Moggy Musings: Archived material from Boy The Wonder Cat

A 5am mayoral musing: At 4pm today, 27 September 2016 Clarence Valley Council chooses its mayor for the first two years of the new council term. With neither Richie Williamson or Andrew Baker (both re-elected councillors) able to convince a majority of their fellow councillors to endorse them for the top job, it now looks likely that Jim Simmons of Maclean will be the next mayor, with Jason Kingsley as his deputy. However, nothing is set in stone so tune in to the live broadcast of the vote at http://www.clarence.nsw.gov.au/page.asp?c=535.

An for avid council watchers musing: Those local government watchers in the valley may find these names familiar, in Gary Wilson Bax v Kevin Graeme Wilson (District Court 2016/00048884). After all the origin of this defamation action was the subject of a Clarence Valley Council meeting item and was reported in local media at the time. After mediation this matter was removed from the District Court calendar on 21 September 2016 and I rather suspect that right now Clarence Valley Council administration is scrambling to find out what happened. Knowing management’s batting record with regard to certain aspects of local government law, I’m willing to bet it now has a very generous amount of egg on its face which it may have to eventually explain to the incoming councillors.

A just can’t look away musing: the disintegration of The Clarence Forum since candidate nominations closed for the 2016 Clarence Valley local government elections has had the gruesome fascination of an oncoming train wreck. Bloody derailment finally occurred on Facebook between 28 August and 5 September with accusations of hate speech, partisanship, plots, blocking, banning, slander, lying, flying through the air as posts/comments were alleged to be appearing and disappearing.A local government election musing: there is talk around town that a former editor of The Daily Examiner may be flirting with the idea of standing at the next Clarence Valley Council election.

A get me outta here! musing: It is being said that a certain local government senior executive on the NSW North Coast is desperate to relocate anywhere but the Clarence Valley – perhaps there is no more room it in the office filing cabinet for all those rumoured industrial relations, discrimination, budgetary and conduct complaint issues and he feels the need for pastures new or perhaps he would prefer a workplace where his personal life is not the subject of so much staff gossip.

A laughing until my sides hurt musing: The look on my human’s face was priceless when she received this unexpected email from Nationals MP Kevin Hogan which began “It's been a pleasure working with you over the last three years. Together we are making meaningful, measurable progress toward ensuring we get the share of funding we deserve for things like roads, schools, hospitals, and other services.” However, I confess I grew alarmed at the purple hue of that same face when she opened a second email concerning Andrew Bolt which said “You are invited to join Andrew, Senator Cory Bernardi and John Roskam from the Institute of Public Affairs for two hours of networking with fellow conservatives at CLF House.”

An enterprising musing: An industrial dispute has been registered with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission between the NSW Local Government, Clerical, Administrative, Airlines & Utilities Union and Clarence Valley Council. A compulsory conference is being held on 23 March 2016.

A fiery musing: One sharp-eyed little dog living over at Iluka noticed something rather strange the other day on a wooded block of land that had recently been found to be home to a small forest of endangered coastal trees – a rather ‘convenient’ little fire has started on this lot which just happens to be the subject of a development application, which if it went ahead would see most of the land clear-felled and all those endangered trees removed. Luckily someone called the firies and the flames were doused.

Boy the Wonder Cat

ps. a shout out to my doggie mates Hector, Molly & Coco

Hanson & Ashby now think they are an elected duo?

It would appear that Pauline Hanson is loathe to fulfill her extremely light parliamentary commitments and James Hunter Ashby eager to acquire a level of political power he was never granted by the Australian electorate......

https://www.buzzfeed.com/aliceworkman/no-nbn-commitment/

The New Yorker notices.......

“Broken Windows,” by Barry Blitt

Complaints to Centrelink have jumped since first Abbott and then Turnbull became Australian prime minister

If the sharp rise in complaints shown on this graph from 2013-14 onwards is any indication, then neither Tony Abbott nor Malcolm Turnbull made wise decisions regarding which of their ministers should have charge of the portfolio which contains the Dept. of Human Services and Centrelink.

