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Afternoon all,

Americans keep going on about how they are the land of the free and they have all those rights that other countries don't have. Not sure the right to murder school kids in their schools is a right that any country should have, but Americans care more about their gun rights than the rights of their children. So with all these so called great rights in the US, the introduction of a citizen ID card has been implemented without any protests in America. This REAL ID card that is now mandatory for domestic travel in the US for US citizens is a way of the US govt tracking US citizens where ever they go in the US. This new ID card was sold to people as a way to keep Americans safe by identifying anyone living in the US without a REAL ID as a foreigner or what Americans call an Alien, not the space kind. If you travel to the US and are not a US citizen you are classified as an Alien in that you are alien to the country and a potential threat. You aren't a tourist or a visitor, you are a potential threat. We don't have that term for visitors to Australia. We don't treat tourists and other visa holders as a potential threat to Australia. When a previous govt tried to introduce a similar type of citizen card here in Australia we told them to go fuck themselves and the citizen card idea was dropped. We had lots of protests over that and the people won the day. The govt had to back down otherwise they were going to lose the next election. If you have a passport you can travel domestically in the US but soon that will not be allowed for US citizens who must have a REAL ID card to prove they are American. So lots of people in the US are now applying for this REAL ID and the number of cases are rising of people being denied a REAL ID if they are born outside the US but are US citizens which is fucking crazy, but well it is America, a country run by a fascist so not entirely surprising. In one case a 77 yr old American pensioner who is also a US veteran went to get one of these REAL ID cards only to be told he is not a US citizen because he was born in Canada even though both his parents were born in the US and were US citizens. The only reason this guy was born in Canada is that his dad had a job in Canada at the time and they came back into the US when this guy was a baby. Now they are telling this white American that he could get deported because the US govt now classifies him as not being a US citizen and they also took away his American drivers license so he can't drive his car any more. More American stupidity. The only reason they did this to this veteran is that he lives in a Republican state. If he lived in a Democratic state there wouldn't of been an issue. This is how the US govt is now treating American citizens and their own veterans. The fact that Americans boast about being the land of the free, well that is now a total joke.

I thought it would take longer for Rump to send in the military against US citizens but less that 6 months in, since we are now in June, he did just that in LA. I mentioned in a previous post that Rump would at some stage call out the military against US citizens. I just didn't think it would happen so quickly. The National Guard are military reservists and can be called up to deploy as part of the US military at the order of the President, so whilst it could be argued the National Guard is not strictly military, they have the same access to military weapons as the US military. So it's kinda the same thing. We also know from the Jan 6th riots that a number of members of the National Guard were also members of white supremacist groups. In other words the National Guard doesn't do proper security checks on it's people to ensure Neo-Nazis are not part of its ranks. So you can bet that some of the National Guard sent to LA are also members of these far right white supremacist groups. All it will take is a trigger happy National Guard to send America off on the next step in fascism and that is the Fed govt killing it's own citizens. Might not happen this year but you can see this escalating into next year and before Rump is either removed from office or goes naturally, some US citizens will be killed by the military whether it be by the National Guard or by the US military. Rump has now sent in the Marines to LA who are not there for a policing role as that is no what they are trained for. Now Rump's border czar has threatened to arrest the Gov of California and the Mayor of LA is they stand in his way. This is crazy shit, but it does appeal to the Republican play book of violence. Republicans want to justify the killing of anyone who doesn't agree with them or stands up to them. Violence is part of the Republican policy in this new Republican party. It is America after all and there are lots of guns in the place, plus you have a President who believes the US military is his private army. As shown on the news an Aussie reporter was targeted and shot by an LAPD cop while she was reporting live from the protests for Channel 9 news here in Australia. This happened on live TV. The cop could clearly see she was a reporter but shot her anyway. Now reporters are wearing bullet proof vests and military helmets as if they are in an active war zone. So far 4 members of a news crew have been targeted by the LAPD. One Aussie cameraman was shot in the chest, luckily he was wearing a protective vest. Those rubber bullets can kill you if they hit a vital part of your body like your head or at your heart. This is crazy shit, but America is over 50% there to becoming a fascist country. The final 20% will be when Rump arrests his political rivals without any charges or they are shot in the street, like they do in Russia. A Democratic law maker and her husband have been killed and another was shot, plus the shooter had a list of other Democrats to be killed. This is what happens when you have a President who tells his followers that the other major political party is their enemy and need to be silenced. Republicans would be rejoicing at these killings as they see only one way to deal with their political rivals. The threats by Rump to arrest Democrats only fuels his followers to do acts of violence. At the same time as these Democrats were killed and shot, Rump couldn't help himself in criticising the Gov of Wisconsin where these shootings took place as if it was his fault. Again more dangerous rhetoric from a fascist leader of the US.

As I mentioned in a previous post, when the killings begin of US citizens by the govt that is the sign fascism has taken hold in America and will mark the beginning of the end of the US as an friendly country. It will all depend on how long Rump is allowed to remain in the White House. He is not showing any signs of leaving on his own. His actions in calling up the Marines is a step to him in-acting the Insurrection Act will allows him to suspend elections which is what he wants to do thus hold on to power. He might do this just before the mid-terms next year to ensure he controls Congress and the Senate, especially if polling suggests that the Republicans will lose both chambers. These are signs of a man who craves power and doesn't want to give it up willingly. Something big is coming to determine which way America goes on this. These tensions are just building so a showdown is coming, it's just a matter of time. Makes me glad I'm sitting here in Australia as an observer watching the demise of an empire rather than being part of it. I usually only see this in historical docos, but this one is playing out in my life time. You feel a bit like an archaeologist, but rather than having to sift thru the dirt to see how a civilisation failed, all you need to do is turn on the TV. You can even have snacks while you see a civilisation implode. In 20yrs time I'll be able to tell people, I actually saw the destruction of America in real time, assuming I live that long. Rump finally got his military parade but not without massive protests in various parts of the country. He will try this again to use the military for his own political purposes. The question is how long will the military allow themselves to be used like this and will it tarnish their reputation with the American people? At what point will the American military push back if at all, or will they just turn their guns on the public when asked to like good little soldiers who after all are just obeying orders, just like the German military did in WWII.

The US is trying bully Australia into spending more on our Defence otherwise they might not honour their AUKUS agreement. They already said they can't deliver the submarines they promised because their production can't make them fast enough even though Australia is propping up the US submarine industry to the tune of $2 billion which is only down payment of the total price. We are also building a new submarine maintenance facility in WA for the American submarines at our expense on top off the money for AUKUS which is $368 billion that the Americans are getting from the Aussie tax payers but that cost will blow out as all these Defence projects do. The total cost might be closer to $500 billion before the end of that project. I'll be dead before that project ends in the 2050's.

It's raining again here in Melbourne town at the moment which is a good thing. Has been brass monkey weather here in Melbourne during the mornings. On the weekend we had day time temps of 12C and overnight lows of 3C. Having to have the fire on earlier now. Those typical chilly Winter days have now officially kicked in and it's now dark by 5pm. I'm staying in bed longer but sometimes I've got up and had no option but to have the heater on during the day.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

The ABC has now cancelled Q&A which is the second public affairs show they have cancelled in recent years. They are calling it a restructure but it's more to do with budget cuts. The politics show Insiders was moved from Melbourne to Canberra to cut down costs of flying people down to Melbourne. That show started here in Melbourne and has been around for many decades, but now it is based in Canberra which no doubt has led to job loses at the ABC here in Melbourne again due to budget cuts at the ABC. Politicians never liked going on Q&A because they were confronted with the voting public asking them questions directly. The Lib's never wanted to show up and their leadership wanted the show shut down. Politicians always want to control the room they are in and they don't like having to face real people in a setting in which they don't have control. Getting rid of Q&A plays into the hands of politicians and is a loss of the general public to ask questions directly to politicians and expecting an answer.

The Project is also being cancelled by the end of this week, so another budget cut, but it is Channel 10 which is the poorest of the three main commercial stations. There seems to be a pattern of shows being cancelled here in Australia that have social engagement and political discussion which no doubt will go on-line and lead to people going back to their corners and their own echo chambers. The popularity of these shows on TV says that there is demand for these public discussion shows. If we don't have any TV shows that have these political and social forums, then only the right wing hate driven shows will be funded since they are funded by rich white men who lean to the far right these days because hate speech sells advertising and gets clicks purely for the outrage motive and also for those losers who want to belong somewhere where they are not tolerated in general society or in a social setting. If people would not click on everything that pops up on their mobile phones, there would be less of this hate speech getting the advertising dollars. Young people and those not so young are now being trained by their mobile phones like calling a dog, to respond to every notification on their mobiles. Seems the younger generations are just like dogs wanting to please their masters, only thing is their masters are those who run social media algorithms, and responding to every notification has been sold as a safety thing as it might be a message from a family member in trouble as if the human race didn't exist before mobile phones were invented. The parents are insisting that their kids starting in primary school have a mobile phone for safety reasons, so kids are being trained to answer everything that pops up on their phone. These days people are easily led and have given up their own self will to their devices which dictate what they see and how the facts are presented. We won't need armies to invade countries, just a mobile device that tricks a population into thinking they should kill people from another country without any facts because the human brain will be conditioned into thinking what they are seeing is real and people will lose the ability to have rational thought as we can see is already playing out in the US. People from other countries can see how Americans are easily led into violence with yet more attacks on politicians and citizens who oppose Rump, which is driven by right wing social media telling people to "eliminate" any opposing views.

I was surprised to find iodine in the liquid form available again. I remember when it was common to buy clear liquid iodine to put on cuts. I had a bottle of that stuff for a long time. When I ran out I tried to buy a new bottle and was told it wasn't available due to health and safety reasons which is crazy. I was even told by one young person that it was never available which only showed her youth and the naivety of youth. Then they came out with this Betadine stuff in a creme form, so I was surprised when doing the grocery shopping last week that I saw liquid iodine on the shelves again. If you live long enough you see the wheel turn full circle.

Tried to update my PC to Win 11 before installing the new anti-virus but that didn't work out. Did all my backups to get ready for the change to Win 11, followed all the steps and nothing happened. Apparently I have to wait for the update notice to come around again so I went ahead and installed the new anti-virus only to find they have changed the system to what they think is an easy system but is more confusing. There is a new auto-payment for renewal which looks like you are purchasing the product again, so that was confusing. I then got an invoice for zero dollars which makes no sense but it's essentially a future invoice as a place holder for the future renewal which looks confusing. But it all worked and the anti-virus is good for another 2yrs. I still prefer the old method of having the disc, but all new PCs and new laptops don't have disc drives. I had to buy a separate disc drive for my PC as I like to make song lists for car trips since I have a car that is 20yrs old now. The teens and those in their 20's don't have a clue what a disc drive is. Problem is that the memory sticks are more expensive than a disc so everything is downloads which with our internet, just sucks.

Another week goes by and yet another Aussie has been stopped at US customs and deported for speaking out against Rump. He is yet another student returning to the US and he attended a university rally in the US. He was called out of line at US customs by name so they knew who he was even before he got to the customs desk to present his paperwork. They knew he was on a flight into the US so Homeland Security had him flagged even before he got off the plane which means the US is actively hunting people thru social who have protested against Rump. Another sign of a fascist country where free speech is now a criminal offence. They then treated him like a criminal and demanded he turn over his phone and his password which he complied with then they made up some bullshit and sent him back to Australia. As I mentioned in a previous post America is the only country in the western world that treats non-American citizens as criminals first then you have to prove you are not. So why would anyone want to go to the US even for a holiday as it has become a police state where you don't have any rights and are at the total mercy of thugs working for the US govt. Rumps likes to refer to other countries as "shit holes", well he is turning America into one big orange "shit hole". It's becoming more dangerous to go to the US that to Bogota which is considered the murder capital of the world. Any African country seems safer than the US right now. Africans must be thinking, well who is the "shit hole" now.

I watched some of that parade for the US Army via the news and it was clear that the American military can't march. I've seen lots of military marches for various events and the American military seemed like they didn't want to be there. Compare them to way the UK does their military marches and the pomes do it much better but then again they have had lots of practice and their military are not toy soldiers, they are all active duty troops. Not sure what the trooper holding the drone was supposed to be doing. It was like watching a kid with a new toy he got for his birthday but his dad told him he couldn't fly it in the backyard. Rump looked tired or annoyed and one point fell asleep and his wife also told him to fuck off when he tried to hold her hand. All up the parade for the US Army was a disservice to those who serve in the US military. There were better ways to celebrate the 250th year of the US Army and lots of veterans where not happy about it either. The renaming of those US military bases back to confederate names of people who betrayed their country to support slavery, is yet another sign of open racism in America and this open racism is now being accepted by Republican voters as if it's normal. Next they will try to bring back segregation. There are already parts of American cities where black people dare not go due to the racism and the possibility of being killed just for being black. When I travelled across the US multiple times I saw instances of black people not wanting to engage in certain parts of cities and this is still going, so under Rump this is now out in the open an being supported by Republican states.

Hope the weekend is good for you.
 
Morning all,


The latest conflict between Israel and Iran was set up by Rump back in his first go at fucking up America. It was Rump who walked away from the agreement with Iran that Obama had negotiated which allowed oversight of Iran's nuclear industry. Rump killed that off because Obama secured that deal and for no other reason. So it gave Iran the out to not allow any independent oversight of what they were doing and so they have improved their nuclear capability toward getting a nuclear weapon and created better facilities backed by their oil production. Now Rump wants them to negotiate a deal with the US. Why would they? Netanyahu conned Bush Jr into invading Iraq and he has talked the US into supporting his new campaign against Lebanon, Gaza and now Iran. He tried similar stuff with Obama who told him to fuck off and forced Biden to back him because of Oct 7th which was his green light to do what he has always wanted to do. So in a way Hamas played right into Netanyahu's hands who by the way was telling Israeli citizens they were safe from Hamas but didn't protect the border. So once again Netanyahu is getting what he wants from a Republican US President and will end up dragging the US into yet another war it can't win. Netanyahu has been saying since 2012 that Iran has a nuclear bomb. He said as much at the UN the same year. Then in 2018 he showed a fake warhead that he claimed Iran had which they didn't. It was like the fake photo of WMD's the US presented at the UN to justify the first Gulf War. Netanyahu has had a hatred for Iran going back over 20 yrs. So what we are now seeing has been his plan for 20yrs and he knows that Republican Presidents are easy to fool which he has shown once again. Obama and Biden didn't play his games so he was against both of them and supported Rump because he knows Republicans are not smart people which they continue to prove both in Congress, in the Senate and in there respective Republican states. They cheered on the killings of that Democratic law maker and her husband and the shooting of another one. Republicans were against another war, now they are embracing it once again because it's a Republican President who is in charge once again.

