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Subsequently other support act musicians have withdrawn for Sheeran's tour.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. 

The beautiful game

It is World Cup time, football, or soccer as we, NZ and north American know it. The World Cup is this time spread over three countries, the US, Canada and Mexico. I suppose it was the US who bid to host the Cup. Our male team is known as the Socceroos. 

The last World Cup was held in Qatar, and was criticised for its exploitation of migrant workers and anti gay laws, with this Socceroo bloke Jackson Irvine who I just found out about today, being very critical at the time, and stood up and said so. Note his rainbow armband. 

Because of #47's antics, tourism to the US has dropped significantly. Canadians were the main tourists to visit the US and the numbers of them have dropped anywhere between 20% and 50%, depending on your biased source. The so called Snow Birders, that during the Canadian winter fly to Florida and other warm states, has tumbled, and they are selling their US properties. The threat from #47 to make Canada a state of the US rather upset Canadians, as it would. Imposing and increasing tariffs upset them further. 

I could go on, but I'll hand it over to Jackie in Toronto, where some games will be played. Some will played in Vancouver too. Montreal wisely said no to the games, and won't incur the huge cost of hosting games. 

Jackie posted this. 

Astonishingly, people who have been granted ESTAS, an agreement to be able to enter the US, somewhat like a visa, have subsequently been denied entry, either when arriving or a day or two before they were due travel, having paid for tickets to the game, accommodation and of course flights. I hope they have good travel insurance.

 

Over to this post by Jackie in Toronto. https://junkboattravels.blogspot.com/2026/06/fifa-world-cup.html

Sexism in Politics

I am sorry this is a long read and ignore it if you wish. I think it is very important. 'Liberal Party' in Australia means conservative/Tory/Republican party. The person, Jacinta Allan, is the Premier of the State of Victoria. 

Funded by a brothel owner and others, the mobile ad is travelling around Melbourne, where mobile advertising is allowed, and it is just appallingly sexist. Shame, shame, shame. Photo from The Age.

Franco Puleo, who owns Gotham City brothel in South Melbourne, is among the people funding the $105,000 Ditch the Witch advertising campaign.

The campaign is using misogyny to get Jacinta Allan out of power in Victoria.

I've spoken to many SWers who say Puleo is as sexist as this campaign.

Billboards are being ferried across Melbourne with Allan as a witch.

I have it on authority the campaign has the support of the Liberal Party and Liveable Victoria - an organisation focused on planning and other state issues.

The Herald Sun ran a page on the campaign in its print edition and used the slogan in the copy in the same way it uses slogans for its own campaigns. Interestingly, the Herald Sun refused to name the organisation and people behind the campaign. Possibly because the editorial department is firmly focused on securing a Liberal Party win in the state.

The Ditch the Witch campaign reflects the Liberal-aligned Ditch the Witch campaign against Julia Gillard in 2011. 

A scandalous building disaster

I remember when this building was constructed and I didn't like it much. The developer breached the height limit by over one metre above what was shown in the plans and was fined a small amount with the appropriate government minister Robert McClelland quite untroubled. He was a  shocker of old school arrogant conservative politician. Shame on him, and he is still alive at the age of 91.This was at the time when evil Victorian Premier Kennet in the 1990s had privatised building inspectors roles, and it was signed off as ok, even though it clearly wasn't.

It is in a very dominant location at the corner of Commercial Road and Punt Road, South Yarra, and is called South Yarra Square.

I don't know of any other similar building in greater Melbourne being as bad as this. I feel so bad for the innocent and naive who may have bought into this building, and the original buyers. The apartments are clearly unsaleable, with them being only good for tenants, if tenants don't mind the fire risk and the risk of building collapse. The next time you hear anything about deregulation of  building inspections, be afraid.

From the blog of Rohan Storey.

My photos, taken very quickly between trams.

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. 

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.   

The Horrors of War

As I read, listen to and watch the news, the horrors from around the world I half hear wash over me. Truly awful things happen to humans and animals that are so horrific, it is hard to imagine, especially when those involved were directly targeted innocents, one of the latest in Vancouver. Yes, it all washes over me. What can I do? I can only vote in my country's elections, and Australia is not a large and powerful country, nor is it very influential. 

But some times I hear something that catches me as being so horrible, I have to take a very deep breath and then something unintelligible comes from my mouth, and this morning was one such occasion, just as I was about to get in the shower.

The Israeli Defence Force targeted an apartment block in Gaza. You've all experienced death of a family member and it is sad and long may we grieve for our loss. I think a boy in the apartment block is seven, note not past tense. 

