Dispatches from the Front Lines of Class War I
The killer left a message engraved on the bullets
Dec. 5: Words reported etched on bullets, casings … Insurance company caps coverage for time under anesthesia … Supreme Court transgender case … Raskin leadership role …
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It’s weird that President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t said anything about Brian Thompson.
A rich, corporate CEO whose looks and gender and lifestyle match Trump’s preferred aesthetic is shot in the back by a bike-riding Starbucks customer just a few blocks from Trump Tower in Trump’s home city … and Trump says nothing?
It’s weird, is all.
Maybe he’s spooked by the tidal wave of glee and rejoicing — some of it presumably from his voters. Maybe Trump doesn’t want to be seen as taking the side of evil health-insurance companies. Maybe he’s just too busy.
Of course, it’s not impossible that Thompson’s death had nothing to do with his job.1
On the other hand, the New York Post reported overnight that the killer apparently left a message at the scene.
Live rounds and shell casings found at the scene were engraved with the words “deny,” “depose,” and “defend.”
It’s hard to imagine this isn’t about Thompson’s industry. As the Post notes, American health insurance was the subject of a deeply critical 2010 book called “Delay, Deny, Defend: Why insurance companies don’t pay claims and what you can do about it.”
Presumably, murder wasn’t on the list of what you can do about it.
And Thompson didn’t become CEO until 2021. So the 2010 industry wasn’t his fault. And there’s no suggestion that he was an architect in any way of the current shit-show that passes for America’s health-care system.2
In the aftermath of yesterday’s murder, your system-focused TFN posted a mild caution that demonizing Thompson risks turning a blind eye to how our corporate and cultural systems normalize the evil-doing that he evil-did and his peers still evil-do.
It’s the systems that need fixing.
Yes, UnitedHealthcare was doing all kinds of (alleged) criminal shit under Thompson. The online world was filled with these accounts yesterday and frankly they all seemed offered as a way to justify the glee over Thompson’s death.
But we can have empathy for Thompson’s victims without deceiving ourselves that he was uniquely bad or that UnitedHealthcare is about to replace him with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
And I was covering awful things UnitedHealthcare was doing almost 20 years ago as a producer at Countdown with Keith Olbermann. You don’t have to tell me health insurance is bad. Everybody knows health insurance is bad.3
But there’s no version of UnitedHealthcare that’s both financially successful and beloved no matter who’s running it. And nothing about our lives improves because Thompson was tragically cut down before Trump could appoint him to flesh out his concept of a plan to undo Obamacare.
But yesterday does feel like a turning point.
Not the killing itself, so much as the omnipresent response to it. People. Fucking. Hate. These. Guys.
And I won’t judge people for dancing on Thompson’s grave. TFN doesn’t judge grief-demonstrations and that’s what this is, grief over generations oppressed by an industry and system that extort ransoms from us in exchange for the most basic of necessities.
And for decades the people atop this system have been largely invisible. Just like the Big Oil fuckers fucking the planet. Our politics and media treat them like literal Invisible Hands.
And now someone decided to point at one of the actual humans. The glee over it, I suspect/hope, is less about the violence than about the pointing.
And maybe the way to fix the system isn’t — as TFN suggested yesterday — to literally fix the system or even to re-engineer our culture out of the toxic mindsets that gave us the system.
Maybe it literally is to name names, to make any individual leading the system absolutely toxic and pariah-fy the fuckers from university boards, museum donations, and every other form of economic-predationwashing.
And maybe Trump’s silence was an attempt to avoid having all that incipient rage focus on him.
I mean, look at the suspect list: Dudes in hoodies who drink Starbucks and hate insurance executives. Who wants to go up against that army?
No wonder Trump might want to be Switzerland in this conflict.
The last thing he wants — after a campaign about how Democrats want to defend “they/them” while Trump is fighting for “us” — is to call attention to the fact that we’ve now had weeks of Trump handing the levers of control to the unmurdered Thompsons of the world.