With Rump now involving the US by bombing those nuclear facilities in yet another dumb move by the US which won't lead to Iran surrendering in fact this will only make the regime in Iran dig in or lose face amongst it's allies. Rump claimed those bombings has smashed Iran's nuclear capability but there is once again no evidence of that and there is no way of finding out. The American spy satellites can't penetrate underground so how would anyone apart from the Iranians, know the true extent of the American bombings. It is yet again more propaganda from this current US govt. They just make shit up to play to a domestic audience. The Iranian regime will not go quietly and unlike Syria there is no military capable opposition to topple the regime in Iran. This latest action by the US is yet again another example of America entering into a conflict with no plan on the end game. All this shows is that the US is the world's new bully. If America doesn't get it's way, they will bomb you. They didn't have a plan in the Gulf Wars, nor Afghanistan. The American public won't go for yet another war in the M.E. which America is on the cusp of thanks to Netanyahu who has no intention of giving up on this latest conflict. He won't stop till the regime in Iran is gone which is a long fight, plus the longer he can keep Israel on a war footing, the longer he gets to stay in power. Rump doesn't care about the right wing media now since his split with Tucker and Elon. He still has his rusted on base who believe everything he says, so they remain brain dead and they will support Rump no matter what. Rump lived up to his name of TACO man by leaving the G7 early. He didn't want to engage with Zelensky about Ukraine because Zelensky showed him up by that drone attack in Russia which was a middle finger to Rump. Rump also doesn't rate Australia as a military partner, he just wants our money to prop up the US submarine industry. If we fail to continue to pay up front, Rump will just cancel the agreement to deliver those subs. He likes Starmer because Starmer flattered Rump. Rump loves praise which is why he was so easily led by Netanyahu. Rump is not a strategist. He acts on his ego and whoever fills that need gets the attention. Albo doesn't play those games so hasn't got an invite by Rump. Albo also has a better political record than Rump and he doesn't like that. If Rump thinks Iran will now negotiate, he is a fool. What it does demonstrate is that the US has not learned a damn thing from their 20yrs in the M.E. Americans in general a not savy when it comes to the cultures of other countries which is why they haven't won a war since WWII. They continue to try and impose an American style political climate on other countries, especially in the M.E. and they haven't learned that method doesn't work and will never work.

The latest act of madness by Rump was to impose bans on people from Pacific Island countries which flies in the face of America wanting to keep China out of the Pacific. Rump has now banned people from Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu entering the US. Like what the fuck did Tonga do to anyone and how is Tonga a threat to the US? They are awesome rugby players and were renowned for their fighting prowess amongst other Pacific Island countries. The Fijians for example have a lot of respect for the Tongans as a fighting force. These new bans on Pacific Island countries will only push them towards China who like the US has money to spend. Australia doesn't have that same type of money to burn so can't compete with the spending power of China in the Pacific region. China has no problem in buying influence in the Pacific as they have already shown. They learned this tactic from America who has used their money to buy influence in many countries. So these bans on Pacific Island countries by the US is yet another dumb move from Rump who is yet again pushing countries away from America.

Seems the new head of NATO has found the key to playing Rump which is to flatter him and blow smoke up his arse to keep on side. All the NATO countries know they will not get to that promised 5% of GDP in Defence spending before Rump's term is up so they are just placating him till he leaves office. Rump is easy to understand and easy to fool as shown by Netanyahu. Everyone is smarter than Rump. Even the EU leaders laugh at him. Rump can't play poker nor is he capable of strategic thinking. He uses the same play book he has all his life which is to bully people so he is easy to manipulate, which is what is now going on within NATO and also the EU. The only thing America has to boast about now is their military, but you can't simply bomb a country into submission. It didn't work in Vietnam nor Korea.

Winter has hit Melbourne with another week of chilly overnight temps last week and into the weekend. It got to 0C in my part of Melbourne on the weekend which is very unusual for Melbourne in June. Even on the coldest mornings it's rare to even get down to 2-3C but that's the type of temps we have had for several weeks this month. Normal overnight lows for this time of year are around 7C which is cold but nothing like 2C or even 0C. I spent the time in bed till it warmed up a bit but that didn't last long as it barely got above 12C for most of the day and whilst there was sun it didn't have any warmth in it. This week we are at least getting some much needed rain and the overnight temp on Monday was 10C thanks to those northerly winds. So it has been an different type of Winter this year in Melbourne and we have another couple of months to go. I'm still amazed that my rose creeper in the backyard is still flowering with new roses even in these very chilly temps. Roses aren't supposed to be blooming in 2-3C but they are. Was going out to do the groceries today but saw the weather forecast yesterday and thought I would leave it a day. Has been raining on and off since last night and the top temp today is 11C. It was 19C only two days ago with northerly winds now those chilly winds are coming from the south again. I can see that weather coming thru in waves from my lounge room windows since my house faces south and I'm close to the bay which is where most of our weather comes from. Most of our rain comes from the south.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of Australia entering the Korean War. A war which officially has not ended. North Korea never surrendered. Most Americans wouldn't even know Australians fought in Korea. I worked with a guy who served in the RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force). He was a gunner and armourer in the RAAF and was severely wounded in a battle and underwent several surgeries. He was left with a scar on this face and a fused ankle due to the helicopter he was in being shot down. I was only in my early 20's when I was his team leader because of my level. He was crap at paper work but he was an excellent ferret to find out info. He was a nice guy who had lots of stories about his time in the Air Force, and liked his smokes. That was back in the day when you could smoke at work before they introduced a smoking ban in work places back in the late '80's. The Korean War for Aussies has become a forgotten war and we don't pay much attention to it as we do with the Vietnam War. The Korean War does get a spot at the annual ANZAC Day parade but apart from that it's not talked about much.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Northland should be renamed Boganland. They take drive thru literally, where they drive thru the shopping centre although they need to get their timing right on those automatic entry/exit doors. They even have an area where you can go camping indoors and practice you camp fire skills. At least they don't need to test their fire alarms for a while as they are obviously working. And for those wanting some exercise they hold ninja classes out in the open. Not sure health and safety signed off on that one as they were people passing by thinking they were just there to shop for stuff, not watch a show. Still it does give the youth something to do. Wouldn't want them running a muck and get in trouble with the law. Might ruin their image as god's gift to their parents. I don't expect our Americans viewer so understand a damn thing I just said, but I expect they are a little distracted right now anyway wondering who their Air Force is going to bomb next with no actual known result.

I see Rump is now at war with his own intelligence agency once again, this time not allowing them to fully brief the Congress and Senate on the truth of the bombing campaign against those nuclear facilities. He doesn't want the truth to get out so has instructed his intelligence agency to only include things in the security briefings that align with what he said was the outcome of the bombing which is stupid given that those briefings will be part of govt docs that future administrations will see so actual truth will come to light in the future when Rump is no longer in power, however long that is. In an attempt to keep himself in power forever he has not appointed yet another one of his personal lawyers to be a judge in an appeals court to ensure if his courts cases get rejected down to the appeals court, that they will be thrown out and put back into the system. Essentially Rump is now trying to rig the court system in his favour. He already has the Supreme Court in his pocket, now he wants to control the lower courts as well with his personal lawyers. He already has the US AG lying for him under oath. She is on the defensive all the time now and has walked from her obligation to the US Constitution, but also is willing to lie for Rump to the Congress and Senate committees under oath. She keeps getting caught in a lie. Again all of this will come out when Rump is no longer in power and she could be facing some jail time for what is currently covering up. Whilst there are people resigning from the current US govt you can bet they are taking their evidence with them. There will lots of people willing to testify in any future criminal proceeding against Rump and his henchmen or in any impeachment proceedings given the people testifying will be outside the govt's ability to threaten they careers.

In yet another example of racism and fascism taking a greater hold in the US, the Republicans are shitting themselves about the new candidate for Mayor of New York City. He is Muslim, born in Africa but of Indian heritage and has lived in the US since he as 7yrs old. The actual elections haven't even started yet, this was on the primary to determine the Democratic candidate for the election. But still the Republicans now want Rump to revoke this guy's citizenship because he is a Muslim even though he is a US citizen. Now I remember that Arnie was Gov of California yet there weren't any calls for his US citizenship to be revoked. This is all too funny that the Republicans are shitting themselves about this Democratic candidate who is more popular than Adams who is the guy they got out of jail, literally by the Republicans forcing his case to be squashed by the DOJ under Rump's orders. So on one hand you have a candidate who owes his freedom to Rump which Rump expects to be his puppet and on the other hand you have a guy who is popular with the voting public and we know that NYC leans Democrat not Republican. In fact NYC hates Rump and even more so given what the Republicans have done in the short time they have been in power. So you can bet Rump is going to try and rig the election so his man wins and will challenge the outcome if the Democratic nominee wins. This calling for the Democratic candidate to be stripped of his citizenship then deported is fascist talk from a party who at it's core is racist. Always has been, just not so openly as they are now because they believe they will be in power forever. It's a sign of a desperate political party knowing most of America is now against them. Even the people who don't vote in America are now against the Republicans and the scary thing for the Republicans is that at the next set of elections coming up next year, these people who don't vote, just might decide to vote to ensure Republicans lose power in the Congress and the Senate which would make Rump a lame duck President with no power. When the people of a country turn against their leaders, their leaders are fucked.

The US dollar continues to take a hit this year due to Rump. It has lost over 10% of it's value since Rump started his tariffs war against the world except for Russia which is the only country he hasn't attacked. Says a lot about Rump and also about America these days. Hasn't taken Rump long to trash America's economy and reputation around the world. He has trashed every business he has every started so not surprising he is doing the same thing to the US economy as he sees the US as his company. He agreed to the sell off of US Steel to the Japanese yet wants to keep everything in America, American so it's at odds with his MAGA philosophy. The good news about the devaluation of the US dollar is the increase in value of the Aussie dollar which has gone up again. The US might need to trade in TACOs rather than the green back. Wonder how many TACOs will it take to buy a car in the US?

Had my dental appointment this week and it was all clear so as my usual treat I went across the road and purchased $100 worth of chocs from Haigh's. But I did walk all the back to Flinders St station rather than catch the tram, so I guess that counts to offset the purchase right?. Not sure if you get carbon credits for that, but we should. Also caught up with an ex-work colleague and had a chat about how everything continues to turn to crap after my departure which is over 11yrs now. I still get info from those who remain in that work environment, even if it's just to get rid of some of that frustration. Several have retired since my departure and the rest are now heading to retirement. I retired early cause I could. Not everyone has that option and some people who retired have headed back to the work force due to their financial situation. If you are relying on the aged pension as your sole income well then you have to work with far less than if you working. The aged pension is not designed to live well in retirement without other money in the bank. The CPI did 1.2% this time around so the aged pensioners will get a small increase. Might be enough for another cup of coffee but won't help with the increase in their power bills even with the extra $75 from the Fed govt. Seems that NSW is going to be the worst off with the increase in power prices. Here in Vic we have a different system so our increases are probably the smallest in the country.

Purchased a new PS5 game this week, Metro Exodus. Well a new game for me but it has been around for a while which is ancient in game years. I only found it by chance plus it only cost me $19 and I got all the expansion packs as well. Only had a couple of days now and so far it is ok. Probably not a keeper for me, but it's one of those franchise games so obviously has a following. Will see if I join that party. It's another FPS and the main character doesn't interact with the other characters in the conversations but it does have a lot of dialogue. The annoying thing with video games these days is the trade-in values. It always hyped up, but then when you actually do a trade-in it's worth fuck all. The game might cost you $100 and you trade it in a couple of months later and you'd be lucky to get $20 as a trade-in towards another game, yet the resale value on the shelf is upwards of $70. The top games are still selling for around $50 many yrs after their release dates. Game trade-ins are just one more thing where consumers get ripped off by retailers.

The cold hasn't gone anywhere this week. Was rather chilly walking around in the CBD on Monday, especially in the late afternoon. We have got some rain in Melbourne this week so that is good. Today we are getting more rain than yesterday which was the reverse of what was predicted. The damp conditions in the garden does not make it look inviting. You look outside and think...tomorrow, I'll get to it tomorrow. Whilst the mornings have been cold this week, at least it has been around normal temps of 6-7C and our day time temps are also normal around the 14-15C, which is a typical Winter's day here in Melbourne. You can at least get warm if you move around. Nothing like the last few weeks where it was down to 2-4C most mornings and barely getting to 12C most days. Even getting in the shower at those temps was a debate. Certainly raises the debate about getting central heating. It seems we need both central heating and cooling these days here in the south. It has been a much colder Winter this year than in recent years.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Rump is shitting himself over the Democratic nominee for the Mayor of NYC. Rump's guy who was up on charges of fraud, which Rump had to get the DOJ to quash, is not the front runner for the job. The Democrat is more popular than Adams who is now Rump's bum boy. So in an attempt to stop this Democrat from winning the election for Mayor of NYC, Rump has directed that Blondi woman and the DOJ to find some bogus charge to jail this guy because he was not born in the US and he is also a Muslim. Rump also wants a way to deport this Democrat. And we know that Rump thinks all Muslims are terrorists. But the main issue that Rump has with this Democrat is that he is most likely going to win that mayoral election and people in NYC hate Rump with a passion. The more dangerous aspect of what he is trying to do is jailing his political opposition. Given Rump has the DOJ, the AG, the FBI and the High Court on his side, no doubt these so called upholders of the constitution and the law will try to find something on this Democrat because he was not born in America and is a Muslim. We know that the Republican party is a racist party. They keep showing this in their actions against all migrants regardless of their status as US citizens.

