The Waiting Man

Been home sick for a couple of days & this morning decided to clear out the e-mail account that is an absolute spam-magnet because I've had it for so long. I should just delete the account, but it's still good for some entertainment value, if only to see just how stupid you'd have to be to fall for any of them, especially 'honey traps' like this one...

Good day my dear man, My name is Lerka. I am 30 years old, I have green eyes and silky brown hair. I don't smoke or drink alcoholic beverages. Not married. I have no children. Lonely woman. Do you know the cartoon "Tom and Jerry"? If not, then this is a children's cartoon about a cat and a mouse. And when I got a cat, I decided to call him Tom. I am a person who sees only positive aspects in all events. As for me, I am a gentle and affectionate woman. My hobbies are cook and have an active lifestyle. I can't imagine my life without these classes. By the way, do you like sweet or meat dishes more? My favorite time of the year is summer. I also like analyzing movies. I have clear values. I can't stand it for non-professionals, especially when they themselves think they are professionals and take a lot of money for work. I also don't like the feeling of loneliness. I have a positive attitude to evening walks. I like to take a quiet walk in the park after a hard day, get some fresh air and generally take a break from all this fuss. After work, I usually come home, where I am greeted by my cat, who is always happy and full of energy. After that I take a shower and go to dinner also accompanied by my pet.

Firstly, her name is Lerka? (Does she live on the 2nd floor, upstairs from you, yes she thinks you've seen her before...). Then why is her e-mail address Ladyfn Smileuu taka_matsunaga@nifty.ne.jp

Second, 30 years old, green eyes & brown hair... right



Strike 1, 2, 3... you're out. Deleted!!!!

And sometimes, it seems like they're not even trying... like this one from 'Peggy'

Hi, I have a profitable idea to share with you.
We will share $ 9 Million US 50% each.
Please reply if you are interested to know more details.

Thanks,
Peggy.

Well sure Peggy... sounds legit. Deleted!!!!

At least this one gets points for effort - it even has that text at the bottom assuring me there's no virus!!

Greetings.

I am looking to work with you to engage in a profit oriented
Investment ventures in your country and perhaps with your
assistance, we could get good Return on Investment (ROI).

I have the directive of SHK Mubarak from Qatar to source for a
partner abroad who can accommodate 200,000,000 USD for
Investment. We shall execute the business under a legal
arrangement by appointing you as the lawful beneficiary.

I await your reply.

Regards,

MA.

--
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content
by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.

Points lost, however, for having the mailing address mailer-daemon@curvycoco.com Kind of ruins the authenticity a little... Deleted!!!!

Now, I'm just going to order some cheap diet pills online, so I can look my best for the hacker who says he's accessed my webcam & microphone & is watching me. After all, I've no intention of paying him in Bitcoin, so if he's going to release video footage, I have to look my best!!

TikTok has discovered my local (literally local... about a kilometre's walk away... maybe not even that) inner-Sydney-Harbour beach... & while I don't go to the beach itself very often these days, it's always been nice to go on the headland bushwalk that goes past it, or drive on the roads near it without traffic hassles... basically enjoying the sleepy, tranquil atmosphere of the place

But no more - at least for now The bastards who have 'discovered it' describe it as a "hidden gem". Not now, it isn't - this treacherous article even describes how to get there by car, or on foot... Bastards!!

The good thing, I suppose, is that your average TikTokker's attention span is about as long as one of the videos, so I'm confident that by next Spring/Summer, they'll have found somewhere else to take their moving selfies

Just a few thoughts that occur while I'm out & about... hope I can remember it all now I'm in front of the computer

Prompted by a comment from L-SP about the futility of banning plastic straws while so much other shit is being tossed in the ocean... Why do we make so many things out of plastic that used to be made from something else - especially glass? Why do sodas/soft drinks now come almost exclusively in plastic bottles, in all sizes? Glass is far more biodegradable than plastic & has been the receptacle of choice for everything from medicines to Coca Cola for hundreds of years. Surely it can't be that much more expensive to make a glass bottle than a plastic one? That way, if you don't want to put your empty bottle in the bin, it will break down into its component elements a hell of a lot sooner than a plastic bottle ever will. Beer & wine still come in glass bottles, so...

