Bryan - ADS

#THEMOCKER In condemning the so-called manosphere this week, Anthony Albanese came close to identifying the biggest threat to democracy in Australia. But for want of an extra syllable, he could have named it. Happy to help, prime minister. Call it the shamanosphere, a neologism which takes its first root word in its modern sense - a charlatan, a quack, a person who exploits others for self-gain. Now imagine hundreds of these types and their many enablers convening in a massive Canberra bubble, far removed from the realities of real life but nonetheless having great influence over (and invariably to the detriment of those outside the sphere. Not everyone inside a shamanosphere is a shaman. Some of them are decent people who genuinely want to make this country better, but they are a minority. As for the rest, their tribal affiliation is but a means for advancing one’s interests. The worst of them possess no scruples and are parasites par excellence .. The head shaman Albanese has been head shaman for nearly five years. He came to power by prophesising that, under his leadership, enterprise would thrive, the cost of living would fall, and Australians would come together. Another five years of his medicine and he will be reading the entrails of the kangaroo and emu that appear on our coat of arms. Of course, none of this is Albanese's fault. Just ask him. His ineptitude is exceeded only his habitual mendacity, the latest example his forced admission this week he had misled parliament over his insistence a $6m invitation-only government grant to his local golf club was to fund urgent sewerage works. The state of affairs, already bad, is worsening. Australia’s unemployment rate is 4.7 per cent, the highest in the post-COVID era. Immigration-driven population growth is the only thing lifting the head of an otherwise prostrate GDP growth rate. Real earnings have declined roughly 5 per cent under the Albanese government. Government spending accounts for 26.9 per cent of GDP, and next week the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to lift the cash rate to 4.85 per cent, which would amount to an 18-year high. Incidentally, did you know Australia now has the fifth-highest inflation rate of the advanced economies? If only Australia’s productivity levels were up there with the flying piggies. As I write this, Lower the temperature Albanese is telling parliament his government is “delivering budgets grounded in responsible economic management”. Jeered by the Opposition, he called on its members to “turn the temperature down”. You read that correctly. The bloke who cooked the joint is demanding his critics lower the temperature. His actions and utterances following the sickening attack last week on independent MP #HelenHaines are an example not just of his instinctive obfuscation and diversion, but also his shameless opportunism. To recap, Haines, on Sept 8, questioned the propriety of the government's $559.2M Major & Local Community Infrastructure Program, including the $6m grant to the Marrickville Golf Club. As News24 reported, Albanese's office, within 2 days of Haines raising these concerns, attempted to smear her by compiling and circulating to journalists a document containing fire-from-the hip insinuations. #Albanese has refused to apologise for this. Neither was he upfront when asked whether he authorised this document's dissemination. Unwilling or unable to man up, he claimed weasel-like that the document’s purpose was “no personal criticism of Helen” but instead a summary of her funding requests, showing her “integrity”. Having attempted to smear & silence a strong independent woman, #Albanese would now have us believe he and Minister for Women Katy Gallagher are leading the anti-misogynist crusade to the manosphere. The same Katy Gallagher who, just a couple of months ago, was defending Albanese over his crass remarks about Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi’s gift of “melons” in the #BushDeepProject