The bomb blew him out of his home and onto the roof of a neighbouring apartment building. Amazingly he was relatively unscathed, physically at least. His mother also survived, however his mother's husband, the boy's father did not. Nor did her five daughters survive, nor did her mother, her father, her brother and her sister.

The family doesn't seem to made up of Hamas members. Let's see. That's a score of innocents killed in one family at 10/12. Nice work IDF. Take some pride.

It is within the power of the Middle Eastern and Western worlds to stop this, yet neither will. 

I doubt the word distraught is an adequate enough word. Quote from ABC Australia. 

Ali's mother, Nuha Mahmoud Shatouh, is distraught. She lost her husband, her five daughters, her mother, father, sister and brother in the strike. She'd been cooking for the family when the missile hit.

A laugh

At least the 10% tax on the penguins of Heard and McDonald Islands has given us a laugh in the extraordinary world within we live.

Jackie in the threatened country Canada's city of Toronto posted a great collection of memes about Australia's territory islands. The more stupid the US administration is made to look, the better, and to use American words, boy is it looking pretty damn stupid. 

https://junkboattravels.blogspot.com/2025/04/penguins-rule.html

Sadness and anger

In 1998 the horrific details of the homophobic torture and slow death of Matthew Shepard in the State of Wyoming, slowly emerged. As hardened as I already was to humans mistreating other humans, this case really upset me, and it still does. very much. 

Matthew's parents, Judy and Dennis, have been activists ever since against homophobia, with Judy awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden.

In act of despicable pettiness, within a couple of days of #47 being sworn in, a statement on The Whitehouse website was taken down, which had marked the 25th anniversary of Matthew's death by President Biden praising the work of the Shepards. 

What bastardry. 

You can read more at the Star Observer website.  

PS I came across this later, https://www.facebook.com/share/p/12DETqfTC7Q/ In brief, photos of former LGBT...whatever,  war veterans were removed from a public area at a veterans' hospital. 

Hopefully something a bit cheerier tomorrow.

Madison Mental

#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. 

Street Scandal

Take a look at this Google Map. Google Maps is far from perfect but calling St Kilda Road as Park probably arises from so many changes at the location as the underground Metro Rail Station is built, almost completed. Roads and tram tracks have been moved more than once. 

If you are travelling south to north along St Kilda Road, that is bottom to top almost vertically on the map, on the left you will encounter Albert Road where the green patch is and then Park Street.  

This is a very large sign facing south to north bound traffic and if you've followed what I wrote above, it is clearly wrong. Albert Road is first and then Park Street. I know the cost of some road furniture, but not a sign like this. However, I would not be surprised if it was in four figures. Clearly it will have to be replaced and indirectly taxpayers will foot the bill. What sheer bloody and unbelievable incompetence. 

Mr Bates and the Post Office

If you don't know about it, Post Masters (and Mistresses) were we found to be defrauding the British Post Office of thousands of pounds after the implantation of a computer system in the early 2000s. There were hundreds of them. They lost businesses, they had make up thousands of pounds in discrepancies, some were sent to gaol, some suicided. 

They were not guilty. Like our Robodebt system in Australia, it was an absolute disgrace. The good people of Australia did not speak out loudly enough about the very obvious wrongs of Robodebt. 

A commercial tv station picked up the three part made for tv series of Mr Bates versus the Post Office. I can't say I thought it was a quality production, but R recorded it through our Fetch box and he is an expert at skipping through ads.  I kind of knew the story already.

What I thought was much better was the subsequent documentary called Mr Bates, the Post Office and the Real Story. If you aren't in the UK, it is probably not available to watch online. I found it much more satisfying. For Australians I think you can find it on Channel 7 catch up tv. 

Nothing of the above really illustrates the disgraceful behaviour of the British Post Office. The CEO of the Post Office at the time, one  should be stripped of her CBE and in my opinion should go to gaol for what she oversaw.

Ah, she has now handed back her CBE, but as I read it, she did so before King Charles took it away from her. Wait, a correction. The King has taken the award from her. 

Hopefully now Mr Bates who tirelessly fought against the injustices perpetrated by the British Post Office will accept his CBE for his two decades of work to seek justice for himself and many others.

The Post Office is paying out bigtime in compensation. Unfortunately this is British taxpayers' money and I can't see a cent or penny coming from the company responsible for the failed system, Fujitsu. 

It is always good to criticise corruption and wrongs in the world, but it is far preferable to do so when your own doorstep is clean. First world countries need to be beyond reproach, and they aren't.    

Pay us and we'll employ you

Driving buses in Sydney is hard work. Generally the privatised bus companies treat their staff very badly. Maybe Lorna works for Transport for New South Wales as a bus driver which has decent working conditions. This is a nice little story about Lorna. 

