I turned 56 today :)

Yes folks, if I wasn't classified as an old fart at 55 I certainly am now, ha ha. But I'm very happy getting older. Fuck, nobody would want to go through what I have in my life again. I look back at it now as stuff that has made me who I am today. In that sense I wouldn't exchange who I am now for anything, but fuck it was dramatic getting here to say the least and nothing I'd have wanted to go through at the start. 

Even this last year had it's moments FFS. 

I had that terrible time on Maraviroc, an HIV drug that I was taking for about 2 or so years before the side effects of postural low blood pressure (ie. passing out when I stood up) and migraines developed. Causing me to be hospitalised in St Vincents when I collapsed on the street on my way to the Albion St Centre to get my meds. Totally traumatic, not the least of which being I was too fucked up to even dial 000 on my phone and had to ask a complete stranger walking his dog that I needed an ambulance.

At which point, the stranger taking instructions on the phone from 000 told him to get me to lie down on the footpath instead of sitting up. I remember thinking just how lovely this would look in Surry Hills :s Indeed the ambulance got their very casually, the guy getting out saying "Well all we can do is take you to St Vincents", at which time I tried to yell a "YES!!!!" but which came out as a weak and defeated "yes......". They thought I was on drugs you see; it was Surry Hills and I was lying on the footpath.

It wasn't until they got me into the ambulance and initially couldn't find a blood pressure that they became all serious and concerned. When they couldn't find it I jokingly asked them "Does that mean I'm dead?", and they laughed. They eventually did find it at 60 over 40, meaning I was in deep shit. In hindsight when they couldn't find the blood pressure at the start I'd have liked to have said "Do you see dead people?", you know like the movie. But alas everything's always clearer in hindsight.

So I didn't cark it there, albeit the dramas didn't end there. 

After the Maraviroc they put me in Tivicay. After about a couple of weeks on it I started to get searing pain in my lower abdomen (the smick booklet said there may be a bit of abdominal pain). Long story short I spent 6 weeks in unbearable pain like I'd never endured before because of this HIV drug, being like getting stabbed in the abdomen with someone twisting the knife constantly. Talk about a side effect! Ended up in Emergency with baffled doctors with hardly any knowledge at all about HIV drugs, especially the new ones which Tivicay was. In the end I told my HIV GP to change my meds as a process of elimination to see what was causing this and it worked. I'm now on Isentress: no problems so far.

As in the previous post I've also had the upset-ness of having to cancel the charity food delivery service today. Because this gov cut the funding.

Also today is the beginning of our new rent at $30 extra a fortnight, David and I's combined $20 a fortnight pension increase not covering it. Nice birthday present. 

But you know having years of suicidal depression has encouraged me to try to look at things differently. After ten years of therapy from my psychologist (and at one time a psychiatrist simultaneously) in situations like this I try to look on the bright side. And low and behold in this year there has actually been bright sides :)

For one I didn't get a Robodebt> I have no idea why I might have but you know how that Robotdebt thing works; it doesn't. It just accuses random people of having a debt because ScoMo. Although he did say really fucked up people won't get one. Perhaps I'm too fucked up to get a Robodebt? Like I say, gotta look at the bright side.

I survived another year through thick and thin with David at my side helping me all the way. Helping me to get up off the floor with the Maraviroc, helping me through the Tivicay episode. I was in so dire straights the day the ambulance came I could hardly move. He help me get dressed and helped me to the ambulance. He's been there every step of the way for me.

And this weekend David and I are getting married. Through thick and thin, through everything this gov and illness has thrown at us, in a few days we will marry. At 56 I will marry again, like I did the other love of my life being my late wife..... (died 2006). 

After she died and walking with her to her death over many years, I honestly never thought I'd ever find anyone else that I'd ever fall in love with. To find true love in one's life is rare. To find it twice is .... I have no words .......  But I found it with David.

Yes life has been a bitch at times, but "for better or for worse"...... The only difference between David and my late wife is personality and all yes, but that he's a man. I love them both the same. And if the situation arose I would in a heartbeat walk with David to his death just as I did my late wife. 

