#the year 2018 is mocking me. i needed that article in 2023

[tchaikovskym]

stumbled upon article written in 2018 with methods i needed to know last year. the articles really are hiding when i need them.

[keifyseadragon]

Thoughts, part 2.

Thoughts...

The recent presidential election has me nervous, especially as the GOP gloats of how Project 2025 was their plan the entire time. I voted for Harris, anticipating just that happening if Trump won. Lo and behold... Hard not to fear an incoming wave of anti-LGBT bills, a loss of progress regarding civil rights, and continued targeted political attacks. Oddly enough, roughly 40% of the GOP is actually against Republicans targeting the overall LGBT community. Still, extremist ideology and rhetoric permeate the membranes of social discourse and spread like wildfire. Similar is also happening in Europe, which is highly concerning. Deutsche Welle, a German media organization, had published an article detailing the backlash to LGBT rights in Europe. While published in September of 2023, it remains incredibly relevant. The article details the Russian role in promoting homophobia and transphobia in an attempt to erode democracy in more developed nations. Russia alone provided roughly one quarter of the $768 M funding anti-gender activities in the EU between 2009-2018. Russia's gay propaganda law influenced legislation in both Hungary and Poland, and may have inspired the "Don't say Gay" law in Florida. It's frustrating, I got into NAFO, in part, to fight the transphobic disinformation coming from Russian media spaces targeting the LGBT community. I'd once argued that online echo chambers create real world violence, only to have other trans people get very upset calling the argument transphobic thinking it somehow called identity a debate. Nowhere did I call identity a debate, as that was not my point. I was saying that much like how incel communities have a documented radicalization pipeline that creates misogynistic violence and mass killings that a similar thing can be observed targeting LGBT people. Hate filled echo chambers lead to violence like the tragedies at Club Q and PULSE. All of this is the byproduct of heated online debate on the topics of gender, sexuality, transgender rights, and gender equality. Back in 2022 I argued that there was an increase in anti-LGBT hate crimes, to which a bisexual person argued I was somehow incorrect. Data for 2022 and 2023 confirmed my point to be factual, rather than being fearmongering or paranoid. I just wonder why when I, a trans woman, provide my own insights into the threats faced by the LGBT community how people just argue the opposite of what I say or mock me. There is a real link between online hate and real world violence, it's just a fact. For trying to fight Russian backed anti-LGBT narratives I've had slurs hurled at me, been told to end my life, been called a man countless times, faced harassment, and even at one point had a cyber stalker. Yet none of this is apparent to people who think everything I go through is somehow not real. I got death threats from a Trump supporter this year, but I'm sure to other people it's "fake" and any fear I have for my safety "paranoia". Whatever, it's all for nothing. I get so much right wing hate and left wing people don't stand up for me when I need it. I mentioned the online hate to a nurse and the doctor ended my gender affirming coverage and care (I had to find a new provider). The doctor didn't ask to see proof of the online hate, to him it wasn't real. I tried to hang myself not long after, as someone had told me to "jump" (hang myself) when I argued hormones saved lives. Since my provider ended my care, I did what I was told since I had no community, no support, and nobody gave a shit. My own father said he had no empathy for me when people told me to end my life because I'm transgender, he blamed me for the online hate I got. Too much stress. No love. This is a cold world. People ignore every pro-LGBT thing I say looking for a reason to laugh at me, argue, or talk shit. Life is miserable. Another day of self harm. I've been on HRT since 2019, and came out in 2017. It's not new. Additional Reading:

LGBTQ community: Is there a backlash in Europe? | https://www.dw.com/en/lgbtq-community-is-there-a-backlash-in-europe/a-66675016 (September 2, 2023) REPORT ON FIMI THREATS | FIMI targeting LGBTIQ+ people: Well-informed analysis to protect human rights and diversity | https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/2023/EEAS-LGBTQ-Report.pdf (October 2023) Russia’s War on Woke Putin Is Trying to Unite the Far Right and Undermine the West | https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/russias-war-woke (January 2, 2024) Germany's trans community battles right-wing falsehoods | https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-trans-community-battles-right-wing-falsehoods/a-68065874 (January 24, 2024) What Project 2025 could mean for LGBTQ+ Americans | https://www.axios.com/2024/11/07/project-2025-lgbtq-rights (November 7, 2024) Hate crime data:

