The feds also indicted him. There’s zero chance a Trump AG isn’t going to be pushing for the death penalty. What they cannot seem to understand is that this will only make him a martyr. They should have just given him the standard NY Murder II conviction any other killer would get, but they just couldn’t help themselves. They had to really send a message to the proles.
All they will succeed in doing is elevating him to outright sainthood.
Then we need to make him a saint.
St. Luigi of Baltimore, forgive us our debts, deliver us from the greed of the wicked…
Want to know how Luigi found what hotel Brian Thompson stayed at? It’s right in his “manifesto.” He used social engineering.
Social engineering is when you just take advantage of people’s natural predilictions to give you info or access that you shouldn’t have. For example, if he were to just call up UHC and ask them where the CEO was staying, they would likely just have called the police. Instead, he had to think of some plausible reason that someone might need that info through unofficial channels. I have no idea how he actually did it, but for example, Thompson was a famous womanizer who cheated on his wife. He was your standard sleazy executive scumbag. That can be exploited.
*Hi, CEO’s office? I’m John Doe, an underling over at the CFO’s office. My boss wants to give Brian a special surprise at this year’s company meeting. We’re thinking of hiring a few girls to come over and keep him company one evening. I need to know where to have them sent. I would send an email or look up the info in our records system, but, as you can understand, it’s best if there’s no paper trail. Can you let me know what hotel he’s staying at?"
These social engineering methods are the same tools scammers use, but they work just as well for assassins.
If you’re on your deathbed, and looking back, you haven’t been on at least one watch list, will you be able to say you have truly lived at all?
I just end all my public speeches with “and Carthage must be destroyed.”
Inheritance is weird. My partner and I stand to inherit a good bit when the parents on either side pass. Both sides of the family had successful middle class careers saved and invested well. Even considering the siblings on both sides, we could inherit an amount around $1M from either side.
But it’s weird in two ways. First, it’s not something that can be counted on. On either side it could be completely eaten up by nursing home care and medical costs for our parents. So we’re not planning our own retirement assuming a windfall from inheritance. Second, on either side, unless they’re unlucky, at least one of the parents is likely to live into their late 80s or 90s. So we’ll already be in our 60s or 70s.
In other words, while we stand to likely inherit a good chunk of change, it will come so late in life that we won’t really need it. Unless our parents die younger than expected, we will already be well into a fully funded retirement by the time they pass.
I feel inheritance made a lot more sense in the past. A farmer or a craftsman would will their farm or business to their children. And that child would take over that business while the parent was still alive, but too old to work it anymore. The child got the business or farm, but in turn had to support the parent in their later years.
But now? You’re basically just inheriting your parent’s house and whatever is left over of their retirement accounts. And you’re doing so at an age where it really doesn’t necessarily help you. Sure, if you yourself are unable to retire, then that windfall will be a godsend. But considering how wealth reproduces through generations, if you’re in a position to inherit substantial funds from your parents, odds are you probably have a pretty big nest egg yourself built up by then. The people who could really use an inheritance to fund their retirement are unlikely to have parents wealthy enough to give them one.
But yeah, this is why I support strong inheritance taxes. For most people who inherit anything substantial, by the time you actually inherit something, you don’t really need it anymore.
Yeah there would be a lot of opportunity for interpretation. Realistically you would raise funds and accept proposals from artists. But I do love the over the top classical imagery.
You know what? If they want to turn him into a martyr, I want to turn him into a saint. St. Luigi of Baltimore. In fact, I want to erect a big statue of him, something deliberately over the top and in bad taste. Like how Dante wrote his political enemies into Hell.
Think of the classical paintings and statues of St. Michael casting Satan into Hell.
I want to crowd fund a big bronze statue like this. Except Luigi is St. Michael and Thompson is Satan. Thompson can be holding a scroll that reads “delay deny depose.”
I say we put a gaudy statue like this somewhere near United Healthcare’s headquarters in Minnesota. Just this classical bronze of their former CEO as the Devil himself, being thrown into literal Hell by St. Luigi of Baltimore. Make them drive past the damn thing every day on the way to the office.