The odd spike in the percentage of “suggestions” in 2015–2016 seems to indicate this as a possibility and the real number may be higher. I doubt that suddenly in 2015–16 there was a jump in people suddenly having ideas to improve Centrelink’s service, and the will to communicate that directly to Centrelink’s feedback line. [Senate Community Affairs References Committee, Inquiry into Design, scope, cost-benefit analysis, contracts awarded and implementation associated with the Better Management of the Social Welfare System initiative, Submission 27]

Labor attempts to close anti-vaccination loophole

TBA

9 News, 2 April 2017:

Parents who oppose vaccinations on conscientious grounds will no longer be allowed to enrol their children at New South Wales child care centres under legislation to be introduced by the state opposition.

Labor leader Luke Foley announced the policy today and said the legislation, set to be introduced this week, would plug the loophole which had allowed specialist anti-vaccination child care centres to be set up.

The changes will not affect children who can't be vaccinated because of a medical condition such as a specialised cancer treatment.

“We need to be encouraging vaccinations not discouraging them," Mr Foley said in a statement.

"Vaccinations are the only way to protect against serious diseases like polio, mumps, whooping cough, meningococcal, diphtheria and tetanus."

Mr Foley said his plan would also cover family day care operations.

The announcement comes after an unvaccinated NSW girl was diagnosed with tetanus earlier this month.

It is believed the seven-year-old picked up the disease through an open wound on her foot while playing in the garden of her home in the state’s north.

The case prompted renewed debate in the north coast region, which has some of the lowest immunisation rates in Australia.

The Daily Telegraph, 1 April 2017:

A five-week-old baby boy is fighting for life after a catastrophic brain haemorrhage followed his parents decision to decline a routine vitamin K shot given to all newborns.

The baby, from northern NSW, presented to Lismore base hospital last week with bleeding on the brain before being transferred to Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital in Brisbane where he remains in a very serious condition. If he survives, he will likely be severely disabled.

Vitamin K is the new battleground of the anti-vaccination movement which has been scaring thousands of parents into rejecting the shot — a safe injection which has saved hundreds of children dying of Newborn Haemorrhagic Disease.

The Sunday Telegraph is today calling on the Federal Government to add the vitamin K injection to the National Immunisation Program (NIP) and tie it to Commonwealth family payments.

NSW State by-elections 8 April 2017: counting in Manly, North Shore & Gosford electorates

NSW Electoral Commission State By-election Results - running calculations:

North Shore State By-election - 54,762 electors enrolled to vote

First Preference Votes

Two Candidate Preferred Count

Distribution of Preferences

Manly State By-election - 55,105 electors enrolled to vote

First Preference Votes

Two Candidate Preferred Count

Distribution of Preferences

Gosford State By-election - 55,935 electors enrolled to vote

First Preference Votes

Two Candidate Preferred Count

Distribution of Preferences

Before the flag waving hype over Trump's latest bombing in Syria gets out of control, think about this......

It's not just the Syrian Government, Russia, ISIS or rebel groups killing innocent civilians, it is also the US-led Coalition and the nations which support it.

That includes Australia which is involved in the air war in Syria.

On 9 September 2015, Prime Minister Tony Abbott indicated that Australia would expand its commitment to Syria, with RAAF airstrikes to be extended to Islamic State targets there, following a request from the US Government. Prime Minister Abbott noted that the extended operations would mirror the efforts of other allied nations already operating in Syria to 'help protect Iraq and its people from [Islamic State] attacks inside Iraq and from across the border'. The expansion of operations to Syria was justified on the basis that the anti-Islamic State effort directly relates to Iraq's collective self‑defence and the continued commitment of humanitarian efforts in the region. The Syrian state's inability to exert control over that area and address the Islamic State threat, negates its right to object under the circumstances. [www.aph.gov.au, Parliamentary Library Briefing Book: Iraq and Syria]

The Federal Government says it will continue Australia's bombing missions over Syria in the wake of a mistaken operation that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers…..

[SBS News, 19 September 2016]

Perspectives on the situation on the ground......

