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How I became a sex offender for 90 minutes!

How I became a sex offender for 90 minutes

Yesterday, my wife, Erin, and I visited East High School in Wichita to attend an IEP/504 plan meeting for my daughter, Alya. Upon signing in, you have to show your driver’s license, which they scan, and I’m sure they keep it on record, although we never consented; if they do, whatever, we have nothing to hide.

When the person at the front desk scanned my driver’s license, she told us, “You have to be escorted through the building.” It took me a few moments to understand what she said, and I responded with, “I, specifically, have to be escorted?”.  She said that I had come up on a “list,” which means a sex offender register, and I thought, what the actual fuck? I think I’d remember being convicted of a sex crime!

Of course, Erin and I disputed this allegation, and the front desk person gave me a person to call. But, in the meantime, we had a meeting to attend, so I accepted being escorted through the building. We have our meeting, and Alya is doing reasonably well in her Freshman year of high school. Flippantly, I said to the people in the meeting, do I have to be escorted out, and what they said shocked me. I was told, “It’s after school hours, so I don’t need to be escorted.” this made zero sense; as we walked out, we passed several dozen students; if I were a sex offender, I would be free to do as I wish, apparently.

Side thought: maybe all school visitors should be escorted through the building, not all sex offenders have been caught and convicted. Everyone is a law-abiding citizen until they are not, as we often hear after every school shooting when questions are asked about how the person got the gun…

But, I digress, I got home and called the number provided, which was for USD259 Safety and Environmental Services, and I spoke to a lady there, and she apologized to me, as it was a mix-up. There happened to be another person on the ‘list” with the same birthdate and name as me, and that’s all the information they use to flag a match. According to the lady, it was a training issue, there were further steps the front desk person had to take to confirm that the match was correct, which were not taken.

It was a shock to hear that I was on a sex offenders ‘list”, but I understand they have to take precautions, and I support this as I have a 15-year-old daughter who attends Wichita Schools. I feel that USD259 needs to better train its staff; this could have been a bad situation; not everyone would have been so passive when being perceived as a sex offender in a public place where anyone could overhear.


Gaza: Endgame — Ethnic Cleansing!

Gaza: Endgame — Ethnic Cleansing

It seems we have come to the end game of the Gaza conflict with Israel, and its ethnic cleansing. President Donald Trump said he planned for the US to take over Gaza and relocate Palestinians to neighboring countries with a view of long-term US ownership over Gaza, and will not rule out sending troops to Gaza to achieve this objective as a gift to Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli extreme right.

The actions of Hamas on October 7, as horrific as it was, do not excuse the actions of Israel, supported by former US President Joe Biden. There are now over 60,000 people dead in Gaza, if we include the missing, presumed dead, or 45,000 confirmed dead. Whatever number you believe, it is unconscionable.

Trump, in a press conference alongside Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, said he wants to “take over the Gaza Strip” and create the “Riviera of the Middle East,” wanting surrounding countries, notably Egypt and Jordan, to take in the up to 1.8 million refugees and provide for them. Meanwhile, the US can develop the waterfront property, likely involving the President’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, using the office of the President to further enrich himself and his family members, corruption at its finest.

And when asked who he envisioned living in Gaza, he said, “the world’s people. I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place.” Trump was asked for clarification on whether Palestinians would be allowed back, and he responded, “And they’ll live there. Palestinians also. Palestinians will live there, many people will live there.” — I’m not convinced by Trump’s words of reassurance.

Force relocation is against international law under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention and is considered a crime against humanity. But Trump and his special buddy, Netanyahu, have made it clear that they have little regard for laws, international or domestic, so that won’t stop them from trying to remove Palestinians from Gaza. The Trump admin is trying to manipulate the situation with statements questioning why Palestinians would want to stay and that they have no alternative but to leave because of the devastation in the Gaza strip, hoping to trigger the one exception of displacement for safety reasons, but this could only be temporary, not long term, and most definitely not permanently.

The reality is that the ICC and the ICJ are toothless. The ICC has an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yet, Netanyahu has traveled to the US several times and even taunted the United Nations, labeling them antisemitic, along with anyone else who disagrees with Israel’s actions, so I guess that I must be antisemitic too. There are even Jewish people that have been labeled as antisemitic, one Senator Bernie Sanders. Calling out Israel does not make a person antisemitic.

