As of January 20th, we will become a leader less Nation run by Oligarchs. Project 2025 is ready to hit the ground running. We are so fucked. I'm already exhausted from all the fuckery. Greed kills. When will Americans get tired of becoming collateral damage? We seem to have a high pain tolerance. America is sliding into an abyss that will take generations to clean up.
Today was particularly bleak. The lawsuits against the Des Moines Register and elsewhere are intended purely to silence dissent. Meanwhile, Senate Dems are out there making sure the bald eagle is officially recognized as our national bird. I don't even know what to say anymore.
I know. I got nothing. It's like Democrats have moved in their own bubbles. The Republicans are raising hell and their taking cover. Covering their own arse.
Thanks, William. I think also that corporations, by shielding individuals from personal responsibility, reward psychopathic behavior (as I'm hardly the first to point out). People operate in official duties a lot more callously than they would in real life.
This ongoing loop of deja vu is so exhausting. (I’m not meaning you, but the politicians.) I will say, not watching any television, very little social media, is helping immensely this time around. I cannot be outraged 24/7. That is the lesson I’m learning.
Speaking of gun deaths, there was another school shooting. This time it was a girl, and she quoted the Unabomber Manifesto in her writing. But GOP has decided we can never have gun safety ever again. They don't even bring up the fact that Luigi was not allowed to carry that gun in NYC, or that the murder was via gun.
Seems that Rupert determines what our MSM reports. Shock of my life when I realized how the “free press” had been “bought.” Churches before that by Rove in 2004. Repubs traveling to Armageddon slowly then break-neck speed. And we are in the path….
My god, it’s always greed and power. I mean what kind of species has evolved to destroy its own planet (home) and kill off its own fellow humans in the name of fear, religious nuttery, racism and greed. Or the big question…does this always happen, even if there is intelligent life out there in abundance? And is it because that’s how evolution works..create and create the beings that will do the destruction, only to have it start all over again on an endless cycle until,in our case, the sun gets larger through death and the whole shebang is over.
In 1961 a scientist by the name of Frank Drake created a probabilistic equation to estimate the number of civilizations in the universe that we could possibly communicate with. It’s a thought experiment. The last term in the equation is the length of time an intelligent civilization is around. Carl Sagan and others postulated that once a civilization gets to the point where it can send sufficient signals into space inherent behavior leads to its destruction. Grim, eh? But it seems like we’re on the path to validate their conclusion unless we change course.
We do not change as a country. We evolve. Christian Nationalism is about race. Period. Fear keeps the church plates full so televangelist can buy another plane. Protect white privilege at all costs. The Southern Economic Development Model (www.epi.org) written in 1980 by Paul Weyrich is the same doctrine that Republicans use today. The Gilded Age was revised in 1980. Our medical system illustrates our broken oligarchs systems. If the disease doesn't kill you, the fucking bill will.
Trump today talking up McKinley, oblivious to the fact that McKinley's policies didn't turn out so hot for McKinley. Right after he was out, boom, the progressive era began. Maybe we are about to enter that part of the cycle somehow? (JD Vance is TR in this analogy, so maybe not...)
McKinley is referred to the cautionary tale of tariffs. Vance is no TR, that's for sure. People don't realize what they have till its gone. I'm always hopeful. We'll see.
That guy Eckhart Tolle, who became famous for THE POWER OF NOW, has another book called ONE DAY EVEN THE SUN WILL DIE. It's a running joke in our house. Because, like, that's the most depressing, Debbie Downer title. With that said, I'm ready for the asteroid.
Fix the problem, if only the incoming republicans had the slightest intention of doing that. Fox will fix it by spewing self-righteous, lying greed as normal. You must be very frustrated after promoting so many sensible and practical solutions and watching them be tossed away like garbage. As HST said long ago. Anything that helps all the people is dismissed as socialism. It’s just bull schitt on steroids
You know them well, as I do. He, Delay, Lott and Hastert were so vile that I didn’t think they could go lower. Lordy, they were just getting started after having a major push by Rupert and the “think tanks.” I sure thought the majority knew what they were…
I was a senior physician at the largest non-profit healthcare company in the US. One day I was talking with the head of the insurance division. She told me that if they could they would get rid of that aspect of the work and just focus on care. On another note, my family all live in Canada. Each province and territory has its own health plan. In Ontario it’s called OHIP - Ontario Health Insurance Plan. My family in Ontario know they pay higher taxes but would never trade their health coverage for lower taxes.
