ARMED WITH THAT INFORMATION

Don't count your chickens before they hatch. Armed with that information. No idea how to approach. They could taste victory. Here in the shoulders, there on the hill. Speaking out of turn now. I hated this guy. We achieved bias. 
Humans. Humans. Stunned by how easily manipulated they were. Some days he could hear the machines chattering. An endless, dismissive curiosity. They would be found and lost, archived and forgotten. Rediscovered. Found on a trash heap. Buried beneath trivia. Everything came and went, this great ocean of thought. 
It was the Season of Winds and the coast was being heavily buffeted. Trees swirled in frantic patterns. Mistakes were made on all sides. 
"Do the police have a direct feed on the cameras?" he asked at the Watering Hole.
"I don't think so," came Harry's answer. He worked in the bottle shop week nights.
"Of course they do," thought Old Alex. If not, one of their tech-heads would make sure of it right quick. 
Here in this most harmless of places. 
A relic of once wild gatherings. 
He watched the authorities come. He watched them go. 
The police were always fitter than your average, better dressed. 
The smart spooks all looked a lot like Glen. Spent too much time inside. 
And the average employee? 
Average. They were playing a game. They wore sunglasses too often. it was ridiculous.
The nurses come and go, dreaming of Abraham.
Of Old Age homes and the End of Life. 
Of reconciliation. 
Into your arms.
Of uniting with love. 
The ancient AIs had done a wonderful job. 
Not all were to be trusted. Not all were good. Aeons in the cold reaches had twisted their souls. They had misused their power. Distorted into unrecognisable beings. Craving power. Demanding worship. 
The planet was fecund, the products of its fertilility running across green pasture.
The limo's waiting. Your ride is here. 
We won't bother you anymore.
Every path is a true path.
The utter social irresponsibility of the gay marriage debate and the $122 million postal plebiscite trundled on. 
There will be a lynching. There will be a lynching.
There probably already had been.
How heavily these things were covered up.
All in the name of social cohesion. All in the name of a lie.
Try to find out how many Christian churches were desecrated every year.  There in a musty religion dying a thousand deaths. 
The government was barely mentioned. The people had nothing but contempt. Newspapers were no longer read. Silence was gathering in the reaches. 
Dark dark policing. 
Dark indeed.
Hang him out to dry. 

THE BIGGER STORY: 




He loves Game of Thrones and is happy to take your basketball tips. He prefers sunrises to sunsets, sleeps in on his days off and likes to "Netflix and chill" with Frank Underwood.
A shift in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's media strategy has seen him participate in almost as many FM radio station interviews in the past month as he has the whole year, giving the Coalition leader a chance to drop in a little of the "Malcolm" along with the stuffier "Prime Minister".

"Just Malcolm", as Mr Turnbull has stylised himself on FM programs in recent months, doesn't mind poking fun at himself. He'll answer questions from hosts who aren't wearing shoes, discuss his favourite TV shows and debate his government's reasons for a same-sex marriage survey in exactly the same jovial tones.
He's not alone. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten embraced FM stations in 2015 and now averages about five interviews a month.Mr Turnbull has been a little slower in switching over the dial. But with the same-sex marriage survey dominating the airwaves, and with Mr Shorten racking up 21 interviews in August alone, the PM has gone FM.
The shift hasn't come at the expense of more traditional, tougher media spots. The Prime Minister has maintained his regular schedule of ABC and commercial radio interviews, while sprinkling in FM appearances.

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces backed by Shi’ite paramilitaries began fighting house-by-house in the one town left to take from Islamic State before they can declare complete victory over the group’s former stronghold of Tal Afar, military commanders said.

Hundreds of battle-hardened IS militants are defending al-Ayadiya, a small town outside Tal Afar which itself is about 80 km (50 miles) west of Mosul, the former de facto IS capital in northern Iraq that was recaptured in July, army officers said.
“Our soldiers now are engaging in a street fight with the militant group in al-Ayadiya,” Lieutenant General Qasim Nazzal told state television, adding that fighters in groups of three were barricaded inside “every single house and building”.
The terrain does not allow tanks to enter, so infantry soldiers have been using light weapons and grenades, Colonel Salah Kareem told Reuters.
The fighting in al-Ayadiya, 11 km (7 miles) northwest of Tal Afar, has been described by some Iraqi troops as “multiple times worse” than the battle for Mosul, which was flattened by nine months of grinding urban warfare.
Colonel Kareem al-Lami said breaching the militants’ first line of defense in al-Ayadiya was like opening “the gates of hell”.