We can now stop the debate about this being ethnic cleansing; it’s now crystal clear what Netanyahu wanted, October 7 is just an excuse; this was always a basic land grab, and now Trump wants to get in on the action. So, now what? Will Trump send troops into Gaza to forcibly remove Palestinians, and where would they go? Egypt doesn’t want to take them in, and Jordan doesn’t want to take them in. Maybe the US should take in the 1.8 million Palestinians, build houses for them, and financially support them? That’ll sit well with the MAGA crowd, who famously love immigrants, especially those brown skinned ones.


WPBakery, great plugin, but cash grabbing developers

WPBakery — great plugin, but cash grabbing developers

Back in 2020, I was working with a property with its own website, which I took over management of as part of my employer’s service. After my initial login, I discovered that the website designer who created the website had used a plugin called WPBakery, and after exploring it, I really liked what it had to offer.

I love the plugin so much that I recommended that my employer buy a multi-website license for it to use for future projects. Despite what I will be describing, I still love the plugin’s functionality.

When you purchase a license, or multiple licenses, from the time of purchase, you get a year of ‘support’, which I have never used because, in my view, it’s a plugin that does not need support as it just works.

It was bought as a one-time purchase, with support being an optional extra for those who want it. But the developer behind it is now really seeking to modify the agreement to be a subscription without absolutely denying updates, which would be against the terms of the original lifetime license many purchased.

I claim this because, despite the original set of lifetime licenses being well out of the support period, I could still get regular updates through the WordPress admin area until a recent update, version 8.01. After updating to this version, when I try to update through WordPress, I get a message saying, “Automatically updates for the plugin are available to the clients with a valid support period – you can renew it here. To update manually, visit our customer center to download the latest version.”

I have purchased 6 licenses, and every time I want the latest version, I have to download it from their website and manually upload it via FTP to each of the six websites, which is highly time-consuming. If this is the case, as I have already purchased 6 licenses, have a login, and can download the latest version, why do I need to buy another license? Besides removing the nag screen in the WordPress admin about purchasing a license, the software is fully functional, aside from some AI features I have never used.

Companies have to make money to survive, but this is not the way; modifying the license after purchase just pisses people off, hence why I am writing this blog. Although WPBakery has effectively implemented a soft subscription with a workaround, updates were available through WP admin for years outside the support period; this change happened in the past month. The developer hopes that the inconvenience factor will make website owners pay another $49 per year per domain for support just to simply hit update in the WordPress admin area, and in reality, many probably will; I am not one of those people.

I’m not against a company changing the product for new purchases, as long as the change in terms and conditions is made clear upfront. Based on this information, future purchasers can decide whether to buy, and the free market will determine its fate. However, I object to changing the product features after the customer has already purchased an unlimited license. Technically, it’s still unlimited, but how many will go through all that effort for incremental updates, which are mostly bug fixes, to the software?


Drivers education in Kansas

Drivers education in Kansas

Now that I have children who are able to drive or will be eligible to drive soon, I am truly questioning the value of driver’s education in the State of Kansas. My son is now 20 and has a driver’s license, but despite having his license for over a year, he is in no way ready to actually drive on his own.

He attended driver education at Yost Driving School in Wichita and completed the course, which consisted of eight hours of in-class tuition, a written test, and six hours of driving. If the instructor believes the student is competent, the student will be given a piece of paper, which the student takes to the DMV, and et voila, here’s your driver’s license. In my mind, this is nowhere near enough tuition to drive for many people and nowhere near enough time for my son to be safe on the road by himself.

My son is autistic, not to say all autistic drivers are a liability, however, a year after my son got his license, he still has not driven by himself, needing either myself or my wife alongside him as he does not believe that he is safe to drive without a more experienced driver alongside him. Believing that he is likely to make a mistake that could cause a wreck, this is somewhat true; on a few occasions, we had to tell him to stop as he was about to make a bad mistake. This might just be a lack of confidence, but should he be allowed to drive alone? The Kansas DMV says yes, as they allowed him to drive 13 months ago.

My biggest issue with Yost, or maybe Kansas drivers ed in general is that all my son’s on-the-road driving lessons were between 6 and 8am on Saturday, which, in my view, is not an accurate evaluation of a person’s driving ability. To judge someone’s competence, the lessons must be while traffic is on the road for the student to navigate, which is not the case on surface streets at dawn on the weekend.

