Category: Bad News

Horrible, unpleasant stuff

Imagine Being Patient #4,154,560

Bad News, Gummint, Health

The next time some dreamy pinko starts whining about how wonderful Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is, feel free to show him or her this article (when you are done kicking their ass, of course):

The NHS waiting list in England is the longest it has been in 11 years, official figures have revealed today.
A staggering 4,154,559 people – around six per cent of the entire UK population – were waiting to start hospital treatment at the end of August.  This number is the highest it has been since August 2007, and more than 3,000 people have been waiting more than a year for routine treatment.
A&E [ER] departments are also getting busier and cancer treatment waiting times have been missed for the 32nd month in a row, NHS data showed.  Experts today warned ‘alarm bells’ are ringing and the health service is heading straight for another winter crisis as it buckles under ‘relentless pressure’.  An ageing population and shortages of doctors and nurses have been blamed for increasing strain on the NHS and it taking longer to treat patients.

But hey… as long as it’s free, right?

And speaking of free, of course it turns out that “free” also means “rationing” (emphasis mine):

Shortages of Fluad, a new super-vaccine offering better protection for over-65s, means pensioners across the country are being turned away by GPs.  Deliveries of the vaccine to surgeries and pharmacies are being staggered due to supply problems and 40 per cent of the 7.8 million doses will not be available until next month.
The Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommended Fluad last December, but it took NHS England until February 5 to tell GPs and pharmacies they needed to buy it.  Clinics that failed to order by the April 12 deadline have had no stock delivered, forcing them to beg for supplies from others.

So if you’re (say) 63 years old, British and catch a potentially-deadly strain of flu, that’s just too bad.  Life’s lottery — or, to be more precise, the NHS lottery — just gave it to you between the cheeks.

Wear boots when kicking.

 

News Roundup

Bad News

1) Candy bars lose sugar, also taste — FFS, if you think a candy bar is unhealthy or bad for you, then eat something else.  Don’t moan and complain until the manufacturer brings out a watery, tasteless variant of the classic. (see:  lite beer)

2) Man fucks with black mamba, with predictable results — there is a good reason why snake handlers in South Africa cannot get life insurance, no matter how much they’re prepared to pay.

3) Cold weather causes vag-freeze — as we’re heading into winter, you may want to get yer Missus a box-warmer (don’t ask).

4) Freaks and pervos hit the streets — where else but in San Francisco?  (Never an errant daisycutter bomb when you need one.)

5) Italy to become the “new Argentina” — as long as they don’t invade the Falklands, we’re cool.

6)  Tropical Storm Rosa will not wash the entire state of California out to sea — and a nation mourns.

News Roundup

Bad News

1)  “Sobbing vegan, 23, breaks into a slaughterhouse and chains herself next to a calf for animal rights protest” —  They should have spared the calf and slaughtered the vegan.

2)  “Sex robots BACKLASH as brothel workers reveal fury over ‘dehumanising and dangerous’ droids” — wait a minute:  prostitutes are accusing their competition as “dehumanising” ?  We will now observe two minutes’ silence to mark the death of irony.

3)  “Jane Fonda tells accused #MeToo harassers like Louis CK looking to make a comeback to ‘sweep the floor at Starbucks until you learn!’ ” — Tell you what, you rancid Commie traitor:  you could sweep the floors at every Starbucks in the world, and we still wouldn’t forgive you for the Hanoi trip.

4)  Britain’s armed forces are about to go tits-up — My favorite take out of this article is the description of an armored unit as “Operation Tethered Goat”.  Actually, it’s a tragic story, so read it all.  (In case anyone starts murmuring “Malvinas”, the only military in worse shape than Britain’s is Argentina’s.)

5)  NYC Home Sellers Are Slashing Prices “Like It’s 2009” — so prices of NYFC residential real estate are now simply “exorbitant” as opposed to “you’ve got to be fucking kidding me”.  My feelings on the matter:

…and finally, some happy news:

6)  Oktoberfest has begun in Germanland — although my experience with Oktoberfest (in Munich, anyway) has been weak beer and raucous drunks, neither of which I can tolerate.  There are a couple of compensations, though:

Then again…

Oy.

 

Big Picture

Bad News, Business

Yesterday I bitched about Levi Strauss and their support for gun control.  Then, on reading about the new Nike marketing campaign featuring that asswipe quarterback as a symbol, I stumbled on this gem at The Last Refuge which, as always, put both events into perspective:

The bigger risk to Nike has nothing to do with Black Lives Matter, U.S. Consumers, or Antifa-like political advocacy. The bigger financial risk to the Nike Corporation has everything to do with geopolitics and a reset of international trade agreements.

