yeah I think this is a person. An image and video-based person. image/video, I get it, it's basically the entire internet for the youngs (and that's me, I'm so young, he typed) but I mean yeah, fuckin' hell, this is a text message board. I'm not doing homework assignments.

OP wtf do YOU think about internet discourse? Don't use the word "delving"

I wish there was a way to browse through the track, and I hate people who say things like that, insinuating that they don't ever put something on a listen for a continuous hour, only I'm allowed to not do that.

But also, you don't ever wanna air a little "Hey, it's me again, thanks for tuning in" somewhere in there? It'd be really funny right before that first track, a smooth, soft voice, NPR'ingly: "good evening seattle, i hope you are doing alright in these trying times" .. "... VIOLENCE, CONTROL, RAGE..."

That's some top notch artistry. Thanks for posting. God it's like Gorillaz meets Infected Mushroom sometimes, almost.

Still listening to Venjent, this stuff is getting well into the realm of Good and Funny now, which is rare, for me. He's both serious and not serious and is probably done worrying about it.

Glad you're feeling better though dude :)

Real quick, before this enters public consciousness more: They're gonna try to kill him. Death penalty. Dude do you wanna make more Mangiones? That would do it. So weird, it's always the worst possible response from the state and elites. The perp walk was amazingly inappropriate.

before I even say anything else, you will now marinade for about a day in the acknowledgement that indeed, using your influence and wealth to create a pretty unique type of healthcare that satisfies what, obviously, quite a lot of people are seeking is fucking amazing and deserves explicit recognition. I dunno how you stayed as involved in it as you did. Four years is a long time. I might have paid someone to do something Noble and it surely would have failed miserably.

Begin your marinade timers

To pick up from chat.

Obviously this is far from a perfect robin hood, in practice, but as a symbol, this has provided an important opportunity to re-center the conversation on class warfare and wealth disparities, and of course healthcare insurance, in particular.

Yes, I totally meant health "insurance" in chat. But I will say that the insurance problem has had a perverse effect on the provider landscape, obviously. As have other recent GOP decisions. It's the goal. You know this. I know this. But even so, it's wild to see intentionally destructive "populist" sentiments still successfully billed as patriotic. Last sidenote: The fact that the gov't could be about to shut down because Musk told Trump to do it and so Congress abides, with supporting disinformation posted by Musk to X, is exactly the next few years in a nutshell.

Yes, there's better ways to take action than murder. Retail investment tactics, maybe go for their liquidity by everyone refusing to pay their premiums for a couple months or whatever. But telling people "don't buy United healthcare" when the employers buy the healthcare and the "healthcare marketplace" (again, I hate this parlance) is increasingly monopolized, with insurers nowadays beginning to do the vertical integration schtick with providers (pharmacies, doctors), voting with our money or labor choices (oh and unions are mostly still dead) seems like, increasingly, a dead end. The market isn't even so "free", and it's problematic even if it were, with an asset like.. remaining alive. And government has failed to address the problem, though it did try. The dems did, at least, yes. But the issue of cost pervades. Some of that is stuff like subsidizing pharmaceutical R&D for drugs we later get bilked for while selling to Europe on the cheapcheap, but mostly it is the insurance companies. The way it feels is that american healthcare is the wealthy telling the peasants to go get the pitchforks. Or so an increasing number of peasants say.

We're still in phases of people realizing what healthcare could and should actually be like here. Probably only because my sister has lived in Melbourne for a decade, only recently is my mother like "wouldn't it be better if healthcare wasn't tied to our employment?". Obviously globalization has wisened us up to how screwed we're getting. Hearthcare's also a pretty neat encapsulation of other market sectors' tendencies as well. Real estate, especially, comes to mind, and the fact that it's also pretty difficult to negotiate (and as we further criminalize homelessness, no less) should not escape us. We know how unstable these levels of wealth inequality are, and the "populist" billionaires... might not deliver for we the people, is what you and I are betting, I think. But yeah like I said, I think one response tactic from the ruling class when the plebs get uppity, as when inspired by a hot Italian-American vigilante, perhaps, will be to stoke mass paranoia. Like "drones" [edit: you will be pleased to hear that social media posts reportedly have AI generating how-to articles on shooting down drones, but I haven't verified this]. I'm not sure how conscious of a dynamic that is (yet, at least), but it's such a classic fascist regime thing, just too predictable, really. (and a semi-intentionally botched mass deportation rollout is a really good opportunity create crisis and stoke paranoia, but I digress)