Hypothetically, if he were driving by himself, and he got in a wreck due to his lack of confidence or ability to drive, and he kills someone, whose fault is it, Yost, the DMV, or my son? This level of driver’s education and the ease of getting a license certainly explains a lot about the piss poor standard of driving in the state. “You’ve done the bare minimum, off you go into the world of driving and cause carnage.”

Thankfully, my son realizes he is not confident in driving alone, but other drivers who believe they are qualified to drive might be driving alone, causing wrecks because they don’t have enough competence or experience. I think the standards for driver education need to be improved. More hours with an instructor and then sitting a test with a DMV examiner are needed to ensure that a person is competent.

Based on my experience, the test itself needs to be more thorough. My US driving test consisted of about 5—7 minutes in the car, backing out of a parking space, right out of the parking lot, two more rights, four left turns, and finally, another left into the parking lot, pulling into the same space I had vacated. My reaction, after being told I passed, was, “Is that it?” I was shocked at how easy the driving test was.

The bottom line is that a one-size-fits-all driving education system is asking for trouble. One student might be competent to drive in six hours, while another might need much more tuition before being prepared to drive alone. This is why I believe a stringent, much harder-than-my-experience test by a state examiner, not an instructor with a profit motive, is needed to determine whether someone is ready to drive.


The great TikTok publicity stunt

The great TikTok publicity stunt

The TikTok ban kicked in on January 19, 2025, and it was removed from app stores across the United States. Users were greeted with a “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now” message with two options: learn more or close the app, going on to say, “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please Stay Tuned.”

Less than 24 hours later, TikTok was available again with the message “Welcome Back! Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the US!” In my opinion, this is a coordinated effort between the Trump administration and TikTok to try to create support from the youth, making him out to be the guy who saved TikTok, painting the Democrats as the bad guys, despite bipartisan agreement in Congress, and being upheld by the conservative super majority SCOTUS.

Let’s be clear: TikTok did not have to close down the service, and people with the app installed could still use it until an update was required. It was TikTok themselves who decided to stop people from using the app, pushing the notification above to its 170 million US users. This was not a legal requirement, and it looks like it could have backfired, as many users uninstalled the app, thinking it was banned.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending the deadline for TikTok to be sold by 75 days on inauguration day, touting a 50/50 US/Chinese owned solution, which might not satisfy the law, as Bytedance has to divest from TikTok’s US operations. However, several days have passed, and TikTok is still unavailable for download or updating on the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. I guess they believe that an act of Congress and a US Supreme Court ruling ‘trumps’ an executive order.

Trump may instruct his Justice Department not to enforce the ban, but companies like Google and Apple could still face penalties later if they allow the app back in their stores. Despite non-enforcement, TikTok will still be illegal, as the law was passed by Congress and signed into law by former President Biden.

Also, let’s not forget that Donald Trump started this whole thought process in 2020 during his first term, going as far as signing an executive order banning TikTok in the United States. He wanted to ban TikTok for the same reason Congress passed legislation in 2024: Chinese owned TikTok is a national security risk.

I personally don’t have a dog in the fight. I have never used TikTok and will never use it. However, I do not like the idea that any country’s government can force the sale of a business because it does not like the nationality of the current ownership in order for it to continue operating in said country.


Sandy Hook: 12 years on, and nothing has changed!

Sandy Hook: 12 years on, and nothing has changed!

Yesterday marked the 12th anniversary of the horrific mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT, that ended the lives of 26 people, including 20 children under the age of 7, and despite the initial outrage, nothing has changed in the past dozen years. There have literally been dozens more mass school shootings since Sandy Hook, and all we get from our Congresspeople are thoughts and prayers. Sadly, we forget all too soon after one of these mass shootings until the next one, and we feel the rage once more; it has just become normal; kids being gunned down in school should never be normal.

When Sandy Hook happened, I had been in the US for just 4 years, and it was the first mass school shooting I remember, maybe because it was an elementary school, and I had two kids of elementary school age. I thought, watching the coverage, that surely our Congresspeople would be forced into taking action and creating meaningful gun regulation, but no, thoughts and prayers are all that were offered.

