He will not be missed.

[634-5789]

I personally had a several-thousand-dollar fight with his shit show of benefit denial.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. He may not be missed by you,

but his family will surely miss him.
I find this celebrating of his assassination on DU quite disturbing.
If we celebrate this, then how are we any better than the MAGAt's who celebrate the death of those on our side of the issues?

[John Shaft]

2. Hey driver

a lot of people think it's "picking sides" times, and people are frustrated, with good reason.

It's palpable out there. That event yesterday probably acted like a bat signal to every single Lee Harvey motherfucker out there.

I don't see it as celebration, it's survival in a lawless land, not a preening "OH! Look how virtuous I am!" stance. The solace of "rising above" is not the coin of the realm in a country that is not constrained by truth, morality, decency, or the rule of law.

You can't worry about niceties when dealing with immoral, lawless folk. A criminal gaggle of literal rapists, scam artists, insurrectionists, traitors, and drunks are about to have complete control.

[Hotler]

19. +1 nt

[berksdem]

67. Fing well said!! (n/t)

[Conjuay]

83. NEWSFLASH: after a three week stay in the hospital

For a problem CREATED BY THE INSURANCE COMPANY by refusing to approve an expensive prescription, my son had our G.P. and two specialists tell him POINT BLANK he almost died. The insurance company kept trying to move him onto medications that had already proved ineffective, or ones he had already developed a tolerance to. I watched a twenty-six year old man nearly die because the remedy was 'too expensive'. That was Blue Cross of Florida.
Personally,. I wish the shooter followed him into the share holders meeting and then opened up. NO SYMPATHY FOR ANY OF THESE BASTARDS, THEY SHOULD ALL DIE. Go ahead throw me out of there for saying it. I'ma not going to be bullied into being a polite, good boy. NO MORE Billionaire bullshit.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

95. Aww,

We Hardly Knew Ye.

[Emile]

9. This appears to be the new justice system.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

11. Quite sadly, it does appear that way

and I grieve for our nation if this becomes the norm.

[Xoan]

85. IN WAR ...

PEOPLE DIE.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

93. No shit!!!

You think I don't know this?

[eppur_se_muova]

21. Alternative facts have finally brought alternative justice in their wake. nt

[BigMin28]

13. The investor conference

He was to attend went ahead as scheduled. Even started on time. These people are ghouls.
While I wish no harm to anyone, people such as Mr. Thompson seem to go out of their way to make people suffer. Just to save the company a buck. They don't view us as human beings worthy of dignity.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

18. I see, so...............we are to become them?

[radicalleft]

29. Care to speculate how many people he killed

with his policies?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

30. Care to answer my question?

[radicalleft]

33. Sure...

People like him have killed hundreds if not thousands of your fellow citizens. We have been asking (demanding) for literal decades to change the health care system in this country. It has fallen on deaf ears bought and paid for by the vultures on Wall Street. If an act like this one is the catalyst that can drive change, then so be it. I will lose no sleep over the murder of this man. And as far as his family is concerned...what makes them any different than the families of those that this man has brought grief and misery to in his quest to increase shareholder value?

What we as a populace have been doing to drive change is not working (as evidenced by this last election cycle). I know that we here on DU loathe the mantra of "The Tree of Liberty" shtick, but maybe, just maybe that is a concept liberals might need to learn to embrace if we want to protect our futures...

[MarineCombatEngineer]

34. So applauding his assassination is ok by you and many others here on DU?

Got it, we become like them.

[radicalleft]

35. Keep posting the head bang emoji

Might change some minds.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

37. Keep grave dancing,

that's what some here seem to be celebrating.

[Littlered]

65. I'm fine with that.

Turning the cheek and endlessly suffering is great if you are a Cristian I suppose. I’m not. And I don’t care. I’m all out of fucks to give for people like him.

[TomSlick]

90. If it helps; and there's no reason it should, I agree with you.

I am not terrible moved by this ghoul's death but neither do I celebrate it or accept it as some form of vigilante justice.

[Lulu KC]

53. The meeting was stopped shortly after starting

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) abruptly canceled its Investor Day presentation shortly after it began this morning following media reports that the CEO of its insurance unit had been fatally shot.