And another story posted below. Post Covid lockdowns there has been a huge shortage of Sydney bus drivers, with timetables having been altered to deal with the shortage of drivers and nightmare waits for some passengers as full buses pass them by. Yet they, Sydney Buses or a private company had the cheek to ask potential drivers for an application fee. That is outrageous. 

Photos from Channel 9.

In 1964, Lorna’s first job in the bus industry was as a conductor, collecting fares on a double decker – just like this one.

She went on to become a driver, breaking down gender barriers in an industry that’s been historically dominated by men.

Our buses look a little different in 2024, and collecting fares is as simple as a tap of the Opal. But 60 years after her first shift, Lorna still loves the bus industry and is now working as a duty officer at Kingsgrove depot.

There’s around 400 women driving buses across our network today, about 6% of the workforce.

As we work to fix the bus driver shortage in NSW, we know getting more women behind the wheel will help.

We’ve simplified the paperwork, removed the application fee, and we're working every day to improve driver conditions and facilities.

You could have a career as wonderful and rewarding as Lorna’s by signing up to be a driver today.

Creating world peace #23

This is a very clear map of the area of great concern in the Middle East from a company called Mapporn. Tens of thousands Palestinians have been killed by Israel, in response to an attack by Palestine against Israel that killed some hundreds and hostages were taken and many have not been returned. The unnamed  yellow coloured bit on the coast to the left of Palestine is the Gaza Strip, so consider it is part of Palestine.

1. Some in Palestine don't think Israel has a right to exist. It does, and that has to be recognised by Arab countries and the world. 

2. Palestine needs to stop all of its nonsense about Israel's right to exist. Israel existence is backed by world opinion. The state of Palestine is also is also backed by world opinion. 

3. Israel needs to stop the settlers invading disputed land, and get the settlers out of Syria.

4. Israel has created a new generation of Arabs who will hate Israel. That is really an own goal, perhaps the worst outcome there could ever be. 

5. Jews and Arabs have so much in common. Why can't they just get along. 

6. Victories over other nations can be very hollow, with the subjugated rebellious. 

7. What is needed is negotiations in good faith. It might take months or even years. Just keep on climbing up the rockface. 

Traffic Scandal

Political Advisor: Minister, your voters are sick of being stuck in traffic. Your government needs to add more lanes to the motorway or build a new one.

Minister: I believe in progress. We will add more lanes.

Skip forward a few years.

Political Advisor: Minister, the new traffic lanes we last built quickly filled up and now we congestion again and the voters are not happy.  

Minister: We will build a free flowing road intersection and cleverly connect all roads above. Let's call it an interchange.

And so under the former conservative government, traffic problems were solved once and for all with the completion of the AU$4 billion Sydney's Rozelle Interchange.

Minister: So Political Advisor, $4 million was so well spent to fix the traffic problem.

Political Advisor: Yes Minister. There are a few minor issues, but they will be sorted out. 

Keeping in mind that dark red means stationary traffic, this snap was taken at 8.30. It wasn't much better at 9.30, after theoretical peak traffic. 

They should throw the government out. Ah, they did, for various reasons and the interchange is now the problem for the Labor Party, but not of its doing.

Not quite as bad as the morning peak but bad enough.

I will soon enough be 67 years old and this is one of the worst road planning results I've ever seen. It has been a total fail for all road users including passengers on public buses. It is an utter disgrace and a shocking waste of money, under the leadership of the former State Premier, the bible bashing Dominic Perrottet. 

 

Divisive Day

Well, I am supposed to  say Happy Australia Day I guess, but I really don't feel like it. The day no longer instills any pride in me for my country on the day I may have once quietly be very glad to be born in. It has become such a divisive day, I just don't want to hear any more about it. 

Without doubt it needs to be moved to a day that's agreeable to most of our indigenous population To those who will never accept a celebration of the day, I don't blame you. It was an invasion, the general mistreatment, the massacres, yes, I know all about it but it was quite a long time ago now and now I can only say, tough titties. We are here and we don't belong anywhere else.

I am certainly not going to speak to my jingoistic Tradie Brother today. He may well be hosting a barbeque to celebrate, where people will drink too much. 

Thankfully I've only heard of two of the deplorables on the radio, and the second one was a conservative politician, declaring we are the greatest country in world. The former who said the same may be ignorant and needs to travel more to see what the rest of the world does better than we in Australia do, and the politician was just being a politician.

Happy Republic Day to India.

Meanwhile in Melbourne some have made there displeasure at the day of 'celebrations known by public vandalism.

Queen Vicky's visage must have been extra grumpy looking after she was spray painted with metaphorical blood. 