FBI crime statistics show anti-LGBTQ hate crimes on the rise | https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/4259292-fbi-crime-statistics-show-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-on-the-rise/ (October 16, 2023) FBI reports increase in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes | https://thehill.com/homenews/lgbtq/4897184-fbi-anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes/ (September 24, 2024)

[waitingformyfavoritesongs]

1:46 am pdt 2 April 2023 Sunday Domingo nicheyoubi 🌤

1:47 am pdt www.gq. Com/story/Adam-Levine

it’s closer to the end of the article than the top dated June 24, 2014 Jessica pressler tony Kelly

“There’s the carnal shit you can’t deny. [...] There was a time in my life when I lived probably a bit more on the primal level. And it was amazing.”

auto saved 1:52 am pdt I think Bcz I’ve been touched by other men I don’t think he would have wanted me once I lost my virginity when I was 19 years old. 1:53 am pdt

2:23 am pdt I wish Q never came in to my life. I only kept seeing her Bcz she was acceptable to my mom and I thought she liked me and was nice. I even said at a Denny’s? Or ihop? That she’s the nicest person in the world. 2:25 am pdt she said we’re best friends or that I’m her best friend but she never told me who she who she had s*x with. That’s basically a standard in movies like romantic comedies that you tell your best friend what you did with who. If she couldn’t tell me then she was lying. 2:27 am pdt I figured that out this moment. 2:28 am pdt

2:30 am pdt I never forced her to tell me anything and there were questions online that she left unanswered. It’s like she’s a shark in my eyes smirking that I’m blind to what was happening infront of me. That she was actually mocking me infront of my face and online with enlarging my head in pictures she took. 2:32 am pdt If she was so bold to fake liking me and do stuff to hurt me while I was trying to like her and be happy with her... I wish I could have felt more with the friends I had before I met her. I wish I didn’t feel like a fraud Bcz I was too shy to say a lot. The friends I had b4 her weren’t perfect but I think they were maybe more open to me than she was? 2:35 am pdt which is ironic Bcz I felt too imperfect so I withheld a lot of thoughts and feelings . I was in a shell.. makes me think of turtles. I don’t know. That music is my boyfriend line bothers me and a lot of other stuff. It looks like I’m not going to see the day when people from this earth start going to the new planet I heard about that is like this earth but bigger. 2:39 am pdt if there are already people there with housing already there waiting for people to arrive wouldn’t that be a surprise? 2:40 am pdt

2:59 am pdt I don’t feel much like trying to recover anymore. I am tired. 3 am pdt I wish I was somebody’s somebody. 🎶🎼🎵🎤🎸

3:03 am pdt matchmaker matchmaker find me find catch me a catch 🎸🎵🎼🎤 3:04 am pdt

3:06 am pdt I don’t appreciate you lying (pain 3:07 am pdt forehead) to me. Chop off my head now, incubus. 3:07 am pdt 3:08 am pdt

3:18 am pdt I guess he forgives Nick carter. (Tummy upset gurgle diarrhea 3:18 am pdt) I guess he thinks he did not do anything wrong and deserves to be forgiven. And women need to just suck it up. 3:20 am pdt I don’t think it is ever going to change. 3:20 am pdt I don’t feel like trying anymore. 3:21 am pdt

3:24 am pdt my clock skipped a minute. Q probably set me up to be a sacrifice. I don’t think Q helped me at all. I suffered a lot. I don’t think Q knows pain at all. 3:26 am pdt I think Q is lying and faking everything is music is her husband. 3:26 am pdt who did I have phone s*x with? I think after I moved out end of 2018, Brendan lean’s MySpace profile picture was removed. 3:29 am pdt there was one day that his MySpace was public and I saw he had an older sister named Catherine? 3:30 am pdt

3:53 am pdt incubus protects rapists Bcz he relates to them and cuts down his victims. I guess you have to be a woman to understand how violated someone can feel that you have possibly been forcibly impregnated at a time you’re not ready to be. To have someone trespass without caring about your feelings. And then they don’t want to make amends and worse. Incubus enables them to hide it. If you like that sort of man I guess the whole world is stuck with incubus. 3:58 am pdt am I the only one trying to do something? And I’m suffering to take down incubus? If incubus is incubus then that whole thing I seemed to have picked up, that idea that only bad things happen to bad people, can you really say that when incubus is your god? How about I don’t say anything anymore. Nick carter gets away with rape and murder and so does incubus (left shoulder pain 4 am pdt) me and Shannon Ruth die. And guess whose left with Nick carter and incubus? That’s right, you are. And if he’s still got libido and muscle and power do you think you won’t be next? Maybe he likes guys, too, or little boys. 4:02 am pdt

