Our Jeremy

http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/politics/islington_north_mp_jeremy_corbyn_is_the_country_s_lowest_expenses_claimer_1_748369

Isn't he just the best? Lowest expenses claimer in the country, out of all the MPs in Parliament.

See, this is what the government should be made of. People who do their damned jobs and get on with it. I don't know if the Right Honourable Mr. Corbyn MP thoroughly enjoys his job - and I don't know if he would enjoy being Prime Minister, either - but I do know he's the sort of gent who will do it no matter what, because the people matter to him.

Yes. He's an idealist - but we've been over this. 

Idealism is good.

Humanity is built on idealism. If it were not for our ability to dream, our relentless and nigh unrealistic ideals, and all the blood we were willing to pour out of our own veins to achieve these things, we would not be planning trips to Mars, we would never have gotten to the moon, we would never have gotten out of that recession, we would never have recovered from either of the World Wars, we would never have come out of the dark ages, we would never have gotten far enough to get into them in the first place, we would never have made fire.

Imagine the look on that person's face when they made fire for the first time.

Imagine the smile they must've had when they realised they could cook with it, and stay warm with it.

Imagine the hope and wonder they must've felt when they realised how much there must be that they didn't know - imagine the joy of having so much to know!

Can you not understand that it was dreaming than enabled all of this?

Dreaming, idealism, and hope.

And a couple of really, really good people to bring it all together.

I firmly believe that Mr. Corbyn, our idealist, our party leader, our best guy, is one of those people. I believe that it won't necessarily be a straight journey to wherever we're going, too, but I believe he can help us get there safer.

Because he brings out the best in people!

You know who else does, or did the exact same thing? 

Bernie Sanders.

José Mujica.

Albert Einstein.

Patrick Stewart.

All these great people and more!

Ladies and gentlemen, socialists us all...

I think we might finally be on the winning side.

And it's all because of idealism.

~ Baxster Brand

That bastard!

http://nr.news-republic.com/Web/ArticleWeb.aspx?regionid=4&articleid=56687755

He is a monster! He is a betrayer of the humanity in all of us! She has been raped, beaten, and abused for only God knows how long by the stalker she is faced with. The police service themselves, the heroic thin blue line, who have faced so many cuts they might as well be in a slasher movie, saw fit to install a panic room in her home. She is scared!

And the DWP want her to pay bedroom tax for her PANIC ROOM?

No! No, this is unacceptable! To hell with the government, to hell with the DWP, to hell with the false laws they've written in to make themselves richer, to hell with all these pigs! To hell and further with them!

This is wrong!

And these same laws are going to see hundreds - thousands, even - more abused women, more victims of that most heinous crime, the only thing I believe should forfeit the offender their human rights, rape, more of those people we should be helping, thrown out of their Support Centers!

Rape Crisis Centers are a form of supported housing, and the cuts that our wonderful parliament are attempting to levy on them will see that they can no longer perform their functions adequately.

This is it, boys and girls! This is the true face of Capitalism! It is evil beyond imagining, focusing solely on the hoarding and gaining of material wealth, even to the expense of our humanity! It is literally a system in which it is impossible to make a gain without causing somebody else a loss, and this is the most terrible example of the Government doing exactly that!

And what of us? Though even I find it incredible, terrifying, and upsetting that anyone could bring themselves to this, what of us?

We, the people, have the power to stop this. They serve at our pleasure, and nobody else's. That, or they are not MPs, and we do not live in a democracy. If we are unsatisfied with the leadership of our country, we, the people have the right to change it. That is democracy! That is how the world should be!

And so I say, my dear friends on both the left and the right wing, abandon these monsters, these unnatural men and women with their machine hearts and brutal minds! I do not care whether you be a Conservative or a Corbynite, I do not care whether you are Socialist, Communist, or even some of the lighter shades of Capitalism - and if you're an anarchist you're probably already on our side with this.

 I care that you are at least a halfway decent human being!

I care that you still have and feel the love of humanity! There will come a day when we are no more, and I beg of you, do not allow our Legacy to be of hatred and pain! Do not make our children remember us like this!

 They deserve better!

We deserve better!

The WORLD deserves better!

I say, my dear friends, that we abandon these monsters, that we abandon the corrupt and rotten political platform they have risen to power from, and that we give the Red Roses a chance again!

