THE AMERICAN CLASS STRUGGLE HAS A FACE*

*Or, as one YouTube comedian observed,

 

"We finally have someone who can replace all those Christopher Columbus statues."

And his name is LUIGI NICHOLAS MANGIONE.

Unless you've been missing in action or  hiding under a rock, Luigi Mangione is the alleged killer of United Healthcare CEO, Brian Thompson.

Because I am Italian-American, I will admit that there is some bias on my part. However, as a dear friend once told me (after sharing a story about a Jamican landowner's daughter who, after her father's death, returned all the stolen land to the Jamaican people) "She was even more radical than you are, if that's possible."

I have ALWAYS been "radical" ~ meaning, I have very deep and strong feelings about all matters near and dear to my heart. Animals are #1 on my list. 'Underdogs' (no pun intended) #2. The elderly and/or most vulnerable members of society? Very close behind. You get the picture. I cannot (and will not) tolerate injustice of any kind. Hurt something or someone I love? I feel sorry for you. You may knock me down, but pray that I do not get back up because I will come at you with every fiber and cell of my being.

That said, I believe that Luigi Mangione has spoken for the vast majority of us by doing what he did. No, I don't condone murder (usually) BUT I also do not condone greedy corporations who derive obscene profits from inflicting pain and suffering and yes, death, on innocent people who simply want the health coverage they paid for every month for years on end. As a matter of fact, I loathe them.

I just feel very sorry for Luigi because he is now sitting in a cold solitary cell, by himself, and is the recipient of all kinds of nasty, hateful comments and wishes by people who just.don't.get.it. People who were born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths, and/or the self-righteous assholes among us (particularly those who voted for Donald Trump) and their holier-than-thou delusions that they are somehow 'better' than the rest of us.

You know, the rest of us who can barely afford to pay the rent or buy groceries or go on exotic vacations...which, these days, is most of us. As squeezed as we are today though, many of us found the money, albeit small amounts, to contribute to Luigi's defense fund. Since GoFundMe refused to accept that premise, a new start-up group has. And they are: https://www.givesendgo.com. They also provided an address for those who would like to write to Luigi:

Smart Communications/PADOC

Luigi Mangione QQ7787

SCI Huntingdon

PO Box 33028

St. Petersburg, FL 33733

You can safely bet that he will be receiving more mail than Santa Claus. And I will be among the writers.

Luigi did not have to do this. He was born into a wealthy family, given the best education money can buy, and had a future that was blindingly bright. But, as he stated in his 'manifesto' (as the stupid press is calling it and forgive the length, but I think it's important for Luigi to be well-represented these days) as follows:

The Allopathic Complex and Its Consequences

Luigi Mangione's last words

Dec 09, 2024

The second amendment means I am my own chief executive and commander in chief of my own military. I authorize my own act of self-defense in response to a hostile entity making war on me and my family.

Nelson Mandela says no form of viooence can be excused. Camus says it’s all the same, whether you live or die or have a cup of coffee. MLK says violence never brings permanent peace. Gandhi says that non-violence is the mightiest power available to mankind.

That’s who they tell you are heroes. That’s who our revolutionaries are.

Yet is that not capitalistic? Non-violence keeps the system working at full speed ahead.

What did it get us. Look in the mirror.

They want us to be non-violent, so that they can grow fat off the blood they take from us.

The only way out is through. Not all of us will make it. Each of us is our own chief executive. You have to decide what you will tolerate.

In Gladiator 1 Maximus cuts into the military tattoo that identifies him as part of the roman legion. His friend asks “Is that the sign of your god?” As Maximus carves deeper into his own flesh, as his own blood drips down his skin, Maximus smiles and nods yes. The tattoo represents the emperor, who is god. The god emperor has made himself part of Maximus’s own flesh. The only way to destroy the emperor is to destroy himself. Maximus smiles through the pain because he knows it is worth it.

These might be my last words. I don’t know when they will come for me. I will resist them at any cost. That’s why I smile through the pain.

They diagnosed my mother with severe neuropathy when she was forty-one years old. She said it started ten years before that with burning sensations in her feet and occasional sharp stabbing pains. At first the pain would last a few moments, then fade to tingling, then numbness, then fade to nothing a few days later.

The first time the pain came she ignored it. Then it came a couple times a year and she ignored it. Then every couple months. Then a couple times a month. Then a couple times a week. At that point by the time the tingling faded to numbness, the pain would start, and the discomfort was constant. At that point even going from the couch to the kitchen to make her own lunch became a major endeavor

She started with ibuprofen, until the stomach aches and acid reflux made her switch to acetaminophen. Then the headaches and barely sleeping made her switch back to ibuprofen.

