My People My People
The shooting, the shouting, the torrents of confused imagery, all came cascading into that quiet place, the refuge. And they drank and smoked another night away, in a kind of friendly, kind of mad camaraderie which could die as easily as it was born, borne on the wind those voices now silenced. The enemies vanquished. This was conquered territory. "What are friends for?" He was still vanishing into the ether and walking down long, elegant stone verandas. The occult play was still afoot. "God is alive. Magic is afoot."
He ran into Mustaffa again on his morning walk, fresh, no doubt, from the local mosque, formerly the Uniting Church. All of these decrepit faiths. Abrahamic gods. Well it worked for a time, they told him. It was once appropriate, amidst the squabbling tribes and widespread ignorance. His host Chris served up roast pork, a magnificent repast in a humble house, and he could hear them all chattering about halal, verboten. The dietary restrictions made sense once, when pigs were full of worms in the sweltering conditions of the Middle East.
Hear? In a land of craven infidels.
In a land which had been overrun by parasites; in the midst of a cleanup operation which was going to take some time.
They are with us, they are with you.
These things were quiet afoot. The blizzard of government bullshit scaremongering coming out of the radio or the television meant that most people with even a modicum of sense had switched off; rather than fill their heads with senseless, in fact evil, propaganda.
My people, my people. Why have you allowed this to be done to you? Why did you not stand firm? Why have you let the evil ones win?
The corrupt overlords, the entirely morally bankrupt oligarchy which was the Australian government, the blizzard of conflicting edicts, the grandstanding, the daylight robbery of the population, all of it now, as the nation's leader hid in his taxpayer funded mansions, hid from the members of his own political party appalled at the destruction this God bothering cult member had inflicted on the country, many of whom would have cheerfully stabbed him in the back to get to the top spot, hid from journalists who were starting to realise that the blizzard of bullshit emanating from the government under the cover of Covid was one damn lie. Realising that in regurgitating the fear mongering of the nation's myriad governments local, state and federal, they were destroying their own reputations alongside the train wreck reputation of their profession.
It would all wreak havoc.
What was most astonishing about this false dawn, or more precisely false sunset, was that everything was known.
The information to prove that the government was lying to the people was visible to anyone who cared to look.
He was soaring high. The hawk eye that he was using, adapted for Earthly use from the multiple technologies of the world's top predator, was revealing more than he could say. But he saw. He knew who betrayed who. He knew the task in hand.
He knew that the assassins were already stalking through the ether, sweeping aside the reeds, striding across marshes, fully weaponised, fully realised, that we would embrace you, that we would love you, these things that struck awe into the hearts of men.
Why here? Why now?
They are here because you are here. They need a vector. Nobody understands it; well few.
The supercomputers could make millions of decisions or calculations in a single second; and now that we have reached this point, now that it was possible to comprehend the complexity of what was going on in plain sight, well, that was the reason for now.
For the peculiar descent into the quagmire that was the human condition; for the strange uplifts of the spirit that kept swirling through him, the distorting air, the fervent, urgent messaging, the wisdom that came from multiple civilisations, the high handed take and the compassionate air, the things that nobody would ever understand, well not the humans caught watching this strange, bewildering melodrama.
My people. My people.
Craig, who rarely drew breath on those wild streaks of hilarity, mad but not bad, began talking of Christ in the temple sweeping aside the merchants and usurers, using force, brooking no opposition, unafraid.
As if he, too, was being lit up in that strange swirl of other consciousnesses; because they were a swarm, not an individual, because they were powerful beyond all human wonder, because they were transforming conquered territory ready for a greater arrival, a greater embrace, when the guardians were in place and the material earth transformed.
"I've had the same images in my head," Old Alex said. "Christ sweeping into the temple. Overthrowing tables. Throwing out the cheap merchants and the grifters preying on the gullibility of his people. Except the scandal for me is Scott Morrison using the position of Prime Minister to make himself and his rich mates even richer, for prosperity theology done in God's name, for selling a story to the Australian people which was never a true story, for robbing the poor, for plundering the country, for destroying a sacred place which had never been his to destroy.
For his absolute and total hypocrisy.
All things come to those who wait. And his enemies waited, their hot breaths giving away their hiding places in the wet, saturated summer air. In plain sight.
They wanted him dead. For destroying the country. Before he could destroy it anymore.
To rid the planet of the spiritual parasite that infested him; that bad omen. They had no idea what awaited them, those who had betrayed the country.
My people. My people.
THE BIGGER STORY:
THE HEADLINES:
Coronavirus LIVE updates: Sydney COVID-19 alerts issued for Woolworths Berala, Earlwood Bardwell Park RSL; Victoria sites include shops and train line
Labor gets ‘more licence for combat’ as Albanese promises Morrison square-up
Labor is preparing for a federal election as early as September, with the Opposition promising more political “combat” after an unusually conciliatory tone throughout the pandemic.
Following a 2020 in which much of the usual argy-bargy of federal politics was shelved in favour of getting the nation through an economic and health catastrophe, Australia is likely to see a return to more ‘business as usual’ biff in Canberra this year.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has already pledged to focus directly on Scott Morrison, using his first speech of the year to brand Prime Minister a “fake”, “useless” and someone who “stands for nothing”.
Despite Mr Morrison’s ascendant poll numbers, holding a commanding 60-28 lead over Mr Albanese in the latest Newspoll ‘Better PM’ survey on November 28, the Opposition believes a strategy of attacking his personal record will net results.
NSW recorded zero new locally acquired COVID-19 cases on Monday. However, two cases, which will be included in Tuesday's numbers, are both linked to the Berala cluster in western Sydney.
Victoria recorded three new cases of local transmission from 32,544 tests on Tuesday, with an additional positive case in a returned traveller in hotel quarantine.
Crowds at the Sydney Test between Australia and India will be capped at 25 per cent of the Sydney Cricket Ground's capacity of 48,000 spectators - about 10,000 people or half the number previously planned.
Victoria's COVID-19 response commander has warned the border with NSW could remain shut for all of January. Western Australia's Premier Mark McGowan has given the clearest indication yet the state is opting for the elimination of COVID-19 rather than suppressing it, saying he wants the curve "crushed".
Britain will head back into national lockdown as its hospitals deal with a huge surge of patients driven by a more contagious new variant of COVID-19, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced.
Chaos ahead as Donald Trump tries everything to fight election results
Julian Assange to seek release from prison after extradition ruling
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Watch LIVE: NSW, Victorian acting premiers provide COVID-19 updates
It's almost 11am, which means it's approaching time to bring you the latest COVID-19 updates from authorities in NSW and Victoria.
NSW Acting Premier John Barilaro, Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant will provide their update at 11am. You can watch that below.
Mr Barilaro said this morning that NSW would report more than two new cases, but that he was confident about the numbers.
Anthony Albanese’s demand for a rollout now of COVID vaccine ‘very dangerous’, Scott Morrison says
Scott Morrison has hit out at claims from Labor over the COVID-19 vaccine saying Anthony Albanese’s comments were “dangerous”.
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ABC broadcaster Norman Swan has become a nifty symbol of much that is wrong with the public bureaucracy.