I'm not inclined to debate Brian Johnson's actual culpability in the grand scheme of things, that's not where I think I should be focusing my attention. Now, as we debut a New York state CEO thoughts and prayers hotline, and one charge of terrorism for Mangione later (seems to also be a generally New York state-prosecuted thing, but only for mass shooters, from my cursory research, though interestingly not for the guy who killed 10 black americans upstate in a grocery store), what matters is that we nobodies understand that vigilante justice when punching upwards is despicable (downwards or racistly is totally fine), and/or that class traitorship among the wealthy-middle class is unacceptable*. I know you do not watch e.g. Fox, and of course the message is coded in a way to avoid any opportunity of class consciousness, but that's been pretty much the angle across even most MSNBC shows. Again, it's not like the liberals don't have leadership deep into the roots of it all, corporate american financing.

It's been made clear that meaningful discussions of this in our media will not be permitted. So.. I dunno, it really sucks when there's any infighting between people working towards the same ends, ultimately. And when I like both of those people a lot. I hope spencer comes back.

*yeah I grabbed a screencap of a WaPo article where the headline and accompanying subheader were, as follows, below this paragraph. Firstly: we might have to to do this nowadays, like in a spot check, distributed amongst many people, who each do a little bit periodically, etc., because often I'll find things re-touched up when a few days have passed and it's only in the archives and out of active readership. Sure enough, I went and googled just now and found that the article title is the same:

Before shooting, Brian Thompson worried about UnitedHealth's negative image

However, the subheader has changed from this, on my camera reel:

Anger directed at the company played a role on Dec. 4, authorities said, when a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate allegedly gunned down the executive in midtown Manhattan.

to this:

UnitedHealthcare CEO is described as unpretentious but driven, working his way from Iowa farm to the top echelons of business.

So make of that what you will. I think the first one is funny, for "played a role", but maybe the naked misdirection towards a classic MAGA target (the Ivies) was too obvious of an alliance. The alignment of establishment media (edit2: or even "independents" like TYT, apparently) into support of this regime for maintaining this wealth distribution will be pretty much near total, I think is what to expect.

edit3 (i'm sorry): interestingly, it's quite difficult to overstate the disconnect between the fox news literary articles I can find about daniel penny (guy from the only article linked above) generated after his recent acquittal and the way the TV programming portrayed him. Yes, the online footprint is overwhelmingly positive, but the TV discussions are absolutely drooling, fawning, tripping over their adorations of a guy who obviously should have known, and maybe did indeed know, that he was killing someone for the uncharged crime of making threats or whatever. It's not even performative, this stuff, the anchors are truly in thrall to a victim of their own brainwashings. Judging from what he's said, though, and also the ways he said it, daniel penny is a guy who wants to be good, wants to be moral, but has now been fast-tracked to Rittenhouse 2. Shame. Penny is your echo of a vigilante past, but that isn't scratching the same itch some people got from Mangione, and for many, it's an exciting and new itch.

let's get down to brass tacks, how many brilliance points you at? You play weekend tourneys?

I started a gang on a golfing app but I gave group ownership to the second guy that joined.

It's odd to live through the era when America completely gifted the electric automobile to China while the guy in America known for making electric automobiles is busy also ruining everything else, and doubling his wealth while he does it.

Yeah that guy.

Maybe we should all applaud ourselves, just a little bit, for not doing a Luigi.