Brian Thompson, who had led UNH's insurance segment since 2021, was shot in midtown Manhattan around 6:45 am Eastern Time on Wednesday morning, according to CNBC. He was transported to a local hospital in critical condition but was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

UNH's Investor Day presentation had begun at 8:00 am Eastern Time in New York City, but quickly came to a close.

https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/stocks/unitedhealth-cancels-investor-day-after-executive-brian-thompson-is-shot

[Alice B.]

64. Wow. Just wow.

That is all.

[Happy Hoosier]

32. I do have a hard time feeling a great deal of sympathy.

Two and half years ago, I had to fight UHC tooth and nail to cover treatment for my daughter that was CLEARLY covered under my policy. I eventually won that battle, but it took HOURS and DAYS and I was filled with anguish the entire time, trying to figure how what we would do if it were denied.

Meanwhile, he's raking in $10 million a year extracted from the misery and pain of others, and THAT is what makes us different from the MAGAt's. We want LESS suffering overall. We want fewer ultra-wealthy people feasting on the carcasses of the peons.

I don't advocate for murders such as this. But I don't shed a tear either. These people are vampires, sucking the life out of the less fortunate for their own enrichment. TEN MILLION DOLLARS a YEAR! It's disgusting.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

36. I don't lose any sleep over his demise,

what I find putrid is the outright grave dancing and celebration of his assassination here on a liberal/progressive website, I truly thought that we were better than this, but, for some, apparently I was wrong.

[Happy Hoosier]

39. Better how?

I don't know if you've noticed, but we're losing. The bad guys want MORE of this. And I will ABSOLUTELY grave dance when bad people die. It's not that I think people should go out and kill people like him. I don't. But you can only predate people for so long before their no longer able to take it. The French Revolution happened when the people of France had finally had enough of the ultra-wealthy treating them as cattle to feat upon at their discretion. People like the dea man here are the same. You think he loses a single minute of sleep thinking about the thousands he condemsn to substandard medical care to make sure that HE gets rich?

It's not a suprise to me that some are pushed beyond the normal limits of civil society. I'd like to think that it would give these parasites some pause and reconsider they sociopathic policies, but they'll probably just hire more security.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

41. Ok, I got it,

grave dancing and celebrating the assassination of someone we disagree with is now acceptable on DU.

[Blue_Roses]

58. No, it's not acceptable

and I don't like grave-dancing either. The whole thing is so disturbing. From the denial of legitimate claims to the killing of Thompson. It should never get to that point of so much frustration that one snaps, but it happens all too often. And I get it. I can understand how someone can only take so much until they snap.

The guy had two sons in high school and a wife. My heart goes out to them.

[CrispyQ]

60. My heart doesn't go out too badly for them.

They'll be well provided for, I'm sure, unlike the thousands of people who were denied care when the company decided it was too expensive, but still their survivors were left with a pile of medical debt.

[Happy Hoosier]

68. Checked the rules... there are no rules against grave-dancing.

If you are disturbed, I suggest you avoid such threads. Some of us are angry. VERY angry. And even if we wouldn't advocate violence, a little Karma can never-the-less be satisfying.

Again... this man was responsible for the deaths of MANY people and the financial ruin of so many more.

And sure, he had a family. Monsters often do. $10 million a year and a $43 million net worth extracted from the misery of others means his family can get a LOT of grief counseling. And no doubt, they are surrounded by people telling them that their parasitic lives are perfectly moral.

[Blue_Roses]

71. I wasn't implying

DU. I was generalizing. My mom was a nurse, so I guess I just was brought up with southern hospitality. Doesn't mean I condone it. I understand the anger and I have been down this road with being denied too.

[Happy Hoosier]

72. Gotcha.

I don't mean to suggest people SHOULD celebrate or grave dance. If that's not you, by all means do not participate.

Many of us do feel that it was a FAFO moment, even if we don't advocate for such violence (and I do not).