The dedication on the plinth can read “In Memory of St. Luigi of Baltimore. Tear down this monument when Americans no longer die from lack of healthcare.”
The bastards want to make him a martyr? I say we make him a SAINT.
Saint Luigi of Baltimore.
Yes, a true classic!
And that’s why you should refuse to pay a penny and just pirate everything by default. If you feel like supporting the creators, donate to their union strike fund.
In litigation, if one side destroys evidence beforehand, or goes to great lengths to deliberately not collect it, courts instruct juries to presume against the side that destroyed the evidence. Companies that think they’re being clever by using apps that auto-delete records aren’t as clever as they think they are. This Teams feature is obviously meant to make it difficult to assist in corporate malfeasance. Using Teams is now a liability risk to companies.
Eh, just do your best, and accept imperfection. You’re Hercules, not God. Try to do what good you can, when you can. Trying to perfectly optimize things simply leads to madness.
Not really. Sure, they’re better - as long as things in your life go perfectly well. But you have to have a net worth of $10 million+ before you’re immune to bankruptcy in the US healthcare system.
Also, you are drunk and don’t know what site you’re on.
I do get a great amount of silly joy by referring to Charles simply as, “The King of Canada.”
Scene: Canadian armies are moving down into Oregon and Washington
Everyone in OR and WA: “no, please, don’t conquer us, anything but that! Oh hey, what do you know, we all seemed to have forgotten where we put all our guns. Guess we’re defenseless. Oh well.”
How about just Oregon and Washington? I promise, we’re cool. Can we just join Canada? I’m willing to learn to like hockey if that will make a difference.
Nah, I say we don’t conquer Canada so much as just become a Canadian unincorporated territory without the consent of the Canadian parliament.
We could come together and issue a grand historic Declaration of Dependence.
I mean, is it too late for us to rethink that whole independence thing? Well, considering the state of UK politics, I don’t know if we want to join up with them. They’re just as bad as we are.
How about Ireland? Can we just surrender to Ireland and let them annex us? I imagine, considering their history, that they would be pretty benevolent as far as colonial masters go.
We could even issue a Declaration of Dependence
“We are now your problem.”
The state of New York is about to get a firsthand lesson in the Streisand Effect. They should have just charged him the same charge any normal killer would get - Second Degree Murder, which is the normal charge for premeditated murder in NY. First degree requires rare special circumstances, and the prosecutor chose to use a dubious “terrorism” modifier to up the charge to Murder 1. They just couldn’t help themselves, and they shot themselves in the foot.
The advantage to the prosecution to a simple Murder 2 charge is that motive really doesn’t matter much. They just have to prove that Luigi pulled the trigger. But with the terrorism modifier, the trial will no devolve into lengthy discussions about his motives and message. Not only have they now given him the world’s largest soapbox, but this will also give the defense an opportunity to make him much more sympathetic to the jury. With only a Murder 2 charge, the defense lawyer would have had to fight hard to sneak subtle hints into trial about Luigi’s motives. Now his motives will be a core part of the prosecution’s case.
With a simple Murder 2 trial, even jurors who thought Thompson got what he deserved could vote to convict based simply on the letter of the law. Luigi killed an evil man, but he still has to face the consequences like any other criminal. Now the jury will clearly see that the system isn’t treating him like any other criminal. The prosecutors, through their own actions, are making Luigi’s case for him - the justice system is completely rigged in favor of the rich and powerful, and the only way they can ever be held accountable is through violence.
All it takes is one juror of twelve to look around at the situation and say, “this is bullshit. I’m not going to convict.” Sure, they can try him again with a new jury if he’s not found unanimously not-guilty, but that jury will have an even greater risk of jury nullification. The longer this goes on, the more likely the prosecutor just has to offer him some sweetheart plea deal just to get him convicted of something. And each trial just elevates Mangione that much closer to literal Sainthood in the popular imagination.