Thoughts and prayers pending pre-approval.
More of this to come soon I would expect.
What's the incentive to NOT do stuff like this?
I love the additional part to this story: That the same day as this, there was a racially motivated fatal stabbing by a white supremacist that didn't get a bounty or a 100 detective manhunt etc. To drive home how the police are set up mainly to protect corporate interest and the wealthy.
UnitedHealth Backlash Signals Possible Shift in Washington and on Wall Street Joking about the murder of a human being—a husband and father—is deeply insensitive. The claims made about UnitedHealthcare by individuals on X haven’t been independently verified. And it should be needless to say that no one should face threats or violence, no matter how contentious the debate over health policy might be. Yet the negative feelings on display toward health insurers can’t be ignored, including by policymakers, the companies themselves and their shareholders. At the very least, they underscore the widespread anger over the perceived dysfunction of the American healthcare system, and expose it as even more deep-seated than how it previously might have been understood. In recent years, insurers have been accused of denying coverage to protect their profit margins, a criticism that the killer seemingly alluded to with the words “deny,” “defend” and “depose” scrawled with a permanent marker on bullet casings found outside the Midtown Hilton.But in the wake of the fatal shooting of a UnitedHealth Group executive, there has been an outpouring of negative public sentiment toward private insurers. “Remembering the day United Healthcare denied a one-night hospital stay for my 12yo child as ‘medically unnecessary’ following ASD heart repair surgery,” wrote one user on X. Another shared this: “Today I’m thinking about the time United Healthcare suddenly decided to stop paying for my chemotherapy and didn’t bother telling me.” A Facebook post from the company expressing sorrow over the killing of Brian Thompson, chief executive of the insurance unit, prompted more than 70,000 laugh emojis. “Thoughts and prior authorizations,” went a typical comment.
Recently? "Accused"? LOL. Again, I'm not going to celebrate extrajudicial vigilante justice, but it's long past ripe for these people to get super uncomfortable. You can feel the author and editor squirming in those declarations of (feigned) ignorance. Mmmmm. The shooter had a backpack that NYPD finally tracked down today, left it in central park near the merry-go-round right after the hit. Bomb squad called and everything. It was full of monopoly money. I mean what am I supposed to do, hate the guy? Like damn.In recent years, insurers have been accused of denying coverage to protect their profit margins
Response to this on social media has been remarkable. I'm wondering if we're about to see a new trend.
They're questioning someone in PA today. imho I don't think they'll ever find him. Update: nvm, I think it's him, who else has a manifesto on their person?? People are speculating that the suspect escaped NYC through a tunnel, which turned out to be a picture painted onto a solid wall that the NYPD have smashed several cop cars into
Just another TESCREAL dipshit TIRED: using your position of privilege and experience of pain to improve the lots of those with less access than you WIRED: using your position of privilege and experience of pain for murder
I maintain that the leftist mind cannot conceive of the median voter's politics. And yup, this guy is rightward of median in his media consumption, looks like (and that's even considering that the median has shifted right, in media, I think, especially new media). But it's not really about Luigi anymore. The response is the real story, as class tension is forced onto center stage. Ben Shapiro's youtube comments section (par examplar) is very much opposed to Ben's predictable defense of the wealthy elite and Ben's condemnation of the shooter. But the guy who strangled a homeless dude to death on the subway and was just acquitted is a hero. Maybe they don't fully understand the populism they stoke?? Or feel that their grip on viewers is strong enough to contradict their vigilantism advocacy/condemnation, more likely. Fascism allows, actually, requires contradictions and hypocrisy to survive. Here's an ai-generated article about United Healthcare's recent implementation of ai in their claims system. Love it. Again, like... don't kill people. But take away their ability to make things better democratically at your peril, maybe. Yeah, none of this makes too much sense. In related news, I saw four recent quotes from people who voted trump. I only read one. That was enough. People, voting people, generally have no idea about national politics. I know you think that's belittling and no I don't have to be an asshole to their faces but to put it nicely, I feel like underestimating confusion in today's political info environment is a huuuuuuge thing we're mostly all still doing. Nor has the DNC has done anything to rectify that, and the dems went with corporatism moreso than populism, maybe even moreso in messaging than action. Biden was on the picket lines. Huge domestic investments. Some finite amount of attention to climate change. Let's get Liz Cheney in Michigan though. Great. I think Palestine depressed turnout a bit, but there's a lot of leftists who can't imagine the median voter, yeah, simple as that. Can't imagine not being terminally online inside of their narrow lefty media consumption. (I'm not exactly a success story either) Anyway Luigi wanted to get caught. "Taking my ghost gun and handwritten manifesto to MickeyD's for breakfast babe, i'll be back soon". C'mon. A very 26-year-old thing to do. Will a jury convict? His legal defense has been crowdfunded several times over already. I would also point out that the response to any future escalation of class warfare vigilantism (upwards; downwards is fine) will be met with an escalation of the police state. In recent history, perhaps since the Vietnam era, it's never been more clear who the police and "lawfare" serve. And the role of government "questioned" (performatively, and to fascist ends by the movement leaders). Healthcare is an obvious aspect of that right now, but perhaps others will grow. I'm not sure how long the "wealth is meritocratic and American", billionaire worship thing will continue, but it's always longer than I think, so at least several years, I guess. edit: btw the one Trump voter quote I read was "I think he'll fix healthcare".
