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  1. #76
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    The Allopathic Complex and Its Consequences

    Luigi Mangione's last words...

    The second amendment means I am my own chief executive and commander in chief of my own military. I authorize my own act of self-defense in response to a hostile entity making war on me and my family.

    Nelson Mandela says no form of viooence can be excused. Camus says it’s all the same, whether you live or die or have a cup of coffee. MLK says violence never brings permanent peace. Gandhi says that non-violence is the mightiest power available to mankind.

    That’s who they tell you are heroes. That’s who our revolutionaries are.

    Yet is that not capitalistic? Non-violence keeps the system working at full speed ahead.

    What did it get us. Look in the mirror.

    They want us to be non-violent, so that they can grow fat off the blood they take from us.

    The only way out is through. Not all of us will make it. Each of us is our own chief executive. You have to decide what you will tolerate.

    In Gladiator 1 Maximus cuts into the military tattoo that identifies him as part of the roman legion. His friend asks “Is that the sign of your god?” As Maximus carves deeper into his own flesh, as his own blood drips down his skin, Maximus smiles and nods yes. The tattoo represents the emperor, who is god. The god emperor has made himself part of Maximus’s own flesh. The only way to destroy the emperor is to destroy himself. Maximus smiles through the pain because he knows it is worth it.

    These might be my last words. I don’t know when they will come for me. I will resist them at any cost. That’s why I smile through the pain.



    They diagnosed my mother with severe neuropathy when she was forty-one years old. She said it started ten years before that with burning sensations in her feet and occasional sharp stabbing pains. At first the pain would last a few moments, then fade to tingling, then numbness, then fade to nothing a few days later.

    The first time the pain came she ignored it. Then it came a couple times a year and she ignored it. Then every couple months. Then a couple times a month. Then a couple times a week. At that point by the time the tingling faded to numbness, the pain would start, and the discomfort was constant. At that point even going from the couch to the kitchen to make her own lunch became a major endeavor
    She started with ibuprofen, until the stomach aches and acid reflux made her switch to acetaminophen. Then the headaches and barely sleeping made her switch back to ibuprofen.

    The first doctor said it was psychosomatic. Nothing was wrong. She needed to relax, destress, sleep more.

    The second doctor said it was a compressed nerve in her spine. She needed back surgery. It would cost $180,000. Recovery would be six months minimum before walking again. Twelve months for full potential recovery, and she would never lift more than ten pounds of weight again.

    The third doctor performed a Nerve Conduction Study, Electromyography, MRI, and blood tests. Each test cost $800 to $1200. She hit the $6000 deductible of her UnitedHealthcare plan in October. Then the doctor went on vacation, and my mother wasn’t able to resume tests until January when her deductible reset.

    The tests showed severe neuropathy. The $180,000 surgery would have had no effect.

    They prescribed opioids for the pain. At first the pain relief was worth the price of constant mental fog and constipation. She didn’t tell me about that until later. All I remember is we took a trip for the first time in years, when she drove me to Monterey to go to the aquarium. I saw an otter in real life, swimming on its back. We left at 7am and listened to Green Day on the four-hour car ride. Over time, the opioids stopped working. They made her MORE sensitive to pain, and she felt withdrawal symptoms after just two or three hours.

    Then gabapentin. By now the pain was so bad she couldn’t exercise, which compounded the weight gain from the slowed metabolic rate and hormonal shifts. And it barely helped the pain, and made her so fatigued she would go an entire day without getting out of bed.

    Then Corticosteroids. Which didn’t even work.

    The pain was so bad I would hear my mother wake up in the night screaming in pain. I would run into her room, asking if she’s OK. Eventually I stopped getting up. She’d yell out anguished shrieks of wordless pain or the word “fuck” stretched and distended to its limits. I’d turn over and go back to sleep.

    All of this while they bled us dry with follow-up appointment after follow-up appointment, specialist consultations, and more imagine scans. Each appointment was promised to be fully covered, until the insurance claims were delayed and denied. Allopathic medicine did nothing to help my mother’s suffering. Yet it is the foundation of our entire society.