4:06 am pdt Q wrote on her Flickr she doesn’t fight crime. If her focus was only me the entire time, I believe it. 4:07 am pdt don’t count on Q to REALLY sacrifice anything? If she really stole art ideas from me like I suspect that’s pretty low considering she had enough money to go to many concerts including Coachella. 4:09 am pdt don’t count on Q to be a hero. 4:09 am pdt yeah I think I will stop doing stuff Bcz I’m dying anyway. So why help other people get arid of a problem they don’t deserve to be helped with? You treasure Nick carter more. So have fun! Okay? Okay! 4:10 am pdt pain left shin. I will go do whatever I want that’s on my bucket list which is probably edited now to watching as many movies as I can while at this hotel. 4:11 am pdt don’t cry to me when incubus + friends devirginize your relatives. 4:12 am pdt

5:41 left shin pain difficulty breathing pain tongue. Fox News last night? Was saying a lot of people are committing suicide Bcz of stuff on social media. If they’re purely victims and incubus is god, do you think incubus is going to save them? He is the devil? A hungry lion ? He’s looking for sacrifices, but he keeps guys like Nick carter Bcz they share a lot in common? 5:44 am pdt incubus would make me depressed too if I think about him for several minutes at a time. 5:44 am pdt

5:45 am pdt in 2017 ? There was stuff online saying maroon 5 fans are ... I forgot but I remember it was a little disturbing? Unflattering? Like they lack a sense of what sounds good probably Bcz incubus for a long time gave a lot of (left nostril pain 5:46 am pdt) below standard performances. And I can say this unbiased. Bcz it was during a time I gave him benefit of the doubt and tried to like him. And I’m trying to smile and like it but I start to feel crazy trying to like what I hear. When I watch and listen, I’m like, this is really bad. 5:48 am pdt

6:03 am pdt I am in misery there ain’t no body who can comfort me. 🎵🎸🎼🎤 i formerly liked the sounds of that song. I guess I’m a da*ned vine. Bcz my name means rose and lily. Some flowers 🌹🌸💐🌺🌷🌻 grow from vines. I’m d*mned. Dams are like big bath tubs. 6:06 am pdt he’s killing my heart again. 6:07 am pdt it’s hot in the center and my right side. 6:07 am pdt

7:43 am pdt incubus is still hurting my ribs Bcz he likes it when people are crying in pain especially women. I think he’s trying to reduce my rib cage size to crush my internal organs. 7:45 am pdt

2:16 pmpdt if the earth is expiring it’s ok if he leaves me here to die. 2:17 pmpdt

2:44 pmpdt I don’t want his unethical ass near me and I don’t want Q’s unethical lazy ass near me. 2:45 pmpdt

[kainetestament]

Pietro, no Fietro could still possibly be Peter from X-Men Universe… Maybe?

So as revealed in Episode 9 of WandaVision, the identity of Fietro is none other than Ralph Bohner, the husband Agness always mention, and a possible real resident of Westview. WV director Matt Shakman already clarified that the “Bohner” is actually a reference to his 80’s sitcom Growing Pains. But for many fans of Evan Peters, this “Bohner” joke didn’t play well and at the same time, let us breakdown everything that is wrong with this identity of Ralph Bohner and why he’s suspicious despite the claim of WandaVision writers/director that Evan Peters has nothing to do with the mutants or X-Men Universe, after all they always deny everything. They even mentioned that they had no idea that Evan Peters appearance will cause so many theories and everything, which I highly doubt, I mean come on, they made him play QuickSilver in WandaVision when he is QuickSilver himself only of another universe. I don’t dissed ATJ, I love this guy too from his Kickass, Godzilla movie (this is where I first encounter ATJ before his QS role in Avengers), but as a QS, Evan Peters top him, on my opinion at least, he even has his own QS commercials. Also, Evan Peters have more cool QS moments, the Kitchen scene VS the Age of Ultron overall, at least for me, I prefer the kitchen scene and the whiplash part. Anyhow, let us begin:

 Note: I edited this post to make this article more easier to read and added additional info.