This is my pledge dearest one' I will stand by you..... and no matter whether the wine be bitter or sweet we will share it together and find happiness in the comradship. -Edith Bolling Galt (1872-1961)

So yeah, a lot of positives here this year eh. Oh, BTW, I'm HIV positive. Meh

Cried on phone canceling charity food service - gov cuts for NDIS bite

*Update: Talked to the food delivery people today in our third to last delivery off them. They're losing their jobs being made redundant. Is this the gov's idea of "Jobs and growth"?

Today we were forced to cancel our participation in the charity food service that whe've been accessing for the last 4 or so years. Yes, the gov is finding money to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme by cutting services across the country like this one. 

Now, anyone under 65 can't use it unless they pay full price for it, which we could likely do better at the local greengrocers. Likely many people are going to pull out of it due to the cuts and the service at the local Community centre may not even survive because of that. Which means it may not even be able to keep it going for people over 65. FFS.

It was an economic decision by us. After a $30 a fortnight increase in rent (still waiting for public Housing) starting from today, a nearly doubling of the food service price from $24 a fortnight to $40 is completely undo-able. Between us we got about a $20 a fortnightly increase in our pension recently but that doesn't even cover the rental increase. We already go days on end without a cent. The money has got to come from somewhere, and in this case it's from the service that the gov cut the funding for. We'll just have to go without and go back to a couple of packets of frozen vegetables.

So I rang the community centre today and told the head person there that we've have to cancel it. Said I'd let this auto payment through this Thursday and that would be it. The funding doesn't end until July 1st  but when things like this happen I feel it's better to just end it sooner rather than later. 

She apologised again and I said it wasn't her fault; that this federal gov should have funded the NDIS properly instead of raiding funds from other needed services, which she agreed. I was all OK talking about the money situation and how impossible it was for us. It wasn't until I said we'd say goodbye to the people that had been delivering the service  in the truck to our door that I started falling apart. People that I guess may lose their jobs because of the funding cuts.

The lady said we'd still be seeing them for another couple of weeks, as she thought I said "Say goodbye to them". I said "No, we'll say goodbye to them". At which point the humanity of what this gov was doing to us hit home. These people have become our friends, sometimes bringing pots and the like as David has his cactus garden everywhere, to aid him in it. In times when they weren't in a hurry we chatted and got to know each other. They were very sad when Cloe died, and love Zac to death.

Zac even knows them. As soon as he hears their little truck coming he sprints to the back door to see. They often pat him on the head. I laughed one time saying "Looks like we have a guard cat!" I don't  think they deliver to many other gays either as they looked at us as rather special. We've told them we're marrying shortly and they're so happy for us. But now that relationship is ending because this gov cut the funds off this service to give to the NDIS.

After that at the end of the call, me choking through tears, saying "What this gov is doing to us....." unable to complete the sentence. I ended the call thereafter saying bye also through choking tears. 

I'm enraged, but presently I'm too upset to be enraged. That I'm sure will come shortly......

Our wedding day is nearly here :)

Much to the aghastness of the Australian Christian Lobby, and Lyle Shelton (who has left the ACL after his postal survey complete failure, and has now joined Cory Bernardi's wacko Australian Conservatives party in a re-entry into politics) David and I will soon be married. Next weekend in fact. 
#eatshitlyle

We're having a small gathering at the registry office in the city where they have quite a nice little venue for it that can hold up to 12 guests. Then after the ceremony it's off to the pub for a couple of hours with everyone (complete with rings on fingers) and then to a restaurant. All arranged weeks ago. 

Here in Australia you have to wait a month before you can get married after notifying the registry office that you intend to do so. I guess that's so someone doesn't get blind drunk one night and wake up married. So it's been a bit of a wait but nothing like the years it took to get here.

Not bothering with a cake, although I put the picture above up just to annoy any RWNJ's who may stumble upon this here little post. Just the restaurant. My daughter is coming to the ceremony but not the pub or the meal as she's 8 months pregnant! We don't want her dropping right in the middle of everything. Plus family and frieds attending all. 

