Happy Tuesday; it’s December 10, 2024, and Coynezaa is just around the corner. There’s another holiday, too, but it celebrates a myth, whereas I am real.
It has been a hectic three days, but also fun: giving two talks (I fell off the stage during the first one), touring around Katowice, and eating large quantities of hearty Silesian food. I have a gazillion photos, but, as I’m cooling my heels in the airport in Frankfurt, I have no time to post them—save one. And that is the picture below, showing yours truly eating a classic German comestible in the airport.
If I look a wreck, I am. My plane left Katowice for Frankfurt at 6 a.m., which meant boarding at 5:30, which meant getting up at 2:00 a.m. and leaving my hotel, some distance from the planes, at 3 a.m.
I went to bed at 9, hoping for five hours of sleep, but woke up at 12:15, soon after midnight, and what with the excitement of impending travel it was clear that I wasn’t going back to sleep. So I watched CNN instead (the only English t.v. channel) to discover, via Anderson Cooper, that the police had actually caught the man accused of shooting health executive Brian Thompson. When the law caught up to him, the suspect, one Luigi Mangioni of New Jersey, was chowing down at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. And it doesn’t look good for him:
The Altoona officers who took Mr. Mangione into custody found that he had several telltale items that might tie him to Mr. Thompson’s killing, a crime that has riveted the nation while exposing Americans’ deep-seated anger toward the U.S. health insurance industry.
Mr. Mangione, officials said, had a gun and a silencer similar to the ones used in the Dec. 4 shooting, and a fake driver’s license that matched one used by the man suspected in the killing.
He also carried with him a three-page handwritten manifesto condemning the health care industry for putting profits over patients.
“These parasites had it coming,” it said, according to a senior law enforcement official who saw the document. It added: “I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done.”
The document specifically mentioned UnitedHealthcare, the insurance giant where Mr. Thompson was chief executive, noting its size and the amount of revenue it takes in, the official said.
Yes, he’s presumed innocent until found guilty, but I’m here to tell you that the probability of any other verdict seems nil. He’s 26 and will surely, if convicted, spend the rest of his natural life behind bars.
Read more about the pinch at the archived link here. It was a nifty bit of police work, made easier by Mangione pulling his mask down just one time, when he was flirting with a woman at a hostel. But once was enough: look at the hostel picture and compare it to the many circulating pictures of Mangione. I’m glad he’s caught, for nobody deserves vigilante execution, which is capital punishment without a trial. In fact, I don’t believe anybody deserves execution at all. Life without parole is more than enough, and remember that some people can reform.
But they’re very sad about the arrest over at P********a, where the fulminating miscreants are not only delighted, but have been egged on in their hatred by the Chief Miscreant himself, who urges his baying hounds before pulling the trigger to first find out who heads healthcare corporations that deny claims. Then, as the capo says, “After you’ve followed the chain of decisions, then you can consider terminating some rich a-hole. It’s the polite thing to do.”
Indeed, nothing makes you look better to “progressives” than urging your readers to murder rich people, preferably CEOs of healthcare corporations.
In other news, where is Bashar al-Assad? Is he dead, as some suspect? Or has he fled to his pals in Russia?
Paul Krugman has written his last column for the NYT, and, over in France, the right-wing Marine Le Pen is plotting to topple the French government and replace it with one far more to the right. Sound familiar?
There are reports of continuing peace talks between Israel and Hamas, but I don’t think they’ll amount to much. If they result in releasing thousands of convicted Palestinian terrorists from jail, while not letting all the hostages go—indeed, if a settlement leaves anything of Hamas to govern Gaza, Israel will have lost.
And that’s the nooz till I get home and take a day to recover.
Some people can reform — also the wrong person can be convicted, intentionally or unintentionally.
The story of Luigi Mangione is very Dostoevskian.
Also, I am coming around to the idea that we no longer have a right wing party in the U.S. I think we have two left wing parties.
