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Nutzis Invade Shrine To Demand That Victoria Stop Earthquakes!

For years we’ve been subject to people with megaphones complaining that they’re not being given a voice. And when I say megaphones, I mean that both literally and symbolically.

Symbolically, the best example was Andrew Bolt’s piece on the front page of a major newspaper complaining that he was being silenced. Yes, he wasn’t allowed to express his views at all because the court had said he had breached the Racial Discrimination Act because the articles were not written in good faith and contained inaccurate statements. Tony Abbott jumped to his defence, arguing that free speech “the right of people to say what you don’t like, not just the right of people to say what you do like”… I guess Abbott would defend a person’s right to make inaccurate statements.

It would be interesting to ask these two whether they were supportive of Christian Porter’s attempt to sue the ABC or Peter Dutton’s dummy spit about what someone on social media said about him…

But the whole freedom thing got very interesting in Melbourne this week when a group of Nutters, Nazis and some who were a combination of both joined with some CFMEU members to protest mandatory vaccines, lockdowns, earthquakes and a range of things that make me feel like I’m making a speech at the Oscars and I should apologise in advance because I’m sure to miss someone.

There was some debate early in the week about how many of the protesters were actual CFMEU workers with some suggesting that there were tell tales signs that the protest was being infiltrated by regular anti lockdown protesters. These tell-tale signs included pristine hi-viz vests, posts on social media telling people to wear a hi-viz vest to the protest and photos of various known anti-lockdowners such as “Bunnings Karen”. (This is not her real name, but she was an internet sensation for a couple of weeks last year when she filmed Bunnings’ employers refusing her entry even though she was a sovereign citizen and they had no right to tell her that she couldn’t go anywhere. I was trying to find her address so that I could take a group of homeless people to her house and tell her that she had no right to deny them entry because they were sovereign citizens and the idea that this was her house was only something that the illegal government was trying to push….She later posted a video of herself putting a curse on Dan Andrews and saying that if wasn’t premier by the end of the day, we’d all know what happened. Seems like Dan had stronger magic because he’s still there a year later… although there was that earthquake…)

Whatever the actual number of construction workers on the Monday, by the next day, the crowd seemed to be filled with less likely looking bodies and their rendition of “Horses” on the Westgate Bridge wasn’t the sort of revolution song beloved by union movement. By Wednesday, they had the distinct look of sheep who’d managed to give the sheepdog the slip. If you’ve ever tried to herd sheep, you’ll know how apt that comparison is. Like sheep, the protesters changed direction, split up, rejoined the main group, turned left, turned right and didn’t seem to have a clear plan of where to go but the main thing was that they’d given the police (sheepdogs) the slip and they were free to run this way and that before making their way to the Shrine where they celebrated their freedom in a variety of ways which included drinking Jim Beam, doing Nazi salutes, urinating and chanting “Lest We Forget”. While the phrase is so sacred that Yassmin was abused for merely using it in a tweet, these Nutzis were saying it in a way that didn’t seem as though they were giving it the respect demanded by ANZAC or Remembrance Day, but more suggested that they were in the habit of forgetting owing to the amount of drugs and alcohol in their system.

They were disbursed, but they promised to come back every day. Clearly, they did forget. because on Thursday, the protesters turned up in such small numbers, the police were able to either send them home or arrest them. Perhaps this was to lull the police into a false sense of security because Friday saw tactics nearly as brilliant as the Rudy Gulliani press conference at Four Seasons Landscaping.

The protesters meeting place was Coles at Northcote Plaza. This was a masterstroke because there was no way that the police would be able to work out which of the two Coles stores they were to turn up at. And, it seems, neither were the protesters, with one of them live streaming a desperate plea for people to join him even though he felt that the leadership had abandoned them.

I could go into how some people were posting on social media that the earthquake was simply the government dynamiting the underground prisons where the children are being held, but I’d be accused of inhibiting their free speech by repeating what they’d said and suggesting that it makes them sound crazy.

But I guess that’s the problem: For years we’ve had the mainstream media push the idea that any time someone criticises or ridicules certain public figures, then it’s political correctness gone mad or restricting their right to free speech.

No wonder we now have people who think that freedom means that they can block traffic, harass others and ignore laws just because they don’t like them. I’m not saying that there isn’t a time for civil disobedience, or that we should never fight to change the law. But there’s a difference between that and arguing that freedom is your right to do whatever you like with no regard for consequences or anybody else.

P.S, Speaking of freedom, Clive Palmer has put out this statement: “Our position is clear and simple – Every Australian should have the right to choose what they put into their body.” Does this mean he’s supporting the legalisation of drugs?