I have no confusion about the political environment. It all makes total sense. Rural white voters have taken it in the ass since NAFTA and Democrats have increasingly become the party of social issues, which means they have nothing to offer rural white voters. Who are 75% of the hinterlands, those places given outsized power by the electoral college. The problem in 2016 was that Clinton had no charisma and Trump did. The problem in 2024 was that prices had gone up and there's no solution to that. My principle beef is that any discussion that starts with "they know not what they do" ends with "so they will of course endorse every evil thing this administration wants to accomplish" and any attempt to get at the nuance of it has no chance of getting through your McFlurry of recrimination and it's fucking exhausting. I play Wordscapes now. Fuckin' anagrams and butterflies, bitch. Because everyone's divine right to keep losing their shit no matter the conversation is too exhausting to bear. Meanwhile we're out here writin' laws and revising contracts and upping reimbursement but according to Spence, it's all a waste of time we should all get out there and start shooting CEOs.Yeah, none of this makes too much sense. In related news, I saw four recent quotes from people who voted trump. I only read one. That was enough. People, voting people, generally have no idea about national politics. I know you think that's belittling and no I don't have to be an asshole to their faces but to put it nicely, I feel like underestimating confusion in today's political info environment is a huuuuuuge thing we're mostly all still doing.
let's get down to brass tacks, how many brilliance points you at? You play weekend tourneys? I started a gang on a golfing app but I gave group ownership to the second guy that joined.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/trustee-over-infowars-auction-asks-court-to-approve-the-onion-s-winning-bid/ar-AA1vzEz3 Judges just blocked the onion taking over inforwars Fml Glad that we got exactly one piece of justice this year. In other news, a new bipartisan bill just passed: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5349/text/eh We're back to Vietnam for sure, the ruling class wants another Red Scare
It's odd to live through the era when America completely gifted the electric automobile to China while the guy in America known for making electric automobiles is busy also ruining everything else, and doubling his wealth while he does it. Yeah that guy. Maybe we should all applaud ourselves, just a little bit, for not doing a Luigi. Surprised that there isn't language in that bill directly equating communism with socialism, as is american tradition. update: I am watching Fox & Friends this morning while I finish up my slides, it's been years since I freebased a Fox show live. This stuff is wild. I'll spare everyone (update3: nope!), but things have notably escalated in how steeped the MAGA propaganda has gotten. I am told that even Elon Musk, the "biggest champion of free speech out there" (- Jonathon Haidt, live interview) favors the new Kids Online Safety Act. But I know EFF opposes it. Sadly, these bills are small potatoes compared to what's coming down the pipes via executive order. and congressional control. oh and judiciary control. Woo this is gonna be great update2: this is surreal, it's brian kilmeade commentating, in free form stream of consciousness, over video footage of jeanine pirro interviewing the subway strangler. For FIVE CONTINUOUS MINUTES. They tease the interview and send you to a website to grab clicks. It's still going! Other commentators are jumping in to take up some time on the clock, but only Pirro and the strangler get screen time. Bummer. It's still going. This is 8 minutes now. Update4: the entire morning on fox is literally this:
China is subsidizing the bejeesus out of electric cars, much like they subsidized the shit out of everything else. The reason Europe and North America have much lower penetration of electric cars is the same reason Hollywood makes mostly superhero movies: it's the only entertainment economy that isn't supported by 70% or greater government subsidy. If you have to make money, you have to sell things people want to buy. Knock 70% off the price of a Ford Mustang and they'd sell like hotcakes too. Tesla? Tesla largely exists to launder carbon credits. It's subsidy of a different kind. The median cable news viewer is 70 years old. I'ma show you one image that encapsulates the current media landscape. Are you ready? Kathy Bates (76), pretending to be Andy Griffith (59 at the time), in a reheating of a 40-year-old show that nobody under 60 watched. Superbowl ads. Jewel of the Paramount crown. Except, of course, for everything Taylor Sheridan does, please god watch Harrison Ford in a cowboy hat we're spending $22m per episode. So you can be mad about the current media landscape? But you gotta keep in mind - nobody is aging into Fox News. Nobody is aging into MSNBC. ZOMFG judge blocks Onion acquisition of InfoWars. Might as well go shoot a CEO.update: I am watching Fox & Friends this morning while I finish up my slides, it's been years since I freebased a Fox show live.
Speaking as a mechanical engineer who spent a lot of time in the biomedical industry, followed by a lot of time in architecture, followed by a lot of time in entertainment: I threw myself 80 hours a week for three years at building a healthcare facility that serves 33% medicaid and employs roughly 80% minorities because representation is the most effective method of affirmative action. And you know what? I: - didn't grow up with millions - or go to Penn - or have the luxury of joining a commune on Oahu where I could break my back surfing Or, I mean, here. You tell me, Spence. What could this guy have done. If my grandparents owned nine fucking skilled nursing facilities? I'd maybe try working within the system. Particularly if I had been exposed to the way it gives short shrift to individuals on the client side. But then, I don't look at the world as if it existed largely to inconvenience my hopeless ass. Do me a solid. Take that learned, impotent helplessness of yours and fucking do something about it in 2025, mmmmmkay? Because given a choice between "throwing your life away in violence" and "anything else" the points go to "anything else" and the fact that this is difficult for you is why ISIS is almost entirely Europeans off on a jaunt.
