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Yes, let’s begin with the image of three healthy, bouncing, babies. Sadly, there are occasions when such delightful little human beings are neither healthy, nor bouncing. Sometimes they’re sick, and occasionally they die.

There can be no doubting the sincerity of his parents, or the sad plight of a baby terminally ill with a rare disease that’s untreatable, but the media hysteria over Charlie Gard really needs some analysis.^[1]

^{Headline in just one of almost all national UK newspapers (25/07/17). (Added at the bottom of the page: “Mum’s Heartbreaking Tribute: Pages 4,5,6 and 7”). Could we ever resist buying this rag to read Mum’s personal heartbreak?}

Millions of babies die every year within twelve months of birth, according to ‘Save The Children’:

Worldwide, nearly 3 million newborns die each year and an additional 2.6 million babies are stillborn. ^[2].

Charlie Gard is one of them. He is ‘special’ only to his devoted parents and close relatives, yet the media have attempted to make this one child ‘special’ to everyone. It even evoked a response from Donald Trump…

Donald J. Trump?Verified account
@realDonaldTrump

If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the U.K. and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.
7:00 AM – 3 Jul 2017
37,192 Retweets 123,516 Likes

…and the Pope (as per the Guardian):

Pope Francis is calling for the parents of critically ill baby, Charlie Gard, to be allowed to do everything possible to treat their child.

In a statement on Sunday evening, the Vatican said the pope was following the case of the 10-month-old, who has a form of mitochondrial disease, “with affection and sadness” and was close to his parents: “For this he prays that their wish to accompany and treat their child until the end isn’t neglected.” ^[3]

It’s the sort of cheap political move we’ve grown to expect from Trump, but the Pope should know better.

News agencies now transmit their stories worldwide. One can only surmise how women in Yemen, Syria, or across much of the continent of Africa, feel when they hear of a Western baby’s plight raising over two million dollars, while their own child dies of starvation, or disease, because they’ve not even enough to buy food or medicine.

No-one could blame Charlie Gard’s parents for the efforts they’ve made to keep their baby alive, but Western media both in the U.K. and the U.S., are guilty of using this story to whip up public emotion for no better reason than viewing/sales figures, and with a callous disregard of the effects it might have on those women of similar circumstance in less fortunate parts of the world.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT…

QUESTION: take the words vagina, penis, every possible conjugation of the verb ‘to fuck’ that you can think of used in a myriad different ways (throw in a generous helping of anal excrement) and what do you have?

ANSWER: virtually every comedic moment of every (so-called) comedy programme, late-night chat show, and stand-up act both on and off the TV screen, all of which have audiences convulsed with laughter – one’s tempted to believe the on-cue laughter is a prerequisite of gaining free tickets to the show. Though, maybe not.

What has happened to that elusive component of comedy called ‘talent’? Any fool can stand in front of a microphone and shout, “FUCK,” over and over again. There was a time when comedians could have people in fits of laughter without using any bad language, or sexual references.

I can only think of two comedians with the talent and personality to utilize bad language in an endearing way. One was Billy Connolly and the other was George Carlin, and neither found it necessary to constantly throw sexual references into their act. Today, nothing is left to the imagination. A vagina is a vagina and a penis is a penis, and, my God, aren’t we proud of it!

Now, I have to admit to laughing uproariously at all those words. I remember, it was behind our school bike sheds while sneaking a quick puff of a shared cigarette. I was about twelve years old. Way too young to stay up for the late night talk shows, if there were any in those days.

I guess I stopped finding such locution amusing by the time I reached, well, probably about sixteen.

Is it taking longer for ‘Millenials’, or, ‘Gen Zs’, (or whatever stupid names they call themselves) to attain adulthood?

Or, has evolution simply decided it’s evolved far enough and put the gear lever into reverse?

