Speaking of medical issues, MAGA legislators in Oklahoma are proposing a new state law that limits emergency exceptions when the life of the mother is in danger. Reading between the lines: women are expendable.
These people stop at nothing. But I remind myself that a majority of men and women voters in that state elected them.
A professor emeritus of pediatrics here and the statistics are 1 in 8 pregnancies end in miscarriage. It is nature’s way of stopping a pregnancy with a malformed fetus. Now, we have had many instances in the fascist states of Texas and Georgia that these unfortunate women are denied necessary medical care while they are bleeding to death because this malformed fetus still has a heartbeat? One poor Texas woman went to three hospitals in a 40 hour period because she was suffering a miscarriage and the medical personnel refused to give her proper medical care and she bled to death! It appears that Oklahoma will soon join their fellow fascist states of Texas and Georgia. By the way, the Orange Fuhrer won all three states and white women helped the Orange Fuhrer win these states. I pray that all women who are pregnant will have a successful pregnancy but 1 out of 8 pregnancies end in miscarriage!
It makes me think democracy is ending because it no longer functions on behalf of its citizens. We have legislators getting elected and instead of focusing on education or housing, for instance, they would rather kill off women.
The problem is too many people say, with some justification, “what has democracy done to improve my life and the lives of my children? Not much that I can see.” So they see no reason to preserve democracy. Hence they voted for Trump.
We like democracy because it works for us. I wonder how many “democracy-loving” people would vote for fascism if they thought they would do better under it, at least if their guy was in charge. Those are the American oligarchs who voted for Trump.
If we had a functioning democracy (NO CITIZENS UNITED!), including a top-notch educational system, money that goes into ludicrous profit and obscene salaries for top executives in health "insurance" and "Big Pharma," and the advertising campaigns they so lavishly finance, would be redirected toward more medical research, lower costs, publicly financed education of medical professionals, and salaries commensurate with the contribution of those professionals to American society. And we could tell the CEO's of these giant corporations to find a job where they actually contribute something, other than greed, to our once great nation.
Of course, I am referring to a National Single Payer Health Care System. We really need to stop deifying wealth and begin to build an economy based on caring about all people. To me, the best way to slow immigration would be to actively support the impoverished nations from whence the migrants come. We could start by ceasing to support far-right corrupt dictators and help the people they exploit develop an economy that works for them, which would mean turning over control of the economy to them through nationalization of essential industries and getting the foreigners (US) out.
My mom had a miscarriage. It was not spoken about much in my family, but I do remember her telling me she was very sick and nothing felt right. Here we are 60 years later and she could have died in some states.
It’s almost as if these Christo-fascist MAGA theocratic states are daring the clones of Luigi to strike, and strike they doubtless will -- with suppurating, mordant and mortal irony.
This bill will become law because there is nothing to stop it. Republicans in Oklahoma have a super majority in both houses and a Republican Governor. In the Oklahoma Senate, there are 48 seats and 40 of them are held by Republicans. When you elect people like this, you get laws like this.
Physicians are fleeing the fascist states of Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma! The Oklahoma Superintendent of Education used state monies to buy the Orange Fuhrer’s Bible and forcing his Christo-fascist Trump bibles to be used in Oklahoma schools! The founding fathers made it perfectly clear in the U.S. Constitution there was to be no state religion in the USA!
Thanks, Steve, for your perfect response to that outrageous op ed piece published by the Times.
Here's my posted comment to that article.
"When I have sued the large insurance companies for wrongful death due to mismanaged care, their standard first response is words to the effect: " We don't provide care for patients. We just pay bills." Mr. Witty knows they do much more than that as you can see by his call to work through them to reform the "patchwork" non system. Made even richer by the passage of ObamaCare in 2010, the health insurance companies essentially own Congress, the Executive Branch and almost all state legislatures. They have used their money and lobbying strength to fashion a lottery system of care that rewards their stockholders and overpaid top executives first, while patient care, particularly for the poor and medically unsophisticated, takes a distant second. And Mr. Witty neglects to tell readers that a division of his company employs about 100,000 U.S. doctors raising questions of whether patients can trust them to put patient needs first. The prior authorization process routinely denies necessary care with an appeal process that creates turmoil in doctors offices, requires thousands of employees to fight for what is often life-saving care, and has been responsible for about half of all U.S. doctors experiencing burnout. And now Mr. Witty cynically asks for suggestions about how to make things better."
