Mid-week roundup
Some days there’s just a lot of news. Maybe every day, nowadays.
(1) This seem to have been a hit job. But why?:
The CEO of UnitedHealth’s insurance division was gunned down Wednesday morning outside the Hilton hotel in Midtown in what police called a “brazen, targeted” attack.
Brian Thompson, 50, was repeatedly shot by a masked gunman about 6:46 a.m. who had been lying in wait outside the Sixth Avenue hotel, said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
“Many people passed the suspect, but he appeared to wait for his intended target,” she said. …
When Thompson – who had been staying at the nearby Marriott, according to sources – walked up to the hotel, the masked suspect struck, Kenny said.
“The shooter steps onto the sidewalk from behind the car, he ignores numerous other pedestrians, approaches the victim from behind and shoots him in the back,” Kenny said. “The shooter then walks toward the victim and continues to shoot.”
The shooter was a white man wearing a mask, and he escaped on a bicycle and is at large. It’s also reported that the Thompson family had received unspecified death threats.
(2) Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for Defense Secretary, has been under attack and it’s unclear whether his confirmation will go through. Meanwhile, all sorts of rumors swirl about who might replace him, and Hegseth himself says he’s not backing out:
“I spoke to the president-elect this morning. He said, ‘Keep going, keep fighting. I’m behind you all the way.’” Hegseth told CBS News in the Capitol Wednesday. “Why would I back down? I’ve always been a fighter. I’m here for the fighters. This is personal and passionate for me.”
Time will tell.
(3) SCOTUS is hearing arguments on a Tennessee law banning medical transition of kids. At that link, Ace does not mince words. For example:
The ACLU and the corrupt liar Biden are arguing that “gender identity” is an “immutable” characteristic, which would then protect it at the highest level (“strict scrutiny”) under equal protection analysis.
Alito points out that “gender fluid” pyrsyns may change their gender rapidly from one day to the next.
Kind of the exact opposite of an “immutable” characteristic then, right?
(4) This author contends that Trump is already the de facto president. I think that’s the case – for a few things. However, it doesn’t matter that Joe is mostly nodding off and Kamala is in lala land as well; a lot of damage can still be done by the people running the show behind the scenes. They are in power for about six more weeks.
(5) So far, Argentina’s Milei seems to be doing pretty darn well against inflation.
Hegseth was on with Megyn Kelly today for almost her entire show and it was really good.
The Economist: Javier Milei: “My contempt for the state is infinite
Look at the Powerline graph, which replicates what I found online.
One should use as an inflation starting point the inflation rate for the month that Milei took office. That would be December, as Milei took office on December 10,2023. That gives 25.5% as a starting point. The Economist used as a starting point the February inflation rate of 13.2%, when Milei had taken office in December. The Economist thus understated Milei’s achievement in reducing inflation: from 25.5% to 2.7% ( or when rounded off, 26% to 3%).
The Economist’s not using the December inflation rate does not reduce my contempt for Big Journalism, nor for the journalists who are so employed.
(2) Hegseth is said to be unqualified and they’re smearing him ala Bret Kavanaugh with a sex scandal. SOP for the Democrats.
IMO, no one is ever experienced enough to run the DOD. It’s a huge bureaucracy with an out-of-control spending habit. McNamara and his whiz kids didn’t do a very good job. Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld were unable to bring the bureaucrats to heel. Hegseth will at least try to get the organization pointed in the direction n of winning wars – something that Obama/Biden and their SECDEFs weren’t very interested in. So, Hegseth, IMO will do as good as any other SECDEF of the past. Also, he has Musk and Ramaswamy to help him find some of the fraud, waste, and abuse.
(3) This has become another one of those mass delusions that seem to be springing up in our society.
Transgender feelings are real. They must be painful for those who suffer from them. They deserve help from the mental health community to manage their issues when they are children. Irreversible harm can be done with medical treatments on children who may change their minds as they grow older. We know that happens. It’s a fact. We have examples. The motto of medical doctors: “First, do no harm.” Transgender surgeries and hormone treatments on children can do enormous harm. We, as a society, should want to follow that motto.
(5) Milei’s success gives me hope that the DOGE can deliver similar results. There’s plenty of fat in many agencies. Let’s go on a cost cutting diet!