AND FINALLY…

Let’s take a moment to consider this lot:

^{A handsome, appealing, AMERICAN Jesus!}

Most would agree the human race is in a pretty poor state and needs some rational thinking if we’re ever going to get out of the mess we’re in. Global climate change, wars, a dictator-president running the most militaristic nation on earth (no, NOT North Korea!), the accumulation of wealth (or the lack of it) the most fundamental raison d’etre for living…all cannot be overcome by burying our heads in the sand and waiting on some ‘Almighty Intelligence’ to sort it out for us.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses are not the only befuddled load of religious brainwashings on the planet, there’s a whole host of them, but today the BBC has highlighted the effect of this organization on those who have the courage to say, “Enough of this rubbish, I’m outa here.”

Total alienation from family and friends is the punishment inflicted by these pseudo-religious marketeers, causing acute pain, depression, and sometimes suicide to be inflicted on those who dare escape its clutches.

For some former Jehovah’s Witnesses, leaving the faith is not just the mark of losing your religion – it can also mean losing your loved ones. In many cases, friends and family are told to cut all ties with ex-believers, leaving them isolated and sometimes suicidal.^[4]

The marketing of ‘God’, in whatever guise proves most profitable, has been a ‘top seller’ on the income scale for millennia. It’s time we all asked, “What has God ever done for us?” When human history is dissected, the answer is, “Bugger all!”

Every darned thing that’s proved good for us has been achieved by man, and everything bad, also. ‘God’ has been nowhere. To those who say, “Prayer works,”, the response is, “Yes, it does, about fifty percent of the time.” It makes ‘God’ no better than coincidence, or chance. ‘God’ is nothing more than a divine one-armed bandit.

It seems the human race is determined to be hoodwinked by its own crazy belief systems. Religion is probably the very last thing on this planet that’ll be exterminated – when the last fool alive calls on his god to save his life before death finally claims him. At that point the planet will no doubt breathe an almighty sigh of relief that it’s finally rid itself of the plague of pathetic parasites that have been slowly poisoning it for eons.

^{[1] “The Papers” BBC, July 25th 2007}

^{[2] “Worldwide, nearly 3 million newborns die each year and an additional 2.6 million babies are stillborn.” save The Children, May 20th 2014}

^{[3] “Donald Trump offers help for critically ill baby Charlie Gard” Guardian, July 3rd 2017}

^{[4] “The ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses shunned by their families” BBC, July 25th 2017}

It’s a madhouse. Once considered the greatest nation on earth, the United States of America is descending into total disarray, its government in tatters, its police forces trigger-happy, its media outlets obsessed with only one topic – the dangerous clown now in charge of the whole nation, with his finger on the nuclear trigger.

But it’s not Trump’s ability to destroy the planet that obsesses the U.S. media. It’s the idea that in some way he was in cahoots with Russian hackers whose only crime was to reveal to the world the underhand dealings of the Democratic National Committee during the presidential election campaign of 2016.

Being an ally of this nation is fast becoming a serious embarrassment. Maybe it’s time some of those countries which support the U.S. consider withdrawing that support and forming other alliances. It’s time Europe learned to stand on its own two feet. Britain has chosen a course that will force it under the thumb of America for the foreseeable future. It’s to be hoped Europe doesn’t take a similar route.

The cold-blooded killing of Australian, Justine Damond…

…by an American police officer this week is surely symbolic of the state of America today. Damond, who had spoken of the differences between America, with its gun-crazed society, and her home country of Australia, where guns are rigorously controlled, was killed while doing her civic duty. She’d reported a possible assault near her house, and when the police arrived went out to meet them. She was totally unarmed and wearing her pyjamas. One of the officers in the car pulled out his gun and shot her dead. The excuse that eventually surfaced was that the police feared they were being assaulted – by a woman in her pyjamas! ^[1]

Justine Damond was a credit to society. She was a woman of compassion. Only one week before her murder she was photographed saving a family of ducklings. She was a veterinarian. She taught yoga at the local spiritual center.