Interestingly there's a lesbian couple being married just before us. The guy at the registry said quite a lot of women have been marrying but we're only the second male couple to do so at that registry. Not sure if that's because guys are less into monogamy than women, or that guys have more money having no kids and want to have a wedding at their own venue. 

Life with HIV: Our wedding day is nearly here :) I've been waiting a very long time to make this post #eatshitlyle - https://t.co/gR7Hqg4mSg

— Peter Hiv (@HivPeter) April 29, 2018

Well we weren't in gov telling Christians they couldn't marry because Jesus. Don't you think you'd find that frustrating over many yrs? NTW David and I are marrying next weekend, despite all your postal survey efforts that Aussies rejected #EatShitLyle - https://t.co/qjZHhZ3DE0 pic.twitter.com/Kptz2lDBrp

— Peter Hiv (@HivPeter) April 29, 2018

Cats preparing for winter :)

*click to enlarge

We've had an extremely warm autumn here so far, often with temperatures over 30 degrees C (86F). It broke all the records since they started making them. Finally though the last couple of days have cooled down to a more reasonable level. We even got the heater out and put the fan away in the lounge room.

So the cats have been addressing the coldness issue. Casper and Zac yesterday took to the pink blanket on top of our bed. They've become very good mates since Cloe died and play together a lot now. It's very hard to take a picture of them together as either Casper comes out like a white blob or Zac is so dark he's just a black blob. So here are the two mates together on the beloved pink blanket. The picture above I thought was strangely funny, also on the blanket.

Meanwhile, as it's been getting cooler over night, Natasha has taken to sleeping on her favourite chair in the sun room at night, next to our bedroom. With her beloved Teddy that she snuggles up to or on top of. Yesterday she spent most of the day there. We had the two cats on the bed and her nearby on her chair. It was cat city.

David had the heater on in the lounge room this morning before I got up and of course The cats surrounded it. Here's mates Zac and Casper. 

"At least we don't have AR 15's" - in Australia (video)

"And at least they can't end up in the hands of suicidal teens" :)

A very Australian take down of the stupidity of the gun lobby in the US. 

We've got all the poisonous insects, animals and sea creatures here in Australia but at least we don't have AR-15's in the hands of "psychopathic suicidal teens".

Gov fucks over disabled by caning the Medicare increase to fund it (video)

Everything this gov does with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is hurting the people that are supposed to be supported, either by the NDIS or other community programs funded in concert with it.

For example, as I posted the other day about my experience with having our food charity funding cut to go to the NDIS, of which the service will be lucky to survive at all now. The funding cuts starts at the end of the financial year at the end of June. As our rent has gone up $30 a fortnight we've decided to end getting the service after 4 years. Perhaps this is where Scott Morrison suddenly found $8 billion dollars from an "improving economy"? 

Strange that when the gov's on it's ass panicking about the coming election and trying to throw another dogs breakfast of a budget together that this time will be all just lovely? Yep, they don't give a flying fuck about the disabled as we won't vote for the assholes anyway, so they pretty much do what they like to us with hardly any political consequence at the polls. Terrible I know, but that's how the number crunchers work in this gov, otherwise they wouldn't be doing this to us. Otherwise they'd be pampering us as well like they're trying to do to middle Australia.

So anyway, in last year's budget the Treasurer (for want of a better word) must have been in a complete flustering panic about all the money his gov was going through, and actually decided to increase a tax for funding purposes. Increasing any tax is of course anathema to this gov band of RWFW's, but never the less he went ahead with it anyway by announcing an increase in the Medicare levy (you know, that thing I completely rely on for all my health needs) to 2.5% to help fund the NDIS. 

The tax was surprisingly popular at 54% approval according to Newspoll. It was after all a worthy cause, unlike say taxes going to pay for a $65 billion tax cut to big business, over $10 billion going straight to the banks. Which are at present in very dire and unpopular straights due to the royal commission revealing what a bunch of crooks they are.

But now, viola, ScoMo has suddenly found $8 billion out of thin air. Gee, I wonder where that might have come from.............   And now magically he doesn't need to increase the Medicare levy. It's a miracle born of political panic! A shameless grope to the hip pocket nerve of middle Australia to retain power. 

