Finance leader | Coach | Sober since 2016 | Facts over fiction, AuDHD | Anti-Brexit, anti-populist | Sarcasm likely
Melbourne, Victoria
Joined May 2020
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Sober Bear retweeted
Downing Street has delivered a rare public reprimand to a member of the Trump administration, former Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, saying he was “wrong” to suggest that most non-American Nato soldiers in Afghanistan did not do any fighting.
Hegseth made the comment in a speech at the University of Tennessee, where he recalled serving in Afghanistan himself. He said:
"I was a captain in Afghanistan and we would go to the headquarters in Kabul and there would be 50 flags at the headquarters. It was a beautiful thing to see, 50 different countries contributing to the Nato alliance and the Isaf [International Security Assistance Force] mission there.
Except there were maybe five that contributed. It was actually closer to one or two that by the end were actually involved in kinetic operations."
Asked about Hegseth’s comment at the Downing Street lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said Hegseth was “wrong” in what he said about the Nato operation in Afghanistan.
The spokesperson explained:
"The facts speak for themselves when it comes to the UK’s and Nato’s contribution to Afghanistan. Thousands of British and Allied families made huge sacrifices to play their significant part in that war and uphold our values, and more than 450 British personnel never returned.
Their sacrifice and that of other NATO forces was made in the service of collective security and in response to an attack on our ally. We are incredibly proud of our armed forces and their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten, and it is wrong to diminish their role."
While the UK a nd almost every othef government on earth disagrees with much of what Donald Trump and his team say and do, there is normally a reluctance to criticise them in public. This does not seem to apply when the reputation of British servicemen and women has been impugned.
Starmer tried hard to maintain a good personal relationship with the US president, but when Trump made a similar claim about Nato allies avoiding frontline fighting in Afghanistan, Starmer condemned what he said as “insulting and frankly appalling”.
Sober Bear retweeted
There is a strange confidence among people who have never managed ARDS that the ventilator killed the patient.
Here is what that room actually looks like.
The patient is hypoxemic, tiring, decompensating in front of you. High-flow oxygen is no longer enough. Their work of breathing is climbing, gas exchange is failing, and without escalation they may die very soon.
At that point you do not have the luxury of a Twitter thread. You have physiology.
Mechanical ventilation is not benign. It can cause barotrauma, volutrauma, ventilator-associated pneumonia, sedation complications and hemodynamic problems. That is why we try to avoid it when we safely can, use lung-protective strategies, prone patients, and get them off the ventilator as soon as possible.
But when someone with severe ARDS requires ventilation, the fact that many of those patients later die does not prove the ventilator killed them. The reason they were intubated in the first place is that they were already critically ill.
The same sleight of hand happens with remdesivir. A drug given disproportionately to very sick hospitalized patients will be followed by deaths because very sick hospitalized patients die. You still have to compare treated patients with comparable untreated patients before announcing causation.
People who do not know pulmonary physiology look at the sequence:
patient gets very sick → patient gets ventilated → patient dies
and conclude:
ventilator caused death.
Medicine has a name for the missing step: confounding by indication.
And the question I keep asking remains unanswered:
When the patient is crashing in front of you, oxygenation is failing, and you believe the ventilator is the problem — what exactly are you proposing we do instead?
Because “don’t intubate them” is not a treatment plan when the alternative is watching them die.
Sober Bear retweeted
If only you were a government minister while the UK was negotiating the Brexit deal….Oh, wait. You were
Munich @MUC airport right now.
This is the queue to *leave* the country - ridiculous!
Despite Germany’s promise in the Kensington Treaty for eGate access for Brits from August 2025.
It was easier to get into the GDR!
Sober Bear retweeted
THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY SAID.... THINK REALLY, REALLY HARD. They said this after Ukraine bombed Russia's data centers.
Dumbfuck @JackPosobiec said:
"Zelensky is attempting to sabotage Trump in the midterms now."
Stupid ass @BasedMikeLee @SenMikeLee said:
"Zelenskyy is working overtime. To help Democrats in November."
NOW THINK ABOUT THIS....
If Ukraine bombing Russian data centers somehow "helps" Democrats win the midterms, what does that tell you Russia was doing for Republicans?
So much for that — "There is no Russian collusion," LIE, right?
Sober Bear retweeted
I served two tours in Afghanistan alongside allied troops. We shared tents and flew missions in the same skies. Over 1,000 soldiers from partner nations died fighting with us there.
