Phyllis went out sometime around midnight last night to 'escort' Kosov home. I was in bed at 11 and I didn't hear him leave. He said the bus didn't turn up, I expect he was late and missed it, so came back home, to Jass created havoc. He told me this morning she had knocked down a sword from their bedroom window ledge and a plate on the lounge room shelves, and when he returned she was sitting on top of  the fridge, which I've never see her do. 

What I noticed when I got up, were small clumps of her fur all over the place, evidence that she had been running around, and her being nervous. It wasn't a little fur, it was a lot. 

I do remember that when I got up in the morning, the balcony door was slightly open, not enough for her to get out. It is too heavy for her to move, but my guess is an insect or more than one came in and she had being in pursuit, and she had been very excited. She hid for most of the day under the lounge chair. 

The new mayor of New York City is very pro public transport, yet flew to meet #47 in Washington DC, when the train trip is only three hours, zooming along at 255/160. How disappointing. What could have a been a positive media story for him, was not. 

Later: My guess was correct. Jass had been chasing a bug. I don't know why he didn't tell me in the first place. There was an insect wing sticking out of her poo the next morning. 

Some very unfortunate political play has happened over deer hunting. Let's begin with the fact that before white people arrived in Australia, there were no hard hooved animals in Australia. Cattle, horses, sheep, buffalo, pigs and deer were introduced by white people. While cattle and sheep are managed as farm animals, wild populations of horses, buffalo and deer exist. Horses and buffalo are partly controlled by government contracted exterminators, the others are not generally except by private hunters.

Hard hooved animals do terrible damage to our fragile environment and should be eliminated. 

Deer have no protection in Australia beyond cruelty to animals laws, except for in my state, Victoria. They are able to be shot by hunters, but otherwise they are a protected species. They are often hit by cars, causing terrible damage to cars, and I should think danger to those who run into them,  and aside from dingoes and wild dogs, they don't have a natural predator. Why has this protection nonsense just be reinforced by our state government? 

In my view it is solely down to the hunting lobbyists. They don't want to see the pest species eliminated because they won't be able to hunt them. The Labor(sic) state government has caved into pressure from the hunting lobby, over the environment and motorist safety, and it is a disgrace. 

With our preferential voting system, I've always voted Labor, or directed my preference to Labor after voting for The Greens. It will be a pointless exercise, but I will inform the Labor Party of my disgust and disappointment. If enough people do as I do, maybe it could make a change. 

My apologies if I've upset your Bambi feelings, but it is an important environmental and road safety matter, and we don't want to end up like Debby mentioned in her post referring to deer. 

No matter how much many despise MAGA, what it stands for and what it preaches, no one should be killed for their political views, and they are entitled to voice their opinions in public, as long as it isn't hate speech.

From what I can understand the victim, one Charlie Kirk, was a preacher of hate speech. As he was shot, he was talking about transgender people being guilty of more mass shootings than??? I know this 'fact' has been well and truly debunked. So, I suggest he was talking hate speech. That of course doesn't make him in any way a target for murder.

It disturbs me that such a preacher of hate is allowed to speak on university campuses, and if he holds strong MAGA views, that automatically makes him a chronic liar and distorter of the truth.

What further disturbed me was that a man in the crowd who was interviewed by media, had brought along his three year old daughter to hear lies and hate. I think MAGA and #47 are so bad, letting children hear the vitriol they spout, it is a form of child abuse. 

What is obviously happening in the US is not democracy at work but an extreme abuse of power. The country has turned into one where political differences can no longer be ignored to keep society polite and workable, but of two different sides venomously hating each other. I think this began with #45's presidency, exacerbated by Covid and the planted doubt about the result of the 2021 election leading to criminal behaviour as the White House was attacked. 

Murder is wrong, but don't expect me to shed any tears over Kirk's death. 

Australians are protesting: 

More than 100,000 pro-Palestine protesters marched on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Local protest organisers estimate 25,000 people gathered in Melbourne, marching through the CBD before their demonstration concluded at the King Street Bridge, which was blocked by a heavy police presence.

While I do think Palestinians should have their own country, Hamas and its supporters are no friend to people like me. They were no friend of innocent people in Israel. Hamas took hostages and actively or by neglect, killed many. But the disgraceful and horrible actions of Hamas has paled into insignificance, compared to the response of Israel. 

Yep, if the media shows starving and dying children, you have lost the public opinion war. 

I am not pro Palestine or pro Israel. I just don't want to see people starving to death, or dying because of a lack of medical treatment. I don't want to see doctors, nurses and patients bombed and killed. 