But disabled people who rely on the NDIS as it's being rolled out across Australia, are deeply unhappy about it. Proving once again that this gov gives not the slightest fuck about the disabled. Instead they want to make a plea to middle Australia by putting NDIS funding in jeopardy, affecting the very help disabled people rely on for integration into the community and their own self esteem as a fellow human beings.

Once again, this gov plays politics with vulnerable people's lives intended for their own possible political gain. Why am I not surprised after what they did to us LGBT in the postal survey?

I myself don't qualify for the NDIS as I'm not in a wheelchair sort of thing. However obviously my disabilities are in other areas after what I went through to get the Disability Support Pension at Centrelink. But the gov has even found a way to fuck me over as well even though I'm outside of the NDIS! FFS!

Some disability advocates are worried about what this means for the future of the NDIS. Wheelchair athlete

Kurt Fearnley has expressed concern.

Delivered on the evening of ANZAC Day........ We continue to play politics and kick the can down the road. This move will not go quietly.. #NDIS https://t.co/V6ubCc4u29

— Kurt Fearnley (@kurtfearnley) April 25, 2018

 As has Therese Sands, the Co-CEO of People with Disability Australia:

 “We are stunned at the news that the federal government is walking away from the commitment to fully fund the NDIS, now and into the future. Last year, the Prime Minister said that the increase to the Medicare Levy was essential so that “it is fully funded so… you will know the money is there.”

“People with disability feel betrayed and ambushed by this decision and are left wondering what else is in this year’s budget?” Junkee  

It's a move that will save tax payer hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year. This morning, the government announced they're axing the planned increase to the medicare levy. #9Today pic.twitter.com/6cTdn5KRk4

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) April 25, 2018

Paralympian and advocate @KurtFearnley says he doesn't care whether the funding comes from a levy, consolidated revenue or cuts, but the #NDIS needs certainty pic.twitter.com/SgcjLHoy8T

— ABC News (@abcnews) April 26, 2018

New Zealand stops all new offshore oil and gas exploration permits :)

New Zealand is leading the way in the South Pacific towards a carbon free economy with zero net emissions by 2050. The recently elected Labour gov, led by the very popular Jacinta Ardern, has announced the New Zealand gov will no longer issue any new permits for exploratory offshore oil and gas drilling, the permits already issued to expire in 2030.

This is a significant move away from the fossil fuel industry and in stark contrast to the aimless conservative Australian gov, who for all intents and purposes are little more than puppets of the fossil fuel industry. Australia's far right, long proponents of the free market, are even wanting now for the gov to intervene in the closing of an old dirty coal fired power station that is long beyond it's viability. This despite the private company that owns it deciding to end it's life in a few years as an economic decision.

New Zealand is of course a much smaller country than Australia, but it does have the fourth largest economic exclusion zone in the world (declared in 1978) at 200 nautical miles off the coast of New Zealand (370km) meaning that it has sovereign rights to everything that goes on there. Yes a small country, but a large offshore area. One which will no longer see any new exploration for oil and gas. All that's left are the current permit holders until 2030 and after that nothing, albeit there's already mounting pressure from Greenpeace to even stop those.

It was after a Greenpeace petition was delivered to the NZ gov (one that I myself signed online being a dual citizen) that the decision was made to end all new permits. Greenpeace NZ sees stopping the current permits as the next logical thing to do and is gearing up to set about accomplishing this.

Meanwhile in Australia, the Turnbull gov is setting about trying to crush the renewables industry with a new policy before parliament called the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). The policy is so bad for renewables that it would be better if the gov did literally nothing. They still keep banging on about coal and fossil fuels and how we need them, when renewables are already much cheaper and would reduce the cost of electricity (Australia has some of the most expensive electricity in the world currently). They don't even want to do anything to encourage electric cars, arguing they're "not suited" to Australian conditions. WTF?

This week, the New Zealand government announced it will no longer grant any new offshore oil exploration permits. The 22 permits that have already been issued are set to expire in 2030.

 The new Prime Minister, who took office last year, says this is all part of her aggressive, long-term plan to move towards a carbon-neutral future.

