I tried to help a friend set up a Social Security Administration login a few days ago because of the reported (but now cancelled) plans to force anyone who didn’t have an online account to come into a SS office to continue to receiving their earned benefits. He didn’t remember if he had an web account or not.

The SS website stopped responding after the 1st attempt and a 2nd attempt responded with, “Your account is now locked. You must come into an office or call us to unlock your account.”

DOGE’s purpose is disaster capitalism - disruption, breaking things beyond repair, and manufacturing conditions where oligarchs can profit off of the resulting chaos. “Efficiency” has nothing to do with it.

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Musk wants the content he personally finds objectionable to be moderated. Racist Nazi shit and hateful GQP posts are perfectly fine, just like on X Twitter.

Is anyone else just done with CAPTCHAS? I refuse to deal with them at all anymore unless I absolutely need to get to the content they’re blocking.

Maybe the ultimate test for a human is when the page is abandoned when a CAPTCHA pops up.

We need some studies about the benefits of hand washing while wearing rubber gloves. As easy as it is to fool ourselves I’d bet that those benefits still exist to some degree.

“I’m going to wash my hands of it.” is something we’ve all probably heard at some point. I wondered if there was anything behind the saying. Turns out there is.

I installed Plex a couple years ago and when I found I actually had to sign into their servers to access my own content it was immediately uninstalled. It was only a matter of time before they pulled this kind of shit.

Not a surprise for Roku. The company has been getting progressively worse in the last few years and their enshittification is accelerating. Their recent forced download of an update that requires users to agree to arbitration to even use our TVs was intended to ultimately take control of those TVs completely away from the people who own them.

Right now it’s possible to block Roku’s static ads and presumably the autoplaying ones using a local DNS server like Adblock Home or Pihole, but it’s only a matter of time before Roku blocks everything unless we watch the ads they are trying force down our throats. I’m already in the process of obsoleting all 5 of our Roku devices.

It has taken Roku years to build up enough market share to allow this kind of behavior and it will take years for the market to abandon them. Their executives will claim ignorance as to why users are walking away when it finally hits their bottom line.

The “Free Speech Absolutist” strikes sues again.

IMO when dealing with corporations, after they’ve been notified once of a problem like yours, any others that happen because they haven’t fixed their systems are clearly active malice. It is almost certain they’ve been notified of this kind of problem many, many times. It is also almost certain UHC hasn’t fixed anything at all.

Corporations are legal persons but our society and government consistently hold them far lower standards than real persons face. They literally murder but don’t face jeopardy from criminal laws, poison people and are met with a slap on the wrist, and enrich themselves while paying only a small fraction of their illegal profits in fines when they’re caught. Can you imagine the penalties if you or I did these things?

The world would be a far better place if UHC was held to the same standards as the people they insure.

United Heath would routinely deny payment for the entire visit if my doctor did anything besides look at the initial issue during an appointment. Let’s say I was there for ear pain and my doc said I was due for a vaccination, UHC would deny payment for everything. Since making a second appointment for the vaccination was far more expensive, the only possible reason for this was that a certain percentage of people would pay the bill and United Health could just steal from them and pocket the money.

I spent many hours on the phone after doctor visits demanding they pay the bills as my policy’s contract required. I wonder how much the UHC crooks made because of the people who just paid the doctor bills and UHC was able to steal money they didn’t earn?

United Health Sucks.

CVS and their deliberate, hostile business practices chased me away years ago when I was unable to stop them from auto-refilling prescriptions I did not need. California finally took action against CVS in 2020 after many years of their carefully engineered abuses.

Good to see the company’s crappy behavior continues unabated and there’s no reason to give them another try.

Cities can refuse to provide services to venues who refuse to pay for them in most places. The city officials in every city that Trump screwed should have been demanding payment up front - they knew he routinely screws over everyone he deals with because he still has debts from 2016 that are unpaid. Those who haven’t been paid should have been making front page news by suing for what they are owed.

47% of the people in Kent County voted for the felon. Even if the Grand Rapids numbers are lower, it’s not reasonable to suggest a significant percentage of those making city decisions aren’t Trump supporters.

This isn’t an unpaid debt, it’s an illegal campaign contribution by city officials at their taxpayer’s expense.

Every single one of them knew they would be providing free city services for Trump while charging the Biden then Harris campaign for the same.

To be clear, the right of free speech given in the first amendment is the right to express any opinion without fear of repercussions.

Not the case. The 1st Amendment provides freedom of speech without fear of repercussions by the U.S. government. We do not have the right to express any opinion without repercussions from literally any other source.

Where did you get the idea this guy was numb?

A few years ago on a cruise we sat at a table with a doctor who said he was in charge of all United Healthcare insurance approvals. This guy didn’t just mention he had to sometimes refuse people care, he was absolutely giddy about it and took sadistic pleasure in seeing other people suffer. We moved to a different table to get away from him.

I guess we’ll find out eventually, but I’ve got to wonder if the shooter was pushed over the edge after someone close to him died due to refusal of care by United Healthcare.

That is correct.

Trump, speaking about Nancy Pelosi asked a crowd of supporters, “How’s her husband doing by the way?” and saying a “wall around her house” didn’t do a “good job” of protecting her 82-year-old husband from an intruder who fractured his skull with a hammer during a break-in last year—prompting laughter from the crowd.

There need to be extraordinary penalties for threatening election workers, intimidating voters, or destroying ballots. How about a minimum 20 year sentence to start?