The rights and the wrongs

Three years ago the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas attacked very innocent Israeli musical festival goers. Many died, many were taken hostage, and then dying. It was so awful to comprehend. 

Israel then attacked Palestine itself, with far many more innocent Palestinians killed, and those that weren't survived with great deprivation of food, housing and medical care.

Being so personally directed, the attack on Israelis seems worse to me than instantly dying by an Israeli bomb or bullet. A moot point really. Israel has just gone too far, and as I see it, Israeli settlers moving into Palestinian land and targeting resident Palestinians and being allowed to do so by the the government of Israel is a disgrace.

So, now a rapper in the US, as a support act, seems like he has brought down a tour by British musician Ed Sheeran. Although with a history of being anti Israel, he spoke a few words at a concert concluding with 'Free Palestine'.

He was banned from future performances by the owner of the venue, who owns other venues, and he was banned from them too. So much for the US First amendment, mentioning freedom of speech (I am not a great one for the absolute right to free speech). 

Subsequently other support act musicians have withdrawn for Sheeran's tour. What a bloody god damn disaster.

It is disappointing that the very rich Sheeran is sitting on the fence about the matter. In a more minor way, similar has happened here in Australia. 

I am not anti Jewish, as you long time readers will know. But I am very anti the extremist right wing Netanyahu Israeli government. Rather than my rant, you read about it here at The Guardian. 

Just Sayin' 'Bout Climate Change

A decade or so ago we stayed in a Fairmont Hotel next to Lake Louise. Feeding down to the lake was the impressive Victoria Glacier. Within the hotel were some historical photos from the 1920s. Back then the glacier was wider and came much further down the its carved valley to the lake than what I could now see for ourselves.

Nothing had really hit me so personally about climate change until seeing that photo as my eyes alternated between the photo and what I could see. I knew about climate change, I believed in the science but here seemed to be living proof of a much reduced glacier.

It is early days in terrible raging river destruction in Nepal and Tibet, with a horrendous loss of life, include dual figures of Australians killed. It is also early days to call the cause of the flood being a result of climate change, but I'd put pretty good money on it being warming glacial ice breaking away and causing the flood.

Most of the world is making good noises and some even taking lots of action to stem climate change, but Fuckwit #47 has pulled back on clear climate science in his country. Just one more reason to despair about the future of the US.

Rising sea levels are already shrinking the shores of low lying South Pacific islands. It's gonna be us, Australia and New Zealand, who will have to pick up the pieces of no long inhabitable islands. We can call them Climate Change Refugees. We can't let them drown. Well, it won't be slowly rising seas that does them in. It will be events of nature, cyclones, sea storms, high tides etc, all making island living more dangerous.

A few cents

There is something in life that really get on my goat up my nose, and that is bank card fees.

There is another, a public holiday surcharge at cafes and restaurants when you visit on a public holiday. Yes, staff are paid higher on public holidays, but it is a known amount and should be part of the business owner's budget forecast and overall general pricing to what is sold to include the extra public holiday costs.

But let me focus on the first, card surcharges. They really took off during the Covid years, when people stopped using cash. The surcharge was generally 1.2% to 1.5%. Translating to now, a $5.00 cup of coffee will cost $5.07. Some business really tried to rip off customers with excessively high fees.

I argued with staff in a cheap Asian bakery in Balaclava, where she wanted to charge me $1.25 for a 90 cent bread roll because I refused to pay, and nor did I have any cash. Five years later, I've never been back, although I have wanted to. 

Worse is when you are charged the fee when there isn't a way to avoid paying, like paying cash. You can choose a cafe that doesn't add the card fee, but when booking a concert ticket or a plane flight, you really don't have a choice. 

I hate this extra fee. I don't care if they want to charge me $5.10 for my coffee, that includes the fee, but I don't want to see it as a surcharge added after I pay by card. It needs to be the listed price.