 "When it comes to climate change, our plan is clear," said Ardern, according to The New York Times.

 "We are committed to the goal of becoming a net zero emissions economy by 2050."

 Ardern added that her ultimate goal is to switch the country's electricity system to 100 percent renewable energy by 2035.

 New Zealand's historical decision comes shortly after Ardern received a Greenpeace petition, signed by 50,000 people, that demanded an end to the country's offshore drilling.

 "The tide has turned irreversibly against big oil in New Zealand," said the Greenpeace New Zealand executive director, Russel Norman.

 "Today's announcement is significant internationally too. By ending new oil and gas exploration in our waters, the fourth-largest exclusive economic zone on the planet is out of bounds for new fossil fuel exploitation. New Zealand has stood up to one of the most powerful industries in the world." Science Af  

Pastor arrested for sex abuse of boys reaching interstate (US)

Another one bites the dust. Yet another conservative star preacher and pastor abusing under aged children by gaining the trust of parents as a man of God. Once again the God Squad is so busy pointing the finger at us LGBT as paedophiles, when the real paedophiles are right in front of them. What is it about conservative Christian leaders that they lead such a covert life as this?

A famous pastor in the conservative southern state of Alabama was recently arrested and charged for molesting young teenage boys in that state. However there are more charges coming, with the offences crossing state lines and the FBI getting involved because of that.

"Many more charges" are expected to be filed against Acton Bowen as soon as later this week according to Etowah County Deputy District Attorney Carol Griffith.

 Prosecutors told a judge more potential victims had been discovered in Orange Beach, Alabama and across state lines in Florida and Colorado. The FBI has now become involved into the investigation according to prosecutors.

 "Acton Bowen is a danger to every child in this community," said District Attorney Jody Willoughby. ABC in America

Pictures from Dan Savage

Gays caused the banks to break the law - Miranda Devine

*click to enlarge

RWNJ Miranda Devine (yes that's actually her name) has written a piece about the royal commission into banks that is exposing all manner of dastardly deeds done by them to people. Rather than the usual commentary on the appalling behaviour of the banks and demands for jail time for those guilty of ripping people off tens of thousands of dollars, Devine instead focuses once again on us evil gays. She manages, by a huge leap of mental gymnastics, to blame us gays for the bank's criminal behaviour.

It's all behind a paywall, but luckily some nice Twitterati person has put up a clear picture of most of it (above). You can even read it if you zoom in a bit. The key part of it is this; that the banks lost track of behaving within the law because they they were too busy putting their human resources depts behind the push for inclusion and diversity in their workplaces during last years marriage equality national debate. That they should have focused on their business instead of being a "social engineer" (right out of Abbott's dictionary that one).

So you see everyone, us evil gays have struck yet again! In our dastardly plot to gain marriage equality, we went about leading the banks down a merry path of destruction. Obviously we wanted to destroy the banks for supporting us :s  

FFS, it's just nonsensical for various reasons. Not the least of which is that the marriage equality national postal survey debate took place towards the end of last year. Does Devine seriously think that it caused a bank to charge a dead person fees for a decade after death as has been revealed by the commission?

All the scandal coming out of the banking royal commission? Devine still finds a way to blame the gays. pic.twitter.com/qZ6p0ytMjo

— Josh Taylor (@joshgnosis) April 24, 2018

Milo Yiannopoulos driven out of bar - chants of "Nazi scum get out" (video)

*Update: FOX defends Milo in it's usual hysterical way; making assumptions and not looking at all at the facts. See video below :)

Milo Yiannopoulos was driven out of a New York bar where there was a gathering of Democratic Socialists of America. Milo is of course infamous for his extremist far right views and his shit stirring with said views. It therefore does seem likely that he specifically chose that particular bar as a shit stir. 

Milo is banned from Twitter, but the man he was with claims they were physically assaulted by the crowd. In the video however the crowd looks peaceful and simply chanting. I guess that's freedom of speech then eh?

