Gathering Strength: Sharpen Your Weapons

"There's a saying, at 60 you get the face you deserve. She's 60. She looks like a 77-year-old hag for whom life has not been kind. She's falling apart in every sense. She seems to know every ice dealer in the area. She says they're all bastards. She says she can get me a speedball in 15 minutes, heroin and ice together. She looks absolutely terrible. Her teeth are falling apart. There's deep lines all over her face. There's a whole lot of lines running down from her chin. She complains constantly." Stephen Edwards. 

The spears were being sharpened. 

Rough recall. 

All the hovering, of course, was just an analogy, things we could not see and could not understand, so they used imagery which humans could understand. 

But to the task at hand.

He had to do a radio interview in the afternoon, basically on the state of politics in Australia. Perhaps it was an uninformed view, or a flawed view from the floor, because like much of the rest of the country he had been switching off for some time now. 

But it was worth noting all the tropes, though that was the wrong word, all the memes, all the group think, all the herd mentality, it was leading them to electoral defeat, and thereby oblivion. 

Lets tick them off one by one.

These are notes for the radio interview on the various points of vulnerability of the Albanese government. Hoist on their own petard.

Mass Immigration. It's the equivalent of America's southern border, except legal. Youth turning against. 

Windfarms.

Climate change. Gaslighting. Coldest winter in more than two decades while they jabber on about global burning. 

The poor and the vulnerable. The NDIS.

Internet. The NBN. Now easily gazumped by Elon Musk's Starlink, without plundering the Australian taxpayer for $100 billion or so, without the hopeless service and the expense, for we are all paying twice for an infinitely inferior service. 

Gender. Family law reforms. 

Multiculturalism. Fatima. 

Covid pig ignorance. Eg Daniel Andrews award. Eg praising all the Premiers. Eg not initiating a proper inquiry. A problem ignored will follow you forever, a problem turned and faced will disappear. 

Not that we can talk about the Libs, many of whose actions have put us in this situation. 

Nationals taking on the stance of modern conservatism. Look at the response to Julian Assange. Libs, Birmingham, Paterson, in their mealy mouthed nit picking response, looked like horrid little reactionaries. The Nationals, in welcoming him back, looked far more in sync with the broader Australian sentiment. 

Feminism. The War on Men. 

Craft Beer. All politics is local. 

The economy. The War on Small Business. 

HEADLINES

NEWS

‘Want to cry’: Aussies hit by brutal tax debt reality

Multiple Aussies hoping to receive a healthy tax return this year have been left severely disappointed after finding out they have been hit with a bill instead.

Rushing to do your tax and expecting to receive a nice cash boost, only to be told you actually owe the ATO money is an unpleasant revelation – and one an increasing number of Australians particularly young people, seem to be dealing with.

It has only been a matter of days since people have been able to lodge their returns for this financial year and, already, many have taken to social media to share their shock at receiving debt instead of a refund.

One young person, who goes by tisadoyeng on TikTok, revealed she had been hit with a whopping $7118 bill after completing her tax return.

Sharing the figure online, she revealed she has two jobs and works seven days a week.

“And this is what I get,” she wrote in the caption of the video.

SKY

Senator Fatima Payman quitting Labor gives Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “one hell of a headache” if her defection leads to a new fringe party, according to Sky News host Steve Price.

Ms Payman has not ruled out working with a group planning to run against Labor MPs in seats with large Muslim populations, saying she does not have any intentions of collaborating with them “at this point”.

GUARDIAN 

Australia is set for more wet weather in the coming days with three separate rain bands forecast to end the recent south-east cold snap.

A band of rain is also expected to develop across central parts of Australia, parts of South Australia and northern pastoral districts and western parts of Queensland, with thunderstorms expected to expand on Saturday.

From Sunday, the band will drift eastwards to Adelaide, spreading through much of central Queensland and northern NSW, including unseasonably high rainfall in the eastern outback.

ABC

In short: 

Scientists have found Australian humpback whales were less stressed during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marine mammalogists believe the reduction in human activity was beneficial to the migratory whales. 

What's next?

Scientists say humans need to find ways to reduce their impact on these migrating cetaceans.