what’s good

Alex • Kpop boy thirsting hours • It’s Soonhoon and Verkwan’s world we’re just living in it • Some English football

[proud-atheist]

[urulokid]

I JUST LET OUT THE WORST NOISE

[cro-iba]

HOW DARE YOU USE THE SAME SOURCE AS ME TO MAKE POINTS AGAINST ME

[yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt]

In light of Brian Thompson being shot dead on my birthday (🎉🥳🎂) I'd like to share a personal story about UnitedHealthcare.

During the peak of COVID, my family all got sick. I couldn't be on my parents' insurance because they were both older and on Medicare. So, I had insurance through my University: UnitedHealthcare.

For some reason, rather than roll-over each year, I got a new plan each year that ended after May and didn't start until August, so I was uninsured for the summer months, but it was a weird situation that the university denied, and told us we were supposed to be insured year-round, it was messy.

Both of my parents went to the hospital, and I got sick too. I had to take care of my pets, and myself, and try to stay alive and keep my pets alive when I was so weak I could hardly move. When my parents came home, my condition got dramatically worse (I think my body knew it couldn't give out, because there was nobody to take care of me, so once my parents were okay, it completely crashed and failed.)

I started experiencing emergency symptoms. It was a bit hard to breathe, my chest hurt, and I was extremely delirious. I wanted to call my insurance to see if I was covered (this was during the summer) and I was connected to some nice person, probably making minimum wage, who told me with caution in her voice that my plan was expired. I had no active insurance, but she urged me to go to an emergency room. I remember saying something to the effect of "You just told me I don't have insurance, I can't go to the hospital, I can't afford it."

She sounded so genuinely worried and scared. I remember she said "You really don't sound good, you sound really sick, please call 9-1-1" and I think I just said "I can't afford it without insurance, don't worry, I think I'll be okay."

And she paused and said "I don't want to hang up the phone with you like this." And it sounded like she was holding back tears. And I don't remember what I said, I think that I would be okay, and I hung up.

I still think about her. I wonder if that phone call haunted her, or if she had dozens of calls like that a day. I wonder if she thinks about it at all, if she wonders if I died after she told me I didn't have insurance and therefore couldn't go to the hospital without incurring a tremendous financial burden. I wonder if she feels guilt or blame-- of course she shouldn't, it wouldn't have been her fault if anything had happened to me. Maybe it's self-centered to wonder if she thinks about it. I'm not the main character and it was just her job. But, still.

I think about how evil it was that we were put in that situation. Because offering year-long continuous coverage through the university plan would maybe cut into profits, maybe not benefit shareholders enough, maybe cut into Thompson's $10 million salary. While his minimum wage administrators have to feel afraid to hang up the phone, because on the other line someone might be dying, and they wouldn't know. While his patients hang up and decide to take their chances rather than put their family through that trauma.

This is UnitedHealthcare. This is Brian Thompson's legacy. This is why, understandably, an entire nation is jubilant that he was gunned down like the vermin he was. I don't care about his widow. I feel pity for his children, despite the fact that they will inherit millions, but I feel more pity for the children of his victims patients who are gone because they didn't want THEIR children to inherit crippling debt. Brian Thompson got what he fucking deserved. I pray that he not be the only one. I pray for continued safety, peace , and anonymity for his killer.

American healthcare is a disease.

[animentality]

[theconcealedweapon]

Those who protest against Israel's genocide are punished for antisemitism.

But for some strange reason, authorities have never cracked down on antisemitism any other time. Any other time, antisemitism is considered free speech.

It's almost as if they know damn well that protesting against Israel is not antisemitism.

[elierlick]

34,000 deaths is clearly an appalling undercount when watchdog groups learn about mass graves like this every week.

[animentality]

[451isa]

[flower-tea-fairies]

That part

[windsthroughtunnels]

This elderly woman was one of the leaders of demonstrations against the Vietnam War in 1968, when she was a student at Columbia University. Today, 56 years later, she returns to the same place and says, "Palestine must be free."

[bibyebae]

This is literally the core of what our fight for liberation means

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

[tockthewatchdog]

we need to give this tweet more credit for im pretty sure coining "die mad about it"

[invertprivileges]

checks out, thank you melanie

[self-hating-zionist]

This will make you cry.

[ganondorf]

this is like the democrat version of when republicans see a long line at the food pantry and are like "this is what america would look like under communism"

[sneezest]

it should be mentioned Professor Samer Alatout is Palestinian

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner-deactiv]

[tenderwasthekiss]

[ID: A drawing of a red kite with white, black and green bows on its tail. The caption says "No amount of propaganda should convince you that some children don't deserve to grow up. End ID]

[ivalioneisavenue]

[sayruq]

There is no such thing as childhood in Gaza

Israeli attacks expose Palestinian children to daily horrors.

Children in Gaza can tell an F-16 from an F-35 from a drone. They know a whole litany of things that are beyond their years. Things that they shouldn’t have to know. Over 10,000 children have been killed in Gaza. The children who have survived have seen their families, friends and neighbors killed by the Israeli army. They have seen near-death by starvation and death by suffocation, under the rubble and by explosion. Children in Gaza do not have the luxury of death being a mystery. It is a daily presence. If a child in Gaza is hungry, they know not to throw a tantrum. They have become used to feeling hunger. The same is true of the cold. Every child in Gaza now knows what it is to be unhoused, to sleep in a tent or on the streets in winter.