They have their disagreements but, at the end of the day, big pharma wants the private insurance industry to continue.

Under the ACA, health insurance companies are required to spend 80% of premiums on purchasing healthcare. That means they can only increase profits by growing market share, or by spending more on healthcare. There are also provisions that insurance companies have to provide public justification if rates go up more than 15% in a year. The result of all this is that health insurance wants the cost of providing healthcare to rise at just under that 15% per year mark. Sure enough, that’s almost exactly what’s been happening since the ACA passed.

When big pharma wants to grow their incomes faster than the 15% average, that causes pain for insurance companies who either push back at pharma, or try to make up the difference with other healthcare providers. That’s as far as the adversarial relationship tends to go.

Ultimately they are all majority controlled by the same financial institutions, so that tends to keep conflicts at a low simmer. The CEOs are competing for bonuses, but the boards rarely care much which company the profits come from.

What did we “win” by electing Obama twice? A healthcare plan assembled by the same right wing think tank that brought us Project2025? Obama didn’t even win his supreme court nominees. That’s a big part of what I mean by habitual losers.

I’ll go ahead and bring this up a third time since you are still ignoring it. It’s not just about the Presidency. Radical candidate Obama took the House, a (sort of) super majority in the Senate, and swept in state government as well on his coattails. Then he rescued Wall Street on the backs of working Americans and lost everything but his own office.

Obama also redirected funds that usually go to the DNC to his own campaign coffers, which was a big part of how he saved his own ass at the cost of the party. That’s what setup the DNC to need a bail out which Hillary provided in exchange for their help in the primary. That’s where the emails came from that fucked her campaign.

Candidate Obama was great, but President Obama was a total loser.

Over the last 50 years the working class has been absolutely pummeled, with little difference between Democratic and Republican presidencies, since the Democrats can’t win and keep Congress. Electoral reform might help, but they can’t win at the state level to get that done either.

The Democrats aren’t a sports team to be judged by wins and losses for a single office. Losing youth and working class voters is a total disaster for a supposedly progressive party. Democrats are now officially the party of the professional and investor class, and nobody else. Do you not see how fucked that is?

Let’s have some reflection and not pick the timescale to suit a narrative.

You picked the timescale of two elections. Then I expanded it to three and that was out of bounds, but five is fine again? You make it difficult to assume you are arguing in good faith.

The “habitual losers” won 3 of the last 5

Apparently you missed the point that the presidency isn’t the only office that matters. Anyways, in the course of winning 3/5, Democrats lost the working class and gen-z. That indicates a trend.

I would also argue that Obama’s first win shouldn’t count. Hillary was the establishment candidate and she lost to Obama running on a reform platform of “change”. Then he got elected and suddenly became just another manager of the status quo. In the course of Obama’s two terms, Democrats lost over 1000 seats across the country. Even in victory, Obama was massive loser for the Democrats.

Obama held on well enough while Republicans kept ran establishment candidates. That ended when Trump ran a right wing populist campaign. He was full of shit, but he was the only candidate actually talking to most of the country.

Democrats won in 2020 because of Trump’s obvious mishandling of the COVID crisis. Even so, it was a close race in three critical swing states.

Why did they lose? I don’t know

They lost because we are living in a populist age. We have record income inequality and an economy that feels more and more like a scam every day. People see that and want someone to blame. Republicans have villains and narratives and Democrats don’t. Democrats could put the blame where it belongs (with Wall Street and corporate America) but they won’t. That leaves a vacuum where Republicans blame minorities. A bigoted narrative beats no narrative.

The “habitual losers” won last time around.

And how’d that turn out? Being 1 out of 3 against a guy who campaigns on Arnold Palmer’s Dick isn’t exactly something to brag on. Also, in what might be a shock to many Democrats, there are thousands of elected offices between the Federal and state governments. The Democrats massively underperformed everywhere and with every demographic. But sure, it’s ridiculous to think that should lead to some reflection and reform. Maybe next time the Republicans will find someone weaker than Trump and we’ll be golden.

The Democratic establishment has absolutely dominated Democratic policy and messaging for at at least 50 years now. The Republicans have a super majority in the Supreme Court, the House, the Senate, the Presidency, the majority of state governors, and an astounding majority of state legislators.

Establishment Democrats couldn’t possibly be bigger losers. You don’t think that maybe it’s time to review Democratic strategy and leadership?

The establishment loves to scapegoat progressives but, Kamala ran and lost on the most centrist strategy arguably possible. The only thing remotely progressive about her was her race and gender. That’s the neoliberal way, to run a token candidate that doesn’t even have the support of her own demographics.

