suddenly connected. And worked fine. I nearly bloody fainted. The guy came back and I say "I have some good news..."  

He gave a very involved description of what the problem had been which was right over my head. But it sounded something like when I installed the new modem there was a delay at their end in recognising it. Sounds bizarre to me but that's pretty much it. So all that drama for days and thoughts of the hammer, and the problem wasn't even here but at the other end! I should have rung them earlier. 

Bermuda gets same sex marriage (video) - Australians continue to wait

Whilst we in Australia are still waiting for the ruling Lieberal party to drag itself kicking and screaming into the 21st century, or get turfed in next years election, the small country of Bermuda is the latest to move to marriage equality. 

Two gay men challenged the law there in the supreme court and won. The judges ruling was very eloquent.

Yesterday a packed courtroom in the Dame Lois Browne-Evans Building erupted into spontaneous applause after Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons ruled in the couple’s favour.

 “The common law definition of marriage, that marriage is the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman, and its reflection in the Marriage Act section 24 and the Matrimonial Clauses Act section 15 (c) are inconsistent with the provisions of the Human Rights Act as they constitute deliberate different treatment on the basis of sexual orientation,” Mrs Justice Simmons said.

 “In so doing the common law discriminates against same-sex couples by excluding them from marriage and more broadly speaking the institution of marriage.

 “On the facts of this case the applicants were discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation when the Registrar refused to process their notice of intended marriage.

 “Same-sex couples denied access to marriage laws and entry into the institution of marriage have been denied what the Human Rights Commission terms a “basket of goods”, that is rights of a spouse contained in numerous enactments of Parliament.” She added:

“The applicants are entitled to an Order of Mandamus compelling the Registrar to act in accordance with the requirements of the Marriage Act and a Declaration that same-sex couples are entitled to be married under the Marriage Act 1944.” The Royal Gazette

Turnbull meets with Trump - cringing vomit video :(

To think this fuckwit is representing Australia, ugh. Wait for the Turnbull polls to do another nosedive after this schmooze with the orange man. This won't win one single vote. 

Chechnyan families are killing gay family members, before jailers do it for them (video)

Unbelievably, families in Chechnya feel it's their duty to kill their gay family members as a way of retaining their honour. Jailers are telling the families to kill them or the jailers will do it themselves.

“They tell the parents to kill their child. They say, ‘Either you do it, or we will.’ They call it ‘cleaning your honor with blood.’ They tortured a man for two weeks [then] they summoned his parents and brothers who all came. The authorities said to them: ‘Your son is a homosexual – sort it out or we’ll do it ourselves.’ They replied: ‘It’s our family. We’ll do it. The family took him and killed him in the forest…They buried him there. They didn’t even give him a funeral. If I go home, my own family will kill me.”

"Transgendered and Communist by 20yrs old" - kill the gays pastor Swanson on education

Yes folks, he's baaaack.... The kill the gays Pastor Swanson in the US of cow scat infamy (he stated he would wear sackcloth and ashes and smear cow shit all over him outside the church if his son got married to a man). Cow shit is terrible stuff BTW; I fell into it on the farm in New Zealand and it was all on my arm, soaking slowly in to my knitted jumper. Ugh, I was reduced to just sitting there crying, whilst my younger brother went and got mum to aid me in my horror. She was pretty pissed off at the inconvenience, but I was never tough enough for Taranaki farming land.

So on this occasion cow scat pastor says on air that the education system of the US wants to make all the kids transgendered and Communist by the time they're 20 years old. How you "make someone a Communist",  let alone transgendered, is of course the stuff of bible bashing fantasies. I think maybe he's losing the plot. But he keeps popping up now and then with something even more outrageously stupid.

If there actually is life after death and some blissful place that may resemble the fairy tales of heaven, I doubt that the kill the gays pastor would get anywhere near it if the christian religion has anything to do with it. He continueally amazes me just how much he's capable of hating us LGBT.

Then again, I'm waiting for the day he may get caught with his dick up to his balls in a rent boy. He doth protest too much.....

Cashless welfare card costs gov a fortune - $10k for $14k welfare recipient

Tudge. The only thing missing here is the star glinting off his teeth FFS

Of course the state becoming intricately involved in the spending habits of an entire small community is going to cost a lot of money to administrate. 

In fact it's about $10,000 for every welfare person who only gets $14k a year anyway. For a gov in budget crisis it's not hard to see why with loose purse strings like this. Plus the whole trial hasn't been proven to actually be of much benefit at all. That's a huge outlay of public money with no proven real benefits.

So why is the gov so keen to implement it? To give one of their mates a nice juicy gov contract? Their blind ideological mission from god in the face of economic insanity? Actually that sounds pretty much like the whole Abbott/Turnbull gov since Tone's took office.

The Australian Council of Social Service said the government was continuing the program at an extraordinary cost, despite the lack of reliable evidence of its effectiveness.

 Its chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, said the money should be diverted to investing in proven support services.

 “The cashless debit card costs around $10,000 a year per participant to administer, when the person themselves is receiving a meagre $14,000 a year in Newstart payments. How on earth is this good value?” Goldie said.

 “What we spend on this card would be much better spent on investing in services and supports that have a far stronger evidence base of being effective in addressing individual and community needs.”


The Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the trial was an “ideological waste of money”.

 “That money should go towards wrap-around services, supports and programs for people struggling with drug, alcohol and gambling addiction and tackling the underlying causes of disadvantage,” Siewert said.

