Yeesh friend, kinda jumped down OP’s throat here, no? Seems pretty uncharitable to go from their posted meme to “this cartoonish fantasy world of yours”, and then take that even further.

I mean, OP never really described any kind of “world” at all, just expressed disappointment. So I mean.

…it’s kinda your cartoonish fantasy world, by definition, isn’t it? Whatever thing you’re imagining here? Weirdly hostile take.

LOL I like it, take it one step further too: “…and you’ll be hearing about this shit during my performance review!”

Oh hell yeah! I had a feeling something like this might exist. I’ll have to give it a try, thanks!

Well, no, there’s a ton of sellers. If you want it to actually sell, you take a bit of a loss. Think of it like an annoyingly involved rental program.

I think some kits can get more expensive than retail due to rarity or something, but I wasn’t looking at any of that, just wanted an affordable way to build some cool kits.

Huh. Feels…due for* Adjustment.

My friend, you actually got me hahaha. I started out feeling like “ah fuck, here I am complaining about how things have gone for us, who am I to complain compared to this guy?” Well done lol

Hmm. Sounds like fun lol

A few more of these and we’ll all really see how much we actually agree with one another, and how much the split and hate is manufactured.

I think they were also trying to keep folks who already had decent insurance plans, and there were definitely a bunch. Thinking of people in good careers who were also on the tail end of when employers treated employees better - there were a lot of people doing comparatively well who had (at least somewhat justifiable, we’re talking healthcare) concerns about the idea of single-provider.

(referring to the “if you like your plan, you can keep it” angle during ACA days)

That guy expects me to come pre-bundled with so much stuff ready for him to reference at will and at breakneck pace lol. I really enjoy him both as a truly odd duck and a weird and sometimes profoundly insightful thinker, but sheesh. I miss 60% or more sometimes, and he’s also quite prolific.

And so on, and so on (repetitive hand flourishes)

Something that I came up with during the pandemic was to buy, build, and then resell full kits in basically new condition on a site called Bricklink. It’s like eBay for LEGO only, with an insane number of filtering options and seller base (FFS I found kits for sale I played with as a kid lol).

Doesn’t quite work out to “free” and it’s a bit of a hassle, but it solves that problem for me of wanting to enjoy a big involved build, but being a (boringly) sane adult who can’t justify spending hundreds of dollars on tiny plastic (magnificently designed, engineered, and mfg’ed) bricks.

Edit: Check it out lol

What a legend.

Worth mentioning (even though yes the post asks specifically about deaths) - the harm caused is far greater than just the deaths that needn’t have happened.

The amount of chaos and misery inflicted on the suffering as they and their families have to fight the insurance companies while trying to fight whatever illness…these companies make the worst moments of people’s lives much, much worse. The deaths are just the tip of the iceberg, truly.

Ha, you’re right, and our countries are of course more closely linked than maybe I realize. Hope it didn’t sound like I was diminishing your struggles. Cheers and best wishes!

Well, I don’t really mean this as a positive per se, but it’s entirely possible the incoming administration tosses a few crumbs to keep things just simmering (while of course further dismantling everything of any real value). That’s been the playbook for the power brokers for some time. I didn’t mean there was some possibility there’d be any actual good. The incoming folks are essentially the most predatory version of that class of people, I’m under no illusions.

Edit to add: I tentatively reject the idea that your country is not far behind, respectfully. That’s my point. I am fairly sure the differences are bigger than you realize.

It’s been real popular to knock Americans around these parts for a while, I’ve noticed, and we certainly earn our share of it. But I get the sense Europeans don’t quite understand how bad things have gotten here and how truly cornered and out of options many of us feel. Folks are being squeezed past their breaking point.

Impossible to guess exactly when that’ll be true for enough people to cause something dramatic, but any populace has its limit and we seem to be approaching it. I really hope we start heading the other direction soon, but this incoming administration does not make that look likely.

Thompson managed kind of a spinning…well fall, as he fell, does The Adjustor get to incorporate that now?!

I bet that guy is finding sleep elusive.

Hear, hear! There’s nothing* holding the worst back any more, they’ve practically rubbed our fucking faces in it by now. Culminating in the Supreme Court ruling in favor of literal immunity for any presidential action? For real? How is anyone supposed to read that?

Look there’s been a goddamn parade of degradations over the years, but boy. The weird inhuman parasite class sure couldn’t help but take it too far, could they? Couldn’t even just sacrifice one of their own to keep some plausible deniability on normalcy? Well, of course not, they wouldn’t be what they are otherwise, I guess.

* Well. Not nothing…

A critically important piece of our history, yes! The notion of gun control practically at all in this country actually came about because black people organized. Not only did the Black Panthers openly carry while carefully witnessing / observing law enforcement in their community, they also ran many aid programs and focused on the need for education and self-reliance.

And that had to be stopped, and it was.