Non-profit companies, I think, are the way to go. But I'm hardly an expert. GOP has managed to convince the masses that taxes are all bad and go to nothing useful, when they do. So frustrating. They are greedy and exploit the greed of the less well to do.
If Trump had a half a brain and a normal, not vengeance filled, political instinct, he would understand that he could transform his image from hate filled liar into savior of the country if he were to come out in favor of Medicare for All as the replacement for the ACA. But he is not that smart, so he won't. And none of the greedy toadies around him will point him in that direction because it would cost them money.
To your point: I always thought he should have done something the women's rights movement wanted, early in 2017. Imagine if he vowed to defend abortion, say. That would have scuttled the Women's March, and he would have been off to the races. He can only think short-term. He is pure id.
Universal healthcare is definitely the way to go. We have Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for some poor people and those are very good things. Expand these programs to cover everyone.
The money to pay for HC should come from cut in defense spending.
The United States military budget is bigger than the combined budgets of the next ten largest defense budgets in the world. That includes China, Russia and other adversarial nations.
Israel is a good example of smart spending. They have a large number of reserve (part-time) soldiers to defend their imperiled nation. Part-timers are way less costly.
I know what you mean, but I'm now a big believer in Defense spending. A lot of the gizmos and gadgets we now enjoy -- the internet, for one -- come out of DOD R&D. It's not just soldiers. And I would argue that us having such an unbeatable military is the primary reason the Pax Americana lasted as long as it has (as it did?). Better: put healthcare costs UNDER the DOD!
I understand that a revised edition of "Tipping Point" is in the works and Gladstone is calling it "Revenge of the Tipping Point." What happened to the CEO felt to me very much like a tipping point, much like that primordial scream, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." Am I the only one waking up every day waiting for "something" to happen?
King Shitpants' voters don't know what's coming. Unless you're a white, wealthy, Christian Nationalist heterosexual male. You're good. This is bad. Very bad. They're going to privatize it all. If the fuckers can get away with it, they fucking will.
No, I agree. I'm hoping this is a one-off, but it certainly has the look of a tipping point action. Like Columbine. Unfortunately, because that's not the society we want to live in.
Some people I see online, mostly right-wingers, have suddenly grown a conscience after CEO Thompson's murder, and are pontificating something on the order of, "oh, you approve of MURDER now?" No, of course not, but the symbolic nature of his death can't be understated, not only in the greed and subsequent destructive effects of the health insurance industry, which rivals the military industrial complex, but in vast corporations as well.
When one has tried to bring about change in EVERY WAY possible and continuously fails, the situation eventually leads to assassination because seriously, what else is left? Giving up is one option, I suppose, but I think people are beyond that. It's a red line in the sand. People are literally sick and tired of just "taking it." I don't know of anyone supporting the actual murder of a human being, but in contrast, the ongoing support for Luigi Mangione scares the SHIT out of the entrenched establishment. Good.
Well put, Steve. I agree. If I'm a wealthy rapacious CEO type, what scares me isn't that this guy got killed; it's that so many Americans are applauding what Luigi did. (And my god, what a great name for who he is.)
I’m on Medicare. Y’all should be too. I think the next biggest block to our getting there, besides the obvious Republican agenda, is an electorate too ignorant to understand the cost-benefit analysis. I’m hopeful that the violence won’t escalate and that it has become a catalyst for an awakening I think I see beginning to happen.
Cost benefit analysis, yes, exactly. Everyone will pay a little more in taxes and a lot less in healthcare costs. The wider the pool for insurance, the lower the cost. And the widest pool is all 335,000,000 of us!
Great piece Greg, as always! There's no profit in cure and as an RN in the US for 30 years, I regularly wondered whether a patient really needed expensive surgeries, etc. Or was it all about fat paychecks and repeat business for hospitals, insurance companies and doctors. Ugh.