    My mother told me that on a good day the nerve pain was like her legs were immersed in ice water. On a bad day it felt like her legs were clamped in a machine shop vice, screwed down to where the cranks stopped turning, then crushed further until her ankle bones sprintered and cracked to accommodate the tightening clamp. She had more bad days than good.

    My mother crawled to the bathroom on her hands and knees. I slept in the living room to create more distance from her cries in the night. I still woke up, and still went back to sleep.
    Back then I thought there was nothing I could do.



    The high copays made consistent treatment impossible. New treatments were denied as “not medically necessary.” Old treatments didn’t work, and still put us out for thousands of dollars.

    UnitedHealthcare limited specialist consultations to twice a year.

    Then they refused to cover advanced imaging, which the specialists required for an appointment.

    Prior authorizations took weeks, then months.

    UnitedHealthcare constantly changed their claim filing procedure. They said my mother’s doctor needed to fax his notes. Then UnitedHealthcare said they did not save faxed patient correspondence, and required a hardcopy of the doctor’s typed notes to be mailed. Then they said they never received the notes. They were unable to approve the claim until they had received and filed the notes.

    They promised coverage, and broke their word to my mother.

    With every delay, my anger surged. With every denial, I wanted to throw the doctor through the glass wall of their hospital waiting room.

    But it wasn’t them. It wasn’t the doctors, the receptionists, administrators, pharmacists, imaging technicians, or anyone we ever met. It was UnitedHealthcare.



    People are dying. Evil has become institutionalized. Corporations make billions of dollars off the pain, suffering, death, and anguished cries in the night of millions of Americans.

    We entered into an agreement for healthcare with a legally binding contract that promised care commensurate with our insurance payments and medical needs. Then UnitedHealthcare changes the rules to suit their own profits.

    They think they make the rules, and think that because it’s legal that no one can punish them.

    They think there’s no one out there who will stop them.



    Now my own chronic back pain wakes me in the night, screaming in pain. I sought out another type of healing that showed me the real antidote to what ails us.

    I bide my time, saving the last of my strength to strike my final blows. All extractors must be forced to swallow the bitter pain they deal out to millions.



    As our own chief executives, it’s our obligation to make our own lives better. First and foremost, we must seek to improve our own circumstances and defend ourselves. As we do so, our actions have ripple effects that can improve the lives of others.

    Rules exist between two individuals, in a network that covers the entire earth. Some of these rules are written down. Some of these rules emerge from natural respect between two individuals. Some of these rules are defined in physical laws, like the properties of gravity, magnetism or the potential energy stored in the chemical bonds of potassium nitrate.

    No single document better encapsulates the belief that all people are equal in fundamental worth and moral status and the frameworks for fostering collective well-being than the US constitution.

    Writing a rule down makes it into a law. I don’t give a fuck about the law. Law means nothing. What does matter is following the guidance of our own logic and what we learn from those before us to maximize our own well-being, which will then maximize the well-being of our loved ones and community.

    That’s where UnitedHealthcare went wrong. They violated their contract with my mother, with me, and tens of millions of other Americans. This threat to my own health, my family’s health, and the health of our country’s people requires me to respond with an act of war.

    END
    archive.is
    Last edited by bsnub; 12-12-2024 at 09:22 AM.

  2. #77
    Thailand Expat DrWilly's Avatar
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    Black on dark blue does not really work for me.

  3. #78
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    Quote Originally Posted by DrWilly View Post
    Black on dark blue does not really work for me.
    Fixed it.

  4. #79
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  5. #80
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    The real one is in this article.

    I’ve obtained a copy of suspected killer Luigi Mangione’s manifesto — the real one, not the forgery circulating online. Major media outlets are also in possession of the document but have refused to publish it and not even articulated a reason why. My queries to The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and NBC to explain their rationale for withholding the manifesto, while gladly quoting from it selectively, have not been answered.