With last week being the 4th of July celebrations is seems ironic that the Republican party have elected a new King. They are the political party who continues to talk about themselves as the true Americans because of their origins in the Tea Party working to get rid of the English King calling him a tyrant but if you read the Declaration of Independence written by Jefferson, himself a slave owner who raped his female slaves and a paragon of American values, the similarities about that British tyrant King and what Rump is now doing to America are identical and almost word for word. It seems that the Republicans don't have an issue with electing a King they just wanted him to be born in America. Americans like to boast that they kicked the British out of America as a result of that revolt against the British Empire, when in fact that is not the whole story. It was a revolt by a hand full of British colonies in America and even after the British lost that fight, they didn't really go anywhere as they still controlled areas within what is now known as the USA. The French and Spanish also controlled large parts of America. But when you hear Americans talk about the 4th of July they like the rest of the world to believe they kicked the British out of all of what is now the USA rather than just the eastern third of the country. Even after that revolution, those colonies were still dependent on the British King for trade and money. Americans like to only talk about half truths and ignore the entire truth which is how Rump got elected. Given a choice between myth and the truth, Americans will always go for the myth as the truth questions American power.

Kanye has been denied an Australian visa which is a good thing. He obviously didn't pass the idiot test. His money can't buy influence in Australia like it can in America. He needs help for his mental health issues as the guy clearly is not right in the head but nobody in his inner circle seems willing to get him the help he needs. If he wasn't rich he might of got himself sorted out.

Mr Squiggle will not mean much to kids these days but back when I was a kid it was a huge children's show. The new Mr Squiggle exhibition will bring back childhood memories for those of my generation and those in Gen X. I remember as a kid watching it when we had black and white TV, then when we got colour TV here in Australia in the mid 70's. I was a teenager by then but I remember seeing the show in colour. We didn't have remotes back then so you had to sit in front of the TV and turn the dial on the TV whichyou went thru all the channels to get to the one you wanted. Push button TV's were introduced about the same time as we got colour TV's if your parents could afford to buy a colour TV when they first came out. Like all new technology colour TV's did get cheaper as more people could afford to buy them, but if you had a colour TV at your place your school friends would want to come to your place after school to watch cartoons in colour. Kids were free range back then so it was not a big deal if they didn't go home straight after school.

The brain drain in the US is continuing with academics leaving the US to either move across the border to Canada or move to Europe. Both Canada and Europe are spending a big chunk of money in trying to attract American academics who feel they can no longer work in the US due to Rump who has already forced those Uni's he bullied to stop teaching certain classes like non-white history or remove any funding for research that doesn't align with Project 2025 goals. Humanity subjects are also being targeted. So not only are academics in those STEM careers moving out of the US, it now includes historians, philosophers and those engaged with human rights. Rump wants to cleanse Uni's of any course that doesn't align with white culture or what he considers woke. It is not just foreign students that Rump is going after. He wants Uni's in the US to teach subjects based on his view of the world. Another sign of fascism and a dictatorship moving thru American society. It will lead to future researchers not wanting to go to the US and will lead to America not being able to attract the best academic talent as it has in the past. Americans have grown up thinking America is the centre for all philosophy, mathematics, culture, science, etc which is so not true but when you are brain washed as a kid to think you are the centre of the universe and what you say is more important than people from other countries, then it leads to what is happening in the US right now. Some of this is displayed when Americans travel to other countries in the self belief that they are always right and that rules of American society applies all over the world which is why Americans get themselves in trouble when travelling to other countries. In Europe people from England have had a bad reputation for many years, but now that is being replaced by Americans who continue to do dump shit in Europe and the UK and they are stupid enough to post that dumb behaviour on-line believing they are always right. In Europe they have to tell Americans that they are foreigners by posting the US flag next to the sign for foreign passport holders because Americans are so dump they don't understand that when they leave the US, they are the foreigner not the locals in the country they are travelling thru. It is a mixture of stupidity and American arrogance which the world is less tolerant of now.

Our politics here in Australia is rather normal and some might say boring, but we like boring. Unlike the Republicans in America, the Liberals here in Australia can't get their shit together to even organize a BBQ. The Liberal Party in just about every state in Australia is a basket case. Only Qld now has a Liberal govt, but they were due for a change after Labor being in power for so long. The Lib's had a good thing going in Tassie but they managed to fuck that up so now Tassie is facing yet another election because the Lib's shafted their own leader. How stupid can you be that when in power you stab your own leader in the back and side with the opposition party with the potential outcome of you losing govt. That is up there with Republican stupidity. Not to say we don't have problems in Australia that politicians need to address, but we don't have masked men jumping out of vans kidnapping people in the street then making them disappear and just like shooting school kids, that shit happens in the land of free and home of the brave or so the song goes and when the truth fails, promote the myth. If you keep telling yourself the lie, it eventually becomes your truth. Everyone else just thinks you're fucking nuts.

We take skin cancer very seriously here in Australia so when a report from Choice Australia says that most sun screens at the 50+ rating are not at that level of protection people would be pissed about that. Choice runs these independent tests on lots of products as they are essentially a consumer advocate organization, so if they say something is not right with a product most people believe them. In this case they tested a bunch of sunscreens from different companies some of which are very well known like Nivea and most failed the test. Turns out a majority of these manufacturers use the same OS lab and the so called independent approver also works for the same lab as a consultant. This same guy has been taken to court for fraud in making false claims about certain treatments. Not sure why these companies would not use an Aussie lab to test their products given Australia is one of the leading countries in skin cancer research. So now those companies like Nivea and Banana Boat etc are trying to disprove the results Choice found when using an Aussie lab to test these sunscreens sold here. We expect our govt agency the TGA which is supposed to oversee this stuff to do their job rather than just rubber stamp something an OS lab says is true. They should be doing their own independent audits of this stuff given the high rate of skin cancer in Australia which kills lots of people every year and about 30% of the population will be diagnosed with a form of skin cancer in any given year. So you would think there would be better oversight of sunscreen products that are supposed to protect you from getting skin cancer or reduce the chance you will get it. No point telling people to use a product that the govt watchdog isn't watching. It's like have a guard dog being asleep as your house is being robbed.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

The floods in Texas are tragic especially the number of young kids that lost their lives. We are very used to floods here in Australia and have relatively good early warning systems to ensure the reduction in the loss of life. We have early alert apps available for all smart phones and our weather govt bureau is pretty good in forecasting dangerous weather events. Biden gave that Texas county $10million for flood early warning systems, but instead those Republicans on the board of this country council gave themselves pay rises and spent the rest of the money on personal items for themselves. They called the money Biden gave them, "woke money", so spent the money on themselves rather than the community. Weather alerts were sent out at 1:30 when nobody was awake plus mobile phone coverage in that part of Texas is rather bad. There is no fucking point in just saying they sent out an alert if most people can't receive it. They are blaming the victims for not responding to the warning. Who the fuck is awake at that 1:30? Not little kids. Republicans are pushing back at any suggestion they fucked up and they let the people of Texas down. While this flooding was claiming lives Kristi Nobhead was on holiday and the only this she said on social media at the time was asking people which portrait they liked of her on horse back. Nothing about the floods. She didn't do anything about responding to the floods in Texas until three days later when she was back from her holiday. Under her new rules she has to personally sign off on all expenditure above $100k which is pennies when compared to the budget for FEMA that is in the billions. Whether the recent sacking of people from the two weather forecasting offices that cover that part of Texas had any impact on proper forecasting of that weather event we will never been know whilst Rump is in office as he will ensure any investigation doesn't cover that aspect. Rump is already denying that his cuts to NOAH had any impact on the tragic loss of life. With over 120 people dead due to a failure of the system, people impacted but this flooding are going to want answers, not a cover up. We have much larger flooding events here in Australia and a handful of people lose their lives which we think is a big loss of life. We are very well versed in responding to natural disasters here in Australia and our expectations of responses by govt agencies is very high.

The Republicans continue to be a party of contradiction. They complained about Biden allowing criminals to roam the streets yet they elected a convicted felon and rapist. Republicans say they are not racists yet when Obama was elected, Republicans said he was not their President because he was black. Republicans blamed Biden for increasing the US debt, but have voted to increase the US debt by $3trillion. They wanted to deport all illegal immigrants yet employ these same illegals on their farms and in their small businesses. They say they want a democracy yet support a fascist as their new King. They talk about Hamas fighters hiding their faces behind black masks, yet have no issue with ICE agents in similar clothing doing the same things such as kidnapping people. The only difference is that ICE agents have no visible sign to identify themselves. Hamas fighters do identify themselves in their clothing. The come back from Republicans is that ICE agents cover their faces because they don't want retaliation. Well in that case why don't cops cover their faces. Cops face more dangers in their daily lives than ICE agents do. When you see the Republicans in Congress dancing at the signing of that big bill, they were all white people. You'd be forgiven if you thought it was a dance event at the local KKK branch. The only thing missing was the burning cross.

Well yet another week of stupid coming out of America. Rump is once again threatening tariffs on countries around the world and once again other countries are pushing back. The latest round of stupidity from Rump is tariffs on copper which is used to make brass that is in every house in America. All tap fittings are brass as are taps. Copper is used in all houses for water and gas supply. The military use brass in all cartridge cases for small, medium and large calibre munitions which also includes field guns, tank shells, shells fired from naval ships, rockets, etc. The military use what is known as cartridge brass which is 60/40 brass, i.e. 60% copper, 40% zinc. What Americans call "full metal jacket" bullets are in fact gilding metal covered lead bullets. Gilding metal is 90% copper. America has a big gun culture so the price of ammunition for all their personal guns will also go up. These new tariffs are not only going to increase the prices of the production of military munitions in the USA but also the price of houses and any repairs to plumbing infrastructure in houses. Copper by itself is expensive anyway, so this additional 45% on copper imports will mean prices this raw material and also anything imported that is made from copper. America does not produce enough copper to satisfy it's domestic market so is heavily reliant on copper imports. Rose gold contains close to 40% copper so jewelry made from rose gold will also go up in price due these tariffs which will not just impact consumers in the US but also anyone who buys rose gold jewelry on-line from the US. Rose gold became popular due to the lack of access to gold due the major wars. Jewelers used copper to substitute for the % of gold in gold jewelry. It was a matter of necessity not a fashion statement. These days people buy rose gold jewelry as something different to normal gold jewelry, well that fashion statement under Rump's new tariffs on copper will cost you more. The tariffs on imported coffee to the US is also another act of stupidity by the new King of the USA. It only goes to prove America is being ruled by a cast of clowns. They aren't governing the country, but imposing a new kingdom in the USA.

Was watching some Youtube stuff and the Nutbush dance came up which was invented here in Australia about the mid '70's and kids today are still doing this dance. Well I say kids but it's adults as well who were not alive back then. It is one of those Aussie things that gets passed down the generations from parents to their kids. Like eating Vegemite. We used to do The Nutbush usually at the end of the night or in some cases several times in a night, but normally it's was the signal that the night was over and a way to get everyone up on the dance floor one final time for the night. Even if you couldn't dance, it was the one dance that everyone could do. We even did The Nutbush at my school formal when everyone was dressed up. Not a dance you want to do in a suit or in high heels so the girls would just kick of their shoes to do this dance. No matter what disco you went to, at some point in the night The Nutbush dance would be done. People of all ages can do it. There are apparently numerous videos of The Nutbush on-line. Given the chance Aussies will even do The Nutbush when travelling if they can get the DJ to play Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits song. Tina Turner herself has been huge in Australia since the '70's. So for all those non-Aussies out there check out The Nutbush dance on Youtube.

The cold chilly mornings are persisting here in Melbourne. This Winter continues to be the coldest we have had here in Melbourne for several years. Most mornings are around the 4-5C mark with the odd morning dipping down to 3C. At least we are getting more rain now to make up for the rain we didn't get earlier in the year. Not as much rain as Sydney has received this year, but then again they do get more rain than us because it is more humid in Sydney than in Melbourne. They also don't get those chilly southerly winds we get during Winter which comes from the Antarctic. So this week the forecast is for rain all week but not much each day.

Last week was NAIDOC week which celebrates indigenous culture of the first Australians who only make up 3% of the total population. This event is now 50yrs old and only came about by indigenous people protesting for their voices to be heard. The '70's were the decade of protest which followed on from the late '60's. None of this recognition came easy and when this fight for recognition of indigenous culture first happened it was not welcomed by the white population of Australia. For most indigenous people that fight for recognition is still going on. Recently the coroner in the NT found that the NT police are fundamentally a racist organization. The NT police force had up till recently awards for cops who arrested the most indigenous people for various offences. The senior leadership in the NT police new of these awards yet didn't do anything about it. So racism in the NT police force goes right to the top. Back in the early settler time they used to hand out rewards for how many black people you could kill. So things really haven't changed that much in the NT, only this time they lock up black people rather than just shoot them for sport and they didn't distinguish between men, women and children. It is still very hard for a white cop to be convicted of killing a black person in Australia. Especially in the NT where white cops are immune to prosecution for killing a black person. The whitefella has no appetite for truth telling because they don't want to hear it, not that it didn't happen.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Economists here in Australia are outraged that the RBA didn't follow their advice to cut interest rates again this month. These economists told their clients that the RBA would cut interest rates and now they look like fools, which is the real reason for this outrage. They charge their clients thousands for this advice so their clients are now pissed that investment decisions were based on the predictions from these economists who make lots of money from speculation with other people's money. They are the soothsayers of the financial world.

I'm on my second play thru at the moment of the PS5 game Metro Exodus including the two additional DLC's. I only play a game a second time if I like it. This game would of been better if there was more content and also some options for armour. Whilst your enemies get to have armour you don't. There is also no increase to health as the game progresses. So even as you encounter tougher enemies your health and body armour doesn't increase apart from the helmet/gas mask combo which is fuck all. The weapon selection is good but you can only carry two weapons of your choice, the third is chosen by the game and there is only two of those which takes up the third slot permanently. Whilst there is a backpack it only contains consumables so not sure why it is in the game. Backpacks are becoming more common in video games these days. Even in the anniversary edition of Skyrim you get a backpack which is totally different to all the other Elder Scroll games I've played. Seems having a backpack in games is an easy way to add carrying weight to a character rather than proper character design. Metro Exodus won't be a keeper for me as there isn't enough interest to keep me coming back for more. So far this year of the four PS5 games I've played, only Doom:The Dark Ages is a game I will be keeping. I only purchased the PS5 console back in March this year and so far I'm not impressed with the PS5 games I've played. I'll go back to Kingdom Come Deliverance II when I'm done with this second play thru of Metro Exodus. Overall Metro Exodus is a relatively short game and not worth the price of a video game these days which is about $90 for just a basic game. A lot of money to pay for game you can finish within a week.