New Labour is dying. This is our time to make things better again! Jeremy Corbyn may not be perfect - nobody is, and it is beyond a fallacy to claim differently - but Jeremy Corbyn is still the best man left in politics!

Where is your idealism? Have you forgotten how to dream? When the human race wants something done, it bloody well gets it done! They make it work - they can make anything work, if they just stand together!

We can make this work!

Can you imagine how much better the world would be if we made it work?

Wouldn't that be a nice place to leave for your children?

I say that your children deserve it.

I know you'd say the same.

I just need you to stand with us. Please.

I promise you we can make this work - so that this kind of thing never happens again.

Wouldn't it be lovely to be good people again?

~ Baxster Brand

David Cameron banned from redefining Child Poverty

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-loses-vote-to-keep-child-poverty-numbers-secret-a6833156.html

Alright. The Tories tried it. They really did.

They wanted to redefine child poverty - which is, households with children being in poverty - so that the measuremeant scale no longer included wages and earnings.

I... what?

That's not how poverty works. Poverty is defined as lack of sufficient money to get on in life. People end up choosing between heating or eating - in Britain - because of this kind of thing. It's literally all about money and...

The Government, the Tory, Right Wing, Capitalistic set of wankers who call themselves the Government... 

... wanted to take money out of it.

That's not half of it, by the way. The vote was really more about whether or not the government would be made to report statistics related to child poverty to Parliament, and therefore the public.

Naturally, they were looking for a way to sweep the fact that there are now parents whose children frequently go hungry, whose children will almost undoubtedly never be able to afford university now that the tories are placing cuts on student loans for the impoverished and less fortunate in society, whose children will also pretty much inevitably get bullied for their sad state of life by the more fortunate kids, whose children are going to be potentially hundreds of times more likely to develop depression, and other disorders and sicknesses of the mind because of the way everything in life seems to be stacked against them and how hopeless it all seems, whose children are going to be sad because our government likes to line its own fucking pockets, under the rug.

They want to sweep it all under the rug.

Sigh.

Classic Tory, sadly. The NHS, the disabled, and the muslims aren't enough in the way of targets.

So they start trying to financially abuse the poor children of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland too.

I'll admit, Davy Cameron is more than a little lucky he's unlikely to ever come face to face with me, because I'm honestly unsure as to whether or not I would be able to resist the urge to spit on him, and kick his knees in.

Bastard.

But I suppose I shouldn't be too downhearted. We all knew they'd try, but we weren't so sure about how the rest of Parliament would react, and it seems they've reacted appropriately - almost undoubtedly due to the overwhelmingly positive presence of our very own Jeremy Corbyn, at least in part.

His initials are J.C. for a good reason, eh?

No, really though. Part of me is managing to be a little proud of at least some of Parliament. Even if the House of Lords is a questionable institution at best, and even if many of the people there serve themselves more than anything else, it seems that even the less scrupulous ones do still have standards.

Perhaps optimism still has a place in the world.

Good night, all ye who read this. I should also mention that the lot of you should feel free to share these posts to facebook, or comment. I'd love to interact with you all a bit more.

~ Baxster Brand

On the subject of science, stars, and Us.

Science is life. I shall state that plainly and clearly not only once, but once more.

For a second time, I proclaim; Science is life.

Through all of human history, our development as a race has been enabled by and spurred on by science. Engineering, Mathematics, Government.

All of this was, and is, because of science. And in many ways it is to serve science.

In the varying fields of science that one might encounter today, there is one common, unifying factor - and it is one that you will also possess, regardless of your standing (or lack thereof) in the Scientific Community.

And that factor is a love of learning.

I do not mean simple schooling. I do not mean learning by reading from a book, though I shall not speak ill of studying in that manner.

I mean learning.

The act and process of learning new things - things that are new to the Human Race as a whole - is the one of the most exciting things any human being can experience.

Do you disagree?

If you do, you're just looking at it wrong.

Because this universe is a very big place. There is so much to know! I am heartbroken that my lifespan isn't longer, purely because it means I shall have less time to know things.

Did you know that there is a frequency of sound 32 octaves below middle C which is low enough that hearing it will kill you instantly?

Did you know that in many black holes, sound exists at a pitch of more than 50 octaves below middle C?