I remember being in New York City in 2015, I think, and what the price label or on a menu was not the price you paid. I think two compulsory taxes were added to the bill and there was an opt out environmental tax. I won't even mention tips, necessary because businesses are allowed to not pay a living wage. Tipping is a insidious disease. 

Finally in what I expect will be very popular, the Federal government is banning the card fees, as of October.

For that loss of seven cents on my cup of coffee, usurious banks are increasing account keeping fees (I don't pay any), and reducing flyer points, etc etc. That's fine with me. 

The price I see on a menu or a booking, or a label, is the price I expect to pay. And only a tip for something out of the ordinary, like if I spill my drink on myself and staff help to clean up. I don't think that is unreasonable.  

Hashtag I hate Trump

Another old unpublished post is set free.

It seems like California is the most progressive state in the US. It is certainly the largest by population and by economy. CA is the power house state in the US. Yet, how often has the President visited the state during his second term in office. Just once, in 2025 after the terrible Los Angeles fires, and even then tried to blame the state government for the fires. 

So why? Is he too old to travel? Or is that he knows he is generally hated on the west coast and there are no votes to be gained by visiting these states?

This question arose in my mind because I never hear a news story about #47 in California. I've never heard it reported that #47 avoids the west coast, but when my suspicions were confirmed by a little checking, it really is extraordinary that he never visits the most populous and economic powerhouse state. 

Of 59 interstate trips, (after discounting Florida, where he be visiting his ghastly gilt 'palace') in 2025 he made only one visit to California.

Of  15 trips, so far this year, none have been to California.

This would be unheard of in Australia, although at times federal politicians do tend avoid states where they are unpopular, but they know they must at the least fly the flag at times.

Aside from enriching himself and his cohorts, I don't understand why he is trying to destroy democracy, inclusion, world respect for the US, its long kinship with Canada, the decent hard working poor, the less fortunate in society, in fact alienating everyone he possibly can, except for his demented MAGA folk, the Basket of Deplorables.

I once thought it would not take long for the US to recover after #47, but now I am less certain. Other countries, as the learnt lesson was to future proof themselves during Covid, have now diversified their economies from the US. 

It is not just #47. It is the Republican Party that tolerates his outrageousness, the Democrats who vote for his policies and don't call him out. Worst of all is the 1/3 of voters, 77 million, who actually voted for #47.

A tax cheat, a multiple bankrupt, a rapist, a paedophile and the creator of ICE, which is like a paramilitary army, that kill US citizens who have done nothing wrong, and a war monger.

I just don't understand but what I do understand is that the world now needs to protect itself from US interests and the government's outrageous actions. The government can no longer be considered a reliable friend nor partner to Australia. 

Bad Bunnings

In blog posts I refer to it as the big green shed. In reality it's the Bunnings hardware chain. It has pretty well killed small local hardware stores because the sheer number of products it has in its very large stores.

There is no problem visiting Bunnings if you are in a motor car, but if you visit Bunnings in West Footscray by foot, it is dreadful. I visited the store yesterday by train for the second time, the store being right next to West Footscray Station. I stopped off at Footscray for a bite to eat and coffee. 

The store is easier to visit by public transport than my local Bunnings in Port Melbourne. Last visit to the store, I ended up walking through the underground carpark to enter the store. This time, I was determined to find the main entrance. I did find an entrance from street level, but as I walked towards the sensor triggered electric doors, as I guessed they did not open.

The only way to enter was via the carpark. There weren't any indicators to pedestrians of where to enter the building. I looked at where people were moving in the vast carpark and worked out that those very distant figures were headed to the entrance, with a travelator to take you up to the store. 

As I said, the car  park is vast and was far from full, so cars travel very fast in the carpark. There aren't marked walkways for pedestrians.

The store has a railway station across the street, three bus routes with a stop near the station and there is lots of housing nearby, yet without a pedestrian entrance.