Thanks, Helen. I think it's a chicken-and-egg thing. Hospitals know XXX will get denied, so they charge more for ZZZ, and so on to infinity. I want the doctors and nurses getting the bulk of the money, not the administrators.
Greg, as usual, great column. You mentioned Luigi in your last comment and yes, this kid has the perfect name for a murderer who has admirers. I learned that people have been contributing quite a bit of money to his defense fund. One of my daughters pointed out to me that he had had unsuccessful back surgery that caused him to be unable to have sex. He put in a claim with United Healthcare and they denied him coverage. Well, you know, if men can’t get “any”, they go berserk! Case in point, however, very few (if any) have gone to the trouble of physically going to a 3D printer and producing a ghost gun! Many applauded him gunning the CEO down and while that response is sick, it is understandable about the anger, the frustration of not being listened to nor getting proper care.
The insurance industry as a whole, is corrupt. I worked in it for 18 years but in personal (homeowners & auto), commercial (big business), and worker’s compensation. I watched our claims manager schmooze with the top dogs by playing golf and imbibing lots of booze. This is how deals are made…on the fucking golf course! We know that to be true with the 34-count convicted felon who will bring racism and fascism to the forefront. More guns will appear. More hearts broken. American is choosing concepts of suicide.
Good point re: GREED, except I prefer “coitus” over the dirty words 😉. Good morning, Greg ☕️ ☕️☕️, and thanks for another memorable piece❣️
"WE ARE COITUSSED" doesn't have the same ring, though.
I think we have to wax poetic and put the little accent on it: "concussèd."
Thanks, Steven!
As of January 20th, we will become a leader less Nation run by Oligarchs. Project 2025 is ready to hit the ground running. We are so fucked. I'm already exhausted from all the fuckery. Greed kills. When will Americans get tired of becoming collateral damage? We seem to have a high pain tolerance. America is sliding into an abyss that will take generations to clean up.
Today was particularly bleak. The lawsuits against the Des Moines Register and elsewhere are intended purely to silence dissent. Meanwhile, Senate Dems are out there making sure the bald eagle is officially recognized as our national bird. I don't even know what to say anymore.
I know. I got nothing. It's like Democrats have moved in their own bubbles. The Republicans are raising hell and their taking cover. Covering their own arse.
Thanks, William. I think also that corporations, by shielding individuals from personal responsibility, reward psychopathic behavior (as I'm hardly the first to point out). People operate in official duties a lot more callously than they would in real life.
This ongoing loop of deja vu is so exhausting. (I’m not meaning you, but the politicians.) I will say, not watching any television, very little social media, is helping immensely this time around. I cannot be outraged 24/7. That is the lesson I’m learning.
Outrage has been my companion for decades, it does take a toll, but love helps if it has a kind soul.
Speaking of gun deaths, there was another school shooting. This time it was a girl, and she quoted the Unabomber Manifesto in her writing. But GOP has decided we can never have gun safety ever again. They don't even bring up the fact that Luigi was not allowed to carry that gun in NYC, or that the murder was via gun.
Seems that Rupert determines what our MSM reports. Shock of my life when I realized how the “free press” had been “bought.” Churches before that by Rove in 2004. Repubs traveling to Armageddon slowly then break-neck speed. And we are in the path….
It is very very very exhausting, yes it is. But there's also a soul-sucking-ness to it as well.
Hope you are surrounded by love that has a soul…
I’m so grateful for you and the Prevail community 🙏🏼
My exhaustion led me to miss It’s TUESDAY🎉. 🤪
My god, it’s always greed and power. I mean what kind of species has evolved to destroy its own planet (home) and kill off its own fellow humans in the name of fear, religious nuttery, racism and greed. Or the big question…does this always happen, even if there is intelligent life out there in abundance? And is it because that’s how evolution works..create and create the beings that will do the destruction, only to have it start all over again on an endless cycle until,in our case, the sun gets larger through death and the whole shebang is over.