    I’ll have more to say on this later — on how unhealthy the media’s drift away from public disclosure is — but for now, here’s the manifesto:

    “To the Feds, I'll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn't working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

    Exclusive: Luigi'''s Manifesto - Ken Klippenstein
    Originally Posted by sabang
    Maybe Canada should join Nato.

  6. #81
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    Quote Originally Posted by pickel View Post
    It's fake.
    Good catch. I stand corrected.

  7. #82
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    Quote Originally Posted by nidhogg View Post
    Correction. He was found with "a" gun. There is some doubt that it was the gun used in the shooting. However, time will tell.
    Just to update, news said today that it was "the" gun.

  8. #83
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    .....


    Luigi Mangione’s disgusting Gen-Z fan club makes me fear for our society’s future

    Millions are salivating over the alleged assassin of Brian Thompson in a disgusting display of our society’s disintegration


    Zoe Strimpel
    11/12/24


    Articles have praised Luigi Mangione’s good looks, with calling him a ‘smouldering Italian American’

    Most decent people feel it now: a precipitous sense that the centre – that subtle but unquestioned edifice which, for the vast majority, used to ensure the separation between good and evil, criminality and anger, between violence and politics – has failed to hold. From the vicious, immoral identity politics that exploded following the murder of George Floyd to the deranged anti-Israel movement that emerged after Hamas’s attempted second Holocaust on October 7, the consequences have been chilling.

    Now we are witnessing another dimension to our society’s moral disintegration. There is no clearer illustration of how that centre has collapsed, with the unstoppable force of a black hole where normal human behaviour used to exist, than the morbid reaction to the murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, and the disgusting fan culture that has sprung up around his alleged killer, Luigi Mangione.

    It started with suggestions that the killing was somehow justified. The headline of a piece in the Guardian whined: “I’m horrified by the assassination of Brian Thompson. I’m also horrified that we let people die without medical care,” as if the two – murder in cold blood of an innocent man and a deeply imperfect healthcare system – are one and the same, morally speaking.

    But since Mangione’s arrest, the sickness has only deepened. Thompson – born in Iowa, the son of a grain elevator worker, a self-made man from a hard-working blue-collar mid-western home, who worked his way up to lead a massive company (admittedly one with its faults) – has been almost completely forgotten. Instead, millions upon millions are salivating over a privileged, privately-educated, scion of a wealthy Maryland family – a “smouldering Italian American” with a “rippling six pack”, in the words of one particularly lustful commentator – whose self-regard appears to have been fed on the theoretical rubbish dished out at the elite centres of learning with which he was so familiar.

    Thompson’s funeral was quietly held in Minnesota this week, his family left to mourn him for the years to come. The rest of us have our own work cut out for us: stopping the yawning maw of the black hole of amorality from engulfing literally everything.

    We live in a world where young people see Mangione as a handsome Batman, a brave Robin, getting one over the man, instead of a narcissistic alleged killer and self-appointed arbiter of life and death straight out of a horror film.

    We need to hurry and drain the digital swamp Gen-Z lives in before more innocent people are picked off because an entitled brat with grand ideas decides that’s theoretically desirable.
    THE TELEGRAPH

  9. #84
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    When he was younger, Mangione, seemed to have huge potential. Oh, how far he has fallen. I'm not optimistic this murder is going to change anything for healthcare consumers in the US.

  10. #85
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    That's what they said about tax and our own lu Lu and look at them now

  11. #86
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    keep diving those dumpsters bld. you have many more depths to plumb.

  12. #87
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    Quote Originally Posted by 39TG View Post
    When he was younger, Mangione, seemed to have huge potential. Oh, how far he has fallen.
    He did, but now he will spend the rest of his life rotting in a New York state penitentiary.

    Quote Originally Posted by 39TG View Post
    I'm not optimistic this murder is going to change anything for healthcare consumers in the US.
    It will not change anything.

