Wow, what a year, huh? In many ways awful, but OTOH I feel it could have been a lot worse. ("Year ain't over", says Jack Palance in City Slickers.)

So how do you feel about next year? Optimistic? Pessimistic? In The Bride Wore Black, the great Jeanne Moreau says "There are no optimists or pessimists. Just happy imbeciles and sad imbeciles." Or like me are you just filled with morbid curiosity?

Tell us — with music!

There has never been a better opportunity to fix America's healthcare system than now. Luigi Mangione's act did more to unite Americans on this subject and open the door to change than even Bernie's 2016 movement.

But I'm noticing a pattern though and I think at this point it's obvious how the political establishment is going to attempt to diffuse the situation without making any changes to the system. And based on how effective the domestic propaganda is and our short attention spans I'm guessing they're likely to succeed in the short-term.

Our elected prostitutes and the media are going to try to make this all about United Healthcare. They'll try to focus everyone's attention and energy on going after UHC and breaking it up. UHC will be sacrificed to save the rest of the system from facing absolutely necessary change. If you want to figure out which politicians are working to protect the system from the people just look for the politicians that only talk about UHC but then fail to talk about the actual underlying issue which is the private health insurance based system itself.