And why would these politicians not want to do anything to protect our kids? Well, the answer is simple, the gun lobby has deep pockets to buy as many politicians as they need to continue to sell assault rifles, which are used in the vast majority of mass shootings, in schools or otherwise. Citing the 2nd amendment, ”The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Leaving out the “Well-regulated militia, which is necessary for the security of a free state.” Gun advocates will always cite the Supreme Court, which basically separates the two statements with the OR operator. In contrast, Anti-gun people, myself included, believe that the prefatory and operative clauses are written as one declaration. In modern terms, I think this refers to the US Military, or state military, commonly known as the National Guard. So, any Tom, Dick, or Harry does not have an absolute right to possess a firearm.

Whether you are pro-gun or anti-gun, I’m pretty sure that the intention of the founders was not to have our children gunned down in a place of education using close to military-grade weapons. Even if you believe an individual has the right to bear arms, that does not mean that this right is unlimited and cannot be regulated, for example, by banning individuals from owning assault weapons, which is what the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation is pushing for. In fact, such a ban was passed in 1994 under the Bill Clinton administration but was allowed to expire in 2004 under the George W Bush administration.

Because of the way that the US allows our congresspeople to be legally bribed, big money interests, including the gun manufacturers, have captured Congress; even if every American signed the Sandy Hook Promise petition, nothing would change. The only way to force change is to make politicians on the state and federal levels fear being voted out and actually represent their constituents, but the reality is that the people are not willing to hold their elected officials accountable, so what incentive do politicians have to follow the will of the people, not just on this issue, but a multitude of issues faced by everyday Americans.

The solution is not to have more guns; it’s a myth that having a good guy with a gun will prevent school shootings; the reality is that only 1.2% of all active shooter situations were ended by an armed bystander. In Uvalde, there were literally dozens of “good guys with a gun” outside the school while 21 teachers and students were murdered. Also, 75% of teachers do not wish to be armed and do not believe that firearms have a place in schools. Mental health is a prominent issue, and given that anyone could have undiagnosed mental health issues, including teachers and school resource officers, heaven forbid we hire veterans, especially those who saw combat and have returned to the United States with PTSD.

The only thing that hasn’t been blamed is the sheer number of guns in the US, estimated to be over 500 million in a country of 345 million people. Mental health is commonly used as a scapegoat by politicians to deflect from the real problem of the US swimming in firearms, that’s 1.5 guns per person. And it is just to deflect, look over there, nothing to see here, as little is done to address the mental health epidemic.

Yesterday on the 12th anniversary of the Sandy Hook massacre, outgoing President Joe Biden called on Congress to act on gun reform legislation. Talk is cheap; in his 4 years as president, he has never done anything other than offer words; he is bought by the same monied interests as Congress. As President, he has the ultimate bully pulpit but has done little except offer words when a shooting happens and has quickly moved on after the news cycle ends and people return to their lives, no longer paying attention.


Politically, I’m not as far left as I thought!

Politically, I'm not as far left as I thought!

This afternoon, I read the following Bluesky post by John Iadarola of The Young Turks, who I generally agree with, but on this occasion, I vehemently disagree with him. The point is that it reminded me that in recent years, I have realized that I am center left, not firmly entrenched on the left, as I had previously thought. I realized this during the 2016 and 2020 Democratic primary elections, listening to some of Bernie Sanders’ ideas of what he’d like to do if he became president, which he ultimately failed to do.

Income over $1 billion should be taxed at 100%.

This is not remotely controversial, nor extreme.

— John Iadarola (@johniadarola.bsky.social) December 6, 2024 at 7:24 PM

First, I will address John’s skeet. I believe we need a complete overhaul of the US tax system, eliminating the tax loopholes that the wealthy take advantage of and ending tax breaks and subsidies to multi-billion dollar corporations. I want a fair and equitable system where everyone pays their share. Obviously, we have to consider the super low income, with a lower tax rate, but for most people, have a flat tax rate that everyone pays, so the more you earn, the more you contribute to the system. I don’t believe we should punish people for doing better for themselves, earning millions or even billions of dollars annually. Although John didn’t say this, I understand it will be a marginal tax, not 100% of the entire $1 billion.

One of Bernie Sanders‘ proposals I disagree with is a wealth tax. This wealth tax would tax people on their existing wealth, that has already been earned. Under Sanders’ plan, the logic is to tax a person’s wealth annually until it falls under the government’s arbitrary threshold, starting at $32 million.