The first doctor said it was psychosomatic. Nothing was wrong. She needed to relax, destress, sleep more.

The second doctor said it was a compressed nerve in her spine. She needed back surgery. It would cost $180,000. Recovery would be six months minimum before walking again. Twelve months for full potential recovery, and she would never lift more than ten pounds of weight again.

The third doctor performed a Nerve Conduction Study, Electromyography, MRI, and blood tests. Each test cost $800 to $1200. She hit the $6000 deductible of her UnitedHealthcare plan in October. Then the doctor went on vacation, and my mother wasn’t able to resume tests until January when her deductible reset.

The tests showed severe neuropathy. The $180,000 surgery would have had no effect.

They prescribed opioids for the pain. At first the pain relief was worth the price of constant mental fog and constipation. She didn’t tell me about that until later. All I remember is we took a trip for the first time in years, when she drove me to Monterey to go to the aquarium. I saw an otter in real life, swimming on its back. We left at 7am and listened to Green Day on the four-hour car ride. Over time, the opioids stopped working. They made her MORE sensitive to pain, and she felt withdrawal symptoms after just two or three hours.

Then gabapentin. By now the pain was so bad she couldn’t exercise, which compounded the weight gain from the slowed metabolic rate and hormonal shifts. And it barely helped the pain, and made her so fatigued she would go an entire day without getting out of bed.

Then Corticosteroids. Which didn’t even work.

The pain was so bad I would hear my mother wake up in the night screaming in pain. I would run into her room, asking if she’s OK. Eventually I stopped getting up. She’d yell out anguished shrieks of wordless pain or the word “fuck” stretched and distended to its limits. I’d turn over and go back to sleep.

All of this while they bled us dry with follow-up appointment after follow-up appointment, specialist consultations, and more imagine scans. Each appointment was promised to be fully covered, until the insurance claims were delayed and denied. Allopathic medicine did nothing to help my mother’s suffering. Yet it is the foundation of our entire society.

My mother told me that on a good day the nerve pain was like her legs were immersed in ice water. On a bad day it felt like her legs were clamped in a machine shop vice, screwed down to where the cranks stopped turning, then crushed further until her ankle bones sprintered and cracked to accommodate the tightening clamp. She had more bad days than good.

My mother crawled to the bathroom on her hands and knees. I slept in the living room to create more distance from her cries in the night. I still woke up, and still went back to sleep.

Back then I thought there was nothing I could do.

The high copays made consistent treatment impossible. New treatments were denied as “not medically necessary.” Old treatments didn’t work, and still put us out for thousands of dollars.

UnitedHealthcare limited specialist consultations to twice a year.

Then they refused to cover advanced imaging, which the specialists required for an appointment.

Prior authorizations took weeks, then months.

UnitedHealthcare constantly changed their claim filing procedure. They said my mother’s doctor needed to fax his notes. Then UnitedHealthcare said they did not save faxed patient correspondence, and required a hardcopy of the doctor’s typed notes to be mailed. Then they said they never received the notes. They were unable to approve the claim until they had received and filed the notes.

They promised coverage, and broke their word to my mother.

With every delay, my anger surged. With every denial, I wanted to throw the doctor through the glass wall of their hospital waiting room.

But it wasn’t them. It wasn’t the doctors, the receptionists, administrators, pharmacists, imaging technicians, or anyone we ever met. It was UnitedHealthcare.

People are dying. Evil has become institutionalized. Corporations make billions of dollars off the pain, suffering, death, and anguished cries in the night of millions of Americans.

We entered into an agreement for healthcare with a legally binding contract that promised care commensurate with our insurance payments and medical needs. Then UnitedHealthcare changes the rules to suit their own profits. They think they make the rules, and think that because it’s legal that no one can punish them.

They think there’s no one out there who will stop them.

Now my own chronic back pain wakes me in the night, screaming in pain. I sought out another type of healing that showed me the real antidote to what ails us.

I bide my time, saving the last of my strength to strike my final blows. All extractors must be forced to swallow the bitter pain they deal out to millions.

As our own chief executives, it’s our obligation to make our own lives better. First and foremost, we must seek to improve our own circumstances and defend ourselves. As we do so, our actions have ripple effects that can improve the lives of others.

Rules exist between two individuals, in a network that covers the entire earth. Some of these rules are written down. Some of these rules emerge from natural respect between two individuals. Some of these rules are defined in physical laws, like the properties of gravity, magnetism or the potential energy stored in the chemical bonds of potassium nitrate.

No single document better encapsulates the belief that all people are equal in fundamental worth and moral status and the frameworks for fostering collective well-being than the US constitution.