To not have a pedestrian street entrance is a disgrace, let alone one near passing public transport stops and the station and I am not sure how this was allowed. Did the local council, City of Maribyrnong,  approve of this when the Bunnings store plan was presented?

Happy fourth of July to my US readers.

Scandals

It is remarkable how similar the English Post Office scandal is to our own Robodebt scandal.

I've just watched the first of a series of a tv programme The People versus Robodebt. It is probably geoblocked if you are a foreign type. As I understand it our social welfare government department, Centrelink, took payment beneficiary information from the tax department of annual income, whereas Centrelink payments are based on fortnightly income. 

In both situations, it soon became apparent that there were issues. The Murdoch media in both England and Australia both ignored it, both supporters of the conservative governments of the time. It was left to other media to tell the story in Australia, as pure logical information came spewing out. Yet, no one acted. The government buried its head in the sand, only occasionally popping up to say welfare cheating was wrong and it was committed to stop it.

Some media kept fighting, along with advocates for social security recipients, legal people, and those within the system, who would bob their heads up, to have them quickly cut down by their seniors.

Even now with hindsight, like the Post Office scandal, it is hard to understand how long it went on when it was clearly wrong. In both cases, there were suicides by some of those affected. Houses were lost, marriages and partnerships broke. 

I am angry that I didn't do more. I am angry that our media didn't do more. I am angry that our common garden variety politicians didn't act. I am most of all angry with then Prime Minister Scott Morrison's conservative government. 

And in another parallel, no one has had their head chopped off, and someone's damned well should have been severely punished, in both cases. 

Let's see what happens with extraordinary Grenfell Tower inquiry, still ongoing eight years after 70 odd people died in the fire, in one of the most important and richest cities in the world, one that couldn't provide people with basic building fire protection. 

Thursday Thoughts

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. 

A wee rant

There are a number of YouTube clips showing Trump voting Americans in great distress as his policies come into force. Once clip I saw showed a Trump voting woman in tears and praying, and asking for prayers, because the father of children and his mother were being deported to Venezuela by ICE. 

Another farmer of a large agricultural property said her farming staff had all disappeared and were not coming to work in fear of ICE, and deportation. She thinks her farm will go into bankruptcy, yet she voted for Trump.

There are clips of an almost empty Las Vegas. Canadians are not visiting Florida, and are selling their properties there, getting rid of US timeshares, as one blogmate has done.

There are clips about Canada withholding super phosphate from the US, that is its farmers. While I disapprove of Canada PM's backing down over payments for digital technology, apparently Canada has been working hard to diversify its economy, reaching out and into the rest of the world. What ever the **** rare earth magnets are, they are essential in this modern world and China, being the major supplier,  has stopped exporting them to the US.

Some of these clips show a sense of glee about how the US is seemingly collapsing. 

Very reputable news sites, including conservative organisations, are calling out #47's ridiculous claims of how well the US economy is travelling. 

Whatever the truth, I too feel glee about Trump supporters suffering, and those who may have voted Democrat, if they got off their arses and actually voted.

But for all of you who voted Democrat, and as is said after school gun shootings, you are in my thoughts and prayers. 

Seriously, you decent US citizens have my empathy and sympathy, and I'm not judging you by what #47 and his henchfolk are doing.   

Bits

My newest Mondegreen: I wasn't really paying attention to the tv and when perhaps Gardening Australia was being broadcast, my ears pricked up, as I heard 'To bully him'. What??? It was so out of context. Fortunately the Fetch box allows me to go back, even though I am not actively recording. It was the single word 'tabouli'. Yes, I did have my hearing aids in my ears. 

There was a cool new show on ABV TV last night where piano players (I could have used the word pianists, but I am not sure they all are) play in a public space and they are listened to by Australian pianist Andrea Lam and the internationally known, Harry Connick Jr. The 103 year old pianist competitor probably doesn't have much of a future in the music industry. 