Many years ago in the 1990s when I appeared on a panel with the CEO of Kaiser and the chief lobbyist for AARP which pedals UHC managed care products, I likened managed care doctors and clerks to the Nazi doctors who made decisions about lives not worth living remotely based on review of paper records. All of this current publicity about outrage over prior authorization decisions for profits by managed care entities makes it look like these rationing care processes are new. They are not. They've been going on for 40+ years and getting worse. The HMOs have gotten richer and now billionaire owners call the shots about who lives and who dies with help from their servants in Congress and state legislatures and the courts.
I was rebuffed by more than one CNN and big 3 network producer while trying to report egregious examples of patient harm with media arrogance and certainty that doctors were just rich, incompetents trying to provide unnecessary care. As for the NY Times, they cancelled a meeting at the very last minute not wanting to hear about a one year undercover investigation of the HMO industry (Sam Donaldson reporter, John Siceloff senior producer ) that was killed by ABC-TV. Don't forget that the major cable and network media companies -- video and print -- are recipients of huge advertising dollars from the managed care industry -- as in incessant ads for Medicare Advantage (HMO) care that is "free" but costs taxpayers $billions more than fee for service Medicare.
"Sir" Andrew is a fraud. The hypocrisy oozes from his words. We need a national healthcare system that supports patients and doctors, and ELIMINATES insurance companies. They've made their billions. Now they should be left on the trash heap of history.
All health insurance companies can start from the fact that at least 17% of our premiums go to administrative costs. Medicare's is 3%. That is the first problem. Any govt grunt can administer the money at a salary than a private insurance company that has to make usurious profits.
True, yet another serious concern if these "government grunts" are Schedule F'd because they won't pledge loyalty to Trump. Then we can watch their replacements, with fealty pledge in hand, completely fuck it up.
I agree with you. I was just trying to point out, a bit inelegantly, that if we had a national health insurance plan, then admin costs would immediately be 14% lower, a considerable savings. I am hoping that the schedule f thing will be a bit more difficult than they think. thanks for responding.
Completely valid point and appreciated. I've long been a proponent of a national health care system.
Nothing the incoming administration tries seems to be off the table. Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 in the campaign, because of course he did, even though over 200 people from his first admin were involved in writing it and he's already hired some of the authors of it to the incoming one. In many ways I fear at least some of that will be their blueprint for action - and they've been working on this wet/fever dream for decades.
In my opinion, medical care should never be for profit. Once the profit margin becomes the primary focus, the patient ends up getting screwed. Further I don’t believe that education should be for profit. It can be public or private, but not for profit.
I feel the anger in your words and I don’t blame you. This is capitalism run amok.
I Love You Man….sometimes you make me cry laughing…another one of your all time great “Historically, it triggers our national “go f*ck yourself” instinct” 🙌😂
First, the Times has failed as a legitimate news source. It has sold out to the oligarchs, of which its owner is one.
What happened is in keeping with the total disregard for human life that infests the right wing political party. To me the person being held for the murder is suffering from some sort of mental disorder. Previously that used to be the immediate explanation for the murder(s). Why is it missing now?
Comparing the shooter to Ted Bundy is ridiculous. Bundy was a serial killer who preyed on and murdered women for decades. This kid is a mixed up, mentally ill barely man whose frontal lobe is still not fully formed at 26. He actually didn't set a bomb off because he didn't want to hurt other people. So, let's get real. This country always idolizes non-violent leaders like MLK, Jr., Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, RFK, but then murders them. The ONLY way this country has ever moved forward is through violence. So spare me. Do I agree with murder? Absolutely not! But the "peaceful protesters" who demonstrated against the genocide in Gaza were also met with extreme violence by law enforcement. So is anyone AND I mean anyone who is Black and dares to stand up and say enough. You forget that this country was founded on the violent genocide of Native Americans. We are a violent nation, always have been. Desperate people do desperate things when backed into a corner. UHC is a monstrous company and my doctor compared it to the Mafia. As of yesterday, one healthcare company in North Carolina, forgave millions in medical debt of mostly elderly people. Why? Could it have been the violence? Guess.
The way I read the comparison to Bundy is that they both are handsome and ended up with a cult following because of it. You could also argue that both are/were mentally ill, but the scope of their crimes are quite different.