To show how stupid Rump is making America look, all you have to do is watch a small clip from his meeting with leaders from African countries. His chat with the President of Liberia is particularly interesting in showing how racist Rump actually is. He told the President of Liberia that he spoke very good English then went on to ask in which country he learned to speak English. Reminds me of being told as a kid that I spoke very good English by a teacher in my Primary School. She assumed due to the colour of my skin and I didn't look white that obviously I didn't speak English because only white people speak English. That was my first experience of racism, I was 10yrs old. So anyway getting back to Liberia. Rump did not know that America set up the country of Liberia. The flag of Liberia is the same as the US flag with the main difference being they have one star. The capital of Liberia is named after an American politician. Freed slaves from America were sent to the colony of Liberia by America. Republicans seem to not know their own fucking history. So yes people from Liberia speak fucking English. Why wouldn't they? If you listen to the President of Liberia, you will note he speaks English with an American accent. For the President of the USA to show his racism and general fucking ignorance of other countries reflects on all Americans whether they like it or not. And just presents even more evidence America is a racist country. That Border Czar dick head said that ICE can detain anyone based on how they look, which means non-white. So you could be a tourist in the US doing some shopping in a retail store and because you are not white, ICE can detain you cause you look like an illegal immigrant as if the only illegal immigrants in the USA are non-white. Elon was an illegal immigrant because he over stayed his visa and Melania was an illegal immigrant as well. And in the third example of American racism, Rump has announced that all illegal immigrants on US farms will become indentured servants to the farmers they work for and he even called these American farmers "owners" of these indentured immigrants. It is essentially a polite version of slavery. The British used indentured servants to populate their rubber plantations in Asia. These people were not treated like employees but slaves who could work off their debt of the cost of transporting them to other Asian countries to work on these plantations. So America is now proposing to re-introduce a form of slavery as a way to keep white farmers happy and allow illegal immigrants to work in the US. Anyone who thinks America is not a racist country has their head in the sand or has their head up their own arse. Republicans by the way are happy with all this racism, just don't tell them that to their faces. They like to live in their own white fantasy world.

Rump is on his rant about medications coming into the US and that he going to add additional tariffs to countries who don't pay the full price of American pharmaceuticals. Australia provides America with blood products such as plasma required to treat Americans for a range of illnesses. America has for a long time wanted Australia to scrap our PBS which ensures lower prices for pharmaceuticals imported or produced in Australia. The PBS here in Australia means people will not go broke purchasing medication to save their lives. It covers drugs for all sorts of illnesses such as cancer and chronic conditions. You still have to pay for these drugs as they are not free but the cost under the PBS means you don't have to sell your house to get treatment like they do in the US. For example a medication that would normally cost $100 without the PBS now costs no more than $31.60 and as of Jan next year that cost will come down to a maximum of $25 per script and you get double the quantity for that price on certain medications. So where you would normally get one month's worth of pills per script, the current Aussie govt has put in place a system were you pay for one month's supply but get two months supply for the same cost. Making it even cheaper for those who need these drugs to keep living a relatively normal life. These drugs also keep people out of the hospital system for longer and saves lives, so it is a cost effective way to manage the overall health system which means more people can get health care. For any Aussie govt to get rid of the PBS to kiss the American govt's arse, would be political suicide for that political party. We would shut that govt down. We will not put up with any country trying to fuck with our health care system. It's not a perfect system, but fucking better than anything Americans have or will ever have. Big Pharma in the US has no reason to find solutions to drug dependency and they have massive influence in both the major political parties so nothing is changing for them. Big Pharma in the US has been trying for a long time to put pressure on successive Aussie govts to get rid of our PBS system. They couldn't get Obama to do it, nor Biden but in Rump they have a doop who likes to play the bully which is why this is being raised again by Rump.

There is a lot of anit-Australian comment coming from the US govt which is being driven by US industry. It's as if US industry has been keep diary of all the things they hate about Australian trade and were saving it up till they could get a fool to take up their cause. With all this anti-Australian sentiment coming from Republicans in govt means their supporters are also anti-Australian because they just blindly follow whatever the leadership in the Republican party says. The latest attack on Australia and Australians is a Republican talking about the killing of kangaroos to make kangaroo products sold in the US. The kangaroo culling is due to the fact they are considered a pest in various parts of Australia so they are culled in a similar way that deer and wild pigs are culled in the US. Kangaroos in large numbers overgraze an area which leads to degradation of the land. This annual culling has been misreported in the US by Australian animal rights groups stating that the killing kangaroos is to support a trade in kangaroo products which is not true. Kangaroo products from this culling was seen as a better way to deal with the carcasses. We also sell kangaroo meat in our supermarkets as it is a lean meat. Unlike beef cattle which are bred to be killed, we don't breed kangaroos for meat. They are natural survivors in the harsh Aussie bush and outback. Much in the same way that camels thrive in Australia. We in fact export camels to Arab countries and have a better breeding stock than Arab countries do.

Well our Mushroom Killer, as she is being called, was found guilty of killing her in-laws by using Death Cap mushrooms which by the name tells you they are toxic. It was only by luck one of them survived. She tried to kill her ex-husband previously but he only got very sick and was supposed to be at this lunch but he declined the invitation. Her in-laws were surprised at the invitation but went anyway. What sparked this? Her ex-husband had changed his status to single which meant she couldn't claim child support payments as she claimed they were still married. The divorce was messy and she just expected her ex-husband to keep paying for her lifestyle. Whatever her implied justification, she planned and killed three people. Not sure how she thought she would get away with it, but logic doesn't seem to be her strength.

Hope the weekend is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

The Epstein thing is not going away for Rump. We all know he and other high profile people spent time with Epstein on his island and at his parties where young under age girls were procured for sex. That Blondi woman said she had a list of people whom Epstein associated with but now says there isn't a list. So was she lying then or now? Given she is a woman you would think she would not cover up the crimes of any man who had sex with under age girls or who raped them. So where is her sense of female solidarity. Women covering up the crimes of men against women are just as despicable as the men who perpetrate these crimes. Then again she is Rump's personal attorney so she is used to covering up Rump's crimes. Everyone knows Rump and Epstein were close. Epstein had Rump on speed dial and they lived close to each other. Everyone knows Rump lies about everything. It seems funny that now Rump is denying that letter he sent to Epstein as if it was out of character. Do these idiots not know Rump? In yet another example of his lies he attended an AI conference then went off on a tangent saying his uncle was the longest serving professor in MIT history and then stated degrees his uncle had which nobody would be surprised to learn is not true. His Uncle was an Electrical Engineer, not a nuclear scientist. He also claimed his uncle taught the Unabomber dude which again was not true as his uncle died at least 10yrs before the Unabomber dude was around and also he went to Harvard not MIT. Rump is just an old man making up stories and losing his grasp of reality. So why would anyone believe Rump saying he wasn't involved with having sex with young girls when the evidence is that he is known to prey on young women and has done so for many decades. So why hasn't he been convicted? Well those who witnessed it are either dead or too scared to speak up whilst Rump is alive. The courts require evidence tied up in nice little ribbons which never happens in cases of sexual abuse. So nobody will know the truth till Rump is dead.

Paramount which owns CBS has bowed to pressure from Rump to cancel The Stephen Colbert Show which was formally The Late Show hosted by Dave Letterman over several decades which I used to watch when I was working. Colbert has been an open critic of Rump for many years but Paramount recently bowed to pressure from Rump in a lawsuit and they paid up rather than fight it in court. Colbert criticised Paramount for their settlement with Rump and as a response has now fired him after his current contract is up in May next year. Paramount needs approval from Rump for a merger so in yet another cowardly act by Paramount they have decided to cancel a very popular late night show which has openly made fun of Rump. Yet another example of Republicans cancelling free speech in America. The way people can fight back is cancel their subscriptions to Paramount. Republicans want free speech against them gone if that free speech opposes their view. This is also highlighted in their cancelling of funding for public broadcasters. Republicans have been trying to do this for decades and now it's finally happening. The hardest hit will be to regional communities which rely on public radio and TV because commercial broadcasters can't make any money in these rural communities. Again the people hit by this will be Republican voters because most of them live in rural America. America has taken one more step to becoming the home of the oppressed and the land of cowards who won't stand up to a dictator. Republican politicians are largely to blame to what is now happening in American society. Republican voters are largely going along with this willingly.

Corporate America continues to think if they kowtow to Rump and give him millions in bribes, that he will leave them alone. Well that isn't how ransoms work. The kidnappers will continue to ask for more money since you paid up the first time. Corporate America has shown they will sell their souls to any dictator and that the don't have any morals. They don't give a shit about American democracy nor do they care about their customers. Paramount has shown it doesn't care whether they will be boycotted by their customer base. CBS as with ABC in the US has shown they will not stand up for democracy either. CNN initially kowtowed to Rump then changed their mind with the backlash from the public. Not sure Rump trying to sue Rupert is a smart move, given he owns Fox including Fox News which he can easily turn on Rump. Plus he owns a lot of newspapers in the US, UK and here in Australia all of which he can turn on Rump.

The Vic govt has announced that starting next year, public transport will be free for kids under 18yrs old. We have other free transport options in Melbourne within the CBD such as the Free Tram Zone that essentially covers the CBD itself, but free public transport for kids is something new. Toddlers and babies get free public transport now so this new initiative by the Vic govt is aimed at school aged kids. Back when I was a kid you only got the child fare till 12yrs old. Once you turned 13yrs old you were charged the adult fare which my parents welcomed due to the arguments they would get into with tram conductors when explaining I was 12yrs old. I was big and tall for my age back in the '70's. In some cases I was taller than the tram conductors trying to charge my parents a full fare for me. Then a couple of years later they introduced concession prices for kids if they had a school ID. So I had to carry a school pass ID on me at all times if I was on the PT which had to be renewed every 12 months by completing a paper form and getting it stamped and signed by the school, usually by the Deputy School Principal. So the initiative to have free PT for kids will be a vote winner and nobody is going to ask how the Vic govt is going to pay for it. Up there in Qld their state govt has got 50c PT fares for everyone and seniors travel free. This was initiated by a Labor state govt but now the LNP state govt has made that permanent. PT never makes any money due to the cost, so state govt's always have to supplement PT even though they are all privatised these days. The Vic govt has also introduced the use of your mobile to use on the PT. Which is good for tourists who won't need to buy a Myki card then load money on it and it works for both iPhone and Android users. I know they have had this in Sydney for a while now. I'm sticking with my Myki card as I only use the PT a few times a year these days. Plus I get a free one when the old one expires. The chips in these cards lasts about 4yrs. Similar to the new smart chips on credit cards. So both these initiatives by the current Labor state govt will continue to win votes here in Victoria. The other issue of getting rid of train street crossings has also been a big hit with voters. The side effect of removing these street train crossing is that those train stations have got an upgrade as well. Travelling around the older Melbourne suburbs you notice the new train stations which are either underground or up on a sky rail platform. It's not possible to go underground for all of these rail crossings as you need a larger area. We still have street rail crossings in a number of suburbs mainly the inner city ones but there are plans to tackle those as well. I find this new system of either underground or sky rail stations an excellent idea to reduce traffic congestion. Previously you had to wait sometimes for two trains to cross which just meant the traffic jam got worse as more cars would just add to the cars already waiting at that rail crossing. In some of the smaller streets it meant traffic banked up to roundabouts or intersections.

Purchased a new PS5 game titled 'Blades of Fire' that I previously passed on based on a review. It didn't get a high rating and issues with the combat which I'm finding is more like Dark Souls in that you have to do a lot of repeat battles because the combat is unforgiving plus you don't get a quick save either so if you try something in combat and it doesn't work out you die and the hits from the bosses are massive. From that point of view it is rather repetitive and at the start of the game it is too hard given you are just getting to understand the combat system. But it seems game designers have been sucked into the Dark Souls hype so are making games for a certain type of player who likes repetitive game play which I find rather boring. Games like Skyrim and Witcher 3 are more popular because it caters for a wider group of gamers. 'Blades of Fire' seems to trying to mimic both Dark Souls and God of War and it is neither and looks confused. I've only had the game for a couple of days and can see how it could be improved. The other annoying factor is yet another game with no quick save. The only way to quick save is quit the game and then hit 'Continue'. Just put in a quick save. How fucking hard is that? The game has an auto save but that only happens when you find a save point which is only on anvils at which point all the enemies you just killed, respawn which I also don't get. It seems unnecessary to keep killing the same enemies just because you want to save your progress. It negates the reason to use the 'rest' option which quick saves the game. As an open world game it doesn't deliver because it doesn't know what it wants to be. I can see why this game didn't get a very favourable rating. First impressions are important for game designers and my first impressions are the game is confused as what it wants to be and what type of gamers it wants to attract. Yet another PS5 game I'm not impressed with and not a keeper for me. It could be a better game, but the designers' narrow focus means it is no match for the top tier games.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

By Paramount terminating Stephen Colbert's late night show, they have done the opposite of trying to intimidate him to not make fun of Rump. If Colbert was to grovel to Rump like the rich and Corporate America has done, he would get his show back. But Colbert is not a coward like Corporate America is. What they have done is allowed Colbert more freedom to go harder at Rump. He now is also making more jokes about Paramount and CBS for their cowardice. He as put his income at risk to speak out against fascism and the actions of a dictator. Colbert will be fine as he will find another home if not on another network or other media companies as he has a huge following. Rump again has no idea what he as unleashed but giving Colbert the freedom to say what he wants with no consequences since Colbert has already been essentially sacked. In a lot of respects Colbert is braver than even the rich in America who have all kissed Rump's arse. It proves yet again the rich in America are nothing but arse kissers to anyone who allows them do as they want, but their is a price to pay, literally. They have all given a bribe to Rump to leave them alone.