I legitimately cannot name a single good thing that has happened within the system since Obamacare. The Dems just voted to give the president power to label any nonprofit as a terrorist group, and passed a bill to make school kids learn that Red China is the worst country in the world and 1,500,000,000 people suffer under communism. We will not get socialized anything. We will not get better healthcare. My sister studied eco science and has been trying to do something related to climate change ever since. The closest you can get to that is a job telling HOA's what trees are safe to be chopped down, or trimming hedges for rich assholes. I've got a job at an accessibility company making products for blind people and our products are trash and anyone who buys them is making a huge mistake. I want to get another job but it's a corporate wasteland and they're not hiring anyways. I'll believe working within the system is a possibility the moment any of the thousands of people trying to do that accomplish anything, but as far as I can tell every systemic problem (climate change, wealth inequality, etc.) is not only getting worse but speeding up in how fast it's getting worse. Don't have any answers and obviously killing a CEO doesn't change anything. But it was just and it was funny and gave millions of people a tiny win and I'm not sure there's much else a TESCREAL dipshit could hope to do
You don't even see it, do you. You are so far up your own ass, so high on your own supply, that there's nothing that will make you let go of your "might as well just go shoot a CEO" teddy bear. Here's where this beatdown started: "What could he have done to improve the lots of healthcare for those with less access?" This is balanced against the task of "shoot a CEO." I'ma give you some chunks of my life so you can see stuff that doesn't involve "shoot a CEO." - We now have a lobbyist on the payroll. Because inflation is up and payments are not which means to give our staff raises we go into the red. Which means the only way to improve sustainability is to improve reimbursement which means renegotiating every contract which means juice from the state legislature. Each and every one of those people is doing more to improve outcomes than shooting a CEO. - I rebalance our "should we provide insurance" equation about every four to six months. Obamacare is good enough that depending on our staff's demographic makeup it either costs us between 40 and 70k extra not to bone the ones who work the least. "HOW DARE YOU NOT PROVIDE INSURANCE!" you say, because you don't pay any attention to anything except that which outrages you. I don't provide insurance because I have a bunch of women working 15-25 hours a week and pulling down $70k a year but every four months or so, I try. Fucking doing that is more useful than "shoot a CEO." - My wife hardly practices anymore. Mostly she writes legislation these days, increasing access to low-impact healthcare facilities with lower expenses, greater outcomes and higher minority utilization than hospitals. Doing that is more useful than "shoot a CEO." But let's talk about the fucking CEO, shall we. - Because the first part of reimbursement is dealing with the local adjuster flak, and she has no power. We talk to her all the time, all dozens of her, spread across sixteen insurance companies, and none of their positions would change an iota if we shot their CEO. - The local adjuster flak has a regional adjuster flak and they have a little bit of power. We try to get through to them, but that mostly involves leaning on friends within the corporate world who self-insure because they have more power than we do. None of them talk to CEOs. - The regional adjuster flak is responsible to underwriting and they're insulated from everyone. They ultimately report to accounting, who couldn't give the first fuck about the CEO. - Accounting ultimately puts together the annual report. It's all actuarial bullshit, after all but that annual report is what juices the stock. Because ultimately, it all goes back to the fucking shareholder. And they'll care for fifteen minutes, but not really, because let me show you just how fucked that situation is. UnitedHealthcare total shares: 923m UnitedHealthcare institutional ownership: 952m UnitedHealthcare ETF ownership: 496 Just browsing that list, United is in my portfolio at least twice. Just knowing you have a job, I guarantee United is in your 401(k) somewhere. There's 70m people out there with 401(k)s and if they didn't own UnitedHealthcare their brokers would be malfeasant. We're talking about a corporation with 400,000 employees that's up 90% in the past five years. And yeah. A whole lot of 'em are at "fuck yeah shoot the CEO." But fuckin'A, dude, I even put it in stark terms of "things that are more useful than shooting the CEO" and you still reefed back to "bu bu bu bu the only solution is violence." And whenever you are engaged on the subject that supposedly has your ire, you immediately change the subject as to why it's all hopeless because apparently the democrats just voted on something completely different so why should you be allowed to let go of your smug, self-satisified cynicism. because you're spitting in the face of everyone who ever tried, asshole.
Like half your post is agreeing with me though- It all comes back to the shareholders, who are billionares who think themselves invincible. Or regular joes with 401ks - a dastardly scheme to trick normal people into siding with the evilest corporations. Yes my 401k has UHC in it. I tried investing nothing and lost a bunch to inflation. I tried investing in green energy and very specific companies whose products I believe in and that set is down around 60%. Now I go for total market and try to maintain some distance from that because truthfully I'd prefer if every company in the S&P went bust and it feels gross to be tied to their blood money. But hey I do it anyways because its free money (free = taken from people who aren't able to invest). And if I don't do it that changes nothing too. But I feel like such an asshole for holding ETFs so yes, thanks for rubbing that in. --------------------------------------------- I don't think those two votes are so unrelated. The only real solution to UHC is via laws (killing the CEO is obviously not a solution) and the Republicans are evil (obviously) and the democrats are too busy pushing through bills to kill peace movements and promote capitalism. But as a society I think we've lost the ability to do big things. Again, my sister wants to do things to protect forests and the environment. That is basically not a thing you can do. It's impossible. You can work around the problem and improve things in minor semi-related ways and keep the system running. That's not a bad thing to do, I guess. Like - giving minorities what seems to be a legitimately very good job, and doing so with compassion. That is obviously a very good thing. It's making a big difference in their lives, I'm sure. But it's not doing anything to stop private healthcare. And closer to me - I'd like to do something with technology, but there doesn't even seem to be a papering around the problem equivalent there. Basically the only thing that can be done is to work for some big company or worse: a wannabe-big-company that will do anything to grow. There's a few projects that I like, Genode, Itch.io, Craigslist, Sandstorm, but those are tiny groups that are not hiring. By and large whenever software changes it's to make my life worse. I'm never moving to Windows 11. I would like to do something useful, to make elegant and wonderful products that empower real people. That's not even a 'change the world', 'topple power structures', 'end the evil empire' type ask. But as far as I can tell, it's essentially impossible too. -------------------------------------------------------------------- I'll ask this instead: Do you see any path towards single payer healthcare / medicare for all? Is there anything an individual can do to weaken the power of billionaires and shareholders?
ALL of my post is saying "fukkit let's shoot a CEO is counterproductive" and you can't seem to get out of your own way to hear that the threshold for change is emphatically NOT "shooting people." Look, bitch. You know what I do to feel better? I go pick up trash. I walk my neighborhood with an ikea bag and a grabber. 'cuz you know what? It's easy, it's free, and it's making the world a better place. Does the trash stay picked up? it does not. Does it solve the problem of trash? It does not. Does it discourage people from throwing shit out their window as they drive by? Negative. But it's a positive step, in the right direction, that improves things for everybody. I guess I could go shoot a CEO instead but then I couldn't pick up trash anymore. Do you see any path towards single payer healthcare / medicare for all? Would you fucking listen if I did? Because I've talked myself blue in the face about single payer. Fuckin' the comment you're replying to is about single payer - our biggest leverage is "you reimburse us less than medicaid you monsters" and the best way to leverage that is to improve medicaid payouts. I'm profitable in a single payer ecosystem, that's one reason we seek out medicaid. You're three comments deep in what I'm up to, as an individual, but you're too busy talking past me so you can keep your pessimism close to your heart. Yep, nothing to do but go shoot a CEO. If your threshold is "shoot a CEO" then "go volunteer for The Nature Conservancy" or some shit is hella below that. You see that, right? You see that there's a whole spectrum of shit that can be done this side of "shoot a CEO?"I'll ask this instead:
Again, my sister wants to do things to protect forests and the environment. That is basically not a thing you can do.
