Christmas 2025 by Alfred N.Muggins

27/12/25
Celebrate the birth of Jesus in the stable at Bethlehem in Roman dominated Palestine. His parents travelled for the Roman census, to be counted as Ancient King David's line in Judea. So they come as visitors from Nazareth, a bit like refugees, to deliver their son in a stable alongside the animals. Meanwhile children are taught to look to the generous Santa Claus, St Nicholas, whose only priority is to give as many presents (gifts?) as possible to as many children as possible in the western or christian world. The only children who will receive few gifts in todays world will be the child victims of Palestine, strangely in Christ's own original homeland, where a modern day army of something similar to either the ancient military/industrial complex of the  Romans, or perhaps the jealous dictator King Herod of Judea attempted to round up his rivals, including even the less than one year old descendents of that ancient King David, supposedly the rightful heir to the real throne of the Jews!, and have them murdered to protect his own position.

3/1/26
       Things weren't so different today, mused Alfred casually, but emotionally, despite there being little he could really do to stop this kind of ruthlessness. As Trumpenstein and his Rethuglican regime cut the government funding support for Americans' healthcare insurance, knowing that this would result in large numbers of American citizens being unable to afford their healthcare, and probably having to go without, and just hope for the best. Mavbe there would be an increase in volunteer doctors and nurses doing what they could, without qualifications. Doubtless many would die at an earlier stage than they would have if the regime had never been allowed into power again, and the votes had been counted or recounted properly. USAID had already been closed down by Master slasher Musk, very early in the regime's history, wielding his tree cutter against Publicly (already) paid for services, so he and the other cronies could pocket all the government money for themselves. Apparently many in Africa, and in places like that, many people who relied on free or cheap American vaccinations and treatments would no longer be getting them. he imagined many lives might already have beeen brought to an early close thanks to the so called savings of the Trump administration.
    It occurred to Alfred that really Trump's reign was akin to the Black Death of the 14th century, except that this one was purely man made, driven by the Heritage Foundation's quaint desire to go back in history to the times when governments made no effort to support the people in their lives. Medievalism was making a real comeback, in supposedly favoured America and around the world. Exciting times were expected, and naturally a lot more desperate and dangerous! Already the unemployment statistics were getting far worse , and bankruptcies. And no one had known quite what was going to appear on the TV screens or on social media from day to day. In these exciting times there was a new and more extreme surprise nearly every week.
     In Israel and Palestine a reenactment of some of the worst medieval conquests had already been occurring for quite some time, and in Ukraine and Sudan, and this time the Mongols were not involved in any of this! Apparently the most direct culprit in some of the middle eastern conflicts was the Israeli state who had taken over from the Mongols in the modern age and become very warlike. Somehow they had persuaded America to give them lots of financial and military aid, at the expense of their own population's needs, so they could then make war on the existing occupants of some of the lands they still wanted in Palestine, and their potential allies in Arab and largely muslim countries nearby. unfortunately modern Israel had proved itself to be a lot more capable of war crimes and cruelty than many had previously thought, and had lost their boy scout image!