    And taxi that article you posted is spot on. These gen Z weirdos have been indoctrinated by tiktok and their marxist teachers and professors to hate western society and capitalism.

  13. #88
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    and not only gen z bsnb, the first 3 pages of this thread was full of posters praising this murder, and even misskit, and she is hardly genZ, she's more genZzzzz, moistened up and more or less said she wanted to fuck him after seeing his photo.

    misskit
    Jeezus. What a good looking hunk of a murderer he is. Couldn’t help myself.
    Last edited by taxexile; 12-12-2024 at 03:41 PM.

  14. #89
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    Send her a photo of you tax.see if there's the same result? Har har.

  15. #90
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    keep diving those dumpsters bld. you have many more depths to plumb.
    I sure hope so

  16. #91
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    she is hardly genZ, she's more genZzzzz, moistened up and more or less said she wanted to fuck him after seeing his photo.
    Oh my I missed that one.

    UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in New York-giphy-gif

  17. #92
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    Quote Originally Posted by BLD View Post
    That's what they said about tax and our own lu Lu and look at them now
    Is this guy just a drunk, or a disabled drunk?

  18. #93
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    You have to guess cybil. How are them cheers beers going down?

  19. #94
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    Quote Originally Posted by BLD View Post
    You have to guess cybil. How are them cheers beers going down?
    I think he's ran out

  20. #95
    hangin' around cyrille's Avatar
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    All that roaring with laughter after your 'hairy boars' gag has knackered me out.

    Quite dehydrated.

  21. #96
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    Health execs reckon with patient outrage after UnitedHealthcare killing

    Health care companies are taking a step back to better understand patients' experiences after a powerful U.S. health insurance executive was murdered last week, executives from drugmaker Pfizer and Amazon.com said at a panel at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York on Wednesday.

    The murder ignited an outpouring of anger from Americans struggling to receive and pay for medical care.


    "Our health system needs to be better ... There's a lot of things that should cause a lot of outrage," Amazon Pharmacy Chief Medical Officer Vin Gupta said. "It's also true that that (killing) should not have happened. There cannot be this false moral equivalence in our discourse."


    Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealth's insurance arm, one of the largest health insurers in the U.S., was shot dead on the morning of Dec. 4 outside a hotel in Manhattan in what police said was a targeted attack.


    Luigi Mangione, the suspect charged with the murder was arrested earlier this week in possession of a handwritten manifesto that offered insight into his mindset, according to police. The New York Times reported that an internal New York City Police report analyzing the document concluded that Mangione viewed the killing as a justified response to what he believed to be corruption in the healthcare industry.

    Recent data show that patients are now even more likely to have their claims denied, pay more for premiums and medical visits, and face unexpected costs for care they thought was covered by their health plan. Insurers say they work to negotiate down increased fees from doctors and hospitals, as well as costly prescription drugs and medical devices.


    "I think all of us are taking a step back and trying to understand what's happening with patients and their experiences," Pfizer Chief Sustainability Officer Caroline Roan said.


    She called the murder "a tragedy of epic proportions" and said that executives in the healthcare industry were reeling.


    "Clearly there's a larger dialogue that needs to happen, and we're going to be taking our time to try to understand exactly what happened and understand that feedback, and see where we can play a positive role."


    Health insurance companies are also reassessing the risks for their top executives after the murder. Some have removed photos of their leadership teams from their websites and are considering whether and how to increase security measures.


    Still, Amazon's Gupta said that despite problems with the U.S. healthcare system, actions like Thompson's murder cannot be normalized.


    "Last week was horrifically shocking," he said. "Are there going to be copycats? That is unacceptable. We need people to speak out that false moral equivalences must not be accepted. We should be also be focused on the bigger goal which is that we can do something better here together."


    Thompson, a father of two, had been CEO of UnitedHealthcare since April 2021, part of a 20-year career with the company. He had been in New York to attend the company's annual investor conference.


