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"One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero."

-- Charlie Chaplin

News and Opinion

The Real Villains

The CEO of health insurance giant UnitedHealthcare was gunned down by a masked assailant on Wednesday, much to the delight of Americans who’ve been suffering under their nation’s abusive healthcare system and the sociopathic profiteers who make their fortunes exploiting them through it. 

UnitedHealthcare has an unusually high rate of claim denials, even compared to its fellow predatory health insurance companies, and as CEO of the company Brian Thompson was personally raking in $10.2 million a year. 

The casings on the bullets used to murder Thompson reportedly had the words “deny”, “defend” and “depose” written on them, an apparent reference to the “delay, deny, defend” tactics notoriously used by health insurance companies to avoid payouts. 

According to Thompson’s wife he had been receiving threats from people because of his company’s actions, telling NBC News that the threats were from people who were angry about “Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage?”

That’s an actual quote, by the way. The way she phrased it as a question says so much about how psychologically compartmentalized she had been from her husband’s predatory behavior. Like the wife of a mob boss who doesn’t think too hard about where all the money and gifts are coming from.

The conversations this story has sparked are very interesting. I’ve seen a lot of posts online highlighting the fact that the murder victim in this case was himself a murderer, and a much more prolific one than any serial killer or mass shooter who’s ever lived. The only difference was that his style of murder was protected by the law.

This really nails home the point that the legal system is not intended to protect ordinary citizens from the worst people in our society, it’s there to protect the very worst in our society from ordinary citizens. You can see this just by watching the frenetic police manhunt that’s underway for Brian Thompson’s killer while Thompson himself was walking around a free man, and an obscenely wealthy one at that, despite his having made his wealth via profits reaped from corporate policies designed to deprive sick and injured people of healthcare as frequently as possible.

None of the world’s worst people are in prison. Our society is fed a steady diet of movies and shows depicting heroic protagonists fighting villains who abuse and murder people in illegal ways, when in real life the actual villains of our society murder people in ways that are completely legal. None of their abuses are against the law.

Everyone’s talking about the murderous practices of US health insurance companies today, and rightly so, but we should also bring awareness to the fact that it isn’t just billionaire healthcare corporations who are killing and abusing people at mass scale for profit. Anyone who rakes in billions is building an empire on the blood, sweat and tears of ordinary people. At the very least they are leveraging unfair socioeconomic systems to extract labor from people around the world at extortionate rates, because everyone needs money and most people are born under the unfortunate circumstance of having nothing to sell but their labor. Workers are given the bare minimum slice of the corporate pie in order to maximize profits, in exactly the same way health insurance companies deny claims to maximize profits, keeping huge numbers of people toiling in crushing poverty. And poverty kills. These abuses are exponentially worse in the ways they are inflicted upon the populations of the global south.

The sickness of capitalism is that if you kill a person with paperwork, it simply doesn't count.

— Val for Nevada (@ValforNevada) December 4, 2024

That’s the bare minimum level of abusiveness you will find in these billionaire corporations — the most profitable ones are far more abusive. They actively work to create more and more war, ecocide, exploitation and inequality, because these things increase their profits. They lobby governments for more wars and militarism around the world because they manufacture weapons of war. They lobby governments to shrink environmental regulations because they maximize their corporate profits by pillaging the earth and externalizing the costs of industry onto the biosphere we all depend on. They lobby governments for fewer worker protections because worker protections eat into profits. They lobby governments for exploitative trade agreements because globalization gives them a steady supply of cheap wage slaves with fewer workers’ rights. They lobby governments to privatize services and resources so that they can turn things people are already getting into coercive mechanisms of private profit extraction.

These abuses are the product of the exploitative, profit-driven, competition-based systems under which we live. In a system where it’s profitable to sell health insurance and frequently deny insurance claims, you’re going to see psychopaths rise to obscene levels of wealth and power by profiteering off health insurance. In a system where war is profitable, you’re going to see psychopaths rise to obscene levels of wealth and power by profiteering off war. In a system where ecocide is profitable, you’re going to see psychopaths rise to obscene levels of wealth and power by profiteering off ecocide. In a system where exploitation is profitable, you’re going to see psychopaths rise to obscene levels of wealth and power by profiteering off exploitation.

Our laws and police forces exist first and foremost to protect these abusive systems. They’re not there to protect us, they’re there to protect our abusers. They’re there to make sure what happened to Brian Thompson happens as rarely as possible, and that people like him are able to abuse people like you and me with total impunity.

