Explaining Myself.
| In Canada for TG and all I can wait to do is get to the hotel and flip through Canadian local TV channels. |
Brian Thompson Should Not Have Been the Target
12/06/2024
The shooting death of Brian Thompson has provided a framework for the open condemnation of our predominantly for-profit health care system. But I feel this condemnation is misappropriated if not obviously cruel.
Brian Thompson wasn't denying anyone getting healthy or healed. In fact he probably cherished the health and well being of anyone as very much you and I do.
The real outrage isn't that United Healthcare is a thing that denies coverage in a contract with policyholders. From their perspective that's just business as usual wherein drawing a line in coverage is always controversial. You can pretty much say that about the inconvenient parameters of any business contract.
Health insurance companies don't deny anyone procedures once the lines and thresholds are hit. You want anesthesia? Fine, have it. All Anthem Blue Cross is saying is *you* pay for it.
That is, if you have thousands of dollars laying around -- of course.
What's actually mortifying is that you likely can't pay for it.
In colossal effect what the composite reality of all health care insurers are actually telling you to do when denying coverage, is to get rich.
Get rich.
Think about that.
Consider that this isn't the expectation underlying the morality of just United Healthcare or Anthem Blue Crosss' decisions to deny, deflect, and defend. And also consider that when the insinuated assertion to "get rich" doesn't mean just get fiscally well situated or to just rely on fair wages for a fair time's work.
The message, literally and unambiguously, is to get filthy stinking rich, period.
And there you have it.
This is what our society has evolved to. In all areas, not just health care. Whether it be to live securely free of destabilizing crime and drama, to weather the foils of unemployment or employment, to eat healthy, to exhibit as an artist, to trill in song to massive audiences, to pontificate, to raise your children and to protect them, and even to defend your reputation or to establish one in the first place - everything - is now subject to the expectation that you "get rich" to do it.
I know we can point to bulks of people who do afford healthcare, do art, do sing, and do raise great and secure families. But only at the behest of misery on a larger scale and only by playing to the gamemasters. Some people become or embrace sociopaths - they join the United Healthcares of the world or at least admire and emulate them well enough to self-insulate. Some decay over time at the stress of, dying internally. Some rot into criminality at more basil levels. In ignorance, negative in, negative out, after all.
Whatever the cope and whatever the resilience, pound for pound, we as a people have terrible yield.
It could be a lot lot better with just a little more wisdom. Be outraged we don't evolve better, not that because we haven't, that lo and behold, we have United Healthcare, not to mention people credibly doing their jobs like Brian Thompson. A very real soul probably being reminded of that as you read these very words.
By laws of both scarcity and sheer probability everyone can't "get rich". If three bullets need to go into something, it's the universal expectation that everyone can and should, to live free secure and prosperous lives. Rich is a rotten threshold for basic living.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
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Not Just Any Mister
11/28/2024
I'm not just Mr. David Pinero in Toronto - I am *MR.* David Pinero.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
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Thanksgiving and the Boost Economy
11/28/2024
Waiting for my bus to Toronto just now, one seemingly homeless guy complains to another just after a police sweep that he can't go anywhere because it's Thanksgiving. He adds that he can't even "boost" because all the stores are closed - and he knows this because he Googled around looking for one. No place to go, nothing to steal. But at least he's Google-savvy.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
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Trump Never Trumped Common Sense To Me
11/24/2024
Okay here is my analysis of the Trump win in the 2024 election.
1. Some of the Stuff You've Already Heard
I think the Democrats' inability to relate to the regular "working man", which includes effectively communicating Biden's economic successes; a longstanding track record for advocating for the normalizing of a role in society for people who literally sneak into the country to live here (in my view, if you do that and thrive that's a lucky break for you but you should always feel the pressure of being found out and deported -- not feel free to show up at the DMV looking for a driver's license - WTH?); and not re-shuffling the conversation about transgender and diversity to make sure that, while fighting the injustice of discrimination against alternative gender spectrum people, made sure that such battles were not above the issue of a 40 hour work week no longer solving a problem for anyone financially. On that latter point, I don't even think they were headlining any of that as an issue, but certainly they let the Trump campaign believe otherwise. So, yeah, pretty much any YouTube critique of what the dems did wrong, applies.
2. As Above, But With Stronger Emphasis On...
But then there is all of that political persecution that was so obviously designed to shoot Trump out of the picture permanently. They came to call it "Lawfare" and unfortunately it's apt. It's incredible how so many professionals in the justice system and in the media were unable to grasp how transparent it looked to dig up trivial matters of guilt and go non-stop in the media about what a "criminal" Trump was. Yes, they created a martyr and to some degree even terror. Is that what the justice system is for? -- controlling political candidates and election outcomes? Any idiot comes to learn, sooner or later, that wagon-fixing is common between conflicting parties, but holy cow, in the case of Trump Lavrentiy Beria would have been proud in the validation of his philosophy. People who by and large aren't idiots as a whole felt compelled to bite back. I am sure more than one independent looked at the endless legal bombing and said F that.