    The suspected shooter has also drawn intense interest from online sleuths seeking to understand how a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent family ended up an accused murderer. Clues into Mangione’s own medical history include a potential back injury that could cause both personal distress and difficulties obtaining insurance coverage for treatment.

    Health execs reckon with patient outrage after UnitedHealthcare killing

  22. #97
    I Amn't In Jail PlanK's Avatar
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    There's some Jokers out there...

    UnitedHealth Group CEO Brian Thompson fatally shot in New York-avyagvb_460s-jpg


    Sometimes these things pick up momentum, like #metoo and #blm.
    Sometimes they wilt faster than ciz after half a can of Cheers beer.


    Stay tuned.

  23. #98
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    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post
    and not only gen z bsnb, the first 3 pages of this thread was full of posters praising this murder,
    The man joins a long list of folk criminal heros in the US like Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, and D.B. Cooper . We are a violet people, you pearl clutching Brit.

    Quote Originally Posted by taxexile View Post

    and even misskit, and she is hardly genZ, she's more genZzzzz, moistened up and more or less said she wanted to fuck him after seeing his photo.

    misskit
    That ship has sailed.

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    NYT Turns Off Comments on UnitedHeath CEO Op-Ed After Getting Flooded with Negative Replies

    The New York Times turned off the comment section on the UnitedHealth CEO's op-ed after it became flooded with negative replies accusing the executive of empty promises.


    Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, mourned the loss of UnitedHeathCare CEO Brian Thompson in an editorial piece published by the New York Times Friday, while also offering sympathy to those frustrated with the healthcare system.

    But while Witty said that he was "willing to partner with anyone" to find ways to provide high-quality care at a lower cost, hundreds of readers mocked him, saying he offered no real solutions to the problem.


    "I have read this twice, and in essence it says nothing. What is he proposing to change or improve?" one person commented. "Tone-deaf corporate speak design to try and quell the anger of the masses; nice try," another person wrote under the op-ed.


    "This is the quintessential CEO statement: not a single actual idea or recommendation, and it gets released by corporate media anyways," another person said in the comments. "What a disingenuous piece," one person commented.

    Some users even shared their own stories, saying they had been denied claims that left them with large bills they were unable to pay.


    "Denying an elderly woman (my mom) gap health insurance because she has a preexisting condition - arthritis," another person commented. "That's corporate greed."


    "When I had UHC and my then husband needed spinal surgery UHC deemed most of it medically unnecessary and socked us with a $300k bill as our share," one user commented, adding that it took them two years to get the bill reduced.


    The Times turned off the comments hours after the publication of the op-ed, however the old comments are still available to read.


    Thompson's murder sparked a surge in social media users critiquing and discussing health insurance companies. Similar to the NYT's comment section, dozens shared stories of times where they were allegedly turned away by insurance companies.


    Others have joined a fanbase for Luigi Mangione, the alleged suspect in Thompson's murder, creating GoFundMes for his legal defense and boosting support for him online. Mangione has been charged with second-degree murder.

    MSN

  25. #100
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    The man joins a long list of folk criminal heros in the US like Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, and D.B. Cooper . We are a violet people, you pearl clutching Brit.
    but if those murderers are truly heroes to americans then it is not violence that americans suffer from, but stupidity.

    a man was shot and killed. if that man and his insurance company were so out of order then there are laws in place to challenge that, and no shortage of lawyers to both prosecute and defend.

    the murdering wop came from an extremely wealthy family that got rich from land and property, a business model that is equally, if not more greedy than the insurance business. the victim came from a poor background and worked his way up. this was a collision of that self-pitying cult of grievance and entitlement that has so many young americans in its snare and the older ideal of self-betterment that has inspired so many working-class americans over the decades. what we have here is not some radical blow against the boss class, a sticking it to the man, but the hypocritic rage of the entitled. i hope he is incarcerated and never sees the light of day again.


    misskit
    That ship has sailed.
    my condolences.
    Last edited by taxexile; 14-12-2024 at 03:15 PM.

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