Sacred Fires In Sunlit Rooms

The instructions were clear: Interfere in the Affairs of Men. Take action in their realm. 

Despite all the beseeching, the Gods were largely indifferent to the fate of man. But not now. Not in these perilous times. 

New Year's Eve came and went. Uncle Fester decayed further in the front room. Craig went out drunk as a Lord after a good rave about what he was going to get up to with the local maidens, language fit to curl the toes of any Canberra feminist who, from their taxpayer funded pedestals, looked down upon the likes of him as simply material to be molded.

Old Alex just sat and listened to the sounds coming from surrounding houses; and sucked out the brains of a few he knew, mashed them into a psilocybin paste and sprinkled their consciousness over Lake Illawara, so that they could see what he could see, the blinking lights on the foreshore, the rooftops from above, high above, the escarpment rising steeply into the citadels, the rare and very striking temperate rain forests of the region. 

There was a darkness in the citadel, for their fortunes needed to be reversed; because power and time and arch enemies required greater action. He did all the usual things: asked for courage, determination, good health, high intelligence, along with truthfulness, compassion, forbearance. He asked them if they knew the truth; but he did not come here to be forgiven for sins he did not commit. 

He came because the was no other course of action. 

 Because events were aligning, whether he liked it or not, was prepared or not. 

"We'll be waiting for millenia if we wait for Stapo to get himself together," they said, referring to Old Alex in the thinly fictionalised narrative. 

"Sometimes," he said, apropos of nothing, "events line up whether we're ready for them or not."

He was frightened despite the Bromance quivers in the ether; even when he understood that it was not all hostile. 

That we could walk away from one glancing look and regret it for weeks. 

But in the end those strange circuses of the flesh, the echoes from down the centuries, racial memory if you wanted to call it that; all these circumstances, the intertwining of the present with the infinite, the flesh is weak, the whisper of an imperial gown as he strode down stone corridors, aflame, even then, aflame. 

Here, what seemed ordinary was not ordinary at all. 

What had been disguised as madness made perfect sense.

He clutched at the hope that it could not be. 

But the swarm was already started. The swirl had begun. He had been activated. 

There wouldn't be any way out, for this peculiar, blood lust species. A peculiarly cruel species, indifferent to the fate of their fellows. 

Gullible, poorly educated, parochial, with zero media literacy and no way of discerning propaganda from news, the truth on the ground from the blizzard of lies and distortions which characterised the Australian government, the general population was being discarded on the altar of an insanity perhaps only the devil could devise.

The assassins were out, in full stealth mode, but the first rounds had failed, or failed to adhere to his time table. 

Perhaps it was for the best. 

Let the lot of their poisonous greed crumble into the sand, sweep aside the jars full of scented oil, face up to the reality of the day, build sacred fires in a room full of engineers, bless those who do not weep at the passing of a corrupt oligarchy.

Hold fast to that which is good.

THE BIGGER STORY: 

THE HEADLINES: 

World leaders urged to make Covid vaccine available to millions of refugees
Two people in Victoria to be fined $19,000 each for breaching health orders, as state records 10 new Covid cases

Australia coronavirus news live: NSW records seven new local cases and masks to be mandatory in some indoor settings

NSW mandates masks for Greater Sydney; Part of northern beaches lockdown lifted; Victoria records 10 local cases as borders close

Coronavirus Australia live news: Berejiklian announces new restrictions for Greater Sydney gyms, churches and night clubs

From midnight, Greater Sydney will see new measures for places of worship, weddings and funerals, outdoor gatherings, gyms and night clubs, with masks also to be mandatory in some indoor settings.

Meanwhile, Victorians returning from NSW will now be turned back at the border, after new restrictions came into effect overnight.

There have been seven local coronavirus recorded in NSW during the latest 24 hour reporting period.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said four of the new cases were from the same household and all but one has already been linked to an existing case.

She also announced that from midnight on Saturday masks will be mandatory in shopping centres, on public transport, in entertainment venues such as a cinema, and fines will come into effect on Monday.

Ms Berejiklian said the move balanced the health risk while providing security to citizens but allowed businesses to continue operating.

“On that basis, we are keen to make sure economic activity continues,” she said.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian takes swipe at Victoria with huge COVID-19 boast

After announcing a slew of harsh new restrictions across the state, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has made a thinly-veiled jab at Victoria’s strategy.

“The science of a pandemic is far from perfect. We don’t pretend that the settings we have put in place are entirely consistent or entirely consistent with what people would expect.

“But that is the nature of a pandemic. What we do know is what works.”

Her remarks were perceived by some to be a thinly-veiled dig at the Victorian strategy of handling their second wave, which saw locals and businesses in hard lockdown for just under three months.

During the briefing, the Premier reiterated that she would not tolerate the imposition of harsher-than-necessary restrictions in NSW, taking another potential jab at Victoria’s second wave strategy.

“We would never impose anything on our citizens unless we thought it was necessary,” Ms Berejiklian noted.

“The strategy very much in New South Wales is not to impose any burden on our citizens unless it is absolutely necessary but also to make sure we keep jobs and the economy, mental health, wellbeing, and a sense of normality moving forward as well as, of course, controlling the virus. And that is the balance we have always tried to strike in New South Wales. I’m incredibly proud of that.”

Exposing a drawn-out power play

For a cartoonist, the Covid pandemic was a rich vein of material when the surreal went mainstream.

Unreported Truths of Covid-19: Former New York Times reporter and prominent lockdown critic Alex Berenson provides a counterweight to media hysteria about coronavirus in this series of short booklets answering crucial questions about COVID. Drawing on primary sources from all over the world - including state and national-level government data, Centers for Disease Control reports, and papers in prominent scientific journals - Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns offers clear, concise, and measured answers to some of the most important questions around the coronavirus: How are COVID deaths counted? How many Americans are likely to die in a worst-case scenario? What is the evidence that lockdowns do or do not help reduce the spread of the illness? Are masks an effective way to reduce the spread? Why did the forecasts for coronavirus hospitalizations prove so wrong? Are children at serious risk from coronavirus? What has the mental health impact of lockdowns been? Whether you have been skeptical of the media's panicked reporting all along or are just starting to wonder why the predictions of doom from March and April have not come to pass, this guide will provide you with the factual, accurate, and impeccably sourced information you need.