Tis the season when hearts and wallets turn to end-of-year charitable donations. But some folks in the giving spirit apparently don't care whether they get a deduction for giving to a 501 (3) non-profit.
No, some of them are sending money the way of the "December 4th Legal Committee," a fundraiser on GiveSendGo, the rightwing crowdfunding site, in support of Luigi Mangione, the person charged with assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. (GiveSendGo is also hosting other fundraisers for Mangione, including one to fill his jail commisary account and buy him an iPad.)
GiveSendGo started out as a Christian crowdfunder, helping folks raise money for mission trips and medical expenses, but somewhere along the line veered in to some pretty extreme precincts. They've provided a fundraising platform for neo-Nazis, white nationalists, and other groups that the more mainstream crowdfunder, GoFundMe, wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. (Among GiveSendGo's more prominent fundseekers is teen killer and rightwing darling Kyle Rittenhouse, who raised $250K. Another was Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine recently acquitted of killing a mentally ill homeless man on the NYC subway who was harassing and threatening other riders. A whopping $3M was raised for Penny's defense. Oh, and a lot of the J6 defendants were supported on GiveSendGo.)
I don't know quite how GiveSendGo's recent embrace of Mangione fits in, but as of Friday, December 13th, over $80K had been raised on the platform for his defense (out of a goal of $200K).
Although I've had pretty good luck with it, I've read enough horror show stories to know that there are plenty of folks who have had absolutely miserable experiences with their health insurance. They've lost precious time when their insurers refuse a doctor's treatment recommendations and insist on trying the second choice first, or otherwise dick around with delaying life saving treatment. Some people have opted for a recommended treatment only to find out it isn't covered and they go into astronomical debt. Folks have spent years of their lives trying to work with and around their insurers and healthcare providers, impoverished by mountains of medical debt.
I can certainly appreciate that insurers need to make fiscally prudent choices, and that there are plenty of instances where a second-tier treatment may work out just fine - despite what all the Dr. Googles out there think. (And I count myself among the Dr. Googles.)
But when an insurance company is denying over 30% of all claims and making billions upon billions in profits, as was the case with UnitedHealthcare, well, that seems to raise a big question about why so many aspects of our not-so-vaunted healthcare system are for profit.
Anyway, Luigi Mangione...and the people donating to his legal defense fund.
Given that he's from a very wealthy family, this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me.
Here's what GiveSendGo had to say about it.
“We believe every person is entitled to due process in a court of law — not in the court of public opinion,” Alex Shipley, GiveSendGo’s communications director, said in a statement. “To be absolutely clear, we do not support or condone vigilante justice. However, people have a constitutional right to a strong legal defense, and access to that defense should not be reserved only for the wealthy or those who fit a particular narrative. Our role is to give individuals and their communities the opportunity to fundraise for that defense, because true justice is served when everyone has equal access to a fair trial — regardless of the verdict.” (Source: NBC News)
Couldn't agree more that everyone's entitled to due process and a strong legal defense, but, but, but, Mangione's family owns a couple of country clubs, a bunch of nursing homes, and - but of course - a conservative talk radio station. He's not exactly indigent. So why fund his defense?
Why not fund the defense of the indigent? I keep going back to the NYC case of the 16 year old boy who swiped a backpack. He ended up in solitary in Rikers - without ever having had a trial - for three years, two spent in solitary. Finally the charges were dropped and he was released, but a few years later he committed suicide. Let's fund first-class legal defense for kids like Kalief Browder.
Mangione's attorney has said that he's not likely to accept the funds raised. So where would it go?
Organizers on GiveSendGo said on the fundraiser they've written directly to Mangione in jail to determine how he would like to use the funds. If he rejects them, the money would be donated to "legal funds for other U.S. political prisoners." (USA Today)
"Other political prisoners." Huh? So just how is Mangione a political prisoner? How does being pissed off enough at the health insurance system to kill someone in cold blood make you a political prisoner? I don't know what it makes Luigi Mangione - deluded? narcissistic? mentally ill? entitled? an a-hole? - but to me there's a better argument that the J6 rioters are political prisoners (which I don't believe they are; roughing up police offiers and defecating in the Capitol in response to a pack of lies your cult leader told you about the election he lost doesn't really qualify you as a political prisoner) than there is that Luigi Mangione is a political prisoner.
Luigi Mangione could have used his brains, money, privilege, and position to do a lot of things. Work for an organization trying to fix our discredited and getting worse way of providing healthcare. Become a policy wonk. Support candidates who want universal single payer healthcare that will do away with the profit-seeking insurance company middlemen. Run for office.
Sure, this all sounds pretty naive. As if there's the political will in this country to do anything other than act out and, coming soon, get rid of as many consumer protections that (however paltry) still exist and further privatize our healthcare system making it even worse than it already is. (Can't wait to see them force all us old geezers on to Medicare Advantage, or, as everyone I know who's ever been on it calls it, Medicare Disadvantage.)
The organizers of the Luigi Mangione fundraiser wrote him a mash letter to let him know what they were up to. The letter began you are going through a lot right now.
No shit! And all of his own making.
I don't imagine I would have particularly liked Brian Thompson. Way too much of a quarter-zip douche-bro vibe. But I suspect I would like Luigi Mangione even less.
Those donating to Mangione's defense fund are likely acting on their own (understandable) grievances and frustrations with our health insurance and healthcare systems. Everyone knows someone who's been screwed by it. But channel your anger, your grievance, your frustation - no matter how justified - elsewhere, please.
Sure, there's been a minor win. Anthem, which was planning to cut the length of time they'd reimburse for anesthesia used during surgery, has put that plan on hold, at least temporarily. But killing a bunch of executives isn't going to make the oligarchs decide that they should focus more on equity for the many than on acquisition of more and more for the few. It's going to make them retrench, hide, create more repressive laws. Their response isn't going to be thoughtful reform. It's much more likely to be a big FUCK YOU to all of us great unwashed.
God - if there is one - help us.
Meanwhile, I must away to make those end of year tax-deductible donations.
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