He wasn't comparing their crimes/motives; but only the looks. The comparison follows this statement and before a picture: "The young nitwits on TikTok celebrating Luigi’s “hotness” should look more closely at this face". Then a picture of Bundy with this statement: "Most are too young to remember another handsome young guy with a great head of hair and a killer smile".
Many years ago, IBM switched from BCBS to UHC for its employees' healthcare. That year, the CEO of UHC got a big bonus ($30million was the rumor - more than the CEO of IBM was pulling down). The very next year IBM ditched UHC and went back to BCBS, IIRC. And two years ago, IBM dropped the HCRA it was funding for retirees and told us our only option (for any reimbursement) was to sign up for UHC Medicare Advantage. Someone at corporate got paid off... to the detriment of thousands of IBM retirees (around $3000/yr is no longer covered).
Long ago trump showed up and people enjoyed the "entertainment" laughing it off. Backs rarely turned on him, and on and on we went. Perhaps people will finally see this is not a joke. We still have the real power of TRUTH, COMPASSION, LOVE, and trump is still consumed in his illusion of outer power. He is still a loser.
The American Revolution gave us, among other things, the Constitution, which the Reagan Revolution has worked to destroy, among other things. The words “private equity” appear in that document as often as the word “corporation” but we merrily monetize everything in sight, including, in 39 days, the Whitehouse, with the blessing of the wholly-owned and richly monetized Supreme Court. The feared “death panels” of the Obamacare battles existed then as they exist now - in the boards of directors of our monetized healthcare “system”. But the REAL problem? Drag queens.
We fought the revolution to rid ourselves of a king and his tyranny. We fought WWII to defeat nazis. Why in the world are we turning everything over to a fascist leader and his ilk?
We should not let him take office. Call in the military to guard all of our institutions and prepare. Would we let Hitler take office? Forget the election. Save America from harm. Those in power now, took an oath to protect the constitution. Please protect us from certain harm.
In my mind, this is one of the most consequential posts since the launch of The Warning. What Steve describes very acutely is a convergence we have not seen before: the tone deafness of a overpaid CEO, placed (and paid for) in the pages of a 'paper of record,' itself now irrelevant and tone deaf responding to a thing they cannot comprehend: the simmering anger of the masses. Neither Witty, nor the Times, nor your Senator, nor your Congressman, nor CNN, nor your Mayor see it coming. The people on the street know. The police on the street know. The workers and middle class and normal folks know: A storm is approaching. It's hard to name, this storm, because it includes parts of the MAGA message as well as the lament of dozens of other groups of people. You may not be able to name it, but you can see it: a silencer on a gun in Manhattan, a guy who doesn't care he was caught killing a wealthy CEO; a chair thrown through a store window; a scared young woman crossing the border at night from Ohio to Illinois. An injured worker whose insurance claim was denied. Americans (note I didn't say 'America'), but ordinary Americans are effing fed up. The pitchforks are coming out. They're getting sharpened. Trump is not the answer because he's incompetent and uninterested. But someone will emerge, someone will come along who really knows how to rally people, and stir them up, and they'll take to the streets. All they'll have to look for are the black Chevy Suburbans with shaded windows.
Spreading lies, as usual, the disgusting fascist pig:
"Vice President-elect Vance, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in their social media posts falsely conflated the FBI’s acknowledgement that several informants were at the riot and even entered the Capitol with a long-running conspiracy theory that the FBI staged the attack to discredit then-President Trump.
The report explicitly said that no FBI employees were present and that no FBI informants were authorized to participate.
Although the report established the FBI was not involved in spurring the events of Jan. 6, members of Trump’s incoming administration propped up the presence of the informants as proof of the exact opposite."https://www.axios.com/2024/12/13/trump-musk-vance-jan-6-report-fbi
As a long-time provider for United and other, similar companies…I have seen the hoops through which providers must jump,, the limitations that are placed on care based on an algorithm rather than on an individual patient, the games that they play with patient billing and provider payment, and the amount that they collect from patient premiums versus what they actually provide, while this Witty character hauls in 23 million per year…”change” is a gentle word for what should happen.
I am a health care provider and UHC is the worst. I will not accept their insurance because their reimbursement is so low. They also deny coverage and request time consuming prior authorizations for everything, They are just a greedy middleman that skims off patient premiums and pays the people who actually provide medical care the lowest possible reimbursement.