I really don't get why you don't see shooting a CEO as 'doing something' It's done more to punish that guy in specific than congress has done or will do. It's gotten more people talking about regulation than there's been in a decade. When they killed Bin Laden, people didn't ask why they didn't work from inside Al Qaeda to slowly reform them. They shoot peace activists and protestors and labor organizers because it works. When people are dead they stop doing things and the people around them get scared and sometimes change their behavior. We all protested for months to cut police budgets and after all that, I don't even know if the guy went to jail. It accomplished nothing. This was something. A concrete action happened. Justice was served. It didn't fix the system, but to be honest I see America collapsing before we get single payer and this guy got us a Win while Biden was giving corporations another trillion dollars.
This is one of the stupidest things I have ever read bin Laden was the spiritual leader of an organization dedicated to global jihad he had a direct line of tutelage to Hassan al-Banna millions of extremists hung on his every missive Brian Thompson, on the other hand, existed within a public corporation with officers, advisors, investors and Robert's Rules of Order. He'd been voted CEO by a board of directors in 2021. Prior to that he'd been in charge of United's government contracts (medicare, medicaid, VA) for fifteen years where - lemme speak from experience here - he was at the top of an organization that's no better or worse than the other seven companies we deal with that administrate Medicaid. But again - you are so far up your own ass that shooting one of a dozen functionaries heading public corporations that you own stock in is somehow as virtuous as taking out the guy who orchestrated 9/11. You're going to do me a favor. You're going to step away from the keyboard, you're going to walk into the bathroom, you're going to look at yourself in the mirror. You're going to make eye contact with yourself, so that you're really seeing yourself, and you're going to say "the assassination of an insurance CEO is every bit as virtuous and justified as the assassination of Osama bin Laden." Then you're going to report back. How do you feel? Answer carefully because this might very well be the last exchange we ever have.When they killed Bin Laden, people didn't ask why they didn't work from inside Al Qaeda to slowly reform them.
Look, you caught me - I wont say that Brian Thompson is personally more evil or more of a leader or more valuable a target than Osama. But I am willing to say that UHC and Private Insurance in general has done more harm than Al-Quaeda. Obviously the board is just going to replace him with another guy that does the same thing. Maybe that guy will remember that he too, is mortal. Something billionares seem to forget. I'm pretty sure you agree that the point of protests isnt to stand around in a large group so that people will look on and see 'wow, if I do this thirty thousand people will be very sad'. The point is that these people WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS. And it seems like it's been pretty internalized lately that this just isn't the case, you just arrest the leaders and the group disperses eventually and the world moves on like normal. So fine, obviously this assassination won't end up affecting things as much as Osama and the guy deserved it way less than Osama (but crucially, did deserve it some). If you can't see why it at least makes some sense though I don't know what to tell you. I hope that's enough of a compromise, I always like reading your posts and I promise you I do give everything you write a lot of consideration. But if not, that's OK I can leave the site if I'm not wanted here. It's pretty much just you and Am_U left and I don't want to be somewhere I'm not welcome.
I wanted you to pause for long enough to hold one of your arguments up to the light and decide for yourself whether it was one that you naturally wanted to make, or whether your internal feelings were getting away with your reason. I don't have the time or patience to write this today but I'm going to. Because I wouldn't shout until I was blue in the face if it didn't matter. And because I see something really common - hang on there's a graphic for that. It's from here, BTW. The first thing I want you to notice is that everyone's expectations are wildly out of line with reality. We've all been sold a massive bill of goods. Obviously the younger you are the worse it is - millennials make about 2/3rds that average salary and GenZ makes half (the average GenXer makes $126k as of 2022). The next thing I want you to realize is that those expectations are choices. The younger you are in America, the more you're choosing to be dissatisfied. We have a patient. She's on medicaid. She needed some tests run that aren't available to be scheduled in the next six months. So the neurologist we sent her to said "just go to the emergency room and hand them this note." THAT is a protest. She did one better, though - she lost her car keys and didn't feel like looking for them so she called an ambulance. If she were insured? It prolly woulda cost her about $25k. But she isn't so for her it was free. Now THAT is a protest. She'd probably much rather not have to deal with labs at all. Should millennials be satisfied at $40k a year? Abso-fucking-lutely not. But by assigning a mental goal of "I won't feel successful until I have five million dollars in assets" they're guaranteeing they'll never feel successful. Much like you and your sister: you've set the metric for success at "overturn the system" and you're salty that it's out of reach. We're here because I said "just another TESCREAL dipshit" and what you said next was remarkable: You didn't even begin to investigate the situation before shooting your mouth off. You are so deep in your "nothing can be done" frame of mind that an Ivy League scion of a multimillionaire family that owns a half dozen medical facilities is justified in shooting a bitch. your level of satisfaction is thoroughly unattainable, so you wallow in helplessness. Now in the first place, don't fucking feed the accelerationists. This is you and Steve Bannon, nodding and stroking your chins in sync. 'member Fight Club and how the hare-brained scheme was to take down the credit bureaus? There's a lot of air between "take down a credit bureau" and "shoot the CEO of a credit bureau" and you know it but as penance watch a trailer: You know at a cellular level that the British East India Company was terrible. You have absolutely no idea who the kings were during their heyday and you don't even know how to look up who their executives were, though. So poof. You've got a time machine. You want to make the world a better place. Is your first thought "I'ma go shoot the CEO of the British East India Company?" Because corporations, since 1600, have been about absolving individuals of guilt through collective action and restricting individuals of morality through collective restriction. Maybe Walter Raleigh? Except naaah if it wasn't him it woulda been some other schlub, just following orders, because a bunch of board members wanted the Portuguese plundered and the Irish suppressed. Brian Thompson done got got and has the world changed? But what really makes me offended is that you've convinced yourself that there's no point in doing anything short of throwing your life away and I've been out here, dozens of hours a week for like eight years now, managing a healthcare clinic that operates largely for the betterment of minorities. We fight insurance companies every.goddamn.day and you don't even realize how offensive it is for you to argue that what we're doing is pointless. You're so in love with your hopeless adolescent male fantasy of nihilistic destruction that you don't give a fuck about spitting in the face of people who are actually doing something. Now - I'm not going to argue there was no point to capping Brian Thompson. For one thing, this sort of thing gains credibility when there's violence behind it. Terrorism? Mos def. A novel way to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the system? Also that. And see, putting up a poster doesn't involve throwing your life away. Because here's the real deal, dude. Ours is a society of desperate inequality and that gets worse more often than it gets better, at least in my lifetime. And I appreciate desperate times for desperate measures. But instead of going "poof here's a time machine" I go "poof you have an ivy league degree, a state senator for a cousin and grandparents who own two country clubs and a chain of healthcare facilities what are you going to do to improve the future" and you go And fuck off, man. You can't even show me the courtesy of stopping to think before running your mouth. I deserve better. So does everyone you talk to. The purpose of discussion isn't to profess your ill-conceived emotional positions it's to dialogue and you aren't even trying to hear. It's far more important to you to wail about how hopeless everything is so that you don't have to fucking do something about it.