And plastic straws? When I was a kid, straws were made of waxed paper, so they didn't get soggy & unusable before you finished your drink. In these more turtle-aware days, the plastic straw is being replaced with paper ones... but no wax, so you might as well not bother using one

I don't remember thinking that buying a glass bottle of soda/soft drink, with a wax paper straw was a costly extravagance all those years ago, so I don't see why we can't revert to that combination now... After all, it's not like a bottle of Coke has become any cheaper over the years - plastic or not. And if it does, somehow, raise the price of a soft drink, well I'm sure the international Dental association will be happy about that

Same for laundry detergent... If you want the liquid stuff, get it in a glass bottle, or use the powdered stuff that comes in a cardboard box. If you dissolve the powder in some water at the bottom of your washing machine before dumping the weekly load in, you won't get those annoying clumps & nuggets of powder, nor those white soapy streaks on your dark clothes. Honestly, it's not that hard to do... but I understand it's the fact that 99.9% of humanity doesn't read instructions, then complains when things aren't right, forcing manufacturers to come up with easier, more idiot user-friendly, but environmentally dodgy 'improvements'

In short - Hey World!! Stop making so much plastic shit!!! There's nothing really wrong with glass bottles & paper bags. Both are re-usable/recyclable, but more importantly, both are biodegradable & more animal friendly than plastic will ever be. When did you last see an animal trapped in a paper bag?, Or a cardboard box?

Enough... Now get off my lawn!!!

Day 2 of trying to link up all my government 'services' through the 'MyGov' website, so that I can try to access some Covid19 lockdown compensation. I can't access any payments 'til I get Centrelink - basically the government's welfare department - linked to my account, something it has refused to do. Yesterday, I was on the phone for at least 3 hours, most of which was spent on hold, naturally, sporadically talking with a low-level operative who apparently updated a lot of my details (I haven't needed Centrelink's services for well over a decade & a lot of my numbers have since changed). After the LLO concluded that the solution was for me to create a whole new MyGov account, just because her department was the problem, she took issue with my assertion that was a ridiculous suggestion & didn't like it when I proposed just creating a new Centrelink account instead, which led to her giving me a technical support number, telling me I was being disrespectful & hung up on me. I hadn't used any colourful language, had barely raised my voice & only begun to talk over the top of her when she was obviously reading from a script & not listening to me anyway...

... So I called the tech service number, spent some more time on hold & was eventually put through to a slightly higher operative, who found the problem - & this is where it got weird - was not with Centrelink, but Medicare, the national public health department, who have my name listed slightly differently to every other department. In short, they have my middle name as an initial instead of the full name & that's enough to gum up the works of the whole shebang. Make of that what you will... Anyway, she transferred me to another phone number for Medicare, where I spent 30 minutes on hold before an automated voice told me they can't answer my call, please try again later beep beep beep beep beep... And it wasn't even 5pm! And it wasn't even Friday!!

So this morning I'm back on the phone. I finally got through to Medicare & a low-level operative changed my details & assured me the changes are immediate & I could now go to the MyGov website & proceed...

Of course it didn't work

Now, over an hour into my 2nd stint sorting this out, I may start to charge the government an hourly rate, as it's turning into my new full-time job. At least I'll try to, whenever someone answers the phone...

Here in Australia, we have a popular ice cream called the Golden Gaytime - vanilla & honeycomb-flavoured ice cream on a stick, covered in sugary crumbs. It was first sold in 1959 when 'gay' just meant happy...

Fast-forward to 2021 & there is a small, but vocal push to have the treat renamed, due to the name's connection to the LGBTQI+ community. Interestingly, most Australians spoken to & surveyed about this, were in favour of keeping the name... including an organisation representing the Australian Gay community

So I'm not sure if only 1100 or so signatures on a petition is a significant number, or if this is just being beaten up into a bigger news story than it really is, just to get the old outrage flowing from both sides. Given the way media works, I suspect the latter...

Even the manufacturer caught on to the connotations by the 1980s - The company appears to embrace the camp name by retaining the tagline from the 1980s, "It's hard to have a Gaytime on your own". The in-home boxes feature the words "4 delicious chances to have a gay time". I should mention that, despite the name, I can't think of any negative connotation from it being used against the LGBTQI+ community. Back when I was at school, there was never any kind of shame about having a Gaytime. The fact that it's a delicious ice cream seems to transcend any desire to make fun of people eating it... In fact, I could go one right now!!

Knowing my diverse readership, it's over to you. Should the name be changed? Sure, it originally meant just being happy, but now?

And therefore, should the words to the Flintstones theme song be changed as well? After all, when you meet the Flintstones, "you'll have a gay old time..."