Another proposal that Sanders had was free college for all. I believe that college must be accessible to all, but a means-tested system should exist. If you come from a wealthy family, why should taxpayers 100% subsidize your education? The linked page above covers student loan cancellation. First, I think we need to stop the predatory loan system. Then, if a person has already paid 125% of the original loan amount, I believe that should be forgiven; a 25% return on the loan amount is more than generous.

Don’t get me wrong; I liked a lot of Bernie’s messaging over the years, but some of what he proposed went too far into socialism. Most people believe that the wealthy and corporations need to pay more taxes to fund social programs, and we can do that without going to extremes. There has to be a good balance between capitalism and socialism. Other countries have found that balance; why can’t the US?

I have even heard people on the left claim that housing is a human right and should be free. This is absolutely absurd; yes, we need to find a solution to ever-increasing housing costs, maybe a socialized housing program where the government builds housing to rent to qualified people instead of relying on the private sector for housing, asking owners/landlords to lower their rentals’ prices. If the price is genuinely too high, the free market will dictate prices, as units will remain unleased, forcing a price drop.

US healthcare clearly needs a massive overhaul. The recent murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the lack of empathy from the masses have proven how angry the citizenry is with the current profit-driven healthcare system. The US needs socialized healthcare, where everyone pays into the system via taxation. The system is already in place for those aged 65+; it’s called Medicare, and most pay into it every paycheck, but may never see the benefit should they not make it to 65 years old.

Bernie Sanders pushed the idea of expanding Medicare to cover everyone during his presidential election campaigns and continues to do so today. Most countries have a socialized healthcare system. In my home country, the UK, we call it the NHS (National Health Service), and it is not perfect, but no one will ever walk out with a bill, unlike the US, where medical treatment can be financially ruinous.

For any of this to happen, we need to ditch Citizens United, which allows corporations and the wealthy to funnel billions of dollars into our political system. Congresspeople will say that the money does not affect how they vote, and I call bullshit. The wealthy don’t give vast amounts of cash to politicians out of the goodness of their hearts; it’s an investment, and they want a return on that investment.

Money in politics has created massive inequality in the US, shifting the tax burden from the wealthy to the middle or working class. Until this changes, nothing will ever change because, except for a few Congresspeople, our elected officials are not looking out for the interests of the average American.

I wonder how these Congresspeople get reelected term after term when most constituents know their interests are not being represented. Is it simply a case of xASSHOLEx Congressperson hating the same things as them,  for example, women’s rights, non-Caucasians, the LGBTQ community, and undocumented immigrants. But, whatever the reason, they are 100% voting against their own interests.

The Republicans like to brand the Democrats as socialists or communists, and the extreme left certainly does seem to want this sort of system; I do not. I think a hybrid capitalist-socialist system is the best for everyone and can work well. I used to believe I was further left, but where the left is at the moment, I definitely consider myself to be center-left, and an independent, not aligning with any party’s ethos.


My thoughts on the Google Pixel Tablet

My thoughts on the Google Pixel Tablet

After 10 years of use, the time has come to replace my Surface Pro 3. Over time, it has become slower and slower, no matter how many times I reset or clean-install Windows. About a year ago, the internal Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card started to work intermittently, so I replaced it with a cheap Wi-Fi USB dongle, taking advantage of the built-in USB A port. And in the last six weeks, the screen has started to delaminate from the tablet body. This is why I decided to get the Pixel tablet; a PC tablet was unnecessary for my use case.

I purchased the Pixel Tablet + speaker dock during Google’s annual Black Friday sale for $439 before tax. I wanted the 128GB version with the dock, but Google only offered the 256GB version with the dock during the sale, which is more than I need. I use the tablet on my bedroom side table as a screen to consume media and the occasional web browsing session, so I won’t be filling it with games, photos, or videos.

I believe an Android tablet is better for my video-streaming use case. Most streaming services do not have an app for the Windows store. My only option on the Surface tablet was to stream via a browser, which was a poor experience, with significant buffering and straight-up generic ‘something went wrong’ errors. Every streaming service has an app for Android (and Apple if that’s your flavor), which works much better than via a browser; I have had no streaming issues in the week I have owned the Pixel Tablet.

The Pixel’s sound is significantly improved over the Surface, especially when docked. The speaker dock has a much better bass response, although it could have been better in the mids and high frequencies; maybe adding a tweeter would have created a better overall sound. The Pixel Tablet itself has better sound than the Surface, with two ‘holes’ on each side where the sound comes from, and when putting my ear up to each speaker hole, the lower set of speakers has a lower frequency, while the upper set of speaker holes cover the higher frequencies. I don’t know what’s inside the tablet or dock regarding physical speakers, as I have obviously not pulled the tablet or dock apart; all the above is subjective.