In 1961 a scientist by the name of Frank Drake created a probabilistic equation to estimate the number of civilizations in the universe that we could possibly communicate with. It’s a thought experiment. The last term in the equation is the length of time an intelligent civilization is around. Carl Sagan and others postulated that once a civilization gets to the point where it can send sufficient signals into space inherent behavior leads to its destruction. Grim, eh? But it seems like we’re on the path to validate their conclusion unless we change course.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
The poem, EARTH:
"A planet doesn't explode if itself," said dryly
The Martian astronomer looking off into the air.
"That they were able to do it is proof that highly
Intelligent beings must have been living there."
We do not change as a country. We evolve. Christian Nationalism is about race. Period. Fear keeps the church plates full so televangelist can buy another plane. Protect white privilege at all costs. The Southern Economic Development Model (www.epi.org) written in 1980 by Paul Weyrich is the same doctrine that Republicans use today. The Gilded Age was revised in 1980. Our medical system illustrates our broken oligarchs systems. If the disease doesn't kill you, the fucking bill will.
Trump today talking up McKinley, oblivious to the fact that McKinley's policies didn't turn out so hot for McKinley. Right after he was out, boom, the progressive era began. Maybe we are about to enter that part of the cycle somehow? (JD Vance is TR in this analogy, so maybe not...)
McKinley is referred to the cautionary tale of tariffs. Vance is no TR, that's for sure. People don't realize what they have till its gone. I'm always hopeful. We'll see.
That guy Eckhart Tolle, who became famous for THE POWER OF NOW, has another book called ONE DAY EVEN THE SUN WILL DIE. It's a running joke in our house. Because, like, that's the most depressing, Debbie Downer title. With that said, I'm ready for the asteroid.
Ha..me too!
Fix the problem, if only the incoming republicans had the slightest intention of doing that. Fox will fix it by spewing self-righteous, lying greed as normal. You must be very frustrated after promoting so many sensible and practical solutions and watching them be tossed away like garbage. As HST said long ago. Anything that helps all the people is dismissed as socialism. It’s just bull schitt on steroids
Greg has to be exhausted in this fight, truer words JD!!
He is indefatigable
I am, alas, quite fatigable. : )
You hide it well..
GOP does not govern. They obstruct. Has been this way since Gingrich in the 90s. The bill is due.
You know them well, as I do. He, Delay, Lott and Hastert were so vile that I didn’t think they could go lower. Lordy, they were just getting started after having a major push by Rupert and the “think tanks.” I sure thought the majority knew what they were…
I was a senior physician at the largest non-profit healthcare company in the US. One day I was talking with the head of the insurance division. She told me that if they could they would get rid of that aspect of the work and just focus on care. On another note, my family all live in Canada. Each province and territory has its own health plan. In Ontario it’s called OHIP - Ontario Health Insurance Plan. My family in Ontario know they pay higher taxes but would never trade their health coverage for lower taxes.
Non-profit companies, I think, are the way to go. But I'm hardly an expert. GOP has managed to convince the masses that taxes are all bad and go to nothing useful, when they do. So frustrating. They are greedy and exploit the greed of the less well to do.
Exceptional piece Greg, thank you for being the light in our darkness!!
Thanks, Patrick!
This R.N. says "Ditto!" Thanks. Sharing.
If Trump had a half a brain and a normal, not vengeance filled, political instinct, he would understand that he could transform his image from hate filled liar into savior of the country if he were to come out in favor of Medicare for All as the replacement for the ACA. But he is not that smart, so he won't. And none of the greedy toadies around him will point him in that direction because it would cost them money.
To your point: I always thought he should have done something the women's rights movement wanted, early in 2017. Imagine if he vowed to defend abortion, say. That would have scuttled the Women's March, and he would have been off to the races. He can only think short-term. He is pure id.
WTG Greg Olear. Keep up the good work.
Universal healthcare is definitely the way to go. We have Medicare for seniors and Medicaid for some poor people and those are very good things. Expand these programs to cover everyone.
The money to pay for HC should come from cut in defense spending.
The United States military budget is bigger than the combined budgets of the next ten largest defense budgets in the world. That includes China, Russia and other adversarial nations.