There needs to be regulation of private health insurance companies. First, they should be non-profit. It is absolutely obscene that whenever a company such as UHC denies coverage, it increases their profit so they can afford to pay their executives $10 million a year and more. Second, there should be some sort of governmental commission created to set up standards for what procedures and drugs should be covered, in addition to overseeing the health insurance companies. Medicare Advantage should be disallowed altogether. All they do is take taxpayer money from the federal government to manage their patients and then pay out less for actual patient care in order to make a profit. Just let people be on actual Medicare - it will be cheaper and the coverage is actually better.
Right now a large portion of our health care dollars are wasted on a ridiculous amount of administrative costs. There is money spent to support the health insurance company itself who has huge buildings and hires thousands of employees who don't provide any medical care and whose job is to pay out as little in claims as possible. If you walk into any doctor's office you will see many people sitting there whose sole job is to deal with insurance company claims all day long. Doctors should be able to focus on providing medical care and not be forced to hire a whole team of people to work full time processing insurance claims and dealing with denials in coverage and prior authorizations.
Speaking of medical issues, MAGA legislators in Oklahoma are proposing a new state law that limits emergency exceptions when the life of the mother is in danger. Reading between the lines: women are expendable.
These people stop at nothing. But I remind myself that a majority of men and women voters in that state elected them.
A professor emeritus of pediatrics here and the statistics are 1 in 8 pregnancies end in miscarriage. It is nature’s way of stopping a pregnancy with a malformed fetus. Now, we have had many instances in the fascist states of Texas and Georgia that these unfortunate women are denied necessary medical care while they are bleeding to death because this malformed fetus still has a heartbeat? One poor Texas woman went to three hospitals in a 40 hour period because she was suffering a miscarriage and the medical personnel refused to give her proper medical care and she bled to death! It appears that Oklahoma will soon join their fellow fascist states of Texas and Georgia. By the way, the Orange Fuhrer won all three states and white women helped the Orange Fuhrer win these states. I pray that all women who are pregnant will have a successful pregnancy but 1 out of 8 pregnancies end in miscarriage!
It makes me think democracy is ending because it no longer functions on behalf of its citizens. We have legislators getting elected and instead of focusing on education or housing, for instance, they would rather kill off women.
Democracy is ending because corruption has taken over.
Democracy will only end IF we allow that by doing nothing. To paraphrase Franklin, “if we can keep it, madam.”.
There is corruption that we seem to let go unattended.
Examples:
Congress (both houses, both parties, insider trading, sexual abuse, illegal personal funding, et al).
No indictments of TFG for insurrection.
No punishment for stealing govt secret documents.
CEO'S, banking, Wall Street, health-care, big Pharm, and on and on.
Supreme Court.
As of Jan 20th we will have all three branches of governnent severly compromised.
We are starting to resemble the Roman Empire in a a big way.
The problem is too many people say, with some justification, “what has democracy done to improve my life and the lives of my children? Not much that I can see.” So they see no reason to preserve democracy. Hence they voted for Trump.
We like democracy because it works for us. I wonder how many “democracy-loving” people would vote for fascism if they thought they would do better under it, at least if their guy was in charge. Those are the American oligarchs who voted for Trump.
American-style democracy has failed us all.
If we had a functioning democracy (NO CITIZENS UNITED!), including a top-notch educational system, money that goes into ludicrous profit and obscene salaries for top executives in health "insurance" and "Big Pharma," and the advertising campaigns they so lavishly finance, would be redirected toward more medical research, lower costs, publicly financed education of medical professionals, and salaries commensurate with the contribution of those professionals to American society. And we could tell the CEO's of these giant corporations to find a job where they actually contribute something, other than greed, to our once great nation.
Of course, I am referring to a National Single Payer Health Care System. We really need to stop deifying wealth and begin to build an economy based on caring about all people. To me, the best way to slow immigration would be to actively support the impoverished nations from whence the migrants come. We could start by ceasing to support far-right corrupt dictators and help the people they exploit develop an economy that works for them, which would mean turning over control of the economy to them through nationalization of essential industries and getting the foreigners (US) out.
Sadly, you are correct!
