But don't despair we have Lake America

@Ghost-of-a-Duke said

Just come back from the dentist as it happens. Made the appointment yesterday, no problem.

It's true that it can be a challenge to access NHS (free) dental care, but then that's the same in the US isn't it?

Ghost, this is embarrassing. I will keep it between you and me. Real downer, though.

“”Yes — the NHS is genuinely under severe financial and capacity pressure, but the statement that “the UK can only afford 1,100 prostate operations a year” is almost certainly misleading or missing important context.

The NHS is having a very serious capacity problem. In England, the waiting list was still about 7.29 million patients at the beginning of 2026, despite the NHS delivering a record 18.4 million treatments and operations during 2025. “

I pay 334/month (not costing my neighbors or marauder or ayone ) for coverage you would not believe. Everything.

@moonbus said
The economic, 'protectionist', argument is baloney; it isolates, rather than protecting. As you point out, it reduces export opportunities. America could and should have changed over in the 19th c. when it would have been relatively easy.

The historic reason why England did not go metric is Napoleon; the English refused to do anything Napoleon mandated. Why the Americans ...[text shortened]... not go metric then is a mystery, given that the French materially assisted the colonists to revolt.

True, it is baloney but people accept it as an article of faith. We'll protect your business from outside competition so that you can thrive, except it will make you complacent and uncompetitive so in the long run you will lose ground and find it harder to stay profitable as your market shrinks. The protection will feel good in the short term but your foreign competitors will eventually grow big enough through volume to beat your protected prices and in the end the will run you out of business.

@kmax87 said
True, it is baloney but people accept it as an article of faith. We'll protect your business from outside competition so that you can thrive, except it will make you complacent and uncompetitive so in the long run you will lose ground and find it harder to stay profitable as your market shrinks. The protection will feel good in the short term but your foreign competitors will ...[text shortened]... enough through volume to beat your protected prices and in the end the will run you out of business.

Quote:

Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts. Truthiness can range from ignorant assertions of falsehoods to deliberate duplicity or propaganda intended to sway opinions.

The concept of truthiness has emerged as a major subject of discussion surrounding U.S. politics during the late 20th and early 21st centuries due to the increasing perception among observers of a rise in propaganda and a growing hostility toward factual reporting and fact-based discussion.

American television comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term truthiness in this meaning as the subject of a segment called "The Wørd" during the pilot episode of his political satire program The Colbert Report on October 17, 2005. By using this as part of his routine, Colbert satirized the misuse of appeal to emotion and "gut feeling" as a rhetorical device in contemporaneous socio-political discourse. He particularly applied it to U.S. President George W. Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and the decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

end quote

source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truthiness


Disambiguation: "Trumpiness": the fact that a particular statement is blatantly false, and everyone knows that it is blatantly false, but some people believe it anyway. Examples: "The election was stolen; only I can fix this; it'll be over by Easter."