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51 comments

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  1. Kate Ahearne

    Thanks, Rossleigh. I especially loved the bit about Andrew Bolt screaming from the front page of a Newscorp rag that his freedom of speech was being curtailed.

    Sort of on topic, we have had a funny thing going on down here in Tassie. Apparently a couple of Catholic priests don’t want to have to be vaccinated, but do insist on their right to visit the most physically vulnerable people in nursing homes. It’s their ministry, you see. And the Archbishop, Julian Porteous, is backing them up with a demand for exemptions for these priests. When we have people in such positions of leadership behaving like this, is it any wonder that …

  2. totaram

    Kate Ahearne: This raises the important question: If someone, who has refused vaccination, then infects some vulnerable person and:
    a) that person suffers severe illness
    b) dies of Covid infection

    then:
    can that person be held criminally responsible for a) intentionally causing harm, as in an attack using violence of some kind or traffic accident, b) manslaughter

    I would love to know if our legal eagles can comment on this matter. I believe it may become an issue with all these anti-vaxxers floating around.

  3. Kate Ahearne

    Hi, Totaram. I dimly remember that there is some precedent going back to the ’80s? when some people were deliberately infected, or carelessly infected with the Aids virus. Hopefully someone will know.

  4. Michael Taylor

    totaram/Kate,

    Not too long ago some hospitals in England decided that they would not treat heart attacks if the patient was a smoker and thus brought it on him/herself (which was a bit presumptuous given that smoking is not the only cause of heart attacks).

    The point they were making is that, in their opinion, is that it was self-inflicted.

    Their argument fell apart before it went into practise. The counter arguments were such things as; “If a person is injured in a car accident, are you going to refuse to treat them too because they brought it on themselves by going driving that day?” Or if a poor fellow fell off a ladder and broke his leg; “Would you refuse to treat him because he brought it on himself by climbing up the ladder in the first place?”

    It certainly opened up a can of worms.

  5. Kate Ahearne

    Hi, Michael. Good grief! Staggering to think that a bunch of health professionals could be so ignorant about the nature of addiction! Mind you, such smug, self-satisfied, arrogant and ignorant superiority is probably the most addictive substance known to humankind!

    Glad to see that there was a can of worms about it.

  6. King1394

    Kate Ahearne: maybe it would be wise to wait until there is more understanding of this virus and how it mutates, what natural immunity may exist for those who have contracted it in its milder and more severe forms, as well as full understanding of the long term effectiveness of vaccines. The CDC has already stated its uncertainty about whether vaccinated people may be able to transmit viruses. https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-09-24/covid-vaccines-do-they-change-risk-of-infection/100484432

  7. Michael Taylor

    Hi, Kate. I wonder what happened to the oath they swore.

  8. Kate Ahearne

    Hi, King. That might be fine if people weren’t dying every day in this pandemic.

    Here’s a quote from the link you provided:

    ‘Research shows COVID-19 vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe disease and death six months after vaccination, including against the highly transmissible Delta variant. “Consistently, all of the vaccines seem to be doing that with more than 90 per cent effectiveness, including with time,” said Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist at the Australian National University. “[They’re] even better at reducing your risk of dying — probably a 95 to 98 per cent decreased risk.’

    Doesn’t seem to support your point, does it?

    And this from the same article:

    ‘A recent study of more than 44,000 people in Los Angeles found unvaccinated people were 29 times more likely than vaccinated people to end up hospitalised from COVID-19.

    The rate of hospitalisation among vaccinated people was 1 per 100,000 people.

    In Australia, we’re seeing a similar pattern: the vast majority of hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19 are occurring in unvaccinated people.

    “This is currently an epidemic of the unvaccinated,” Professor Collignon said.

    “They’re the main people getting infected, and spreading it. That’s why vaccination is so important.”

  9. GL

    Michael, I’m just wondering if it was the health professionals or the bureaucrats because this strikes me as an idea that public servants would have devised because of their obvious wisdom and deep knowledge (à la Professor Doctor Scientist Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius, Craig Kelly) of health.

  10. king1394

    Kate Ahearne: yes quite a balanced article compared to so many that are simply pushing one view. My point is that, as yet, the authorities do not know everything abut the virus, while the vaccines are also questionable in regards to ther effectiveness in the long term. Which makes these calls for punishments for individuals rather extreme.

  11. Kate Ahearne

    King,

    It does seem clear that even though we don’t know everything there is to be known about the vaccines, it’s way safer for ourselves and for others to get the jabs than not to get them.