It was quite an achievement to chop down Captain Cook at the ankles with an angle grinder, even if they had the wrong culprit. Blame Governor Phillip of the Colony of New South Wales who led the First Fleet from England with ships full of Prisoners of His/Her Majesty.

And as one wag described it on Twitter, what could be more Australian on Australian Day than being passed out and flat on your face in a public park   

Would you like a little Aussie music on this day? There are a few I could choose from but this'll do. 

Retired swimmer champ

Australian Olympic swimmer Mack Horton is retiring. In my best imitation of Dame Maggie Smith at her most haughtiest in The Importance of Being Ernest, he leaves swimming to work at an ADVERTISING AGENCY. Ah well, each to their own.

What I do like about Mack Horton is that he refused to stand on a dais when a later proven Chinese drug cheat winner Sun Yang was on the dais. Mack made a significant change to the world beyond

Good onya laddie, for both your prowess and moral stand. 

Saturday Scandal 2

The damning photos below show the confluence of the North and South Santiam Rivers in Oregon, US.

Strayer writes a little  about it here and you can read more detail in this story I came across. DEQ stands for Department of Environmental Quality. 

Australia has plenty of environmental problems of its own and perhaps I should be writing about them instead, but these photos are just so shocking. Photos by Brian Clift.

Saturday Scandal

Apparently (string that word out) back in the day Romans used the mineral known as asbestos. There was  reluctance by Romans to buy slaves who had worked with asbestos as they were well aware they tended to die at much younger age. 

Thousands of years later the use of asbestos had been banned and thereby preventing people, not just workers, from a long and slow death. Asbestos mining and its common use happened in my and your lifetime. Isn't it just so amazing that the danger to lives by asbestos exposure was known about so many thousands of years ago. 

Just for fun when I and ABI Brother were young, we broke up asbestos sheets, along with pulling apart asbestos pipe insulation. In the 1980s I replaced a cracked asbestos sheet on the garage of our first home with what was then called 'cement sheet'. That along with being doused with DDT from farm weed spray outfits and covered with superphosphate dropped from a plane, well it is wonder we are alive. 

Sadly asbestos is still mined and used in some countries and Australia has been vigilant at not allowing products into the country that contain asbestos. Hopefully Australia does better with that than it does was drugs and illegally imported cigarettes.

When we moved to the Highrise, it came with lovely black marble benchtops. Unfortunately  the benchtops only looked good when cleaned as you would clean clear glass. I can't remember now but between five and ten years ago we had a kitchen makeover. How we hated the faux timber finish on the cupboard doors. Gloss white is so much better. This was a breakfast bar but we never used it as such and so shallow cupboards installed there instead. That cleared food from a shelf in the linen press cupboard, leaving a large empty shelf, which of course has stayed empty ever since. No?

While it looks impervious, Caesar Stone will stain if care is not taken.

Behind these doors,

this brown was the external cupboard colour.

When we changed the benchtops to Caesar Stone, the measurements were taken by a laser device and the benchtop fitted perfectly. Well done to those who cut it to fit, and I hope you don't prematurely die because of our bench tops.

The disease silicosis has been known about for a long time, just not quite as long as asbestos has been known about. The precautions in place are inadequate and those who cut stone benchtops are showing silicosis symptoms and in some cases dying at an early age. Even with huge precautions, still the dust gets into the workers' lungs. I first heard about this perhaps four years ago yet the cutting of stone benchtops continues. Our big green hardware shed will stop selling stone benchtops by the end of the year, and the big Swedish furniture company is doing the same. 

In my opinion our Federal Government should have banned exposure to stone cutting of  home stone benchtops years ago. Given the long process for asbestos to be banned, why wasn't this health danger quickly stomped on? 

But it is a curious thing that while the measurements of a stone benchtop could be taken by laser a number of years ago, that it now can't be cut by a laser equipped robot in a dust proof room and then sluiced down with with water to remove any dust?  That's somewhat like cars are spray painted after and accident repair.

Musical Monday

I'll say this upfront, some of scenes in this music video are very confronting. If you are of a sensitive disposition and don't want to see scenes of war or orphanage children, don't watch it. After viewing it, I sat for a few moments, trying to digest what I had just seen that happened in my lifetime and my parents lifetime. The stills were hard to view but life is not all about blue birds flying over the white cliffs of Dover. 

It was a one hit wonder by Russell Morris, written, produced and recorded in Melbourne, reaching the top of our charts in 1969. It also became a number one in Chicago, New York City and oddly, Houston. It is obvious this video was made up with photos some time later. 

So set aside six minutes and have a listen, watch and be reminded of some of our world's less than great history.