Best Of

All,

Thanks for your comments on this and generally your good wishes. The cancer is too far advanced for a cure but the doctors are reasonably hopeful that if I respond well to the treatment, it can be kept under control and maybe even shrunk so that I can live with it, for a good number of years (no number given). And if not there are more intrusive treatments available. There is obviously a risk that none of this will work. I have lived with dodgy lungs and peculiar blood all my life so this is just one more thing to add to the list. I am not belittling its seriousness but I am glad I am not being given false reassurance (unlike the screening programme - grrr!). And there are plenty of doctors in the family so yes I will ask questions etc but no I am not going in for snake oil miracle cures

And day to day I feel absolutely fine - no different to how I felt this time last year - so I am concentrating on living as well as possible, while the doctors and drugs do their stuff to the stalker unaccountably attached to my body. And, yes, I am eating well and taking exercise. But I've done this all my life so sometimes - despite that - shit happens.

I am focusing on things that are Important rather than Urgent as too often in life it becomes the other way around. So 5 roses bought this week!

Also I am doing a work webinar with the London Stock Exchange and AI experts on Surveillance in the Workplace on the 24th so if anyone wants a link let me know.

I'd just like to point out that the inquiry should not just cover the abuse of girls: boys are routinely abused as well. As Ms Free said above: "No-one seems to care about how women and girls in migrant communities are treated by those abusing white girls. Nor about girls trafficked here from other countries to be abused. Nor about the sexual abuse of boys."

Yes, the numbers are smaller: estimates say 1 in 20 boys s experience child sexual abuse before the age of 16, whereas for girls it is 1 in 6 (1), but that does not mean that the abuse of boys should be ignored by the inquiry.

All too often, boys and men are seen only as the abusers, not as the abused.

I'd also point out that she's spot-on about the lack of care for the vulnerable in other communities. All too often, the talk becomes of "white girls" being the victims, instead of "children". The background of the child should be irrelevant: abuse is abuse.

(1) The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

I've been thinking about my attitude towards Trump, and it's interesting how it has changed.

I'm disgusted by him and how he acts, that's a constant and a given, of course. And I'm still scared of what he might choose to do, or allow to be done in his name.

The thing that has changed is that my dominant feeling is one of contempt for his weakness. His slogan is to "Make America Great Again" but in everything that he does he actually is making America weak. We see this today with him bigging up Putin as a mediator in the Israel/Iran war - way to go to make an adversary of America stronger and diplomatically more important! His social media message about Putin wishing him a happy birthday on the phone was just cringe. It's like Trump thinks people should be impressed that a world leader spoke to him on the phone. Hello! You're the President of the United States. Of course other world leaders will speak to you on the phone. Stop fawning over them when they do so.

It's so deeply lame and pathetic.

https://x.com/trump_repost/status/1934245361239110011

Iran and Israel should make a deal, and will make a deal, just like I got India and Pakistan to make, in that case by using TRADE with the United States to bring reason, cohesion, and sanity into the talks with two excellent leaders who were able to quickly make a decision and STOP! Also, during my first term, Serbia and Kosovo were going at it hot and heavy, as they have for many decades, and this long time conflict was ready to break out into WAR. I stopped it (Biden has hurt the longer term prospects with some very stupid decisions, but I will fix it, again!). Another case is Egypt and Ethiopia, and their fight over a massive dam that is having an effect on the magnificent Nile River. There is peace, at least for now, because of my intervention, and it will stay that way! Likewise, we will have PEACE, soon, between Israel and Iran! Many calls and meetings now taking place. I do a lot, and never get credit for anything, but that's OK, the PEOPLE understand. MAKE THE MIDDLE EAST GREAT AGAIN!

I wonder who types all this up for Trump.

And whether he reads his own account.

I'm disappointed that he didn't thank me for my attention on this matter.

Offensively stupid meme from a US Senator:

https://x.com/senwhitehouse/status/1933997162683089392

Really? As far as political cartoons go it is rather tame. It is also rather apt.

I'm sure the sensitive souls in MAGA can handle it.

Surely having an actual king should give Trump less power though ?
Or are they coming from the angle that having a king even though it in theory reduces the power of the top elected official in the country can often increase it because essentially the remnants of the presidency and the Speaker of the House position are held by one individual in a constitutional monarchy. Perhaps that's the concern.

Trump would be an absolute monarch, not a constitutional monarch

He’s certainly an absolute something.