Amnesty International’s Israel branch distances itself from ‘genocide’ claim

Amnesty International’s Israel branch has distanced itself from the rights group’s allegation that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza, but said “serious crimes” were potentially taking place that needed investigation.

The local branch, which operates as a separate charity from the international organisation, said in a statement: “While the Israeli section of Amnesty International does not accept the accusation that Israel is committing genocide, based on the information available to us, we are concerned that serious crimes are being committed in Gaza, that must be investigated.”

The 296-page report, examining events in Gaza between October 2023 to July 2024, found that Israel had “brazenly, continuously and with total impunity … unleashed hell” on the strip’s 2.3 million population, noting that the “atrocity crimes” against Israelis by Hamas on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war, “do not justify genocide”.

While its publication was largely welcomed by Palestinians and humanitarian groups, it was met with fury in Israel. “The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has produced a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The United States said it disagreed with the conclusions of the report. “We have said previously and continue to find that the allegations of genocide are unfounded,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

Amnesty International documents genocidal intent of Israeli leaders

Amnesty International, one of the world’s largest human rights organizations, has formally accused Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza in a report published Wednesday. Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 44,580 people in Gaza, according to official statistics, and the death toll has been estimated to be as high as 186,000 or more in a study published in The Lancet.

In its exhaustive 296-page report, Amnesty International demonstrated that this mass killing was motivated by genocidal intent, which permeated from the top of the Israeli government to the soldiers doing the killing. The report brings together video, photographic, and textual evidence of hundreds of instances in which Israeli officials and members of the military made oral or written statements expressing their intention to kill the Palestinian people, drive them out of Gaza, and take their land.

Summarizing the report, Amnesty International wrote, “Israeli forces have caused unprecedented destruction, at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, leveling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land, and cultural and religious sites, rendering large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.” It declares that “Israeli forces have carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.” Secretary-General of Amnesty International Agnès Callamard said, “Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them.”

The report, entitled “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza,” describes the “killing of civilians, destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcible displacement, the obstruction or denial of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid by Israel in Gaza.” More than 1.9 million people, or 90 percent of Gaza’s population, have been internally displaced. In a report last month, the UN’s human rights office alleged that 70 percent of verified deaths in Gaza were among women and children.

“In isolation, these are serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law,” declared the Amnesty Internatioanl report. “But looking at the broader picture of Israel’s military campaign and the cumulative impact of its policies and acts, the conclusion we came to is genocidal intent.” Callamard stated, “Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”

Hezbollah MP to The Grayzone: Resistance survived 'devastating' losses, fought back

Israeli Army Chief Visited Britain After ICC Warrants

Israel’s top soldier, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, visited Britain three days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for “crimes against humanity and war crimes”.

Halevi was initially reported to have been included in the ICC’s arrest applications for the crime of having “deliberately starved Palestinians in Gaza”. He was also forced to apologise in April after the Israeli military killed seven international aid workers including three Britons in Gaza. ...

It is unlikely that Halevi would have agreed to travel to Britain without being granted “special mission” immunity by the U.K. government. The Ministry of Defence did not answer Declassified’s question about whether Halevi was provided such immunity on this occasion.

Following Israeli pressure, former Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition government changed the law in 2011 to help Israeli officials to visit Britain without fear of arrest. The U.K. government has since granted special mission immunity to at least seven Israeli officials who have been accused of serious violations of international law.

Russian general warned US about hypersonic missile test in Mediterranean

Russia's top general called America's top general last week in a previously undisclosed conversation to warn the United States that Russia was going to carry out test launches of hypersonic missiles in the eastern Mediterranean Sea and that U.S. Navy ships should steer clear of the target area for safety reasons, according to a U.S. official.

Gen. Valery Gerasimov initiated last Wednesday's call with Gen. CQ Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to provide him with that warning and to also discuss Ukraine and how to avoid miscalculation between the U.S. and Russia about that ongoing conflict.

The Russian hypersonic missile test took place in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, an area where the U.S. Navy has three amphibious ships with 2,200 Marines aboard as well as destroyers providing missile defense for Israel.

The call between the two top military leaders was not made public until Wednesday, a day after the Russian defense ministry announced that Russian warships in the that area had launched hypersonic missiles at an undisclosed target area in international waters of that body of water.

INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson & McGovern : Weekly Wrap

Islamist rebels seize strategic city of Hama from Syrian regime forces

Islamist insurgents have captured the Syrian city of Hama in a battle to seize a vital location on the road to Damascus, marking the latest challenge to Bashar al-Assad’s control of the country. Militants led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the city from the east on Thursday after surrounding it during five days of fighting with forces loyal to Assad.

Video circulating online suggested that the insurgents had captured a military airport outside Hama, and released prisoners held in a fearsome state detention facility.

As night fell, militant representatives said they had “fully established control over the city of Hama,” and called on police and militias in the city to defect. “This victory will be without revenge and merciful,” said the leader of HTS, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, in a message to the people of Hama.

The Syrian defence ministry initially denied that insurgents had enteredHama, calling its defensive lines “impregnable”. But as fighting intensified and drew closer to the city centre, the Syrian army said it had withdrawn, redeploying its forces “to preserve the lives of civilians and not to involve the people of Hama city in these battles”.

Senior Biden aide commits to giving Ukraine avalanche of military assistance

The White House has gamed out a last-minute strategy to bolster Ukraine’s war position that involves an avalanche of military assistance and sweeping new sanctions against Russia, according to a background briefing from a National Security Council spokesperson.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan met with the head of the office of the Ukrainian president Andriy Yermak for more than an hour on Thursday, committing to provide Ukraine with hundreds of thousands of additional artillery rounds, thousands of rockets and hundreds of armored vehicles by mid-January, according to the briefing shared with the Guardian.

The US is also pledging to support Ukraine’s manpower challenge, offering to train new troops at sites outside Ukrainian territory. This comes alongside a nearly finalized $20bn in loans, which will be backed by profits from immobilized Russian sovereign assets.

The United States is tying that to a number of new sanctions to come in the coming weeks, all with the intent of complicating Russia’s ability to sustain its war effort and boosting Ukraine’s bargaining power at the negotiation table that could lay the groundwork for a future settlement.

EU troops in Ukraine. Orban advises Trump

Blinken Is Pushing For Ukrainian Teens To Die For US Hegemony

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken repeated the US government’s new position that Ukraine needs to start sending 18 to 25 year-olds to fight in its war with Russia, telling Reuters on Monday that “getting younger people into the fight, we think, many of us think, is necessary.” This comes even as polls have begun showing that Ukrainians favor making a deal with Russia to end this war as quickly as possible.

This is one of those things that looks more evil the longer you stare at it. They’re pushing for teenagers to be thrown into the fires of an unwinnable war like it’s nothing — like a corporation saying they need to hire more staff to accommodate their growing business. And why? To tie up Russia so that Syria can be turned into a smoking crater and allow the US war machine to focus its crosshairs on Iran and China, with the end goal of total planetary domination. All because some swamp monsters decided after the fall of the Soviet Union that the US must maintain unipolar global hegemony no matter the cost.

Ukraine barely even has anyone in the country from ages 18 to 25 for various reasons (many of which predate this war), but the managers of the US-centralized empire are pushing to scrape out the few they do have and toss them into the landmines and artillery fire just to keep this unwinnable war going for a few more months. Whether they succeed or not, the fact that they even tried is so profoundly psychopathic it’s actually hard to wrap your mind around.

You won’t see anyone in Tony Blinken’s family headed to the frontlines in Ukraine. These freaks see the population of this planet as nothing more than pawns on their grand chessboard, and they will sacrifice them just as casually.

West Chaos Biden Strategy Implodes; Moscow Warns Pentagon; Russia Offensive; Syria Collapse

Ryan Dawson : LIVE from South Korea

‘Great danger’ to South Korea unless President Yoon suspended, says ruling party leader

South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol could put citizens in “great danger” if he is not suspended, the head of the ruling party said on Friday, increasing the likelihood that parliament will vote to impeach the president over Tuesday’s failed martial law declaration.

“[If] President Yoon continues to hold the office of the presidency, there is a significant risk that extreme actions similar to the martial law declaration could be repeated, which could put the Republic of Korea and its citizens in great danger,” the head of the People Power party, Han Dong-hoon, told an emergency party leadership meeting.

Yoon shocked the nation, and his own party, on Tuesday when he announced he was imposing martial law in order to root out “anti-state forces” and overcome obstructionist political opponents. ... Han said he had confirmed that Yoon had directed the arrest of key political figures during the brief martial law period.

