Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@social.cleverlibre.org

@KayJanes

By comparison with Okinawans, my guess is that Americans have an absolutely appalling diet that includes vast amounts of colourants and other additives (including invisible ones like growth hormones) that are banned most everywhere else in the world, huge quantities of trans-fats (that kill people), massively more highly processed food and a vastly higher consumption of red meat. Aside from the average American diet being utterly appalling, Obesity affects huge numbers of Americans and that is a major factor in early death as it is a prime cause of Type II diabetes, heart disease and other circulatory issues and many other diseases including quite an array of cancers!

@ErikUden

It's funny I was questioned closely the other day, by someone aged about 30, as to the reason why I never settled down and had children (I'm 73 now so well past my "fuck by" date).

The reason is perhaps a little sad:
When I was 15, I spent 6 months in a psychiatric hospital with catastrophic depression. Although I recovered quite well and haven't suffered from depression any more than most other people, since, it left me emotionally vulnerable and I therefore find it difficult to sustain relationships. I consider it, therefore, merciful that I didn't have any kids; merciful to them that is.

@RichardJMurphy

I have often thought that individual capital gains should be subject to NI as well, that would make a level playing field!

@fluffy

Not sure two responses is quite the response you were hoping for!

IDIOTS!!! Britain is one of the world's largest economies and has by some margin the worst state pension payout in the civilised world - get a fuckin grip, eh!!!

Where I live in Luxembourg, the AVERAGE state pension payout is £800 PER WEEK! and the absolute minimum for a full 40 year career is well over £300/week. Now that's a properly livable income!

https://www.gbnews.com/money/state-pension-age-rise-triple-lock

@ChrisMayLA6

Yes, on the dentistry front, where I live in Luxembourg it appears that many dentist tend to favour doing very profitable work rather than offering their patients the more economical treatments. When I needed a lot of work done, I was examined by a number of dentists. The first wanted 25,000 Euros, another 40,000 Euros yet another wanted 1000 Euros for periodontal treatment that was not necessary at all plus 10s of 1000s more for bridges and other dubious treatment that he admitted would likely only last 5 years.

A practice in Trier just over the German border wanted a more reasonable 12,000 Euros but finally I found a German guy who has a practice in Luxembourg who likes saving people money and who did a totally satisfactory job for 6500 Euros

@JoeGrowling

What makes you say that?

@ChrisMayLA6

If only the great and good could be persuaded to look at taxation like a donation in the collection plate at church on a Sunday. A tithe - 10% of everything you earn!

Unfortunately, the reality is that the poor bear a disproportionate percentage of the overall taxation burden with the very rich often paying a fraction of 1% on their obscene wealth!

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

Well most Brits will get it!

@Radical_EgoCom@kolektiva.social

I had an operation scheduled for the beginning of my last month before retirement and although I could have gone back two or three days after I was discharged, my surgeon asked me if I was still working and I said yes. Then I explained the stunts they had pulled on me and she said "Oh well, in that case I don't suppose you will want to go back, will you. I'll sign you off unfit for work for 3 weeks which is the maximum allowed then you'll only have to get a sick note for a week from your GP and you'll never go back to work!"

That was exactly what happened!

@Radical_EgoCom@kolektiva.social

One company stiffed me over sick pay so I simply took every single unjustified sick day I was entitled to along with a mass of sick leave against doctors certificates including the whole last month before I retired!

A peacock butterfly with a sense of drama!