You must read it all;  but as a spoiler, let me just hint that both Nike’s and Levi’s campaigns are being driven by a secret textile manufacturing agreement with… North Korea through China.  In fact, instead of bringing the manufacturing of their products back to the United States (which is actually a viable option), it seems that both corporations would rather undermine the U.S. government’s trade policy, just to keep their own foreign business deals going.

Bastards.  Bastards.

What He Said

Bad News, Politics

Saith Robert Hardman in the Daily Mail:

Perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention but I am pretty sure that this lot were not here three months ago. On that occasion, London was hosting not just one ‘bigot’ but dozens. In fact, all told, the 2018 Commonwealth summit honoured no less than 37 world leaders who choose to criminalise homosexuality in their countries.
I certainly remember them all getting a full state welcome and dinner at Buckingham Palace. The funny thing is, I just can’t recall the protests. Nor did I see the placards a month earlier when a leader who bans women from voting in general elections – and only let them drive cars this year – was a guest of honour in the City of London.
Aside from a handful of protestors outside Downing Street, there was no street march against Crown Prince Mohammed of Saudi Arabia.
Maybe everyone was washing their hair that day.
Yesterday, however, thousands did manage to find the time to hit the streets to hurl various forms of abuse – some of it cogent, much of it unprintable and lot of it simply adolescent – at our most important ally.
I imagine most women, most gays and most members of any ethnic minority would much prefer to live in Donald Trump’s USA than most nations on earth. Yesterday, however, he was cast as the pantomime enemy of almost every cause on the political spectrum from centre-Left grievances all the way out to the communists (who certainly deserved the award for the most elaborate banner yesterday – a magnificent old-fashioned specimen beautifully embroidered with Lenin and Marx).
Whatever your issue – Brexit, climate change, feminism, Palestine, capitalism, gay and transgender rights – Donald Trump was the problem and guilty as charged. So roll up, folks, and signal your virtues.

And they did:

Mind you, expecting any kind of consistency from the Left is like expecting lions to go vegan:  it’s just not in their nature.

And of course, he’ll never get the Screaming Freak vote:

I have a serious question:  can you imagine belonging to a “movement” which includes people like this as members?  What could possibly possess people to act this way?

I guess it’s because Trump!  And that excuses anything.

Fucking morons.  All of them.  Including the people who are encouraging this crap, e.g.  Maxine (Red Maxi) Waters and Bernie (Scum) Sanders.  These fuckups couldn’t “resist” a ripple in a pond.

No Surprise

Bad News

For many years now, I’ve been trying to cut down on using plastic stuff (e.g. Glocks), even though I know that here in the United States, the plastic trash is handled quite responsibly.  And of course, often it’s just impossible because so much packaging is made of plastic.  Still, I persevere because it’s the Right Thing To Do.

However, I have been to the Third World, and quite frankly, I’ve often wondered why I bother.  Anyone who’s done the same will know that there, the trash is never handled responsibly;  both personal- and industrial-scale littering are the rule, and not the exception.

So here’s the proof of what I’ve just said:

Shocking study reveals 90% of global plastic waste comes from just TEN rivers in Asia and Africa
As governments around the world rush to address the global problem of plastic pollution in the oceans, researchers have now pinpointed the river systems that carry the majority of it out to sea.
About five trillion pounds is floating in the sea, and targeting the major sources — such as the Yangtze and the Ganges — could almost halve it, scientists claim.

And here’s the pic:

…and no, the United States, often called the “world’s largest polluter”, does not have its giant Mississippi River included on the list.

All the smug, self-righteous tools in the U.S., Europe and the U.K. who think that banning grocery shopping bags and drinking straws will somehow alleviate the issue are, as always, thinking out their ass.  That, in the West anyway, is handled by putting the foul stuff into landfills.

For the record:  when it comes to pollution — be it airborne or material — the West is not the problem.  Look eastwards.  Hell, even the terrorists are Doing Something (when they’re not slaughtering innocent people, that is).

But of course, heaven forbid we should chide these polluting countries or (say) impose trade embargoes on them until they clean up their act, because rayciss.  Far better that we flagellate ourselves with stupid anti-pollution rules with the subsequent strangled economies, and ignore China, India, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Man, are we stupid.