Did you know that it is entirely possible to sail through space? Solar Sails are a real thing, people, look them up! They use the sun's wind to move in space!

Did you know that, everything around you now, everything you look at, everything you will ever experience, is made out of 12 types of particles of matter, and 4 forces of nature? That's - to my limited understanding - Quantum Theory.

All of us! The same 12 miniscule particles! These are the things that form the atoms that form the molecules that form the cells that form us!

Us! The Human Race! This great, strange, beautiful race, with such a terrifying capacity for love and hope and learning! That's us!

Is that not wondrous?

So, indeed, from science, we can tell that we are united not only by our fantastical desire to learn, strong enough for me to believe that we have a duty to learn, but that we are also united by the very particles of matter that form the universe!

We all came from stars, my friends! We are stardust, temporarily in the shape of a person!

And one day we shall all be stardust again.

And between our capacity for love and compassion and attachment, and our fervent desires to learn and know and calculate and extrapolate, and our cosmic origins, forged deep in the hearts of stars far greater than any we can even comprehend...

Between all these great things we have in common...

We're still not friends?

We have all the Solar System to ourselves. We have all this Universe to explore, and discover together...

And... we're still enemies?

Why?

I feel my heart shattering, even as I type this. Is it not part of human nature to learn? Is it not equally part of human nature to love? It is not part of who we are to learn, and love, and love to learn? Are we not the same? Are we so blinded by the things we are told, and the things we see first, that we can no longer open our hearts? Are we doomed to war forever?

No! I cannot accept this!

This is not our future!

I believe that one day, we will be united. I believe that science will take us far into the stars, and that we shall, some day, meet others.

And I believe that shortly thereafter, we will finally realise the pettiness of our Earthly arguments, and unite at long last.

And perhaps we will unite with these others as well.

Perhaps they too will share in our childish excitement and wonder at how big this world we live in really is. Perhaps they will weep for joy when they realise that something their species made, or helped to make, is saving lives, just as we do. Perhaps they will be just as good as I know we can be.

Perhaps we will see all the stars with them.

And with each other.

Planet Earth, upon which the race of Humanity lives, I must conclude that our future - our inevitable, inexhaustible, unstoppable future - lies amongst the stars.

I must conclude that we will one day unite with each other there, that this pointless bloodshed, this foolish classism, this destructive greed, can be laid to rest once and for all, and that love may at last triumph.

And I must therefore conclude that we will need science to take us there.


This post... probably didn't make all that much sense. I wrote it mostly on the fuel of emotion, and that despairingly dangerous thing we call hope.

But I do think this is where we're going, you know. Up, among those beautiful stars. I don't know or care how long it'll take. I know that's where we're headed.

And I'm optimistic. I have faith that we won't always get it wrong. I know we're going to be good, some day. Great or no, we're going to be really, really good. We'll do good. I can feel it.

I'm just so heartbroken that I shan't live long enough to witness it.

Oh, what wouldn't I give to speak with an alien? What wouldn't I give to live a little longer? What wouldn't I give to see all of those fabulous stars?

Sigh.

I do so desperately want to see where this story takes us after that.

Ah. I'm sorry. This wasn't a planned post.

Good night.

~ Baxster Brand

They did something right!

And, if you don't mind my saying, bloody funny as well.

Just... watch this.

Please.

For once, it seems our parliament have united for that one great British cause, that one banner bearing the flag of all the peoples of Britain - those who have been here for generations, and those more recently added - that one grand purpose we all exist simply to propagate and further.

Snark.

Sarcasm.

The absolute and total highest form of wit.

At least, it is when we do it.

The British sense of humour is a profound thing, is it not? Dark and, when you look at it objectively, really rather grim, but pulled off perfectly. There is a reason that British Humour is world famous, after all.

We pull it off perfectly.

Only other people I've known to come close? The Germans. They're our lesser known comedic cousins. Why they're lesser known? I have no idea, their jokes are fantastic too.

But wherever it comes from, it's always nice to hear Donald Trump called for what he is - a bigoted, greedy, hateful buffoon.

Good job, Parliament - and nice choice of words.

~ Baxster Brand

I am unspeakably angry at Jeremy Hunt

https://www.facebook.com/kim.turner.7127/videos/10153888348536202/

Ok. So, I can't link that as an actual video, because facebook and blogger do not mix - like me and the sodding tories, right now - but you should really watch it.