Fear being peddled by software companies about the importance of VPN's is being exposed. VPN software developers are in fact stealing the same data they tell their customers they need to safe guard by paying for their respective VPN product. They also take control of your device to shoe horn you into what they want to promote whilst you pay for the privilege of them selling your personal data to other companies. So yet again fear is being used as a tool to sell you a product you do not need. These VPN companies are making money based on people's fears. A lot of people are not computer literate. These days everyone gets dodgy emails and especially unwanted messages on their mobile phones. People need to be smarter and but most just trust what they see on their devices and society easily hands over private data without a thought. You can have a secure network without the need for a VPN which is security for lazy people and just like all lazy people, they get conned easily.

I may have reached the end of my rope with the PS5 game 'Game of Fires'. Things have got ridiculous where major bosses are now respawning even after you defeat them and the story has moved on. It seems the only way these game designers, 505 Games, make a boss battle interesting is to just give that boss endless life and even after you defeat them, they just come back for no reason. Rather stupid game design. It's another example of that game being unnecessarily difficult just to pad out the story. It could be a really good game but the game designers keep missing the mark by insisting that every battle is a Dark Souls type battle. Visually the game looks good, so you can see where they have tried to mimic God of War, but the game play fails to match the look of the game. You expect the game to get harder and the enemies to get tougher, but this game makes the enemies tougher whilst you don't get any upgrades to the character. You also don't get any range weapons which only the enemies get. Even in the latest Doom which is a traditional gun only combat style, they have a range weapon in the form of a throwing shield. So it makes no sense that only the enemies in 'Game of Fires' get throwing weapons and spells, yet you only get hand held weapons with no option of a range attack. I don't understand this style of game design. What exactly are these game designers trying to achieve with this one sided battle style? The endless unnecessary combat just repeating battles you've already done is just annoying. The range of weapons is good but even when you engage in a battle the enemy suddenly can't be harmed by the same weapon you've been hurting them with. It goes from them losing health to suddenly mid battle them now being immune to your hits with the same weapon. How the the fuck does that make sense? Yet another thing in this game that is frustrating. I'm not sure what the game designers are trying to achieve with this type of combat. One thing I know for sure, if I see any more games designed by 505 Games, I'll give that game a big miss. Out of the 5 PS5 games I played since March this year, there is only one I would consider as a good game which is Doom:The Dark Ages. I continue to not be impressed with what PS5 has on offer. I'm giving consideration to packing up the PS5 and going back to my PS4 console till Oct when the games I really want to play are coming out. Given the cost of the PS5 and the added memory which you really need, that is another $400 on top of the console cost of around $800, it is a lot of money to layout when the quality of the games is this poor. I probably should have waited till the last quarter of this year to buy the PS5. I also don't see the point of all the quality games coming out in the last three months of a year. They do this every year. Games come out earlier in the US than here in Australia because they launch in the US Summer which is now. Game designers will only launch their better games here in Australia close to our Summer which is Oct. It is fucking annoying having to wait 9-10 months of the year to play a quality console game. I did see where Oblivion is getting a remaster for PS5 coming out in the next couple of months. I still have the original that you could only get on Xbox. So I'm definitely buying that when available on PS5 to see the difference to the original. From what I've seen it looks good with better visuals. The only reason I still have an Xbox is because I have the original Elder Scrolls Oblivion game. If I like what I see on the PS5 version, I'll trade in my Xbox and the game.

Our Parliament is back after that huge win by Labor at the election a couple of months ago. You can't avoid this news as it is everywhere. The visual of that view of the new House seating arrangements shows how massive that win by Labor actually is. The cross bench is now rubbing shoulders with the LNP opposition. You could fit the entire opposition on one bus. The big question is what is Labor going to achieve given the huge majority they have in the House of Reps. The Republicans in the US Congress have a majority but haven't managed to do anything meaningful. They even suspended the sitting of Congress to avoid talking about Rump's involvement with Epstein. They essentially ran away. Not the first time. They even walked out of a Congressional Committee when talk turned to Rump and Epstein. It was a big dummy spit by the Republicans. The Speaker of Congress continues to show he is Rump's bum boy.

Was watching Le Tour and only managed to do a cheese and wine night on the weekend which was the second last day the race. I had the cheese but not the wine, then did the reverse. Can't do a cheese and wine night with sliced cheese, I'm not a savage. You need the right cheese. Remembered to pick up some chilli brie when I did the grocery shop last week so finally got a cheese and wine night on the Saturday. Aussie wine of course.

All this talk about American beef being allowed into Australia is rather funny. So America allows Mexican cows into their country but not Mexicans. Wouldn't be surprised if ICE starts arresting Mexican cows for being in the US. Those guys are dumb as dog shit. The only thing American about that beef is that it is butchered in America. WTF. So how is it American beef if the cows are being imported from Canadian and Mexico? Isn't it therefore Canadian beef that is just slaughtered in America then imported into Australia? Aussie beef is from cattle bred and raised in Australia which makes Aussie beef highly sort after by other countries and stands for high quality beef which other countries are happy to pay premium prices for. If we use imported products in our food we clearly label it as containing imported food. The Japanese who have high standards in food, love Aussie beef and like the Chinese middle class, are willing to pay top price for it. American beef is not wanted by anyone apart for hamburgers. The USA doesn't raise enough cattle for their domestic consumption, so relies on imported beef. For the size of the population in the USA they consume a lot more food than they need which is why the life expectancy is only 78yrs old compared to Australia which is 83yrs old for men and 85yrs old for women and we are not as rich as America.

It has been so cold in Melbourne this Winter that I have noticed some odd things. The mornings are very chilly compared to normal Winter temps. I've noticed that the TV remote doesn't work properly in the mornings. Initially thought it was the batteries but then noticed when I had the heater on in the evening and the room had warmed up, the TV remote suddenly was working with no problems as if I just put in fresh batteries. The second thing I've noticed this Winter is that my first cup of coffee isn't hot enough. Again I thought it was the electric kettle. The microwave also first thing in the morning isn't heating things properly. Initially thought both of these appliances were failing and needed to be replaced. But just like the TV remote as the day warmed up both these appliances were working properly again. I've never experienced this before during Winter. Also because of the cold I've gone the double doona route which again I've never done as I usually feel too hot in bed with just the one doona. I don't have central heating at my place and it hasn't been an issue before during daylight hours in Winter, but this Winter is different.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Things that a US Republican brain cannot comprehend (deal with).

The earth is not flat

The internet is not America

Henry Ford did not invent the car

Americans did not invent the train

People on the internet speak other languages

The American spelling of English words is not the original English.

Jesus was not white

Driving on the other side of the road

Time zones

The current season in the US is not the same season in the southern hemisphere

Americans cannot vote for Putin in US elections

The President of the USA is not the president of other countries

The size of Australia......google it mate!

The metric system in general, but especially when related to temperature..... yet all their sodas are in milliliters (metric)

Black people from other countries are not African American

Power outlets in other countries

Chinese is not an language

Africa is not a country

Europe contains individual countries that are older than the USA

British people don't give a fuck about the American revolution nor the 4th of July

The Gulf of Mexico

Cannot use US dollars to pay for stuff in other countries
 
Afternoon all,

So the close relationship between Rump and Epstein is getting more air time which wouldn't of happened if Rump didn't promise his voters the truth about Epstein and who he associated with would be made public. All the stories about Rump and Epstein are not knew and lots of people who knew Epstein and Rump, know the truth but they have never been asked or are too scared to speak up. It does say a lot though when the man convicted of being a child sex predator called off his relationship with Rump cause he realised Rump is not only a crook but a creep. Rump had his own plane so why would he need to travel on Epstein's plane so many times? Epstein also said Rump would have sex with Melania on Epstein's plane. This is when she was still a model and not in the country legally and was looking at a way to stay in the US. So when the sex offender finds you too offensive to be friends, that says a lot about you. These stories about the truth of Rump's relationship with Epstein is not going away for Rump. Even Republican politicians are finding this stuff hard to swallow and these are guys have been giving Rump blow jobs for his entire term.

Gym junkie blokes are now ordering breast milk because they believe it will improve their muscles. So to add to the walnut size of their balls, bulking powders and injecting themselves with steroids, these guys are now putting breast milk in their sippy cups. So the next time you see one of these guys who has just done a gym workout using his drink bottle, he's actually drinking breast milk. One of the guys I used to work with who was a short slim guy used to go the gym several times a week and would drink those bulking powders to put on bulk as you can't build muscle without the bulk. I used to do weights when was in my late teens and early twenties but I already had the bulk as I'm built like a rugby player. So I had to laugh at this small slim guy telling me he could take me in a fight because he was now using these bulking agents and doing weights. The other guy in his team heard this and burst out laughing. I had to explain to this wannabe muscle man that no matter how much bulking agent he took and muscle he put on, he was no match for my size and natural muscle. The muscle I put on when I was doing weights several decades ago, hasn't gone away. So I do laugh at these skinny guys trying to build muscle by killing themselves in the gym and putting junk in their bodies.

The Israeli govt says there is no starvation in Gaza when it's obvious they are lying about it. Those videos and pictures from Gaza are not photo shopped. Netanyahu can only stay in power if the war in Gaza continues but now the tide is turning against him. In not resolving the war in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon, he has pushed other countries to move quicker to recognize a Palestinian state. The UN always supported a two state solution but was holding off due to the control of Hamas in Gaza. What is curious is that Israel is funding another militant group in Gaza who are fighting with Hamas for control. So Israel is fighting a terrorist organization only to fund another one and supply arms to them. Which shows Netanyahu has no intention of ending the war in Gaza. He no doubt has promised this other faction in Gaza a role in a future Gazan govt controlled by Israel. Once again Netanyahu is playing the world for fools and so far the UN has gone along with him without calling his bluff. He is using what happened to the Jews in Europe during WWII as a tool to keep himself in power. The only way to bring peace to that part of the world is to have a two state solution. By having that, it doesn't diminish Israel as they will retain the strongest military in the region.

Everyone knows that Rump cheats at golf but now it has been caught on video. People who have played golf with Rump know he isn't good at golf and cheats mainly by not counting all his shots. Golf still has an honour system when it comes to marking your card and since Rump is the boss he decides when he counts his shots. The video shows another way that Rump cheats at golf which is he gets his caddies to drop balls for him in favourable positions which is against the rules. On the video it clearly shows one of his caddies back dropping a ball whilst pretending to look for Rumps ball. It was laughable. The British press then asked Rump about Epstein and he ran away as quick as he could. This Epstein thing has followed him across the world and it isn't going away and the international press will keep asking about Epstein. He was deeply involved with Epstein and it was Epstein who ended the friendship not Rump. Rump would hold private parties for young women hoping to get into his beauty pageants and the only other guest was Epstein so you can imagine what went with these two creeps in a room full of young vulnerable teenage girls.

I got so pissed of with the games I've played on the PS5 that I've packed it away rather than spend more money on crappy games. I finished Kingdom Come Deliverance II and thought I had finally mastered the combat so I could battle more than two enemies at time without running out of stamina and well I didn't. I played some of the post game stuff. Even though I had got thru the hard bits to the end, the combat still sucked. That fucking stamina bar that doesn't allow you to do any proper combat, needs to go if they do another game. I've never played a game where you have to stop combat after a couple of hits to get your stamina back whilst your enemy has endless stamina. The game designers seemed more intent on telling the history of Bohemia than working on the combat side of things. Like Blades of Fire, it is a good looking game, but the combat lets it down and I see why it would piss people and quit the game. So I'm back to one of my PS4 consoles playing Far Cry 5 which I thought is apt for what is going on in America right now. The story is about a cult leader who gathers followers in a region of Montana. The cult leadership is a family and the head of the cult is called Father. His cult followers love guns and use them against anyone who opposes them. The game also makes reference to Rump by calling him the Orange Russian President. And the other similarity to Rump is that cult leadership use drugs, similar to Don Jr who is a junkie. The other similarity is that this cult was preparing for a civil war, similar to the Republican party MAGA members who want a civil war with Democrats. That is their words not mine. And the last similarity is that the leader of this cult in Far Cry 5 also has his own bible, just like Rump has. Far Cry 5 is one of my go to games as it is fun and it has proper combat with lots of weapon choices and it is still a challenge even if you have played it several times. I'm sure I'm going to die a lot still since I haven't played the game for a while, but it is a satisfying game. When I played it the first time I wanted it to go on longer. Even the animals attack you without warning. You get attacked by turkeys which is funny and they are vicious little buggers. I also saw another preview of Ghost of Yoeti showing more of the main story. It looks really good so am looking forward to that game in late Oct. It comes out earlier in Oct in the US, not sure why we always have to wait longer here in Australia for the same game. This happens all the time.

In the Tassie election that happened in late July, the Lib's claimed victory but didn't have the numbers to form govt and they still don't at 14 seats. It was quite an arrogant move from the Lib's on election night. They need 18 seats to form govt. Some of the cross bench have said no to them. Even though Labor has less seats they still could form govt if they get a couple of minor parties on their side. So the election was a massive non-event and a waste of money. Does show arrogance on the part of the Lib's that they claimed victory and their leader was going to go to the Gov General to rubber stamp the illegal victory. I think he got the message that idea was not a clever one. He is still Premier till a new govt is formed. This could go on for several more months yet before the outcome of the election is known. The new stadium is still a sore point and one of the main issues of contention even though both the Lib's and Labor are in favour of it.

So Youtube is now included in the ban on kids using social media here in Australia. The ban is related to kids not being allowed to open an account on Youtube, not viewing Youtube. So they can still view Youtube. It's a storm in a tea cup thing to placate parents. Kids can still access kid stuff and funny stuff on Youtube, they just can't have an account until they are 16yrs old. The smart ones will just steal their parent's account login.