What could he have done to improve the lots of healthcare for those with less access?
What could he have done to improve the lots of healthcare for those with less access?
I think this will be my last post on Hubski regardless, but I figured since you were kind enough to post a long thoughtful reply that you at least deserved a response. I swear to god, everything I post here I do so because I thought it would be appreciated by either you or am_u. But even with things I post specifically for you its clear I'm only making you upset, and it genuinely feels awful. And it extra sucks because I'm pretty sure we pretty much completely agree? Or at least that's the takeaway I get so I think maybe its just that I'm bad at communicating but I think it's pretty clear that we share a ton of the same values and have similar hopes for the world. So I'm sorry again for disappointing you and I really do hope things go your way. Going through point by point: This is awesome and totally majorly improved this person's life. I think that if taking down private healthcare couldn't be done with a president and a supermajority in congress elected on the promise of taking down private healthcare, that I'm pretty justified in saying that it can't be done. I think if anything, politically we are farther from this than we've been in my lifetime, which is why I bring up the stupid things the Dems are doing as opposed to fighting private healthcare. This was the only point I was trying to make. So we totally agree, though I clearly framed it in annoying way. (I don't get what you mean by the poster, though? A poster wouldn't even make local news) I think this isn't quite accelerationism. If I understand them correctly they would work to make healthcare worse and more unaffordable to break down society or something. It's seems obviously cope for stuff that would happen anyways. And to be clear - I hope there is not a huge spree of similar things happening, to the point that the gov't, to protect the citizens it cares about most, puts up martial law or makes us more of a police state. I don't think the left is ready to capitalize on any sort of real conflict. I think this assassination was a fun treat that doesn't do a heck of a lot but is silly to be opposed to. This was the other half of my point. Again, I feel like we completely agree, just you're more upbeat about it. I say that the systems never going to change no matter what and the best we can do is paper around the issues, and you say that you can make a difference in the lives of those around you within the system and I think both are right and neither one's in conflict. Promise this wasn't my intent but again clearly I'm doing something wrong and the first thing I'll do is stop diggingWe have a patient. She's on medicaid. She needed some tests run that aren't available to be scheduled in the next six months. So the neurologist we sent her to said "just go to the emergency room and hand them this note." THAT is a protest. She did one better, though - she lost her car keys and didn't feel like looking for them so she called an ambulance. If she were insured? It prolly woulda cost her about $25k. But she isn't so for her it was free. Now THAT is a protest.
You didn't even begin to investigate the situation before shooting your mouth off. You are so deep in your "nothing can be done" frame of mind that an Ivy League scion of a multimillionaire family that owns a half dozen medical facilities is justified in shooting a bitch. your level of satisfaction is thoroughly unattainable, so you wallow in helplessness.
Is your first thought "I'ma go shoot the CEO of the British East India Company?"
If I had a time machine and was sent to destroy the British East India company I honestly don't know what the hell I would do. I don't think I possibly could. You know as much as me that one person acting alone making massive change is Marvel nonsense. I do think it's a interesting this was the example you picked though, since what little I know from history I'm pretty sure what did end up taking it down was violent revolts in every colony.Now - I'm not going to argue there was no point to capping Brian Thompson. For one thing, this sort of thing gains credibility when there's violence behind it. Terrorism? Mos def. A novel way to demonstrate dissatisfaction with the system? Also that. And see, putting up a poster doesn't involve throwing your life away.
Now in the first place, don't fucking feed the accelerationists. This is you and Steve Bannon, nodding and stroking your chins in sync.
Ours is a society of desperate inequality and that gets worse more often than it gets better, at least in my lifetime.
And fuck off, man. You can't even show me the courtesy of stopping to think before running your mouth. I deserve better. So does everyone you talk to. The purpose of discussion isn't to profess your ill-conceived emotional positions it's to dialogue and you aren't even trying to hear. It's far more important to you to wail about how hopeless everything is so that you don't have to fucking do something about it.
Shooting CEOs might feel good in a moment (other than the obvious Thou shalt not kill thing), but it’s not a policy, and it doesn’t fix any of the underlying problems. The next CEO isn’t going to change how he does things because he’s beholden to shareholders who will replace him if he doesn’t do exactly like the last guy did.
