TGIF [DOT 6/12/24]

6/12/24 MegMegMcGee 24

We were thinking a cat might be a good pal for my dad, and someone was rehoming a sweet little tabby…I picked her up this morning! She’s 2, but smol and her name is Skye.

This is a wild story

Online sleuths are racing to catch the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s killer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/12/05/social-media-united-heathcare-ceo-shooter

Apropos of nothing…

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield reverses plan to limit anesthesia coverage
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/12/05/anesthesia-anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-insurance

Doh!

Defiant Macron vows to stay on as French president and will appoint PM within days
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/05/macron-vows-to-stay-on-as-french-president-and-will-appoint-pm-within-days

Stonks!

Stock futures are little changed ahead of key jobs report: Live updates
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/05/stock-market-today-live-updates.html

Sprots!

Conor McGregor ordered to pay Nikita Hand’s €1.5m costs in civil rape case
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/06/conor-mcgregor-ordered-to-pay-nikita-hands-15m-costs-in-civil-case

Have a great day!

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24 Comments

    • If I was a health insurance CEO, I’d be very concerned about my safety. This murder has tapped a deep well of very angry people.

      The UnitedHealthcare CEO was killed. Why did some people celebrate?

      One of the really bizarre things about the whole Second Amendment, MAGA political group is that they somehow think that allowing the populace to arm themselves with high-powered weaponry and body armor will somehow never be used against THEM.

      I’m not an expert in private security, but I do know that if someone has nothing to lose and is determined to get to someone, it’s almost impossible to stop. Particularly if the person is armed with assault weapons and wearing armor. If they don’t care if they die, then the advantage is almost totally theirs. This guy acted with almost surgical precision, but someone who’s lost a loved one or has a terminal condition probably won’t care how much mess they make.

      It’s also true that gun owners aren’t MAGAs any more. I know liberals with guns, and more are starting to arm themselves, simply because these are scary freaks and they keep threatening to kill us.

      U.S. Liberals Emerge As Surprisingly Growing Group Of Gun Owners

       

       

  5. I just got around to reading this, and it’s just what was predicted.

    The Texas Ob-Gyn Exodus
    Amid increasingly stringent abortion laws, doctors who provide maternal care have been fleeing the state.

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/12/02/the-texas-ob-gyn-exodus

    One of the telling points is that it’s not just doctors who provide OB-GYN services, it’s all kinds of general medical services. And it’s not just affecting established doctors – it points out how residents are going to other states.

    And it could be pointed out that the growing right wing activism in places like Texas and Florida aren’t going to stop with abortion. They’ve already made it clear that they’re going after rights for LGBTQ people, interracial couples, and disabled people too.

    They want to blow up the right of a gay spouse to visit a dying spouse in the hospital. They want to let pharmacies refuse to distribute drugs to people they consider immoral.

    And yet we’re still seeing endless apologists for what’s looming in these states, especially in NYC and DC, claim there will be loopholes that let life continue unchanged. The doctors in Texas who see the reality know better, and they’re starting to be followed by women and their families too.

    Of course, a lot of those apologists like the idea that people will be suffering, and they’re just hoping they’re special snowflakes who won’t melt in the heat.

    • Texas quite literally does not give a fuck if women die. They don’t care. As people there wrap their minds around that fact, they decide it’s probably not in their best interest to stay.

      Same with all the other states that have outlawed abortion. Idaho and Tennessee have outlawed allowing minors to leave the state for an abortion. To all these states, women are chattel to do with as they please. It’s disgusting.

      I’m encouraging my daughter to look abroad for graduate school, at countries that have 21st century medicine. Failing that, I’m insisting she prioritize blue states. I don’t want her to go to one of these medieval hellholes (I say that knowing she’s 22 and can tell me to fuck right off — but we’re on the same page here).

      • The level of compartmentalization among elites is still ridiculously high. Many have let themselves be conned into thinking it’s savvy to believe there are special carve outs for them.

        So you have finance, tech and healthcare companies which believe immigration crackdowns will only affect lawncare companies. But the Project 2025 brainiacs have made it clear they’re not only going after people who are here on specialized visas, they’re out to revoke naturalized citizenship too.