Spent a couple of hours in the front yard today hacking at stuff and decided to give the tree in front of my lounge room a major hair cut. It gives good shade during Summer but it grows rather fast during the warmer months so I have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't get too close to the front fascia. But with me selling up this year, I want to show more of the front of house. So I was up and down the ladder trying not to fall off. These first two days of this week are two of the warmest days in a row we have had this Winter. We will be back to Winter temps by tonight.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Saw some of that interaction between Mehdi Hasan and a group of 20 far right young people in the US who also openly align themselves with fascism in the US. There were also white nationalists and one guy who said he was a Nazi which in the end cost him his job. To call this interaction a debate is inaccurate. I'm sure that was the intent when this was planned but it turned into an blatant open forum for racism and fascism. Mehdi Hasan is a well known British journalist, who is now a US citizen but he has Asian heritage which set off these white young people as they immediately saw themselves as superior to him because of his Asian heritage. All bar one was white and except for one or two the rest were college educated. It was a master class between one highly educated life experienced person who knows his stuff against young Americans who's entire perspective of life is the American view of the world with little to no life experience and they just regurgitate what they have read and studied in college parrot fashion with no ability to rationalise. It is a small window into what America has become under Rump. This is now the face America is showing the world, where being a racist and a fascist is now considered to be part of the in-crowd. This was not a debate in a college. It was filmed to be shown to the world and all these young Americans knew they were being filmed and it would be posted on the internet for the world to see. Parts of it are cringe where these young Americans are openly racist to the Asian journalist because they had the numbers. But he took them apart one by one and he kept his cool. The aggression was coming from these white young people. Even the women. It is worth a look. Just to see how the far right now speaks for a big chunk of America. Americans just don't understand the damage this new portrayal of America is doing to them as a people and a country. Americans naively think the world will forget how America is treating the rest the world right now. Then again when it comes understanding the rest of the world Americans are very naive which they continue to demonstrate thru who they have chosen to represent them.

Rump in another show of how dumb America looks, fired the head of their version of our Bureau of Statics, because the job numbers in America are very bad all due to Rump's tariffs. When the same organization said the job numbers were good in Rump's first term then he said they were a good organization. So America continues to show that is being run by a fascist. In more dump shit coming out of America, the state of Texas is attempting to redraw the election maps in that state to ensure that some Democratic areas in Texas don't get to vote in the next election. This is what happens when a country does not have a central organization whose job it is to manage electoral roles and determine the boundaries of seats. In America this in the hands of the respective political parties which means corruption runs rampant and political parties determine who can vote, which for a democracy is not democratic. In America this is considered legal. In Australia it's called corruption. They don't have the equivalent of our AEC which is totally independent of any political party. They determine electoral boundaries based on the census. Political parties don't get a say on how seats change nor how they are created or removed. It's all based on population movement, not which political party wants more seats like it works in the US. Again America is supposed to be a democracy, but the more you look at how America works, the more you realise it is a dictatorship with the facade of a democracy as most things in the US are not democratic. Everything Rump has done to make himself King, he has done legally. He has stacked the US Supreme Court with his own judges. He has put people in place in the top govt jobs who nobody voted for and he has turned the justice system and all those so called justice agencies against people in the US. Again, it has all be done legally. It is legal in the US to appoint your own lawyers and friends into the top jobs in govt agencies. In his first term, Rump gave govt jobs to his kids which is basic corruption. That shit should never happen in a proper democracy. That is the act of a corrupt govt, but perfectly legal in the US and has been for many decades. You can just appoint your mates or people who worked for you to head govt agencies with no qualifications. All you need is to get Congress to rubber stamp it which you control. What Rump continues to prove is how tenuous the so called American democracy actually is. It is the type of democracy you get out of a cereal packet. The checks and balances they have in America is just window dressing as none have worked. Nobody is protecting the American Constitution as none of those govt agencies are abiding by it, so it's just a piece of paper that might as well be in the shredder. No point having a set of standards if nobody is obeying them, so why have them. Private industry runs America not the govt which is a lesson to all democracies around the world of what not to allow to happen to their societies. America has become an example of what not to do if you want a functioning society. America is stuck in it's own mire and is unwilling to free itself. It wasn't an external force that has done this to America, Americans did this to themselves. All the might of their military couldn't stop the largest enemy which comes from within America. The rest of the world is moving on without the US. It will take a while to wean themselves off the American tit, but it is happening.

Australia taking another step towards recognizing a Palestinian state due to Israel's decision to invade more of Gaza and then hand it off to an Arab country, which no Arab country will agree to do. That last bit is total bullshit from Israel. Netanyahu wants to occupy Gaza permanently which Rump has encouraged by his own statements about emptying Gaza of Palestinians to build his own resorts. Of course Netanyahu has promised Rump free land to build his resorts. As Israel moves to occupy Gaza, it is losing the support of a number of countries. France was the first then the UK now Australia and some EU countries. The EU doesn't act as one. Hungary is a big supporter of Russia. The EU like the UN suffers from the same problem of veto powers by one country that fucks any chance of world peace. Russia is still on the security council in the UN even though it has invaded another country and now occupies several provinces in Ukraine but it has veto powers on any moves against it. So the UN is a lame duck and hasn't prevented any wars since it was established after WWII. Russia was caught spying on the US even in the first few years of the UN being established. Israel has enjoyed the backing of the US and a majority of western countries for many decades but because of Netanyahu that support has diminished. Germany which again has been an unwavering supporter of Israel is also moving away from Israel. Israel is in danger of being isolated if Netanyahu remains in power. The far right in Israel just like the far right in the US believe they are untouchable, until they are.

Starting to get some colour in the front garden which means Winter is on the way out. Within the next week or two I will get the Winter flowers blooming in the front garden and lawn. The lilliums usually cover the front lawn in a multitude of colours over a couple of weeks so I don't mow the front lawn during that time. The warmer temps this past week has woken up the grass again, so I was out there yesterday to give the front lawn a tidy up and also mow the nature strip which is also showing some growth after a rather cold Winter. The ground was still damp in the afternoon so the cut grass clung to the underside of the mower. Had to stop twice to clear out the grass from the underside of the mower. The magnolia in the front yard has also lost all it's leaves and ready to produce it's large purple and white flowers and the camellia is also ready to explode in it's large deep pink flowers. The rock garden is also showing signs of it's small Winter flowers. The bromeliads started blooming last week. The last few weeks of August going into the first week of Sept brings lots of colour to the front yard and comments from the neighbours. When Spring arrives I get more colour in the front yard. I see lots of people on their walks take a few moments to look at the front yard in bloom.

The weather is slighting improving in temps but the mornings are still on the chilly side here in Melbourne. Overnight temps are still around the 5C mark on average which is below the normal overnight temps for Winter. It was down to 1C in my part of Melbourne on the weekend. If we do get a day with a temp around 17-18C is it only for an hour or so and usually just before the chill of the day comes back. Still losing the light by 5:30pm and dark by 6pm. Decided to do some washing later in the afternoon and before I knew it I was hanging up the clothes in the dark. When the night arrives at this time of year, it happens quickly. The moon has been shining for a few days. Thought the neighbours had left their flood lights on overnight but nope it was the moon shinning at 2am. Today the rain is back which is coming from the west and sweeping thru the state for most of the day. The rain will be back on Friday and here for the entire weekend.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

In the latest bit of graft from Rump, NVIDIA has now agreed to give the US govt 10% of it's profits to be allowed to do business in China again. You can bet a big chunk of that money will go directly into Rump's pocket. This is essentially blackmail by the US govt which is how the US govt now does business. Rump gets a % of all these deals of protection/bribe money. Rump and the US govt is acting more like a mafia family than an actual govt. Rump needs the money because he is yet to pay that $500million to that female author he sexually assaulted. The level of corruption in the current US govt is being kept under wraps for now and won't really be known till after Rump is removed from office. He won't go quietly because he is still facing sentencing for his 34 felonies which means jail time. His latest stunt to put his name on everything was to remove a portrait of JFK in the entrance to the 'Kennedy Center' and replace it with his own. Now he has put himself in charge of the next 'Kennedy Center' awards that he is hosting which is so fucked up. Then he claimed he was asked which again is such bullshit. He also decided who was going to receive these awards, again showing he is a dictator. Then he forgets that Alaska is part America by saying he was going to Russia to meet with Poo-tin. He is losing his mind with all the power he was given by the American people. They elected him as king and he is doing what he always has done. He is going to sell out Ukraine to Poo-tin.

The bills keep coming. Had the Winter gas bill arrive which is always much higher than normal which is relatively low. Thankfully I have gas heating given how many times the power has been shut off for "maintenance". The supply of electricity has become much more fragile with the advent of the NBN. When we had dedicated phone and internet lines, the power supply was much more stable. If we had separate fibre optic cables we would still have connectivity when the power fails or is switched off, but that isn't how our internet has been designed in Australia. To have your heating/cooling, cooking and hot water all on the one type of energy is fine provided you have a good infrastructure which we don't. I've only had the gas go off when my gas meter was upgraded a few years ago. Whereas my power has gone off numerous times in the past couple of years for no reason and I live only 30mins from the CBD. It's not like I live in a remote country town. So until the govt can guarantee a better power supply infrastructure, I'm not a fan of going all electric. I have an electric stove so when the power goes out I can't even get a coffee. If I had a gas stove I could at least heat water and cook food. I shouldn't have to have a propane camp stove on hand in case the power goes out. I live in the largest city in the country for fuck's sake. Melbourne is larger than Sydney, it's just our population is slightly behind that of Sydney.

Got may latest round of rates last week. The increase is modest at $170 for the new rates year. My land valuation hasn't gone up since the previous rates notice to go with the increase in rates. The way the councils determine the value of your property is by looking at it from the street, as they are not allowed to enter your property. So if you have done improvements in your back yard, they can't see it. It's all about what they can see from the street. They are also not allowed to use drones to do these evaluations for privacy reasons. So your land value is based on subjective info. All depends on who does the evaluation. The price of land in my area has gone up in the past few years but the land valuations haven't changed. Even what real estate agents quote are very subjective and most under quote to get more buyers. So never believe what an estate agent quotes you. They just want to make a sale and they play off the vendor against the prospective buyers.

The house on the corner is progressing towards completion. Looks like they are going to render the outside rather than use bricks. It is cheaper to build but needs more layers on the outside. The developer has also gone with a metal roof rather than a tiled roof which seems to be a trend. But those types of roofs require a whirly bird to vent hot air from the roof. The old fashioned houses like mine have inbuilt vents in the bricks which are backed by insect boxed screens in the roof space. They don't build houses these days with smart builds in removing moisture from the roof cavity which is the cause of ceiling collapses. Then again these days houses are built for profit not for longevity. A lot of modern houses have faults within the few years after they are built including houses subsiding. Best option is to buy a house that is at least 7-8yrs old which is when most faults are exposed and the house has settled.

The Lib's are again out of step with most people by having a go at Albo about the Aussie govt recognising a Palestinian state at the next UN general assembly next month. This is not going to play out well for the Lib's again. First the Lib's couldn't say that starvation was happening in Gaza, which clearly there is, now this latest foot in mouth. They seem to be unable to let go of their bias from their usual play book. These days having blind support of what was traditional alliances is a path which makes you a fool. The world is different now and people need to think more and not just follow past decisions. America didn't think it would receive the amount of back lash it has got from the rest of world when Rump made his decisions to attack other countries. Americans seem to be oblivious to the fact by electing Rump, more countries don't like Americans. Likewise Netanyahu didn't think countries who traditionally unconditionally supported Israel, would move against Israel. No country can now rely on what was traditional support if it goes from moderate to extreme. Solomon Islands enjoyed a level of support but with their move to gift China political power in their country, they have lost support from other Pacific Island nations and Australia.

There is an international T20 cricket tournament happening in Australia right now but you wouldn't know it. It's only available if you pay for viewing it. There was a time where these big international cricket tournaments were available on the TV, but not now. Cricket is Australia's national sport yet we don't get to see this international tournament that is being held in Australia up there in Darwin and northern Qld, mainly because it's always warm in Darwin and it is the dry season up there. So whilst it's Winter down here in the south, up there in Darwin the daily temp barely moves from 33C every day. This ICC tournament is hardly mentioned in the daily news bulletins either, because the pay TV channels have exclusive rights and if other channels use the footage they have to pay for it which is such bullshit. The only cricket we now see on our free to air TV during the Summer are the test matches. The one-day internationals and the T20 matches are all on pay TV only. Only the women's cricket matches are on free to air TV because the pay TV networks can't get money to show it. It's all about the money and not the sport. If you pay you see sport, which wasn't how it worked when I was a kid or even in my early adulthood. Having sport behind pay walls divides society again and means kids can't get to see their sporting heroes unless their parents can afford the price of a ticket to game which also comes with money for travel and food at the stadium which is also expensive. The AFLW started again on the weekend which is good because AFL is a Winter sport and it means the women's game it getting better recognition and they don't have to play their games in the Summer any more.

Since I've gone back to my PS4 till Oct, I'm getting back into my old PS4 games. Just finished Far Cry 5 again and have now restarted Ghost of Tsushima: The Director's Cut. I'm having to relearn the combat again. Been two yrs since I last played this game. I bought the original game then traded it for The Director's Cut version which has some extra content in it. Only been playing it for a few days and the combat is slowly coming back to me. Was totally as sea for the first day with the combat. So good to play a game without fucking stamina gauges screwing up your combat. They are a pain in the arse given your enemies don't have any. Initially I read that Elder Scrolls Oblivion was coming out with a disc version of their remastered game for PS5, but now it seems that is not true. It's only a downloadable game which I don't like. If we had a faster internet I might entertain the idea but we don't, so not for me. I can see the trend to move to only digital games but like records, vinyl is now huge again. People still want a physical thing to connect with. People still want physical photos. Having only digital versions is convenient but you can't connect with it. Humans are a tactile species. When those tamagotchi pets came out 98% of them died because the humans didn't give a shit about them after awhile.

