this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024
340 points (98.6% liked)

Not the Onion

2196 readers
657 users here now

For true stories that are so ridiculous, that you could have sworn it was an !theonion worthy story.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] dumbass@leminal.space 45 points 1 day ago
[–] nieceandtows@programming.dev 92 points 2 days ago (2 children)

They're not even pretending anymore

[–] fsxylo@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 days ago

Like they could even get a non corrupt judge if they tried.

[–] ThePyroPython@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago

They don't need to when it's just one lone wolf rising up and most have already expressed not trusting the justice system yet aren't mobilising against them in large enough numbers.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 57 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I feel like our reality got some new writers this season.

[–] circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 2 days ago

All AI generated

[–] Norin@lemmy.world 57 points 2 days ago

They’re gonna wheel him into court strapped up like Hannibal Lecter.

[–] droopy4096@lemmy.ca 44 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Interestingly Luigi is pretty much guilty by default, so why stack the court and make it into a spectacle that it is? He can easily be convicted with less coverage, and pomp surrounding the trial. So this is unlikely to "stack the court" but more message to the masses: "we own you. there's nothing you can do".

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 2 points 18 hours ago

well obviously of murder, but they're charging him with terrorrism

[–] orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts 27 points 2 days ago

I think all of it is them trying to send a message. That’s why they needed the photo of him being perp walked with the (corrupt as fuck) mayor. The funny part is that it’s just emboldening everyone instead.

Guilty of murder or terrorism?

[–] DemBoSain@midwest.social 48 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Magistrate Judge Katharine H. Parker, who is overseeing pre-trial hearings for Luigi Mangione, is married to a former Pfizer executive and holds hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock, including in healthcare companies and pharmaceutical companies, according to her 2023 financial disclosures.

Parker’s husband, Bret Parker, left Pfizer in 2010, where he served as Vice President and assistant general counsel after holding the same titles at Wyeth, a pharmaceutical manufacturer purchased by Pfizer.

[–] protist@mander.xyz 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Pharmaceutical companies, like Pfizer, are often at odds with health insurance companies, like UHC. Like they really don't like each other, because they're both fighting for the same pie in a zero sum situation. Pharmaceutical companies want to charge more for medicine and insurance companies want to pay less. I'm not defending either company or industry, but I really don't think this is as nefarious as Klippenstein is trying to make it out to be

It was recently in the news that the CEO of Pfizer was at Mar a Lago kissing Trump's ass to try to get him to do away with pharmacy benefit managers, AKA prescription insurance, which really hit insurance stocks.

[–] Tinidril@midwest.social 20 points 1 day ago

They have their disagreements but, at the end of the day, big pharma wants the private insurance industry to continue.

Under the ACA, health insurance companies are required to spend 80% of premiums on purchasing healthcare. That means they can only increase profits by growing market share, or by spending more on healthcare. There are also provisions that insurance companies have to provide public justification if rates go up more than 15% in a year. The result of all this is that health insurance wants the cost of providing healthcare to rise at just under that 15% per year mark. Sure enough, that's almost exactly what's been happening since the ACA passed.

When big pharma wants to grow their incomes faster than the 15% average, that causes pain for insurance companies who either push back at pharma, or try to make up the difference with other healthcare providers. That's as far as the adversarial relationship tends to go.

Ultimately they are all majority controlled by the same financial institutions, so that tends to keep conflicts at a low simmer. The CEOs are competing for bonuses, but the boards rarely care much which company the profits come from.

[–] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Nah, this is a simulation, whoever programmed this script watched too much movies. No way reality is this comical/absurd.

[–] dumbass@leminal.space 4 points 1 day ago

I've had the belief for a really long time that reality is being written by old dead comedy writers.

[–] Josey_Wales@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago

Would be really funny if the public started making the hunger games whistle at each appearance. You know because it’s a nice comforting sound and I am sure MDC is not that comforting.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago

Bought and paid for.

[–] 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago

ORDER! ORDER! You are disrupting bla bla