ck4829
ck4829's JournalSo "regular people" don't talk about oligarchs, yet "oligarchy" is searched along "Olivia Rodrigo", "Olive Garden"
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) pushed back as MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle pressed him to criticize President Donald Trump’s relationship to billionaires like Elon Musk. In the extended version of their Tuesday MSNBC interview for The 11th Hour, Ruhle noted that Trump’s administration is the “wealthiest in modern history” and asked Fetterman if we are creating “American oligarchs.”
Fetterman suggested Musk and others aligning themselves like Trump are motivated by more than just simply making money. He also urged Democrats to begin using language that doesn’t involve words like “oligarch.” “I would just ask democrats to start talking like a regular person. Most people don’t know what an oligarch is,” the senator said.
https://democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20134078
It's time for Fetterman to get out from under Elon Musk...
Put the first three letters in and see what you get. What are regular people searching for?
Bing:
DuckDuckGo:
I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Olivia Rodrigo is a pretty big deal. She is up there for a reason, and "Oligarchy" is up there as well because people are interested in the topic, and I think they want to know what our government is going to do about it.
Should we ignore them?
Immoral. Should be illegal. Stealing. Should not be like this. Why is it like this? Where is it going? UNACCEPTABLE.
Government and media is going to lie to our faces and tell us it's the greatest healthcare in the world? No. Unacceptable.
Conservative Christians are going to tell us being GLBTQ is a sin and yet won't even use the word to refer to this joke of a system that is ripping us all off while turning around and saying we're a Christian Nation despite Jesus healing people for free? No. Unacceptable.
Fox News wants us to panic over shoplifters and has nothing to say about this? No. Unacceptable.
I'm supposed to be afraid of an illegal immigrant taking my job, yet here we have a system taking my money and my life? No. Unacceptable.
And, frankly, any institution or politician who looks at this and does not say "Unacceptable" and not "Unacceptable, but..." needs to be dismantled or seen as illegitimate respectively.
Unacceptable.
Crisis in American Faith: Christianity is 43 percent of population as Conservative Christianity becomes own religion
"The most popular religion in the United States is Christianity, comprising the majority of the population (73.7% of adults in 2016)..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States
Seem to be about 30% of the population, so I think Christianity dropping from 73% to 43% is fair, give or take a little bit.
I mean, let's call it what it is...
* If you white-out Matthew 19:24 but highlight Romans 13
* If you want to call being GLBTQ a sin but ignore the commandment that is, you know, "Thou shalt not steal", something that is held sacred to adherents of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. I actually read that commandment, it does not read "Thou shalt not steal unless thou be rich and powerful". If you can call GLBTQ a sin, but you suddenly shut your trap when people are defrauded by the rich and powerful (Which is... anyone, anyone? ... STEALING), then don't call yourself a Christian, you can call yourself a Conservative Christian, but not a Christian. You outright reject a commandment held not just by Christianity but by other Abrahamic faiths as well, I mean come on.
* If, and going on healthcare, you actually say we have the world's greatest healthcare and we have a "Christian nation", but we pay the most for healthcare. Is it because of that, is it because we pay the most? Jesus healed people for free. You wanna rip the Christ out of your supposed Christianity any other ways while you're at it? Goodness.
* If you have a cargo cult of billionaires, prosperity theology, and Donald Trump.
* If you consider the teachings of Jesus to be "woke"
Then stop calling yourself a Christian, you're a Conservative Christian.
I'm not a super-believer in religion, I'm a critic of organized religion as a whole, but I do believe in something... maybe it's God, maybe it's oneness, I don't know. But I try to respect people who do believe and are respectful of others; Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Bahai, Hindu, etc., and those who do not believe as well and are respectful of others.
You can have money-makes-right, power-makes-right, stick it to the woke, it's not the sin of stealing when the rich do it, cargo cult belief system or you can have Christianity. But not both. So, it is because of this respect and belief for mutual respect that, in good conscience, I can no longer associate Christianity with the Conservative Christianity that has taken root in the American political landscape today.