Bobby Simpson passed away on the weekend which wouldn't mean much to the younger generations but he was a legend of cricket which is Australia's national game. Even though he didn't play many test matches by today's standards he made his mark on the game. Excellent batsman and he scored over 300 runs in one innings which even by today's standards is up there with Tandulkar and Bradman. He even came out of retirement at 41yrs old to captain the Aussie team during World Series Cricket. He then became the coach of the Aussie team with AB as captain which was a winning combo.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Saw that Melbourne was voted the No.1 foodie city in the world. Not sure who does the voting but Melbourne is definitely the No.1 foodie city in Australia. If you like your food then Melbourne is the place to come if you are visiting Australia. We also have the best coffee in the country. That's not a boast, it's true. When friends visit from interstate they love the coffee in Melbourne. Apparently they burn the coffee in Sydney. Plus we have a massive coffee culture in Melbourne mainly due to the influx of people from Italy and Greece after WWII. Also if you are coming to Melbourne don't forget to take advantage of the free tram zone in the city centre. Just look at the Melbourne City website for all the details. It has a map plus there are lots of signs at the tram stops in the city showing you which are part of the free tram zone area that covers all of the CBD. Also use the Airport Skybus (shuttle) when arriving at Melbourne Airport. It is cheap and don't forget to get a return ticket which is even cheaper than buying two singles. The tickets are good for 3 months from time of purchase so get the return ticket option if you're a tourist to Melbourne. You can book on-line if you don't want a paper ticket but you don't need to pre-book. You can simply buy the ticket when you arrive. I've never pre-booked when I travel and never had an issue with getting a ticket even in peak tourist season.

So Just Dumb was in the UK and made a booking at a local restaurant that it just so happens was visited by Kamala with friends, no cameras. So when the staff working at this pub found out Just Dumb wanted to have lunch there they told the owner they would not come to work on that day. The pub owner had no option but to cancel Just Dumb's booking who quickly fucked off to Scotland. The locals were pissed that their streets had to be shut down for Just Dumb's visit and that apparently his minders wanted access to people's social media who were going to be at the pub. So Republicans need to be aware, you travel outside of the US and start talking about how great Rump is, they will be told to fuck off by the locals. People with MAGA hats are even being refused service.

Rump now wants to remove what Americans call mail-in ballots, what we call postal voting. Which is yet another attempt by Rump to rig the mid-term elections in the US next year. The Gov of Texas is rigging the vote to give Republicans more seats at the next election. The Republicans only win when less people vote and Americans don't care that much about their democracy, since 40% of those who are eligible to vote don't bother to vote. Postal voting here in Australia has increased since it was introduced. It is great for the elderly who have mobility issues or people who have a disability since most polling booths in small venues with no disability access. You also have to stand in long queues on polling day to get in to vote. Personally I prefer pre-polling which I've used a lot since it was introduced. The rules around that have been relaxed so now all you have to do is say "Yes" when asked if you are eligible to vote early. By law they have to ask the question. Previously you had to provide proof is you couldn't vote on polling day, such as a plane ticket or a note from you doctor about being hospitalised. Even when you are in hospital they now come around with a ballot if you happen to be in there on polling day. So pre-voting is perfectly valid. The only people opposed to it are those who want to control your vote, like fascists. In Russia they make you vote for Poo-tin by pointing a gun at you in your own home. America isn't quite there yet, but all Rump has to do is stop people from voting for the Democrats which he keeps trying to do.

What is clear from the meeting between Rump and Poo-tin in a former Russian territory, is that Rump is Poo-tin's bitch. Poo-tin used the fact that he was free to land on US soil as a PR stunt. He couldn't believe that a US President would allow him into America after he invaded another country. The US looks weak and Poo-tin is laughing at America. Poo-tin also knows the US will not intervene in any war Russia starts whilst Rump is in power, so where before the US was a threat to him, now the US is a pussy cat he can stroke at any time and Rump will just purr at him. The meeting with Poo-tin went so bad that three EU leaders of their respective countries cut short their holidays to make their way to the US to support Zelenskyy in his meeting with Rump. Rump looked like the new kid at school at that round table. He was in a room with adults for a change and looked out of place. Yet Zelenskyy still had to face dumb questions from right wing so called journalists who sounded more like their questions came directly from Moscow, mocking Zelenskyy.

Rump using the FBI once again to go after his political enemies or in fact anyone who makes negative comments about him. America is fast becoming a police state where the President uses all the so called justice agencies against American citizens or anyone living in the US. This mimics Stalin who used the secret police to kill anyone who opposed him. Stalin killed more Russians than the Germans did in WWII. Rump likes people like Stalin, Hitler, Poo-tin, all dictators and all mass murderers. Now he wants to play kissy face with Little Kim again.

The Aussie govt decided to not grant a visa to an Israeli right wing politician which is a good thing. They also didn't allow Kanye into the country after his outburst on social media. There needs to be more countries prepared to stop right wing fuckwits talking shit in other countries. We have enough of our own right wing dickheads in this country we don't need to import any more. Free speech is not hate speech. It was an Aussie right wing idiot who travelled to NZ and committed mass murder while he was allowed to post it live on social media. Democracies need to take right wing idiots seriously. They aren't fringe any more, they are organized and have political power because of the break down of proper political parties.

Got the tax done last week and it was freezing that morning. At least it wasn't raining. We did have a couple of warmer days but the warmth only happened around 2pm. So whist it did say 20C it only lasted about an hour before the chill of the day came back. I'm getting a small refund, but at least I'm not paying more tax this time. Since the weather is still on the rather chilly side, I decided to make a batch of sausage rolls my way which includes spices and some chilli. My little added ingredient apart from the spices and chilli is some soy sauce. Makes about 36 sausages rolls and with this cold weather it's just the thing to warm you up and good comfort food. Didn't count on the oven heating element to giving up the ghost so now have to wait till the end of next week to get that fixed. From my last experience with the oven I purchased a small electric oven, so had to pull that out to finish off the sausage rolls.

With all the dump shit happening in the US, Australia Post has now suspended all parcel post to the US worth over $150. This is because of Rump's erratic decisions on tariffs on postage. Australia is not alone in suspending high cost parcels to the US. We join the UK, India and various EU countries. This is mainly going to hurt Americans. America is once again being isolated by actions of their govt. I don't remember this happening before so once again Rump's actions is pissing off other countries and impacting Americans. America continues to isolate itself from the rest of the world and most Republicans like it that way because they rarely look at anything outside their country. They all have their heads in the sand or up their own arses so what happens outside their inner circle they refuse to see.

It's interesting that male teachers are on the decline here in Australia. When I was a kid at school, most of my teachers where male with a few female teachers mainly for the younger kids in Primary School. Mothers of young kids these days don't want male teachers in charge of their young kids due to the whole paedophile stigma that goes along with being a male teacher in charge of young kids. If an old man is sitting on a park bench minding his own business and there happens to be young kids playing near by, there will be at least one mother who will suspect he is there to spy on their kids. Mothers seem especially embolden to have the nerve to question this old bloke who happens to be sitting there. I've seen this happen. So not surprising men are moving away from teaching for more lucrative jobs and what bloke wants his every move questioned around kids. When female teachers were found having sex with their young teenage male students there were no calls to ban women from teaching kids because that would be sexist. Any man now who is in the company of young kids is immediately thought of a predator, mainly by mothers who see all men as a potential paedophile. That's the society we now have to navigate based on paranoid people.

The wet weather has set in here in Melbourne for the rest of this week. Been watching the rain come thru my part of Melbourne for the past few hours. Totally different day to yesterday which was calm and somewhat sunny but the night was still cold needing the heater. Not as chilly this morning due to the cloud cover. The only positive of the rain is that the mornings are more like normal Winter temps rather than the 3-4C we have had for most of Winter. It has been a very cold Winter this year making any thought of going outside in the garden a non-event. Thought I would do more around the house this Winter, but with those chilly days, that didn't happen.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

The expulsion of the Iranian Ambassador from Australia was a big step taken by the Aussie govt and it wasn't as a result of Netanyahu criticizing Albo for recognizing a Palestinian state. ASIO doesn't do anything quickly even after the AFP said there was no terrorist threat. Either the AFP were saying that as a smoke screen so ASIO could keep investigating without alerting those people being investigated by our spy agency, or the AFP were clueless. Not the first time Iran has stirred up things in another country. They infiltrate Muslim communities and either pay people to cause trouble in their local community or they find disgruntled people to cause trouble. In the case of these two arson attacks, they paid a local Muslim gang to carry out these attacks. Both the FBI and the CIA could learn a few things from ASIO. Currently the FBI and the CIA have turned their attention to American citizens and those people living in America and they have lost focus on doing their primary jobs which is to protect Americans. America is primed now for another 9/11 and they won't see it coming just like they didn't see it the first time around because the FBI and CIA didn't share info. They had all the info but didn't take any action and were too busy fighting each other to do their jobs and it's happening again. We don't have those issues here in Australia. We have the one spy agency which is not controlled by any political party, unlike the US were a political party now uses their domestic spy agencies against anyone who speaks our against Rump.

Had to laugh at Rump painting his border wall with black paint to repel immigrants. This shit is too funny. Millions of tax payers dollars are being spent painting the wall for a photo op. I've done lots of painting over the decades and never seen paint that repels immigrants. You got to laugh. More dumb shit Americans are doing. You would think they are making this up, but no they actually think painting that border wall in black paint will stop people crossing the border. They must have had a meeting to discuss this and the conclusion was, yep paint is going to stop people crossing the southern border. I'm waiting for Daffy Duck to show up as a consultant to the US govt. Goofy already has a seat.

Mad Man Katter is at it again. He likes to show he is a tough man and not the first time he has threatened a journalist. In the past he has pointed a gun at a journalist and camera crew, now he has walked up to a journalist and put his fist up to the journalist's face, who kept his cool. I grew up in the '70's and if a guy did that to me back then I'd kick the shit out of him and I was in my teens in the '70's. I had skin heads to deal with. Katter's age is no excuse to threaten anyone with violence. He entered politics as an angry man who said his country was being taken away by change. He is a tall guy so has always used his size to try an intimidate people by threatening them with violence and he keeps being allowed to behave this way as a politician. In any other situation he would of got his lights punched out. His entire political career as been based on a lie. He kept pushing his so called "true blue" roots and denied his migrant background. His grandfather came from Lebanon and changed his name to Katter to make it sound more English. So Katter isn't even the actual true family name. People don't change their names these days, but several decades ago it was more wide spread. I used to work with a guy who changed his surname from the original Polish to an English name because people couldn't pronounce his Polish surname, but he never denied he was Polish heritage. Katter just denies he has Lebanese heritage. His political party's core purpose is to be an anti-immigrant party so it would be ironic that the descendant of an immigrant wants to keep people like his grandfather out of Australia. If it wasn't for the Lebanese we wouldn't have kebab shops here in Australia. Same as we wouldn't have a coffee culture, pizza, salami, pasta, asian food, etc if it wasn't for immigrants coming to Australia. Australia is built on immigration, with immigrants building a lot of the infrastructure we have in this country. The main issue is that successive govt's have stopped building housing for low income families and left it all up to the private sector who only care about profit. The govt needs to get back to their primary function which is to take care of the people of this country, that's why they are elected, not to hand over all govt functions to private industry like they have done since the early '90's which is when everything started to go to shit. I was there, I saw the slow erosion of govt functions and money that was being handed over to private industry. It cost hundreds of thousands of jobs all over Australia. And those jobs haven't come back and we are all paying more for what were govt services.

Speaking of nutso Aussies, it seems we have the American disease of people calling themselves Sovereign Citizens. These are people on the fringe who can't cope with the world and change usually resulting from some personal trauma and they want someone to blame for that incident. There was a lot more of this due to COVID where people believed their rights were more important than anyone else's and social media played a huge role in producing more nutjobs because people were left alone with mainly interaction thru social media which isolated them from real world. The restrictions of COVID was in one way a social experiment of what happens when you leave people in a modern society without their dependencies. They go nuts. It also showed people that they aren't as strong as they were led to believe which shocked these people so gave rise to more people thinking they need to blame society for their personal issues. Society has got comfortable with all the things they take for granted and once you take that away, they can't cope. Kids who grew up thru the two world wars were much tougher because they saw loss and had to make do with far less than we have in today's society. These days if you tell someone they can't go to their normal coffee shop, they want to kill someone. We need to build more resilient societies who can cope with change because change is constant we just like to tell ourselves how things are now won't change which is a fairytale.

So Maxwell is now sitting in a holiday prison because she said she didn't see Rump do anything inappropriate when Rump was friends with Epstein. The Republican Party has no issue giving a child sex trafficker an easier prison sentence if she states that their King didn't prey on under age girls. So the sex trafficker said the rapist she knows didn't do anything inappropriate with the under age girls both Rump and Epstein had at their private parties. Nobody in the Republican party nor those MAGA fuckwits have a problem with that. Really? The Republican Party is now also the safe space for people who have sex with kids. The Republicans already have the market cornered on supporting Nazi's, white supremacists and felons, now they are also the party of adults who sexually abuse kids. Can the Republicans get any lower? I mean they are led by a rapist and convicted felon so I guess there is not bar to worry about. It's so low now, even God couldn't do a Lazarus on it. Maxwell will say anything to get a lessor sentence or even a pardon from Rump and there is a chance he will grant her a pardon. Rump's current Ambassador to France is also a convicted criminal who Rump granted a pardon to. He is also the father of Jared Kushner. Being an arsehole runs in the family. Rump's cast of clowns in the US Govt continues to make the USA a clown country run by a criminal and employs other criminals which again is perfectly legal in the US. The USA is now a country run by criminals.

Had lots of rain come thru Melbourne at the end of last week and thru the weekend. The heavy wind with that rain front came thru on the Friday night mainly. We had a couple of warmish days prior to that weather front coming thru. No issue at my place and most of Melbourne was ok even though the heavy wind resulted in a lot of noise and backyard furniture in some places was moved around. The rain has persisted but mainly in showers rolling thru Melbourne, so it's not raining all day but if you were out in it you would get dumped on. With the cloud cover from the showers rolling thru Melbourne the past few days, the morning temps have been more like normal Winter temps even though we are now officially in Spring but that won't really kick in till next week. More of the wet stuff predicted for the rest of this week and into the weekend with heavier rain coming our way from tomorrow. Seems the rain will keep coming thru till early next week which is good for the garden.