My mom had a miscarriage. It was not spoken about much in my family, but I do remember her telling me she was very sick and nothing felt right. Here we are 60 years later and she could have died in some states.
My sister-in-law had a miscarriage and almost died because they waited until she was entering sepsis to provide medical care.
It’s almost as if these Christo-fascist MAGA theocratic states are daring the clones of Luigi to strike, and strike they doubtless will -- with suppurating, mordant and mortal irony.
Well, SCOTUS certainly made sure they were adequately armed.
This bill will become law because there is nothing to stop it. Republicans in Oklahoma have a super majority in both houses and a Republican Governor. In the Oklahoma Senate, there are 48 seats and 40 of them are held by Republicans. When you elect people like this, you get laws like this.
Thank you.
Physicians are fleeing the fascist states of Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma! The Oklahoma Superintendent of Education used state monies to buy the Orange Fuhrer’s Bible and forcing his Christo-fascist Trump bibles to be used in Oklahoma schools! The founding fathers made it perfectly clear in the U.S. Constitution there was to be no state religion in the USA!
Women are chattel when a piece of property has more rights when trespassed than a woman has over her own body.
Thanks, Steve, for your perfect response to that outrageous op ed piece published by the Times.
Here's my posted comment to that article.
"When I have sued the large insurance companies for wrongful death due to mismanaged care, their standard first response is words to the effect: " We don't provide care for patients. We just pay bills." Mr. Witty knows they do much more than that as you can see by his call to work through them to reform the "patchwork" non system. Made even richer by the passage of ObamaCare in 2010, the health insurance companies essentially own Congress, the Executive Branch and almost all state legislatures. They have used their money and lobbying strength to fashion a lottery system of care that rewards their stockholders and overpaid top executives first, while patient care, particularly for the poor and medically unsophisticated, takes a distant second. And Mr. Witty neglects to tell readers that a division of his company employs about 100,000 U.S. doctors raising questions of whether patients can trust them to put patient needs first. The prior authorization process routinely denies necessary care with an appeal process that creates turmoil in doctors offices, requires thousands of employees to fight for what is often life-saving care, and has been responsible for about half of all U.S. doctors experiencing burnout. And now Mr. Witty cynically asks for suggestions about how to make things better."
Many years ago in the 1990s when I appeared on a panel with the CEO of Kaiser and the chief lobbyist for AARP which pedals UHC managed care products, I likened managed care doctors and clerks to the Nazi doctors who made decisions about lives not worth living remotely based on review of paper records. All of this current publicity about outrage over prior authorization decisions for profits by managed care entities makes it look like these rationing care processes are new. They are not. They've been going on for 40+ years and getting worse. The HMOs have gotten richer and now billionaire owners call the shots about who lives and who dies with help from their servants in Congress and state legislatures and the courts.
I was rebuffed by more than one CNN and big 3 network producer while trying to report egregious examples of patient harm with media arrogance and certainty that doctors were just rich, incompetents trying to provide unnecessary care. As for the NY Times, they cancelled a meeting at the very last minute not wanting to hear about a one year undercover investigation of the HMO industry (Sam Donaldson reporter, John Siceloff senior producer ) that was killed by ABC-TV. Don't forget that the major cable and network media companies -- video and print -- are recipients of huge advertising dollars from the managed care industry -- as in incessant ads for Medicare Advantage (HMO) care that is "free" but costs taxpayers $billions more than fee for service Medicare.
"Sir" Andrew is a fraud. The hypocrisy oozes from his words. We need a national healthcare system that supports patients and doctors, and ELIMINATES insurance companies. They've made their billions. Now they should be left on the trash heap of history.
All health insurance companies can start from the fact that at least 17% of our premiums go to administrative costs. Medicare's is 3%. That is the first problem. Any govt grunt can administer the money at a salary than a private insurance company that has to make usurious profits.
True, yet another serious concern if these "government grunts" are Schedule F'd because they won't pledge loyalty to Trump. Then we can watch their replacements, with fealty pledge in hand, completely fuck it up.
I agree with you. I was just trying to point out, a bit inelegantly, that if we had a national health insurance plan, then admin costs would immediately be 14% lower, a considerable savings. I am hoping that the schedule f thing will be a bit more difficult than they think. thanks for responding.
Completely valid point and appreciated. I've long been a proponent of a national health care system.