[Happy Hoosier]

69. FFS, it's not about disagreement and I think you KNOW that.

It's about real, actual harm being caused. If I hadn't won against them, I would have been financially ruined. Because I WOULD have paid for the treatment my daughter got. It saved her. But he would have been delighted to deny me so he could affors another vacation home.

Can you see this isn;t about disagreement but actual harm? If you can, we can just agree to disagree, but you are strawmanning me.

[spooky3]

59. We don't really know why he was shot. Could have been

A jealous man interested in Thompson’s wife. Could have been some hired by the wife so she could collect life insurance fraudulently. There are plenty of Dateline episodes with that type of plot line.

[LeftInTX]

91. There is no evidence that this gen-z killer had claims denied.

He likely did this because of some anti-corporate ideology.

Should all insurance CEOs be murdered? What happens after we murder one? Do we also murder Thompson's replacement? His murder is not going to stop this.

I don't know the answer, but I don't think murdering people is gonna solve it unless, it's a revolution like the Russian Revolution.

[AKwannabe]

63. I feel ya to an extent

Will you be happy or upset at the grave dance for tRump?

Cuz for tRump I am gonna dance for days.

This one gives me the Mona Lisa smile…

“Deny, defend, depose”.
32%
Those investors were about to give him a raise probably for deny, defend, depose.

Evil was done, to deal with evil!

[ThePartyThatListens]

82. There's a thing called "fed up" and "had enough"

This is what you're witnessing.

People have had enough.

If you can't see that, I don't know what to tell you.

[edhopper]

38. The families of mob bosses, warlords and serial killers

also miss them. I shed no tears for them or these assholes.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

40. I don't lose any sleep,

but what I find quite putrid is the celebration of an assassination of someone we disagree with.
Is this who we want to become?
Are we to now become like the MAGAt's we revile?
If so, then we, as Democrat, are lost and I fear the future of our party and country.

[ck4829]

44. "Someone we disagree with"

A disagreement?

Nobody is celebrating the assassination of someone saying "I like country music" or "I love pineapple on my pizza"

This joke of a healthcare system leads to otherwise-preventable death and financial ruin.

I have been writing on a board for it for two years here on DU:
https://democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1033

And he benefited directly from the things in there; the more of those problems, the better for him.

Al Qaeda and ISIS could take notes on what the health insurance industry does to people.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

45. So I'll put you in the column of approving this assassination?

You just proved my point.

[mountain grammy]

48. I watched a red district in CO elect a Democrat in 2008

Last edited Sun Dec 8, 2024, 08:43 PM - Edit history (1)

She supported and voted for the Affordable Care Act. In 2010 she was replaced by Ken Buck who went on to serve until he quit last year and voted to repeal the ACA even as rural hospitals in his district were thriving with the expansion of Medicaid.

One third of voting eligible citizens do not think it's important to vote and the majority who are voing just voted for the GOP who will do nothing to fix the system and make what we have worse.

All Democrats should run on nothing but universal health care. Everyday, in every way, pound it into their thick skulls.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

52. +100. nt

[edhopper]

70. What do we "disagree" with?

That people who have insurance shouldn't die because bastards like this deny them treatment.

That is more than a disagreement, that is murder.

[akbacchus_BC]

57. Stop being so puritanical! Consider it as a cop shooting an innocent black man or a black woman in her home!

Dems need tp grow a thicker skin and stop being apologists all the darn time. Yes, he will be missed by his family and friends but it is nothing in comparison to the 32% of the families he fucked over. After J6 and the anti-christ being the incumbent resident of the White House and all his rapists, crooks and liars he is nominating to disseminate the US/world and to persecute his (in his psychopathic brain and cockroach mentality) so-called enemies, I am not sorry. Gotta fight fire with fire and I don't believe in an eye for an eye, makes the whole world blind. Magas don't play by those cliches, instead they stormed the Capitol (a sacred place of law), killed Cops, defecate on a sacred place, etc., Need I go on? Those Cops have families and friends too along with the Cops who took their lives. I am immune to criminals getting killed. Your tagline says a lot. I am not attacking you but am sick and tired of the double standards.