The Telegraph, 7 April 2017:

US missile strikes on a Syrian air base [al-Shayrat] have reportedly killed nine civilians - including four children - as Donald Trump launched the first direct American attack on Bashar Assad's regime.

RT, 7 April 2017:

The governor of Homs province, Talal Barazi, said the US strike on a Syrian airfield 
has led to civilian casualties in a village near the base, as well as the airbase itself. At least five people have been left dead and seven wounded, he told RT.

Politicus USA, 7 April 2017:

For most people who have lost innocent loved ones to violence, the means of their relatives' demise is completely irrelevant; a senseless death is a senseless death. It doesn't matter if innocent civilians are killed as a result of terrorism, civil unrest, a civil war, or an American caused human catastrophe; a needless death is exactly that, a needless death.

Over the past couple of days Americans, including Trump, have made an issue over the deaths of innocent Syrians, and displaced Iraqis, allegedly killed by the Syrian military using chemical weapons. Of course it is a big issue, but while the Americans and the international community are outraged over the deaths of an estimated 86 innocent civilians in Syria, no-one is the least bit concerned, much less outraged, over the estimated 1,472 civilian casualties, all Muslim casualties, in the month of March alone and all at the hands of the United States of America under the Trump regime.

One can fairly say it would be a sure and safe bet that none of the family members of either the 86 innocent Syrian civilians or 1,472 innocent Syrian and Iraqi civilians really care about how their innocent loved ones were massacred; they just know their loved ones died. And yet all the attention is being focused solely on the 86 deaths by chemical weapons as opposed to 1,472 civilians killed by American-made and delivered bombs in the month of March alone.

As an investigative journalist who heads a British monitoring group, "Airwars," Chris Woods reported:

"This is worse than anything we have ever seen from the coalition, and it's up there with the levels of allegations we saw against Russia a year ago. Something is shifting — a lot more [innocent Muslim] civilians are dying, and it's happening on Donald Trump's watch."

It is believed by many international experts and a few American pundits unafraid of being labeled "un-American" that the "dramatic jump in civilian casualties" is the direct result of a Trump order to change the "risk/reward calculations" when determining how many innocent civilians, innocent Muslim civilians, are acceptable casualties when America launches airstrikes against what it certainly knows are heavily-populated civilian areas.

It is worth reiterating that Trump pledged during the campaign that if he was controlling America's military, he would direct them to "bomb the shit" out of ISIS'; in Trump-speak ISIS means Muslims. And, it is noteworthy to mention that despite the outrageous numbers of innocent Muslim civilians killed as a result of Trump "bombing the shit" out of "them," neither he, his administration's spokespeople, or Republicans have uttered even one word about the catastrophic deaths of innocent civilians under Trump.

Newsweek, 31 March 2017:

U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria may have already killed 1,484 civilians in just Iraq and Syria this month alone, more than three times the number killed in President Barack Obama's final full month in office, according to British monitoring group Airwars. For the first time, the number of alleged civilian casualties in events carried out by the U.S.-led coalition has exceeded the death toll of attacks launched by Russia.

Vox, 28 March 2017:

Syria, too, has been hit by US airstrikes with some remarkable civilian casualties this month. A US strike in a rural area of Raqqa province killed up to 30 noncombatants who had taken shelter in a school last week, according to residents' reports. And the week prior, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that 42 people, most of whom were civilians, were killed by a US bombing in the town of Al Jinah, in what it deemed a "massacre." The US military said it had a legitimate military target in the area, but noted it would investigate possible civilian loss of life.

I Am Syria:

Civilian Death Tolls: March 2017

- Government forces: 417
- Russian forces: 224
- ISIS: 129
- Armed opposition factions: 14
- International Coalition forces: 260
- Other Parties: 84
- Kurdish Forces: 11

[my yellow highlighting]

UPDATE

The New York Times reported that the direct US attack on Syrian Government forces and property ordered by Donald Trump was internationally an illegal act and domestically may be a breach of US law. According to The Guardian “Malcolm Turnbull has hinted that Australia may be involved in an expanded US-led military strike on Syria, after outrage at Tuesday’s chemical weapons attack in Idlib”.