Look! Right Reverend Mariann Budde criticized him to his face
During the inaugural prayer service Tuesday at the Washington National Cathedral attended by Trump, Vice President JD Vance and their families, the Right Rev Mariann Budde delivered a sermon in which she appealed to Trump to be merciful to minorities, “some who fear for their lives.”
“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now,” Budde said, referring to “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families.”
Most “immigrants are not criminals,” she added. “They pay taxes and are good neighbors."
https://democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=19931986
No death squads are coming, nobody snatched her up in the middle of the night, the Episcopal Church wasn't declared a terrorist organization.
These right-wing authoritarians want you to be scared, end of democracy, just submit, blah blah frickity blah. Let's all hide, run for Canada...
They'll say they have a mandate.
They'll say they are backed by God.
They'll say they are unstoppable due to plutocrats like Elon Musk (but they're not elitists by the way because... reasons)
The tragedy of Uvalde shown us something though... the moment that right-wing authoritarians and so-called tough guy conservatives actually encounter something that does not go their way, they will use kids and teachers as human shields. Of course, nobody is shooting anybody here, but I'm starting to think that we can go low, we can fight dirty, we can advocate for jury nullification for nonsense conservative laws, we can talk about what to do in The Way Forward, and we can use tough but non-violent tactics like those described in the works of Gene Sharp... and the only shooting they are going to do is a yellow stream in their pants.
If I'm wrong, they are free to track me down and do what they're gonna do. But I am not wrong, so they can throw a temper tantrum... but that is all it is going to be.
We definitely need to get away from this whole stock market/the dow as a measure of the economy
I'm going to credit my friend and colleague, ashliy, with this idea. She does not post here, but there will be a link to something where she does at some point in the near future.
Paraphrasing her, we need to get away from using billionaires and the stock market as a way of seeing how the economy is doing.
Instead, let's ask formally and with gut checks...
How many bankruptcies are going on right now?
How many bankruptcies from medical bills are going on right now?
How lucrative is it to be a debt buyer or a debt collector right now?
How lucrative is it to be a repossession agent right now?
How many evictions are going on right now?
How many foreclosures are going on right now?
How many of us are afraid to call for an ambulance right now?
How many of us are putting off getting medical care or therapy not because of anxiety but because of cost right now?
How many people are getting their wages garnished right now?
Look at those questions above - What we need to do is realize that the more of these there are, the greater the answer to them... the worse the economy is.
We must come to see a "strong economy" or a "great economy" is simply not compatible with "record-high evictions" or "more people are being hounded by debt collectors over medical bills" at the same time.
You know... I think I understand why Democrats lost now
I have seen blaming this person, people throwing out detailed analyses, this group did X, that group did not enough of Y, etc.
But let me lay it out in simple terms I think everyone can grasp:
The political system is essentially one party is expected to have explosive diarrhea and have it EVERYWHERE and the other party is supposed to mop it up and the other party criticized is for not cleaning it up fast enough because party #1 is still having exploding diarrhea everywhere.
* This is murc's Law
* This is why Obama was supposed to resign for 11 people being treated for Ebola vs Trump and his disastrous handling of COVID.
* This is bailing out Republicans.
And what is 2026 going to be about? Cleaning up Republican diarrhea, right? You know I'm right.
And guess what? It's the "way it is". It's just the way things are. Somebody read the above and can't wait to reply with "Oh well, what can you do about it?" So let me just stop you right there.
We saw exactly what people were doing about it... people are getting disengaged. Disinterested.
Tuning out. Washing their hands clean of the diarrhea and walking away.
And I'll be honest... if I was less political, so would I.
There is a solution to this, and it's not left or center... but it is radical. We need to start going after the legitimacy, authority, human resources, skills, intangible factors, material resources, and sanctions of the Republican Party.
I'm done cleaning up Republican diarrhea though.
Is it time to retire phrases like "law and order" and "tough on crime" from the political lexicon?
I remember seeing that it was time to stop using *checks notes* as a thing...
There may be nothing Twitter is better at than taking a reasonably funny joke and running it into the ground. Recall the whiplash of “Big Dick Energy,” a concept that went from clever to annoying in the space of about 24 hours flat. But not all Twitterisms follow that same trajectory of white-hot viral moment and subsequent spectacular flameout; some of them earn a place in the Twitter vernacular so gradually you barely notice and then become tired just as imperceptibly. All of a sudden, you wake up one August slow-news day and decide that’s it—you never want to see another person do a *checks notes* gag on Twitter ever again.
