The Crimes Committed Here Today

The crimes committed here today will live on in infamy. The tennis player Novak Djokovic had been deported, with the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, declaring "rules are rules" as he played to the cheap seats. While that sneering unpleasant regional thug the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared that it was simple, he should just get "the jab". 

The lies mounted daily. 

Here in this place there was nothing. 

The only community gathering place was the pub, and it was basically empty. 

Another cold, wet and windy summer made the place even more insular than usual.

A carryon carryover, a dredge that should have evinced or extinguished all hope, a crawling extinguishment of all enthusiasm, a place of loneliness and counting days, of dying friendships and a cast of herd behaviour; panic the herd, pick off the outliers, and you can move them in any direction you like. There was no point to talking to anybody about anything, and nobody did. A trip to the shops, with all the masks, QR coding and social distancing, had become a deeply unpleasant experience. 

And all was lost, lost, is that what you are saying? 

Well, it was hardly a cause for celebration, to watch your own country being destroyed. 

But he didn't back down, he didn't go quiet, he rallied from an exhausted and terminated place, and watched as time wheels tumbled in turbulent clouds in the valley below, and if all was lost for these people, it was not lost for all people.

The man who had destroyed Australia was seeking re-election. 

All was lost, lost, is that what you wanted to say?

Peculiarly, it was this place, this ordinary place, which would birth a prosperity spilling down the generations, ultimately leading to one of the most spectacularly beautiful civilisations ever witnessed on Earth. 

And beyond that, they would call to him. What happened? What happened here? How could it possibly be? How could an entire country destroy itself? How could a once prosperous place, providing security and work for its serfs, throw millions of people into such shocking poverty? 

How could a country with so many spectacular natural gifts destroy itself? How was it possible? How was the soul of the country destroyed?

The crimes committed here today will reverberate down through all time. 

The nature of man revealed. 

And the criminal thugs, those government thugs, who destroyed this place would slide into acrimony and disinterest, would slip beyond the river of history. And disappear. 

But to understand the future of history, you had to understand the present. 

The crimes committed here, today. 

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

ABC

Novak Djokovic has arrived home in Serbia to be greeted by fans, hordes of international media, and warnings from France about his participation in the French Open.

Key points:

• Novak Djokovic has arrived in Belgrade to a hero's welcome after being deported from Australia on Sunday

• But his avid fans were outnumbered by media from around the globe at the terminal

• It is unknown if Djokovic will be able to compete in the French Open in May due to his vaccine status

Once he was inside the terminal at Belgrade airport locals asked for his picture and autograph, before he was whisked away through a VIP exit.   

The athlete's movements have been closely tracked by the global press and his avid Serbian supporters who wanted to offer him a hero's welcome. 

"We came here to support Novak Djokovic in his fight against the Australian government," Mihijlo Vejkl told the ABC. 

"In Serbia when he plays it means everything to us, it's like a holiday in our country."

At the exit of the airport, groups chanted "Djokovic, Djokovic, Djokovic" while jumping and waving the Serbian flag, others carried signs that said "welcome Nole".

"I'm sorry for him, because he's so good, I could cry because he just didn't deserve this,” Djokovic fan Maja Marjanović told the ABC. 

THE NEW DAILY

Novak Djokovic has touched down in Serbia to a hero’s welcome – and to yet more doubt about his tennis future while he refuses to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

After being denied a chance to pursue his 2022 Australian Open dreams, the World No.1 male tennis player has been warned he may also be barred from taking the court in the French Open.

A spokesman for France’s Ministry of Sport said on Tuesday morning there will be “no exemption” for unvaccinated athletes or spectators at Roland Garros in May.

Back in Australia, however, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has left the door ajar for Djokovic to return despite the Serb’s visa cancellation carrying a three-year ban from re-entry.

The Coalition has been slammed by allies and foes over the drawn-out saga, with the Labor opposition branding the government’s stance “BS” and even some rogue Liberal MPs claiming the decision was “discrimination” against the unvaccinated athlete.

Multiple Morrison government ministers were out in the media on Monday to back the decision of Immigration Minister Alex Hawke to cancel Djokovic’s visa.

SKY NEWS

The president of the Australia Medical Association Western Australia (AMA WA) has issued a grim warning about the number of COVID-19 cases the state will face unless Premier Mark McGowan immediately imposes tougher restrictions.

Dr Mark Duncan-Smith on Monday called on the Premier to move toward increased restrictions to avoid “an unnecessary avalanche” of COVID cases in the coming months.

He told reporters while he didn’t have access to the state’s modelling, South Australia’s modelling “has been described as ‘alarmingly accurate’ by their premier”.

“Increased restrictions has led to a six-fold predicted peak in the number of new cases in South Australia," he said. 

THE GUARDIAN

The shortage of rapid antigen tests for consumers is being exacerbated by state and federal governments and large corporates placing mammoth orders for the kits, causing stock to be diverted from online retailers and pharmacies.

Australia is in the middle of a huge Omicron wave after state and federal governments pivoted from a policy of Covid suppression to one of “living with the virus”, causing a surge in demand for rapid antigen testing kits.

Prof Trent Twomey, the national president of the Pharmacy Guild, said his members were struggling to secure stock and many had had orders delayed by their suppliers.

However, he said anecdotal reports from his members that stock was being requisitioned by governments had proved to be unsubstantiated. The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, denied on Monday the commonwealth was requisitioning supplies of rapid antigen tests, as the Health Act allows.

THE SPECTATOR

Numbers may not lie, but graphs can give the lie to the lockdown and vaccination narratives that have held the world in their iron grip for two years.

We have been locked down, put under mass house arrest, tracked, traced, and jabbed serially for a pandemic so dangerous we need daily reminders of impending gloom and doom. Even those who ‘do the right thing’ find the goalposts of compliance moving with the regularity of a carrot dangling before an ass.

Look at Figure 1 and tell me how effective and successful the strategy of stringent measures and mass vaccination has been in eliminating cases for Australia, France, UK, and America when compared to light footprint Sweden? It’s a compelling illustration of the over-hyped benefits of non-pharmaceutical interventions (such as shelter in place, masks, and contact tracing) that have seriously downplayed their collateral and long-term costs.