NYC-DSA CLC comrades just shouted Milo Yiannopoulos out of a Manhattan bar 😙👌 pic.twitter.com/CjWR77DAh9

— Tim 🌱 (@timtakestime) April 22, 2018

Here’s me and Milo politely getting our bags from the wait staff after a mob of Leftists from the @nycDSA physically assaulted us as we tried to go back to our table for lunch. I guess this is what Nazis look like now, 2 homos who like small government out for lunch on a Sunday https://t.co/bfbLki9SCd

— Chadwick Moore (@Chadwick_Moore) April 23, 2018

A Labor gov will ban gay conversion therapy

Opposition Labor federal health minister Catherine King

The opposition Labor party has declared that banning gay conversion therapy will be a priority if it wins gov at the next federal election. This  comes after a Liberal party storm in the state of Victoria where the Young Liberals wanted gay conversion therapy to be adopted by the state Liberal opposition party in the soon to be election. It was shot down in flames by the older more moderate party members, somewhat aghast I suspect at the mere thought of it.

However it didn't end there. Soon after there was a bizarre interview with Liberal federal health minister Greg Hunt, who refused to condemn the notion Victorian Young Liberals put up for gay conversion therapy. He called it simply "another point of view" and got into a very strange confrontation with the ABC interviewer about "freedom of speech". Um, I guess that means like the freedom of speech they gave the nutters in the postal plebiscite to run LGBT's into the dirt?

What's more, acting prime minister (the one who replaced shamed Barnaby Joyce) Micheal McCormack also failed to condemn the intended Young Liberal's motion (pun intended). Trumbles is off somewhere jaunting about the world for whatever reason.

So Labor has responded thus:

Stamping out gay conversion therapy across Australia would be a "personal priority" for shadow health minister Catherine King if Labor wins the next election.

 Ms King has urged the rest of the country to follow Victoria's lead and ban the "discredited and dangerous" practice.

 "If this issue isn't resolved before the next election, and I'm lucky enough to serve as health minister afterwards, it'll be a personal priority for me," she told The Age newspaper on Saturday.

 Victoria has a Health Complaints Commissioner, which gives the state powers to crack down on unregistered practitioners making unproven claims, including those who purport to be able to 'convert' gay people. SBS

The Star Observer has more:

King spoke out against the ministers’ attitude about conversion therapy.

 “Conversion therapy is discredited and dangerous,” she wrote.

 “But shockingly, two Turnbull Government ministers—the Acting Prime Minister and the Health Minister—have now failed to condemn the practice when given the chance. This follows attempts by some Liberals to restore the practice in Victoria.

 “Greg Hunt and Michael McCormack’s comments were ignorant and incredibly hurtful, and fly in the face of expert advice.”

 King quoted the Australian Medical Association in calling conversion therapy “harmful to both the individuals who are subjected to it, and society more broadly, as it perpetuates the erroneous belief that homosexuality is a disorder which requires a cure”.

 She added that the World Medical Association has said that conversion has “no medical indication and represent[s] a serious threat to the health and human rights of those so treated”.

 “Labor agrees. That’s why we’re calling on the Turnbull Government to clarify its stance on gay conversion therapy urgently—and work with the states to ban it,” King wrote. Star Observer

I almost feel like voting Labor instead of Greens this coming election, but FFS they have to get humane with refugees. They're dragging their feet on this for the sake of a few western Sydney redneck seats. Why should they dictate Australian policy?

Bank royal commission backfires on gov - O'Dwyer train wreck interview in full (video)

A brief history for those overseas, Labor and the Greens have been calling for a royal commission into Australia's banks for 18 months, the gov insisting over and over that there was no need for it. Voting against it in parliament over 20 times. Turnbull finally gave in when the National party in coalition with his party insisted on having one. Dragged kicking and screaming to set one up.

Trying to once again use a royal commission for political point scoring, the gov expanded the terms of reference to include union run and industry super funds. Of which I'm a part of BTW being Australian Super. After months upon months of insisting there was nothing wrong with the banks, they thought they might catch evil unions somehow.

Their clever plans however have spectacularly backfired on them. Even National party ex deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has apologised for being opposed to one. The commission has barely got started and it's been revealed they're a punch of crooks. Charging for services not received. 75% of financial advice given by bank financial advisors were detrimental to the client so the bank could line it's pockets. Charging people financial fees when they were dead. One man dead for 10 years.