*Checks notes* had a good run. For the uninitiated, the construction, which sometimes takes the form of (checks notes), is used to indicate that a person has paused what he is saying to make sure he is reading his notes correctly, because he can’t quite believe what’s coming out of his mouth. It’s usually part of some faux-dialogue a tweeter is making up, which is a common practice in tweets. (No one is actually checking any notes; no one even has any notes! The notes only exist for the purpose of the joke.) Some advanced searches reveal that the note-check existed as a tweet format before the dividing line that is the 2016 presidential election, but the last two years are when it really kicked into high gear. It’s sometimes accompanied by a *squints at teleprompter* or similar stage directions for good measure.
If an example will help, see how much-followed journalist Ken Klippenstein recently employed it in a (pretty good) Space Force joke:
Gov't: Sorry we can't give you healthcare, we had to stick to absolute necessities like (checks notes) a Space Force
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) August 9, 2018
Above, Klippenstein is pointing out the irony of the Trump administration’s interest in a pie-in-the-sky nutty project like Space Force, when, hello, what about health care? At the same time, he is drawing attention to politicians’ habit of sticking to party lines that don’t hold up to any sort of scrutiny. It’s also about a total unwillingness to deviate from a previously agreed-upon script. *Checks notes*, asterisks and all, is basically just a way of asking, “Can you believe this shit?” It’s a completely appropriate cliché for our current moment, populated as it is by politicians who are forever trying to steamroll their way through obvious contradictions; there’s no disputing that. It’s just that at this point, it’s incredibly overdone.
https://slate.com/technology/2018/08/checks-notes-was-the-perfect-trump-era-twitter-joke-lets-let-it-die.html
"Will not die"
https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/checks-notes-meme/
"Bit annoyed" by hearing/seeing it
https://www.reddit.com/r/PetPeeves/comments/1ebseej/people_who_say_checks_notes/
"dumb", "Played out"
https://www.resetera.com/threads/one-meme-thats-dumb-is-the-check-notes-check-notes-meme.172613/page-2
Really?
So I guess I'll be the first person to ask because you know the media is not doing it...
With a convicted and sentenced felon now as the president-elect, is it time to retire the phrases "law and order" and "tough on crime" as they have lost their meaning?
No legitimate president will attack or invade a NATO country
NATO comes before "respect for the office of the president" in my book.
Let's start here: It should be official Democratic Party policy to support and defend any member of the military that refuses Trump's orders to attack or invade another member of NATO without provocation.
Monopoly money isn't real money. You know what else isn't real money? How your medical costs are calculated.
A backpack believed to belong to the man who fatally shot UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was discovered in Manhattan's Central Park containing Monopoly money, multiple outlets reported, citing law enforcement sources.
Following the Wednesday, Dec. 4, killing of Thompson, 50, outside the New York Hilton Midtown, NBC News, ABC News and The New York Post reported on Saturday, Dec. 7 that the New York Police Department (NYPD) has since recovered a gray backpack officials believe may have belonged to the shooting suspect — who has still not been identified.
https://people.com/monopoly-money-found-in-backpack-believed-to-belong-to-unitedhealthcare-shooter-reports-8757955
Monopoly money is, of course, not actual money. You can't use it for goods and services, it has value really only in the context of a board game.
So what goes into your medical bills? What creates their value?
What is behind us spending much more on other countries in this chart, but living shorter lives?
When someone declares bankruptcy because of medical bills, they are declaring bankruptcy over medical bills yes, but how was the number reached?
When someone's wages are being garnished, how exactly is that amount that needs to be garnished obtained in the first place?
When medical debt collectors are going after someone to pay medical bills they bought to collect on, what exactly are they pursuing?
You might not like the answer...
For far too many cases, it is pretty much a random number that is very high.