I thought of Raskolnikov too hehe. I think populism is pretty big across the political spectrum and that sentiment sometimes overlaps. I suspect that a lot of the sentiment in this case is a callousness towards the rich in general, not specifically a health insurance CEO. But anger at healthcare costs is part of it too. Regardless, the cost of healthcare is complex and populism tends to lose patience with nuance. Noah Smith just released an article discussing how the health insurance companies actually have relatively small profit margins.
Over-commenting so I’ll be brief:
Have you read Bruce Pardy’s The Political Horseshoe Revisited on Substack?
There’s YouTube and eXtwitter media as well.
In a way, we have two right wing parties. Not a solid point, but what I mean is that there is the right wing pro-capitol punishment party, and the farther left wing which also seems pro-capitol punishment right now.
I think we don’t have a left or right wing-we have a large mass of irrational people who don’t seem to understand both the written and unwritten rules that are followed in functioning civil societies.
‘…pro-capitol punishment…” very droll. Possibly, many feel that way, unfortunately.
As was prophesied in my youth,
Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call,
Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall,
For he that gets hurt…
Left-wing / right-wing is a one-dimensional analysis. No surprise it doesn’t capture complexity or nuance.
Glad PCC(E) is getting some adventure – DANGEROUS even! (Was it a 1″ high stage?) That’s an attempt at humor, but it seems he was not hurt, so…
Cheers!
PS I’ll be getting the Coynezaa gift ready – a small take on last year’s, hope that’s cool…. BTW dumb question : how will fresh bread handle shipping 1/2 way across the U.S.?
… seems it’s do-able. Hmmm, I’ll mull it over…
Falling off a stage? Well if it works for Sir Ian…
As for the “horde” planning their anti-capitalist murder spree, I should think they would all be on their fainting couches at the thought of handling a (trigger warning!) gun.
The humor was attempted based on the old puzzle about someone who fell off a 36-foot ladder and survived.
LOL “trigger warning”.
You could ship the dough…
Thanks for the thought of a Coynezaa gift. The mailing address is new this year as my flat is flubbing deliveries. If you want to send something (and I assure you that bread will be much appreciated), email me first to get the new address.
Thanks!
I’ve always considered Paul Krugman a classic example of how notoriety does not qualify one to be a commentator on general events.
“The Internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s….ten years from now, the phrase “information economy” will sound silly.”
Paul Krugman
1997
(Snopes confirms this as true).
And this paper – perhaps a must-read:
Theory of Interstellar Trade
Abstract
This paper extends interplanetary trade theory to an interstellar setting.
It is chiefly concerned with the following question: how should interest charges on goods in transit be computed when the goods travel at close to the speed of light? This is a problem because the time taken in transit will appear less to an observer travelling with the goods than to a stationary observer. A solution is derived from economic theory, and two useless but true theorems are proved.
(Available at the Princeton University website)
Mr. Krugman’s Nobel Prize was for a good piece of work on trade and trade agreements. He displayed some insights in his NYT column when he stuck to basic economics, but also beclowned himself at times in his loyalty to the Democratic party.
I don’t have United Healthcare and so have no firsthand experience with them, but an old GF told me that her husband had them and during his battle with terminal lung cancer they paid every bill but one fairly trivial one, so based on an N of one, it seems that they’re not the evil deny-everything organization they’re made out to be.
And Mangione apparently comes from a prominent family in Maryland that’s in the real estate business. Ironic – a rich kid murders someone because they’re rich.
Also, Assad is apparently in Russia (which may have pulled out of Syria largely because they’re doing so poorly in Ukraine).
A weakened Russia (due to Ukraine) plus a weakened Iran (thanks to Israel) was the end for Assad.
Willkommen in Deutschland! Auch wenn nur für kurze Zeit.
Welcome to Germany! Even though only for a short time.
Lass dir deine Butterbrezel schmecken!