I know, statistically speaking, that the anti-mask, anti-vaccination, conspiracy theorising, lunatic fringe is a small sector of this wonderful melting pot of a society we endure live in, especially here in Australia where, as I've noted before , we've been fortunate to have been spared the ravages of Covid19 which have torn holes in various countries populations & economies

But that's no reason to carry on like the bastard sons of the Occupy movement, who were the bastard sons of the 'G' protesters, who are the bastard sons of the anti-nuclear & peace movements of the 70s & 80s. Since the Cold War ended, it's been hard to find a genuine issue that everyone agrees is ruining the planet, so the causes have become harder to justify, louder & more desperate, demonising some supposed, secret global cabal who, depending on your chosen theory, want to wipe out the working class, want to turn us into unthinking proles, want to sacrifice us to the lizard people, or just leave us behind when they all take off in some secret spaceship

Still, that's Australia for you... we're so desperate to be a part of the world, we'll jump on any bandwagon. Occupy Wall St? Okay, we'll occupy... Martin Place in Sydney... what do you mean you've never heard of it? Terrorist attack? Hey, the guy who took hostages at a Sydney café who had a history of mental illness & domestic violence said he wanted an ISIS flag, didn't he? Must be a terrorist attack, right?. Covid19's a hoax & the vaccine's a cover for (insert loony theory here) & lockdown's unconstitutional, so instead of storming government buildings with automatic weapons, we'll... march through a suburban shopping mall with 2nd-hand slogans we've copied from the USA

Yeah!! Mandatory vaccines for our judges (Pedophiles)sic!!!! No mate, you've go that wrong - all the Priests are paedophiles... & besides - why should the kiddy-fiddlers get the vaccine before I do??!

I can't wait for a bunch of pissed-up blokes in a Toyota Hilux to try 'storming' the Federal Parliament after the next local by-election...

Finally finished downloading everything for Cubase LE last night, so clicked the shortcut button to open it up &... Nope. According to its software I don't have a valid license for the program & all of its associated stuff. The next 2 hours was spent going through every bit of backing up, re-installing, re-booting, web forums & Google answer I could find & think of

Nope

By now it was after midnight & I have to work today, so off to bed. But, as expected, I couldn't sleep, so after 30 minutes of trying, I came back to the computer to try one last thing. Ah ha!! Turns out I was trying to install the wrong version from their home site, which was the root cause of not only the denial of service, but also the interminable amount of time it took to get all the other stuff too. As soon as I installed the 'right' version, all the other stuff downloaded & installed automatically & all within 45 minutes. I then spent half an hour uninstalling & binning the last 3 days work... clicked on the new shortcut &... YES! Everything in its right place & all I had to do was plug in an instrument... at 3am, so perhaps not yet

I'm not the most tech-savvy guy, but I'm not a Luddite, or an idiot either, so I feel entitled to complain about the vague, unhelpful instructions that came with the soundcard about downloading the software - like how about telling me which version of the program I can have?! I had naturally installed the latest version, but it turned out I only have a license to access the previous version. Not a problem, really, I'm sure it will do all I need & more... & probably a bunch of things I'll never need to do as well, but nowhere in the instructions did it mention that.

Whatever happened to the good old days when you bought a piece of hardware, it came with a CD which had all the software on it, you loaded it onto your computer & within 15 minutes, Robert's your Mother's Brother, you're good to go. Surely it's not that cost-prohibitive to do that... & it would save me venting my spleen in the midnight hour & rehearsing carefully worded abuse for the Salesman who sold me something that doesn't work...??

At least, due to my mildly obsessive, if not monomanic, nature, I figured it out & saved myself the inevitable, humiliating backdown once the Salesman politely pointed out my 'simple' error

All I want to do is print some photos at a large size... That's all. I don't want to custom frame them, I just want to print them at a large size & buy a matching pre-fab frame, stick the photo in it, then hang it on the wall. Simple, right?

Wrong

I looked up what A1 size is in centimetres & re-edited 5 photos to the appropriate dimensions, put them on a memory stick, headed down to my local Officeworks shop to print them, put the stick in the slot of the photo machine, selected A1 & promptly discovered the sizing was wrong - the machine cropped some of the image. I tried a different photo & the machine said it was too low-res for printing, even though I'd jacked up the resolution on all the images as well. There was the option of getting the photos printed via their website, so I left, noting the A1 frames on sale for $30...