Nothing the incoming administration tries seems to be off the table. Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 in the campaign, because of course he did, even though over 200 people from his first admin were involved in writing it and he's already hired some of the authors of it to the incoming one. In many ways I fear at least some of that will be their blueprint for action - and they've been working on this wet/fever dream for decades.
In my opinion, medical care should never be for profit. Once the profit margin becomes the primary focus, the patient ends up getting screwed. Further I don’t believe that education should be for profit. It can be public or private, but not for profit.
I feel the anger in your words and I don’t blame you. This is capitalism run amok.
I Love You Man….sometimes you make me cry laughing…another one of your all time great “Historically, it triggers our national “go f*ck yourself” instinct” 🙌😂
First, the Times has failed as a legitimate news source. It has sold out to the oligarchs, of which its owner is one.
What happened is in keeping with the total disregard for human life that infests the right wing political party. To me the person being held for the murder is suffering from some sort of mental disorder. Previously that used to be the immediate explanation for the murder(s). Why is it missing now?
Comparing the shooter to Ted Bundy is ridiculous. Bundy was a serial killer who preyed on and murdered women for decades. This kid is a mixed up, mentally ill barely man whose frontal lobe is still not fully formed at 26. He actually didn't set a bomb off because he didn't want to hurt other people. So, let's get real. This country always idolizes non-violent leaders like MLK, Jr., Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, RFK, but then murders them. The ONLY way this country has ever moved forward is through violence. So spare me. Do I agree with murder? Absolutely not! But the "peaceful protesters" who demonstrated against the genocide in Gaza were also met with extreme violence by law enforcement. So is anyone AND I mean anyone who is Black and dares to stand up and say enough. You forget that this country was founded on the violent genocide of Native Americans. We are a violent nation, always have been. Desperate people do desperate things when backed into a corner. UHC is a monstrous company and my doctor compared it to the Mafia. As of yesterday, one healthcare company in North Carolina, forgave millions in medical debt of mostly elderly people. Why? Could it have been the violence? Guess.
The way I read the comparison to Bundy is that they both are handsome and ended up with a cult following because of it. You could also argue that both are/were mentally ill, but the scope of their crimes are quite different.
He wasn't comparing their crimes/motives; but only the looks. The comparison follows this statement and before a picture: "The young nitwits on TikTok celebrating Luigi’s “hotness” should look more closely at this face". Then a picture of Bundy with this statement: "Most are too young to remember another handsome young guy with a great head of hair and a killer smile".
You make some excellent points. Very true.
$23M salary - it is just obscene
Somebody pulling in 100k a year after taxes would have to work 230 years to get this rotting meat-bag’s annual grift.
Many years ago, IBM switched from BCBS to UHC for its employees' healthcare. That year, the CEO of UHC got a big bonus ($30million was the rumor - more than the CEO of IBM was pulling down). The very next year IBM ditched UHC and went back to BCBS, IIRC. And two years ago, IBM dropped the HCRA it was funding for retirees and told us our only option (for any reimbursement) was to sign up for UHC Medicare Advantage. Someone at corporate got paid off... to the detriment of thousands of IBM retirees (around $3000/yr is no longer covered).
Wonderful, thought provoking essay Steve. Thank you.
Long ago trump showed up and people enjoyed the "entertainment" laughing it off. Backs rarely turned on him, and on and on we went. Perhaps people will finally see this is not a joke. We still have the real power of TRUTH, COMPASSION, LOVE, and trump is still consumed in his illusion of outer power. He is still a loser.
The American Revolution gave us, among other things, the Constitution, which the Reagan Revolution has worked to destroy, among other things. The words “private equity” appear in that document as often as the word “corporation” but we merrily monetize everything in sight, including, in 39 days, the Whitehouse, with the blessing of the wholly-owned and richly monetized Supreme Court. The feared “death panels” of the Obamacare battles existed then as they exist now - in the boards of directors of our monetized healthcare “system”. But the REAL problem? Drag queens.
We fought the revolution to rid ourselves of a king and his tyranny. We fought WWII to defeat nazis. Why in the world are we turning everything over to a fascist leader and his ilk?
We should not let him take office. Call in the military to guard all of our institutions and prepare. Would we let Hitler take office? Forget the election. Save America from harm. Those in power now, took an oath to protect the constitution. Please protect us from certain harm.
