United States | News & Politics

A couple of slices:

Extreme wealth disparity is not due to a lack of taxes, but rather a lack of competition. In a competitive market, profit margins are quite low. If any one company tries to set its prices much higher than the cost of production, rivals quickly undercut it. Unfortunately, large parts of our economy are blocked off from competition by laws and regulations. This allows monopolistic corporations to charge exorbitant prices.

...

Therefore, it is important to understand how billionaires create and maintain these monopolies that allow them to amass such unfathomable riches.

And:

A lack of competition allows billionaires and their corporations to not make, but take wealth from everyone else. It is not enough to merely tax them on their ill-gotten gains. We need reforms to ensure that they can’t exploit and fleece everyone in the first place.

Do read the whole thing.

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full story https://www.citizensvoice.com/2024/12/12/biden-commutes-sentence-for-kids-for-cash-judge/

Because I am self-employed, I have to buy my health insurance from the NYS marketplace. It is bonkers. Literally unfathomable.

The cheapest plan, for young healthy individuals with no anticipated healthcare needs, is $1,500/month. That is literally the cost of an apartment in many places in this state.

But wait, what do you get for $1,500/month? A deductible of $5,500 and an out-of-pocket maximum of $7,500. So you get to literally pay the equivalent of a second rent for the privilege of NOT GETTING ANY BENEFIT unless you have a major health event. It's madness. What the fuck could you possibly justify paying $18,000 a year for if every single time you go to a medical provider you have to pay the full bill anyway?!

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/118-2024/h500

in this link are the 81 that voted for it, I know that the article should just have this information, but it doesn't so here you go

Today, Americans for Tax Fairness released a new report detailing key beneficiaries of the Trump tax policies: billionaire nepo babies. Alongside cheeky profiles of inheritors wasting family fortunes on failed vanity businesses, medieval church purchases, lifestyle brands, private jets, and more, the report examines the startling realities of billionaire wealth growth. Example: 30 of the largest billionaire dynasties have seen their fortunes swell by 54% over the past nine years, while the wealth gap between the top 0.01% and bottom 90% has reached its highest level since the Great Depression.

LAKELAND, Fla. (WFLA) — A Lakeland woman was charged Tuesday after police said she ended a call to an insurance company with the words, “Delay, Deny, Depose.”

In an arrest affidavit, the Lakeland Police Department said officers were contacted by the FBI on Tuesday, Dec. 10 regarding an alleged threat made over the phone.

Briana Boston, 42, had reportedly placed a call to BlueCross BlueShield regarding recent medical insurance claims she was denied. The entire phone call was recorded, according to the affidavit.

Near the end of the call, investigators said Boston could be heard stating, “Delay, Deny, Depose. You people are next.” The first three words are similar to those written on the ammunition that a gunman used in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City last week.

The affidavit noted the similarities between the incidents, stating that those words have become nationally recognized as a phrase “directed against insurance companies.”

Police made contact with Boston at her home in Lakeland, where she reportedly admitted to using those words during the call, telling detectives that “healthcare companies played games and deserved karma from the world because they are evil.”

Boston reportedly told detectives she used the phrase “because it’s what is in the news right now,” and that she had learned of the phrase due to the UnitedHealthcare homicide.

However, Boston added that she does not own any firearms and “was not a danger to anyone,” police said.

Based on Boston’s statements, investigators said they believed she meant to threaten the insurance company “by using the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s homicide to her advantage.”

Boston was charged with threats to conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, according to the affidavit.

A judge set her bond at $100,000, stating, “I do find that the bond of $100,000 is appropriate considering the status of our country at this point.”

Its afraid.jpeg

She needs a jury trial... huge over reach by the pigs.

Also, be careful out there folks. Never admit anything to the pigs.

Did you really think class war gonna be that easy?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/23478086

Common Dreams Staff Dec 10, 2024

[contains transcript (corroborated by NBC) published by Ken Klippenstein]

A day after Luigi Mangione was arrested and charged as the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein on Tuesday published what he said was the 26-year-old’s highly reported on manifesto.

The existence of the handwritten document found on Mangione when he was taken into custody in Pennsylvania on Monday was confirmed by the New York Police Department, and major media outlets have quoted from it, but none had released it in full.

The "confirmed" manifesto can be found here: https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/luigis-manifesto