The Gods Are Roiled
Extreme violence, arrogance, stupidity. Cash. Loads and loads of cash. How the bribes were paid, that he still wondered; through blind trusts, through offshore accounts. Through a former Prime Minister with close connections to the corporate world; that would include a multiple of sinners. He didn't know. All he knew was that it was extremely clever. And that $25 million can no doubt buy the loyalty of almost any politician. Their integrity was so shot. Their moral bankruptcy so complete. They thought the gods were laughing. They didn't know; how deep their betrayal, how complete the compromise.
They were the thoughts wandering through his plundered brain; as his own parent suffered the supreme stupidity, arrogance, rigidity and downright cruelty of a web of Covid diktats most of the population wanted to put behind them.
As if nothing had happened.
As if nothing had happened.
That was the extraordinary thing about this permanent present; without a notion of history, without community.
"White people have no empathy," an indigenous friend said.
And he replied, the same thought he had had so often in recent times, "It amazes me how little they care for each other."
The degraded, bought and sold nature of the nation's media was one of the keys to this unfolding; for an informed population would never have tolerated any of this for a second.
But a panicked, self-interested herd caught in an eternal, shallow present; a vacuous sinner, trashy, uncaring, pleasure driven, they had all become that flimsy person, caring not, doing not, driven not in the least by concerns for history or their fellows; driven instead by Married at First Sight, by a squandering squalor of the soul, by a temperament so thin it was like brittle yellowing plastic, frayed, cracked, entirely without shame. Uncaring to the max. All of it now, these circles of flight, wheeled down into the present, into this time and place, into the hearts of these people.
These glorious moments, the things that could be, the glories, pride, honour, depth of commitment, care for each other; they were as if from another species. This one. They settled into place. Just like the Bog Irish; they were what they were.
They were the beloved of Earth, the beloved of the gods; as they wheeled down from a fantastical sky, as they flashed into being and were gone, as they settled into a universal consciousness which had very little to do with humans, as they signalled, calling, calling, although none of them knew, had the neural capacity to know, exactly the motive, the over-arching plan; the destiny; their destiny.
These people who had decided to play God, all were besmirched, their dishonesty, the utterly corrupt nature of their corporate enterprises, the supreme evil of which they had allowed themselves to be a part, or had actively orchestrated, for the dark angels had thought, at least for a time, that they could win.
Or at the very least that out of chaos they could prosper.
Their reputations entirely sullied, soiled, besmirched; their dishonesty on universal display for all to see, flashed around the world, ignominious, disgusting, creatures of despair that had fooled their fellows in the millions.
There was no honour in any of it.
And now the blindest of them all could see that they had all been fooled.
It was a crime. It was criminal. If some had believed, how could they continue to believe, in the face of such overwhelming evidence?
That "don't talk about the war" moment expanded out. The Origins of Totalitarianism frothed in front of them all. Yet still they continued to believe the lies of their superiors, the oligarchs; because the scale of the scam was so incomprehensible.
Yes, indeed.
Incomprehensible.
Until it all became clear.
The betrayal; that betrayal of time and place; in a blood soaked history standing out for the depth of its brutal humanity, its extraordinary cruelty, its shallow grave.
Indeed, incomprehensible. These people called themselves human, as if it was attribute.
Their garbage narratives fallen. Their hearts worn. Their souls destroyed. These grubs would never know; they simply didn't have the capacity.
As for Old Alex, he didn't know, or even understand, why he had been told to cooperate.
Timing, technology, at last a decent heart; he simply didn't know.
Perhaps, most likely, the point in history that determined them all; the futures of them all.
MAINSTREAM NEWS
AFR
Middle-aged and highly-educated voters deserting the Coalition en masse were the major demographic drivers of the Morrison government’s defeat, according to the first major independent analysis of the May 21 election result.
But the impact of female voters abandoning the Coalition was actually lower than the popular narrative would suggest, the Australian National University survey found.
Former treasurer Josh Frydenberg was among the Liberal casualties on election day. Eamon Gallagher
This was because the Coalition over successive elections has lost favour among women and damage from this loss of support had already been done.
The ANU survey of more than 3500 voters also found Anthony Albanese’s victory has improved the national mood, with 73.3 per cent of voters saying they were satisfied with the direction of the country, compared to 62.4 per cent in April.
Mr Albanese formed majority government after securing 77 seats but the Coalition was smashed, losing 19 seats to a combination of Labor, the Greens and “teal” independents.
This ANU survey, the first in a series analysing the result, focuses on the national picture that saw power shift from the Coalition to Labor. Later studies will delve into the teal movement and right-wing minor parties.