1. Speculations roaming around that Ralph Bohner could be an aspiring actor because the picture is actually his headshot (which actually looks like his earlier AHS photos). I’m not going to debunk this possibility, but I do not believe it’s a headshot nor he’s an aspiring actor. Although true enough, the image does looks like of Evan Peters early AHS photos (kind of like Tate Langdon) – which is probably a reference to that, who knows.

2. The pile of papers on the side table. It is questionable why would your papers, a bill (a very old bill even - not folded or inside one of those envelopes) and your photos in plain sight where Monica – an outsider can see it? Almost as if you planned it all along and he wanted Monica to see it.

3. Necromancy vs Crystallum Possession. Necromancy is a dark arts of when the person (the Necromancer) can manipulate the dead body of the person, or summoning their spirit. Crystallum Possession however is also part of the dark arts but this time you are using an object (like crystals, gems, stones etc) that is embodied with the user’s spells to manipulate the wearer.

Agatha had told Wanda that what she does is a crystallum possession since necromancy is a no-no due to his brother’s body is on another continent, and since this Pietro died in 2014, it should now be bones, I think the “full of holes” remark is nothing more than a mocking remark, because if it’s not, then Marvel will probably have their own interpretation of Necromancy and Crystallum Possession, and this could probably go darker. And Ralph is wearing a bead necklace that is embedded with Agatha’s power. But is Agatha really in full control of Ralph? Honestly, I don’t think so. Why? Because in Episode 6, Peter said about Wanda’s costume “Worse than the costume mom made us the year we got typhus”, then she reminisced “that year”, and told him  “That’s not exactly how I remember it.” because in her universe, she isn’t wearing Halloween costume she thinks is worse and she didn’t deny about them getting typhus, so what are the odds of Agatha/Fietro getting that info if he is not Peter? Also, we don’t know how MARVEL will tell the story multiverse/alternate timelines (the Russo Brothers already claimed that they have their own way of telling this story), but if we are looking for a one generic rule, major life events will occur but will be told uniquely as per their universe, on this case Peter and Wanda did had a typhus, but in Peter’s world, his Wanda and him are probably wearing whatever cosplay outfit their mom made and in Wanda and Pietro are just wearing something simple, or it could be that Peter really just have a weird sense of style.

4. The WATER BILL. Now, this is a real bill, it is not part of Wanda’s illusion, this is Ralph’s actual water bill, because Ralph’s house was under Agatha’s spell, which makes it exempted from Wanda’s spell.  Also, if you go frame by frame, you can actually see the word “Water”, “PAST DUE” on the right column part of the bill, before it totally goes out of focus and you can only read the left side part, that also says “YOUR MONTHLY USAGE (1,000 GAL INCREMENTS)”, which further validates it’s a water bill, not a phone bill nor electricity bill as others actually claim. And here is the tricky part, the bill’s date. On the right side under the STATEMENT is the Account Information (using Arial font), it’s a bit hard to make out of it, but it’s actually an old bill. Before it becomes totally blurry, you can read the right part of the bill that says:

STATEMENT

ACCOUNT INFORMATION

ACCOUNT:                      09-3476-12

SERVICE ADDRESS:     2804 SHERWOOD DRIVE

BILL DATE:                     10/01/2020

DUE DATE:                     10/31/2020

If we go back to Infinity War, it takes place in June 2018. So that means that this Ralph Bohner survived the SNAP, but what could happen to him in year 2019-2020? Who knows, I don’t even know if I should care or not.

If we check on the usage chart – which is “not blurred” (it’s also in increments of 12 – 12/24/36/48/60), and I’ll just speculate on the numbers on the meter chart, so don’t take my word for it. Also, I don’t know what Marvel is planning or hinting by showing this insignificant 2020 bill, which also has confusing usage. (I’ll just use term like pcm – per cubic meter, so that it won’t just be plain numbers beside the month).

January - 6 pcm

February – 18 pcm

March – 6 pcm

April – 6 pcm

June – 6 pcm

July – 9 pcm

August – 13 pcm

September – 22 pcm

October – 34 pcm

(November and December have gray shade - similar to the one in month of Jan-May).