Yet another TikTok video calling out the notoriously expensive U.S. healthcare system is going viral on social media. Shared by Adam Conover, a comedian and former host of the informative program "Adam Ruins Everything," in response to another TikTok about how medical bills mysteriously shrink when the patient asks for an itemized receipt, the one-minute clip explains why this suspicious phenomenon happens. The original video was posted by a TikTok user named Tre'jon Wilson and it shows him drinking something while the text overlay ponders whether the American healthcare system is a scam.
"Tell me why my hospital bill went from $4,000 to $950 all because I asked for a receipt and a list of everything I was being charged for," the overlay text reads. "They lowered my bill by 76%. Is it me or our health care system is a scam?" Conover took it upon himself to answer this question by stitching the original video and explaining why so many hospital bills are massive and why the charges seem to vanish when patients challenge them with the hospitals. "It's because the numbers on every hospital or doctor bill are straight-up fake and made up," Conover says in the video.
"If you have insurance, your hospital has to negotiate with the insurance company for the price of the services," he continues. "So they set these super high ridiculous numbers as a starting point for that negotiation. The insurance company says, 'bulls**t, we're paying you a third of that.' They haggle a bit and decide on a number.'" Conover goes on to explain why this system has the power to ruin lives. "Here's the f**ked up part. If you don't have insurance, the hospital still put that original, ridiculously high, just for negotiation number on your bill," he says in the video.
"So you could easily end up paying three, five, even ten times what the procedure actually costs," he notes. "The next time you get a medical bill, make sure you negotiate. There are even non-profits called medical billing advocates that will help you negotiate." Conover ends the video by directing people to an episode of "Adam Ruins Everything" titled "The Real Reason Hospitals Are So Expensive," in which he goes into detail about the questionable practices behind medical billing. His TikTok video touched a raw nerve for those already dissatisfied with the American healthcare system and many confirmed that negotiating the ridiculous amounts mentioned in hospital bills has brought them down to a much lower number.
https://scoop.upworthy.com/tiktok-user-explain-why-hospital-bills-shrink-when-asked-itemized-receipt
Danilo Manimtim, who has a job evaluating disability claims for the state of California, knows the health care system and keeps tabs on his health benefits. He knew he already had met his health insurance deductible for the year, so he expected a manageable out-of-pocket expense for the surgery. He calculated his coinsurance would be about $750.
Then the bills came. ($4057)
Manimtim's big bill stems from a simple decision that turned out to be a pitfall in the nation's complicated health care system: He scheduled his surgery at a nearby hospital — a hospital that happened to charge about $7,000 more for the procedure than his insurer would pay.
Manimtim has proof that it could have been different right under his own roof: Four months later, his wife, Marilou Manimtim, 66, got the exact same procedure at an outpatient eye care surgical center in Fresno called EYE-Q. It is a half-mile from Saint Agnes Medical Center but is not affiliated with the hospital. (And she was billed $204)
https://www.wgbh.org/news/national-news/2022/06/27/he-and-his-wife-both-got-cataract-surgery-his-bill-was-20-times-higher-than-hers
And one more that is also interesting, a group of people in Oklahoma wanted to buy patient debts off of hospitals in the area to forgive them. Hospitals in Oklahoma said "pass" though. Why? As a person in the group pointed out, the hospitals have no problem selling the debts to debt collectors, but why not them? A debt collector would not ask questions about the debt, but I think a person in the field of debt forgiveness would ask what exactly are they forgiving.
https://democraticunderground.com/1033804
And insurance is part of the scam.
You're going bankrupt, you're e-begging on GoFundMe, you're getting your wages garnished, and you're going to an early grave... and it's for a lie.
Murcwashing
https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2017/12/great-moments-murcs-law
https://whereofonecanspeak.com/2023/03/02/youve-probably-never-heard-of-murcs-law-but-youve-seen-it-in-action-lots-of-times/
We're no longer at Murc's Law, we're at Murcwashing.
What is Murcwashing?
Look at this...
Republicans have the White House.
Republicans have the Senate.
Republicans have the House.
And yet, AND YET, the onus will still be on Democrats, everything Republicans do that is bad or things they are supposed to be doing but are not happening, according to the pundits and the media will be a reaction to Democrats by Republicans.
Despite the Republican trifecta, Democrats will be the ones with agency or causal influence over American politics.
Murcwashing.
Expect it, call it out.
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