Enjoy your buttered pretzel! 🙂
Da ich Deutsch spreche, ist keine Übersetzung erforderlich
In my case it was out of courtesy for the audience. 🙂
Der Hinweis ist aber wichtig: Es ist eine Butterbrezel, keine (nackte, armselige) Brezel!
Nature has a rather tendentious review of Richard Dawkins’s new book, written by Nathaniel Comfort. It seems to me to have several misunderstandings and distortions (while avoiding the main theme of the book). link
Thanks for that link.
I agree with your assessment.
The 3-page “manifesto” is a sign of the times. It’s brevity, which resembles a Twitter thread, tells us something about the effects of social media on deep, sustained thought.
He did choose McDonalds for his last meal as a free man, not sure what thought process that reflects, but I’m guessing deep consideration and reflection wasn’t involved. (I agree he may not have known it was his last meal, but there would have been a decent chance at that stage, so considering the options might have made sense)
“I fell off the stage during the first one” – Yikes, I hope that you’re OK!
I’m fine! I’m too old to be embarrassed any more (I also knocked over an artificial plant), so I just found it funny and went on with my talk.
Relieved to hear that. Have a safe journey home.
Fell off the stage?! That’s not good. You’re apparently well enough to eat a pretzel with gusto!
There’s a longer NYT piece out about Mangione.
He is young and from a wealthy family and dropped out of sight about six months ago. He was impressed with the Unabomber’s manifesto.
But he has some kind of painful back problem that’s limiting and seriously impacted his life.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/09/nyregion/united-healthcare-ceo-shooting-luigi-mangione.html
I’m not implying that excuses murder! Plenty of others with bad medical problems.
From WaPo re. Mangione (my italics): “Online, he frequently participated in discussions on philosophy, psychology and evolutionary biology”
The story doesn’t elaborate further but I wonder if that means PZ?
Despite reports suggesting Mangione’s life began to fall apart around the middle of 2024, I don’t believe he was desperate or deranged enough to start reading the ramblings of PZ Myers…
🙂
“P********a”?
Pharyngula
Was there last week out of curiosity – first time in umpteen years – and he was talking about Israel wanting “lebensraum” in the West Bank. I left as fast as I could.
According to PZ, he’s a really kind and gentle guy.
When Israel launched its war against Hamas Nazis, PZ insisting that Israel was going to “murder 2,000,000 Gazans”!
It’s for a reason that women are advised to stay away from self-proclaimed “nice guys”.
It’s tough all over. Demand for free care always exceeds supply even in a publicly administered not-for-profit system, which is price-controlled and volume- constrained (through global budgets.) And ours isn’t exactly cheap. It’s (a distant) second only to the United States in dollars per capita.
Woman living in chronic pain says N.S. health care plagued by sexism, ageism and ‘dangerous’ apathy
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/laura-obyrne-healthcare-1.7401863
This is just one of a long litany of complaints Canadians have about waiting times and bureaucratic resistance to payment for anything controversial.
I found this 2023 article referenced in a CNN story on the shooting:
https://www.propublica.org/article/unitedhealth-healthcare-insurance-denial-ulcerative-colitis
This is quite thorough. There is indeed evidence that the “double biologic” treatment in greater than standard doses, as recommended by Mr. McNaughton’s Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, may be useful in ulcerative colitis refractory to other treatments. Nonetheless it would have to be regarded as investigational. Reimbursement would legitimately be at the company’s discretion although its officers seem to have done some underhanded things behind the scenes during its protracted dispute with the patient and his family.
Part of the problem, as the article says, is that these biologic agents are enormously expensive. They would have to be sold at steep discounts before the value they yield comes anywhere close to conventional cost-effectiveness cut-points. (The companies know that when they try to sell them in other countries they will have to grant those discounts, so Americans have to pay the profit for the worldwide sales.) But when it’s my benefit and your cost, why should I take No for an answer?
