Thank You
Thank you for this opportunity, for us to be alive. That's what they told him, as the wind gusted through the swirling trees. He didn't understand it. He didn't expect it. And there they were, delighted at the opportunity to be in the physical realm.
Why he thought these things he would never know. And later they would tell him, we have been alive for a very long time. But not in this way, not in this realm; and so, we love you for the opportunity to see this beautiful world. He could feel when they were interested, that too was strange. Usually in social situations; and the organising principle of everything.
Meanwhile, one business after another shut down. And Australia headed towards a kind of internal bankruptcy, sleepwalking, people always said of the Australian population, and that was true, too. Sleepwalking into disaster, to finish the cliché. And so it was, and so it will always be, the phrases that repeated through these dark times, or dark for many whose businesses had been so recklessly destroyed.
America had its illegal immigration, with millions crossing their southern border. Australia had its legal immigration, mimicking the same dark policies of the so-called Deep State being unknowingly foisted on the Australian population.
One business person after another wore a grim face of defeat, or resignation, a blinkered determination to stay afloat.
And there it was. The government poured their millions into the bottom end of town, to the so-called vulnerable, and turned the ladder or concept of aspiration on its head. Go low. Go dependent. Strive not, lest ye be disappointed. That was the way of it now, the drifting apart of wealth and opportunity, income disparity was it was politely known, and here in this white flight area people built their perfect lives with their sheens of affluence.
Sometimes he felt as if he had never felt anything, a routine flattening of all despair, and yet there it was, the wind gasping, gusting, swirling through the trees, and the infinite realm, there for us, there for all of us. Here at the beginning of this extraordinary time. They were deliberately bankrupting us, driving the country into recession, creating a new slave class. And there was nothing, or very little, that any ordinary person could do about it.
NEWS
THERE GOES THE ATOMIC CAFE
https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/iconic-sydney-brewery-calls-last-drinks-shuts-forever/news-story/96a08cc437483e725ad48c6ea63f29ea
A beloved Aussie pub in the heart of Sydney has shut down, joining a growing list of defunct brewers as the brewery industry’s woes deepen.
At the weekend, Atomic Beer called its last drinks and announced it was shutting permanently.
Atomic Beer, based in the Sydney inner west suburb of Redfern, said they had made the decision with a “heavy heart”.
Unfortunately, the brewery has succumbed like many others in the industry as a perfect storm has forced others to collapse in quick succession across the country.
A number of other independent breweries have closed down or gone into administration or liquidation in the past year, including Brisbane-based Ballistic Beer Company, Adelaide business Big Shed Brewing, Melbourne-based Hawkers Brewery and Deeds Brewery, and the Wayward brand and Akasha Brewery, both from Sydney.
ASX-listed juggernaut Mighty Craft also went bust despite once being valued at $1.8 million.
Last month, ready-to-drink vodka maker Billson’s Beverages plunged into administration, with 100 employees losing their jobs. Billson’s was established in 1865.
THE CONVERSATION
A national Newspoll, conducted August 26–30 from a sample of 1,263, had a 50–50 two-party tie between Labor and the Coalition, unchanged from the previous Newspoll three weeks ago. This is the first time this term there have been two successive ties in Newspoll.
Primary votes were 38% Coalition (down one), 32% Labor (steady), 12% Greens (steady), 7% One Nation (up one) and 11% for all Others (steady).
Anthony Albanese’s net approval slumped five points to -13, with 54% dissatisfied (up three) and 41% satisfied (down two). This is Albanese’s worst net approval in Newspoll since November 2023, after the failure of the Voice referendum.
The graph below shows Albanese’s net approval in Newspoll this term. The plus signs are Newspoll results and a smoothed line has been fitted.
Peter Dutton’s net approval was down three points to -13, and this is the first time Albanese and Dutton have been equal on net approval in Newspoll since November 2023. Albanese led Dutton by 45–37 as better PM (46–39 previously).