I am proud of this point because I saw it early on and tried to warn anyone with whom I so entered a political conversation. Prosecuting Trump for doing something that is likely routine among chummy loaners and their customers, making a huge show out of collecting boxes of mismanaged files, and not dropping the theory of a direct tie between Trump's intentions and will and those who vandalized and breached the White House on January 6, were all incredibly stupid.
3. The Strong Man Factor (Nobody is Talking About)
This particularly nauseating Mamala gush exchange did not dissuade the "strong man" motivated. I fear many votes were lost this moment.
And, I believe, apparently uniquely, that Trump also won due to the simple effect of a "strong man" attraction. Joe Rogan couldn't shake the stars out of his eyes after Trump sat down with him and felt proud to be key to a master that so endowed him with the attention. Not blaming Mr. Rogan because let's face it, most of us common folk, wouldn't be able to resist either. Rather, I'm pointing out the effect of a confident jerk that kept things narratively simple and digestible. Just because we don't have kings doesn't mean that the facade of one isn't all compelling. Civilizations have settled on royalty because there's something to it, and Trump kind of illustrates that. All manner and method of mental contortion were employed among many to mysteriously align their principles with the charismatic loudest voice in the room. If the contortion was too great to process, enough people just flew up their hands and concluded, for the light of Trump, they just wanted change.
The reality though is that they were just sucked and stuck into a charismatic vortex.
Let Me Explain My Position
I guess it's fair to explain my own opinion on Trump's win.
I didn't vote him I voted for Harris. Not that I was impressed with the Harris platform - such that it was - but because, as in 2020, I considered the Democratic candidate, in absence of a strong third party candidate, the best defense against someone wholly mentally and emotionally unqualified for the job, not wanting someone half-cocked with their finger on the nuclear button.
Consider, I even enjoy and appreciate some of the pro-Trump talking points to boot.
For example, he and his minions all hate the media, which in my own head, is part of a movement I've been massaging for at least a decade now (#deauthorizethemedia, right?)
And also, I can relate to retaliatory "political smearing" and staging, having once taken a contrary position on a high profile matter, and worse, naively amplifying it, against the university who was also my employer at the time. That and politicians in the community at large who I was besmudging as a muckraking blogger at the time. Everyone had it out for me!
Point being though, I get that you never want to believe that actual grown adults in actual respectable positions of influence, would actually engage in dirty tactics, or be suspicious that they might, but it happens.
So Trump even has my sympathy on that.
Nor does the fact that I don't agree with the Democrats on some of their banner positions (I guess you can tell from above that I pretty much agree that illegal border crossing should be treated and coveted as something that is, well, illegal) sway me on the deeper doubt of Trump's qualification as a trustworthy national leader. Trump is a showman, a Biff-level capitalist who doesn't understand the entire point of human governance, and who has no business in any role coming even close, let alone that of the Presidency.
At best, I can resolve that at least we are definetely going to experience a change that may or may not lead to a better world, whether as a result of Trump's direct actions, or, the actions of decay, war, and tribulation that result from Trump.
Look at it this way, the world after Hitler was pretty good so long as it wasn't Hitler's.
So, there you have it. I don't want to end this on some high political or ideological lesson or preach of any sort -- this is me, as always, just explaining myself.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
deauthorizethemedia explanation politics
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These Scenes Are Always Cute
11/24/2024
On rare impulse I fire up a random "Videos for Cats" video on YouTube and frustrate my cat kids with the mystery of disassociated animals that hop and flutter before their feline little eyes. They remain occupied for a time but eventually surrender to the futility of actually catching anything. Aside from relieving their boredom for a time, I am also hoping to wake them up to the concept of "TV watching" so that they better understand why I'm laid out on the couch like I am for hours at a time. Not sure I am making a dent there though.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
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Wildlife Traffic Control
11/22/2024
Sort of just a fun fact here. My job facility is located in the center of a thriving wildlife community which consists of critter-level creatures like gophers and groundhogs, birds of all kinds, deer, and even wild turkeys. The reflective dots pictured are affixed to the large glass windows around the facility in hopes of (and presumed actual effectiveness) letting them all know that hey!, this here part of the universe is made of glass. No charging, flying, or trotting on through.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
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Social Media More Dependable Than CNN
11/06/2024
Nothing solidifies the disconnect between reality and the profit media than Trump's reelection. There's simply nothing to explain the picture media houses like CNN painted that the election was going to be close in the lead up to last night, other than just about every charge levied against them. Social media, people talking to each other directly, was far more accurate and dependable than CNN.
By Dave for Personal Blog.
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