Because it is totally right.

The young woman pictured therein was nearly killed because of a driver who was tired, because tired people make mistakes. Tired people make mistakes.

They make mistakes.

Now, the government - in particular, Jeremy Hunt, whose name I now genuinely have to be careful saying in public, because of the other word I end up saying inadvertently in place of his surname - wants to take the junior doctor contract, and make it longer, for the same pay.

I think the proposed hours are something like 7AM - 10PM.

The government is going to end up not only forcing medical professionals, many of whom barely see their beloved children as it is, to work longer for the same cash they would otherwise get - which is barely topped up by being on-call, for which the wages are below the minimum wage anyway - but they will also make them tired.

Doctors are already tired and stressed. It kind of comes with the job, doesn't it? Saving peoples' lives. Saving people's lives at almost any and every hour of the day - because there is no such thing as a closed Accident and Emergency department, my friends. They are always open.

And now the government wants to make them provide routine care 7 days of the week, 7AM to 10PM.

And the bloody government are angry about them striking over this, because the strikes will affect patient care? I find that a mix of morbidly hilarious and frankly terrifying, because the proposed contract will inevitably result in poorer quality patient care as it is!

How dare they?

They will be forcing our doctors into a situation where they can no longer provide the fucking superb standard of care they usually provide, both to normal and emergency patients. They will be forcing them into situations where they will almost inevitably start making more mistakes in surgery, which I shouldn't need to tell you could be potentially lethal for the patient.

Now, beyond the obvious effect on patients, what will this do to the doctors?

Because if I had been that driver, who had hit that girl, and nearly killed her, and broken her legs and her collarbone and taken her out of ice skating for years, I can guarantee you that I would not have ever, ever forgiven myself. I would hated myself, absolutely despised myself, for letting that happen, until the day I died. Forget that I had been awake for 36 hours, forget that it was an accident, I would have genuinely hated myself.

Now... if I had, in the shoes of the driver, actually caused that poor girl's death...

I would have killed myself.

I would, within the month - perhaps even within the week - have succumbed to the grief of the impact I had had on so many innocent lives, and I would have taken my own life. I would have sought out a tall building to throw myself from, or deliberately gone out for a night drive and crashed my car at 80mph, or I would have hanged myself like the monster I thought myself to be.

I would have murdered myself.

Ok.

Now imagine that you are in the shoes not of the driver, or the girl.

Imagine that you are a doctor.

A junior doctor, perhaps, but a doctor either way.

It is your duty, your oath-sword duty, at any cost, to save and defend life. To save lives, is your life. Perhaps you feel a peculiar kinship with firemen, whose mission statement - at least where I live - is quite simply "That Others may Live".

Because as a doctor, you'd give your life to save your patient's, because defending life is sacred, because life is sacred. Because life is sacred and the most valuable thing, because it is only living things that can create and feel love and think and-

Oh no.

You've killed her.

You were tired. You've been awake since at least 6AM so you could be ready for work on time, and it is now potentially as late as 11PM, or 12AM, or 1AM, or even later! Because you're on call! Of course, you're on call! Not just because you need - you so desperately need - the pittance they pay you for saving the lives of this planet's most successful and compassionate species, who love and laugh and cry and weep, but because it is what you do, because you are a Doctor! You are a guardian of life!

And you've just killed a young girl whose last words before undergoing anaesthesia were "I'll have strawberry icecream when this is over, mum."

I mean, she's not dead yet, actually. No. You and your team are still working frantically to stem the flow of blood from that cut you shouldn't have made, but you know she's dead. There's no way to save her - or if there is, you can't see it in the state you're in now.

And then she dies.

And you feel like you deserve to be dying instead, because you violated everything it meant to be a doctor, and failed so miserably in your sacred duty to save and defend life that you let someone die on your watch.

They don't get to wake up any more.

They are dead.

Because you were tired and you fucked up.

And then you have to go and tell her parents.

And her mum is already holding her icecream.

But she's not going to eat it, because you fucking killed her. You, with those hands, those hands that were meant for saving lives, have fucking killed her because you were tired and you fucked up.

Are you... are you seeing my point at all? Because if you're not, you're beyond blind, and beyond saving.