Again, I don’t know what’s the significance of not blurring this part of the bill while the right side column is properly blurred. And the confusing part of this bill, is the bill date is of 10/01/2020 – meaning Ralph had received this bill during the first week of October, but why is there already a usage for the full month of October, when usage should be only show up to the month of September? After the Account Information, there’s the

METER INFORMATION (WATER)

USAGE   PREVIOUS   DATE      CURRENT       DATE

4             1963 (?)        09/01/20      *- - - -*          *- - - -*

The PREVIOUS actually looks like either 1063 or 1963, and oddly enough the first Avengers Comics was published on September 1, 1963, I don’t know if that’s a reference to that, but from my pov, it shouldn’t be because this series is inspired of House of M and a bit touch of West Coast Avengers, which was already reference by the SUV plate number in Episode 7. The CURRENT and DATE are both unreadable, I can only identify _ _ _ 2 in CURRENT and 0_/_ _/20 for the DATE after.

And let’s also not forget that outside the HEX, it is August 2023 and as per Episode 8, inside the HEX is currently year 2013 as shown in the auditorium behind the lighting after it explained how Wanda created Vision. I don���t know if this is a reference to something from the past MCU projects (X-Men even) or future franchise like Falcon and Winter Soldier, who knows, really. I just find it weird why they didn’t blurry the meter chart while the rest are. But why year 2020? Why isn’t this bill thrown out yet? Didn’t Monica notice that billing date of the bill?

5. The man-cave. The staff really transformed Fietro’s man-cave into very, very Peter-like (if he really is not Peter). I will list thing that are present and similar to what Peter of X-Men Universe room have. I’ll reference * (single asterisk) for Days of Future Past, ** (double asterisk) for Apocalypse, and *** (triple asterisk) for both films.

❀ comfortable couch***

❀ guitar*** 

❀ headphones***

❀ balls*

❀ lots of posters***

❀ bike***

❀ a bar**

❀ shoes on the floor**

❀ different types of drinks (non alcoholic)***

Also, lots of silver/metallic items such as:

❀ silver lamp**

❀ silver TV

❀ silver house ventilation tubes

❀ silver pillowcases (looks gray on other angles)

❀ silver mini fridge

❀ silver microwave oven

❀ silver rack (where TV and speaker stands)    

❀ silver wristwatch*

❀ video games*** (both PS & XBox)

and even something that looks like a stolen goods like the Tiki Bar plaque, Tiger head.

This Fietro is basically just missing the goggles, I did my best to look for it (like on those detective games that instructs you to find this and that *lol*), but there’s really none *laugh*. Also, I just noticed the arrangement of his man-cave – single-seat couch** > small side table with a lamp** > 3-seater couch (the Apocalypse has an L-shape couch though) > a middle coffee table**, this arrangement is similar to Peter’s man-cave in Apocalypse which can be slightly seen when his mom came down saying “Just checking on you” (you can watch it at starting point 1:02:55, at least on my copy), you just need to look for proper timing because a few of those shots are out of focus probably due to her obviously looking somewhere reading her lines that are raised besides the camera, which became even more obvious  when she did a close up shot when she told him “But trust me, this won’t end well. Nothing does with him.” 

Also, in Episode 5, when Peter first made an appearance, the leather jacket he’s wearing is eerily similar to the one he’s wearing in his cameo appearance in Deadpool 2 (we only got the glimpse of the front of the jacket in Deadpool but the front side of his jacket in WandaVision is identical). Though I find it weird too that his hair color switch from silver to light ash blonde.

6. Ralph is the guy under witness protection? I doubt it, although honestly at first I considered maybe he is, but after a few thinking, it doesn’t lead to it, because if he’s in witness protection, and the person who is managing him forgets him because of Wanda, FBI database should still at least have a photo of him to be able to identify him, and Jimmy in episode 7 saw Peter and never commented about him being their missing guy. As we all know, the house is under the name Ralph Bohner, who we can assume survived the SNAP and possibly left that house in September 2020. If he had left the house way back in 2020, why does Agent Woo or FBI rather only checked it now? Also, if Ralph Boner is indeed the guy under witness protection, it is the FBI that pays off their bill, on this case, the Water Bill was past due even if it was an old bill, so I don’t think he is.

