WHYAREWEALLCAPS @ WHYAREWEALLCAPS @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

I do.

The rich do. They always do. And before people go "But the guillotine!" The French Revolution did not kill all the nobles and rich people, just those out of favor. And then the people who led the revolution became the new rich people. Even though they were rich people to begin with. If you think this all ends with anything other than a new name for the same old same old, you're kidding yourself.

I will scream it till the day I die, profit motive and healthcare do not belong together. At all. In any way, shape, or form.

Instead of making you wait, they should have been forced to shell out to get you a new machine from another company. Well, Resmed. All of us who use CPAPs know that Phillips and Resmed machines are far and away better than any other machine out there. Which sucks for us users.

The recall really fucked CPAP prices. Phillips and Resmed make up probably 99% of the CPAP machine market with a few other companies fighting over the scraps. And to be fair, none of those other companies come close to making a machine as good as a Resmed or Phillips one. Redmed and Phillips probably have a 49.5% share each of the market. So when Phillips was suddenly yoinked from the market, it left a HUGE hole none of the others could fill. To make matters worse it happened during supply shortages. I know Resmed was having problems with getting chips for the modems their machines use to remotely report to doctors. In addition they were switching over to a new model, so production of the older model was ending, too.

To put it in perspective, I picked up a used Resmed Airsense 10 with low hours for about $150 a month or so before the recall. Hell, I'd even see people giving them away on Craigslist sometimes. Nowadays you're not paying less than $400-$500 for a used machine last I checked. That is close to the price you'd pay for a new machine before. Everything associated with CPAP machines went through the roof, as well, even though there was no shortage for those.

To add insult to injury, you can't get the parts to fix this things. This is another market where right-to-repair needs to be opened up. I get it, though, they are medical devices and faulty 2nd hand parts could cause injury or even death, but for those of us with the skill and wherewithal, we should have access to the parts. I've torn down both my machines and cleaned them out. The main failing part is the blower motor. I mean that thing sees 10s of thousands of hours of use. My main machine has been used on average for 8 hours a day, every day for around 6-7 years, total. Yet replacing it is dirt simple - pull the old one out, unplug it, plug the new one in, put it in the machine, boom, done. Having authorized repair techs would be dirt simple. It just wouldn't be as profitable as forcing insurance companies and individuals to shell out hundreds of dollars for a new machine. Which circles around to another pet peeve of mine - profit motive and healthcare need to be wholly divorced from each other.

Sorry, this went on longer than I wanted it to, but once I got started, I couldn't stop.

We have had watertight user serviceable with external batteries handheld amateur radios for decades. Your arguments are baloney. Phones are only this way because manufacturers want them to be this way.

No, he cannot be removed from the committee. Nor can he be recalled. At best he could be impeached, but just look at the House and tell me if you think they'd impeach Tubby. The problem is the way things are set up. Typically the Senate Armed Forces Committee clears a bloc of nominees and sends that bloc to the Senate floor and they vote on the bloc instead of each individual nominee. Even if they got rid of Tubby, he could still cause the exact same problem as any senator can object to the bloc and then each nominee has to be individually voted in. That is a multistage process requiring several votes to be taken. Multiply that by 600+ and that's all the Senate would be doing for years. Sure, Schumer could start that, but as more than one place has said, it'd take all the senate's time for the foreseeable future. So it isn't a matter of the Dems doing nothing, but rather the list is too long for it to be a viable option to take for all the nominees.

Also doing the runaround has the nasty side effect of politicizing military promotions and would make bullshit like what McConnell did in the end of Obama's presidency with the Supreme Court normal for military nominations. Do you really want that to be the norm?

How do you do that in the age of the internet? How do you stop them from spreading their insanity on platforms like X, Instagram, Facebook, etc? If they aren't violating guidelines, how do you sideline them?

Wow. Queen of Wands, I don't think I've looked at that for over a decade...

Then you get Texas. We've got a law that just went into effect that basically takes away huge swaths of law making powers from the cities. They have made no attempt to hide that it was entirely for the benefit of businesses at the expense of locals and their desires.

While I am very pro-minimum wage, it does need to be more regionally based than nationally. The minimum required to get by in LA, New York, and so forth is going to be different than some podunk middle of no where towns in rural America.

Meanwhile the cost of living has increased 2077% in 85 years.

You mean their hands the way they are now? Glitch McConnell had a death grip on that podium....

In 1929, each representative represented about 283k Americans. Now each representative represent about 762k Americans. That's almost a 300% increase. This means each American's voice is only about 1/3rd as powerful as it was in 1929. To have as much political power as they did in 1929, we'd need about 1200 Representatives.

individuals pointed to a major event, like the death of a spouse or a medical emergency, as the trigger.

Gee, if only we had a healthcare system that wasn't solely focused on making a profit and growing the amount of profit quarter after quarter.

Saw a pic of him in a car with his arm out the window, pointing it at the camera, with his finger on the god damn trigger. If that thing was loaded he was a speed bump away from re-enacting the "Oh man, I shot Marvin in the face" scene. What a fucking tool.

Alabama just straight up ignored them.

I dunno, I kinda see it as a toddler trying to haggle about their bedtime or getting a cookie.

Doesn't matter if there's no food or extremely scarce resources.

Electric Bugaloo

The Variety article goes into more details.

https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/sag-aftra-vote-authorize-video-game-strike-1235735114/

SAG-AFTRA stated

“After five rounds of bargaining, it has become abundantly clear that the video game companies aren’t willing to meaningfully engage on the critical issues: compensation undercut by inflation, unregulated use of AI and safety,” said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA national executive director and chief negotiator, in a statement. “I remain hopeful that we will be able to reach an agreement that meets members’ needs, but our members are done being exploited, and if these corporations aren’t willing to offer a fair deal, our next stop will be the picket lines.”

The signatory companies stated

“We will continue to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement that reflects the important contributions of SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in video games. We have reached tentative agreements on over half of the proposals and are optimistic we can find a resolution at the bargaining table.”