Because that would happen. More than once. Many times, in fact. Because suddenly, they'd all be tired, because a man in government who clearly has no idea what doctors do felt like they weren't doing enough.

And instead of pursuing the recruitment of additional doctors to supply the increase strain he's gonna put on their poor, miracle working backs, instead of pursuing more budget money to make their lives a little bit more personally rewarding, instead of giving them some kind of subsidy on things for their children for the marvellous, marvellous service they've dedicated so much of their lives already to giving us...

He's just gonna let them suffer like the monster he is.

But you know why, right?

He wants to make the NHS suck just that little bit more, so we're all a tad more ok with them privatising it, and making it a soulless machine for grinding us into gold.

I am not fucking buying it, Jeremy Hunt.

~ Baxster Brand

Those three girls

I made a post regarding three very passionate young women who made a speech in the style of poetry on national television, in America, last night. Or very early this morning. It depends on your timezone.

But I noticed that people had been commenting on the Facebook page that had initially put that video up, just now, and apparently those three same girls are...

" three brave girls?? Try "three brainwashed PC automatons" "

- Doug Hammond Daisy House, January 13th 2016

Now normally I wouldn't put the name of who said that up, but he did say that on Facebook of all places, so I can't imagine he's all too picky about who sees it.

But in all seriousness, the very next question I asked myself was "How the hell are these fantastic people at all brainwashed? They're not even that PC. They're just feminist."

Well, a comment that replied to the above quote explained it for us foolish liberals and damned socialists.

"Well they basically said they are anti-gun... which is brain washed yes"

- Jer WasHere, January 13th 2016

I've got to say, I'm actually not sure whose side this person is on. They might be being sarcastic or they might be being serious. A quick trawl through their (open and free to view) facebook feed, however, reveals that they appear to support Sen. Bernie Sanders in his bid for Presidency, which is rather admirable and makes me entirely more optimistic about their intentions with this comment.

But still.

They're brainwashed and too politically correct... because they're anti gun.

Well damn. I suppose I'm going to need a complete sodding brain transplant to get all that nasty liberal brainwashing out of my unfortunate cranium, won't I? After all, I'm anti-gun, anti-nuke, and thoroughly anti-capitalist. Gosh. Who knew that these things that are proven to kill things even by accident, and/or otherwise be absolutely evil at the very core of their concept (Capitalism, I'm talking about here) were not really bad, and it was just those damn commies making us think so? Gosh! I have to start campaigning for the Second Amendment in Britain, right away!

I actually feel kind of sick.

These women stand up and shout, and fight, and make themselves heard over the clamour of your oppressive - and it is oppressive - regime of chauvinistic moneymaking, and you have the audacity to call them brainwashed? Personally, I'd like to see anyone who isn't a millionaire vote for a capitalist and claim they're not brainwashed. Not because I have a hope of convincing them they are, but because it's darkly amusing to watch them flounder for an excuse, or desperately search for something their chosen candidate will actually do for the people, when I accuse them.

This being said, occasionally you do find a conservative who really means well. So I suppose I can't thoroughly damn them.

But I think they'd be far better off as Socialists - and, using these three fine women of the world as examples, as Feminists too.

Good day to you, friends.

~ Baxster Brand

A video you should watch

These fine young women talk about a few things that should really be talked about more - and they talk about it in a way that forces you to listen very closely.

At least, I did.

It really starts at 00:34, for those of you who won't want to watch the whole video.

People have died in Flint

Ten of them. Ten living, breathing, thinking, laughing, loving human beings have now been killed by Legionnaire's Disease, thanks to the switch in water supply in the city of Flint, Michigan.

They're dead.

Their bodies are cold now, and those who loved them will never hear them tell them they love them back again - unless they recorded it in the last days of their lives, specifically for that purpose. Which would have been absolutely horrible, of course, as Legionnaire's Disease is anything but a pleasant way to die. Let me list a few of the symptoms for you.

"Those with Legionnaires' disease usually have fever, chills, and a cough, which may be dry or may produce sputum. Almost all with Legionnaires' experience fever, while approximately half have cough with sputum, and one third cough up blood or bloody sputum. Some also have muscle aches, headache, tiredness, loss of appetite, loss of coordination (ataxia), chest pain, or diarrhea and vomiting.^[6]" 


- Wikipedia page on Legionnaire's Disease, accessed 16th January 2016 - and don't tell me that Wikipedia is an unreliable source, because they're one of the only sources I personally know of to actually write the article like a proper essay, and include their own sources on the page, as you can see in my quote.