    Perhaps I misinterpreted you original comment, but it did seem that when you wrote ‘wait’, you were referring to waiting for more information before getting the jabs, rather than ‘wait’ before punishing protesters and people who break the restrictions.

    The other thing that does seem clear from some of the live footage that has been aired on social media, is that the police have not always behaved appropriately. In other words, fault on both sides.

  12. Michael Taylor

    GL, it’s only a wild guess but it’s logical to presume that the idea came from some public servant in admin in a public hospital.

    Don’t ya just love policies that are drawn up without consultation.

  13. Kate Ahearne

    Many thanks, Michael. I’ve had a look at the first one, but will need to come back later for the others. Gotta get meself into a state of readiness for the Footie! I’ll be wearing me Collingwood beanie and barracking for whichever team seems most likely to lose.

  14. Andrew J. Smith

    When senior politicians in the LNP and Christian leaders deny (climate) science, as evidenced by their public comments and policy positions, while telling us to trust our instincts and beliefs, we are well on the way to becoming fully Americanised with dumb, nativist and libertarian outlooks, acting as conduits for far right and other beliefs.

    Further, our media treats these neo-Nazis (or neo-narcissists?) masquerading as experts with kid gloves while avoiding any global comparisons ‘before making their way to the Shrine where they celebrated their freedom in a variety of ways which included drinking Jim Beam, doing Nazi salutes, urinating and chanting “Lest We Forget”.’

    Elsewhere e.g Germany one of these types went over the edge and murdered a petrol station asst. for asking that the shooter wore a mask…..

    Australia like the US and the UK has imported and nurtured conservative and/or nativist libertarian reactionaries with a strong authoritarian bent, also reflected in government policies, often towards shared targets…..

  15. Michael Taylor

    Kate, you’ve ruined it now. I’m a Port Adelaide supporter.

  16. Kate Ahearne

    Hey, Michael,

    It was a fine romance while it lasted.

    But Port Adelaide? Seriously? Meanwhile, it’s half time and I’ve had to revert to listening rather than watching because it’s unbearable. Go the Demons (who are losing)! And long live the Great Old Traditional Aussie Underdog!

    Collingwood will be back next year, They’re just having a little rest.

    It’s so important to prioritise, isn’t it? While the world hurtles into climate destruction and pandemic death tolls, the Footie Grand Final trumps it all.

    Tomorrow will be another brand new day of climate destruction and pandemic death tolls, ‘freedom’ fighters, police bullying and goodness knows what else.

  17. Roswell

    Kate, watch yourself. I’m also Port Adelaide. 😁

  18. Michael Taylor

    I’ve been a Port supporter since 1963.

  19. Kate Ahearne

    Port Who? Do they even have a beanie? Anyhow, my temporary team just had the most amazing quarter since long before 1963;

  20. Michael Taylor

    They sure do.

    They even have a history. Go back further than Collingwood. 😀

  21. GL

    Michael, All my family members are…gag…choke…Collingwood supporters so I always make sure to ring them and let them know how I felt at their loss: “Collingwood lost by x points.” Followed up with an overly dramatic sigh and, “It’s very sad you know.” Then I do variations on those comments to drive them around the bend. Gotta share the joy you know.

  22. New England Cocky

    Ahhhhh Rossleigh … you’ve done it again!! Putting the self important fascists into their correct perspective ….. heroes of the revoluiton in their own minds.

  23. wam

    Loved your bolt and the rabbott memory, Rossleigh. Tlob had been stirring the racist pot against special consideration of Aboriginal Australians, by railing against Aborigines that were not dark enough for his liking for as long as he had been denying the stolen generation but he erred by naming people not dark enough for him and they, knowing the legal costs made him untouchable in the courts, dobbed him in to 18C and a mob of us pissed ourselves laughing at the distress of those two and many racially minded bigot as seen in their social media posts. ps There is an guide for a scummo federal ICAC. SA pollies unanimously decided that political incompetence can no longer be investigated unless a brown paper bag is involved.
    pps
    Kate Ahearne, don’t worry too much because port supporters, whilst all being more intelligent than eddie’s twits, are not all clever political writers. There are a few collingwoodish incompetent prison bar followers. I went to my first port game in 48. Then was bush till woodville high school when Foster Williams was playing coach.

  24. Kate Ahearne

    Hi, Wam. This is starting to look like a Port Who takeover of independent media. Does that make me a conspiracy theorist?

