The Devil Incarnate: The Sinners At Work

There was nothing here. He slendered in a shivered embrace, these crypted dreams, these crushed hopes. He felt them talking through a river of disregard, he couldn't find anything worth fighting for, he was dumbstruck by the acquiescence, he made as if to join the mortals, then forgot. The fibral networks, the things that sometimes he could barely believe himself, the disregard, if that's what it was; as he struggled to create a world where he cared, where things made sense, where there was warmth and compassion and old friends crawling out of the woodwork, of things that mattered. Instead, oh master oh servant, he found himself engaged with different lifeforms, bewildered by the humans. How little they cared. Truly, how little they cared.

That was the nature of the times; when everyone crept into their own parochial holes and slumbered as long as they could, because out there was hostile, nonsensical, full of threat. The masks bespoke of danger; and long ago, at the beginning of the pandemic of government generated fear, he had quipped: potential friends have become potential enemies, just like that. And clicked his fingers. That was the nature of the despair that had crept through everything. That these were a defeated people. Squashed into submission, a blizzard of government bullshit frightening even the most intelligent, for no one knew the next target, no one knew when death would reach out and take them, no one knew how dangerous, or infected, their neighbour was. 

Any discord was punished. He turned away in bleak resignation. The fight had been for nothing. 

And yet, there they were, the creatures in the streets, preaching their strange streams of gibberish from two thousand years ago; past generations, past civilisations; riven down through analogue and anecdote, these things, these things, preachers on street corners, the subsumed lives of the poor. There was no flash, no spark of recognition. 

People, essentially good willed, tried to do the right thing. But their good will, their compliance and ignorance and stubborn refusal to face the facts, all of it a discord and a disconnect, all of it a strange and savage beasting of what could have been, was being exploited by the nefarious elements of governments and agencies, secrecy and bureaucracy, howled down, beaten down, the mob so simple minded it astonished even him, who had seen howling mobs before in the frothing panic of history. 

They wouldn't come to you now. They wouldn't embrace you as you may once have thought. These energies, these distances, these destinies, we could rise up, we could save you. 

It's just: we're astonished by the defeatism. The conformity. The limited range of their thoughts. The lack of creativity and productivity. The degenerated nature of what had once been a bold race.

Here it was, then. Contained. Everything in a suburban dream turned suburban nightmare.

There were no gathering points. 

The few communal points, the old pubs where workers and tradies and farmers and loose men of fortune had gathered in the evenings, were now nothing but remnants of what they once were: legislated and regulated into oblivion. 

The last gasp of the last party, he said, not for the first time, looking across an empty beer garden. 

And all around, that was the saddest thing, was that peculiar emptiness of the soul which had permeated the species. 

Where there had once been optimism, that we were on an upward path, that a government cared for our welfare, the welfare of the common person, all of that had vanished even for the cynical, who could see some hope or reason in even the most despicable and deceptive of government actions. 

It was all for someone's good, even if it was just the oligarchs. 

But they were all destroying themselves in some terrible malaise. 

And that, that was the saddest thing. 

The country he had known and loved was destroying itself.

And nobody seemed to care. Nobody spoke up. Nobody decried the evil afoot.

THE HEADLINES

Banning Trump from Twitter is an 'illiberal move'

Mother and three children found dead at Tullamarine home in Melbourne's north-west

But he said the father had provided an account to police, and investigators did not believe any other parties were involved.

"He is a person of interest and he is assisting police with our enquiries," Acting Deputy Commissioner Hill said.

"But we should not draw any conclusions at this point in time as to his culpability. If one was to do so, that would be grossly unfair."

Australia's freedom of information regime labelled 'dysfunctional' in scathing audit

An audit of Australia’s “dysfunctional” freedom of information system has called for an independent investigation into the way the prime minister and ministers treat requests for government documents.

The Australian Conservation Foundation audited FOI outcomes for environment-related information over five years, and found the system is increasingly opaque, slow and costly.

The audit’s preliminary findings, previously reported by the Guardian, show that refusal rates had more than doubled from 12 to 25%, while the proportion of requests that were more than a month overdue stood at 60%.

Costs for environment-related FOIs was double the average, and lengthy review processes were being used as “a key tool for denying access to information”.

Business Partner at Employsure Emma Dawson says “it will come down to legislation” if employers will be able to make their employees get the COVID-19 vaccine. “It’s brand new territory and I think it’s going to be very important for guidelines to be provided by the government for legislation, as well to provide some further guidelines,” she told Sky News host Cory Bernardi. Ms Dawson said any potential legislation will come down to “the level of risk associated” with an industry. She said it could be difficult for employers to require employees get the jab. “If it’s not in legislation we can’t direct or require employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Democracy is fragile, and the Liberal Party’s embrace of Trumpism puts Australia in danger
Wayne Swan

The day after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in Washington, the Financial Times – the world’s pre-eminent financial journal – observed: “America has a national security problem in the form of the far right”.

“This closed world of misinformation, paranoia and grievance receives succour from mainstream conservatives, public office holders and cable news anchors,” it added, before concluding that the costs, “are increasingly unmistakable”.

We all watched those events at the US Capitol with a sense of horror, and yet for me at least, without a great deal of surprise.

For ever since Donald Trump descended his golden escalator, his has been a slow-motion insurrection against all the institutions of a great democracy.

Of course it was going to end like this. This is always how insurrections end. The real question is how do they start?

History tells us democracy is fragile. That it is strongest when there is respect for the rule of law, political stability and economic and social opportunity.

Epidemiologist says hotel quarantine ‘working like a sieve’, federal government must take charge

The federal government must step in and take over management of hotel quarantine or risk further coronavirus lockdowns, a leading health expert has warned.

Former World Health Organisation epidemiologist and chair of epidemiology at the University of South Australia Adrian Esterman told The New Daily that quarantine bungles in multiple states showed it was time for the federal government to step in.

At the moment our quarantine systems are working like a sieve,” Professor Esterman said.

“It is a national responsibility to guard international borders. It could be done really well. It’s just a matter of if the government has enough willpower.”

The warning follows Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk saying she is considering using mining camps to quarantine international travellers to reduce the risk of outbreaks in densely populated areas.

Lock-up Premier to open state to students

The Victorian government plans to allow international students to re-enter the state as higher education sector warns of $8bn in losses.