It also goes on to cover the fact that Legionnaire's has some rather nasty psychological and neurological affects, such as impaired cognition and confusion, which might sound moderately benign (and amusing, if taken with a heavy dose of British Comedy) but believe me when I say that there would be nothing more distressing than having a disease that is entirely likely to kill you, or that you know is killing you, as you've been told you may have as short a time to live as a few days, when you are too confused to know what else is going on.

A nurse comes in with your dinner, and you don't know what's going on.

A doctor comes in to see if the infection is getting any better, and you don't know what's going on.

Your family come to pray over you - they've lost so much hope they've now turned to God himself - and you don't know what's going on.

You don't know who's doing what and where and how or why or when, and certainly you wouldn't know what was killing you and how it was killing you and why it was killing you and why they switched the water and who was doing what and what's going on because you don't know what's going on and-

You're dying and confused. Probably panicking, honestly. I would be.

Can you imagine that? I feel distressed and afraid just thinking about it, I'll be perfectly honest. And then you'd cough up 'bloody sputum' too. Lovely.

Now, forget for a moment about how scared and in pain and confused you'd be because of the onset of your illness, and now think about how unbelievably angry you'd be.

Because the entire reason you're ill at all is down to the local government wanting to save money.

Yes. That's right.

They made the switch between water providers - The City of Detroit, who had at this point been supplying them with purchased, treated water from Lake Huron for some 50 years, to taking water from the Flint river and treating it accordingly - in an effort to save $5 million in two years.

This actually would have been ok. Everything would have been fine - although I'd have been curious to know where the saved money way going, Governor Snyder - if it weren't for the fact that river water is, by its very nature, more corrosive than lake water.

It leached lead from the old lead water pipes in much of the city, and it was soon bad enough for the denizens of Flint to complain of bad tasting, bad smelling, bad looking water. Not only that, but it has been suggested that the change in water has also somehow allowed the disease to have a presence in the city. In fact, there was a study done which suspects humidifiers in buildings of-

Well. I actually have another quote for that.

"Respiratory care devices such as humidifiers and nebulizers used with contaminated tap water may contain Legionella species, so using sterile water is very important.^[13]"

And for reference, here's a photo of some water from Flint.

Sterile water, right?

I should mention that this picture was taken in a Hospital. This is Hospital water. Water that is ideally completely sterile, and, in many places, is pretty much completely sterile.

I'll give you that

And it's brown with pollution and contamination, because of money.

Wow. That's a real buzzword, isn't it? Money. Seems like the world revolves around it - like nothing else matters.

I'd like to know when any amount of money became worth putting the lives of the innocent at risk, personally.

Because this isn't even thinking about the inevitable death toll from lead poisoning, either. Or the effect it will have on the children who survive it. You know that lead poisoning harms the brain directly, right? There has been an observed drop in academics scores, and IQ, in those afflicted by it.

And there is no way to reverse the effects. It's permanent.

The disgusting, money-motivated shortsightedness of the Flint politicians has cost lives - invariably more than the current body count of 10 - and it may well have cost children their future in more ways than one, too.

I feel sick.

~ Baxster Brand

On Boris Johnson

On Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson recently had something to say about the Junior Doctors' strikes against the institution of their new contracts and pay conditions.

This is what I had to say back.

Welcome to the blog

Greetings

Hello! The name is Baxster Brand, and my country is in dire straits, at the moment. The Tories are in power, making cuts wildly and boldly to anything and everything the people benefit from, whilst simultaneously using their friends in the media to paint those in need of their help as scroungers and thieving sneaks. I'm sure you've heard of the Moet Medics?

Sigh.

My poor country, my poor, poor country.

So I'll be giving a running commentary from the Socialist's point of view of this sinking ship that I love called Britain. I hope you enjoy it. God knows I won't.

To finish the post, I'll leave you with something I typed up in a political fury, regarding the proposed contracts for Junior Doctors, and their level of pay.


May we all live on 'til morning,

~ Baxster Brand