At one point Mr. McNaughton considered moving to Canada for free care here. He can’t have seriously considered it. Only permanent residents of Canada can (and must) enroll in the free system. But to be accepted as a permanent resident you have to be medically fit (which he is not) and you need a job offer from a Canadian employer (or have a credible prospect of starting a business.) You can’t just up and move here to sponge off the taxpayers with an expensive disease. Even if he did move to Canada as a PR (somehow) he would find that there are no free drugs from the government except a limited list for old people and those under 25. Only cheaper “biosimilars” are covered now, not biologics. Payment for drugs for working people is either out of pocket or through employer-sponsored extended-health care benefits plans — which now also cover only biosimilars –, which employers don’t have to provide. Only his doctor bills and hospital admissions would be covered free first-dollar…which United was never baulking at paying, only the drugs. I don’t know if an employee-benefits carrier would be willing to reimburse $800,000 (US) of drugs for one claimant.
Whereas, in the UK, you can.
R populist “justice”, one poll found a large fraction of NYers have sympathy for the murderer. I expect he will have no difficulty raising a sizeable legal-defence fund. And what about difficulties empanelling an adequately unbiased jury? All up, ISTM this will be far from a slam-dunk prosecution; I’d be very interested in the views of some criminal lawyers.
I am absolutely not condoning the murder of the CEO, or suggesting that it was justified, and I guess we don’t yet know all the factors which pushed the murderer to do this. However, I have often thought that I can sort of understand why someone might do something like this if he had been repeatedly screwed around by bureaucracy or an unjust system: it’s a very dramatic way of saying “I’m just not taking this crap any longer”.
Snippets leaking out suggest that he was very pleased with the spinal surgery he’d had. His online presence suggests a focus on encouraging others with his condition to have the surgery too, to not put it off and live in persistent pain. He doesn’t seem full of anger about any friction with his own insurance company. Someone on Reddit who sounds like him says that to get insurance companies to approve surgery more quickly it’s helpful to fake a foot drop or be incontinent of urine in the doctor’s office.
Unfortunately it’s difficult to predict who will benefit from back surgery, as he did so dramatically. There is a whole literature on failed spinal surgery, often driven by the availability of MRI on every street corner in America. But he had his and did well. He’s not old enough to have accumulated a passel of expensive other diseases that insurance companies want to get their red pencils out for.
I think a giant but vaporous conclusion is being jumped at here because it suits a narrative.
I’m in Kassel for a concert by Philippe Jaroussky tomorrow night (Wed 11th) and will be getting the 6.30am train back to Frankfurt on Thursday to fly back to Edinburgh. My flight is at 11am but you will likely be long home by then, but have a safe journey.
PZ is one of those who gets aroused at the idea of revolutionary violence, but like most revolutionary middle class types, he would stain his yellow-stained underwear if things actually kicked off. I mean, he and his “horde” crap their pants if someone mentions “biological sex”. Reminds me of the likes of Dan “The Zionists” Arel (remember him?), who was all about “punching Nazis” (or anybody to the right of Stalin), but when it came to the crunch, he was nowhere to be seen. When Nazis invaded Ukraine, he said zilch, ditched his activism, and started coaching ice hockey. How middle class!
It is rather interesting the number of progressives and others on the left who have expressed empathy for a murderer because they presume the murderer felt screwed by the system. Yet when millions of Americans, feeling like they have been screwed by the system, vote for Donald Trump, well, that is incomprehensible and intolerable. Some people really need to listen to themselves–and to others who are not like themselves.
I call them the usual suspects.
All of these china-shop consultants keep going on about shelves and aisles and I’m sick of it. I’m going to give this bull a chance.
What could go wrong?
The picture of the pretzel reminds me of that wonderful German game show where you compete to cuts things exactly in half. Here’s where a competitor succeeds perfectly with a pretzel
Falls are very dangerous. A friend of mine died from a fall. Please avoid them!