Writing a rule down makes it into a law. I don’t give a fuck about the law. Law means nothing. What does matter is following the guidance of our own logic and what we learn from those before us to maximize our own well-being, which will then maximize the well-being of our loved ones and community.

That’s where UnitedHealthcare went wrong. They violated their contract with my mother, with me, and tens of millions of other Americans. This threat to my own health, my family’s health, and the health of our country’s people requires me to respond with an act of war.

END

After his experience with his own mother and family members, I guess Luigi Mangione just about had enough. Are these the words of a cold-blooded killer? Or an intelligent, sensitive, well-educated and extremely intelligent young man who saw the American 'system' for what it really is, got fed up, and acted upon his feelings?

Regardless of how you or I feel, again I will say, he has spoken for the vast majority of us by doing what he did.

And, just to aggravate the Fox News bitches who are aghast at his popularity and horrified that women are responding to his extremely good looks, YES, he is movie-star handsome, so fuck you too.

So, all of this leads to America and end-stage capitalism. And the monster, Reagan, who started this entire shitstorm of greed by allowing "trickle-down economics" (yeah, that worked well, didn't it?) and deregulating every fucking safeguard that we, the American people once had, so they could suck us dry of every drop of blood. 

Fast-forward to 2008 when the economy cratered so badly, we, the people, and our tax money had to bail them out. "Too big to fail"?? I don't recall giving my permission to save those mercenary motherfuckers, do you? That is probably the one thing I will never forgive President Obama for doing...not holding them accountable, and allowing them to go on. Business as usual in greedy capitalist America, right?

Tell me, WHO the hell is worth $10 million for doing a job? WHO is worth billions of dollars in bonuses for, what, increasing their company's profits? What about those "little people" who work their asses off and get little to no thanks? Tell me about them!

And so, here we are in 2024, with a dead healthcare CEO, and in my opinion, an American HERO in prison for it. Luigi, as far as I'm concerned, YOU should have been on the cover of TIME, not that bloated, despicable Fatso McLardAss president-elect! 

And, for your information, the picture below was taken in Venice, Italy. So you are famous around the world. Deservedly so, I might add.

BASTA! And may God bless you, Luigi Nicholas Mangione.

 

AN AMERICAN DISGRACE

Once upon a time, there used to be a country called "The United States of America." By no means, was it ever "perfect" although some American citizens prefer to think it was.

No, this country was founded by egocentric, wealthy, White Anglo-Saxon Protestants who believed in slavery, the removal (genocide) of all Native Americans (who were here first) and their own white "supremacy." Coupled with the belief of the original Puritans who arrived here via Plymouth Rock in 1630, who adhered to the credence that their group, within the Church of England, should eliminate all practices and ceremonies not based on the Bible. They wanted to create a model of reformed Protestantism in the New World. 

Not quite a great start for what would come to be known as "the greatest country in the world."

Every single thing that was good and worthwhile for the so-called "common folk" had to be fought for, and fought hard. And took many, many years to achieve. The elimination of the Native American tribes across the land was happening, simultaneously with the Southern landowners who chose to fight a Civil War to hold onto their slave labor and retain their wealth. Countless human beings died for these "causes." But hey! As Bob Dylan observed, "You're better than them, you were born with white skin..." (Only A Pawn In Their Game.)

And then came the Robber Barons who, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, managed to acquire obscene riches thanks to little or no government regulation, no income tax, taking advantage of the poor working class, and creating the unequal distribution of wealth because of the huge divide between the "haves" and "have nots." These men ~ the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, et. al., cared little to nothing about the people who kept them in business. They were strictly in it for the money. Period.

When the 20th century began to unfold, people were beginning to wake up. Women fought long and hard for the vote. Workers formed unions, and began demanding fair wages, safer working conditions, the elimination of child labor, family-friendly hours and work environments, etc. And decades later, after two world wars where soldiers were still segregated, people of color slowly began demanding the respect and equality they were rightfully entitled to. In this country? Sadly, that fight will never end. The South continues to fight their own ignorant civil war, continues to believe that they will "rise again." And fly their Confederate flags proudly.

After World War II, America began to slowly clean itself up. Conditions were improving for the "have nots" and the world looked at the USA with admiration. But it didn't take long for us to gain the term "the ugly American" when traveling abroad. Arrogance and false pride gave rise to that particular term.

I grew up in the 1950s, right after World War II ended. Born in 1946, the vanguard year of "baby boomers," I remember the pride I felt being American, and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in school. America had regained some sort of innocence in those years, and some reasons to feel proud. We had a president who was a highly-regarded general during the war ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower ~ and we looked upon him with love, respect, almost like a grandfather. Jobs were plentiful, well-paying, and people could still maintain a one-job family, including a new home in the suburbs and a car!

