Is the US a dystopia?

An investor who was mad he didn’t work harder at setting up automatic claim denial systems.

ilxor who was mad about his opinions on Tusk

shareholder pressure groups whacking CEOs to keep them on their toes>>ppl that start ilm album polls

TS: Greatest Hits v. Greatest Hits

EXCELCEOR

in orbit otm, andrew witty was thompson’s boss. united health’s other big division outside of united healthcare is called optum which has its own set of CEOs

its own set of CEOs

Collect 'em all!

Their heads I mean

nicely done, oliver barnes of the financial times

https://i.imgur.com/hSHd9P0.jpeg

better to lose it that way than by becoming CEO

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahkim/2019/02/25/carrie-ann-lucas-dies/

i've had a lot of thoughts about this and i'm working really hard to resist the temptation to discourse. at the same time i do have things to say and i don't really have anywhere else to say them. everywhere else i hang out, talking politics is banned. talking politics causes severe problems in the community and puts at risk for reprisals. i don't really know much about how other people think or feel about this event. the only place i know about it from is here.

this is a little disorganized, but things feel like they're unsettled, unstable, in flux right now, and i don't really want to spend a lot more time thinking about the issue right now. so i'm sending the below out as is.

-

i'm a soon-to-be-former employee of a health insurance company. i worked at the place for seven years. it doesn't _work_. our insurance company, private insurance, american healthcare in general - it isn't _failing_, it _has failed_. i don't consider that a topic for debate.

my feeling is that when systems fail, the people with power over those systems get more and more desparate to hold on to that power. single-payer in america is not a political debate. it's a practical necessity. the longer and more rigidly one resists change, the more disruptive and radical that change is.

personally i see violence as a communciation method. in this i'm influenced by something Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said. "A riot," Dr. he said, "is the language of the unheard."

-

show of hands. does anybody here think their health insurance company _listens_ to them? does anybody think they _care_ about their subscribers' health and well-being?

huh. interesting, i wasn't expecting that i'd raise my hand in response to that. i meant it as a rhetorical question. but no, my view from the inside isn't that the people running healthcare companies are overly _evil_. it's that they're in a position where they're working to perpetuate a system that doesn't work.

me, most of my soon-to-be-former co-workers, from what i can tell - we're not stupid. we know the system doesn't work. the system doesn't work for _us_ either. i mean everybody i know wants, more than that, sees the _basic necessity_ of single-payer.

mind you, i don't know the c-suite people too well. the divide between those of us working and those of us running the show reminds me a _lot_ of the so-called division between capital and labor. the people i know all look at things one way, and the people running the show look at things basically the opposite way, from what we can tell.

in my observation, the main worry people have about political violence is the fear that _they're next_. that's _why_ it's important for ordinary people believe we're "temporarily embarrassed millionaires". so that we'll fight on the side of our oppressors.

i don't believe i'm a temporarily embarrassed millionaire. i don't see myself as being _in community_ with ceos of major health insurance companies. my values are based in care for the people in my community.

-

when i look at adverse systemic outcomes, the conclusion i draw is that the people whose responsibility is to prevent those outcomes are _either unable or unwilling_ to do what is necessary. from my perspective as someone experiencing those adverse outcomes, i don't really care which. these past few years i've really cut down on my use of the word "should". there is a problem. what can i do that will be effective at fixing the problem?

sometimes the answer is "nothing right now." _right now_ is an important part of that answer. nothing in this life is forever. so i accept that there's nothing i can do to fix american healthcare right now, and i do my best to not die, and i wait for the situation to change.

the situation may be changing. the situation may not. i'm _open to the possibility_ of change.

i do think that single-payer health care in the united states is, in practical terms, a necessity. i will work hard within my community to try and make that a reality. my personal preference is that this process be as non-violent as possible.

the thing is, i don't have a lot of power in a situation like this. my hands are (metaphorically) tied. if this guy, whoever he is, is gonna shoot a healthcare ceo, i can't stop it. do i think what he did was wrong? honestly, i've thought about it, and i don't know. i just don't have enough information to decide if the act that _he_ undertook was right or wrong.

do i think this man's death was good? do i celebrate this man's death? on consideration, yeah. yeah, i do. i think that's an appropriate response, all things considered. am i personally going to enact violence to try and change an unjust system? no. no, i am not going to do that.

News: Investigators have a “reason to believe” the person of interest in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO has left New York City, according to police commissioner Jessica Tisch.

— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) December 6, 2024

dude's in fuckin Central America byeeeeeeeeee

xp sounds like the NYPD have their top men working on this it. Top men.

There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact says NYPD.. lol

please god don't make us "gotta hand it" to the NYPD because they half-ass the investigation

"we are unclear how he left New York. We told the suspect that the border was 'off-limits' to him"

https://bsky.app/profile/edsbs.bsky.social/post/3lco4n4idpk2y

do i think this man's death was good? do i celebrate this man's death? on consideration, yeah. yeah, i do. i think that's an appropriate response, all things considered. am i personally going to enact violence to try and change an unjust system? no. no, i am not going to do that.

pretty much my take here, thx Kate and io and Daniel and rob for the good posts

A discarded water bottle and a discarded cell phone, both allegedly used by the suspect, were sent to the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Friday to see if the items may contain viable DNA evidence, including skin cells, CNN reported citing a senior law enforcement official.