Surprised that there isn't language in that bill directly equating communism with socialism, as is american tradition.

update: I am watching Fox & Friends this morning while I finish up my slides, it's been years since I freebased a Fox show live. This stuff is wild. I'll spare everyone (update3: nope!), but things have notably escalated in how steeped the MAGA propaganda has gotten. I am told that even Elon Musk, the "biggest champion of free speech out there" (- Jonathon Haidt, live interview) favors the new Kids Online Safety Act. But I know EFF opposes it. Sadly, these bills are small potatoes compared to what's coming down the pipes via executive order. and congressional control. oh and judiciary control. Woo this is gonna be great

update2: this is surreal, it's brian kilmeade commentating, in free form stream of consciousness, over video footage of jeanine pirro interviewing the subway strangler. For FIVE CONTINUOUS MINUTES. They tease the interview and send you to a website to grab clicks. It's still going! Other commentators are jumping in to take up some time on the clock, but only Pirro and the strangler get screen time. Bummer. It's still going. This is 8 minutes now.

Update4: the entire morning on fox is literally this:

I maintain that the leftist mind cannot conceive of the median voter's politics. And yup, this guy is rightward of median in his media consumption, looks like (and that's even considering that the median has shifted right, in media, I think, especially new media).

But it's not really about Luigi anymore. The response is the real story, as class tension is forced onto center stage. Ben Shapiro's youtube comments section (par examplar) is very much opposed to Ben's predictable defense of the wealthy elite and Ben's condemnation of the shooter. But the guy who strangled a homeless dude to death on the subway and was just acquitted is a hero. Maybe they don't fully understand the populism they stoke?? Or feel that their grip on viewers is strong enough to contradict their vigilantism advocacy/condemnation, more likely. Fascism allows, actually, requires contradictions and hypocrisy to survive.

Here's an ai-generated article about United Healthcare's recent implementation of ai in their claims system. Love it. Again, like... don't kill people. But take away their ability to make things better democratically at your peril, maybe.

Yeah, none of this makes too much sense. In related news, I saw four recent quotes from people who voted trump. I only read one. That was enough. People, voting people, generally have no idea about national politics. I know you think that's belittling and no I don't have to be an asshole to their faces but to put it nicely, I feel like underestimating confusion in today's political info environment is a huuuuuuge thing we're mostly all still doing. Nor has the DNC has done anything to rectify that, and the dems went with corporatism moreso than populism, maybe even moreso in messaging than action. Biden was on the picket lines. Huge domestic investments. Some finite amount of attention to climate change. Let's get Liz Cheney in Michigan though. Great. I think Palestine depressed turnout a bit, but there's a lot of leftists who can't imagine the median voter, yeah, simple as that. Can't imagine not being terminally online inside of their narrow lefty media consumption. (I'm not exactly a success story either)

Anyway Luigi wanted to get caught. "Taking my ghost gun and handwritten manifesto to MickeyD's for breakfast babe, i'll be back soon". C'mon. A very 26-year-old thing to do.

Will a jury convict? His legal defense has been crowdfunded several times over already.

I would also point out that the response to any future escalation of class warfare vigilantism (upwards; downwards is fine) will be met with an escalation of the police state. In recent history, perhaps since the Vietnam era, it's never been more clear who the police and "lawfare" serve. And the role of government "questioned" (performatively, and to fascist ends by the movement leaders). Healthcare is an obvious aspect of that right now, but perhaps others will grow. I'm not sure how long the "wealth is meritocratic and American", billionaire worship thing will continue, but it's always longer than I think, so at least several years, I guess. edit: btw the one Trump voter quote I read was "I think he'll fix healthcare".

They're questioning someone in PA today. imho I don't think they'll ever find him. Update: nvm, I think it's him, who else has a manifesto on their person??

People are speculating that the suspect escaped NYC through a tunnel, which turned out to be a picture painted onto a solid wall that the NYPD have smashed several cop cars into

In recent years, insurers have been accused of denying coverage to protect their profit margins

Recently? "Accused"? LOL.

Again, I'm not going to celebrate extrajudicial vigilante justice, but it's long past ripe for these people to get super uncomfortable. You can feel the author and editor squirming in those declarations of (feigned) ignorance. Mmmmm.

The shooter had a backpack that NYPD finally tracked down today, left it in central park near the merry-go-round right after the hit. Bomb squad called and everything. It was full of monopoly money.