    Can’t help noticing that GL doesn’t actually name her/his team? Does that mean that whichever it is must be even sillier than Port Who?

    Anyhow, thanks again for those links, Michael. I need to do chores today, so mightn’t get to those articles till tomorrow. It does seem perfectly possible that there could be lawsuits about people being infected by Rossleigh’s Nutzis.

  25. GL

    Kate,

    I follow the team that Collingwood plays against each week.

  26. Gangey1959

    I notice that there are no commiserations for Melbourne Storm. Is this a sportist site?
    From way back, I accept that someone has to be first up against the wall when the revolution comes, but I find it hard to pick from the current bunch of eminently qualified competitors for the position. The nuters wandering the streets of Melbourne this week are just a symbol of our current societal chaos. Maybe Victoria’s Dictator could take a few days off, and let pee cretin have a drive of the bus. She talks the talk, or shrieks to that effect. Let’s give her a driving test before she thinks taking an 18 wheeler for a spin is a piece of cake.
    Meanwhile, give the coppers a rest, and let the fire dept do some crowd control. It would be good for a laugh if nothing else.

  27. Michael Taylor

    Hi, Kate. No need to bother yourself with reading the articles, as just the headline and sub-heading tells the story. I didn’t wish to burden you.

    And yep, there are a few more Port supporters who comment on this site. 😀

  28. Michael Taylor

    GL, you’re a bit like me. I follow two teams: Port Adelaide and whoever is playing the Crows. 😁

  29. Terence Mills

    Just heard that the Canadians/USA have done a trade with the Huawei lady who was awaiting extradition for two Canadians held in China.

    Could we do a trade for Julian Assange and perhaps give them Craig Kelly and Clive Palmer : a two for one deal !

  30. Ricky Bobby

    It was such a nice day in Canberra yesterday I thought I would wander along to the Freedom Rally that was supposedly happening in Glebe Park here. So I turn up to do my daily walking exercise, interspersed with pointing and laughing based calisthenics, but lo and behold no protest! But there were at least 20 police officers at the various entrances to the park though. So in I went for a couple of laps. The closest I saw was some bogan in a Holden Ute yelling to the police that “you’re just like us – join us” and “This is a was our our taxes” and possibly “my brain hurts” (although I’m not completely sure about that last one) as he drove past the park without stopping, and three black clad millennials with a half arsed “We Want Freedom” cardboard sign made from a cardboard box. They sat huddled together before skulking out of the park, with the sign folded and carefully hidden from sight.

    I expressed my disappointment to the police that this was a pretty poor effort by Canberra, and she just replied that the protest was cancelled and those three obviously hadn’t heard.

    Still, it was a lovely day to be in the park.

  31. Kate Ahearne

    GL,

    That is the unkindest cut of all!

  32. Michael Taylor

    Before Port Adelaide joined the AFL I’m sure that 99% of their supporters barracked for Collingwood, as did I.

    But Collingwood came up with one thing that led SA supporters away in droves: Eddie McGuire.

  33. Kate Ahearne

    Michael,

    Are you actually admitting that you are an apostate?

    On a more serious note, though, I’ve just been talking with my daughter on the phone. I was telling her about Tess Lawrence’s series and Rossleigh’s Nutzies, and of course I had to mention the shameful Magpie bashing that’s been going on here. She had been a beanie and scarf toting Collingwood tragic all her life, until she got so fed up with the toxic culture at the club, and with Eddie in particular, that she abandoned her love of footie altogether.

  34. Michael Taylor

    Not any more, Kate. Collingwood are my second team. 😀

  35. Michael Taylor

    Hi, Kate. There are quite a few others here that go for Port – Carol, Victoria Rollison, Jack Cade, Jane.

    Carol was born a Collingwood supporter and her father would take her to see them play every weekend. Later when she moved to northern NSW she couldn’t get the (then) VFL games on TV, so lost a bit of interest.

    When she moved to Canberra ten years ago she saw her first ever Port Adelaide game on TV and fell in love with Travis Boak and this little fellow (Jake Neade):

    Ever since she’s been a Power fan.

  36. Kate Ahearne

    Michael,

    Falling in love is not a very lofty reason for switching allegiance to a different footie club. Anyway, it looks as if there really is a conspiracy going on. I’m not paranoid after all – ‘they’ really are out to get me.

    At this stage, I’d better fess up. I don’t actually give a hoot about football, except as a study in sociology. I watch the Grand Final most years just for the fun/agony of barracking for the underdog. Last night’s sociology going on in my head was mostly about hairdos, until I found that I’d lit a rocket here on AIMN. Astonishing. So my musings about the hideous hairdos gave way to wonderings about how otherwise logical, intelligent people can be affected by football. So I’m back to normal now, and I, for one, won’t be going silly again until the Melbourne Cup.