Once home, I went to the website & found that I couldn't get anything printed at A1 size... even though there are frames for that size sitting on a shelf in the shop. What are they for, if not to put printed stuff into!?!? The biggest available size was a little smaller, which required further editing & some unwelcome, judicious cropping, but I'm happy enough with them. AND I jacked up the resolution even further, just in case. At Long-Suffering Partner's suggestion, I then did a search for photo frames that fit the new size - the largest size I could print... Of course there weren't any on the website, nor did a Google search find any stores that have frames of that size... I did find a company in Victoria who sell that size for $30 each, but they'd have to ship them up to New South Wales... for an additional fee, of course

So here I am, 6 hours after I started... with nothing to show for the day. How much can a Koala bear??



Edit - update I've now tried loading the photos onto 2 different company's photo websites & the photos have failed to load on both - though the format suggests both places are using the same software. So I've loaded them all onto the stick again, at 3 different resolutions & sizes & will go to Officeworks again in a day or 2... just so I can have the satisfaction of kicking the machine when it doesn't work

Sometimes I think this 24 hour news cycle is a bad thing. Networks & now news websites are so desperate for something new to post or broadcast every 5 minutes, that they'll jump at anything, or anyone, who looks like they'll be 'news', no matter whether it's credible, or most often... not

That's how we got Trump - he used the media to build a platform, build a base & then peddle his divisive dribble all the way to the White House & then doubled tripled down on it. Even now, even as it's obvious to all but himself & his deranged, racist, supremacist 'base' that his Presidency is over

That's how we also get dangerous, science-denying, anti-vaccination & Covid conspiracy theorists like Australia's own Pete Evans - who started out innocuously enough as yet another 'celebrity' chef, parlayed it into TV & book deals, then began unleashing his inner loony, peddling alternative diets, 'health' products & therapies that flew & still fly in the face of all medical knowledge. Doesn't matter, he's taken a leaf out of Trump's playbook & doubles triples down on his denials & then does... this... posting nazi symbols without a thought for consequence

So when did the 'news' cease to be an information service & became more like one of those morning TV shows peddling 'advertorials' & dodgy products, then allowing opinions to replace known facts? It's no wonder nobody trusts journalism any more... It's not actually Trump's fault that 'Fake News' is how the heaving masses see all journalism these days, as most of it stopped caring about fact-checking, integrity, balance & quality a long time ago, in pursuit of the advertising dollars that were supposed to fund the 'proper' investigative reporting, but instead got spent on... well god only knows what, because now they all want us to pay a subscription to their sites in order to find out if we're at war or not. It's like Foxtel making me pay every month to watch shows that still have ad breaks in them. Talk about double-dipping!! I'll subscribe when that makes all the advertising disappear from the page I'm reading. Otherwise, go fuck yourselves

On a much more local note than the previous entry from all over New South Wales... I don't know what the State Minister for Transport, Andrew Constance, has against the Northern Beaches area of Sydney, but today he's not only axed my local bus route into the city, but is now also getting rid of the large ferry service from Circular Quay to Manly - a service that has been running for over 100 years. He apparently wants to replace them with smaller vessels, which will not only require yet another re-design & renovation of Manly Wharf (well, it's almost been 5 years since the last one, so why not?!?), but also reduce carrying capacity, leading to overcrowding on the boats in these supposedly socially-distanced times & even worse when everything goes back to 'normal' & the ferries carry thousands of people to the Beaches every weekend. Now they'll clog up the only road north even more than it already is most of the time

Apparently, the large ferries are expensive to maintain. Well, I wasn't aware the State Government was so strapped for cash, given how it knocked down a perfectly serviceable stadium to build a replacement that won't be appreciably any better or bigger than the one in the rubble, or sold off the State's electricity infrastructure for millions of dollars, because it's not the Government's job to actually run & maintain services... it's their job to run a giant auction clearance house, where all the stuff we taxpayers have paid for the creation of over the decades can be sold off to private companies, who then charge us ever-increasing fees to use what we used to own...

I never thought I was such a Socialist, but I seem to be bucking the middle-aged white-guy trend & becoming even more of one as I get older

Back to the ferries - not everything about a liveable city is about efficiency & economics... it's about a city's image, character... personality even. The ferries are as much a part of Sydney Harbour as the Bridge & the Opera House & I don't see a push to knock either of those down to replace them with something smaller & more cost-effective...

Yet

2 questions...

1. Why is it always the squeaky wheel that gets the grease? Why do I have to figuratively jump up & down & threaten to cancel things before I get what I'm after, from a service that's supposed to supply it to me? And why did I have to find the correct avenue for my enquiry on my own... Why didn't either of the 2 'customer service' people not offer the solution I found, or at least point me in its direction?

