Poor kids are killed every day and nary a single cop looks for the killer.
According to CNN, the NYPD has already assigned 1000 officers to look for the "killer."
It is probably too soon to ponder the political and philosophical implications of the shooting, but this student of history and lover of political tumult cannot resist:
Yes, the type of official response to these kinds of events is typified in the loss of the Bayesian off the coast of Sicily this summer, in which a world-famous entrepreneur of the Internet age was drowned along with five companions. In the week that the millionaire tragically came to grief 50 metres from shore, the desperate and forlorn of Africa again took to the very same waters, destined to either be lost themselves in the crowds that mill the corridors of asylum applicants or to be lost as statistics in the depths of the sea. Except, it's only in the former case that they would be of any interest whatsoever to the police authorities.
If, as Barack Obama once said, "Liberalism did not fail us; we failed liberalism," then can we at least have another try?
Not pointless at all. Public outcry on”in the aftermath and public support for the killer proves it was not pointless. For profit financial decisions impacting “health care” for which customers pay premiums must change in the US.
Yes. First, thank you for reposting this, and the audio is quite a surprise. Gosh.
The piece makes three assertions. One is that the act of murder has come as a result of tempers reaching boiling point. The second is that the act itself has made the subject of health care a talking point. The third is that, aside from those two points, the murder was pointless. I stand by those three assertions.
One hundred is the number of articles posted by ProPublica on its website raising concerns as to the modus operandi of UnitedHealthcare. ProPublica is not without its influence: its reporting on S.C.J. Clarence Thomas has brought reforms about at those heady heights, albeit to what effect is yet to be seen. Let's say that ProPublica is an important organisation as far as raising awareness goes. But what becomes of the awareness that the organisation raises can sometimes be in question.
A more recent piece of mine (https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/act-smart), laments what usually happens after awareness is raised of any ill in this world of ours: we ignore it. The tendency of the general public is to raise the roof with protests, of legislators to sympathise with the raised voices and to pander then to the cause of the vociferousness. Panaceas are offered: things will be looked into, inquiries will be made, and answers will be sought. These panaceas are like the expressions of sympathy for the bereaved, as referred to in that article.
Now, it is not simply a voice that has been raised in protest against the iniquities practised by insurance companies. A shot has been fired, and a man killed. So, allow me to pose some questions that neither of us can answer at this juncture in the definitive:
Will Mr Thompson's death keep the tempers of the insured at boiling point? And if it does, will legislators continue to pour out panaceas to quell the anger? And will anything change in the structure that has stoked the fires that caused the tempers to flare? If, out of these aleatory events a situation is reached in which, with equanimity, we are able to accord with each other that a situation is then achieved that is in all respects fair and good and proper and as it should be, then Mr Thompson's murder will not have been pointless.
If not, then I must observe this: that no revolution ever consisted of a single shot fired by a single assailant. And no revolution's success was ever guaranteed in the moment in which it was declared.
Haiti took 13 years, from declaration of revolt to declaration of independence. It is the only slave rebellion to ever have achieved its goal in the history of mankind. To date. It is a "slave rebellion" we are talking about here, is it not?
This is so typical; of America today, Graham, This is not the country to which I immigrated 66 years ago this month. That country was wise and generous, The President, Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican was not a great President but he was a good man. He believed in America, in the wisdom of our Constitution. He warned us, in his closing speech to beware of the military/industrial complex whose greed was insatiable. John F. Kennedy, for all his flaws was also a good man who believed strongly that all humans deserved a chance to excel. The last of this lot, Lyndon Johnson did a lot of good - the voting Rights Act, the Civil Liberties Act, his ill named war against poverty, then he ruined it all by falling in line with Eisenhower's dreaded military/industrial complex so they could play with their new toys in Vietnam to prop up a corrupt regime. That was the start of our downfall into greed, greed, and more greed. Culminating into the bastard regime we have today. I hope we have hit rock bottom and may be starting the long climb out, but I won't be around to see it and that's the only thing that saddens me.
1932, am I close? Your birth year. You are six years younger than was my own mother and five years younger than my father. You lived through the Second World War as a child, a young child, with Canada having declared war on Germany in September 1939, along with the mother country, the United Kingdom. By 1945, you were entering your teenage years. My own parents lived their teen years through the war. Mum was 13 when it started, and 19 when it ended.
So, what? Well, aside from that cataclysmic event (and that, I will admit, is quite an "aside"), in terms of international tragedy, you were blessed your life long with "not bad fortune" (I'll refrain from adding "and God's good grace").
As for me, my fortune has been replete - my cup hath flowèd over. The only ripple of concern in such terms arose in 1982, when I thought as a young university student I might possibly be called up to fight a war against Argentina. But I have lived through all but 16 years of the longest period of peace time that the European continent has known in all of recorded history. Since for ever. That ain't bad. We anguish at why it cannot continue. We anguish at the dark pot into which we are descending. Let us pause and give thanks for what we have had. For the sickness and the health, for the good times and the bad, for better and for worse. Till death do us part.
Fay, your and my tragedy is not to have endured tragedy, but to have felt in our hearts for the tragedy of others. That is the cross of the meek.
Actually, you were quite close, I was born March 4, 1933 the same day my favorite President had his first inauguration, Franklin, Delano Roosevelt. You are also very perceptive in your last statement. I have never faced tragedy in person (other than the loss of my 4 children) but feel it intensely in empathy for those who did and are - such as in Gaza and the Ukraine.
Poor kids are killed every day and nary a single cop looks for the killer.
According to CNN, the NYPD has already assigned 1000 officers to look for the "killer."
