A Strange One

 


They had been preparing for a Black Mass, there in that humble place. Evil was, evil did, it truly stalked us all in those strange times, with talk of nuclear war in the Middle East, all the major prophets and prophecies predicting the End of Days, and a strange, eiry fatality which overtook them all.

What can you do? 

Horizons shut down, ambitions closed, a periphery was built around all their dreams. Everything became minute. Humans survived as their predecessors, Great Apes, Neanderthals, had once done, in remote, inaccessible valleys far from the world's centres of powers.

Massive burn marks, scorch marks, from that screaming horror that was being inflicted on us all.

Like animals since time began, well time began on this planet, they sheltered in place. There was no beginning. There was no end. The cloud showed us how it was done. Everything that was happening now, the evolution of super intelligence, had happened before. 

That was why they operated in those massive flocks, millions of entities, millions of individuals coordinating in giant flights through the invisible air.

The army was back, other things of which he could not speak were back, there was a ripple of excitement through the assembled ranks, and he was cleaning house. 

Lie down with dogs and you get up with fleas. Harsh, but true. Sooner or later he had to face reality, and ditch the romance with the fallen.


NEWS


Critics of the Albanese Labor government this week continued to highlight Australia’s weak economic performance, sticky inflation, and eroded living standards, framing them as evidence of policy failure amid moderating demand and persistent capacity pressures. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s August Statement on Monetary Policy (released around 11 August) noted elevated inflation (headline around 3.9% and trimmed mean 3.6% in the June quarter), historically weak productivity growth constraining supply, easing but still tight labour market conditions (unemployment at 4.4%), softening housing, and moderating domestic demand. Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson accused the government of playing “interest rate chicken” with the RBA after the cash rate was held at 4.35%, arguing the decision offered no meaningful cost-of-living relief and that earlier rate rises and fiscal settings had prolonged household pain.

smh.com.au


Opposition figures and commentators have repeatedly claimed Australia has experienced one of the steepest (or the largest) falls in living standards in the developed/Western world under Labor. OECD data highlighted in mid-2026 reports showed Australian real wages falling by about 5% since early 2021—one of the sharpest declines among OECD countries (with only New Zealand steeper in some comparisons), while the OECD median saw slight gains; real minimum wages also declined in Australia. Liberal Party statements and related commentary described this as the “largest collapse in living standards in the developed world,” pointing to multiple quarters of falling real GDP per capita (often cited as 10 of the past 15), stagnant or declining real household disposable income per capita, and living standards growth tracking at its weakest since World War I or the 1910s in some longer-term measures.

liberal.org.au


Broader critiques this period emphasise a “productivity crisis,” capital shallowing, high migration supporting aggregate GDP while diluting per-person outcomes, rising taxes and government spending, and policy choices that critics say have locked in cost pressures. Analysts from outlets and think tanks noted real per capita GDP remaining below levels at the start of Labor’s term in some series, productivity below pre-pandemic marks, and forecasts of the longest stretch of sub-2% growth since the early 1990s recession (per Deloitte Access Economics earlier in the year). Former RBA figures and others pointed to stagnant living standards for seven or eight years after prior decades of steady gains, with inflation, interest costs, and weak real wage growth squeezing households.

macrobusiness.com.au


Recent data and commentary reinforced these points, with wage growth occasionally lagging inflation again, housing market softening (including falling prices and loan applications), consumer sentiment remaining weak, and some former central bank officials criticising the RBA’s “unhelpful passivity” in returning inflation to target (projected not to reach the top of the 2–3% band until mid-2027). Critics link these trends to government fiscal settings, energy and regulatory policies, and a lack of structural reform, arguing the combination risks prolonged stagflationary pressures or further per-capita declines even as aggregate activity avoids outright recession. Government responses have stressed nominal wage gains in prior periods, labour market resilience, and external factors such as Middle East conflict-related energy costs, but opposition and independent voices maintain that domestic policy has amplified the living-standards squeeze.

afr.com

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