And when we look at some of the other news yesterday — yes, your trusty TFN promises we’re about to do that — it almost starts to look as if maybe yesterday’s murder wasn’t the first shot fired in Class War I.
Maybe it was self-defense.
The War Council Meets
Haven’t seen this reported anywhere else, but in a little update, the New York Times reports that the armed forces of the Fortune 500 held a war council yesterday.
The virtual video meeting was a response to Thompson’s murder and it included “dozens” of chief security officers from Fortune 500 companies around the world. This, of course, is how it starts.
First it’s mercenaries and contractors — Blackwater and the Wagner Group — taking up arms for the oligarchs and the paychecks. Then the companies themselves arm up in response to the threat.
Fast forward, add some CGI, and you’ve got hostilities breaking out between the Coke and Pepsi armies. That’s the sci-fi dystopian version.
More likely is the Army of Beverage Producers and Distributors combining corporate forces against the common enemy: The common people.
Security consultant Dave Komendat told the Times that corporate security officials prowl for online references to their company and executives. So, uh, hi, Dave!
But all of these people have a massive blind spot. Well, spotsss.
Here’s one. Komendat says that executives face increased risks “because of the services that are being provided and the emotion that comes along with some of those services.” That’s precisely backward, of course. They face risks because of the services not being provided.
And that’s the corporate world’s other blind spot. The “services” they provide make it more difficult to identify the threats, because their “services” swell the ranks of the millions with motive.
Elderly in the Crosshairs
Peace talks on the health-care front could lead to abandoning America’s elderly behind the front lines of their nursing homes. Not sure that analogy’s working the way your optimistic TFN hoped, so we’ll play the rest straight.
Democrats and Republicans are negotiating their priorities on health issues as part of the broader effort to head off yet another budget showdown by passing new spending legislation.
Reportedly, the Republican plan makes some concessions to Democratic priorities:
Extending pandemic-era Medicare telehealth flexibility,
Some reforms for pharmacy “benefit” managers (PBMs)
Community health-center funding
Extending some Medicare and Medicaid public-health programs.
What do Republicans want in return for agreeing to, um, help people? To not.
The STAT health news outlet obtained a copy of the Republican proposal. The GOP wants to torpedo Pres. Joe Biden’s mandate of minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes.
And, to be honest, there’s actually an argument for Democrats to agree. That’s because if congressional Republicans don’t win the right to toss elderly people overboard in their budget negotiations, RePresident Donald Trump is likely to just scrap the rule anyway, by fiat, before it kicks in in 2027.
Leave no one behind. (Unless they’re old.)
War Plans Emerge for Disarming Oligarchy’s Greatest Threat
President-elect Donald Trump yesterday appointed former Rep. Billy Long (R-MO) to head the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the armed forces marshaled by the people to conduct raids and recapture at least some of the wealth commandeered by America’s wealthy.
Long’s specific background is less important than the fact that Trump is picking a new IRS chief. That doesn’t bode well for its current initiatives.
And Republicans are fighting the IRS on two fronts. On the front that’s currently at least aimed at the enemy forces of the rich, Republicans are looking to undo the massive IRS troop deployments achieved by Pres. Joe Biden with funding from (one of) his landmark funding bills.
You may recall these legions of new auditors and agents were brought on specifically to target rich tax evaders. Republicans simply lied and said they’d prioritize going after the middle class for no conceivable reason.
Republicans will claim it’s a cost-cutting move to decommission all those new IRS recruits. But the reality is that every IRS agent deployed against the rich more than pays for themselves. Cutting IRS agents actually costs money in lost revenues.
On the other front — you and the people you love — Republicans are looking to dismantle the fortifications Biden was building to help you out. Specifically, the IRS is right now in the process of standing up free filing services; no need to pay a company to help you.
But House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) said yesterday that there’s “a Republican mandate from the people and the voters that we need to rescind as much of that as possible, and I think that will [be] part of this going forward.”