The main opposition Democratic party has scheduled an impeachment vote for the president on Saturday evening, and the national police have launched an investigation into Yoon over allegations of insurrection filed by an opposition party and activists.

On Thursday, the ruling party said it was against impeachment, but Han suggested that stance may be shifting in light of “credible evidence” that Yoon had intended to arrest and detain political leaders at Gwacheon, just south of Seoul.

Political Chaos in France: Macron Refuses to Resign After Hand-Picked PM Ousted by Lawmakers

Defiant Macron vows to stay on as French president and will appoint PM within days

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has ruled out resigning, saying he will stay in power until the end of his term in 2027 and will appoint a new prime minister in the coming days, after the government’s historic collapse plunged France into political turmoil.

“You have given me a democratic mandate of five years and I’ll carry it out fully until its term,” he said in a televised speech to the French people late on Thursday.

Macron, who is facing the worst political crisis of his two terms as president, criticised what he called the “cynicism”, lack of responsibility and “sense of chaos” of opposition politicians who toppled the government in a no-confidence vote on Wednesday, ending the beleaguered minority coalition of the rightwing prime minister, Michel Barnier, after only three months.

Macron said he would not be held responsible for that chaos himself. He said: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility,” He would appoint a prime minister “in the coming days” and instruct them to form a government “in the general interest, representing all political forces who can take part”, or who, at least, would undertake not to bring the government down, he said.

Wednesday’s no-confidence vote was supported by an alliance of leftwing parties as well as MPs from Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, far-right National Rally, with a total of 331 lawmakers – a clear majority – voting to topple the government. Macron accused Le Pen’s party of “choosing disorder”. France, which faces a growing public deficit, risks ending the year without a 2025 budget or a stable government, although the constitution allows special measures that would avert a US-style government shutdown.

"DELAY" AND "DENY" Found on Bullet Casings That Killed United Healthcare CEO

Brian Thompson’s killing sparks outrage over state of US healthcare

In the aftermath of the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, while Thompson’s colleagues grieve and politicians decry his murder, some online discussion has shown little sympathy for Thompson or the industry he represented.

Instead, social media has been in engulfed in expressions of anger at many Americans’ dire experiences at the hands of health insurance companies and outrage at the large profits that they generate. That belies the shock also generated by the brutality of Thompson’s death. The killing appeared premeditated and calculated. ...

Vacillating between the condemnation of violence and dark humor, celebratory memes and outright violent rhetoric, comments on social media highlight the deep and often unpleasant connection Americans have with their own health system.

An expert in political violence told the Guardian he sees this as part of the US’s growing acceptance of violence as a way to settle civil disputes. “Now the norms of violence are spreading into the commercial sector,” said Robert Pape, director of the University of Chicago’s project on security and threats. “That’s what I saw when I saw this.”

Although the motive for the killing is unknown, it has not stopped rampant speculation that there was an obvious candidate – Thompson’s work in corporate health insurance. That speculation was only furthered by the discovery of shell casings scrawled with the words “deny”, “depose” and “defend” in permanent marker.

Memphis police ‘regularly violate constitution’, says justice department

The US Department of Justice said Memphis police “regularly violate the constitution” and law enforcement often “punishes people who don’t immediately follow directions”, in a press conference Thursday morning.

The conference addressed a “comprehensive and exhaustive” investigation, culminating in a report released the previous day that found that the Memphis police department uses excessive force and discriminates against Black people.

“This investigation was comprehensive and exhaustive,” said Kristen Clarke, assistant US attorney general of the civil rights division. “We reviewed hundreds of incidents, watched hundreds of body-worn camera videos, read thousands of documents, and conducted statistical analysis of police data regarding officer activities and enforcement.”

“Our investigation has found a pattern or practice of conduct that violates people’s civil and constitutional rights,” Clarke said.

The report is a result of the DoJ launching an investigation into the Memphis police department (MPD) six months after the death of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols. Nichols was kicked, punched and beaten with a police baton by five officers after he attempted to flee a traffic stop in January 2023.

Dem Megadonor SPILLS TEA, Says Party Leaders NEVER WANTED Kamala

Biden library reportedly under threat by Democrats enraged by Hunter pardon

Senior Democrats are reportedly considering withholding contributions to Joe Biden’s future presidential library amid a mounting backlash over his decision grant a blanket pardon to his son Hunter.

The threat has emerged as simmering anger among congressional Democrats – already building over the president’s insistence on seeking a second term before belatedly stepping aside as the party nominee in favour of Kamala Harris – has burst into the open over Sunday’s pardon, which Biden had previously vowed not to give.