2. Why was an anonymous SMS service more helpful to me than the aforementioned 'customer service' people? What is the point of supposedly training these people, if all they can do is make me wait in a queue I'm apparently too prestigious to wait in (according to the company's advertising bumpf), then offer an insincere, practised & thoroughly unhelpful apology as they come up with several reasons why they can't give me what I'm asking for?

Okay, that was about 6 questions, masquerading as 2, but honestly... As someone who's been in all aspects of customer service & sales for all of my professional life, it drives me up the fucking wall when I'm given supposed 'service' like this. And it seems to be the new normal, not an isolated aberration. It's very tempting to shout at these people, but I know it's not their fault. I'd really like to yell at their supervisors, their managers & especially their trainers

Well, so much for Saturday being a busy day... not as things stand, it's not

We had a tyre-kicker & a friend of the Boss through the door today. That's it. Unfortunately, all the excitement was happening at the nearby mega-mall. 3 police cars, then 3 ambulances went shrieking past our doors, headed towards the mall. Via the shop-owner grapevine, it seems someone took a dive off the top floor & landed on the bottom one... the 2nd time it's happened since we opened here in 2017. Not that I'm suggesting the events are connected - we're not that expensive & quite friendly... well I am anyway

Taking our 4-legged houseguest for a walk up the road yesterday, it was difficult to avoid hearing a couple of, no doubt self-isolation-inspired, domestic 'disagreements', both involving older & younger generations. I predict a pay-rise claim by both teachers & early-childhood educators will be favourably heard & publicly supported when all this is over...

Civilisation is such a thin veneer

I have no words for this, so I'll just let the NRA speak for themselves...

Earlier today, retail giant Walmart announced it would stop selling certain types of ammunition in response to a shooting at one of its stores in El Paso, Texas.

A month ago, a gunman opened fire in the El Paso store, killing 22 and injuring at least 27 others.

There have also been mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and Midland Odessa, Texas in the past month.

The National Rifle Association, America’s largest gun lobby, released a statement slamming Walmart’s new policy as “shameful”.

“It is shameful to see Walmart succumb to the pressure of the anti-gun elites. Lines at Walmart will soon be replaced by lines at other retailers who are more supportive of America’s fundamental freedoms,” the statement said.

“The truth is Walmart’s actions today will not make us any safer. Rather than place the blame on the criminal, Walmart has chosen to victimise law-abiding Americans,” the NRA added. “Our leaders must be willing to approach the problems of crime, violence and mental health with sincerity and honesty.”

Walmart stopped selling assault-style rifles in 2015 and raised the age to purchase guns from 18 to 21 last year.

For the moment, my weekend has been split up, to Wednesday & Saturday. Not happy & hoping it's not a permanent measure, but I have a feeling the only way it will change is with a change of employment. How many straws does it take to break a camel's back?

Anyway, I had today off... Being a weekday, it was a good opportunity to catch up with some admin & business-related chores that sometimes don't get done when I'm at work. Trouble is... I didn't achieve completion on any of them!?!? Return some items to a store for L-SP? - I went to 2 of the brand's outlets - was told to go to the 2nd, bigger one by the 1st, then found out the return couldn't be completed without L-SP's credit card - even though I have a card linked to the same account, with the same numbers. So, we have to go there together, later... Trying to chase up the NSW Public Service to find out where my RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) card is, so I can work in bars, should the bottom fall out of the flooring industry? I was told by one department I needed to speak to another via phone, was given the number, then spent 25 minutes on hold being told every few minutes that I was 4th in the queue. God only knows what the 1st person was rabbiting on about for all that time... Needless to say, I reached my patience threshold long before any progress in the queue was made & I'll tackle that one tomorrow at work, when I can be paid for waiting

The remote control for our garage door is on its last legs - having faithfully opened & shut the door for 15 years or so, its buttons are just about gone. The first locksmith I went to told me they didn't have the right one, would have to order it & it would cost $66, but try the place down the road & see what they say... The 2nd place had a generic replacement unit that also cost $66, but said they might have an old one like ours & if they do, they'll replace it free. I'm still waiting to see if they'll call me to tell me they do. Somehow, I doubt it... OBluV8's locking remote has also done faithful service for 16 years, but the buttons are going on that as well & it's getting harder & harder to unlock the doors. This came to a head on our recent weekend up in the Blue Mountains where the temperature was 0-2 degrees Celsius pretty much the entire time we were there & rapid access to OBluV8's interior & air-con was urgently needed to prevent frostbite & loss of digits, only to be stuck, shivering, swearing & walking around the car, jabbing repeatedly at the recalcitrant remote. The first locksmith I went to had the replacement remote, but told me it wasn't just a case of replacing the outer casing, the whole thing needs to be programmed & I had to bring OBluV8 down to them for about 10 minutes, then pay them $135. So $200 to fix 2 remotes... Needless to say I'll think about that one, get clearance from the Ministry of Finance & tackle it another day...

