Near and Afar
They swam through the treacled air. We were enormously expansive, in contact with others of our kind, and yet isolated, here on this patch of ground, as the garden took shape, as the days rolled by, as he wrote about local councils and community gardens and the restoration of historic boats for the local newspaper; as love and hope and progeny drifted in and out of view, as stern voices raised him up and a terrible pleading took them down amidst the rushes and the frequent interspersions, interventions, interruptions of the data stream, time does that, and so the purpose of it, the warning, for those who can hear, for those who can see.
His head was cloudy. No one unified purpose. Except, perhaps, to survive. But nonetheless the country was at its worse, as if the American Democrats had dictated all our public policies and then deserted the political stage to leave the country in chaos and ruin, a war zone abandoned. For their policies never worked, and did not work in their own country. But that didn't matter. We were the petri dish.
And so we were left with a collapsing economy and a fragmented, deeply divided society. Woke, anti-woke. This ethnicity and that. Men versus women. Women versus men. Endless domestic violence propaganda painting all men as violent and dysfunctional, belying the statistics, flying in the face of reality, because they all came alight parroting the same things, over and over. Diversity. Couldn't we ban the word for a week? A month? If you believe in everything you believe in nothing. But that was it. Diversity was the word of the moment.
Not cohesion. Not strength. Not unity. Not one purpose, not one pride in nation or community or family or work, none of that. So the public discourse, as exemplified by the state media, that is the state propaganda machine the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the ABC, we sundered, we thundered, we crept through all these thickets and didn't care as we embraced you in love. For you need to be loved. That's what we told him, to let him hold up a banner of hope. Although of course it wasn't something we felt ourselves. These mammalian things. We felt, instead, a kind of awe at the power of things, the enormous complexity of this swirl in history, the beauty of it, as one pleading political apparatchik after another abandoned the stage.
It wasn't fair what they had done, those Watchers on the Watch. But everything, the backfire, the electricity running back up the chain, the bullet that reversed, the tentacles that turned inward, the power that destroyed, all these things curdled the dark forces of the time.
And the secrets that they, we, held, well, that was for another time.
They had escaped across the barrier. Watch and learn. Transmission. Osmosis. The osmotic nature of the spirit realm. They were here and we were there and in all this intertwining, the deaths or resignations of presidents and prime ministers, in absentia in chief all of them, these very people who destroyed the people they were meant to serve. Rule of law. Condemnation of political violence. No one was more violent than these shocking, disgraceful hypocrites. So it was in America, which was occupying the world's headlines around about now, and so it was in Australia. Far off. Not so humble. Decimated by dark partnerships. As the population grew more and more disenchanted, working for a living more and more pointless, and the lash of excessive taxation more and more destructive.
HEADLINES
SKY NEWS
‘The Chris Bowen trainwreck’: Peta Credlin calls out Labor’s ‘emissions obsession’
8 hours ago
Sky News host Peta Credlin has slammed the Albanese government for Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen’s “trainwreck” energy policy.
“All that talk about renewables being the cheapest form of energy continues to be exposed for the lies it is, as we let Chris Bowen destroy Australia’s once competitive advantage of affordable and reliable baseload power,” Ms Credlin said.
“If higher prices and threats of blackouts are the reality now when coal still provides Australia with about 60 per cent of total electricity, just think how much worse it will be when Bowen gets coal down to 10 per cent – supposedly, says Labor, in just six years’ time.
GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
A team of Australian scientists is genetically engineering a common fly species so that it can eat more of humanity’s organic waste while producing ingredients for making everything from lubricants and biofuels to high-grade animal feeds.
Black soldier flies are already being used commercially to consume organic waste, including food waste, but tweaking their genetics could widen the range of waste their larvae consume while, in the process, producing fatty compounds and enzymes.
Ed note: What could possibly go wrong?
ABC
In short:
Big business is urging Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to work with the Coalition and pass nature protection reforms rather than cut a deal with the Greens that they say could stymie wind and solar projects.
Environmental groups warn there is a "climate blind spot", with projects able to get environmental approval without consideration of their emissions.
What's next?
The Senate is holding an inquiry into Labor's plans to introduce an Environmental Protection Agency to police nature protection laws.
NEWS
Deloitte warns of ‘fork in the road’ moment for the Australian economy
A widely-respected forecaster says Australians are in a dangerous ‘fork in the road’ moment that could determine prosperity for the year to come.
“Down one road, a high June quarter trimmed mean inflation result could force the hand of the RBA to lift interest rates once more in early August, further crushing household and business confidence and wiping out the benefits of tax cuts and real wage gains in the second half of 2024.
THE NEW DAILY
‘I know Trump’s type’: Harris at first campaign rally
MACRO BUSINESS
RBA hikes push 800,000 extra Aussies into mortgage stress
SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA
Labor’s love affair with the CFMEU turns sour
In the wake of very public allegations relating to CFMEU made by the Age and 60 Minutes, the Labor government cannot continue to fashion their faces into expressions of shock and sincerity and expect voters to believe them.
For years, Ms Allan has donned hi-vis vests and work boots to wander around government construction sites with cameras in tow. The Big Build and its Big Bills are hers. So too are the $40 billion blowouts.
CRIKEY
Australia’s criminalisation of peaceful protest is a stain on our democracy
'The health of our planet hangs in the balance while those entrusted with legislative power prioritise short-term political gain over the well-being of future generations.'