A 5yr old knows they are of another gender, but has no idea what a gender is. These people are sick, as are two of Supreme Court injustices.
Lets see how Trump is received in Paris this Sat. Macron is in trouble, but will hang on. Will he meet with Trump?
They are in power for about six more weeks.
How I wish I could believe this were true. It will take much longer than six weeks to dig them out of their holes, or prevent them from taking direction from outside the Trump Administration.
Re (2) – I have no issue with Hegseth because if he is approved, he will be on a short leash concerning his behavior. Trump will have no problem in firing him if he gets in the way of the agenda. And, there are more people to be selected to deal with each of the branches and they will be the more hands on managers. He will be at the Department to get the rot out and the morale up. I hope that he gets a good CFO to oversee the audit review.
Re (4) – After the threat of tariffs, Ontario came up with an ad that I have been seeing on Fox News – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyFfcx5g0tQ . It’s quite good. There are a few shots of the new Gordie Howe Bridge construction and you can see some time-lapsed videos on the construction on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@GordieHoweBridge .
BTW, I have seen a lot of ads/emails about the black Friday & cyber Monday sales being extended for a few more days. Will they ever stop?? I know – they won’t and soon we’ll be getting even more ads about sales.
This is a great test for Pete Hegseth. There comes a time when the weight of the opposition becomes unbearable and the weak buckle under the pressure. The Secretary of Defense needs a leader who never lets the odds define their response to pressure. Hegseth needs to say “nuts” to his enemies.
The pressure isn’t going to get any easier when overseeing the department. He needs to show that backbone of steel now.
I can’t imagine Governor DeSantis agreeing to taking a demotion to run the Defense Department– other than a patriotic duty. He is in a much better position to run for President as a successful governor of a large state, than a cabinet position, IMO. Is this politicking by someone inside the Trump transition team or finding out now how much Hegseth is willing to fight?
Unless Vance turns out to be a dud he is the favorite for 2028. I think the highest DeSantis can realistically achieve is a cabinet position.
It’ll only be remembered that it happened in NYC.
(1) Here is the whole video of the shooting, although the image of Mr. Thompson is blurred once the shooting begins.
https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/chilling-video-shows-gunman-executing-unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-on-nyc-street/news-story/326eeba24d1bc5e1221f08a3319f7056
Why use a suppressor? It’s not like people didn’t know what was going on because of it.
The gun is not cycling properly, probably because it wasn’t set up to use a suppressor of that type, size and weight. So, the gunman is racking every round manually, and I’d guess he was familiar that characteristic. He goes for a fourth shot and it appears that this new round does not feed properly.
The police say they collected 3 empty casings and 3 live 9mm rounds. That would suggest 3 rounds fired except in the instance where the gun is cycling so badly that the casing of the last expended round may have remained in the gun. It’s not clear from the video if a fourth round was fired.
It looks as though the first round is the one that struck Thompson in the leg. The aim of the gunman does not look that bad, so I wonder if a badly mated suppressor caused the bullet to be deflected by the suppressor at the muzzle.
DeSantis and Vance are young enough that they could be elected president in 16-20 years from now and still be younger than most of our recent presidents so I don’t see that being a factor at all.
I mean Nixon could have finished his second term as president 24 years after his first term as VP.
Lots of time for them.
WRT Hegseth, the Democrats are doing pretty much the only things they are really good at: character assassination, lying, misrepresentation, slandering, personal (and National and Social) destruction…and BETRAYAL of every human, legal and ethical principle.
Related:
‘“ 100% Bulls**t”: Hegseth Hit Piece Debunked By Over A Dozen Current And Former Fox Employees’—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/100-bullst-hegseth-hit-piece-debunked-over-dozen-current-and-former-fox-employees
Heh, she may no know what a woman is…but she DOES know THIS!
“ Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Says Child Sex Change Bans Are ‘Sort Of The Same Thing’ As Interracial Marriage Bans”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/12/04/justice-ketanji-brown-jackson-says-child-sex-change-bans-are-sort-of-the-same-thing-as-interracial-marriage-bans/
Insanity seems to be the Democratic Part’s theme song…
Wait! There’s more!!