Real quick, before this enters public consciousness more: They're gonna try to kill him. Death penalty. Dude do you wanna make more Mangiones? That would do it. So weird, it's always the worst possible response from the state and elites. The perp walk was amazingly inappropriate.
Lay out the bare facts - this is a premeditated murder of a complete stranger for the purpose of fomenting fear and social upheaval. You'd be hard-pressed to mad-lib that into a situation that didn't call for capital charges. From a motivational and operational standpoint MarioLuigi is a low-effort version of The Unabomber and that dude absolutely faced capital charges. So things go one of two ways here: - MarioLuigi goes the Unabomber way and makes the trial a grandstand for all his ideas. He dismisses council that doesn't let him get out his message. Any attempts at insanity pleas or extenuating circumstances are shut down by the defendant, the trial revolves around maximizing exposure for the defendant's ideas and philosophy and MarioLuigi ends up in life in prison without the possibility of parole. - MarioLuigi goes the FTX way and lawyers up like a mutherfucker. Big expensive lawyers try to contain his outbursts and PR firms portray a complicated portrait of a concerned, promising young man whose only crime is method not motive. Rolling Stone puts his face on the cover, Hulu and Netflix joust over who can suck his cock in the most artfully tasteless way. MarioLuigi ends up in life in prison without the possibility of parole. So what do you think? 'cuz me? I think this little shit is no Ted Kaczynski. he is, say it with me - just another TESCREAL dipshit.
To pick up from chat. Obviously this is far from a perfect robin hood, in practice, but as a symbol, this has provided an important opportunity to re-center the conversation on class warfare and wealth disparities, and of course healthcare insurance, in particular. Yes, I totally meant health "insurance" in chat. But I will say that the insurance problem has had a perverse effect on the provider landscape, obviously. As have other recent GOP decisions. It's the goal. You know this. I know this. But even so, it's wild to see intentionally destructive "populist" sentiments still successfully billed as patriotic. Last sidenote: The fact that the gov't could be about to shut down because Musk told Trump to do it and so Congress abides, with supporting disinformation posted by Musk to X, is exactly the next few years in a nutshell. Yes, there's better ways to take action than murder. Retail investment tactics, maybe go for their liquidity by everyone refusing to pay their premiums for a couple months or whatever. But telling people "don't buy United healthcare" when the employers buy the healthcare and the "healthcare marketplace" (again, I hate this parlance) is increasingly monopolized, with insurers nowadays beginning to do the vertical integration schtick with providers (pharmacies, doctors), voting with our money or labor choices (oh and unions are mostly still dead) seems like, increasingly, a dead end. The market isn't even so "free", and it's problematic even if it were, with an asset like.. remaining alive. And government has failed to address the problem, though it did try. The dems did, at least, yes. But the issue of cost pervades. Some of that is stuff like subsidizing pharmaceutical R&D for drugs we later get bilked for while selling to Europe on the cheapcheap, but mostly it is the insurance companies. The way it feels is that american healthcare is the wealthy telling the peasants to go get the pitchforks. Or so an increasing number of peasants say. We're still in phases of people realizing what healthcare could and should actually be like here. Probably only because my sister has lived in Melbourne for a decade, only recently is my mother like "wouldn't it be better if healthcare wasn't tied to our employment?". Obviously globalization has wisened us up to how screwed we're getting. Hearthcare's also a pretty neat encapsulation of other market sectors' tendencies as well. Real estate, especially, comes to mind, and the fact that it's also pretty difficult to negotiate (and as we further criminalize homelessness, no less) should not escape us. We know how unstable these levels of wealth inequality are, and the "populist" billionaires... might not deliver for we the people, is what you and I are betting, I think. But yeah like I said, I think one response tactic from the ruling class when the plebs get uppity, as when inspired by a hot Italian-American vigilante, perhaps, will be to stoke mass paranoia. Like "drones" [edit: you will be pleased to hear that social media posts reportedly have AI generating how-to articles on shooting down drones, but I haven't verified this]. I'm not sure how conscious of a dynamic that is (yet, at least), but it's such a classic fascist regime thing, just too predictable, really. (and a semi-intentionally botched mass deportation rollout is a really good opportunity create crisis and stoke paranoia, but I digress) I'm not inclined to debate Brian Johnson's actual culpability in the grand scheme of things, that's not where I think I should be focusing my attention. Now, as we debut a New York state CEO thoughts and prayers hotline, and one charge of terrorism for Mangione later (seems to also be a generally New York state-prosecuted thing, but only for mass shooters, from my cursory research, though interestingly not for the guy who killed 10 black americans upstate in a grocery store), what matters is that we nobodies understand that vigilante justice when punching upwards is despicable (downwards or racistly is totally fine), and/or that class traitorship among the wealthy-middle class is unacceptable*. I know you do not watch e.g. Fox, and of course the message is coded in a way to avoid any opportunity of class consciousness, but that's been pretty much the angle across even most MSNBC shows. Again, it's not like the liberals don't have leadership deep into the roots of it all, corporate american financing. It's been made clear that meaningful discussions of this in our media will not be permitted. So.. I dunno, it really sucks when there's any infighting between people working towards the same ends, ultimately. And when I like both of those people a lot. I hope spencer comes back. *yeah I grabbed a screencap of a WaPo article where the headline and accompanying subheader were, as follows, below this paragraph. Firstly: we might have to to do this nowadays, like in a spot check, distributed amongst many people, who each do a little bit periodically, etc., because often I'll find things re-touched up when a few days have passed and it's only in the archives and out of active readership. Sure enough, I went and googled just now and found that the article title is the same: However, the subheader has changed from this, on my camera reel: to this: So make of that what you will. I think the first one is funny, for "played a role", but maybe the naked misdirection towards a classic MAGA target (the Ivies) was too obvious of an alliance. The alignment of establishment media (edit2: or even "independents" like TYT, apparently) into support of this regime for maintaining this wealth distribution will be pretty much near total, I think is what to expect. edit3 (i'm sorry): interestingly, it's quite difficult to overstate the disconnect between the fox news literary articles I can find about daniel penny (guy from the only article linked above) generated after his recent acquittal and the way the TV programming portrayed him. Yes, the online footprint is overwhelmingly positive, but the TV discussions are absolutely drooling, fawning, tripping over their adorations of a guy who obviously should have known, and maybe did indeed know, that he was killing someone for the uncharged crime of making threats or whatever. It's not even performative, this stuff, the anchors are truly in thrall to a victim of their own brainwashings. Judging from what he's said, though, and also the ways he said it, daniel penny is a guy who wants to be good, wants to be moral, but has now been fast-tracked to Rittenhouse 2. Shame. Penny is your echo of a vigilante past, but that isn't scratching the same itch some people got from Mangione, and for many, it's an exciting and new itch.Before shooting, Brian Thompson worried about UnitedHealth's negative image
Anger directed at the company played a role on Dec. 4, authorities said, when a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate allegedly gunned down the executive in midtown Manhattan.
