The seasons they are a’changin’.

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When I first moved out here, to the “Deep North” in 2013, I was plagued by very weak digital radio reception with lots of fading. I bought auxiliary antennas with some success, but not much.

Then about three years ago, it improved greatly, to the point where I thought, “No problems.” The fading was gone. Great.

But about three weeks ago, something changed and now the fading is back. I can hardly get DAB+ reception on my bedside radio any more. It’s not the radio, the reception has deteriorated on my car DAB+ receiver as well, whereas a few months ago I was remarking how good it was.

At first I thought it might be some quirk of the change of season, with the sun angle interfering, but I’d expect that to vary with the time of day and to have gone away by now. I believe there’s a repeater for these northern suburbs up here somewhere. I wonder if there’s some problem with it. This is just VHF reception at about 206MHz, so it’s not exotic or difficult.

I think I’ll have to do some Googling and try to contact someone. It’s quite possible that there may be a fault in the repeater, but like me, everyone assumes it will come good and doesn’t speak up.

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Damn, I’ve discovered another drug that I need, but causes me insomnia. I’ve got some Prodeine, a mix of paracetemol and codeine, that was prescribed for me around 2017. I need it for the chronic pain in my feet from diabetic neuropathy, and also an ongoing ache in my left foot from the pronation. It works! It’s very slow to act, taking around three hours before I suddenly realise it ain’t hurting any more.

But I’m sure now that it causes me insomnia. I hardly slept at all last night, same as the night before, when I’d taken the Prodeine both nights. Normally I can sleep quite well.

So that’s another drug that causes insomnia for me (the other is Tramadol). Damn. I need this pain relief. I take Panadol Extra but it has almost no effect.

I’d be interested to try cannabidiol oil, which in theory we can buy over the counter now, but the cost! I believe it costs more than $200 for a month’s supply. I can’t see myself paying that. Oh well.

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The rotten scandals in Canberra parliament house are amazing and depressing. These guys are supposed to be getting on with the job of government, but mostly they are either rootin’, tootin’ or shootin’. They cannot be putting their full attention to their portfolios and departments.

The man in question at the moment condemned himself by his own writings and words when he was in law school at UWA in the 1980s. He wrote things in the yearbooks that he should have been ashamed of at the time and was known for his arrogance and misogyny then. Now it’s come back to bite him. He’s also been through two failed marriages, with the devastating consequences on his children. He was accused of another lot of bad behaviour last year, and now this. Yet he’s the Federal Attorney-General! How can anyone deal with him with any sense of decorum or respect?

Never forget, this guy was responsible for most of the unlawful Robodebt scheme that wrecked the lives of tens of thousands of the weakest and most vulnerable, and led directly or indirectly to hundreds of suicides! For my overseas readers, this Liberal (Conservative, right wing) government is wedded to the idea that if people are poor, it’s their own fault and if they are getting social security, they are probably cheating the system by understating their income.

So this nasty government came up with a scheme of using the department’s computer records to make welfare recipients prove their incomes, from all sources, going back seven years. They had to try to come up with pay slips and tax records, by contacting multiple previous employers if they could. If they couldn’t prove their incomes (could you?), then the government used an averaging method, based on assumptions, and hit the weakest, poorest in society with massive, multi-thousand dollar bills, payable on demand.

But slowly, over a period of years, a Melbourne law firm gathered evidence and led a class action law suit that finally proved this scheme to be UNLAWFUL! Yes, the attorney general, the chief law officer of the land, was running an unlawful scheme that led to hundreds of deaths. The commonwealth government is having to pay back over $1.2bn of debts to these poor people. It’s a bit late for the people who killed themselves.

This caused huge distress throughout the community and as I said, led hundreds of people to commit suicide! The head of the department at the time and the main instigator of this scheme is the man who is now pleading for us to believe him and to give him the benefit of the doubt! The gall! The sheer hypocrisy.

This is the most corrupt government in the history of this country. If you need any evidence, see https://www.mdavis.xyz/govlist/ It’s shocking, absolutely shocking! How can you vote for this slimy, stinking, criminal mob?

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