[BannonsLiver]

76. Well if you find the sentiment here disturbing

I’d advise against going on mainstream social media where people are showing pictures of dead loved ones who were denied coverage by this company. Lots of stories about dying parents spending their last good days on the phone pleading with this company to cover their medical care. None of these people seem very sad that he is dead. Hard to blame them, frankly,

[Woodwizard]

78. Yes his family will

Just like the families of people that were denied care and died.

Has nothing to do about sides I don't think politics plays a reason in denying care profit driven health care screws everyone.

This country is headed for a breaking point and private insurance is keeping the common person down.

I feel real lucky I have the VA but this coming administration will do its best to fuck that up too.

If this rattles and scares over compensated CEO's good.

I certainly do not condone what happened but I have about the same level of feeling as when I got the news Fred Phelps died.

[Groundhawg]

79. It's barbaric is what it is.

[Skittles]

87. thank you

WTF is going on

[valleyrogue]

92. He wasn't "assassinated." He was murdered.

Assassinations refer to those murdered who are political figures. This guy, as loathsome as he may have been, was not a political figure. JFK, RFK, Lincoln, McKinley, Long, MLK, etc., were political figures.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

94. BS!!!!

Assassinations are murder.
Assassinations aren't just political figures, that's bullshit, when the Mafia went crazy and killed those they thought were a danger to their criminal enterprises, that was deemed as "assassinations" by all LEA's.

Your post falls flat.

[AltairIV]

3. Do not confuse celebrating with just not giving a shit.

His death is tragic, but I have "closer to home" issues that need attention. Feigning tears for a wealthy CEO, while Republicans continue to block any meaningful gun control, is just not something I care to waste my time with.

[lostnfound]

4. Y'all are going to get DU declared a terrorist organization if you keep this up

I understand that people are FURIOUS — seething, in fact — over how atrocious the insurance companies are treating their customers. I personally get $5000 medicine denied all the time, and everyone i know gets outrageous answers.

HOWEVER,
1) climbing corporate guys are playing the system which is reinforced every day of their lives, and if they don’t climb into the seat, someone else will anyway. WallStreet is a voracious alien monster singularly focused on net profit and growth, net. profit and growth, net profit and growth..
2) Refusing to work for insurance companies doesn’t solve any problem because we have entire college programs set up to replace the next executive-would-be who turns down the job.
3) He has kids, a wife, probably parents and siblings, and lots of people no doubt very grief-stricken — yes, the same as all the people who die needlessly because of denials
4) There shouldn’t even BE health insurance companies, we should have single payer
5) DON’T make DU look like grave-dancing assholes.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

7. THANK YOU!!!

The grave dancing and celebration of this man's assassination on DU is quite disturbing to me.
This man had a wife and kids who will miss him and the some of the comments here are unbelievable to me on a web site I thought was dedicated to the rule of law, compassion, etc..
Where are we, as a liberal/progressive site, headed for?
Are we going to become a mirror of Repukes celebrating the assassination of someone?
I thought we were better than this, but, for some here, apparently not.

[lostnfound]

10. Humanity should not be thrown away. Additionally, some say the shooter appeared to be a professional

Which opens up other possibilities. Less likely — the motives may have been more complicated.

The casings say ‘deny’ ‘defend’ and ‘depose’. At first thought, would this mean deny and defend actions, and ’deposed’ like a king is deposed or toppled. But maybe it is like a deposition, which is to give evidence.

But if there is a 2nd CEO assassinated in plain sight, a different plot may exist. I am curious, did Putin have CEO’s killed when he built his oligarchy? Does killing one warn a thousand? If he is a professional, yet dropped a water bottle and energy bar wrapper and shell casings (intentionally, i bet, since they were labeled that way), then fingerprints could tie someone to the crime that is a useful fake villain.

No matter what, i feel deeply sorry for his family and friends, for any lives cut short. His children are probably at a terrible age for losing a father.

Most industries have a dark side, some have a very dark side, but i don’t judge anybody for working in them. Most people have a dark side, and mostly we humans don’t know what we are capable of or not capable of, for good or bad, until being tested. Could this man have stood up against the machine in which he built his career? I think people overestimate the freedom of CEOs, and i was told once, if you remove your finger from a cup of water, it just fills in as if you were never there.