        And even if it takes time to start stripping passports, a lot of gullible people are going to find out their dark skinned US citizen SO gets held up at the border for months after returning from a funeral by an INS that’s been directed to stop supposed fraud on any pretext whatsoever.

        And the ripple effects mean you may see hospitals hit by staffing shortages as their nurses and doctors are in limbo in one form or another. IT systems start freezing under stress. But the ones who want to be savvy will still be constructing fictions about how it’s not really affecting them.

        • I suspect it’s going to be faster and much less official than stripping passports. I think there’s going to be massive harassment programs, where brown people are simply taken into custody for suspicion of being foreign. They’ll be held until someone can produce “papers” and there’s not going to be any agreement on what counts as “proof.” While they’re waiting to contact family or friends to help, they’re shipped off to camps. Nobody knows where they are so nobody can provide documentation to set them free. The court system won’t intervene, and even if they wanted to, they’d be overwhelmed.

          It’s a pretty dark scenario but it’s not that different than what happened during Orange’s first term to anybody crossing the border. I just think this time it’s going to be anybody walking around while brown who can’t produce a notarized birth certificate and five signed and notarized affidavits from “official citizens” to attest to their legitimacy.

          They’re already saying they won’t worry about proper repatriation (if such a thing exists). They’ll just ship people to any country that’s not here, regardless of where they are from.

          • People already don’t know just how far the reach of the INS is from US borders. It’s 200 miles inland from any coast or land crossing. Due process is incredibly limited already, and things like a right to an attorney don’t count because technically there’s no arrest.

            And people don’t get just how susceptible companies are to pressure to fire immigrants, regardless of legal status. Just because someone is an assistant vice president handling multimillion dollar deals doesn’t mean some finance company won’t fire them when the DOJ  rolls in wanting proof that a naturalized citizen is actually who they say they are.

            And part of the goal of Project 2025 of gutting and overloading the bureaucracy is to make that kind of proof impossible.

            Of course when the burden for validating things like birth certificates falls on local governments and they can’t keep up with insane new federal regulations, we’re going to get the deluded reactionaries claiming it’s the fault of everyone except the Trump administration.

            Even when it’s their own families being ripped apart, these people will be unable to admit where the fault lies.

            • My guess is they’ll go for children rather than adults. Even if they were born here, how many kids will have any type of proof? They’ll hit schools and round up kids, probably shoving them into camps with adults where who knows what will happen. In a place like Texas the school will probably just provide lists of “suspects.” I remember the tweets to Trump the first time where bigoted teachers were trying to get kids removed from their schools. When the parents try to get their kids back, they’re “apprehended” too. And probably sent to a different camp.

              That way they generate maximum terror and chaos.

              And producing naturalization papers won’t help. They’ll just say they’re forged and by the time anyone can provide supporting documentation, the people are gone. 

    • Besides the pedophiles they promoted, the Latin Mass crowd of right wing Catholics wants to avoid responsibility for how much their leadership let Italian organized crime in at the top levels of their finances.

      Both John Paul II and Benedict made deals to promote not just child abusers but also Mafia launderers into the highest levels of the church hierarchy.

      https://www.ft.com/content/3029390a-5c68-11e3-931e-00144feabdc0

      Anyone who follows the Catholic Church reactionaries knows that none of them care at all about what language is used for mass. When anyone talks about tradition and Latin, it is just code words for corruption, abuse, and silencing reformers.

      As soon as someone starts chirping about the Tridentine Mass it’s genuinely embarassing. They’re like those creepy weirdo guys who watch child beauty pageants and seriously think people don’t know what’s behind their claims of just liking the music.

  11. bwuh?

    law is fucked up and makes little sense?

    https://nltimes.nl/2024/12/06/dutch-supreme-court-rules-man-killed-wife-inherit-estate

    shouldnt murdering your so automatically stop you from getting the will?

    and that aside….if it really was a psychosis and thus not your fault…as the law says here…. shouldnt you be wanting your wife back instead of the money?

    you know…instead of trying to apeal that decision?

    little hard to think you didnt have motives now isnt it?

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