The screen is fine, not anything amazing; this is one area where the decade-old Surface Pro 3 screen appears better and gets brighter. According to the specs, the screen size is 10.95 inches, an inch smaller than the Surface tablet. The Pixel has more pixels, with a resolution of 2560×1600, compared to the Surface’s 2160×1440; both have a 60hz refresh rate and a 16:10 aspect ratio. I would prefer a 16:9 ratio for my use case as no media is presented in 16:10; a 16:9 screen would allow content to fill the screen without black bars, but the same is true of the Surface Pro 3, so it’s a minor gripe, comparing like for like.

I like the docking mode. When set up appropriately, when not in active use, it will display a dock screensaver, which I have set up to display the time and weather with a graphical representation of the weather. However, when the lights are out at night, it becomes a black screen with a white clock display.

I hate the fingerprint reader setup, and I feel it’s unnecessary. It makes sense on the phone, as you are more likely to misplace a phone than a tablet, and security is more important. Also, the implementation on Pixel phones is better, either under the screen or on the back of the device. Maybe I would like it better if the Pixel Tablet fingerprint reader was on the back instead of the top of the bezel.

This is more than likely a YouTube app issue, but sometimes, when consuming a video in full screen and an advert is inserted, the video gets pulled out of full-screen mode, which means, in addition to skipping the advert, I have to make an extra screen touch to get back to full screen. This was never an issue on the Surface tablet using the browser version of YouTube. As I write this, this has me thinking maybe I should stop using the YouTube app and use the built-in Chrome browser to consume YouTube.

The bottom line for me is that if my Surface Pro tablet was not on its last legs, would I have bought the Pixel Tablet? No, but as a replacement, it’s fine. It does what I need it to do, which is all that matters, and hopefully, it will last another decade before I have to replace it, even if updates stop after 3 years.


If Medicare-4-All existed, the United Healthcare CEO would be alive!

Claim denial rates by insurance company by Lending Tree

Wednesday morning, the United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot outside the Hilton Midtown, where he was attending an investors conference that United Health Group, the parent company of United Healthcare, was scheduled to host on Wednesday at the hotel. I definitely don’t condone cold-blooded murder, but I understand why someone would want to commit such an act.

The title of this blog is very accurate; if America had a socialized healthcare model for all Americans, companies like United Healthcare would never have existed. Instead, these medical insurance companies have bought the government at local and federal levels to keep the system the same and continue to put profits over people’s health, systematically denying claims, prescription coverage, and huge deductibles.

How many people had to go into debt to pay out of pocket for essential healthcare. How many have died or had adverse health outcomes because they were denied treatment due to insurance companies denying coverage. Their policyholders pay hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars monthly for their health plan, only for insurance companies to deny claims, leaving customers with a substantial medical bill.

United Healthcare tops the denial rate charts with a whopping 32% denial rate, literally double the national average of 16%, which in itself is too damn high. My wife has Medicaid as she is disabled and has United Healthcare, and my health insurance company, Aetna, forced on me by my workplace, is worse than the national average, too, with a 20% denial rate, along with a deductible I will never meet!

This morning, Erin received a letter from United Healthcare denying her pain medication coverage. Of course, it was denied after careful consideration (sarcasm). Luckily, it’s relatively inexpensive when combined with a GoodRX prescription card. Other times, when picking up a 30-day supply prescription, the pharmacist says that insurance will only cover seven pills, and if it were not for GoodRX, that’d be hundreds of dollars out of our pockets, and unlike Brian, we don’t have deep pockets to dig into.

Another trick they use is ‘preauthorization,’ which delays patients getting their medication and often forces people to pay out of pocket, as they cannot wait for the sometimes weeks it takes for doctors to write to insurance companies to explain why the patient needs the medication, which will often lead to the aforementioned ‘after careful consideration’ denial letter, often for low-cost generic drugs. I guess doctors don’t know what a patient needs, and men in suits decide which medications we should have.