7. Does Ralph Boner really exist? This is actually something that I have given some thought. Because if we think of QuickSilver, one of his abilities as per comics is his Quick Intelligence. His mind process a lot of things much faster than an average person. Peter spying on everyone and pretending to be someone else in an unknown world is not surprising, let alone using everything he can take advantage of. It can be that the bill is fake and there is really no Ralph Bohner, or just like what I mentioned in #7, he could’ve possibly left in September 2020 and hasn’t returned yet, and Peter assumes this identity to avoid suspicion.

If we are to assume he really is Peter Maximoff of X-Men Universe (Earth-TRN414) and crossed over to Earth-616, I did consider this could also be the house where he lives as per his universe and just so happens that Ralph Bohner is the current owner of the house in this MCU. Also, Xavier Institute is located in NY and in Days of Future Past, they only drove from NY to his house via rental car, which we can assume that he doesn’t live that far from NY, after all NY and NJ are neighbors.

8. Also this has nothing to do with Ralph/Fietro, but something I noticed, that the outside anomaly or outside of Westview – about the selective amnesia has yet to be answered. It only explained that Wanda is manipulating the people INSIDE, but not the ones outside the HEX. What actually come to mind when I think about it is that it can be a work by a TELEPATH which can be either Charles Xavier or Emma Frost (no Jean Grey? Yes I excluded her). What I am actually thinking is that the person under witness protection is a spy sent by Charles or possibly working with him. He could have implanted false memory to the so called “family and friends”, so when the HEX was established, the strings got cut off hence no one could remember this “missing person” anymore, and Jimmy who has nothing to do with this “missing person” is not affected by the selective amnesia and assumes the responsibility of looking for him. And assuming Charles is the telepath who altered their memories of the people outside of Westview, he probably has done it as a precaution since he couldn’t contact his spy or “missing person” and wouldn’t take the risk of endangering the resident who were happened to be outside the HEX when Wanda establishes it.

These are just some of the things I find that doesn’t make sense with Ralph’s identity. But we’ll just leave it at that. I still really want James McAvoy back as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Magneto, since both Sir Ian McKKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart did mention they’re done with their role. And I feel that it’s too risky to use them since they are in their 80’s now, I don’t know them personally but it gives me some sorts of paranoia *laughs* thinking they might get injured.

[newstfionline]

U.K., Land of ‘Brexit,’ Quietly Outsources Some Surgeries to France

By Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura, NY Times, March 17, 2018

CALAIS, France--Serge Orlov, a 62-year-old Briton, likes to rail against what he calls the tyranny of the European Union. Like most supporters of his country’s withdrawal from the bloc, he wants Britain to strike out on its own, a fully sovereign state unshackled from Europe’s pettifogging rules and the Continent’s overweening state.

But faced with excruciating pain and a seemingly endless wait for a knee replacement, Mr. Orlov temporarily shelved his euroskepticism to take advantage of a little known National Health Service program and jump to the head of the line--in France.

After waiting a year just for the possibility of the knee replacement he badly needed, he turned to Calais Hospital in northern France, where in a matter of 10 days he found himself on the operating table for the three-hour procedure, he said in an interview. He plans to get his second knee replaced in a few weeks’ time. Back home, it took him a year to receive a letter informing him when he might have the operation.

“Waiting, it’s just miserable,” he said, describing how he had been shuttled to five different hospitals in Britain over more than eight months. Waiting rooms are “full of sick people,” he said, adding swiftly, by way of explanation, “I can be a grumpy old git.”

Mr. Orlov, who has Russian-Italian ancestry, is among a rapidly growing number of British patients who are crossing the English Channel to seek medical treatments--mostly elective surgeries--in France.

Given that the Brexit vote was largely won on highly emotive issues surrounding British sovereignty and a misleading promise by politicians that leaving the bloc would free up 350 million pounds, or about $490 million, a week to fund the N.H.S, the paradox of Britain seeking aid from France is not lost on the French hospital, nor on Mr. Orlov.

“I find something quite ironic about it,” he readily admitted. “I think it’s hilarious, actually.”

After years of austerity, Britain’s lumbering National Health Service is under enormous strain, with severe shortages of beds and medical staff, all of which is producing waiting times for nonemergency procedures to stretch over months, and sometimes beyond a year.