The biggest delusion in Democratic politics is the idea that voters all sit on a left to right spectrum with victory going to whichever side captures the middle. It was a poor model in the 90s, and it’s disastrously wrong today.

Who voted Trump in? You got the centrist campaign of your dreams in Harris and Trump won the popular vote after gaining in every key demographic. The American people voted Trump in because the Democratic party is completely out of touch.

The left isn’t telling Democrats how to get our votes. Progressives are the most reliable voters in the country. We’re telling the Democrats how to reach the vast majority of apolitical Americans who pay attention for a month or two every four years. That’s exactly the group that voted Trump in.

Fuck no. You don’t get to pull out “less effective” within a day of Pelosi shuffling a 74 year old cancer patient into the most critical committee position for fighting Trump. That’s exactly the effectiveness you get with Democratic establishment habitual losers.

That was before Trump won. I think the category moved from developing to post-apocalyptic.

I always wonder with posts like these, what exactly have you tried to do to fix it? We’ve certainly had primary choices that break the mold of typical spineless corporate Democrats. Did you donate to help save the seats of Jamaal Bowman or Cori Bush? Have you ever done any canvassing? Have you written to your representatives? Do you know the names of your representatives? Have you run for office yourself?

All of us could be doing more and doing it better. The vast majority of citizens haven’t done nearly enough to have earned the right to claim that the system just can’t get better.

Exactly. It’s not like we picked this fight. She wants our enmity.

Nah bro

Um sure? As long as she is up for it. I love her, I don’t own her. Keep it safe, sane, and consensual, then who am I to argue.

The reporting on how he came to be arrested is quite a bit different from what’s all over social media. From what I’ve read, it wasn’t until the cops showed up that anyone even knew who it was. It seems like he was acting strange after several days on the run and nights without much sleep. A concerned customer asked an employee to call the cops.

I don’t know how accurate this story is, but I have no idea where the social media narrative came from, except that it was half written before he was ever captured. I think the anger at McDonalds and the employee involved is misplaced, and I hope it doesn’t have serious consequences.

It’s also not as easy to hack electronic systems anymore. It’s not that they are invulnerable, but the vulnerabilities are generally more complicated and difficult to exploit. Setting aside people still running Windows XP or something, vulnerabilities get patched pretty quickly today. State actors have the time and resources to still do straight up electronic hacking, but opportunities for individuals are sparse.

Of course there is still the human element. Most data breaches done by individuals nowadays rely, at least in part, on social engineering.

They are done by medical professionals who have no obligation or incentive to serve the best interests of the patient. If your doctor fucks up, he can be found liable. If the insurance doctor fucks up, there is no liability whatsoever. Cases have been brought to court and then immediately thrown out because there is no legal basis for holding them accountable.

Um, really? Darwinism is now the dividing line between right wing and liberal? Hitler was a liberal? Are you unaware of how Nazi propaganda equated Jews with wealthy bankers and merchants to harness class resentment?

I’m not saying he is Hitler, but your bar for right wing is pretty damning of the American educational system.

It’s an amazingly accurate stereotype that right wingers change their opinion on an issue the moment it impacts them. I’m sure you’re on track with his motive, but that doesn’t make him a liberal.

There is a lot more than liking right wing media figures. Class solidarity is a bit of a stretch since his family wealth is closer to what that CEO had than most Americans.

Is the enemy of my enemy my friend? Maybe. I’m just not sure this guy is a great banner carrier. I respect your opinion and realize I’m in the minority. I’d be much happier if he was never caught. I don’t desire to see him punished, but I don’t see it being helpful if he gets painted as the next Ted Kaczynski. His background is just not helpful.

It’s worth noting that we don’t know exactly why they called the cops. It appears the cops didn’t know who he was until they had him pull down his mask. I’m guessing he was quite the sight after several days on the run, and probably several nights without much sleep.

I respect your take, but you’d probably be surprised how many lefties are proficient with firearms. It’s liberals that generally hate guns, although even that’s less true in the US. Marx himself was adamant that workers should retain the right to own firearms.

The SRA Socialist Rifle Association has over 10k members in the US. Not exactly the 5m members of the NRA, but I’ll bet there are more lefties in the NRA than the SRA, just because it is so ubiquitous.

I said “seems” because only bits of information have come out and there as been very little analysis. That said, Rational National has the best take I’ve seen so far.

https://youtu.be/FXhEBSQRI3Y