In my mind, this is one of the most consequential posts since the launch of The Warning. What Steve describes very acutely is a convergence we have not seen before: the tone deafness of a overpaid CEO, placed (and paid for) in the pages of a 'paper of record,' itself now irrelevant and tone deaf responding to a thing they cannot comprehend: the simmering anger of the masses. Neither Witty, nor the Times, nor your Senator, nor your Congressman, nor CNN, nor your Mayor see it coming. The people on the street know. The police on the street know. The workers and middle class and normal folks know: A storm is approaching. It's hard to name, this storm, because it includes parts of the MAGA message as well as the lament of dozens of other groups of people. You may not be able to name it, but you can see it: a silencer on a gun in Manhattan, a guy who doesn't care he was caught killing a wealthy CEO; a chair thrown through a store window; a scared young woman crossing the border at night from Ohio to Illinois. An injured worker whose insurance claim was denied. Americans (note I didn't say 'America'), but ordinary Americans are effing fed up. The pitchforks are coming out. They're getting sharpened. Trump is not the answer because he's incompetent and uninterested. But someone will emerge, someone will come along who really knows how to rally people, and stir them up, and they'll take to the streets. All they'll have to look for are the black Chevy Suburbans with shaded windows.
“… someone will emerge.” Where’s Vance? What’s he been up to lately?
I found something else Vance is doing:
"Vice President-elect JD Vance (R-Ohio) confirmed Friday that he invited Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran recently acquitted of murder charges in New York, to be his guest at the Army-Navy football game over the weekend."https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5038843-jd-vance-daniel-penny-army-navy-game/
Where is the outrage over the celebration of this murder of a homeless Black man on a NYC subway train?
The cruelty is the point.
And it reeks of racism.
Unbelievable.
The distraction is also the point.
These outrages are going to happen over and over. I need to remind myself to pay the most attention to the laws making their way through Congress.
Omg- that’s sick
Spreading lies, as usual, the disgusting fascist pig:
"Vice President-elect Vance, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in their social media posts falsely conflated the FBI’s acknowledgement that several informants were at the riot and even entered the Capitol with a long-running conspiracy theory that the FBI staged the attack to discredit then-President Trump.
The report explicitly said that no FBI employees were present and that no FBI informants were authorized to participate.
Although the report established the FBI was not involved in spurring the events of Jan. 6, members of Trump’s incoming administration propped up the presence of the informants as proof of the exact opposite."https://www.axios.com/2024/12/13/trump-musk-vance-jan-6-report-fbi
"Mind your manners. Don’t talk. Do better. Say less. No one trusts you. You earned it."
This might be the general reaction to US foreign policy in recent years.
As a long-time provider for United and other, similar companies…I have seen the hoops through which providers must jump,, the limitations that are placed on care based on an algorithm rather than on an individual patient, the games that they play with patient billing and provider payment, and the amount that they collect from patient premiums versus what they actually provide, while this Witty character hauls in 23 million per year…”change” is a gentle word for what should happen.
I am a health care provider and UHC is the worst. I will not accept their insurance because their reimbursement is so low. They also deny coverage and request time consuming prior authorizations for everything, They are just a greedy middleman that skims off patient premiums and pays the people who actually provide medical care the lowest possible reimbursement.
There needs to be regulation of private health insurance companies. First, they should be non-profit. It is absolutely obscene that whenever a company such as UHC denies coverage, it increases their profit so they can afford to pay their executives $10 million a year and more. Second, there should be some sort of governmental commission created to set up standards for what procedures and drugs should be covered, in addition to overseeing the health insurance companies. Medicare Advantage should be disallowed altogether. All they do is take taxpayer money from the federal government to manage their patients and then pay out less for actual patient care in order to make a profit. Just let people be on actual Medicare - it will be cheaper and the coverage is actually better.
Right now a large portion of our health care dollars are wasted on a ridiculous amount of administrative costs. There is money spent to support the health insurance company itself who has huge buildings and hires thousands of employees who don't provide any medical care and whose job is to pay out as little in claims as possible. If you walk into any doctor's office you will see many people sitting there whose sole job is to deal with insurance company claims all day long. Doctors should be able to focus on providing medical care and not be forced to hire a whole team of people to work full time processing insurance claims and dealing with denials in coverage and prior authorizations.
As another health care provider, Donna, you speak he clear and very ugly truth.