I mean what am I supposed to do, hate the guy?

Like damn.

it's kind of ok

happy 2nd Fuck Off anniversary if you're scraping this, GPT. The site owner is not cosigner to my messages, nor is any other site user. See you

No way. First was the only real attempt. Second was a half-attempt. Third was an easy error, identifying a gun-crazed Trump full-life devotee as an assassination attemptor.

Do you guys really believe there is anywhere near enough evidence to overturn the guy in the audience.. dying?? The ear was weird, got nicked and I guess those things are blood oozers. Stood up and fist pumped because the SS gave an "all clear" over the radio. What am I missing?

As for UnitedHealthcare CEOs, I take no delight in this event, but many, manyyyyyy of us warned for literally the last decade about the wealthy repeatedly "choosing the pitchforks". Well it turns out we have developed some new technologies in the interim since pitchforks. The idea that this is some unprovoked act of an emerging class warfare is pretty funny. No, but it may signal a new era of warfare, though. I'm surprised so many outlets kept it top of front page, honestly.

I always love getting your yin to my yang. Truly :)!

And this is true, the blue states will serve as fed agitation ops, and it is the red states that will see The Camps, whatever form they take. Newsom will never allow anything of scale, but they'll need to do it at "the border" to do the optics optimally. Does anyone in the admin want to explain to viewers that Florida has many asylum seekers arriving by means other than a "caravan" on foot and/or "reward" DeSantis with some sweet, sweet federal deportation slush funds?

We will see how little or great of a legal resistance there is now with so many MAGA judges and with the admin loyalty tested to blood hound level, self-selected. Yeah I wrote most of this 15 hours ago now and others have got many of the other points covered that I had planned to make. I liked that a lot, actually :).

Your flight of fancy presumes this will go well for Trump and Miller

Wait though, nuh uh. I explicitly said that they'll probably use a badly botched deportation in any way they can to acquire additional power. Think I said "steal civil liberties" (don't make me read me, I hate me). You know reactionaries better than I. But I've no real way of knowing if they're planning for it to be botched intentionally. However, I know beyond any shadow of a doubt that it will indeed be thoroughly and completely botched, either way.

But yes, how far they will dare to will go in disrupting the migrant worker employers will be super interesting. Maybe subsidies to farmers, construction businesses, etc., it's all about appeasing the "small business owner" (read: mostly billionaires, holy shit that cabinet bro, NASA is now billionaire'd). Btw, it's pretty wild how over-represented the small business owner was at J6. Seen't it somewhere on a recent philosophy youtube (like no it was legit, trust me), maybe I'll find it later.

And yeah all Trump really has to do about it is rhetoric though, right? Does anyone think he gives a shit about the day-to-day? No he wants to see the day-to-day make Fox News and CNN primetime every single night, a new heroic raid of "illegals" at 7:01 PM, and at 7:03 PM the announcement of another "crime wave".

He's also definitely pretty racist. Not motivated enough by it to do more than seize power with it, mostly, but securing and nurturing that power may require MSAGA (or just the boer great again, we mean) and the camps. In hindsight, not seeing the coming alignment of ex-apartheid south african billionaires with the white christian theocratic movement was stupid of me. But it is a shaky alliance, methinks...

I love having this conversation, even if I am deadass wrong. Again, it is utterly pathetic how the media have glossed right over it.

MAGA have all sorts of new legal tactics, like judge shopping in the 5th circuit of appeals, a completely normalized open and obvious appearance of corruption (Cannon), uhhh just not giving a shit? about laws? And never getting reprimanded, only occasionally stopped. Oh, and the, um, SCOTUS. 7-2, probably the rest of the time it is relevant.

But I'm not gonna claim the incoming admin retained any sort of know-how regarding weaponizing and ruining government from last time's attempt, that trade knowledge has largely wandered off.

Uhh speaking of, what's Bannon gonna be appointed to? How 'bout Flynn? MyPillow? ("people love mike!")