Well, the Australian election result was a shock. The Labor Party won with a landslide. The last time I tuned in, the state of Tasmania has no conservative party Liberal/National Party members. The conservative Liberal Party was pretty well wiped out in all Australian capital cities. 

My opinion is the leader of the opposition party, the Liberals, has an ugly character and came with so much baggage as he was a member of a former ruling conservative government. Once he announced his policy of the sacking of a huge number of public servants, DOGE like, and a stupid member sprouting Make Australia Great Again, he was a goner. How to scare the voters #101. Then he sprouted off about the first nation welcome to country speech used at many public ceremonies, suggesting it may be overused. I don't think it is. My sister had a brief welcome to country speech at the wedding to her wife. Mother later remarked, was that really necessary. In my mother's mind, aborigines were trouble. She was a person of her time and quite racist, conflicted by her lovely and kind Filipina neighbour, and the medical staff from wherever in the world who looked after her for so many years.

The Murdoch media, and its newspaper editorials suggesting to vote for the conservative party would be a good thing to do, was clearly out of step with the Australian populace. As for the execrable Sky News, my god, what a fuck up this also Murdoch media tv station is. 

The fallen leader of the conservative party went down the road of nuclear power, on a long time line. Nuclear power is great and perfectly safe, until it isn't. Even one of most technically advanced country, Japan, could not ensure nuclear safety. 

As I type, Phyllis and Kosov are making my dinner. My Meals on Wheels, technically three days worth were delivered today. 

I did something wrong on my desktop and screen shots can no longer be found in Pictures/Screenshots, after pressing Windows+Print Screen. The pics are saved, but I cannot find out where. It took me some time, but I found out that I can press Windows+Control+S, and that works for me as they are saved to Clipboard, a place in the Windows tree I'd never heard of. Is it a new name for Notepad? 

Back to politics. I stayed in accommodation with my ABI (Acquired Brain Injury) Brother in Ballarat for a family gathering. More later about that later, but we were back at our digs and were watching the election results on the Saturday night as we drank a wee dram. I was astonished when he said he voted for Dutton, the conservative party leader. I expressed something that indicated I was mega surprised. He replied, I voted for Jason Wood. I know him and he is a nice bloke.  After hearing Mr Wood interviewed on radio yesterday, he seemed like a decent person and not one of the hard right members of the conservative party. He seemed like a reasonable person and that is how the conservative Liberal Party, that seems to have become a party of extreme #47 like policies, needs to rebuild itself to recover from its devastating loss of popularity, full of reasonable people. 

Dutton was a government minister who could have stood up and spoken up about the disgraceful Robodebt scandal. I can never forgive any of the party at the time for Robodebt that led to suicides. Beyond the failures of men in the party, it certainly in the future should not be led by woman who was also Robodebt compliant. Yes you, Sussan Ley. You cannot be a part of an invigorated refresh of the conservative Liberal Party. 

My neighbour HH is driving me in her motor car to a Buddhist cafe I know not where for lunch on Wednesday. What on earth is Buddhist food like? One may not like surprises, but one lives for them. 

Queer things

OMG, this was the worst (maybe) public transport map I have ever seen, and it came from the official Public Transport Victoria website. No, the 604 bus does not run through Fawkner Park. The footpaths are narrow and it would be so inappropriate. Enlarged, what the 604 does when it arrives at Anzac Station gives no indication of the reality. Whether it was from my complaint or not, the map has now been corrected for both issues.

What hasn't been corrected in spite of my complaint is the timing of the bus. The 72 tram from Chapel Street to Anzac Station has twice the number of stops as the 604 bus and the tram travelling time is around 11 minutes. The 72 tram from Prahran is usually very busy. The time for the bus to travel the same distance is around 17 minutes, in both directions, so there is much waiting at stops along the way. As my Swedish death cleaning continues, I came across some old bus timetables and in 2005 the trip time for what I think then was the 220 bus, from Elsternwick Station to Domain Road, the location of Anzac Station, was 26 minutes. It is now 44 minutes.  