Then John F. Kennedy was elected in 1960, and Camelot was born. Young, vibrant, none of us were yet aware of Joseph P. Kennedy's nefarious dealings and resemblance to the earlier Robber Barons. JFK was "our" president, as he said during his inauguration speech, "born in this century" and we loved him, and his entire family.

We were not yet quite as embroiled in the Vietnam war as we would be later on, and President Kennedy planned to withdraw American troops and get us out of a place we never belonged. For that, and so many other reasons, the powers-that-be in government, big business, and yes, organized crime, felt that he was a threat, and decided to get rid of him...by arranging an assassination that would shock the entire country, and the world. And so, on November 22, 1963, Camelot died, along with our young and beloved president.

As I recall, things began to slide downhill from that point on. Nixon, the monstrous Reagan, Bush I and II, we never again had a president we could be proud of...until Barack Obama. Even so, the afore-mentioned "huge divide" has been reestablished, allowing billionaires to not have to pay taxes, and dumping it all on the working class. Once again. "Everything old is new again."

And then America truly went from the sublime to the ridiculous (and worse.) We elected a "man" who represents the absolute worst in any human being. In a nutshell:

A man who said "When you're a celebrity, you can do anything. You can grab women by their pussy." And even worse statements from this lowest possible form of life.

And after deliberately inciting a riot on January 6, 2021, causing his brainwashed devotees to storm the Capitol in Washington, DC, this man was elected President of the United States again, on November 5, 2024.

Still think America is to be admired? I don't. I find myself wishing that my grandparents never emigrated from Italy all those years ago. And, quite honestly, if I were younger and had more money? I would move to another country, just to not be here for the next four horrible, miserable years.

I no longer recognize the country to which I pledged my allegiance. I no longer recognize it because of the the hatred, bigotry, xenophobia, abject racism and ugliness all rearing their ugly heads because one "man" gave his permission to do so. A man who called southern neo-Nazis "very fine people." A man who cheats, lies, steals, rapes, and was best friends with a pedophile.

THIS is who Americans voted into the Oval office. Not once, but TWICE. Upon reading some comments from other countries, America is now pitied, laughed at, and scorned, deservedly so. If this human excrement can be elected to the highest office in the land, what else is there to do? 

To say that I am angry, disgusted, and disillusioned more than ever before in my entire life is putting it mildly. I am furious and hope that every single moron who voted this Frankenstein back into office will read this and understand how truly ignorant and short-sighted they are.

SHAME ON YOU! AND SHAME ON AMERICA! 

November 5, 2024 will officially go down as the blackest, most horrifying day in the history of this country. 

And for those who continue to say "God bless America"? For what?? Tell me, for what?? These sad days, it feels like the exact opposite.

   

 

BEWARE OF NORTON LIFELOCK!!!

This is a short story about a disreputable, despicable company by the name of NORTON LIFELOCK.

They deducted over $250.00 from my account WITHOUT my knowledge or permission. I had my credit card company dispute the charge which, of course, was immediately rejected by Norton Lifelock.

What's funny is that I retained said company about a year ago because my account was hacked, and I wanted to be sure it would not happen again. Oh no! 

But it DID happen again, this time by NORTON LIFELOCK! No amount of time on the telephone and/or online could reach these CROOKS. Be prepared to waste at least two hours of your life just playing verbal volleyball with their "reps" who can barely speak English, much less understand it, and who, in all likelihood, receive a big, fat bonus from NORTON LIFELOCK if they manage to hold onto a customer who wants OUT.

I warned them that I have a blog which is pretty well-read, and that I would be exposing their nefarious business practices to the world. And, as if by wizardry, here it is!

NORTON LIFELOCK, is it really worth $250+ to be exposed by an innocent FORMER customer? I told your reps, over and over and OVER again, that this would be happening, but you've trained them well, haven't you?

There is a saying in Italian that goes something like this:

"ILL-GOTTEN MONEY WILL ALWAYS  BE SPENT ON MEDICINE."

Yes, I'm Italian, and I grew up in a very tough Italian neighborhood in the Bronx. We don't take kindly to disrespect, nor crooks.

When, in exasperation, I told one of your reps to DROP DEAD, she responded that they do not deal with "profanity." Profanity?? DROP DEAD is NOT profane, but you can guess what I'm really hurling your miserable way. Here you go...try Google translate to figure it out, you miserable mother******s.

VAFFANCULO DOVE VIVI E RESPIRI!!