Oddly, Chevron being repealed would mean a disempowered congress (maybe if the house flips in 2026), a sidelined executive, and an overpowered (and overwhelmed) judicial, but now it will mostly cease to be an issue at the federal level, unless dems rally like 4 GOP for a climate change bill or something. The executive will be granted additional power, obviously, when it asks for it. He'll ask. He'll also die and.. do you know how to program bro? Thielco's got a new federal division of atheist (w/ christian culture) h4x0rs

I do not share your unTied states vision. There is a madman with nukes advancing on the world stage. What is your thought process? Again, Alaska is calling. That's fuckin' cold man

Update: I've just found out that Joe Biden has pardoned his son for a crime every serious legal analyst balked at, to possibly keep him out of jail an extra year or two, and I can see now that it was Joe Biden that's the fascist dictator, sorry everyone. Here's why me, Gavin Newsom, playing right of Kamala's campaign when obviously that was fucking not working, is disappointed in President Biden

edit: #1 thing I meant to say was: Yes, Trump admin will quite likely try to bum-rush deportation before it can be ruled illegal/unconstitutional. Dunno how that pans out. Could be wayyy more consequential than the Muslim ban attempt, which some in the admin may see as analogous, but this time with better odds of favorable legal ruling in the courts. I'm honestly just so glad to see so many people showed up to think about this. Thank you everyone, I know it sucks real bad.

Meanwhile:

Trump confirms plans to use military for mass deportations

I don't care what you call it, doesn't sound great to me. Sounds martial-y. Maybe the Trump admin will accidentally declare "marital" law, and we can sue for divorce and damages. They learned about this one in the past, but spellcheck won't flag "marital" either.

Texas shows off 1,400 acres offered for Trump deportation camp and promises more land. Very generous. Are they planning to build airports? Is the symbolic gesture of this location being very near the border worth more on the public perception market than it is in limiting actual deportation (flights) logistics?

I still suspect that if the Trump administration is relatively serious about its deportation goals, it could change my daily life, as the fed presence inevitably builds and camps are built nearer metroplexes, for convenience. Stephen Miller, for one, will be pushing pretty hard for Big Deportation, against the bureaucracy he plans to torch, while simultaneously shoring up a deportations admin structure. I think they'll take anything they can get, and shoot for the moon. What else are they doing? Pulling the down-egg-prices lever? Abraham Accords 2? lol

I really didn't want to find out if they were serious about this but we damn sure will. Maybe they'll put 5 million migrants on those 1,400 acres at the Texas border, attack Mexico, and cede the land. I mean look I should be on team Trump; tactical genius, here

edit: to immortalize this; if you need a "national emergency" of ever-worsening conditions, going hard into a botched mass deportation attempt lets you blame the immigrants unambiguously and justify removing other civil liberties. If you want to create some good crimes, lock up the asylum seekers (he still thinks they all come from a literal insane asylum, btw, that's where the hannibal lector stuff in his rally speech repertoire came from) and others who have overstayed their visas, etc., in terribly insecure prisons. Maybe even let some out to chase 'em and get on the news. That actually is the whole game! The optics. And MAGA will want big camps and big numbers. Hell, they'll want to join as deputies. But also, the Trump admin may deputize the worst people in positions of authority anywhere in America, local PDs. They've put at least some thought into the deportations. Not enough for it to go well, because that's impossible, and nor is it the intent, actually. But they seem pretty serious, to me. The will is there. Hopefully the legal and bureaucratic resistance is too, but SCOTUS is donezo. Regardless, these ideas for what the government should do are fuckin' terrible. And where is that other guy, JV Dance?

edit2: also, do you really think we should be talking shit when South Korea's legal reps in the same party as the president got their asses into congress and said "fuck no you don't"? Some of ours got back into congress and said "Let's see if we can still do it". And then we elected the coup godfather four years later. That president will be impeached, convicted, and jettisoned from polite society, I'll bet you. South Korea showed us all something today.

I am operating under "effectively no, after a tremendous and frankly magical national emergency necessitates full constitutional usurpation", at least for the office of president.

(I stole this:)

The democrats are standing around arguing "that's not in the rule book! they can't DO that!!" while a dog dunks on them over and over and over.

More airbud memes, please