[BannonsLiver]

86. The words on the shells are from a book about how corrupt the HC industry is.

There’s no real need to speculate what they mean as it is quite obvious.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. .

1) climbing corporate guys are playing the system which is reinforced every day of their lives, and if they don’t climb into the seat, someone else will anyway.

Folks driving trains to Nazi camps said the same thing.

WallStreet is a voracious alien monster singularly focused on net profit and growth, net. profit and growth, net profit and growth..

It's not an alien monster. It's a system staffed by people who make decisions to uphold it and strengthen it every day.

2) Refusing to work for insurance companies doesn’t solve any problem because we have entire college programs set up to replace the next executive-would-be who turns down the job.

Yes, we know, there are entire programs designed to uphold the system described above -- also staffed by people who teach other people to make amoral decisions using the very same logic you are here.

3) He has kids, a wife, probably parents and siblings, and lots of people no doubt very grief-stricken — yes, the same as all the people who die needlessly because of denials

No one has to mourn anyone. People are free to feel their own feelings

4) There shouldn’t even BE health insurance companies, we should have single payer

Well sure! But here we are.

5) DON’T make DU look like grave-dancing assholes.

Eh, it happens.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

12. +1,000

[akbacchus_BC]

73. Well said! DU cannot and will not be remotely classified as a terrorist organisation. A group of like minded

people sharing news and their opinions on politics and other topics is not terrorism.

[AverageOldGuy]

23. "DON'T make DU look like grave-dancing assholes"

So . . . What do we do when Trump dies?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

25. We move on and fix the damage he's done to our democracy,

instead of wasting time over gloating over his demise.

[progressoid]

75. Nah, fuck that.

I'm grave dancing.

[BannonsLiver]

77. lol

🙄

[ck4829]

31. 1 and 2 are in stark contrast with 4

We don't have
4) There shouldn’t even BE health insurance companies, we should have single payer

Because we have

1) climbing corporate guys are playing the system which is reinforced every day of their lives, and if they don’t climb into the seat, someone else will anyway. WallStreet is a voracious alien monster singularly focused on net profit and growth, net. profit and growth, net profit and growth.

and

2) Refusing to work for insurance companies doesn’t solve any problem because we have entire college programs set up to replace the next executive-would-be who turns down the job.

[onecaliberal]

42. Killing people for a living is dangerous work. Actions have consequences.

[Moostache]

66. I agree with at least this much:

4) There shouldn’t even BE health insurance companies, we should have single payer

100% truth... the fact that we have a massive portion of our entire economic system tied up in the pursuit of profit increases that can ONLY come from denial of claims and substandard treatments is abhorrent and should have been addressed decades ago in the aftermath of WWII.

Sadly, the post-WWII order is crumbling around us as I type this and there are no grown-ups or adults in charge a mere month from now that will slow this slide into anarchy and global conflict in the next few years. If people of a more delicate disposition are going to get verklempt because of the aggrieved not being falsely mortified by the death of a single maggot on a fetid, rotting carcass of a once great nation, I have to be honest - I simply do not care.

5) DON’T make DU look like grave-dancing assholes.

This is an alley fight in the coming years, not a regulated boxing match under the Marquess of Queensberry Rules. It is no holds barred, bare-knuckle time, so, if anyone would prefer to stay genteel, and prim and proper to adhere to better sensibilities and a more civilized response to the coming calamity, all I can say is the barbarian horde won't care, won't stop and won't spare you for the effort.

If admitting to the base nature of my rage, and utter contempt for these monsters at its heart, is "grave dancing", then strike up the band and let the music play - because I am constitutionally incapable of false outrage or faked sadness for them or for their families. I am only capable of returning the same callous lack of humanity TO them that has been shown BY them.

Justice is not always swift, nor is it pretty; but, when it comes to rest upon the unjust it should always be welcome. The scales today tip just a little less to one side than they did a day ago, and that is not a bad thing in the aggregate.

[Swede]

5. $23,000,000.00 for denying benefits.