“ Biden White House Is Discussing Preemptive Pardons For Those In Trump’s Crosshairs”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/12/04/biden-white-house-is-discussing-preemptive-pardons-for-those-in-trumps-crosshairs/
“ Kamala Harris And Doug Emhoff Are Reportedly Separating”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/12/04/kamala-harris-and-doug-emhoff-are-reportedly-separating/
“ Sean Penn Defends Hunter Biden Pardon, Calls Him ‘One Of The Finest People’ He Knows”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/12/04/sean-penn-defends-hunter-biden-pardon-calls-him-one-of-the-finest-people-he-knows/
And the coup-de-grace…!
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2024/12/04/biden-could-hand-us-sovereignty-to-the-who-before-the-end-of-the-year/
WRT gender dysphoria…
“ Adolescent Gender Dysphoria Is a Temporary Diagnosis for Most Teens;
“New evidence underscores that a GD diagnosis in adolescence is an unreliable basis for medical interventions.”—
https://www.city-journal.org/article/adolescent-gender-dysphoria-is-a-temporary-diagnosis-for-most-teens
But nobody’s supposed to know about this, of course….
– – – – – – –
WRT to “The Economist”’s brazen (if easily verified) attempt to alter the Truth of Milei’s extraordinary achievement, it’s just another nail in the coffin of another once-reputable—even venerable—publication.
#1 — the assassination.
“UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was facing DOJ probe for insider trading when he was killed in targeted NYC shooting”—
https://nypost.com/2024/12/04/us-news/slain-unitedhealth-ceo-brian-thompson-was-facing-doj-probe-for-insider-trading-report/
Seems that someone is clearly unhappy (or very, very worried about being fingered)…
+ Bonus — wherein in addition to a murder, a potentially serious, and perhaps fatal, blunder was committed…
“X user @rtwlz explains how he found where the ass*ssin who m*rdered the United Healthcare CEO likely fled using Citi Bike data”—
https://instapundit.com/688404/
Continued…
“ Assassin’s three chilling words on bullets left behind after shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO…”—
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14160185/assassin-chilling-words-bullets-Manhattan-CEO.html?ico=article_preview_xp_mobile
Opening graf:
“Detectives investigating the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson reportedly found shell casings with the words ‘deny’, ‘defend’ and ‘depose’ inscribed on them….”
I’m wondering if Milei is inspiring Trump. He’s showing that the state is not invincible.
“(1) This seem to have been a hit job. But why?:”
The list of potential suspects and potential reasons are very, very long.
Have you ever had your insurance company deny a claim? Or deny a referral to a specialist or for an expensive test? Or refuse to pay for a specific drug, but insist on the use of a cheaper alternative that may not be as effective?
Health insurance companies aren’t there to help you stay or get healthy, they’re there to make money. Their purpose in life is to collect as much money from customers as possible, while paying out as little as possible…and they’ll do just about anything to keep from having to pay out…even if it means their customers sometimes die. Oh well. Shouldn’t have gotten sick.
And this guy was the big boss of one of the biggest of those insurance companies. As I said, the suspect list is virtually endless.
“Transgender feelings are real.”
What is the physical basis for gender?
Continued… (continued)
“ Police appear to be closing in on name of gunman who shot CEO: Sources”—
https://instapundit.com/688486/
And some very “bizarre”—but perfectly predictable—stuff coming down the pike (“predictable” when one’s arrogance is only exceeded by the absolute belief in one’s virtue)…
…as the Uber-corrupt Peter Hotez rears his butt-ugly persona with this astonishingly-deranged (and stupid) threat…
Second link:
https://instapundit.com/688491/
Third link:
I.e., second “bizarre” link—having trouble editing via my Smartphone…
https://instapundit.com/688491/
+ Bonus:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fauci-schiff-and-cheney-may-receive-preemptive-pardons
…and third (Hotez) link:
https://instapundit.com/688477/
if not for schachtel, and berenson, I wouldn’t know who this evil dwarf was, btw hes the one that told rfk jr he had the brainworm, could we check other people for that condition,
so United Health, donated more than three quarter mil to Kamala, and a significantly smaller amount to Trump’s campaign
the biggest recipient in the Senate, was Gallegos, who eked out a win, even though the State went firmly for Trump, then again they also voted for the Moloch amendment so take that fwiw
then there was the hack of their network and the company assigned to investigate it, which coincidentally was a big stock buy by Pelosi,
And if yer wonderin’ why Israel is a war-criminal, apartheid, Nazi state—IF—well, here ya’ go…
“Israel’s New Approach to Tunnels: A Paradigm Shift in Underground Warfare”—
https://mwi.westpoint.edu/israels-new-approach-to-tunnels-a-paradigm-shift-in-underground-warfare/
H/T Powerline blog.