I really don't think Israel can take a high moral stance as the situation presents itself 

Two Sundays ago I was sipping coffee in Swanston Street, Melbourne. It was the usual Sunday pro Palestine march passing by, that disrupts our trams. I hate it. The disruptions make visiting the city difficult. 

But what I did notice among the procession of protesters was quite a number of older grey haired white women. When they start marching, and the Doctors Wives start saying things about starving children to their husbands, Houston and Jerusalem, you have a problem.

Yesterday was so busy. There was terrible condensation on the windows, and the water on the sills had to be mopped up. A friend of Phyllis arrived at 10am.I went out soon after and did not return for three hours.

They were out when I returned home, and at 2.30 Phyllis was supposed to be ready for a driving lesson but he was nowhere to be seen. We went out a little bit later with Kosov and their friend Sarah in the back seat, remaining silent as I told them, via the big blue shed for some stationary for them. I had a headache after returning, and my leg was aching from riding the invisible brake. My droning on to Phillip with driving advice had sent Kosov and Sarah to sleep. 

I had forgotten Ex Sis in Law was parking here while she and a relative went into town to dine and see a show. She called 20 minutes before their arrival, and I let them into the carpark and then let them into the building. 

I made them tea and surprisingly, my already opened Aldi ginger biscuits weren't stale. Go chemicals. They went off to do their thing and Phyllis and Kosov went out to buy bento boxes for their meal, which is rare and also rare, they ate the same time I did, they having picked up a hamburger I had ordered on their way back.

The theatre goers returned home and we chatted for a bit and off they went. It was 11.30 by then, later than I normally stay up but I feel fine this morning. 

This is a bit of a nothing post, but I'll publish it as it will quickly go stale. 

There are so many adjectives that could be used to add to #47's name and not one of them is good. Contrast him to a truly great leader, a statesmen, a fine speaker, a man of grace, kindness, honesty and decency. 

June 14th

Barack Obama Appreciation Day.

#47 made ridiculous claims when he met the South African president. The idiot showed photos and footage from The Congo, nothing to do with South Africa. The president of South Africa, who I know nothing about, conducted himself with grace and dignity against the absurd verbal and inaccurate assault by #47. 

I suppose I could look it up but the location of the small town in South Africa where our coach left us to amuse ourselves for a couple hours, was quite interesting. There was a cafe with indoor and outdoor seating, which included a pub with large tv screens. There were a few local people there, all black. The staff were all black. Apparently white farmers and other whites visit the pub to watch sporting events and have a drink together. No black mates though. It is still a very divided country. 

Yet the owner of the business was one very old white woman, who was in charge of the till, surrounded by black staff, we being the only other white people in sight. 

In the middle of nowhere, she seemed to feel quite safe surrounded by black people. 

I know in Zimbabwe, once Rhodesia, there have been serious issues for white farmers and murders of farmers, but #47 has exaggerated, as usual, and goodness knows what his motive is about that, aside from discrediting black people.

Daily #47 comes up with new nonsense, but keep the faith. He has three more years of damage to make,  but it can be repaired. He will back off close to elections.  I wonder why he does not care about the world thinks of him.

If I've missed your posts or not commented when I should have, this is the reason why. I rely on The Old Reader to read blogs. It is normally good but is on its third breakdown in two weeks. While I pay only a $1 or so a month, it is very annoying.

With our media dominated by the commercial Murdoch press and Fairfax media, aka tv Channel 9 Media, our ABC is to be treasured, being government funded and free of commercial and notionally free of government influence.

Both private media companies are very involved in daily newspapers too, and also country daily and weekly newspapers.

I pay a bit over $30 a month for access to my local paper, The Age. The gives me access to Sydney's equivalent local paper and other digital only interstate papers. 

But some twelve years ago an electronic media disrupter arrived in Australia, The Guardian, with its English origins being the Manchester Guardian, a very old and very well respected newspaper, based in Manchester, England. 

When politicians talk the talk, it will cut them down.

When commercial avarice is apparent, it will tell you.

It investigates. I pay $100 a year as a donation and it is worth every cent but generally the online paper is free to read.

The paper's chief editor for the last ten years, Katherine Viner, sent out an email to note whatever occasion and there were some links to terrific reads. I took the time to read them. 

Former New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, post office. 

A female Somali refugee who has made a good life for herself with English citizenship, but it wasn't easy.

This one is heartbreaking, and if you read neither of the above, read this heartbreaking one about what how arguably the best public health system in the world failed. Sorry, it won't cheer you up at all. How Martha died. There are lessons to be learnt.