I saw this happen. The tram was correctly turning into Toorak Road from St Kilda Road when a food delivery motor cyclist went through a red light right in front of the tram and was hit. He or she seemed uninjured and so lucky. At the point where the motor cyclist and tram collided, the tram driver would have had no peripheral angle of vision to see motor cyclist coming. 

About three years ago we attended the funeral of Ron Walker, aka Miss Candee, and I blogged about it at the time, but that was on my old blog. The phone card featuring Miss Candee was for making calls from public telephones, if you recall what they were. 

I thought this map might impress JayCee who lives on the Isle of Man with the direct reference to the island, but not really. IOM seems to be in Northern Ireland. 

Isn't this just such a lovely photo. I will guess it is a Victorian Railways country train at Spencer Street Station getting up a head of diesel smoke before departure. 

I don't see the need to separate toilets between male and female, but this sign while accurate, doesn't sit comfortably for me. Suggestions? 

We have free trade with the US

Yep, in 2005 Australia and the US signed a free trade agreement, that seems was not worth the paper it was written upon. 

#47 slapped a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imported from Australia. While that will affect Australia, we are not paying. The citizens of the US will ultimately pay. In the US, people on the street seem to have no understanding of this. They think Australia will be paying. No, it is US companies who import steel and aluminium that will pay, and US citizens will ultimately pay. 

The is a day coming soon where Australia can expect more tariffs over some rather tenuous matters.

He does not like the ban, as I believe is also in place in Europe and Great Britain, on the importation of American beef. Given we export beef to the US, this is puzzling. The reason we and the aforesaid areas of the world won't import US beef is that it is full of anti biotics and growth hormones, with the cattle often grown in an intensive farming manner. Nah, we don't want that. Aim for clean and green. 

Prescribed medical drug prescriptions are subsidised in Australia. At the moment the cost can not exceed around $31 and if the current government is re-elected, this will drop to $25. For poor old age pensioners like me, it is capped at around $7. I don't understand what the issue is here, but I guess it is about US drug company profits. The drug companies are lobbying the US government very hard to punish Australia. 

Our government is pressing for pay to view companies like Netflix to include some local content. I don't think that is unreasonable, but again, it is problematic for the US. 

Nor is it unreasonable for Meta and other large US tech companies to pay the content producers for direct copies and links to their sites. Will be hear of a tariff slapped on us for that? 

Where there are joint US and Australian research facilities here, #47 wants to know effectively about Australia's diversity policies etc. I assume funding would be cut if the expectations are not met. 

Many of the above are direct interference in Australian domestic policies. 

I read somewhere today that the world needs to show a bit more appreciation for the money US has spent around the world, more than compared to say Europe. Bah, America has only spent money where it sees there is an advantage in funding countries, people and organisations, so save me from 'What we have done for the world'. That is just what countries, including my own, do. 

Let's end with a laugh. 

I felt like writing

I don't want to be unkind, but how many more times will the dead cat in Rome bounce? Ok, that was unkind.

While it's not always the case, sometimes when a State Premier leaves office midterm, a poisoned chalice is handed to woman. This is the case now in my state, Victoria. Jacinta Allen is a very decent and competent person, and while she has such a good margin for the next state election, the government is stale. The new opposition leader is a fresh face and so far, quite electable. If he can keep his gob shut, and that of his shadow ministers, he is in with a chance. 

Many words have been written about #47's meeting with Zelenskyy. I can't add to them more than it was cringeworthy and clearly aimed to belittle a leader of a country that has been invaded by a powerful aggressor. Pure school boy bullying by #47 and his bitch boy. 

As I type this a cyclone is approaching the state of Queensland, looking like it will be a direct hit on its capital city, Brisbane and south to the Gold Coast, with extreme and extended rain, and with tidal surges. 

