Nobody's Going Nowhere
The imperial warship was here, the ladders spilling down to the planet surface.
"We come at the end of empire," they explained, time and again, and while it made no sense to him, or to those who watched, there was in it some kind of internal logic, an explanation for what was happening, in the here and now, as indeed, empires collapsed; tectonic shifts as some were calling it.
What made it make sense was the utter irrationality which had swept over all of them; the utter madness of the political class, the Covid hysteria which engulfed them all, the hyper-connectivity of the era exploited by the worst of the worst.
The rabid, what other word was there, exploitation by the Corporate giants of the Covid scare represented the ultimate end of capitalism as we know it, because the richest individuals and entities on the planet had discarded the concerns of the general population as irrelevant, had treated the human population as less than cattle, had herded with hysteria and media control and regulatory and political capture literally billions of people, half the world's population they claimed, into receiving a medication whose efficacy and safety was now being questioned in media outlets around the world.
The few media outlets which had not been bought.
The intelligence of the population may never have been high, but it was the clear, arrogant, absolute lack of concern that remained the most singular sign, or leftover of that era.
The absolute lack of care.
The absolute contempt for those who dared to disagree with government, or corporate messaging, for those who dared to question the response.
As many had commented, there was a dark AI feel behind it all, a technology originally developed with great study of the herd behaviour of wilder beast and flocks of birds and groups; so the whole hyena thing, panic the herd, pick of the outliers, you can channel the herd in any direction you like, came flying through now to this present day.
And we looked on bewildered at the behaviour of ordinary people; as they lined up to to be injected with an experimental technology, and then lined up to inject their children.
It was astonishing, and frightening, concerning and bewildering; and every day they settled more in place, the wheeling from above, the strange carrion cries as they wheeled above the history of this time; the funnelling, the strangeness, the darkness, the very great darkness of these times.
And so it was, we called to you.
And so it was you took it up, that sacred role.
And so it was, that empire ended. That one civilisation ended and another began. That one form of humanity ended, and another began.
If I could sail a galleon ship
A long, lonely rider across the sky
Seek out mysteries while you sleep
And treasures money cannot buy
For you know I see you everywhere
A servant girl, an empress
My galleon ship will fly and fall
Fall and fly and fly and fall deep into your loveliness
And if we rise my love
Before the daylight comes
A thousand galleon ships will sail
Ghostly around the morning sun
For we are not alone, it seems
So many riders in the sky
The winds of longing in their sails
Searching for the other side
Nick Cave. Galleon Ship.
MAINSTREAM NEWS
SPECTATOR
Governments (state and federal) have failed to honour compacts with the public, as well as agreements with each other, and appear to shift goalposts without cost-benefit analysis or publishing their medical, societal, and economic reasoning.
We were presented with projections of 100,000 people dying in 2020 even with restrictions being implemented. The actual figure was fewer than 1,000. Clearly what has happened is not what was presented. The Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, who has had a history of over-stating the effects of this virus, came up with a figure of ten times more dangerous than influenza so we can have some confidence on what the maximum impact would likely be.
The encroachment by government has been further reaching than numeric health impacts. It has dictated the major tenants of our civilisation:
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Assembly
Freedom of Worship (in some circles this could be seen as an outcome of the first to freedoms)
ABC
Two years into the pandemic, Western Australia once again has been left indefinitely closed off to the rest of the world.
Its plan to bring down the borders on February 5 has been ditched, with no clear path ahead for when WA will reunite with the rest of the country.
So, how did it come to this? And what does the decision mean?
What has happened?
Late last year, WA Premier Mark McGowan announced a February 5 reopening to interstate and international travellers, describing that date at the time as "locked in".
WA is on the verge of reaching the stated vaccination goal to reopen — a 90 per cent vaccination rate for those aged 12 and over.
Catch up on the main COVID-19 news from January 22 with a look back at our blog
But in an extraordinary evening press conference barely two weeks from that date, Mr McGowan walked away from that plan, insisting it would be "reckless and irresponsible" for WA to proceed.
GUARDIAN
Authorities in Western Australia are attempting to contain a growing Perth Covid cluster, amid handwringing about the state’s decision to indefinitely delay the reopening of its borders.
WA recorded seven new Covid cases on Saturday. There were 20,148 new cases in New South Wales, 16,016 in Victoria and 15,050 in Queensland.
While the WA numbers remain extremely low compared with states where the Omicron variant has spread, concerns are mounting that a more serious outbreak could still take hold despite the decision to keep the state border shut.
Two of the new cases were acquired in the community without a known source; the state’s health department has urged anyone in the Perth and Peel region experiencing symptoms to come forward for testing.
“[It’s] the elephant in the room. We already have Covid Omicron in WA. We already have community spread,” said the president of the Australian Medical Association’s WA branch, Mark Duncan-Smith.
“In the other states, it all started with one case. WA already has that one case. Even as we speak, the number of Omicron cases in the community is doubling every three days.”
In a strongly worded statement, Duncan-Smith called on the WA government to introduce modest restrictions, and to properly prepare the health system and schools for the pandemic.
THE NEW DAILY
COVID has forced what has been the largest anti-Australia Day protest off the streets as a new poll reveals public sentiment to change the date is gaining widespread support, especially among the young.
Warriors of the Aboriginal Resistance, described as “a collective … committed to the cause of decolonisation”, has announced it won’t protesting, the first time since 2015 the group hasn’t taken to the streets of Melbourne.
“We want to be on the street fighting for our people but the time isn’t now,” the organisation said, directing people to an online event instead.
Australia Day, celebrated on January 26, marks the date the First Fleet raised a Union Jack at Sydney Cove, called Warrane by the Aboriginal people who fished and lived there.
Close to 234 years later, the date and holiday remain an ongoing source of contention that increasingly divides generations.
CoreData surveyed 1292 people and found “a generational and gender divide among Australians over the significance of the day and its position in the calendar”.
SKY NEWS
Albanese backs Premier McGowan’s border decision
19 hours ago
The federal Opposition has endorsed an indefinite delay of Western Australia’s border reopening – which could see leaders locked out for the election campaign.
A late-night press conference from the WA Premier shattered hopes of reuniting the nation next month – deepening political divides between the states