UnitedHealthcare CEO is described as unpretentious but driven, working his way from Iowa farm to the top echelons of business.
It's clear that many, many people want this. They want to find someone they can blame for health insurance sucking. They want a Robin Hood. They want a Sheriff of Nottingham. My problem? Y'all up in this b acting like I don't understand that. Me. The guy who takes sixteen different insurance plans. The guy whose business is 1/3 Medicaid. The guy who legit has a lobbyist on payroll. me. I'm the one who doesn't get it. What's clear to me - and which none of y'all care a lick to hear - is that this is going to leave us worse than before. The narrative requires a good-hearted vigilante with a just cause bypassing the broken rules in order to strike a blow for Truth, Justice and the American Way against the evil oligarchs hell-bent on oppressing the kind citizens of Sherwood Forest. That's what everyone wants. That's what everyone has been pining for. Play up MarioLuigi's history of chronic pain. Play up Sneedly Snodgrass' use of AI in denying claims. Human interest stories about "pretend, offend, be friends" crocheted on toilet cozies. "We got 'em, Lou." And it's all feel-good murdersegments for GMA until the truth intrudes. Sneedly had two kids. He'd managed public benefits for twenty years. He'd raised concerns about "are we the baddies." Mario isn't a cheerful plumber, he's the Ivy-educated scion of a wealthy east-coast healthcare empire who freaked out his fellow moneyspawn at surf camp. Far from being the hard-luck chronic-health T-J-A-W blowstriker everyone's narrative requires, there's no evidence the sumbitch ever had a claim denied, no evidence he'd ever had Sneedly Insurance, and ample evidence that whatever his life concerns, "I can't pay for my medical care" was not among them. Hey 'member when that upstart college student was gonna disrupt girl's education so baaaad that everyone was all "sure go ahead and steal a Beastie Boys song?" Whatever happened with that? I've seen Goldieblox at Joann Fabrics. They're uninspiring bullshit that sells for pennies on the dollar compared to anything else because their ten minute hype into existence wasn't supported by evidence. It was a rich bitch of privilege cutting the line and expecting to be excused because if you're rich you can grab them by the pussy. Public sentiment went from "girrrrrrrl powRRRRRRRR!!!!!!one" to "well that was embarrassing" in about a news cycle and a half because THE NARRATIVE WAS FALSE. Debbie Silverspoon, for her part, learned that there are better ways to spend a million dollars but who fucking cares daddy buys her whatever she wants anyway. But that's just bullshit craftcrap being peddled as educational. Nobody got shot. Here's what's already happened in the health insurance industry: - executives are "othering" their clients - and billing security details to the company - and spinning up the PR machine about how great Sneedly was - and leaning on every influence to make sure Mario's trial sucks all the air out of everything else - and showing how they are the victim here Meanwhile, the gentle folk of Sherwood Forest are wrapping their heads around the fact that they lionized a rich psychopath who thinks Joe Rogan is a philosopher. Know who actually did more for class warfare? Billy McFarland. Wanna see a quote I loved back when I was 23? "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." But see, then I grew the fuck up. "Shoot the bastards" generally goes badly for everyone. "Shoot the bastards" usually ends up with collateral damage. You see, the problem with bastards is they're better at evil than you are. This is you, screencapping the Washington Post because somehow, a vanity publisher owned by a gazillionaire doesn't carve their headlines in granite. And all this - all this - is wish fulfillment. Everyone going "yay streetmurder" is imagining themselves being lauded by millions for shooting Sneedly in the back. So lemme put this in scare quotes "LUIGI MANGIONE IS NOT YOU" now let's talk about Robin Hood for a minnit. You don't have to dig too deep to see that Robin Hood was a legend the English nobility used to scare the English nobility into not being such dicks that their serfs refused to obey. Fun Fact: that's what Machiavelli's The Prince was about, too - it was one in a long line of medieval self help books intended to keep the nobility in power. So the narrative everybody - including the insurance companies - wants is the one where the insurance company acted badly and one of its subscribers called them out and they felt bad and they learned and now everyone is friends with the insurance companies because fuckin' hell we pay them a thousand a month at least they could be nice about it. But the one we're going to get? is "don't break the omerta. 'cuz here's the CEO of Aetna supporting single payer. And here's the CEO of Walmart calling for more than doubling the federal minimum wage. See his stock price being punished in the upper right corner? Doug's still on the job and Walmart stock is parabolic because frankly it's the only retailer left. Mark, on the other hand, got ousted when Aetna got bought by CVS. He knew it was coming. You can see it in his dead eyes. _____________________________________________________ And here, ultimately, is the conversation I wanted to have with Spence, if only he weren't so busy hugging his ragebear and swaddling in his hopelessblanket. - Be Luigi Mangione - Be upset about injustice - Be mad about healthcare prices and policies - Be coming home for Christmas - Be saying "hey grandpa I wanna start taking on the insurance companies that are screwing us over" - Be saying "hey cuz I feel like our state needs insurance reform" - Be slipping into a glass slipper held waiting for you since birth - Be using that Penn degree to actually mutherfucking help people Because that dude ain't us, man. Ain't us by a fair sight. We can't do any of that shit. I try? I want some fuckin' credit for that, by the way, because everyone here is all "yes yes you support single payer but have you shot a bitch lately" AND FUCK YOU ALL WE PICKAXED AN EXTRA MILLION AND A HALF DOLLARS OUT OF THE STATE THIS YEAR TO SERVE UNDERPRIVILEGED COMMUNITIES but since i didn't shoot a bitch fuck me I guess? 'cuz where y'all go, to a man, is - Be Luigi Mangione - Fuck all that - Shoot a bitch - Be a hero And all I'm trying to do? Is stave off the inevitable disappointment when y'all realize that Mario Luigi is, in fact, just another TESCREAL dipshit.Obviously this is far from a perfect robin hood, in practice, but as a symbol, this has provided an important opportunity to re-center the conversation on class warfare and wealth disparities, and of course healthcare insurance, in particular.