Axios reported that party grandees were considering taking out their “rage” on Biden’s library project. Planning for the library, in the president’s home state of Delaware, is being spearheaded by the White House deputy chief of staff, Annie Tomasini, and Anthony Bernal, senior adviser to Jill Biden, the first lady. ...

Presidential libraries – a tradition begun by Franklin D Roosevelt – are generally funded by a combination of private donors, state and local governments, and university partners. Maintained by the National Archives and Records Administration, they are used to house presidents’ papers and documents after they leave office. ...

A source familiar with Biden’s project played down the possibility of donations being withheld, telling Axios: “That sentiment hasn’t come up in a single donor conversation, and work is well under way.” However, the fact that it is being publicly mooted is a sign of the internal party disenchantment following the pardoning of Hunter Biden, 54, who was convicted of lying on gun ownership application forms and separate charges of tax evasion. He had been due to be sentenced on both convictions this month. The act of clemency came less than a month after a demoralising election defeat that many privately blame Biden for.

‘Climate bomb’ warning over $200bn wave of new gas projects

A $200bn wave of new gas projects could lead to a “climate bomb” equivalent to releasing the annual emissions of all the world’s operating coal power plants, according to a report. Large banks have invested $213bn into plans to build terminals that export and import gas that is chilled and shipped on ocean tankers. But a report has warned that they could be more damaging than coal power.

The report, by the climate group Reclaim Finance, found a sharp rise in projects to boost the global trade of gas in recent years, driven by a shift from coal to gas in developing countries and Russia’s war on Ukraine, which caused pipeline imports into Europe to dry up. It found that there were eight liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal projects and 99 import terminal projects completed in the past two years, which increased the world’s export capacity by 7% and the global import capacity by 19%.

In addition, LNG developers are planning 156 new LNG terminal projects worldwide to be constructed by 2030, of which 63 are export terminals and 93 import terminals, according to the report.

It warned that due to methane leaks these terminals could produce an estimated 10 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade, or almost as much as the annual emissions of all the coal plants in operation worldwide.

Justine Duclos-Gonda, a campaigner at Reclaim Finance, said: “Oil and gas companies are betting their future on LNG projects, but every single one of their planned projects puts the future of the Paris agreement in danger. Banks and investors claim to be supporting oil and gas companies in the transition, but instead they are investing billions of dollars in future climate bombs.”

McKinsey paid $1.6m to ‘guide’ Australian climate policy despite working for fossil fuel companies

The consultancy firm McKinsey was paid $1.6m over 11 weeks to “inform” and “guide” Australian energy and climate policy, despite its work for the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies.

The firm, whose links to oil and gas giants are well known, conducted “detailed market, economic and policy analysis” and produced modelling that underpinned “internal energy and climate policy work”.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said the work had been outsourced because it did not have the “technical capacity” required. But critics claim the contract was inappropriate given the firm’s private sector clients. ...

A government procurement document shows McKinsey was initially paid $1,193,500, before the contract was increased by more than $455,000. The firm was asked to provide “a robust evidence-base to inform and guide the department to develop a cohesive package of policy measures”.

A department spokesperson said McKinsey had been contracted after a competitive tender process but would not say which specific policies the firm worked on. The consultancy firm did not make recommendations to the government.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Murder and Social Murder: The Case of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson

Israeli soldiers film home invasion and beating of Palestinian in West Bank

Russia’s Lavrov clashes with Blinken at OSCE meeting

Patrick Lawrence: The Biden Family of Liars

Who might Emmanuel Macron choose as France’s new prime minister?

US/China Trade War Heats Up

How climate risks are driving up insurance premiums around the US – visualized

CNN & Chris Cuomo AGHAST at Americans' GLEE Over United Healthcare CEO's Murder

A Little Night Music

Lonnie Mack – Memphis

Lonnie Mack – Cincinnati Jail

Lonnie Mack – Too Much Trouble

Lonnie Mack – I Found A Love

Lonnie Mack – Farther On Down The Road

Lonnie Mack – Riding the Blinds

Lonnie Mack – Asphalt Outlaw Hero

Lonnie Mack – Back On The Road Again

Lonnie Mack – Chicken Pickin'

Lonnie Mack - Turn On Your Love Light

Lonnie Mack - New York City 1985 (Complete Bootleg)