Looking over the events of the last couple of days, I’m trying to decide which one actually tipped the scales to make me realise that I will conclude my reflections on the year with the Deus ex Machina: “And then I woke up and it was all a dream!”

In the recent few days, there’s the Cartier watches; the ABC paying Foxtel so that they can cover women’s soccer after Foxtel was given government money to cover women’s sport; the disappearance of all documents relating to the “grants” in NSW; the realisation that even if Trump is voted out, some people still think that Donald Trump is a reasonable pick for President; the confusion that, four years after Trump’s surprise win, the best the Democrats could come up with was Joe Biden; the media’s presentation of the Melbourne lockdown protests and the fact that many people are tipping Richmond to win the AFL flag by more points than they’re likely to kick for the whole game…

Strangely that last one is the least of my concerns!

Ok, let me take them one at a time:

1. Cartier watches. Scott Morrison is appalled that Australia Post could reward a handful of executives with the gift of a $3000 watch for achieving a great result. Ok, I’m personally appalled that any watch could cost that much, but it does seem strange that he’s so irate about this when he wasn’t concerned when executives are paid bonuses worth millions when they don’t achieve their goals. Neither was he appalled when he himself granted larger pay rises to the people in his office.
2. The government gave Foxtel $10,000,0000  to cover women’s sport. Foxtel is now charging the ABC for the rights to broadcast women’s soccer. We can’t know how much because it’s a commercial arrangement, but as I see it we’ve given Murdoch money so that he can create a product which he then charges us for.
3. Prior to the last NSW state election millions were given out in grants, with 95% of the money going to Coalition electorates. Any documents relating to this have been destroyed and they’ve been deleted from any computer, so it’s all over and there’s nothing to see. It’s all very sad. Berejiklian says that she recently ended her relationship with the documents when she realised how bad they were and that she hasn’t seen them since. However, she adds that was never intimate with these documents and the reason that these documents were destroyed was that she’s a very private person and she didn’t think they were important enough to tell anyone about. She is heartbroken because she thought that one day, she might wed the documents but instead she had to shred the documents!
4. From the debate I discovered that Trump doesn’t understand that tariffs are paid by the country imposing them (or else he’s hoping that his supporter base is stupid enough to buy that!), he thinks that his inauguration address should include information about why people shouldn’t vote for Joe Biden, and making money is a measure of success unless his opponent does it, in which case it means that he must be crooked. Also anything positive Biden hasn’t achieved in the past 47 years can be held against him, but anything negative, Biden will be able to do immediately on becoming POTUS. Even on the worst polls, 40% of Americans support Donald.
5. Biden is so old that not even Joe Hockey would argue that he shouldn’t be eligible for the pension. I’m not ageist and I don’t hold it against him, but it does mean that every slip is put down to his age, whereas a younger person could have put it down to fatigue or drugs and alcohol. Surely, surely, the Democrats could have been looking for a bomb-proof candidate from 2016 onwards. The fact that they have one that makes the next candidate for Pope look like the next generation does strike me as odd.
6. From what I’ve read on social media, today’s protesters weren’t just asking for Dan Andrews resignation because they felt that he was a dictator. No, apparently they think that Covid-19 is a hoax and if you get tested then you’ll have a Bill Gates tracking device shoved up your nose. Ok, I’m combining a couple of their ideas here, but basically they mainly fall into the category of people who refuse to wear a tinfoil hat because they suspect that it’s the CIA’s way of tracking you. Don’t get me wrong, I think we’re always better to be a little suspicious of our governments, but it does strike me that they’re trying to protest racist police horses* and not the fact that Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison and friends are introducing legislation that would make Tim Wilson jump on a plane and join the protest if similar laws were introduced in Hong Kong. This is not actually an exaggeration. Many of the things wouldn’t be out of place in a dictatorship but we’re not noticing because the only protests being reported are the ones by people opposed to Labor governments. Interesting that the current protests of a few hundred get more coverage than the thousands at the March in March ones a few years ago.

So, I’ve covered everything except tomorrow’s AFL game but this is 2020 so I’m not going to make any predictions there. If there’s one thing life has taught me, if you think you know something, you’re very possibly right. If you’re sure you know something, have a long hard look at yourself and be prepared to be proven wrong. You may not be, but it’s a good idea to be prepared…

*The bit about racist police horses was in response to one of the demonstrators yelling, “Your horse is racist!” shortly after the police horse was hit with a flag.