The surveillance had done him in. A sky opened, a hundred portals, each a remote viewing station to another realm, or another part of the planet. Come with us, come with us, they beckoned, and he backed away, obliterated them. They had lied constantly, frequently. He had been lied to, and lied about, and sought refuge, oblivion or escape; for they could not be trusted. These days were never ending, and evolved.
The motion sickness, the dizzying realm. Everything the government did disgusted swathes of the population; the so-called left, full of lies, the so-called right, a history of abject failures and a creeping up to the corrupt corporate entities which infested the country. Those who should have been protecting us were doing nothing of the kind.
The public square was filled with The Voice, while at the same time, catching almost zero media attention, a dramatic remaking of the demographic makeup of the country, with record high immigration rates, left beleaguered citizens overwhelmed.
At the same time the shift to "renewables"; the abandonment of fossil fuels for renewables run by major international corporate entities, why else would the conservatives have embraced it, why else would the government feel propelled to inflict on the population things which didn't work under the ideological guise of saving the planet. Everything was sickening. Nothing worked. Family law was being dragged back to the dark ages.
Just off shore from where Old Alex plotted his escape, an ancient whale migration route was about to be destroyed by windfarms; massive, and massively expensive structures which bled the population dry, the billions they cost flowing directly overseas to one of the most hostaged, corporates in the world. Flowing, directly or indirectly, into the pockets of the world's wealthiest individuals.
The catch phrase, making Australia an "international renewable super power" was eerily reminiscent of the "information superhighway" with which the Australian government had promoted the massively expensive $100 billion National Broadband Network, which delivered Australia the worst and slowest internet in the world.
He would bet money the renewable super power would go the same way. Massively expensive. Massively inefficient. And the bureaucratic engines which delivered the fiasco, disappearing into the fabric unseen, and unaccountable.
Nothing stood here. A wavering branch. A broken landscape. A bird which picked through clumped, withered grass. He gathered. They gathered. The apologies he heard were never real. The charm behind the voices, they had long ago worked out how to deceive, what he fancied, how he operated.
The war is lost, he said, they said. There was no privacy. Individuality was lost. These eyes that had come to manipulate the time flow were neither kind nor unkind, they simply observed. The creatures down the pipeline? They were all paid. They were all in service.
While the government, as if anyone cared, continued to tax the already heavily taxed population, crush individual endeavour, lay waste to hope. And so everyone went bush, back into hiding. For there was no hope now, not with this government, not in this season, not with the garbage these distant entities inflicted upon us every day.
For us, join the realm. For now. If only it was possible to believe. Or to know who to believe.
***
MAINSTREAM AUSTRALIAN MEDIA
GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
Opposition leader Peter Dutton and the official no campaign run by the conservative lobby group Advance posted claims on social media that Langton, an influential academic and advocate, had branded no voters as “racist” or “stupid”. But Langton vehemently denied the claims, saying she had been misquoted on comments she made specifically about the no campaign – not its supporters.
“The media reporting is a very deliberate tactic to make me look like a racist when I’m not,” Langton said in comments reported by the Nine newspapers.
“I am not a racist, and I don’t believe that the majority of Australians are racist. I do believe that the no campaigners are using racist tactics.”
ABC
The Albanese government is rolling out fresh sanctions against Iranian senior police, censors and state media, almost one year after the death of Mahsa "Jina" Amini sparked mass global protests against the regime.
SKY NEWS
Indigenous activist and Voice to Parliament No campaigner Warren Mundine has hit back at claims criticism of the constitutional reform is “based in racism”.
Voice architect and top Yes campaigner Marcia Langton made the claim at a forum in Bunbury on Sunday, telling the audience “every time the No cases raise their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism… or sheer stupidity”.
When asked about the issue on Tuesday night, Mr Mundine said the comments highlighted how the Yes campaign is “totally out of touch” with the Australian people.
NEWS
Prominent Aboriginal leader and Yes campaigner Marcia Langton has denied calling No voters “racist and stupid” insisting she was simply attacking the No campaign tactics.
An exasperated Professor Langton made the controversial remarks at a forum in Bunbury, Western Australia which was recorded and posted on Facebook.
Her comments were splashed on the front page of The Bunbury Herald, with the heading “RACIST OR JUST STUPID: Voice author slams the No Campaign”.
SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA
Is Western Civilisation’s middle-class being pranked? The people we thought we knew – peers, colleagues, relatives, and friends – are repeating ever-more ridiculous slogans to remain within the ‘popular’ crowd.
Where, one wonders, can they go after nodding along to the ‘female penis’ and ‘global boiling’?
When did it become the height of culture to take a toddler to a drag show armed with dollar-notes to tuck into the fishnets of a middle-aged man?
Why has the definition of inclusion stretched to men cheating at women’s sport?
What is the diversity movement doing luring children onto the scalpel of the medical industry?
One of the