The anti-immigration rallies that happened in Melbourne and Sydney showed how gullible people are to attend a rally organized by neo-Nazi groups and racists. There weren't many at these pro-racist rallies and there were also counter protesters who were there to show these fuckwits their views are not welcome. And of course where there are white nationalists there is violence because that's what they do. They tried to destroy the indigenous sign in one our parks here in Melbourne but they were beaten back by the indigenous people at that site which those white nationalists were not expecting. These people are brave in a pack but cowards individually. The fact that other white Aussies were dumb enough to attend these rallies shows how dumb some white people are by keeping company with racists. Australia is an immigrant country, always has been since the first fleet.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Afternoon all,

Had my second cheese and wine night while watching La Vuelta. Now have run out of cheese worthy of a cracker. Still have enough wine though. The Aussies have done well in the race and more Aussies are getting prominent roles in the big teams. Looking at the scenery in Spain you wouldn't think they had lots of green countryside since Spain is known for it's dry heat soaked land. Looking at these major races is also like being a tourist. La Vuelta is still the little brother to the other two grand tour races but still a prize for those teams who didn't do well in either the Giro or La Tour. Even with UAE's B team they are winning most of the stages.

Got the oven element replaced at the end of last week. Took nearly two weeks to get that fixed because they have to order the part which takes about a week. The same technician came back to do the repair from last time. He has come back several times and works on both sides of the city. He lives on the other side of the city and typically works his way back to his home during the day. He was complaining about the frosty morning causing icing on his car. The stove is about 24yrs old, but I haven't had any issues with it apart from the heating element needing replacement every few years. If I was staying I would buy a new oven. The cost of the repair is getting up there to where buying a new oven is more cost effective even though the rest of it works fine. I don't have a preference between electric vs gas stoves. Both have their advantages. Electric is cheaper to run but the down side is that when the power goes out you can't cook anything. I just got another notification that the power will be switched off again next week for more "maintenance" which is a joke. That's twice in two months. Not to mention the NBN also went off line last month for more upgrades. Our entire power infrastructure is a piece meal approach. It's bordering on a third world system for a first world country. It cannot cope for the new methods of generating power. Solar panels on houses causes problems for the power grid, yet it relies more on renewable power these days because the coal fired power stations are unreliable due to their age and are not cost effective to keep running.

Now that the weather is turning a bit warmer I can get back to clearing things out to the garage. Spent a couple of hours today doing some maintenance tasks and a little garden work. Finally got around to changing the washer in the garden tap in the backyard. Just one of those jobs you keep forgetting. Since I had to change washers in a couple of areas in the house, I got to the garden tap as well. There wasn't any rain today so it was a good day to be out even if it has been on the cooler side with a cool breeze. Not chilly. The sun was out but just enough to warm you up if you were moving around. Not a day to be sitting outside as it only got to 15 but that was only about half an hour ago. Of to Bunnings tomorrow to get a new shower head. These water restricted shower heads don't last long but that is just the way they are designed. No point paying a lot of money for a fancy shower head if the same flow restriction applies which is 9L/min these days.

I'm continuing to re-play Ghost of Tsushima waiting to the Ghost of Yotei to come out next month. I was looking at buying the Gears of War game till I realised it was a re-release of the original which was only available on Xbox. So gave it a pass. The PS5 is still packed away till next month. Haven't wasted any more money on PS5 games, so will wait till next month to go back to the PS5. I have a couple of games to trade when the time comes.

The Robodebt scandal has come back into the news cycle. The Lib's have never taken responsibility for what they did to those people impacted by their scheme which now considered unlawful. The algorithm the Lib's employed whilst in govt was totally wrong in basic maths and looked like something a uni student would of developed. At the time Slomo said they were going to go after people who were using Centrelink to commit fraud and they boasted about how many people they caught using their flawed algorithm. They boasted about this on the TV and in Parliament. All the while 98% of the people caught up in this had not done anything wrong. It was the algorithm that showed people had a debt when in fact they didn't. Questions were raised about the incorrect results but the Lib's just ignored those investigations. The maths used to calculate this was incorrect and the Lib govt knew it. The senior public servants covered it these incorrect results just to appease the Liberal govt led by Slomo. It was like the "baby overboard" cover up all over again. None of the politicians nor the senior public servants have ever faced the people they falsely accused of fraud. Some people killed themselves and most had their lives ruined and are still dealing with the outcomes of their wrongful accusations. Some people lost their jobs, others couldn't get a credit rating due to these false allegations. It was our version of the postal scandal in the UK where people were wrongfully jailed for committing fraud because a computer system again falsely claimed they had committed fraud and again nobody in govt cared. The Liberal Party here in Australia has never taken responsibility for ruining people's lives because there were on the crusade to find fraud where none existed. It was a political decision to pursue these people. They deliberately removed the checks in the process which would of picked up these errors being made by the flawed algorithm. The Lib's don't like Centrelink and don't believe in social security payments. They still believe anyone who can't get a job is just a dole bludger, then again the Lib's also don't believe in public health care. Their view of the world is that everyone should get a job and if you don't you're just lazy and that tax dollars should not be spent on health care but only on tax breaks for business.

It's a very American thing to talk about people earning "6 figures". American women especially talk about finding a man who is at least 6ft tall and earning six figures when in fact they mean a guy who is earning $1million which is 7 figures not 6. 6 figures is only $100k. If you're going to fish in a kids paddling pool, don't complain about not catching any fish. This comment about earning 6 figures just keeps coming up in comments by Americans, even on social media. They obviously can't count. But that is America these days, they just make shit up. Like Rump re-titling the Dept of 'Defense' the Dept of 'War'. It's like they are living in a Call of Duty world. Rump cannot officially rename the Dept of 'Defense' to the Dept of War, so he just put a Post-it-Note over the actually name. It's like the Gulf of America thing, just another fake name. This re-titling of Dept of 'Defense' is so funny and totally meaningless. Yet one more thing for leaders in other countries to laugh about when it comes to America. It continues to be a clown country led by a criminal. Also the funny image of Hegseth on a firing range shooting at targets that don't move to show he is a warrior. It's a very American image. Like big deal, I've been on a military firing range using military weapons, so fucking what. I don't call myself a warrior like these dipshits like to call themselves.

So Jacinta Price is off the rails again, this time she is against Indians coming to Australia. Not sure why she is suddenly picking on Indian people. She claims that Indian people only vote for the Labor party which is not true simply because people from India come from different faiths and different ancient communities and they vote for various political parties in Australia. They are not an homogeneous group in their political views nor in their respective religions. It's like saying all people of Chinese heritage vote for the Labor party because Hawkie allowed Chinese people to immigrate to Australia in mass numbers after the Tiananmen Square massacre.. People of Chinese heritage vote for both of the two major parties and for independents. What it does show is that Jacinta Price doesn't anything about what comes out of her mouth. Now she is a member of the Lib's, she is losing votes for the Lib's with her latest comments. She has still not apologized to the various groups of the Indian communities in Australia for her comments. They won't forget this at the next elections even at the state level. The LNP do attract the crazies.

The Magnolia tree in the front yard is now in total bloom. It started at the top of the tree and has now progressed to the all the buds on the tree. The lawn under the Magnolia tree is now littered with large pink and white petals from the early blooms. I'm waiting for the lilliums to show themselves on the front lawn. There are a few now popping up in the driveway, but the ones in the front lawn are late in blooming probably from these cold frosty mornings we have been having in Melbourne. They normally start to show themselves in late August. We are starting to get some warmer temps and the overnight temps are almost double what they have been thru Winter but we are also getting more rain. There has been a lot of frost warnings in the past week. We are going back to Winter type temps for the next few days. But the more Spring type temps are coming back next week, but so is the rain. The start of Spring has brought a lot of rain with it and more rain to end the week.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
Evening all,

Seems the price rise of coffee is here to stay. I thought the new coffee price was just a blip but it hasn't gone back down for a while. I've been buying the cheaper coffee, my B choices since the price of my normal coffee has gone up. It's not that I can't afford the new price, it's just that I didn't see a reason for the price rise. Just one more thing that increases the weekly grocery bill.

Jacinta Price keeps having foot in mouth issues. Not surprising she has been now sacked from the front bench to join the parrots in the back bench. She joins people like Barnaby who have been put in the naughty corner. The Lib's loved the fact that an indigenous person was championing the No campaign for the Voice referendum. But she is on her own campaign to take over whichever party she is part of, so you can see that she will form her own party like other politicians who think politics is all about them and of course she will find people to vote for her but they will be small in number. During the Voice referendum Jacinta showed she is a problem child and can't be controlled by any political party. She had a fight with Littleproud and so left the Nat's now she is having the same issue with the leader of the Lib's. She still has not apologised to the Indian community nor met with anyone from any of the Indian communities as they are not from the same religious nor cultural backgrounds. Instead she just doubled down on her comments and decided to attack the leader of her party. So she is not long for the Lib's. She will attract people on the far right as their token black person to show they are not racists.

Aussies living and working the USA have not had their visa's renewed. They can't vote for the Republican party so they are of no use to Rump. So the new rule is that Aussies have to travel back to Australia and re-apply for their visas from the American consulate in Australia then wait for approval which means they have to start the entire process again, it's not just a renewal of an existing visa. The ties between Australia and America is no guarantee of special treatment. Australia being a member of the 5 eyes defence pact is also no guarantee that Australians will be treated with respect from Americans. Basically if you are not American then going to America for any reason is now fraught even if your country is considered a so called ally. America now sees it's allies as any other country they are trying to get money from. If you don't give America protection money, they will go after your citizens in America. Rump is now using tariffs against countries that don't do businesses with his companies.

We keep having the debate of the anti-immigration movement who don't want people from other countries coming to Australia to take jobs away from Australians and taking up housing that Aussies could get. These reasons are quite ironic because there are currently thousands of Aussies working and living in other countries, so aren't Aussies therefore taking away jobs from locals in those countries and taking up housing that locals in those country could be occupying. If other countries didn't allow Aussies to live and work in their respective countries there would be outrage here in Australia. So the very things these anti-immigration campaigners are protesting about, is what Aussies are doing in other country. We are becoming a country of hypocrites. Aussies need to realise we are the foreigners taking away jobs and housing from locals in other countries. So if we want to be allowed the freedom to live and work in another countries then we should allow people from those countries to do the same in Australia. To do otherwise makes us not only hypocrites but puts us above others and that is not the Aussie way. We are the country of the "fair go", we are not America. If we become solely inwards focused we won't get trade nor attract smart people from other countries nor investment. Australian private industry has never supported Australian innovation. Most of our inventions required money from OS to progress to a product. The "black box" is a the prime example. We invented that device but it required money from the USA to get it to patent level and a final product so Americans think they invented it. We also invented WiFi but if you ask anyone, they think it's an American invention. Immigration is not the problem as we have very strict rules as to who can work and live in Australia. Blaming immigrants for all your problems, is scraping the bottom of the barrel and it only increases violence in society. The racists and white nationalists in Australia feed of this as we have seen in Australia in the last couple of weeks. We can have a debate about immigration without the violence. The immigration numbers have actually been reduced not increased. Australia has never been an open borders countries. The mass immigration events were all initiated by the Australian govt of the day as we have needed workers quickly to build Australia and that is still the fact. We need migration to keep up with the demands of a growing country. Without migration we won't be able to afford pensions for people who need them and Australia will shrink which means less govt support because less people are paying tax.

Victoria is the first state to have a treaty with indigenous peoples. It's now in Parliament for formal recognition which has taken about 5yrs from the first steps towards a formal treaty. Of course there are those who oppose it just like there are people who oppose any recognition of indigenous rights. The next phase of truth telling will be another huge step and it will again attract those who don't want the truth to come out similar to what happened in South Africa after apatite was defeated. Something that will never happen in places like WA due to the need use traditional indigenous lands for mining and in far north Qld where the racism has always been high, a treaty with indigenous people would never be tolerated let alone any truth telling of what actually happened up there and in the NT. Australia will never have one nation wide treaty with indigenous people of this country due to the basic racism against indigenous people of the country. Those who support the LNP never want to allow any of the past to come to light because it will show what their ancestors actually did in Australia's history. The truth telling phase here in Victoria will be painful for indigenous people and open the eyes of those who thought they knew Australia's past, and the racism we saw during The Voice referendum will come back into the public space again. The protests against immigration are now firmly cemented in the hands of the neo-Nazi groups. Anyone now supporting these anti-immigration protest have no more excuses not to know that these protests are run by racists and neo-Nazi groups who have taken over this commentary. The counter protesters are growing in number which is the real Australia coming to the fore to take back the public space from these racists. State govts around the country need to go after these racists groups and give police more powers to disrupt these groups as they are nothing more than just thugs who attack women. It was notable that those neo-Nazi's only attacked women at that indigenous site here in Melbourne. When faced with men, they ran away. Now more of those neo-Nazi's have been arrested and the cops are still looking for more of them. They need to be outed on social media including where they work and those business need to explain why they employ neo-Nazi's. These people are not Australians, they just want to commit violence on society and should not be tolerated.

We actually got some Summer type temps here in Melbourne on Monday. Ok it was only for one day and then it rained, but still we actually got close to a Summer type day. Sunday was very gusty which means a change is coming. It was a nice sunny day to just kick back and relax, except for that neighbour who decided to mow his lawn early Sunday which woke me up, just when I was expecting to have a lazy day. I try not to do any work around the house on the weekends. I leave all that for the weekdays. The weather has been warm again for the first two days of this week, but the cold is coming back and the overnight temps are dropping back down to single figures again close to Winter night temps. The day time temp is going to keep swinging all over the place. The average temp in Melbourne at this time of year is usually around 19C with some days in the low to mid 20's C. Spring is when we usually have the largest range of temps in one day. It can go from 7C in the morning to 28C in the late afternoon. We can go from chilly Winter type temps to Summer all in one day.

Bent the back yesterday laying down a floor of bricks in the garage to put some of the furniture on I'm moving out of the house. It was a lot of bricks to move and clean and today I'm feeling a bit sore in various parts of the body. Did some light work today and getting ready for the power outage tomorrow, the third one this year and the second in two months. It's getting fucking annoying. We keep having these power outages because our wires and poles can't cope with the multi-dwellings that are being built in most suburbs now and also roof top solar is too advanced for our power network so they keep having to do patchwork upgrades. Again we are trying to put new technology into an outdated system which is another failure of the previous govt who was in govt for a decade and did fuck all to upgrade any of our infrastructure for the future. It was a deliberate tactic by the LNP govt as was keeping wages low as part of their economic plan whilst at the same time the management of these private companies were getting millions of dollars in bonuses.

Hope the rest of the week is good for you.
 
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