before I even say anything else, you will now marinade for about a day in the acknowledgement that indeed, using your influence and wealth to create a pretty unique type of healthcare that satisfies what, obviously, quite a lot of people are seeking is fucking amazing and deserves explicit recognition. I dunno how you stayed as involved in it as you did. Four years is a long time. I might have paid someone to do something Noble and it surely would have failed miserably. Begin your marinade timers
Lol that wasn't wealth that was loans I tapped the crypto to buy a friend a kidney, I tapped the crypto to buy a replacement for my '95 Dodge, I tapped the crypto to buy the FrankenKern and I tapped the crypto to buy the house. Birth Center is self-supported. Of the seven nearby birth centers it is one of two that survived COVID. When we were a county distribution point for PPE. And a designated EMS receiver of ambulances. And NEVER ONCE had to shut down for COVID. because we can't afford professionals lol We got a grant this year. Could have spent it on "here, Vonage, have $2500 a month so I don't have to deal with gawping assholes." Instead we gave out $47k in bonuses. But fuck me, $47k prolly coulda hired a hitman so I could go shoot a bitch.I dunno how you stayed as involved in it as you did.
I think 99% of people choose non-violence because you come back from it. I think 99.9% choose bitching about it on the Internet rather than doing something. I think "fuck yeah someone shot a bitch" serves to satisfy the urge to do something, so the suppression is feeling smug about a stranger getting shot in the back instead of going to a town hall meeting. More than that, I think that the people most directly impacted by health insurance shenanigans are so busy dealing with health insurance shenanigans that they don't waste their time being mad on the Internet. They're the ones - like me - raising the issue with the insurance commissioner, who found her inability to do anything an impetus to run for fucking governor. I want to say "I honestly don't see what's so hard about this" but that would be a lie. What's so hard about this is you don't get to clutch an AR and scream 'wolverines!' like it will accomplish something.
'member that time when they cut childhood poverty in half? 'member the most sweeping reforms against monopolies since FDR? 'member that $2t dems-only package that spared the US economy the worst of COVID economic malaise? Of course you don't. They're boring. But 'member when the libs went "maybe they'll get used to doing something" Naaaah you don't remember that either.
I'll go one further: violent solutions must be effective. A TALE OF TWO TOWERS Ramzi Youssef set off a fertilizer bomb in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in 1993. It killed 6 people, injured a thousand and broke a lot of glass. The FBI totes knew about it. One of the towers was closed for a few weeks. Some TV stations lost their over-the-air broadcast towers for a few weeks. A couple d00ds went to jail forever. On the other hand, Osama Bin Laden, world-renowned insurance CEO, had some d00ds fly jetliners into the WTC and the Pentagon. It killed thousands, injured thousands more and radically reshaped American domestic and foreign policy. Ultimately it launched two forever wars, destabilized at least five regimes in the Middle East and reshaped global politics for a generation at least. Any MFer worth his salt will acknowledge that violent solutions can be effective. Just ask the Mossad. Just ask Zelenski. We're in UR tenements, bombing UR Birdscooters. My argument is that the death of United's CEO at the hand of a privileged TESCREAL dipshit isn't just ineffective it's counterproductive. Further, my argument is that it's fucking pointless to single out a single anonymous bureaucrat when the villain in the movie is a conglomerate of faceless multinational corporations. Brian Thompson - dude who presided over board meetings. Igor Kirrilov? Putin's direct report in charge of unconventional warfare. There are absolutely CEOs whose assassination would shape the narrative. Elon Musk, obviously. Sam Altman. Mark Zuckerberg. I'll go one further and argue that this is the most target-rich corporate environment since the era of Robber Barons; prior to Zuck I don't know that there would have been a point in killing anyone other than Jack Welch. You have to look at it with a gimlet eye and not just fucking assume that random stochastic violence will accomplish anything. "I feel like hitting something" is a useless feeling. "I feel like hitting Prof. Plumb in the forehead with the lead pipe" is a plan. "I feel like hitting Ismael Haniyah in the middle of Tehran with a planted bomb" is a useful plan. Marioluigi had a useless plan that is being bouyed up by useless feelings.
No way. First was the only real attempt. Second was a half-attempt. Third was an easy error, identifying a gun-crazed Trump full-life devotee as an assassination attemptor. Do you guys really believe there is anywhere near enough evidence to overturn the guy in the audience.. dying?? The ear was weird, got nicked and I guess those things are blood oozers. Stood up and fist pumped because the SS gave an "all clear" over the radio. What am I missing? As for UnitedHealthcare CEOs, I take no delight in this event, but many, manyyyyyy of us warned for literally the last decade about the wealthy repeatedly "choosing the pitchforks". Well it turns out we have developed some new technologies in the interim since pitchforks. The idea that this is some unprovoked act of an emerging class warfare is pretty funny. No, but it may signal a new era of warfare, though. I'm surprised so many outlets kept it top of front page, honestly.