  37. Michael Taylor

    Kate,

    You’ve introduced some wonderful and much needed banter, so it’s all good.

    I’m at a funny age. Wins please me but losses are just tossed aside. Gone. Forgotten. They’re nothing to worry about.

    I spend far more time in the garden than I do watching footy. I could never see myself as a gardener, but Carol changed all that. I dig holes and Carol puts a plant in them. Whoever would have thought it could be so much fun?

    Chuck in a couple of fruit trees and a veggie patch and it makes it even more worthwhile.

  38. Kate Ahearne

    Michael,

    Yes, the banter is a lovely bit of light relief when the world is going to hell in a hand-basket. And the sense of community it helps to foster is so important when the issues your writers and commentators grapple with here are so often serious, depressing and worrying.

    The humour in Rossleigh’s work is especially effective. He has a wonderful way of demolishing dangerous people and ideas by showing how ridiculous they are.

    Glad you’re getting into the gardening. We’re enjoying the last of the daffodils just now. They’ve been magnificent this year.

  39. Michael Taylor

    Kate,

    Rossleigh thinks outside the box, and he’s brilliant at it.

    In a former life he was either writing scripts for the Bugs Bunny Show or Fawlty Towers.

  40. wam

    I knew john kelly country’s curse and and the collywobbles before that. But I, secretly, admire collingwood supporters for their amoral blind approach to footy. They take enormous criticism in their faithful support of a shitty right wing club with a fervour that is sexist, racist and homophobic.
    When eddie’s reign is reviewed, some collingwood supporters will understand the meaning behind the club ideals of mannix, wrenn and eddie.
    ps The brownlow went to a player whose family, when he drafted, were crying at his horrible selection.

  41. Kate Ahearne

    Hey, Michael. Wow about Rossleigh. I’m in love and in awe. Which team does he barrack for? I barrack for them, too. Does he need his boots polished to perfection? What about banana cake – I’m probly better at banana cake than boot polishing. Roses? Chockies? Bugs Bunny AND Fawlty Towers!

    And wam. Thanks for the hint about Cardinal Mannix and John Wren. From what you say, there’s history there that I don’t know about.

  42. wam

    haha Kate, take your tongue out of your cheek. Your club, over the last 80 years, has typified the current country countenance of labor people under the thrall of religious rich who rip them off but act as benefactors, and conned, or frightened, into voting for the liberals who despise them as the beneath people. Our real magpies are labor, are despised as labor by the crow liberals and we are and vote labor.

  43. Kate Ahearne

    wam,

    Yeah but which bit of tongue out of which bit of cheek? Anyhow, now I’m barracking for whoever Rossleigh barracks for – hoping that’s not Collingwood.

  44. Michael Taylor

    I’m not sure who Rossleigh barracks for, but I’m guessing it’ll be either Essendon or Carlton. After all, if there are any teams whose supporters need a sense of humour it is those two. 😁

  45. Kate Ahearne

    You’re digging a big hole for yourself, Michael. That’s 3 teams now that you have offended. Expressed as a % correct to the second decimal point, that’s 16.67% of all AFL teams. Not as bad as offending France or China, though, or the roughly 50% of the population who identify as female, as some other people have managed to do!

  46. Michael Taylor

    Just having friendly banter, Kate. I don’t mean to offend anybody.

    The only time it’d be an off the charts, nuclear insult is when I call someone a Crows supporter. I wasn’t surprised at the results of a poll in one of the Melbourne papers about ten years ago which asked which team had the worst supporters. Adelaide bolted it in.

    Not a surprising result, given that Chris Kenny is the club’s ambassador.

  47. Kate Ahearne

    Michael, Of course you don’t mean to offend anybody! We were just playing. Anyone who doesn’t get that, well, I dunno. Mind you, that’s now 4 teams out of the 18 available AFLers. Expressed as a percentage of the whole, that’s up over 22%! Gosh!

  48. leefe

    Rossleigh is an intelligent and perceptive person. It seems obvious that, like most such people, he would back ABC*, my own third team.

    “They were disbursed.”
    I can’t make up my mind if that use was intentional. Certainly they were paid out big time by the general disdain for their appalling antics and the arrest of some of the worst agitators.

    (*Anyone But Collingwood. Although in my case, it’s Anyone But Collingwood, North Melbourne, Richmond and Essendon)

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