The Joke's On Us
The flip side. Money talks. The dragon rises to its full tight. A flurry of activity behind the screens. A movement in the shadows. A surreal light upon us all.
They were under threat. He was under threat. Tents lined the roads. There were fabled stories of the times when anyone could go to a shop and purchase food. The collapse of the economy, the collapse of the country. He was fearful in person, no desire to stand vulnerable in the square. We will do anything to encourage him. Others carped. Positive and negative. A time frame.
He had been in Sydney, in the Piccolo Bar, where he had been introduced around on his 16th birthday, wild boy, wild days, and now, grand gesture, drunk with colleagues, firming up a place in the next beyond, run rivulets and rivers around you, this confused, ancient messaging in this all too profane world. "It's all disgusting, I regret it all," he said of all the adventures that had ended in the flesh, and again, that soaring hope, from rooftop to the glistening light on a predawn harbour. And there it was. That hope that would ignite and unite them all.
The precarious nature of the present, the march of the AIs into every aspect of their lives, the lack of humility, the manifest evil of those who would rule over them, the latest bird flu pandemic scare, deliberately orchestrated by those who could not let well be, who had to rule over every intimate finite aspect of the human's lives, who could not rest until they were in complete control.
How strange it was, that period of lapse, when all government authority collapsed and people lost all faith in their politicians and the institutions of government, for all they got from them was grief.
Almost all the problems Australians experienced were inflicted upon them by government, federal, state, local. And the centre could not hold, simply could not hold, and so, those tents, lined along what had once been highways.
He watched, down by the harbour in Kiama, as a 7-year-old boy threw a tantrum at his mother: "You're and idiot. I hate you." The mother kept yelling back.
That was it, the state of things.
HEADLINES
SKY NEWS AUSTRALIA
Rupert Murdoch has given a scathing assessment of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, labelling him “nuts” and “paranoid” in an exclusive interview with Sky News Australia.
Hosted by Sky News Host and Associate Editor of The Australian Chris Kenny, the one-hour documentary The Australian: 60 Years of News journeys through the archives to uncover historic newsroom footage and speaks to prominent figures who have contributed to the masthead’s national affairs coverage for six decades including The Australian’s founder Rupert Murdoch.
The documentary also hears from current Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Michelle Gunn, Editor-at-Large Paul Kelly, former Editor-in-Chief Chris Mitchell, columnist Janet Albrechtsen, investigative journalist and podcast creator Hedley Thomas, cartoonist Johannes Leak, and prominent political leaders including former Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price.
SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA
In an extraordinary move, possibly spurred by some psychological issues among Labor politicians, the Albanese government is attracting worldwide attention to the state of politics in Australia.
The psychological problem can best be described as the ‘Payman’s Panic’.
A primary symptom of Payman Panic is the fear that Senator Payman will be associated with a new Muslim party, potentially resulting in the loss of Labor seats, similar to the way the Teals took blue-ribbon Liberal electorates. In a move that must amaze our closest allies, the Albanese government has formally summoned the Israeli ambassador, Amir Maimon, to be dressed down, not by the Foreign Minister, but by an assistant minister.
THE NEW DAILY
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has hit out at former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, describing him as “sad”.
“Malcolm’s got an axe to grind. I think it’s sad,” Dutton told Sydney radio host Ray Hadley on Thursday.
It follows fiery comments from Turnbull on Network Ten’s The Project on Sunday night that have reportedly sparked fresh calls from senior Liberals for the former PM to be expelled from the party.
Turnbull told The Project that he thought Dutton was a “thug” and any government led by him should be “contemplated with dread”.
ABC
'Digital cocaine': Children taken to hospital after parents pull plug on devices
Distraught children are being treated at emergency departments after their digital devices were removed, with doctors urging parents to beware of the risk of addiction.