'Food, clothing, housing, electricity, water, education, protection, work, entertainment, ecological health, art, communication, reason, transport, support, enablement...this is not socialism. This is simply good basic human government.'

Wishing you and your family a happy and holy Christmas time. ........... We went for a walk around the suburb today, Craigieburn Christmas Eve, noticing what our neighbourhood cohort had done to somewhat personalise the small houses here. Well done to some. All are pretty well new small houses, 2 or 3 or 4 bedroom, most are owned, some rented. Small yards at the back. Big dry parks here and there, and good bike paths. We eventually accidentally arrived at one of the shopping centres and wandered through. I had a look in jb-hifi and sought out the DVD of Alien, with Sigourney Weaver, and found a box set of 6 Alien films including Prometheus and Covenant for less than $30, so snapped them up, then realising we long ago got rid of our thousands of dvds and any dvd player, so we went to Target or Big W and bought an all regions dvd player for $35, then Mrs Fitz chose the Game of Thrones dvd set as we have never seen that series, but know it to be very good. I read that big video streaming services and cable channels find the classic movies everyone likes and then 'vaults' them away on occasion, to inspire folk to either pay more or to watch something else...to create scarceness, and I don't like that idea of marketing-cunt-capitalism at all, so, owning the actual DVD discs, and at a cheap price, and looking after them, seems a better choice for those really good or loved movies or series etc one really likes and can just watch in perpetuity off line as one wishes. Lovely day, walking about, hand in hand. Kind regards and Merry Christmas from Mrs and Mr Fitz wandering on the park pathway around the town on a sunny Christmas Eve.

A LUCKY Lucky Cat indeed! A couple of months back I put our big Lucky Waving Cat, Mr Xi Jinping, out on the front door porch only then to begin a vicious war with the local crows who kept pecking at it until they had pulled out its waving arm and flown off with it. On our walk today Mrs Fitz and I came upon a bunch of odd items in the grass, as if they had tumbled from a birds nest in the wind, about 50 metres from home, including the stolen arm. I had kept the one armed Mr Xi Cat hoping maybe to one day find a barbie doll leg to replace the waving arm, just to be creepy...thinking a Lucky Cat waving a skinny leg in a Barbie Nazi salute would be an interesting garden ornament... BUT NOW the waving arm is back on Mr Xi. He'll be back on the stoop tomorrow, Christmas Morn, waving up a storm that says 'Yo, crows! I'm back!'

Well, the Australian Prime Minister, who often carried a lump of coal around in parliament as his best friend, reckons he won't be intimidated into recognising that climate change somewhat causes... climate change. He says he believes that climate change exists, for sure, but it doesn't necessarily cause...climate change. Hmm. Just waiting for it all to 'blow over' as is the standard conservative position. And no, his absence when he was on holidays in Hawaii didn't cause everyone or anyone here to be anxious and scared, as he asserts, it just made people feel quite pissed off that their needs in a time of great peril were best addressed by leader having an overseas beach holiday rather than doing the hard work of how to support the firemen and women. As you may know, most rural fire services are totally volunteer based because its cheaper than paying people to do that...and much cheaper than using the army etc who may get hurt or have equipment damaged, equipment that is best used to rain down terror on poor communities on the other side of the world, but after a few months on unpaid leave, doing the heroic volunteering, the bills and mortgages still need to be paid, and they do start to add up. Who would have thought? As for Hawaii, I guess it had to be an overseas holiday anyway, really, because all the good holiday spots in Australia were pretty shitty as they were burning down. A dope, a ponderous inept narcissistic marketing man of the far right...yes, another one.

Australia:I note the prime minister Scott Morrison has returned from his secret holiday in Hawaii as someone found out he was there living la vida loca, whilst the country was burning to death... first he apologised on behalf of his wife, Jenny... and then said he was sorry too...and then said the holiday was really his kids' idea anyway. There's a real man. The calibre. The Statesmanship.

John Fitzpartrick Wine Taster's Guide to the Yarra Valley. "The 57th red wine tasted on the day was a provocative syrah from Domain Wombat Gestaltz. It was cranberry-saffron redolent with hints of wet Hessian-de-saucier wheat bags draped across a citrus infused summer breeze in the Camargue. A fine ethereal and gesticulatingly fanciful wine, robust, true, yet with some whimsy, noted as a fine wine to accompany a pig at a barbecue, following a degustation, or could be just left in the bottle to entertain itself for hours".

Looking at the world and various causes and desires for independence etc...one can think that China, one day will devolve from one nation back into 3, then into 30, then into 300 etc. Hong Kong could be a separate independent state, just like Timor L'este. Yes, that could happen. Hawaii could kick out all Americans and be Independent, yes, that could happen. The Dharug tribe, from Cronulla to Palm Beach and inland to the Blue Mountains, could kick out everyone else in Sydney, Tibet could kick out every Chinese person who isnt ethnically Tibetan from Tibet province, that could happen, the Manchurians could kick out the Han in Northern China and launch a horrid war on Japan, Australia could kick out the American Military from Darwin and from Pine Gap, except, well, in reality, where we actually live, none of those things are ever going to happen. Not ever. As for Ireland, Jesus, the only thing actually stopping the Irish from being one Ireland/One Island, are the Irish.