It wasn't a complete waste of a day. I set up our new compost bin in the back yard, washed the kitchen windows & sills (& most of me in the process!), did a load of washing & got keys cut for our front door & the work Showroom front door to replace the ones I've managed to lose somewhere between here & Oberon in the Blue Mountains. They were on the same key-ring &, you know what? Don't ask... I have no idea, obviously, otherwise they wouldn't be lost!!

The day has also been soundtracked by my old iPod on random & at considerable volume. It contains probably about 1/2 my CD collection, plus a lot of iTunes purchases & is only about 2/3s full. It's an ongoing personal challenge to fill it eventually... It's been throwing out some gems today, from all over the music spectrum. While I've been writing this, I've heard Jeff Buckley, Chet Baker, Mark Knopfler, Harmonia, King Tubby, Debussy & the Divinyls. I wonder what's next?

Before life so suddenly & tragically interrupted my... well, life, really... I'd been thinking about a lot of the things people have been saying & writing in the aftermath of our Federal Election, desperate to find some global trend to hang it on. Somehow, people seem to think that just because our conservative Liberal party won against what opinion polls indicated were insurmountable odds, a lot of people & especially pundits are really trying to tie it into Trump, Brexit, & the rise of the far-right. Even though the far-right candidates for both upper & lower Houses didn't fair particularly well anywhere, even in Queensland (famously described as our Alabama, by a past politician) - much to a lot of people's audible relief

Thinking about all of that, especially given our kind of sad longing to be part of a global movement, or epidemic (Again!!! Every half-baked loony with a gun here is quickly & erroneously linked to Islamic terrorism, as if we really want to be able to say "Look! See!! Us too!!!"), made my thoughts turn to where it's gone wrong, not just for Australia, but for the world in general. Okay... mostly the Western world, but that's the one I live in & feel qualified to comment on... Because I think the rise of globalism, mostly via ever more impressive technology designed to 'bring us together', is actually splitting us apart

To try & put it on a postcard - the more people of lesser opportunity, education & status see of the rest of the world, the less they like it. They're having a hard enough time hanging on to what they see as theirs, without the threat of the rich, over-educated, or overseas masses taking it away from them, let alone the horrible realisation that there aren't just a bunch of people in your own country getting better jobs than you, but they're everywhere!!!. And what if they come for your job & your path of opportunity, broken & torturous as it may be - it's still yours!! Even if you never actually get around to walking it... be damned if anyone else is going to. And possibly, the more you're fed images of fabulous no-talent nobodies having a fabulous time, the more you want that lifestyle & the angrier you get when it remains unachievable. Rightly or wrongly, the divide between rich & poor is not only growing, but it's being pushed in your face very time you look at your phone, or your 'smart' TV, or your computer - which you're struggling to keep up the payment plans on

Here in Australia, the far-right One Nation party can't seem to decide if Asian &/or Muslim immigrants/refugees are here to take your job, or take all the Government Welfare. It doesn't seem to matter that, surely, they can't do both... either message gets through to people who see themselves as having been left behind by the march of global technology & economy & are easily preached to, swayed, then mobilised to vote for racists with no solution, plan, suggestion, or agenda - other than a white one that involves saying 'No' to anything that threatens to advance Australia beyond the good old post-WWII days that nobody can really remember, but seem to represent some kind of (white) golden era...

... where women were encouraged to leave school at 16 to become a secretary, marry a middle-manager, quit the job & start breeding, Aboriginal people were not recognised as 'people', domestic violence wasn't frowned upon, or even much talked about, polio, rubella, smallpox, tuberculosis & skin cancer all did their part in keeping the population down & asbestos was the fibre of the future... Oh boy, it certainly was!

To put it on a postage stamp (remember those??), xenophobia, chronophobia, prosophobia & technophobia are the new fuel for the fires of the 21st century. Easily started & fanned large enough to start burning books in... or phones, computers, non-Christians, or eventually, just anyone who looks at you 'funny'