They received these items from Oscar the Snitch

At least the scolds didn't post this.

i wonder how the manson family murders would go down on twitter

— John Ganz (@lionel_trolling) December 6, 2024

interesting how the media focus has quickly shifted from "CEO killed in NYC" to "Americans' Palpable Rage at Insurance Companies"

I don't condone violence, but the dude helped open a conversation

I do condone violence and the dude helped open a conversation.

I don't condone violence

I do

the dude helped open a conversation

and this is why

lol jinx w/milo

I personally would like to see a LOT more of this, ASAP

also rooting for people to be completely unrepentant firebrands if arrested, use the platform to spread the good word

There’s certainly an element of “if this isn’t the world you want to live in, stop taking EVERYTHING” to all of this, which you would think Americans would have baked into their DNA a bit more given how the country started, but a) this is what happens when you devalue history and b) I continue to be wary of how this “oh we could just murder them” epiphany is going to somehow come back to impact my upper middle-class Black family

that's true, I don't mean to diminish the cautionary posts and thoughts itt with my own feelings of "finally some payback"

there are some good anarchist writings on this issue in the Mother Earth anthology but I can't find them in an initial google search, I have been thinking a lot about what people like Bakunin and Goldman and De Cleyre have said on the subject

what do you do when there is no way to stop wholesale greed and corporate looting in a country? and that greed kills people. and your government can't or won't stop it because they are complicit in that looting. what are the options?

How One of the World’s Richest Men Is Avoiding $8 Billion in Taxes

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/business/nvidia-jensen-huang-estate-taxes.html

i will take your answers to that question off the air. great show, everyone. good job. big fan.

who knows if this'll have any lasting effect but it does seem like some powerful people were spooked by this, especially if the guy actually gets away with it. I mean it can't be good to see the country at large just shrug their shoulders and go "yeah, makes sense" when you get assassinated on the streets

The powers that be can always up their security details. A unifying class-consciousness coming to the fore.... can't just hire goons to make that go away

what do you do when there is no way to stop wholesale greed and corporate looting in a country? and that greed kills people. and your government can't or won't stop it because they are complicit in that looting. what are the options?

*How One of the World’s Richest Men Is Avoiding $8 Billion in Taxes*

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/business/nvidia-jensen-huang-estate-taxes.html🕸

Also, there seems no good reason why there can’t be limits on how much margin a company providing necessities can make. Thinking utilities, energy, various types of insurance — all of which have been denationalized / privatized in my country (Canada/Alberta) in my lifetime, and healthcare is next on the auction block.

Conservative pols argued, and people believed, and some still do somehow, that selling off the phone company and opening up the market to private business would reduce prices for consumers. Fuck, man, it’s the fucking phone company, any Joe on the street can’t just build an interprovincial infrastructure to provide a service like that, so it’s basically a pretend market competition where one, maybe 2 companies have the physical infrastructure (which was built with taxpayers’ money) which they charge other companies discounted rates for bulk use of, and then those fake-ass companies turn around and sell it to us at maybe slimmer margins, it’s all a shell game — but if the actual providers can sell it cheap to those bullshit telecom companies they could sell it to us for the same rate or less, but they don’t. But they could if they were a government service instead of a for-profit publicly traded company. Lather, rinse, repeat. I’m currently paying about 4x more for electricity than I was 5 years ago because, welp, shrug, that’s the market. (5y ago we had a government-mandated rate cap but the cons got in and removed it, with predictable results.)

But 5y ago the electricity company — oh, sorry, “companies” — wasn’t going bankrupt, it’s just now in the deregulated environment they’re swimming like Scrooge McDuck in profits. Yippee if you’re a shareholder, I guess, but everyone I know is suffering because of it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So ok, you don’t want to nationalize your necessities because you don’t want to catch the socializz, but THERE OUGHTTA BE A LAW and so on. Not too long ago that wasn’t a radical idea, now if you suggest there would be any limits to capital’s rapaciousness you’re the radical left. You tell me this while we’re sharing a can of beans we’re baking over a fire in a barrel.

Here are some more ppl who love the taste of the boot.

Googling "are there more than two people" pic.twitter.com/UJuSZMwxAS

— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) December 7, 2024

be tempted to think they are bots from a Moscow US Troll Farm or maybe 4real and are looking for some bootlicking acclaim from billionaire overlords. It's unfortunate that arseholes like this really do exist.

Good morning!

Negronis at the hospital ($200)

One for the scolds. Time for a clear out lads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i45Y4Hf_so8

none more PMC^^^

Xp - not a very good example tbh as the context for that was internecine warfare and purges related to petty factionalism

Or if this is actually just a Revolutionary LARP-ing thread, I apologize for not knowing that.

just a bit of internecine warfare and purges lets all be cool

Every take i’ve seen on the UHC Hitman: pic.twitter.com/OMlZZwW2KI

— Grip Bayless✨ (@talleyberrybaby) December 5, 2024

this really made me think...about eating pizza!

https://scontent-lga3-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/469606400_908206661453456_4768270498560659360_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=dpDnHECDIZIQ7kNvgGBKJd0&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-3.xx&_nc_gid=A5784hM7dFg3EFrHQlbMY-4&oh=00_AYAyC0MCMkUxYXhcVg-TCfVeJAK0EthVtatNf0wkK9MXsg&oe=675A2E58

I want to thank all those revolutionary larpers, whose incessant posting about gulags and murdering billionaires for the last decade did help make the space for the UHC Hitman to be radicalised in!

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3vyl2i7k2fuk7lbnmlxh3vof/bafkreie74mkwb6j4fkdsk4xpn27oqgrila56d5pobmdxvlbrtal64gkm4a@jpeg