Four year old Alexander Pickering, known as Xander, who has had five major operations since he was born with a rare and life-threatening condition
An "amazing" four-year-old boy who has had five major operations since he was born with a rare and life-threatening condition is starting his first day at primary school.
Xander was taken to the Royal London Children's Hospital at one day old for an operation to create a colostomy and he has been back for four further surgeries.
Xander lives in Little Clacton in Essex, with his photographer father Mark Pickering, 37, his mother Kiera Pickering, 32, who works as a doctor's surgery receptionist, and his brothers Jacob, eight, and Theo, seven.
"Xander is really looking forward to starting school because he wants to be a 'big boy' like his brothers," she said.
The family were supported with accommodation by The Sick Children's Trust throughout Xander's hospital treatment, and Mrs Pickering said she feels "so grateful" to them.
The Sick Children's Trust runs 10 free "Home from Home" accommodation sites around the country including Stevenson House, which supports families of children being treated at The Royal London Children's Hospital.
"We live 70 miles away from where Xander's treatment has taken place, and knowing we had Stevenson House meant we never felt too far away," said Mrs Pickering.
Echoing a meme that has become a worldwide article of faith for the authoritarian-oriented, Trump-hating left, former President Barack Obama has compared his successor, President Donald J. Trump, to Hitler.
Speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago, Obama noted that the U.S. has survived tough times before and will again, offering as an example of tough times the days of communist fighter Joseph McCarthy.
“The danger is grow[ing] complacent,” Obama said. “We have to tend to this garden of democracy or else things could fall apart quickly.”
“That's what happened in Germany in the 1930s,” Obama opined. “Sixty million people died. So, you've got to pay attention. And vote.”
In a major case of projection, Obama deflected from the unprecedented economic success of President Trump’s first year in office, hardly tough times for working people, while he avoided the stark contrast between Trump’s tremendous first year and his lackluster and economically torpid previous eight years. Obama’s reference to Senator McCarthy, juxtaposed with his comparing Trump to Hitler, is ironic given the fact that the main work of Senator McCarthy was to investigate the real agents of Hitler, secret communists working within the FDR Administration who were
The real projection in Obama’s remarks, however, was his comparison between Trump — a limited-government conservative who reveres the Constitution and who is wresting power from the administrative state, euphemistically referred to as “the swamp” and the “deep state,” and returning it to the sovereign people — and himself, who was the ultimate creature of a nanny state that expanded its reach and authority during his long and ponderous tenure.
We should recall that it was Barack Obama who, in 2008, developed a cult of personality that was unprecedented in American history.
Reminiscent of the cult that developed around such socialist leaders as Hitler, Fidel Castro, V.I. Lenin, and Mao tse Tung, Obama, in a subtler context made palatable to an American audience, was worshipped by the liberal establishment, by the press, academia, and various cultural institutions. I recall, for example, a second grader that I knew informing me that her teacher had the students keep a diary of each day of Obama’s presidency starting on the first day. Women were reported to have fainted at his rallies.
Obama’s style of speaking, as illustrated by these recent remarks to the Economic Club of Chicago, is classic demagoguery, what French historian and former communist Alain Besancon described as “the language of ideology…the official language.” Obama speaks with indirection, innuendo, double-speak, and sophistry. His style is almost a form of code for the liberal establishment. His dishonest attempt to manipulate emotions without naming the target of his ire is a classic form of socialist agit-prop. Indeed, an English translation of a Hitler speech is filled with such innuendo and if the word “Jew” in one of those vile speeches were to be replaced with a word like “corporate interest” the speech would almost resemble the type that might be delivered by the likes of Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren.
President Donald Trump, in contrast, speaks plainly, perhaps a bit too plainly at times, and honestly. Trump’s speeches contain no guile or hidden agendas. He says it like he sees it, warts and all. It may not always be pretty, like the suave Obama, and it may make us cringe from time to time, but Trump is honest and he is who he is. And that is, unlike Obama and his ilk, a man who supports and who seeks to advance genuine American ideals and principles. Trump, unlike the socialist demagogues of history like Hitler, speaks plainly because he has nothing to hide.