To cope, the N.H.S has been quietly outsourcing some surgeries to three hospitals in France for the last year or so. It is a little-known partnership, because the N.H.S. is not eager to advertise the measures it is being forced to take.

But as more people join Mr. Orlov in crossing the English Channel--and with a predictable but particularly severe “winter crisis” this year, forcing the cancellation of tens of thousands of elective surgeries--word is spreading.

Mr. Orlov was only Calais Hospital’s 15th patient under the program, but it has received 450 inquiries from British patients over six weeks, after fielding fewer than 10 a month previously. With 500 beds and a surgery ward with an occupancy rate of 70 percent, the hospital could treat as many as 200 N.H.S patients a year, officials said.

Mr. Orlov marveled that he had a spacious private room in the French hospital, with a window looking out on some greenery and a television set that offered the BBC. Parking is free, he exclaimed several times. “And the food is pretty good,” he said as an afterthought. “I’ve got to say, I’m not averse to French cooking.”

Hospitals in Britain “are so old they should be museums,” he said. “It’s shocking what’s going on.”

N.H.S. England’s outsourcing deal has technically little to do with Britain’s decision nearly two years ago to leave the European Union, a process known as Brexit. Rather, it has more to do with the myriad ways that countries across Europe are tied together, but that are often ignored in public discussions about Britain’s relationship with Europe.

“Let’s hope the talks don’t speed up too quickly though, I want to get this done first, and ideally the second one,” Mr. Orlov added, half seriously, referring to negotiations about the terms of Britain’s departure.

He asked that his surgeon not be told that he had voted for Brexit--just yet. “I’m happy to tell him when he’s finished carving me up, but certainly not beforehand,” he whispered. “I do have my second knee.”

(“Oh, la la,” Martin Trelcat, the director of Calais Hospital, groaned in mock outrage when he heard he had a Brexit supporter on his hands. “It’s time for a new vote,” he joked.)

Britain has about 340 available beds per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with a European Union average of 515, according to Eurostat, the European statistics agency. France has 706 beds for every 100,000 people, and Germany 813. Only three countries--Denmark, Ireland and Sweden--have lower rates of available beds than Britain does.

Britain spends almost 8 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, slightly less than France and Germany, and the share is forecast to fall to about 6.8 percent by 2020, according to the Office for Budgetary Responsibility.

Estimates from the King’s Fund, an organization that researches the British health care system, suggest that N.H.S. England funding is at least $5.6 billion below what is needed this year, and that the shortfall will rise to around $30 billion by 2023.

But Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt argues that pressures on the N.H.S are increasing not because of a lack of funding but partly because people are going to emergency rooms when they have bad colds or other minor afflictions.

This winter, people have been left on trolleys in corridors, in scenes of chaos some have likened to “war zones.” Patients in emergency wards sometimes waited up to 12 hours to get treated. The situation generally comes to a head every winter--so much so that the “winter crisis” has almost become an annual tradition. But even Mr. Hunt admitted that this year’s was the worst, and the British Red Cross declared the situation a “humanitarian crisis.”

Mr. Trelcat, the hospital director, said that the most likely explanation is that Britons are more patient than the French. “We don’t understand how you can delay so many operations that make many patients suffer,” he said. “A knee replacement that is delayed for one year--in France, it just can’t happen. It takes a maximum of one month here.”

The N.H.S insists that the outsourcing partnership is “purely about patient choice.” Officials declined to comment for this article, despite repeated requests.

But Calais Hospital representatives said that in private meetings, N.H.S officials had told them they wanted to enter a partnership because many of its hospitals were old but had little chance of being refurbished or improved soon.

The delays are a “sign of failure” of the N.H.S, Britain’s national pride, Mr. Trelcat said. The limited publicity about the deal may stem from an “embarrassment that most certainly comes from the fact that our hospitals are so reliable,” he added.

N.H.S officials who visited Calais Hospital were probably “not aware of the gap between a standard British hospital and a standard French hospital,” he continued.

Mr. Orlov proffered his own explanation for the N.H.S.’s reticence to advertise the possibility of treatment abroad. “I don’t know if it’s a breakdown in communication,” he said, “or because the N.H.S doesn’t like the idea of parting with the hard cash and bringing it to France.”

Either way, he said, “it’s shocking.”