Israel is a good example of smart spending. They have a large number of reserve (part-time) soldiers to defend their imperiled nation. Part-timers are way less costly.
billserle.com
I know what you mean, but I'm now a big believer in Defense spending. A lot of the gizmos and gadgets we now enjoy -- the internet, for one -- come out of DOD R&D. It's not just soldiers. And I would argue that us having such an unbeatable military is the primary reason the Pax Americana lasted as long as it has (as it did?). Better: put healthcare costs UNDER the DOD!
I understand that a revised edition of "Tipping Point" is in the works and Gladstone is calling it "Revenge of the Tipping Point." What happened to the CEO felt to me very much like a tipping point, much like that primordial scream, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." Am I the only one waking up every day waiting for "something" to happen?
King Shitpants' voters don't know what's coming. Unless you're a white, wealthy, Christian Nationalist heterosexual male. You're good. This is bad. Very bad. They're going to privatize it all. If the fuckers can get away with it, they fucking will.
Privatize it so they can plunder it, exactly.
No, I agree. I'm hoping this is a one-off, but it certainly has the look of a tipping point action. Like Columbine. Unfortunately, because that's not the society we want to live in.
Some people I see online, mostly right-wingers, have suddenly grown a conscience after CEO Thompson's murder, and are pontificating something on the order of, "oh, you approve of MURDER now?" No, of course not, but the symbolic nature of his death can't be understated, not only in the greed and subsequent destructive effects of the health insurance industry, which rivals the military industrial complex, but in vast corporations as well.
When one has tried to bring about change in EVERY WAY possible and continuously fails, the situation eventually leads to assassination because seriously, what else is left? Giving up is one option, I suppose, but I think people are beyond that. It's a red line in the sand. People are literally sick and tired of just "taking it." I don't know of anyone supporting the actual murder of a human being, but in contrast, the ongoing support for Luigi Mangione scares the SHIT out of the entrenched establishment. Good.
Well put, Steve. I agree. If I'm a wealthy rapacious CEO type, what scares me isn't that this guy got killed; it's that so many Americans are applauding what Luigi did. (And my god, what a great name for who he is.)
I’m on Medicare. Y’all should be too. I think the next biggest block to our getting there, besides the obvious Republican agenda, is an electorate too ignorant to understand the cost-benefit analysis. I’m hopeful that the violence won’t escalate and that it has become a catalyst for an awakening I think I see beginning to happen.
Cost benefit analysis, yes, exactly. Everyone will pay a little more in taxes and a lot less in healthcare costs. The wider the pool for insurance, the lower the cost. And the widest pool is all 335,000,000 of us!
Great piece Greg, as always! There's no profit in cure and as an RN in the US for 30 years, I regularly wondered whether a patient really needed expensive surgeries, etc. Or was it all about fat paychecks and repeat business for hospitals, insurance companies and doctors. Ugh.
Thanks, Helen. I think it's a chicken-and-egg thing. Hospitals know XXX will get denied, so they charge more for ZZZ, and so on to infinity. I want the doctors and nurses getting the bulk of the money, not the administrators.
Greg, as usual, great column. You mentioned Luigi in your last comment and yes, this kid has the perfect name for a murderer who has admirers. I learned that people have been contributing quite a bit of money to his defense fund. One of my daughters pointed out to me that he had had unsuccessful back surgery that caused him to be unable to have sex. He put in a claim with United Healthcare and they denied him coverage. Well, you know, if men can’t get “any”, they go berserk! Case in point, however, very few (if any) have gone to the trouble of physically going to a 3D printer and producing a ghost gun! Many applauded him gunning the CEO down and while that response is sick, it is understandable about the anger, the frustration of not being listened to nor getting proper care.
The insurance industry as a whole, is corrupt. I worked in it for 18 years but in personal (homeowners & auto), commercial (big business), and worker’s compensation. I watched our claims manager schmooze with the top dogs by playing golf and imbibing lots of booze. This is how deals are made…on the fucking golf course! We know that to be true with the 34-count convicted felon who will bring racism and fascism to the forefront. More guns will appear. More hearts broken. American is choosing concepts of suicide.
Your approach - Practical, implementable and fair. You did it again!