“People who work in drug and alcohol services for people in struggling communities have plenty of ideas on how that money could be better spent.” The Guardian

ACF declares war on Adani over coal spill

The Australian Conservation Foundation has launched an all out assault on Adani, after findings that it severely breached their licence in spilling coal slurry next to the Great Barrier Reef. Even with generous environmental concessions provided by the treacherous Queensland Labor gov (who won power largely with the promise it would protect the Reef) the Adani coal spill still exceeded their licence by 800 times.

What a show of sheer ineptitude. Do they expect no more cyclones to hit Queensland? How the fuck are they going to go shipping out mega amounts of coal if they can't even get this right?

From the ACF email:

Tonight, it was revealed that Adani breached their licence, spilling highly polluting coal slurry next to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

 Adani got a special licence from the Queensland Government to release discharge into the Caley Valley Wetlands and the ocean from their Abbot Point coal terminal.

 Even with this special licence to pollute, Adani exceeded their permitted limit to the ocean by more than 800 per cent. The ABC is reporting that Adani faces a possible multi-million-dollar fine.

 It’s outrageous they got this license and even worse that they massively breached it. It’s outrageous that they turned the wetland black. Weeks later, locals and scientists are still picking up coal.

 Adani cannot safely operate a coal port on a cyclone-prone coast. There’s no way we can let them dig Australia’s biggest megamine – which threatens to drain and pollute groundwater, wreck our climate and destroy our Great Barrier Reef.

 That’s why the ACF community is coming together like never before.

 We're holding Adani and our governments to account for this coal spill. There must be an independent investigation. Consequences. And Adani’s proposed megamine must not go ahead. 

You can contribute to their campaign here.

Russian cops arrest gay protesters of Chechnyan anti-gay violence (pics)

Startling images of Russian cops arresting gay protestors in St Petersburg, who were protesting to raise awareness of the attacks on gay men in Chechnya and their incarceration in anti-gay concentration camps.

They had lay on the road wrapped in rainbow flags and smeared themselves in fake blood. They were arrested by riot police FFS. 

No doubt the rainbow flags and the protest itself would have been deemed gay "propaganda" under Russia's anti-gay laws.

Russian police have detained LGBT activists attempting to raise awareness about the persecution of gay men in Chechnya.

 The demonstration was held during a May Day march in St Petersburg, with a group of around 10 protesters arrested near the Anichkov Bridge in the centre of Russia’s second city.

 Images shared on Twitter showed activists lying on the road pretending to be dead, with fake blood smeared across their faces and covered with rainbow and Chechen flags.

 Officers in riot gear were shown arresting protesters and dragging them to a police van. Independent

На первомае в Петербурге задержали акцию в против убийства геев в Чечне pic.twitter.com/uV202NGD4b

— Dave Frenkel (@merr1k) May 1, 2017

Trump's 1st 100 days - Face the Rainbow (Randy Rainbow video)

Well at least the old fool hasn't blown up the world yet. All his threats and innuendo at North Korea fit his blustering vacuous style, let's hope it goes better than all his bankruptcies did.

Randy Rainbow cuts to the Trump chase here, out and out calling Trump "unpopular" who's wife won't even live with him. Ouch! Wonder if this will make on to the white house tellies?

Abbott (PM from the backbench's) says gender quotas are "anti-men"

Abbott's ministry after 2013 election. Quentin Bryce (middle) wasn't part of it BTW, she was the gov. general

Oh my fuckin god. 

Thank the people of Australia that this man is no longer our prime minister, Julia Gillard got him so right in her misogyny speech. To think though that this vile human being is still in the federal parliament and running the show from the back benches is grotesque in the very extreme. He is a hateful and bitter man, yearning for the days when women couldn't vote.

If you don't believe me, all you have to do is read his latest radio rant. I have not the faintest idea what he's trying to do here. Alienate all the women of Australia from the Lieberal party? Grandiose himself as the hero of his imagined manliness? Expose to Australia how hopeless he is without Peta Credlin?

Honestly, I've seen Abbott around for a long time, but reading this shocked me to the point of jaw droppingness. I thought I'd heard all his bullshit hatred, and then he comes out with this:

The former prime minister used his regular slot on 2GB on Monday morning to blast a proposal from the commission that commonwealth government use its leverage to boost female participation in the workforce.

 The commission has floated a proposal as part of a Senate inquiry under which the government would require contracted organisations to demonstrate efforts to improve gender balance, with an ultimate goal of reaching a 40:40:20 gender balance (40% men, 40% women and 20% unspecified, to allow for flexibility).

 Radio host Ray Hadley declared the proposal “PC rubbish”. Abbott agreed.

“Well this is right,” the former prime minister said.

 “There are lots of things we can’t change but one thing we should never do is fail to call out politically correct rubbish.

 “There is a lot of politically correct rubbish around. This latest attempt by the Human Rights Commission to start yet again dictate to business how they should do their job shows why the AHRC has long outlived any usefulness it might have, and we just don’t need this body.” Abbott said

Australia did not need bodies like the AHRC “bullying, hectoring, persecuting”.

 Hadley said the government needed to make a definitive statement knocking the proposal on the head, declaring the headline tomorrow should be “thanks very much for the advice”.

 Abbott finished Hadley’s sentence: “But pull your head in. Exactly right.

 “Obviously we have to give women a fair go, but some of this stuff sounds like it’s just anti-men.”


Hadley observed that there were hardly any men left teaching infants and primary school, and he noted “young ladies” did their best to coach school sporting teams “but they don’t have the same expertise in certain areas as they have in other areas, it’s just a fact of life”.

 Abbott said one development that would lead to long-term change would be to get more “good conservative women into the parliament”. The Guardian 

I honestly have no words...... rare for me......