Wake-Up Call
WARNING: The following sentence may make you want to shoot an insurance executive in the back; proceed with caution.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced last month that it will cap how long you can be anesthetized during surgery and still be covered by their insurance.
I know. You’re beside yourself. Take a minute. Breathe (assuming it’s covered by your insurance). Count to ten (assuming that doesn’t exceed your time limit).
You good? We good?
So, yes, in three states — Connecticut, Missouri, and New York — starting next year if your surgery goes past a set time, you now have to pay for your “extra” anesthesia. You greedy asshole.
If you go into surgery for a heart attack, you could wake up, get handed a bill for “extra” anesthesia, and then have a stroke. An un-pre-approved stroke.
“Claims submitted with reported time above the established number of minutes will be denied,” the insurance company wrote before it knew a gunman would be denying insurance executives time above their established number of minutes.
This came out yesterday even though Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield announced it Nov. 1. And even though the American Society of Anesthesiologists put out a fucking press release on Nov. 14.
Why are we hearing about it only now? Because Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) retweeted a post about it yesterday. That’s how degraded our empirical defenses are.
The Lever reports that the new policy applies to an estimated eight million policy-holders/future suspects. And it reports that the Biden administration implemented new rules to limit recovery-room surprises from anesthesia bills, but that these rules could be rolled back by the Trump administration.
The Army of the Indebted
The ranks of young class warriors are quietly swelling, a new study suggests. Business Insider reports that Gen-Z averaged $2,834 in credit-card debt last year, a 26% increase from the debt of people their age a decade ago.
And Gen-Z is using more credit cards more often for more shit and falling more behind on payments than previous generations did.
Newsfuckers’ inner grownups may fret and tut-tut…but there’s something kind of appealing about all this. It’s almost like a collective, quiet rebellion.
Suppose literally all of us just maxed out on our credit cards so we could max out on life, man.
What the fuck can they do to all of us? We’re their food chain!
So maybe in a way it makes sense to live life to the fullest-ish now, in the moment. Maybe the unconscious thinking is that if the masses all go into debt, each individual is protected by our collective status.
The powers that be will have to forgive it all. Or they can punish everyone and risk the collective wrath of an indebted giant awakened. So go ahead, live your life!
Transgender People Caught in the Line of Fire
Any class war needs scapegoats and piñatas to distract the oligarchy’s hordes of enemies.
Donald Trump’s campaign recruited transgender people for that role over the summer. (With help from corporate media, as TFN sleuthed out.)
And yesterday transgender people took a stand — literally and metaphorically. Transgender lawyer Chase Strangio, counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), argued before the Supreme Court — the most corporate-friendly, openly Christian-extremist court in modern history — that transgender kids should not be banned from getting health care that their health providers recommend for them.
That’s how fucked up this case is.
We now find ourselves in a situation where a bunch of mostly-men, wearing dresses, quoting men who wore wigs, are judging transgender people.
CNN reports that Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh were concerned about the court second-guessing the Tennessee lawmakers who banned gender-affirming care for minors. Never mind the Tennessee lawmakers second-guessing doctors.
Kavanaugh, a deeply stupid person, advanced a deeply stupid argument. What if the transgender patients later regret getting gender-affirming care? This is an argument made approximately never regarding possible regrets over exercising any other fucking freedom. Looking at you, plastic-surgery industry!
What if I get in a car crash and regret getting a driver’s license? What if I regret accepting Trump’s nomination to serve on the Supreme Court because it transitions me into a punchline for the rest of my life? Ya roll the dice and ya take yer chances, kids.
Hell, we let parents mutilate newborn boys who don’t/can’t consent. Anyone ask whether cut dudes might wanna undo circumcision? But that’s all Judeo-Christian, so non-consenting babies get the shaft.
As the Center for American Progress points out, it’s never just about whoever’s in the crosshairs. The Supreme Court has allowed states to outlaw some medical care4 for pregnant people. Now the Supreme Court is signaling willingness to let states ban not just a procedure that a pregnant person chooses, but a course of treatment that medical professionals say is recommended.