The public is aghast and up in arms, crying jail them! The intended tax cits to corporations now have a stench of death about them, with nearly $10 billion of those cuts to the very same banks right up shit creek presently. Surely it will have no chance of ever passing the senate now.

And along comes Kelly O'Dwyer, denying everything on todays telly. It was the train wreck of train wreck interviews. Like  something out of Monty Python. It was excruciating to watch, but the best bit comes at the very end. The last thing she says is "Let's be a little bit real".

Turnbull voted 22 times to stop the Royal Commission. Now he wants to give the big banks a $13 billion corporate tax cut. What planet is he on? #ausunions #auspol #BanksRC pic.twitter.com/4HKJBaJS4G

— Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia) April 23, 2018

Update: from the Blot report:

The Labor Party announced in early 2016 that if it won office in the 2016 election, it would hold a Royal Commission into the banking and financial services industry3. However, it didn’t win the election and the Coalition had been very much against the concept. For instance, as you would expect, Scott Morrison hammered Bill Shorten and the Union movement in stating: For Bill Shorten to go down this path, I think it is a reckless distraction that puts at risk confidence in the banking system, and dismissed it as playing “complete politics” prior to the election3. Morrison also stressed that the banking industry was well regulated in saying “We have a tough cop on the beat in that area – it is called ASIC. We have a strong regulator – it is called APRA. We have the Reserve Bank which provides a broader framework in which the banks operate in (sic). Our banking system is well regulated”.

 Just before the 2016 federal election, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrote to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asking him to drop his calls for a Royal Commission, instead announcing the laughable prospect of the CEOs of the big banks being brought before a parliamentary committee once a year to explain their decisions. This idiotic idea was rightly pilloried. Turnbull stated that a Royal Commission would only “delay action and postpone reform”.

 The out of her depth Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer, claimed that a Royal Commission would simply “go over old ground and would delay well developed and important reforms” and that it would “send the signal internationally that the government believes there are structural problems with our banking and financial system and could lead to significant repercussions for confidence, international investment and our AAA credit rating”. The Blot report

Latest Jupiter flyby the great read spot

*click to enlarge

The Juno spacecraft has achieved another flyby of Jupiter as it continues in it's elliptical orbit. This one is of the Great Red Spot, a storm that has been going for hundreds of years.

The closest Juno was to Jupiter's clouds was just under 25,000 km. 

You can download the image here, where there's more details.

Kyle Minogue has a new song - "Stop me from falling" (video)

US music watchers are describing this as having a "tinge of country" but to me it's not like that at all. Country music I find very hard to listen to, mostly because it sounds like they're strangling a cat in the background, and I really like cats. This is more of a Spanish/reggae flavour than country. How the hell did they get "country" out of this? Gente De Zona, who features in the video, is from  Cuba.

Once I started watching I really liked it. No cats were strangled in the making of this video, and a very catchy tune. Kyle broke up with her boyfriend recently so perhaps the song is about that? 

Eureka!! I fixed the browsers not working problem!! Hooray again!!

Not that I needed the other browsers, but it was truly driving me crazy. There must be a reason for it, I thought. It was just a matter of finding the solution. Us 55 year olds tend to have a lot more patience than the younger ones. Some may give up and take it in to the computer fixit shop. However the solution is actually quite simple.

So today I turned to Google. Unlike a teenager who just thinks they know everything, Google actually does know everything. All that's needed is a bit of patient searching. So I simply asked it why only one browser was working on my PC, question mark and all. This stuff was all science fiction when I was growing up.

I eventually came across this site, with specific instructions on how to fix it. It's easy, however it does involve using the command prompt as the administrator; you know that black and white box that has script in it that looks like it's from the scary days of 80's computing. I have no idea about it but all you need to do is copy and paste the gibberish into the command prompt.

If the problem still exists then click on Start -- In search box, type cmd -- Then "CMD" will be displayed in the search -- Now right-click on "CMD" --- Select "Run as administrator".

