From Out Of The Very Dark

van Gogh.

The shemozzle of the last two years won't go away, in fact it only gets worse.

He was only slowly struggling back into form. He was older, and didn't like being older. The wings, the parasites, the conflicting voices, those he wished he could not hear, the curious, the learned, the students, they had, almost all of them, been and gone. It was quiet now, well quieter than it had been for a very long time. 

And here in these reaches, here where they built bridges to a future and confirmed the presence of a past, here where the records were kept and all was in danger, here where the authorities deliberately destroyed evidence of their own misdeeds and he blundered from one event to another, caught gasping for air or dying for light, crawling through tunnels to a terrible surface or sheltering in place in the cracks of shattered rock, here where all was forgiven and nothing denied, where the brutal elemental force overcame the frailty of humans, where he emerged burnished in fire, boiled alive, angry at the incompetence that surrounded him, where the swish of ancient aristocrats and stone colonnades, where he struggled once again with English and all was born anew.

Australia. It was a concept the future would struggle to understand. That this had once been one country. 

The politics had been as vile as the weather; the insanity of the moment perpetrated by self-absorbed politicians determined to save their own ugly necks, to perpetuate the myths they themselves had created, around disease, around the efficacy of vaccines, around the deadliness of disease, frightening or more often bludgeoning the population into acceptance, ignoring all alternative views, bludgeoning, bludgeoning everyone into compliance. 

It was a military insanity, a social insanity, a political madness. 

It was the beginning, these months, these past two years, of the breakup of the country.

Historians could only look back in wonder, at the malfeasance, the unforgettable, unforgiveable squandering of vast fortunes, the robbing of the public, their light whips flickering across broken backs. 

Once, as emperor, he had put a stop to it all.

Now, as a simple scribe operating in a highly hostile and dishonest environment, he was, if not powerless, almost so. 

As everyone now felt. 

Powerless. 

Those are dangerous feelings to impose or create on an entire population, for out of that comes riots and ne'er-do-wells, people who care not for their own fate and the fate of futures, their own survival, the survival of their DNA descendants, for the welfare of the country.

For they had all been so utterly, totally betrayed.

By those elected to serve. 

It would need a great new force to rescue them at all.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Two bushwalkers have been killed and three others trapped in debris after a group of bushwalkers were swept off a cliff by a landslide in New South Wales’ Blue Mountains.

An urgent rescue effort is under way at Wentworth Pass, near Wentworth Falls, after emergency services were alerted to the landslip about 1.40pm on Monday afternoon.

Three walkers are in the care of paramedics at the scene, as efforts to extract them continue.

Two are being treated for critical injuries.

NSW Police told a press conference on Monday evening that a man and a boy had died, and that a woman and boy were in a critical condition with head and abdominal injuries.

https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/peta-credlin/inquiry-into-australias-pandemic-handling-must-be-a-royal-commission/video/da91a4546cd3282ee2c454a0cf1a0941

Sky News host Peta Credlin says a private investigation into Australia’s COVID-19 handling, which will be funded by an alliance of influential business people, will be “worthless”.

The Paul Ramsay Foundation, the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation and Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation have joined forces to fund the investigation, which will be led by the former Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Professor Peter Shergold.

“It won’t have any access to internal government papers, or emails, or conversations, memos, legal advice, it will only be able to talk to the people that agree to talk to it. It can’t compel witnesses or documents – only a Royal Commission has the power to do that,” Ms Credlin said.

Ms Credlin also said the fact that governments – state and federal – all refuse to call a Royal Commission tells her, and should tell others, “there’s a whole lot they don’t want us to find out about”.

“And don’t let anyone tell you that this little inquiry from Twiggy and others will do – it won’t. Don’t fall for that; it must be a Royal Commission.”