I am not sure where I was going with this old post draft. 

About twenty years ago while driving Mother somewhere on one of our motorways, a driver did something bad in front of me and in the presence of Mother, who had slapped me as child for saying bloody, I dropped the c word. You c***. It is not a word I normally use. I can't remember using it since. I immediately apologised to Mother, who continued on telling me about her medical woes without seemingly to notice. Nearly twenty years later, Mother was correct and her medical woes proved to be fatal, with a lot of medical woes along the way.

While I've never mixed among the lower classes in England, apparently they use the c word without abandon. The word becomes boring with overuse and loses its effectiveness. But like gay men embraced homophobic terms, so too are women embracing the c word. I recall a beggar calling me a fucking old poof. He stated the obvious. His insult was a fail.

I am never sure if is appropriate to describe a black American as being black. I think the preferred term is African American. That's fine with me. Whatever. But I laugh when I hear stories of Americans who visit England describe black English people as African Americans, even though the black English have no connection to America. In Britain, you are British, and your colour and racial heritage is not so publicly important. You are British first. The plight of disadvantaged African Americans in the US is the equivalent in Britain of the plight of the disadvantaged British. 

It is a queer thing that so called African Americans, many who have been in the US for far longer than their British counterparts have been in Britain, yet they need to be distinguished as Afro Americans, and not just Americans. 

Whatever, black American, black British and black Australian, they all face discrimination. It is just not so in your face in Britain and Australia, and there are programmes to promote an inclusive workplace. That has just disappeared in the US. This Afro American term is very queer. The first black slaves arrived to America in the early 1600s, yet they need to be name qualified beyond just an American by the colour of their skin. I am not naïve enough to suggest your best mate is a black person, yet here, I do see socialisation between the Indian immigrants and white Australians, through work, neighbours and of course food. 

The leader of Australia's His Majesty's Opposition Party is one Peter Dutton, an extreme conservative, and he would like to do many of the things that #47 has been doing in the US. I gave some thought to a insulting adaption to his name and the best I could do is Duttrump. Yes, the wrongly named conservative Liberal Party leader is Peter Duttrump. 

Once having a Tesla car was a bit of thing for we more common folk to admire. Now, owning a Tesla is a badge of shame, and the richest man in the world has ruined his public image, although I must say it was already ruined by him calling one of the brave divers a paedophile, a man who rescued children who were trapped in a water filled cave in Thailand. Don't we just want to spit at Muskrat. Bloody Boer. 

--- 

"I'm off to work, Andrew" said Phyllis at 9.30. "I'll be home early". 

He wasn't and arrived home at about 8pm. I said to him that my day was not great. Why? You said you would be home early, and that was part of it, and you weren't.

Sorry. When would you be worried? 

When I told Kosov to call you and you didn't answer.

When.

Maybe 10pm.

What if no one knew where I was and I had disappeared?

Fuck off Phyllis.

---

Birds are behaving strangely. I've never seen so many birds flying past the High Rise. They seem so busy with their flying with intent. Could it be related to the Queensland cyclone?

Here are some not so calming cloud photos. Whatever chaos we folk on earth cause, clouds go on.

I came across this US YouTuber Adam Mockler and I sat mesmerised for an hour. While in some ways I think he is a bit too clever for his own good, he does nail it, in clip after clip. I love that in such a short time, chickens are coming home to roost for #47 voters. 

And speaking of the US, I was not alone when I thought bad thoughts about the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthCare. He led a truly evil company, and according to polls, some 41% of young people under the age of 30 thought the murder was 'acceptable'. 

Viva la Economic Black Out Day.

#45 held a party at Madison Square Garden. I was truly disturbed by the hate from some of the guest speakers directed at Hilary Clinton and Harris, let alone the vulgarity. I don't think I've heard anything like that in politics in my life. Is this person seriously running as leader of the number one country in the western world? 

Who knows? Maybe the 'basket of deplorables' will vote for the execrable #45 again. As I was reminded today, women folk, your vote is private. No one among your family and friends will know how you vote. Please do the right thing, if not for yourself, but your American sisters. Women have already died because of refused abortions. 

Clover Moore has been Lord Mayor of Sydney for twenty years. She was also an independent state politician for 34 years until rules were changed that disallowed being a Lord Mayor and a state politician.

She has always had a large gay fan base, and there are many reasons why. While Sydney is not my city, I have watched with interest over the years and generally she has performed well. She made a grave mistake by pushing for an underground power system for the city's new tram lines in a major street, rather than the trams collecting power from overhead wires, a system that has been around for a century plus. As the grumpy old gentlemen who have a technical interests in trams predicted, the below ground power system is unreliable and has led to many partial closures of the new tram system within the city.