It is probably too soon to ponder the political and philosophical implications of the shooting, but this student of history and lover of political tumult cannot resist:
https://davidgottfried.substack.com/p/decapitate-and-dethrone
Yes, the type of official response to these kinds of events is typified in the loss of the Bayesian off the coast of Sicily this summer, in which a world-famous entrepreneur of the Internet age was drowned along with five companions. In the week that the millionaire tragically came to grief 50 metres from shore, the desperate and forlorn of Africa again took to the very same waters, destined to either be lost themselves in the crowds that mill the corridors of asylum applicants or to be lost as statistics in the depths of the sea. Except, it's only in the former case that they would be of any interest whatsoever to the police authorities.
If, as Barack Obama once said, "Liberalism did not fail us; we failed liberalism," then can we at least have another try?
I shall read your piece, thank you David.
It's not fully pointless. Millions of Americans smiled over the news and that's not a small thing.
"Brazen Manhattan Murder of a Monster"
https://ydydy.substack.com/p/brazen-manhattan-murder-of-a-monster
Not pointless at all. Public outcry on”in the aftermath and public support for the killer proves it was not pointless. For profit financial decisions impacting “health care” for which customers pay premiums must change in the US.
Yes. First, thank you for reposting this, and the audio is quite a surprise. Gosh.
The piece makes three assertions. One is that the act of murder has come as a result of tempers reaching boiling point. The second is that the act itself has made the subject of health care a talking point. The third is that, aside from those two points, the murder was pointless. I stand by those three assertions.
One hundred is the number of articles posted by ProPublica on its website raising concerns as to the modus operandi of UnitedHealthcare. ProPublica is not without its influence: its reporting on S.C.J. Clarence Thomas has brought reforms about at those heady heights, albeit to what effect is yet to be seen. Let's say that ProPublica is an important organisation as far as raising awareness goes. But what becomes of the awareness that the organisation raises can sometimes be in question.
A more recent piece of mine (https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/act-smart), laments what usually happens after awareness is raised of any ill in this world of ours: we ignore it. The tendency of the general public is to raise the roof with protests, of legislators to sympathise with the raised voices and to pander then to the cause of the vociferousness. Panaceas are offered: things will be looked into, inquiries will be made, and answers will be sought. These panaceas are like the expressions of sympathy for the bereaved, as referred to in that article.
Now, it is not simply a voice that has been raised in protest against the iniquities practised by insurance companies. A shot has been fired, and a man killed. So, allow me to pose some questions that neither of us can answer at this juncture in the definitive:
Will Mr Thompson's death keep the tempers of the insured at boiling point? And if it does, will legislators continue to pour out panaceas to quell the anger? And will anything change in the structure that has stoked the fires that caused the tempers to flare? If, out of these aleatory events a situation is reached in which, with equanimity, we are able to accord with each other that a situation is then achieved that is in all respects fair and good and proper and as it should be, then Mr Thompson's murder will not have been pointless.
If not, then I must observe this: that no revolution ever consisted of a single shot fired by a single assailant. And no revolution's success was ever guaranteed in the moment in which it was declared.
Haiti took 13 years, from declaration of revolt to declaration of independence. It is the only slave rebellion to ever have achieved its goal in the history of mankind. To date. It is a "slave rebellion" we are talking about here, is it not?
This is so typical; of America today, Graham, This is not the country to which I immigrated 66 years ago this month. That country was wise and generous, The President, Dwight Eisenhower, a Republican was not a great President but he was a good man. He believed in America, in the wisdom of our Constitution. He warned us, in his closing speech to beware of the military/industrial complex whose greed was insatiable. John F. Kennedy, for all his flaws was also a good man who believed strongly that all humans deserved a chance to excel. The last of this lot, Lyndon Johnson did a lot of good - the voting Rights Act, the Civil Liberties Act, his ill named war against poverty, then he ruined it all by falling in line with Eisenhower's dreaded military/industrial complex so they could play with their new toys in Vietnam to prop up a corrupt regime. That was the start of our downfall into greed, greed, and more greed. Culminating into the bastard regime we have today. I hope we have hit rock bottom and may be starting the long climb out, but I won't be around to see it and that's the only thing that saddens me.
1932, am I close? Your birth year. You are six years younger than was my own mother and five years younger than my father. You lived through the Second World War as a child, a young child, with Canada having declared war on Germany in September 1939, along with the mother country, the United Kingdom. By 1945, you were entering your teenage years. My own parents lived their teen years through the war. Mum was 13 when it started, and 19 when it ended.
So, what? Well, aside from that cataclysmic event (and that, I will admit, is quite an "aside"), in terms of international tragedy, you were blessed your life long with "not bad fortune" (I'll refrain from adding "and God's good grace").
As for me, my fortune has been replete - my cup hath flowèd over. The only ripple of concern in such terms arose in 1982, when I thought as a young university student I might possibly be called up to fight a war against Argentina. But I have lived through all but 16 years of the longest period of peace time that the European continent has known in all of recorded history. Since for ever. That ain't bad. We anguish at why it cannot continue. We anguish at the dark pot into which we are descending. Let us pause and give thanks for what we have had. For the sickness and the health, for the good times and the bad, for better and for worse. Till death do us part.
Fay, your and my tragedy is not to have endured tragedy, but to have felt in our hearts for the tragedy of others. That is the cross of the meek.
Actually, you were quite close, I was born March 4, 1933 the same day my favorite President had his first inauguration, Franklin, Delano Roosevelt. You are also very perceptive in your last statement. I have never faced tragedy in person (other than the loss of my 4 children) but feel it intensely in empathy for those who did and are - such as in Gaza and the Ukraine.