Now enter this command
 netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
 Press "Enter".

 Now enter these commands 
 netsh winsock reset catalog
Press Enter
 netsh int ip reset reset.log hit
Press Enter.

 Reboot your computer" CCM

And viola, Google Chrome is now working again. I yelled out to David, Eureka! I fixed it! Raised my hands in victory! I had beaten the plastic brain! Hooray!

Not that I need another browser now as I also fixed the cookie problem in the Opera browser (see last post) and I'm very happy with how it's running now. Chrome I stripped bare yesterday trying to get it working again. Ended up doing a clean install (un-installing every morsel of Chrome on the PC and downloading and installing it from scratch) so there's nothing left except a shell. But it's there working in case I get another plastic brain emergency.  

Computer rage!! But I fixed it!! Hooray!!

OMG I think this has to be about the longest computer/online dilemma I've ever endured. Things like this happen to us 55 year olds I guess. Often I look for the easiest and most sensible path out, but alas that was not the solution this time. Although I do take a bit of pride in my adaptability. I mean when I grew up the internet wasn't years off, was 20 or so years off before it started getting used by lots of people. And we were listening to vinyl records. No mobile phones. No ATM's. etc Now look what I've done with this blog :)

But anyway this disaster started some time back. I use the Opera browser as it has the free VPN for downloading movies and telly shows. Has worked marvelously since I got it. Fuck the bloody gov wanting my metadata; I bloody well have none! However I encountered a problem months ago where I couldn't log in to Google anymore on it, and thereby couldn't log in to this blog. The first two suggestions Google gave me I tried but to no avail. The last one was a hard one though, not because I didn't know how to do it but because Opera seemed to have no button to accomplish it. 

All it was was to clear the cache and browsing history. But I'm fucked if I could find anywhere in the settings to do that. In the end I just went meh, and did the next best thing, simply downloaded another browser. Easy. I chose Chrome as it worked marvelously. Problem solved :)

Until today.............

I was going to get another PC a while back, but you know the money was needed for other things. So I'm still nursing this 5 year or so older PC to what is increasingly looking like the near end of it's life. Five of the letters on the keyboard are completely worn away so you can't read them. Thankfully my hands seem to know what letters they are even if my eyes don't :s  

The PC however is increasingly throwing up roadblocks. Is it a cry for help I don't know. I do know though that I've got every bit of money's worth out of it, looked after it, and it's still going. Way better than a Dell (it's an HP). On today's occasion it was a serious roadblock of 55 year old dumbfounding proportions. Chrome stopped working! Gah!

I proceeded patiently to download and install other browsers of various shapes and sizes. None of them worked. They just wouldn't connect to the internet. Some of them wouldn't install, and one of them wouldn't even download even though I tried three fuckin times; it would nearly get there and say "error". WTF? Thanks Turnbull for that last one. I even tried the Firefox that I abandoned a while back because it was working so slow in this PC it was virtually unusable, but that didn't even connect. Even the horrifying Microsoft Internet Explorer. The only one that would work was Opera, which I couldn't log in to the blog on. FFS.

Overall this took about three hours out of today. I went back to Opera and again looked in the settings of where the fuck was the thing to clear the cache and history. Again, I couldn't find it anywhere, despite even going to advanced  settings.

In complete exasperation I Googled how the hell to do this in Opera. There were a lot of things about how to do that. It appears I'm not the only one exasperated with this Opera problem. Fucks sake clearing the cache and history is the most simplest thing, yet people can't see how to do it. Not even Opera help told me anything helpful.

In the end I found a site that said to put this in the address bar at the top: opera://settings/clearBrowserData . I did so and up popped what I'd been looking for for months. I did the deed "to the beginning of time" and tried once more to log into Google. I nearly bloody fainted when it all worked. David was asleep so I went bananas at Zac saying "I fixed it! I fixed it!" much to his pleasure. I have therefore saved the above address for future reference forever more. I'm now speaking to you from the Opera browser, evidently the only one that works anymore on this.

BTW probably at the end of the financial year when I put in my tax return to get the money back that they took from my Superannuation financial hardship payment, will be finally when I get a new PC.