I’m speaking, of course, of greedy, wealth hoarding dragons like Smaug. Who would slaughter an entire mountain of Dwarves to get his claws on wealth he will never spend, just to have it.

Walgreens is a bad choice. They’ve invested a ton of money into cameras and surveillance for their locations. Almost on the level of Target for loss prevention.

Yep, they should form a union and demand hazard pay on their CBAs.

Nah, they need to do it at Black Rock HQ.

Alexa, Play The Rebel Path(Cello Version)

As an aside, another proposed moniker for this hero is “Lancelot”, as he has clearly slain a dragon. Three cheers for the Dragonslayer!

I’d like to inquire as to what, specifically, you disagree with. I understand that you don’t think any person is inherently evil, however I hold that actions are a reflection of one’s character. While this CEO may indeed have done a couple good turns for people he personally knew or cared about, his actions and decisions as the CEO of a health insurance company have inflicted incalculable suffering upon hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people and their families. As a human being, I could never imagine doing such things, nor do I want to.

This, to me, reflects a deeply sociopathic character. Selfish, arrogant, greedy, and malicious. This was a person who saw themselves above mere mortals such as you and I, whom he saw as tools, disposable and replaceable. And when you see yourself as above mere mortals, would you not want the mortals to believe it, as well? Is it then, so surprising that the mortals stop seeing you as human altogether?

A couple things. I don’t see any billionaire as a human, and to be frank, they did it to themselves. They’ve spent decades spinning a narrative that they’re this special untouchable caste of modern-day demigods. That we have to try them differently and respectfully, because they have more money, and the closer you get to “God”, the further you get from “Human”.

Secondly, he chose to do evil. He willingly and without hesitation discarded his humanity. I can’t be bothered to feel bad for someone like that.

Well, really, they did it to themselves. We didn’t turn them into greedy, avaricious weath-hoarding dragons, they did. The closer one moves the slider to “God”, the further it moves from “Human”.

See my other comment:

When a dragon is slain, we don’t mourn its death, we cheer the Dragonslayer.

I fully agree. If I were a billionaire, I would be “let’s get a team together and come up with a strategy” levels of nervous. See, the 1% has sort of dehumanized themselves, by creating this decades-long narrative that they’re this untouchable caste almost on the level of Demigods, and the closer you get to God, the further you get from Human. Now that one has been shot and killed in broad daylight in the middle of NYC, and again with the idiots on the homemade submarine, that narrative is obviously untrue. When a dragon is slain, we don’t mourn its death, we cheer the Dragonslayer. So, if I were in the 1%, I’d be very worried about appearing all too human, all too quickly.

Sounds nice. The thing is, if I put myself in a legislator’s shoes, if one of my constituents were to send me a letter, a physical, handwritten letter, and send that letter to both my DC office and my district office, they obviously felt strongly enough about this issue to sit down and physically write this letter, then make a copy of it and mail them both, addressed to me personally. Maybe they’re worth hearing out.

Absolutely. We don’t have to stoop to MAGA’s level, with threats and intimidation, but we can and should be the most annoying things we each can think of. That song that’s been stuck in your head for a month, that subtle and insidious hiss you can’t seem to find the source of, that stain on your favorite shirt that you’ve washed like 5x today and it still won’t come out.

But we can also get our friends and neighbors involved and build mutual aid networks and support each other.

I remember watching the DNC earlier this year. There were shirts and signs that read " DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT", and I don’t quite know why, but it stuck with me, and I had to think about it. It sure does get treated like a sport. The GOP breaks the rules, commits fouls, and Democrats act like there’s a referee in Congress who’s going to throw a flag every time the GOP breaks a rule or makes an irregular play. And what I have come to realize is that we the public are supposed to be the referees. And regardless of team, we have to be the ones blowing whistles, throwing flags, and reviewing plays.

Since the election, I’ve decided to become a regular thorn in the sides of my elected officials, on both sides of the aisle. Through research I’ve settled on sending letters. Good old-fashioned letters on real paper, delivered via the postal service. Typed, usually. Handwritten, if I want it to be more personal. And I’ll send multiple copies of the same letter to their offices in my State and to their offices at the Capitol, addressed to them directly. This last bit is important because since it’s a federal offense to open correspondence and packages not addressed to you, and no staffer or intern wants to risk their job by opening letters addressed to their bosses, it’s guaranteed that the officials themselves will read them. Sure, the staffers might be the ones sending the responses, but that doesn’t mean my Senator or Representative never saw it. And since the same letter is at all their offices, this increases the chance of it being read. They’re gonna think “Holy shit, this guy really wants me to listen to what he’s got to say!”

You see, despite their efforts to get us to believe otherwise, our politicians are not beyond our reach. They do respond to public pressure, occasionally. I’m convinced that if more people did as I’m going to do, they’d listen more to us and less to their corporate friends and lobbyists.

Cops be like, “a’ight makes it easier to kick you”.

Any silver I get I’m feeding to the furnace and casting into bars.

Step Six, Mason! Wield a fist of iron!

Probably says “Fit for human consumption”. Humans can actually eat mealworms.

That and the third place is being and has been turned into a place where you are expected to buy something(food+drink and merch)instead of just enjoying yourself and spend time with friends. There’s nowhere for kids of any age to go that doesn’t charge a fee to get in(some parks), doesn’t have rules against talking(libraries), hasn’t been made obsolete(malls, arcades), or is unreligious.

Not surprising. The Israeli government also bans services like 23AndMe or Ancestry.com from operating in their borders unless a doctor seems it medically necessary. DNA is a store of information, just like a book.

And to get ahead of a new law they passed in California, they’re already putting it on the screen before check out that you’re buying a license to the game, not the game itself. Of course, I think just like Prop65, it will be too broad. Prop65 is the law that says that anything with even a trace amount of carcinogens has to have a warning that announces the presence of carcinogens.