I saw my doctor today, just to get more prescriptions for drugs what keep me alive. Did I mind if a trainee doctor sat in? OMG, he was stunning! I wanna have his babies. I don't know what triggered this, but my doctor, after me becoming both a widower and an old age pensioner, now always bulk bills me. He loses money, but that should be standard for those in need, not that I am saying I am. If I was charged, the government would pay about $40+ and I would pay about $50. I think he receives more than the $40 if he bulk bills me, but he certainly ends with a good bit less from my visit. A standard appointment is 15 minutes. I don't think I've ever been 15 minutes. My needs are simple. 

Kosov went off very early today for a class, and left me a lovely note. Phyllis also went off early a couple of hours later. Again the bahn mi was sold out, so he brought home bread rolls to make bahn mi, but has now has gone to church for....yesterday was pancake day...ah, Ash Wednesday. There is some chicken and salad in flat bread. That will do for my dinner. It is just cooling after being in the airfryer. I better eat now. 

Back with more ranting. I was rather lucky to get Phyllis as a boarder, and Kosov turned out to be a bonus. Really, if you are alone and have the space, take on an overseas student boarder.  Make an agreement that after one month if it isn't working for you or the boarder, either of you can say so, without explanation and end the deal. You need to state some very clear rules initially. Don't imagine that they will know what is right and wrong in your home. Define your spaces and theirs, and what they can do. Define what you don't want moved or tampered with. Your living room is your space, which includes your tv and what you like to watch, or listen to on a radio. They are welcome to your space, but it is your space. 

You are the boss of your home, and they need to understand that from the word go. Once this is established, you can then turn into a softer and more indulgent person. You can then note what young people are interested in, their musical tastes, and if they are foreign, their culture and practices. It's all so interesting, and at times a little challenging. As an older person, I quite like being challenged and to have rethink what I believe in and think. 

I advertised on Gay Share on a whim just a few months after Ray died. While I was so busy with dealing with things after Ray's death, the apartment felt so empty, with two spare bedrooms and a bathroom and toilet. Phyllis' response was immediate and he quickly paid a deposit. I took the ad down. 

Should you share your home with a student boarder, it can take you out of yourself and give some meaning to your life beyond your own, in my case anyway, self indulgent life. 

The home front

I had planned a Sunday Selections, but instead you can read my little venting rant, or not. 

I took on one tenant last year and it was great. Phyllis is smart, artistic, a good instinctive cook, funny, well groomed, helpful, adaptable and observant of how I did things at home. Then his friend who quickly became his loving partner arrived, staying occasionally, then more frequently. I put limits on how often he could stay initially, but once Phyllis returned to see his family in India in late November, things changed.

I don't know if it was a misunderstanding or not, but the day Phyllis left, I asked Kosov if he wanted to stay. In my mind I meant that one night, but I wasn't so specific in what I said. Kosov just stayed on, without paying rent, with Phyllis paying $20 a week for storage.

Since Phyllis returned from India, he has been paying his usual rent, but Kosov is not paying. He was still paying rent where he was supposed to live until his lease expired now. From Monday the rent will increase by half to cover both of them. 

Truth be told, Kosov could stay here for nothing. He is a very sincere person, whereas Phyllis instinctively knows the ways of the world and how to work situations. I think he now knows this old queen has been around the traps and is not stupid enough to be manipulated, unless it suits me. 

I guess I mentioned my damaged spare bedroom wall, caused by the friend of Phyllis, Miss Capital City of Peru, by spinning on my old spinny desk chair before it went out for roadside collection. A couple of weeks ago, Phyllis confessed to that me he thinks he damaged the wall. Hmm, I was immediately suspicious, and rightly so.

Sure enough, about five days later I received a message from Miss Capital City of Peru to ask if she could stay for a couple of nights when she returned to Australia. I replied, ah yes, Phyllis set me up for this. Yes, you can stay two nights. 