(Oh, and also, IF yer also wonderin’ why “Biden” supports the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Hamas-Hezbullah-Houthi-Syrian pals…along with the Palestinians, generally….)
The Politico story is a chenga piece of obfuscation, they handed it to Jonathan Martin, a premier hack, did he ask any experts how stupid the whole premise was,
someone outside the lawfare circle, does he know anyone outside that circle,
I know I have learned to look at the byline first, and then see how ridiculous the premise, that’s how lefties determine what is fake news, and they have the record of getting a story wrong at an improbable level
hmm curious
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/why-is-dr-scott-gottlieb-so-desperate?utm_source=
…speaking of which:
https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/newsroom/news-releases/2024/11/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-will-not-pay-complete-duration-of-anesthesia-for-surgical-procedures
“Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Won’t Pay for the Complete Duration of Anesthesia for Patients’ Surgical Procedures”
As I said: insurance companies aren’t in business to make sure patients are taken care of, they’re in business to make money. Period.
Health insurance companies aren’t there to help you stay or get healthy, they’re there to make money. Their purpose in life is to collect as much money from customers as possible, while paying out as little as possible…and they’ll do just about anything to keep from having to pay out…even if it means their customers sometimes die. Oh well. Shouldn’t have gotten sick.
This is definitely the caricature of health insurance companies Hollywood and the left have drawn. Caricature being the operative word.
35 years in the healthcare business – 20 with a health plan, 10 with physician groups, 5 with a hospital system. All in a financial and data analytics capacity. I can tell you that seldom are claims denied other than for billing issues, and those are resolved when re-billed. You may see a few where someone’s coverage lapsed, but most people know when their insurance is up.
As for your last link from the American Society of Anesthesiologists: Are you really using the aggrieved party as your basis for your view here? Ask yourself why Anthem would do this in the first place. Without looking, I’m guessing anesthesiologists are overbilling to the tune of millions. Remember – the insurance companies hire actual doctors and nurses to make these calls.
In the healthcare business, everyone wants costs to be low: employers want to pay lower rates, employees want everything covered, hospitals want lower expenses or higher revenues from plans to cover the spending they want to do. The health plan itself is the ONLY entity in the trinity (Hospitals, Providers, Plans) who make any effort to control those costs. Yet they’re the ones who get the bad press.
As long as I’ve been in this business, I’ve never understood how disconnected people can even opine on this.
As I said: insurance companies aren’t in business to make sure patients are taken care of, they’re in business to make money. Period.
==
Everyone’s in business for self-support in the first instance. You do that by generating earnings. The insurance business does this by producing risk-pooling services.
==
Per the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the ratio of gross operating surplus to revenue was 0.253 for the sum of private industries in this country. That for the insurance business was 0.222
IMO, no one is ever experienced enough to run the DOD. It’s a huge bureaucracy with an out-of-control spending habit.
==
The ratio of military expenditure to domestic product is as low as it has been since 1940.
==
The salient problem in re the military right now is that it is horridly distracted and damaged by the insistence of the Democratic Party in using it as a toy theatre for their social fantasies.
Considering we’re not fighting a hot war probably, but you have these colonel blimps who have no accomplishments to show off, we have mid ranking officers who are various degrees of competence,
“The ratio of military expenditure to domestic product is as low as it has been since 1940.” – Art D.
I spent 21 years in the Navy. I know how military budgeting/spending works. I’ve been told that not much has changed since I left the service.
Both Clinton and Obama shrunk the military considerably. The GDP has increased considerably. So, the expenditures as a percent of GDP are smaller. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of waste, fraud, and misspending. I could write a book about how money and material were wasted when I was on active duty. The bureaucracy has managed to bake it into the cake. Nothing an individual at the operating level can do to change it. Pete Hegseth, with guidance from DOGE, might be able to reduce costs by 20% without reducing lethality. That’s a $160 billion saved.