Co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle said age and education levels were the biggest demographic factor in deciding the election.
Of voters aged under 55 who supported Coalition candidates at the 2019 election, 34.9 per cent switched to other parties last month. Older Australians were more willing to stick with the Morrison government, with just 21.1 per cent changing their preference.
SKY NEWS
Electricity reserves have improved yet conditions remain volatile, the Australian Energy Market Operator has announced.
This follows an unprecedented move by AEMO when it was forced to indefinitely suspend the electricity spot market last week.
The decision came amid skyrocketing power prices which led AEMO to set an energy price cap on Sunday, limiting the price of wholesale electricity to $300 a megawatt per hour.
AEMO said it was "impossible to operate" due to the shortfall in supply being blamed on a number of reasons including generators being offline, an increase in usage due to winter and international pressures such as the war in Ukraine.
In a statement released on Monday afternoon, AEMO says it will continue to remain suspended but the situation is improving.
GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
The head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is expected to be replaced by Australia’s ambassador to Japan, as Anthony Albanese moves to reshape the upper ranks of the public service.
Kathryn Campbell, who presided over the “robodebt” fiasco, was widely tipped to be moved on after the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said the department needed to boost its capability at a time of great “challenge” in world affairs.
The ambassador to Japan, Jan Adams, is expected to be appointed to lead the department, the ABC first reported on Monday.
In an interview with the Guardian’s Australian politics podcast in March, Wong hinted she was interested in a change when asked whether she was comfortable having a head of Dfat who was not a career diplomat.
Wong said Dfat needed to “shape and operationalise Australia’s engagement in the world and, given that, you would hope it is led by people who have the capability, capacity and knowledge to do so”.
THE SPECTATOR
During the mid-20th century, George Orwell famously wrote a novel featuring the sinister embodiment of surveillance, the Big Brother State. In his 1984, the people of the State were watched closely. Privacy was a thing of the past and rendered virtually impossible due to extreme government overreach.
In 2022, we are beginning to see the ‘fictional’ premise taken up and implemented in various ways by our government and corporations.
Australians have already experienced undue surveillance in several forms throughout the era of Covid. QR code check-ins allowed the government to monitor where we were and where we had been. Vaccine passports weaponised (once private) medical records against citizens to discriminate and segregate.
Now, QR codes have been phased out, but some states are still using vaccine passports (no prizes for guessing who – Victoria). Vaccine passports are also still imposed in certain industries that refuse to rid themselves of discriminatory mandates (looking at you, NSW Department of Education).
There have been two revelations over the last couple of weeks that have brought to light further instances and issues of surveillance in Australia.
Last week, it was discovered by consumer group Choice that Kmart, Bunnings Warehouse, and the Good Guys all refer to facial recognition in their privacy policies and may have been using facial recognition technology in select stores. The organisation probed 25 retailers and found that these three were ‘capturing the biometric data of their customers’. To do so, they use video and images from store cameras to create a ‘faceprint’. As a Choice representative explained, this practice is akin to shops taking your fingerprints upon entry.
Kate Bower, Choice consumer data advocate, stated that the group found, ‘76 per cent of Australians aren’t aware that retailers are capturing their unique facial features in this way.’ This is despite Kmart, Bunnings, and the Good Guys correctly displaying small signs at the entrances of stores where this technology was being used. Some argue that this is not enough to adequately inform customers of what may feel like a breach of privacy.
The technology used to undertake this surveillance uses a database of around 3 billion images of people harvested from a range of websites across the internet. Keep in mind, this technology is not just capturing personal data from adults, but also children and infants.
THE NEW DAILY
A leading epidemiologist has warned Australia is heading towards 50 COVID-19 deaths a day as more transmissible Omicron sub-variants become the nation’s dominant strains.
It comes after a new study found the actual number of virus cases during the peak of the Omicron wave was likely double that which was reported.
University of South Australia professor of biostatistics Adrian Esterman told The New Daily on Monday that COVID-19 deaths were slowly rising as governments wound back public health measures, and would likely average 50 a day by the end of July.
“We’re seeing increasing case numbers, potentially a more severe disease, rising death rates, and we’ve reduced even more public health measures,” Professor Esterman said.
“If you look at the middle of April, let’s just say two months ago, we were averaging about 30 deaths a day, right? If you look at it now, it’s more like 40 deaths a day. And in a month’s time, I expect it to be 50 deaths a day.”
As for exactly why COVID-19 deaths are on the rise in Australia, Professor Esterman said it is “very hard to say why”. But he pointed to a number of potential factors.