As many Americans direct understandable outrage at our broken, immoral, for-profit healthcare system in light of Brian Thompson's murder, the outrage is — curiously — not directed, as it should be, towards the man many Americans just elected president.

William Lindsey :toad:

"Why are the [bank] stocks soaring today? Because the war on junk fees is over, and the banks have won. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is probably dead, a likely victim of 'government efficiency.'

Expect those junk fees to come roaring back shamelessly, aimed right at the citizenry that bailed out the very banks that charge them. No CFPB in the way, no Biden executive actions to be bothered with."

~ MOtoCO

#Trump #Musk #banks #EconomicElites
/12

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/5/2290365/-Bank-Stocks-are-Up-Significantly-Everyone-Should-Know-Why

William Lindsey :toad:

"The American Bankers Association contributed over $2.2M to candidates this cycle. Roughly 2/3rds of that went to Republican candidates. It’s payback time. ...

Watch out, we’re entering open season on banking customers. Again. They expect big profits on their political contributions, and they will get them."

#Trump #Musk #banks #EconomicElites
/13

William Lindsey :toad:

@CartyBoston And you do expect Trump and Musk to reform this broken system, right? All indicators are that this is their intent.

Democrats constantly caved to Republican blackmail as they pushed through the Affordable Care Act — but only one party has consistently and bitterly fought attempts to reform our for-profit healthcare system. Both-sidesing this story is simply dishonest.

CartyBoston

@wdlindsy People suffered while Hillary Clinton fucked around learning politics, I am bitter.

I'm sorry to be expressing here, of course we need to hold Trump accountable.

William Lindsey :toad:

Heesoo Jang offers interesting contextual information — very much related to the matters discussed in the thread above — about what is driving South Koreans to resist Yoon's authoritarianism:

"Adding to these failures is a healthcare system on the brink of collapse, where prolonged medical staff shortages, exacerbated by budget cuts, have caused long-term disruptions in patient care."

#SouthKorea #Yoon #healthcare #EconomicElites
/14

https://zeteo.com/p/south-korea-deeper-story-democracy-martial-law-yoon

William Lindsey :toad:

"Instead of addressing these structural issues, the government has opted for a hasty increase in medical school quotas – a move experts warn will only further destabilize the system.

Yoon’s economic policies have similarly drawn heavy criticism for favoring the wealthy with tax cuts while reducing public welfare budgets, deepening inequality between South Korea’s elites and its struggling middle and working classes."

#SouthKorea #Yoon #healthcare #EconomicElites
/15

William Lindsey :toad:

@CartyBoston The power is all in Trump's and Musk's hands now, all in Republican hands — institutional power, that is.

Railing at failures of Democrats who have been up against enormous odds with Republican violation of norms and Republican determination to serve the super-rich seems to me misplaced rage. And the Democratic party absolutely does need to offer a more radical option to these and other issues if it ever regains any power.

CartyBoston

@wdlindsy It's not a contest, either people have access to care or they don't.

The ACA was an *enormous* step forward and there have been no other steps forward, at best we as advocates have been pretty ineffective over a long period of time.

FunGuy2PlayWith

@wdlindsy
NOW is the time to switch to a Credit Union. Some are better than others but many have ways for normal folk to join even if you don't qualify in a traditional sense via the American Consumer Council (ACC).

I love SDFCU.

https://www.sdfcu.org/membership

William Lindsey :toad:

“The great [unifying] theme [of Trump’s appointees] is how many of them are massively rich. I saw on Alex Wagner’s show Thursday night that the combined net worth of Joe Biden’s Cabinet was $118 million.

“The total net worth of Trump’s Cabinet? It’s at least $13.3 billion….”

~ Michael Tomasky

#Trump #ElonMusk #EconomicElites
/16

https://newsletter.tnr.com/index.php?action=social&chash=83adc9225e4deb67d7ce42d58fe5157c.1152&s=cdd6377d8462caad2b4695418c877aea

William Lindsey :toad:

"Taking Republicans literally, and watching Trump build a government, the incoming administration really does seem to want to establish a new Gilded Age. To shed Reagan-era pretenses of top-down prosperity and just loot the place. …

And of course Trump’s cabinet doesn’t include his interloping co-president, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world."

~ Brian Beutler

#Trump #ElonMusk #EconomicElites
/17

Paxil

@wdlindsy Seems like equitable tax policy would make a significant impact on the debt but that’s not where we are is it.?

William Lindsey :toad:

"I think it’s no coincidence that the GOP’s new appeal to voters is largely bereft of Reaganite cliches. They’ve turned the clock back a century further than that. They don’t talk about freedom or liberty. The speak instead in the language of fiat, coercion, zero-sum conflict, and sacrifice. (Other people’s, naturally.)"

#Trump #ElonMusk #EconomicElites /18

Jackie 🌹

@wdlindsy

We must turn the clock back even farther, to 1789.

William Lindsey :toad:

@burnoutqueen Yes, enlightenment is never amiss.

William Lindsey :toad:

@Paxil It's well-nigh impossible to get there, isn't it, with a system that tilts strongly against reform with an unrepresentative Electoral College, an unrepresentative Senate, and a Supreme Court packed with right-wing ideologues who opened the floodgates to billionaires' control of government?

William Lindsey :toad:

@funguy2playwith Yes — I myself have been very pleased with what my credit union delivers to me by way of banking opportunities.

William Lindsey :toad:

@CartyBoston And from the moment ACA —which is, as you say, an enormous step forward and also deeply flawed due to Obama's need to make concessions to get it through – was enacted, the Republicans have repeatedly told us they'll dismantle it. And also have told us they'll start dismantling Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. This is why, though I am very aware of the shortcomings of Democrats as they deal with healthcare issues, I don't see an equivalency between the two parties.

PKPs Powerfromspace1

@wdlindsy the billionaires have won

WhistlerInTheDarkAges

@wdlindsy I could not agree more. You’ve put into words why this all makes me think of the Gladiator movies — because the emperors enjoy surprises in the arena so long as they don’t touch the real power. That in fact is the point of the arena.