Discrimination

 Yet more news from the asylum across the water with a lunatic in charge.

Trump has issued an order that medical staff in the veteran's administration, the government organisation that looks after ex servicemen, can deny treatment to any patient who supports the democratic party.

That would be like a British doctor being allowed to refuse treatment to a patient because they voted labour.

Where do I start? Trump obviously has no idea how the medical profession works. Most doctors would be bemused by the suggestion that we should even know a patient's political affiliation. In his entire career DZ never once asked a patient their political or religious views, and I don't suppose the vast majority of my colleagues would either.

I think Trump should be told "Hippocrates would like a word"

For all it's faults I can't imagine for a moment the GMC tolerating such a practice. Any doctor who did this would, rightly, find himself in hot water very quickly.

The USA doesn't have an equivalent of the GMC, a nationwide regulatory body. Such regulation is devolved to individual states as "State Medical Boards." In normal times I'm sure that these boards would oppose this idea rigorously. 

But, in case you hadn't noticed, the times we are living in are far from normal, and full of surprises.

Dumb, dumber and dumbest.

 As long ago as 1980 Isaac Asimov wrote, 

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

I don't think even he could have foreseen just how severe this was going to get. Or just how high in the political structure it would pervade.  Six years ago I wrote about this case, where an Ohio state lawmaker proposed a law mandating that ectopic pregnancies be transplanted into the uterus, displaying a level of ignorance and stupidity that should, but sadly doesn't, preclude him from office.

But then the supporters of this type of politics, the MAGAs, as they have come to be known, are no better. They, and those they have brought into government represent arguably the least qualified, least experienced, most ignorant, most incompetent and stupidest people imaginable.

Their leader has recently aired the view that Joe Biden was executed in 2020, and replaced by a clone, or a robot, depending on which version of this conspiracy theory you embrace. And his followers assert that climate change is not happening because only god can control climate, and in the same breath will tell you that hurricanes in the USA are man made, with the objective of acquiring the land formerly occupied by houses so that they can mine the Lithium beneath. It's only cervical spondylosis that stops my head from spinning.

And yet, in the USA these people represent 40% of the electorate! You could spend all day on Youtube descending into this hellish world where up is down and black is white. all presided over a man who claims to be the healthiest the man alive. Not only does he wear a diaper to cope with his faecal incontinence, but more recently he has been found to wear a catheter to prevent him pissing himself, and calipers to stop him falling over. They're not working!

 And it goes on and on. Most recently is a proposed law to ban chemtrails. What next? Unicorns?

But we shouldn't get too complacent in the UK, sitting here chortling with our popcorn at the bizarre and absurd antics of our transatlantic cousins. We have our own village idiots here. Anti vaxers, flat earthers, conspiracy theorists of every kind. People who, in preinternet days would have lived out their village idiot existences isolated and humored by the community. Now they all get together on line, sharing their idiocy and conspiracy theories amongst each other like a huge international village idiots convention. 

And they have their political wing here in the UK too. A disparate bunch of ultra right wing, fundamentalist religious xenophobes, misogynists, racists, homophobes and the like, just as in the USA. And we have our own little wannabee Donny working his way through the political system. A man with a worrying amount of support among the electorate. We like to think the shit show in the USA could not be replicated here. That would be our first mistake.

Nigel Farage

Another man with his head up his arse.

 

This is Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America. He's also an utter and deluded loon. This is the man who states that Donald Trump is "The most respected President of the modern era" 

He's also a fundamentalist christian, who wants the USA to become a christian nationalist state, ruled in accordance with biblical law. A sort of christian taliban if you like. 

It gets worse.

He also believes that god talks to him, and wants him to become a modern day Moses. Fuck me!

Actually, that last bit about being Moses is something I could get behind. If he wants to take all of his followers and fuck off into the desert for forty years then that's just fine by me.

WTF

 So. We have the two worlds' nuclear superpowers both currently ruled by deranged megalomanic lunatics.

What could possibly go wrong? 

Allies?!

 Some of you may have seen a recent interview where the Vice President of the USA, J D (couch shagger) Vance was somewhat disparaging about the armed forces of the UK, claiming they've not fought a war in over 40 years, as if their own record of seeking out, or even starting conflicts at the drop of a hat is something to be proud of.

Well hold my beer!

UK forces have consistently stood and fought side by side with US soldiers in all most every conflict involving the USA since World War 2. We supported the US militarily during the Korean war, both Gulf wars, the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war, in case Mr Vance hadn't noticed.

On only two notable occasions have the US or UK been in a conflict without the other. One was in the South Atlantic, when the UK fought Argentina for the liberation of the Falkland Islands. The US was conspicuous by it's absence there and left the UK to fight it out alone 8000 miles from home. Nonetheless UK forces delivered a decisive victory there in just 10 weeks, managing without the US perfectly well. The other occasion was the Vietnam war, which the UK wisely decided not to get involved. It lasted nearly twenty years and ended when the US withdrew in disarray, panic and chaos. They lost that one.

Same game, different result.

And now it looks as if the USA won't support Ukraine unless they can make a profit out of it. This time, hopefully, not just the UK, but the whole of Europe will step up to protect their neighbour. I think we can manage.

Slava Ukraini

Chaos

 The shitshow going on across the Atlantic is becoming so massive and multifaceted that it's becoming difficult to follow. Imagine what it's like living there.

But make no mistake, it's going to affect us in the UK too. Take just these two aspects which could be plots from a comedy show if they weren't serious.

Firstly gynaecomast Elon Musk wants to rename the English Channel the "George Washington channel"! Good luck with that. Have they not noticed that our neighbours in Europe all have different names for the channel. Nobody seems to care.

Secondly it looks as if Trump is about to impose tariffs on the EU and UK next, claiming that the hefty trade deficit that exists between us is somehow unfair. Listen fat boy, we can't help it if you don't make anything we want to buy. It might help if you didn't fill all your consumables with a mix of toxic chemicals that are banned over here. Astoundingly he feels that it's outrageous that that we pay far less for our pharmaceuticals than they do. Well that's because of entirely internal factors that allow US drug companies to massively price gouge.

DZ has hardly ever bought anything that comes from the USA, not deliberately, but simply because not much american stuff seems to make it's way over here. There is Budweiser I suppose, if you like beer that tastes like creosote. (Unlike Czech Budweier, which is simply divine.)

So buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Hopefully things will work out OK in the end.

Pharmacology

 

This picture is doing the rounds at the moment, in which Elon Musk can be seen clearly exhibiting gynaecomastia. 

He is known to have had male pattern hair loss from quite a young age. He's also known to have had hair transplant, so the hair loss is assuredly something he's sensitive about. It's likely that he is, in view of this, also taking Finasteride. 

Finasteride is a drug that has been around for a long time, having originally been developed to treat Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy. It is a long term treatment. It was discovered that it can counter male pattern baldness with up to 80% of affected men seeing some hair regeneration with long term use.

But in pharmacology there's no such thing as a free lunch. Finasteride is a Testosterone inhibitor and there are potential side effects. These include loss of libido, erectile dysfunction, and gynaecomastia.

The late Chuck Jones once said, "A fanatic is one who redoubles his efforts when he has lost sight of the original objective." In his efforts to project an image of youth and vitality Mr Musk may well have been hoist by his own petard.

Quote for today, 21 January

 "Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars."

Martin Luther King

Coincidence

 While we're on the subject of Christmas.

New year

 Somewhat belatedly, Merry Christmas, and happy new year to anyone who reads this page.