When our SecDef diminishes their sacrifice, he damages trust with allies we may need again.
Plus, he's the SecDef. He should be strengthening our alliances, not teaching ROTC cadets.
Hegseth on Afghanistan:
I was a captain in Afghanistan, and we would go to the headquarters in Kabul, and there would be 50 flags at the headquarters.
It was a beautiful thing to see 50 different countries contributing to the NATO alliance and the ISAF mission there.
Except there were like maybe five that contributed. It was actually closer to one or two that, by the end, were actually involved in kinetic operations.
In fact, the ISAF patch, we would joke that it meant "I Saw Americans Fighting."
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
Over 1100 non-American soldiers from 31 US-allied countries were killed fighting in Afghanistan, approximately 1/3 of the total combat deaths.
t.co/x4tGhxJiFG
Sober Bear retweeted
He didn’t hold back. 🇦🇺💬
From across the ocean, this Australian gives a raw, unfiltered look at modern America. It’s a perspective most people are too afraid to say out loud, but it impacts all of us, no matter where we live.
This is a global wake-up call.
#USA #USAPolitics #AmericanCulture
Sober Bear retweeted
A reminder that we don’t vaccinate just to protect ourselves. We also vaccinate for:
- Immunocompromised people
- Older adults
- Infants too young to be vaccinated
We vaccinate for people we love, people we will never meet, people whose protection depends in part on us.
Sober Bear retweeted
Yes, Jill. I know the ingredients in the vaccines. I studied virology at the University of Chicago before becoming a surgeon.
The ingredients are publicly available. So are the clinical trial results and safety data.
You call it a “killer vaccine” without offering evidence, then suggest I profited from it without evidence.
As Christopher Hitchens observed, what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
A medical degree doesn’t make someone infallible. But an accusation without evidence doesn’t make someone informed.
Sober Bear retweeted
You’ve never filled out a death certificate, never treated a dying COVID patient, and your evidence is “my friend” plus whatever circulated in your Facebook group.
I have filled out death certificates. I know what “underlying cause of death” means, and I know the legal and professional consequences of falsifying one.
If someone dies from traumatic injuries in a car crash, COVID does not magically become the cause of death because they happened to test positive.
You are taking an anecdote you cannot verify and using it to accuse physicians across the country of fraud. And calling me a “dumb fuck” does not improve the evidentiary quality of the anecdote.
Sober Bear retweeted
Helen, Helen, Helen
Let me explain this to you in plain and exceedingly simple English.
Disabled kids are most likely to have been born with their disabilities or conditions (as I was). I know this might be shocking to you Helen, but we don't just stop being disabled at 18. Being born with a disability is usually a lifetime deal.
I tell you what, care to swap? You can have my cerebral palsy (and the benefits that you say come with it) and I'll take your fully functioning extremities and become an MP. Not a Tory one though, because I'm not a horrible bastard.
By the way, if you accept my offer, good luck trying to wipe your backside, put your own clothes on, wash any part of your body or doing any sort of cookery (since you won't be able to hold a knife properly) are, and one more thing, forget about rolling yourself over in bed at night, you'll have to get somebody to help you with that as well. But yeah, apart from that, a lifetime on benefits is really fucking easy isn't it?
Sober Bear retweeted
WTF, a local farm had to post this, adults and kids smashing pumpkins and when challenged was told "there was no signs saying not to" I give up on the human race
Sober Bear retweeted
The truth will always come out in the end. But surely it is time to remove the two fools currently masquerading as peace negotiators and entrust these vital discussions to experienced diplomats who understand international law, diplomacy and the gravity of what is at stake.
Peace negotiations must never become a pretext for pursuing private financial interests, and any potential benefits to the Trump family and their associates deserve the closest scrutiny. The future of Ukraine and the security of Europe are far too important to be treated as another commercial opportunity.
And why on earth would Europe contemplate returning to Russian gas? It has taken years of considerable economic sacrifice, investment and political determination to reduce our dependence upon Moscow. Having finally begun to free ourselves from Putin's grip on Europe's energy supplies, why would we willingly place ourselves back in precisely the position that allowed Russia to exploit that dependence in the first place?
Europe's energy security is not a bargaining chip, Ukraine's sovereignty is not a property transaction, and peace must never become another business opportunity for those conducting the negotiations.