Sometimes Phyllis and Kosov do my head in with their noise, mostly when they are cooking. The range hood fan is on, music is coming from Phyllis' phone, with another phone on speaker while one of them is talking on the phone to relative, and between each other, they switch and mix up Tamil and English talk. This is fortunately brief and I can tolerate that. Often it is food being cooked for me too. 

Miss Capital City of Peru asked me tonight if she could stay, paying rent, until the 20th of this month, two weeks in total. I said, I am sorry but no. I am very sorry and it is nothing against you personally, but the answer is no. 

A third person living here would do my head in. I would be overwhelmed.

She took it with good grace, ok Andrew. Phyllis just told me I should ask.

I am not a fucking half way house for stray overseas students. 

Tonight I gave Phyllis another lecture, for putting me in the position of seeming like an arsehole for not letting Miss Capital City of Peru to stay. The weather is not so cold now, should she have to sleep on the streets. 

There will be no more overnight student guests. 

In other news, I have a new great nephew, albeit a bit distant. Born to the daughter of the husband of my brother's ex wife. Surely the family must stop growing soon. It costs me a bomb at Christmas and birthdays.

Ex Sis in Law has just moved home, and I will visit her later today. 

This service to Flinders Street via City Loop is delayed

Maybe there is something I am not aware of but a few weeks ago some trains were stopped because of a trespasser on the the train tracks, actually a viaduct, between Flinders Street Station and Spencer Street Station (Southern Cross). Most suburban trains use this viaduct, so it was chaotic.

Football fans coming in from the northern suburbs, whose train was stopped between stations several kilometres away from the city, forced the train doors open after an hour or so. I would not have done this but if someone had, I would take advantage and escape the train. There was a steep embankment to descend and I could have managed that.   

My thoughts, the train was nowhere near the location of the trespasser so why was it stopped between stations? It could have at least proceeded to the next station at 5 km/h if necessary. From there are alternative transport means.

Even if there is a trespasser, why can't trains proceed at a very slow speed? I know trains can do this. I've experienced it often enough. 

People can be very stupid about things the do every day, but by golly if you jump down from a train and then descend a steep embankment, you are going to take great care. Unfortunately the said train line was further delayed by the need to check that those who left the train were clear of the tracks. Of course they were, they left by the left hand side of the train. Why would they cross over to the right handed side onto other tracks? Again, trains proceed at 5 km/h or even 10 km/h. 

Over an hour to check if a trespasser was clear of train tracks on a viaduct? There is nowhere to hide. Extraordinary. 

This is all down to Victoria Police and Metro Trains management and it is a disgrace. 

It may be an urban myth but I've heard in Thailand if there is a car crash on a freeway, a helicopter with a lowerable hauling claw comes along to remove the cars from the freeway. 

But wait, there is more. I expect all over the world tram overhead wires that power trams, and trolley buses for that matter, have dead sections of a few centimetres to isolate one part of the wires from other parts, so that the whole system doesn't to shut down if the electrical problem. There is a dead section below The Highrise and last week at tram was stranded on the dead section. In the past, as I witnessed, the tram behind would push the stranded tram off the dead sections and there would be minimal delay. I've even experienced passengers out of a tram giving it a push off the dead section. It seems neither happens now and the tram stays there until an emergency vehicle arrives to push the tram off the dead section. The wait causes massive tram delays and inconvenience to passengers. A slogan of Yarra Trams is 'Think like a passenger', but I don't think it really does.

Private companies and government departments have become so risk averse to protect themselves, they unnecessarily make their customer experiences quite miserable.  

Does Sydney do it any better? No, its relatively new and small tram system is constantly being shut down for maintenance. Its two of three tram lines, the newest, seem to be worse than the older original line, so often breaking down with long delays until repairs. 