As to the social justice programs that the Obama/Biden administrations have pushed. You’re right, they need to end. And Hegseth could do that – although he will be fought by the bureaucrats in the Pentagon as well as some Perfumed Prince type officers. (Daviod Hackworth’s description)
Interesting the conflicting news on this murder. I wonder if the shooter was using subsonic ammunition with his suppressed handgun – that would make the reports much less noticeable in a traffic situation, but the reduced energy of the rounds might also have contributed to the gun’s jamming. It’s a known potential problem that they’ll sometimes handle by changing out the springs, so the gun can cycle properly. There are security photos of a ‘Person of Interest’ out there, who doesn’t have his mask on. He apparently stayed at a hostel the day before. But his coat and backpack look different to the shooter’s, so – not sure how long this will stand up.
Taylor Lorenz is so desperate for clicks she’s now tweeting outrageous claims of justification for this kind of violence. Some people can’t live without constant attention and dramatic validation, and the World’s Oldest Teenager is no exception. Will somebody eventually bring up the ACA and drag it into the picture?
Aggie,
On a couple of different blogs, I saw comment threads on the pistol thing which looked like a discussion between oenophiles, not that there’s anything wrong with that, trying to one-up each other with increasingly arcane arcana.
Could have been done with a double action revolver and to heck with the noise…you just shot someone and he fell down. You couldn’t bet he wouldn’t scream. Spend thirty seconds thinking about silencers? Looks to me like an amateur who’d read a bunch of back issues of Guns&Ammo.
Apparently, he got full-faced at a coffee shop and likely left fingerprints on the cell phone he discarded. Not a pro.
But he put time into it. How did he find out the “client” was living in one hotel and going to cross to speak in another? And when? Like Steven Paddock of Las Vegas infamy, maybe he just wanted to kill the guy and got a charge out of the preparation time.
But why him?
“As long as I’ve been in this business, I’ve never understood how disconnected people can even opine on this.”
No one is disconnected from this. I get that you feel an instinctive need to defend the industry that earns you your living, but just because I’m not being paid by the insurance industry doesn’t mean I’m “disconnected” from it.
I started to give a couple of examples from my long history of dealing with insurance companies and claims, but it’s just not worth the time. Virtually everyone has those stories or has heard them.
The bureaucracy of insurance companies and the vast numbers of people employed as a result of its intentional complexity and opaqueness is a big reason why medical care costs so much in this country.
“Are you really using the aggrieved party as your basis for your view here? Ask yourself why Anthem would do this in the first place. Without looking, I’m guessing anesthesiologists are overbilling to the tune of millions.”
Overbilling as defined by whom? The insurance companies? Talking about taking the perspective of the “aggrieved party”.
” Remember – the insurance companies hire actual doctors and nurses to make these calls.”
I think the operative part of that sentence is “hire”. So becoming a doctor or nurse somehow precludes human beings from acting in their own best interests and protecting the source of their income? Not buying it. I’m curious…what would motivate a doctor or a nurse to leave the field they worked so hard to enter in order to take a job with an insurance company? I’m not necessarily saying that being paid by the insurance industry automatically makes them dishonest, but the flip side is that having an MD or RN doesn’t automatically make them virtuous either and there is a very strong incentive to protect the “hand that feeds you”.
“Everyone’s in business for self-support in the first instance. You do that by generating earnings. The insurance business does this by producing risk-pooling services.”
I’m a capitalist. I agree with that statement, however what I disagree with in the “insurance” space is the artificial complexity and opaqueness that has been introduced into the “system” through regulations and laws that the insurance companies themselves lobby for. I have nothing against insurance per se, but the morass of our medical insurance industry is self-inflicted and unnecessary in my opinion.
“the ratio of gross operating surplus to revenue was 0.253 for the sum of private industries in this country. That for the insurance business was 0.222”
That is completely irrelevant. What gets deducted between “revenue” and “gross operating surplus”? Salaries. Benefits. “Golden parachutes” for executives. Expense accounts. Company jets. etc. etc. etc. Those are all “legitimate” business expenses deducted from revenue.
The vast majority of the companies included in that “sum of private industries” don’t allow such extravagances, which may account for at least some of that disparity in revenue/expense ratio.
(1) This seem to have been a hit job.
The WW2 era gun that UnitedHealthcare killer used to assassinate CEO Brian Thompson
Looking like it was a manual repeater, magazine fed Brugger & Thomet VP9, so it may not have been jamming…it just works that way.