Times of Crisis

Take, for instance, the dream-world in which time does not flow but sticks, adhering each town to a particular point in history and each person to a particular point in life. There is no shared stream of present in this world — only islands of neighboring solitudes, each suspended in a different moment of a different past:

The tragedy of this world is that no one is happy, whether stuck in a time of pain or of joy. The tragedy of this world is that everyone is alone. For a life in the past cannot be shared with the present. Each person who gets stuck in time gets stuck alone.

From Maria Popova: Einstein's Dreams 

There were pools of sunlight in those high valleys from whence they came. A guillotine is a moment just like any other. A planned suicide. A moment of desperation. A world at large. Those moments between civilisation and chaos. And here  we were surrounded by agents of chaos. The dissembling world. We are alone together. We face the unthinkable and the infinite. The world at large. The attempted assassination of Donald J Trump clashed through all the headlines, leaving more questions than answers. While here, in this realm, a mere glitch in the software, Windows, how funny that, from that ultimate demon of chaos Bill Gates, who in all his bones and instincts wished to cast chaos upon the world, because he could. Because he was possessed by an indifferent evil beyond our comprehension. 

These things led you to believe. But believe in what? The infinite force beyond our ken. The power of these passing days. The power of the word. The wisdom of retreat? A sabbath day? A day of rest? Of infinite gratitude? Of our mark upon the world? Of the futility of resistance? 

Go to the forest. Go to the cathedral. Listen to the eternals, forming and dissembling as they did, evoked by belief, wandering alone. And out to sea, another infinite shore. 

Australian's standard of living was collapsing. Most were struggling. Others were settling into less extravagant, or less optimistic, less hopeful, simpler lives. For to work was not sufficient anymore. To dream, to work hard, to struggle to achieve, none of it accomplished anything against the blanketing alarm of the communist state which we sneeringly referred to as bureaucracy, but was way worse than that. For all hope and all sovereignty was lost in that miasma, malaise, a creeping, sliding freak show of incompetence, of people who had never strived, and never had to strive. Of those they called public servants, but only served themselves. Coffee on marble benchtops, excuses, every excuse, not to perform, not to do a simple day's work. 

The shifting wind through the trees, the great circle of the gathering spirits, the desire for change, triumph in the smallest reaches. While the soldiers sheaved their weapons for a day, and drank ale, and celebrated their own camaraderie before the great fight. For all had been prepared. The envoys had already infiltrated the enemy ranks. Their infrastructure was already being eaten out from within. They had followed every strategy of war, including deceit, deception, and infiltration, and now it was paying off. 

So for a day they could put away their weapons, spend time with their children, be amorous with their wives, make camp and rest in great joy. For tomorrow would see a great awakening, and the troubles that had afflicted them, which had cursed the human race, or more specifically the Western world, the disaster wrecked upon them by the tertiary elites, now they lay exposed. Like a sniper stooge who did not take the shot, a patsy for a greater connivance. For a shot taken from within. For as so many pointed out, the assassination attempt did not make sense. And the world had changed. You couldn't get away with the same level of malfeasance as you once did. 

And when your own security forces are corrupted; ultimately those old structures will fall.

And Australia, eaten out by the same malfeasance and the same evil and the same operatives, the same ideologies of the pretentious, portentous elites, as had destroyed America. 

For they thought of Australia like they thought of Alabama. As a place full of hicks, easily manipulated. And so, until now, it had proved to be. And Australia's political class and its pampered, high end bureaucrats, had allowed it to happen. Indeed, had been all paid off. And so they betrayed their fellows without a blink of conscience. Until, as in America, as throughout history, the commoners fought back. 

HEADLINES

SKY NEWS

Major global tech outage from US cyber security company CrowdStrike plunges world's largest companies into chaos

A massive global tech outage has crippled operations at some of the world's biggest companies, thrown airports into chaos and left office workers faced with the "blue screen of death" as IT systems crashed. 

GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA

Microsoft outage: how Australian airports, banks and supermarkets are affected by a major IT meltdown

Home affairs minister Clare O’Neil says outage will take “some time to resolve” following problems caused by a CrowdStrike cybersecurity software update.

The Australian government has warned a global IT outage that threw major businesses including airports, banks, supermarkets and media outlets into chaos on Friday could still take “some time to resolve”.

The government activated a National Coordination Mechanism meeting of emergency authorities as well as representatives from the major supermarkets, banks, airlines and other key industries on Friday night to respond after Windows workstations were hit by the “blue screen of death”.

ABC

In short:

Former premier Dominic Perrottet is quitting politics, ending a parliamentary career spanning more than 13 years.

It comes a month after another high-profile Liberal, former NSW treasurer Matt Kean, also resigned.

What's next?

Mr Perrottet will move to the US with his family to work for BHP, while his party faces two by-elections.

SBS

'Extraordinary venom': Albanese says US political polarisation is hurting its global standing

The extreme political divide in the United States is unhealthy and damaging to its reputation, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says.

NEWS

Melbourne man Mike Sentonas to lead CrowdStrike through outage storm

A Melbourne man serves as president of the company at the centre of Friday’s global IT meltdown that has knocked out airlines, banks and supermarkets.

THE NEW DAILY

Retailers call for urgent crackdown as thefts skyrocket

Supermarkets have started strapping body cameras on their workers to improve safety amid a big rise in individual and organised theft.

MACRO BUSINESS

Private sector job market collapses

The Guardian’s Greg Jericho has put together some great charts showing how the private sector job market has collapsed, while government-aligned jobs are booming.

As illustrated in the next chart, jobs in the market sector recorded near zero growth in the year to March 2024, while jobs in healthcare & social services, education, and public administration increased by more than 300,000:

SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA

Here it comes – the Muslim vote

As in the UK, so too in Australia

CRIKEY

Democracy might be under threat. Security bureaucrats are not

The Trump assassination attempt has got Australian politicians excited that they too could be under threat — which would mean we need to give even more money to security agencies.