While Australia valiantly fought against England in football, some drug affected blokes with mental health issues entered an unstaffed signal box full wires and control systems for trains and began to cut wires. Part of Sydney's train system collapsed and there weren't trains when the football ended, leading to chaos. Why was such an important part of infrastructure so insecure? Over to you, Transport for New South Wales. 

So risk averse in some ways, but not in others!

Politics in the USA

Tv quiz game show questions asking for the answer of a country still go on with a continent or conglomeration of countries being an acceptable answer. America is not a country and nor is the UK or Britain a country. Yes, I know about common usage, I at times indulge in that myself, but that does not make the answer in a quiz correct.

Later edit: Apparently America is not the correct quiz answer if the country is Canada. Jesus FC. I am becoming a wee bit cross about this. The US is America but Canada is not.

Not sure why I had a little rant about that, somewhat off topic for what I was going to write. Once again I was annoyed at a tv quiz show for accepting a wrong answer. 

All is quiet on the Eastern Front, that is aside from the usual mass shootings and extreme poverty in a very rich country. Our London friend Marie recently visited St Louis and I found the sign in a photo in her post amazing. You can see it towards the end of this post. I would have thought the no smoking sign was somewhat superfluous but then more amazing was no weapons.

Jabblog touched a little on US politics in this post.  We don't see much of Biden in our media, or now American politics, so I assumed Biden was steering a steady and boring ship (cluster bombs aside), so different to the daily stories about the former President of the US. It seems Biden in just a bit too old to be acceptable to US voters, with his verbal and physical stumblings. Jesus, you should have been around to witness England's best known Prime Minister Winston Churchill, drunk as skunk every night. His retort to a heckler who accused him of being drunk was, 'Madam, I may well be drunk and you are ugly. But I will be sober in the morning'. It was something like that

So if Biden is not acceptable to the general US public at the next election, who can stop either conservative tossers Trumpet or DeSanitiser?

Apparently the current Vice President is not seen as presidential material. It seems Kamala Harris, partly black, attractive, female, well educated, clever and a smart political operator won't wash with US voters as a possible Democrat president. Go figure.

I think world wide we shake our heads, worry and are dismayed by US politics, including the stacked Supreme Court.   

Easter

Thank goodness Easter has finished. I don't like and I expect many non Christians don't either. The shock of finding supermarkets being closed has caused a huge rise in emergency hospital admissions. 

In what I suppose is a coincidence we had a great full moon over Easter. 

Of course being a full moon, the crazies were out in force. Fortunately everyone on the escalator was correctly standing to the left at QV shopping centre in town, as a manic man tore up the walk side. Upon reaching the top, he kicked at a young female cleaner and then started hitting her. Another man tackled him to ground and kept him pinned there and was calling out 'Call the police'. Nasty stuff.

We moved on to Soul Cafe, outdoors for coffee. Up the street a man was banging his head on metal bars surrounding a garden bed.  

I am not superstitious but after forty years of working with the public, a full moon is a problem. Just ask the police or paramedics.

So what is this Easter thing about? It began when a woman gave birth to child in horse shed, or was it for camels. She denied a man was involved. I used to hear that from young women in the 60s and 70s.  Some foolish men visited and the most foolish was a bloke who gave Mary gold. There are two Marys in this story, so don't confuse the street worker Mary with the mother Mary. Did the not so wise man know how gold would have appreciated and what it would be worth in 2023? He did his descendents down. 

The baby grew up, there is no information about his puberty and teen years, and he went on to make some miracles. I am prone to exaggeration too so yep, ok. Miracles were performed. I believe it.

He was then locked up for some reason by I think Italians, in a cave and freed by the aforesaid Mary the street worker. He must have been caught again and was involuntary put into bondage and whipped. I've seen some videos showing that peccadillo. 

If that was not enough, somehow he must have ended up in the Philippines where at Easter they nail men to crosses through their hands and feet. Rather barbaric and he suffered for his supposed crimes. 

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.