Assassination In Midtown
ZeroHedge posted the horrific video of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson being assassinated in Midtown Manhattan this morning.
CLEAR HIT JOB: Surveillance footage of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson being gunned down in Manhattan this morning.https://t.co/IsmEtAJqVA
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 4, 2024
In a thread on X, Will Tanner speculated on a possible motivation behind the hit.
Managerial Capitalism Versus Noblesse Oblige
This is something that has been forgotten in the age of managerial capitalism
— Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) December 4, 2024
Because there are an indefinite number of managers, board members and officers in charge rather than an obvious lordly landowner or Henry Ford-style CEO, it's seemingly thought companies have no duty… pic.twitter.com/FoP9DSvldh
So far as awful companies go, Thompson's was one of the worst
— Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) December 4, 2024
It denies patient claims at double the industry average, far higher than any competitor. That means 1/3 of those relying on it to do what they have paid it obscene amounts to do are denied, forced into penury as part… pic.twitter.com/jNKx51MLVq
The thing is, we recognize that in other cases
— Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) December 4, 2024
Whenever in history a particularly rapacious elite is hammered by a Peasant Rebellion or riot of some sort, why that happened is often understood and accepted as just
Whether a corporate situation like the Sepoy Mutiny or the… pic.twitter.com/wLzChiDIm7
But that's all been forgotten
— Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) December 4, 2024
Now companies like United Healthcare defraud customers and expect to get away with it, even when pushing those who relied on them and paid them into penury and the poorhouse
Were it a Duke doing that, we'd be (rightly) up in arms. But companies are… pic.twitter.com/hCPfYLEbjq
First there were the Occupy Wall Street protests that came when the banksters defrauded and impoverished America and then used taxpayer dollars to give themselves bonuses
— Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) December 4, 2024
But those protests were often communist in nature and so unpopular, and they faded away pic.twitter.com/J14lJ6zr5W
Then we got the Gamestop movement
— Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) December 4, 2024
That was just an attempt to bankrupt the hedge funds shorting a beloved, non-rapacious company. It almost worked, but the levers of power were pulled and normal people were, as usual, screwed for the benefit of the worst people imaginable
Many… pic.twitter.com/lmYwe66q7A
And now the CEO of some abominable insurance company was executed in the street, and it's hard not to imagine the shooter was someone whose family was destroyed by his company's abominable policies
— Will Tanner (@Will_Tanner_1) December 4, 2024
So we'll see where this leads, but history holds a pretty clear guide to where it… pic.twitter.com/lC7DfaF5zB
Tanner's last image is of course a reference to the musical Les Misérables, particularly this scene, with these famous lyrics:
Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again
Protecting Your Portfolio From Predatory Capitalism
Earlier today, The Market Ear suggested it was time for longs to hedge ("Be Long...and Buy Cheap Puts"):
Put hate
Time to pull out that put hate chart. Momentum is to the upside, and the crowd is not thinking about protection.
Source: Tradingview
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