Whatever, it is hard to imagine Sydney without Clover at the helm and she has quite a legacy of achievements. But as a shallow gay man, doesn't she just look fabulous at her age of 79.

I fear for the good citizens of a once great nation. I wish I could utter the phrase, "Make America Great Again" but it sticks in my throat because of the connotations. I feel for devoted Republican voters. Decent people would never vote now for #45, yet where can they vote as committed Republicans?  Perhaps the phrase 'with equality for all' could be added, and better still acted upon. Are we really seeing a grave decline of a once great nation? It has happened before for various reasons.

No one, not no one could possibly vote for that man.

This is one of the more sensible answers to what I'm sure is a Quora troll question. Yes, statistics can be dodgy but...

I question a few things in the below, that Canada is #1 in healthcare, that #45 is ignorant of the issues in his country and that 15,000 young Americans emigrate each year. The latter could be true though. There are a lot of Americans in Australia but until they speak, we don't know that, and even then, we can't tell the difference between 'an educated' American accent and a Canadian accent, and there quite a few Canadians here too. 

Take this for what you will but it is hardly a sole source of news of the seeming decay of the US. The country has always seemed a bit dog eat dog to me. But I never get that feeling from US bloggers, who seem to be very decent and caring people. I have to keep in mind that generally, we bloggers are quite comfortable people in society. 

About a year ago I read the best words on freedom and it was simply this, citizens of the US are free to.... Citizens in Europe are free from...

I expect this is a troll question and a troll reply, but the writer has gone to the bother of making the spelling American.

Let's be honest for once, you aren't taught, you are brainwashed. Start at the top, you have been told for decades the U.S. is the greatest country on Earth.

At the end of World War II, that may have been true. After all, Europe and the Far East were smoldering ruins. Canada was even less damaged than the U.S.

Since the end of the war the U.S has been on a steady slide from the greatest to a second-world country into third-world.

The U.S. is no longer the greatest.

• Freedom — U.S. not in the top 50 countries.
• Healthcare — general healthcare ranked 31st.
• Healthcare — the new, medico/legal women's healthcare system ranked 77th.
• Education — 22nd place.
• Quality of life — 16th place, just ahead of China and Russia.
• Crime — 656 mass casualty events in 2023 in which more than 3,800 people were killed or wounded.
• Crime — leading cause of childhood deaths — gunshot wounds.

There are many more statistics like this but Americans ignore them. They clinging to the old statistics because they can't face the truth of American decline.

Don't think Donny Trump knows any of this and he has absolutely no idea how to make America great again.

Infrastructure is nothing. It will cost tens of billions of dollars over at least a decade to improve education and education is a department Trump wants to cut.

Until Americans recognise and do something about it, within a few years the U.S. will be classified as a third-world country.

Over 15,000 young Americans annually see their country's decline and emigrate. They know their country's attitude will not change and the decline will continue.

By definition Republican voters are not evil people, just misguided in my opinion, and that is about my personal politics. I feel bad for rusted on Republican voters as they have no where to go other than vote for the disgusting #45. 

Vote Blue, and you black people, get out there and vote against the evil despot. 

Whatever political allegiance, how could anyone possibly vote for such an appalling person, now a felon to add to his disgraceful history.

An attempt at humour involving the film Mrs Harris goes to Paris. 

This Harris person seems like she might be a good fit as President of the United States. I wondered why as Vice President, she kept a lowish profile. Ha, she was saving and accumulating her ammunition. She remained a respectful junior to President Biden until he retired. Look at her big....forehead. There is a lot of brain in there. 

Her or the party's choice as her Vice President running mate seems to be a good one, a decent fellow with a lot of experience and perhaps better at connecting to Hillary's accurate but unwise phrase, the basket of deplorables. 

OK, I'll put my brave hand down with my left foot and call it. Harris will win. Surely Americans are over the god awful orange and hysterical #45 who brought such terrible division to the country, as the world watched wide eyed and gobsmacked. Sadly many in the world lost respect for the US. It just seemed too crazy to comprehend. 

You know one really good thing about the US is that behind the scenes, administrative government goes on. At times fraudsters will be caught out. Corruption will be rooted out. Dodgy companies will be called to account. Large and powerful companies will be questioned about their practices in a public forum. #45 will go down in history as a shocker. 

Seems kind of like my own country really, reactive rather than proactive.