Contrast her with another woman in the news this week…

…Ann Coulter can really only be described as a first-order American bitch. She’s as hard as granite, has no time for anyone but herself, and has become an archetype for all that’s bad about America. A hard-right-wing Republican ‘commentator’, Coulter wrote after 9/11:

“We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”

She wears her racism in full view. Of Arab nations she’s been quoted in print as saying:

“Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now.”

This week Coulter created a national furore, while on a Delta Airways flight to Florida after finding she’d been moved from an aisle seat to a window. Another woman had been put in the seat she’d booked. Coulter took photos of the woman, called her names, and tweeted the picture around the internet, even though the woman was totally innocent. It was the act of a spoiled, arrogant, and vindictive child unable to get its own way. ^[2]

The comparison between Justine Damond and Ann Coulter couldn’t be greater; the former a fine example to us all, the latter a perfect example of what America has become today.

There’s only one thing ‘great’ in 2017 America and that’s its military. Great, that is, in size, though not necessarily quality. ‘American values’, once toted under the guise of ‘freedom for all’, if they were ever realistic are now no more, except to certain sections of American society – those who find Ann Coulter endearing.

The United States of America is plunging over a very steep cliff politically. Corporate power knows no bounds. The will of the people is being rapidly eroded away. Already the government is run totally for and by corporate power, the people have no say. Dictatorship, while perhaps cleverly disguised, is waiting around the corner.

America will try to drag the rest of the world with it, by force if necessary. Britain, under its ultra-far-right Tory government, has already conceded. Leaving the E.U. was a well-masterminded accomplishment to that end.

One can only hope that Europe, Australasia, and certain other U.S. ‘allies’ don’t take the same road. It’s time for them to say, “Enough is enough!”

^{[1] “Justine Damond killed by Minneapolis police: What we know” BBC, July 19th 2017}

^{[2] “Delta tells Ann Coulter she can have her $30 back, but she won’t stop raging on Twitter” Washington Post, July 17th 2017}

There’s a certain unease in the French air. On the surface everything appears normal: the birds are singing, the sun is shining, people are going about their business while making preparation for tomorrow’s holiday – July 14th, Bastille Day. It’ll be one year to the day that a mad jihadist drove a truck down the promenade at Nice, killing eighty-four people. But it’s not that which stirs unease in the air of France.

Trump is in town. The U.S. president was invited to spend Bastille Day in Paris by the new French president, Emmanuel Macron. Nobody’s asking, “Why?” Everybody’s thinking it. Trump’s already caused a degree of embarrassment by telling the French first lady, “You know you’re in such great shape.” She’s twenty-five years older than her husband.

There’s huge security around Paris and French fighter jets have been regularly boring holes in the sky over northern France all day. It’ll likely continue tomorrow, also. There’s a bevy of protesters hanging around the city, but violence isn’t really anticipated. Most Parisians, indeed most French people, just shrug and pretend to carry on as normal.

As one man told the Independent:

“Donald Trump is a real fool, but I’m not concerned by him coming here,” says Maxime Adam, sitting on a park bench in central Paris.

While thousands of Parisiens were preparing to protest the US President’s visit to France, the rest of the capital gave a collective shrug as life continued as normal.

“I don’t like him but if Emmanuel Macron decided to invite him it’s for some reason,” Mr Adam added.

“Mr Trump can do whatever he wants – I don’t agree with it but it’s not like that here.” ^[1]

Tomorrow there’ll be a military parade in the Champs-Elysees, with Trump as guest of honour. It’s to mark the centenary of America entering the First World War in 1917, just a year before it ended (1914-1918).

Then Trump will return to America in Air Force One and the country will breathe a quiet sigh of relief when he’s gone. The birds will continue to sing, the sun will still be shining, and people will go quietly about their business. Trump will be soon forgotten. In the cafes of Paris and the rural farmhouses of Brittany, French folk will sip their wine and break open their baguettes as they relax over their ninety-minute lunch breaks.

For that’s France, and that’s the French. It’ll take more than Donald Trump to change anything here.

^{[1] “Trump in Paris: Relaxed French locals dismiss US President as a ‘fool'” The Independent, July 13th 2017}