[RandiFan1290]

6. Can't help but notice the phony sanctimony from people that have celebrated political assassinations. nt

[Emile]

14. Thoughts and prayers.

[mountain grammy]

15. Rule of law lost the election

[Emile]

17. This is the new justice system.

[mountain grammy]

26. And it's terrifying

[MarineCombatEngineer]

27. Agreed.

This grave dancing and celebrating of the assassination of someone by some here on DU is very disturbing to say the least.

[Hope22]

16. He got shot

Children get shot
It’s all a travesty
Only thing gonna be put back in the box
Bodies…. full of bullet holes.
Guns
We got what they asked for.

[AverageOldGuy]

20. Well, he was on his way . . .

. . . to a meeting with stockholders to discuss profits and plans for more profits.

Does he ever meet with policy holders to discuss improving service and coverage?

Sometimes you reap what you sow.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

24. Got it.

So........we become like them and celebrate the murder of a person we don't like?
I really thought that we were better than that, but for some here, apparently not.

[XanaDUer2]

28. This

[whopis01]

22. Guess who else didn't seem bothered by his death?

Their stockholders.

That peak is about 2.5 hours after he was shot.



Seems very odd to me.

[ck4829]

50. Funny how nobody is calling -this- grave dancing

[sarisataka]

43. Some days I have to check the header to make sure I have come to the correct site

Justifying and celebrating cold blooded murder is not something I used to associate with Democrats. I recall days gone by when vigilante justice was deemed "never acceptable" and we were against gun violence, in general.

Have we gazed into the abyss too long?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

46. For some here,

it would appear that assassinating a person that we have differences with is now acceptable.

[sarisataka]

47. It is not the grave dancing that gets me

I believe it is crass, but it is also a long DU tradition. It is the tolerance for murder that stands out so clearly.

Not just tolerance but belief that if you have a gripe with a company, murder is a perfectly acceptable response. I have seen several explicit calls for this to only be the first murder of a corporate executive.

[LudwigPastorius]

88. I also have to wonder just how many revenge cheerleaders have actually profited from the company that Thompson led.

Because, if you hold any interest in a total stock market index fund, you hold a bit of United Health Care stock.

[ck4829]

49. "differences with", wow

That's what it is... a difference.

"I need this surgery to LIVE, three doctors say I need it to LIVE, but UHC says "Nah, not medically necessary". Guess I'll just have to appreciate the difference of opinion."

[MarineCombatEngineer]

51. Yes, differences,

and it's sad that you can't see this.

[mike_c]

84. the rat bastard CHOSE to be a parasite stealing from the sick and injured

Should his choices never have consequences? He ran a shake-down con and laughed at his hundreds of thousands of victims all the way to the bank. He was on his way to brag about his success to an audience of potential investors. He gathered a crony cohort of like minded thieves who all sought enrichment through the suffering of others.

Thoughts and prayers.

[Kaleva]

54. The shareholders are probably the bigger problem

Their demand to maximize profits from their investments leads to the hiring of such people.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

55. Nailed it.

[Kaleva]

56. It's the system and people's greed that is the issue.

[AKwannabe]

61. Deny, defend and depose

Supposedly etched on bullet casings found at the scene. The shooter was in your shoes probably and lost someone or their life savings.


https://www.king5.com/article/news/source-words-written-on-shell-casings-recovered-at-unitedhealthcare-ceo-shooting-scene/89-9675a381-ff1b-4976-992d-c3ab07f05ff1

[usonian]

62. Don't kill the symptom. Kill the disease.

OOPS CLAIM DENIED

The disease remains unchecked.

[mike_c]

74. I have greater regard for cockroaches.

This guy, along with his investors, his company, and all his employees are parasites, profiting by withholding care from sick and injured people who trusted them to insure their health. The entire industry is parasitic. They're tapeworms.

[TrunKated]

80. But don't forget the Pres Elect...

Loves Second Amendment people.

[TxGuitar]

81. Saw on FB

"My sympathy is out of network" and "Instead of thoughts and prayers, how about ‘the free market has spoken’”

[LeftInTX]

89. Things will be the same with his replacement