In addition, United Healthcare uses AI to decide which Medicare Advantage policyholders get covered and who doesn’t. For those who don’t know, Medicare is for Aged 65+ healthcare; how many grandmas and grandpas have died to line the pockets of people like Brian Thompson? United Healthcare has allegedly profited from this automated system since 2019 and has a crazy 90% error rate, according to a lawsuit.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA, colloquially known as Obamacare) is better than what we had before, but it was another handout to insurance companies after the public option was voted down in Congress. People were forced to get insurance or pay a tax penalty if they chose not to have insurance, although the individual mandate was eventually ruled unlawful during Trump’s first term. The cost has been ever-increasing. Before Erin was ruled disabled, she had an ACA plan, and we paid $240 monthly, with the government picking up over $1,300, that’s $1,500 monthly going to insurance companies.

For those reading outside of the US, you may well be asking, “Aren’t these companies regulated?” The simple answer is barely. In the US, money is speech, and corporations are people, so they can use their free speech to buy politicians and regulators. Those bureaucrats do their bidding in Congress, voting to weaken regulation. This is not partisan; both sides take bribes, so most votes will be a formality.


My thoughts on the US election

My thoughts on the US election

Where to start? Well, the Democrats and Kamala Harris clearly cannot read the room that is the US electorate. It started well after President Joe Biden finally removed himself as the Democratic candidate. Harris started out with a somewhat economic populist message and announced Tim Walz as her running mate. The polls showed a significant rise in her popularity, only to stop talking about that populist message, locking Tim Walz in the basement with Joe Biden, and switching back to the typical pro-corporate talking points and Trump fear-mongering, which anyone with eyes could see is the wrong path.

Harris started by saying she would clamp down on price gouging on food and groceries, giving the FTC new powers to come down hard on companies who use such tactics to increase their profits. She claimed she would create a $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers and a tax break to incentivize home builders to develop affordable housing. Harris also claimed that she would increase the child tax credit, including a $6,000 credit in the first year of a child’s life, and increase the number of drugs that Medicare could negotiate pricing on. All these things are popular and would help the average American.

But, she soon switched back to her corporatist roots, having corporate surrogates all over TV, dismissing Harris’ claim that she would do the things she promised, reassuring the top 10%’ers that they would still be able to profit at the cost of the average American. And moving back to the Trump will end democracy rhetoric, which is clearly the wrong message when people are struggling to pay their rent or mortgage, wondering where their next meal is coming from, or whether they can afford to put gas in their car. The Harris’ campaign dismissal of anti-war, Palestinian rights protestors didn’t help their situation either.

I cannot stand Trump, but his faux-populist message resonated with people, and it cost Harris big time; Democrats will say that Americans still have racial and misogynistic bias’ and that’s true to an extent, but the reality is that the Harris campaign relied on fear-mongering too much, that she lost all the base and independents. The Harris campaign’s message failed to resonate so severely that she lost all the battleground states, including all the blue wall states, and the popular vote. She is the first Democratic candidate to lose the popular vote since 2004. It’s evident that significant changes need to happen in the Democratic party; the question is, will any lessons be learned from this election? I severely doubt it!

Because Democrats have been deaf to what Americans want, Trump has the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, which means more tax breaks for the wealthy, increasing the deficit. Bad news for undocumented immigrants with Trump promising mass deportations, and if he follows through with 25—35% tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada, that’ll likely tank the economy. Trump has appointed Elon Musk as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which has promised to eliminate $2 trillion from the government budget. We could start with the defense budget, but it will be programs that regulate businesses and social programs that help middle and working-class Americans.

From reading social media, there seems to be a big misunderstanding of how tariffs work; ultimately, it’s not China, Mexico, and Canada that pay for it; it will be Americans; you can expect your retail prices to increase 25—35%. There will likely be retaliatory tariffs on American products, and America does not make anything you cannot get elsewhere, so it will likely hit exports. The US does not have the infrastructure to replace everything from Mexico, Canada, and most notably China. The US has been happy to allow cheap imports from China for decades, and more and more manufacturing jobs have disappeared from the US. It’s not even a tactical decision to increase American-made products as little is made here anymore, including all the Trump merch that his rabid base buys up; it’s all made in China.

My hope is that there will be a few adults in the room who will stop Trump from doing things that will destroy the United States. This may not be the case this time, as the US Supreme Court has ruled that a president is above the law while in office, and Trump has nominated many loyalists to his cabinet. I guess it’s a case of suck it and see, and hope that the sucker is not laced with poison.