First it was insurance companies making recommended care impossible. Now it could be the government.
When that falls, what’s left?
War Correspondents
Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is advancing through the firewall that once protected the editorial ranks at the newspaper he owns, the Los Angeles Times.
Yes, this is the guy who blocked his editors from endorsing Vice Pres. Kamala Harris.
Oliver Darcy reports that editors at the paper are now required to send him the headlines for all opinion pieces they’re going to run so he can 👍 or 👎 them. And — during a talk yesterday with right-wing bloviator Scott Jennings — the Times owner said they’re going to start slapping so-called “bias meters” on all their stories. Powered by AI.
And a quick reminder that you can support TFN’s aggro-gation of the news — and original reporting — by becoming a paid subscriber to TFN with all that money you save unsubscribing from corporate media.
The Best Defense…
There are mounting signs Democrats are willing to shake things up in order to fight back. No sign yet of full-blown plans to dismantle the current system, but they are ramping up to at least prevent its worseningification.
PARDON POWER Remember how your usually demure TFN lost its shit a couple weeks ago and yelled “FOR THE LOVE OF FUCK, BIDEN — PARDON THEM ALL”?
Threats by President-elect Donald Trump and appointees such as possible FBI Director Kash Patel (no, really) have heightened debate inside the White House over whether to protect everyone with pre-emptive pardons, Politico reports.
One potential downside is pardons could make it look — to deeply disingenuous and/or stupid people — like an admission of guilt. Some of those under consideration for pardons, reportedly, are: Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA), former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci. He knows what he did.
HOUSE Remember the brewing battle between Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and usurping Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)? Well, it’s over.
Raskin won. Nadler endorsed Raskin to take the ranking-member spot in the next Congress.
Which means Raskin will be the general on the front lines of all the Judiciary battles ahead. It’s also a sign that Democrats are increasingly willing to let a new guard lead the fight in the future.
It also opens up the ranking spot at the Oversight committee…with reports floating that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) might want a shot at the high-profile leadership role. Stay tuned.
TCB
PICS! We here at TFN HQ wanna see all you glorious Newsfuckers with your brand new, overpriced TFN crap! So send pics and we’ll share them with the growing newsfucking universe.
You’ve still got ten days to use the exclusive TFN discount code to get 10% off at The TFN Shop. Just use the codeword: FINGNEWS10. Don’t forget that most of this crap artisanal craftwork is printed on multiple sides so be sure to check out all the pics to get the full, uh, picture. To wit:
SOCIAL-ISM We’re on at least 77% of all the social medias! Namely, Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, and Spoutible.
Go get ‘em, kids.
Maybe he let his dog poop on his neighbor’s lawn one too many times. And are we sure that Thompson wasn’t about to testify against Charles Kushner?
No slight intended to Obamacare, which does a laudable job extending insurance to millions and represented an insanely difficult fight to passage and enactment.
Abortions.
The Fucking News, day in and day out does some of the very best journalism in the country. This column is simply remarkable for its breadth and depth.
I spent nearly 30 years of my life prosecuting murderers. Whoever shot Thompson should be punished to the fullest extent of New York law. BUT I also remember 10 years ago that United Health paid a claim of my partner and 2 months later denied an identical claim based on the same medical condition that had occurred 6 weeks after the first. If I had had any ketchup at hand, I’d still be scrubbing ketchup stains off the walls. It only took United Health 6 months to realize they had bungled. Thomason’s killer should be prosecuted, but if there’s an extreme emotional distress defense available, the defense should pursue it.
And how did Anthem BCBS generate its table of allotted time to be zonked out in surgery? Why even create the metric in the first place? Did they think they were paying too much for sleepy-sleepy shots? Or are they trying to shaft the anesthesiologists? If I had to guess, I’d guess Anthem is trying to cut the docs down to what Anthem views is a more manageable size.