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Ugh. I am exhausted by the virtue-signaling pretend progressives preaching on the Internet about how "murder is murder" and acting all judgy at those of us who aren't mourning the death of a vulture capitalist who let sick people die to enhance shareholder value for United Healthcare. Just shut up. There are no vigilante armies being formed to come to your job and shoot your boss. Maybe there will be a copycat or too, but we are not in the midst of a revolution. Yet.

In the 60s, the folk singer, Phil Ochs recorded a scathing song called Love Me, I'm a Liberal. Its lyrics are dated now with references to people long forgotten, but its spirit lives on. It jabs at people who want change, as long as it isn't messy. I wonder what exactly the pearl clutching crowd thinks it's going to take to get the kind of change we need to our healthcare system. Do they think that all those billionaires Trump is appointing to government positions are going to suddenly give a shit about sick middle-class and poor people? I suspect most of them have never experienced anything more than a slight inconvenience when it comes to the for-profit healthcare system.

Here's my story. I am a big guy, I've weighed over 200 pounds (ca. 91 kg) almost all of my adult life, sometimes a lot more. In my 40s, I decided to become an endurance athlete. I took up ultra-distance cycling and then long distance hiking. Even in more relaxed times I chose walking as my primary form of exercise. I developed osteoarthritis in both knees. Eventually, all the cartilage that cushions the collision between my femurs and the bones of my lower legs was gone. I had extremely painful bone on bone contact that ached constantly, making it hard to sleep or to be mobile. Every attempt at getting treatment for years was met with delays, denials and deception. The shots that provided the most relief cost a $1000 a pop. I was supposed to get them every six-months but the insurance company always dragged their feet getting things approved, and I usually had to wait eight or nine months. It was up to me to make numerous phone calls to every part of the system - the doctor, the pharmacy, and the insurance company.

The constant scramble to get treatment disrupted my job. It eventually left me severely depressed. I went from a fit man who hiked the entire 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail in 2013, to someone who could not walk a mile by 2020. That year I had both of my knees surgically replaced. at age 55 and retired early. I will probably never regain the fitness I previously enjoyed - all because an insurance company made life purposefully difficult in the hope that I would just give up and stop seeking treatment. All of that sucks for me, but it pales in comparison to the countless people who have lost their life savings and their lives after being denied needed medical care.

I do not care how messy it gets to fix our broken system. I don't have sympathy for the dead CEO because all my sympathy is used up on the suffering people of this country whose problems he and his fellow travelers cause. I am reaching the "any means necessary" phase of my life. When a people are held down by a ruthless ruling class, they eventually snap. Did you see what just happened in Syria? After paying a horrible, horrible price, they got rid of an autocratic despot. If you think the same thing couldn't happen in this country where there are more guns than people - well LOL.,

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