Brian Haupt

The first Senators to actually do anything about the Trump admin

Burkina Faso junta fires prime minister, dissolves government No reason was given for dismissal of Tambela, who was appointed interim premier soon after military leader Ibrahim Traore seized power in September 2022

Burkina Faso junta fires prime minister, dissolves government
www.voanews.com/a/burkina-fa...

this is the equivalent of thinking that a magic 8ball is really talking to you

Took me a bit but I've found the framing to put into words a way to express to the people fretting about the death of the UHC CEO why we just aren't heeding their admonishment:

The social contract stipulates that all life is sacred, and Brian Thompson violated it.

But it's more than that.

the ACA places some weak guardrails on a predatory industry that profits from harming people

a nice idea but ultimately fails to engage with what is wrong with the healthcare system

this is a deliberate choice because elected democrats are on team insurance

www.opensecrets.org/political-ac...

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson shot dead in Midtown Manhattan, masked gunman at large UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot near a Midtown Manhattan hotel in a potentially targeted shooting early Wednesday, according to police.

The words "deny," "defend" and "depose" were found on shell casings near where Brian Thompson, the CEO of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare, was killed - as in, the legal tactics insurers use to reduce liability or reject claims abcnews.go.com/US/man-shot-...

democrats have controlled the white house for 12 of the last 16 years

they controlled all of government when the ACA was passed, which was largely a handout to the insurance industry

dems continued and still benefit from the misery and also share the blame

just kind of thinking about the fact the nyt sent a breaking news alert when a college kid said something dumb about Zionists but not when Amnesty International said it had determined that Israel is committing genocide

but he did kill people and that’s how he made his living

just because it was legal, does not make his actions “just”. lots of legal actions have been abhorrent, from slavery to the holocaust

unfortunately there don’t appear to be any options for americans to vote for better policy here

right, and my point is that “it’s the system” is a poor cover to provide people who use that system to enrich themselves while harming others

just because it’s currently legal does not make an action justifiable

my first reply to this was kind of mean but i do want to ask

could this logic not also be used by slaveholders in the 1800s?

UHC prioritizes what provides value for shareholders, not what payors want

choices made by UHC appear to have led to this result- not defending it, explaining it

I’m not expressly implying anything with this graph but

you are right, the system does not justify murder

you should take a moment to reconcile that with the first sentences in your post

why is it that in your mind brian thompson does not bear any responsibility for the people he's killed because it's a product of the "the system", yet the gunman does?

the business of UHC is in determining the best way to prevent people from receiving healthcare in order to make money, as well as lobbying against actual healthcare to protect their model

if i made my business killing people for money, i would expect that someone would eventually come for me

the right way to stand your ground, of course, is to simply refuse covering someone’s treatment because they will probably just die before their lawsuit gets too far

my thoughts and prayers today are with every person killed by united healthcare and brian thompson through denials of care and exploitative pricing

The Working Class Leaves the Party “The largely unorganized social rejection of liberal politics has led us to this moment when the reactionary forces of Trumpism have recaptured the state.” To change course, we can “begin with a leap…

ICYMI: The largely unorganized social rejection of liberal politics has led us to this moment when the reactionary forces of Trumpism have recaptured the state. To change course, we can begin with a leap of faith, a fidelity in the primacy of class action. convergencemag.com/articles/the...

Internalize the fact that FDR was a master propagandist and budgeted messaging into every New Deal project. Despite how it should work, great things do not sell themselves.

and America as their turkey

polls like these aren’t worth much for many reasons, including:

only a small subset of people with time/interest actually respond to polls

people are untrustworthy- they want to give socially acceptable answers like “i am voting” or “no trump”, then do something else

maybe time to throw these out

Democratic senators veer away from anti-Trump resistance to Cabinet picks | Semafor The party took a “hell no” tack in 2017. This time, it’s leaning back to let Republicans squirm.

Haven't seen this many Dems bend the knee since the start of the Iraq war.

Luckily, that strategy worked out just fine for all involved.

www.semafor.com/article/11/2...

I’m worried that kids today are growing up without a video game series that teaches them 13 or 15 similar sounding skate punk songs

doctors delivering bad news to terminal patients with a “your impact is being diluted”

well the powers support WaPo’s ownership so it makes sense to operate under and promote the assumption the powers are real until they are

Kinda feel like an oligarch trying to shut down an anti-corruption agency should be phrased that way

When you have the brain of a dog