Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray, WBZ, Constance New Radio.
Speaker 2: Right, that was an interesting sound we did that? Or
Speaker 2: I have no problem. Yeah, sometimes the system misfires or
Speaker 2: whatever hates Rob and I have yet to do a
Speaker 2: perfect show. We're still working on it. Rob. We're getting
Speaker 2: close to four thousand programs, the vast majority of which
Speaker 2: you had, fast majority of which you have produced, and
Speaker 2: I thank you for that. Rob Brooks. He's the guy
Speaker 2: who picks up the phone when you call. Okay. Gonna
Speaker 2: start off tonight with something that has troubled me for
Speaker 2: a few days, and that is the lack of empathy
Speaker 2: some people have displayed to the shooting of the United
Speaker 2: Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson a week ago yesterday at six
Speaker 2: forty five in the morning, A cowardly act by this
Speaker 2: Luigi Mangioni. Now there's a lot more coming out on
Speaker 2: lou me Andoni. As a matter of fact, I talked
Speaker 2: briefly tonight with a friend of mine who referred me
Speaker 2: to a piece that was on CNN today. And the
Speaker 2: piece on CNN talked about and again, I don't want
Speaker 2: to make it sound like it's an excuse, but it's
Speaker 2: it's interesting the piece said, uh that this individual may
Speaker 2: have had issues that were related to lime disease, severe
Speaker 2: brain fog, and which he said started after losing sleep
Speaker 2: during his fraternity's hell week and caused his college grades
Speaker 2: to start tanking. I'm not exactly sure if this is
Speaker 2: someone talking about about me and Gione, but the question
Speaker 2: that this doctor raised for me is whether or not
Speaker 2: this guy was affected by lyme disease. However, as interesting
Speaker 2: a point as that is, and we might talk about
Speaker 2: that more tomorrow night, whatever, maybe this guy was schizophrenic.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I have certainly come to understand that.
Speaker 2: I think most of you have come to understand that.
Speaker 2: Physical problems. You see someone who's a broken arm, their
Speaker 2: arms in a sling, everybody's very sympathetic. How'd you break
Speaker 2: your arms? Someone has a broken leg, they got a
Speaker 2: cast in their leg. How'd you break your leg? Okay?
Speaker 2: And there are other issues that are not so evident.
Speaker 2: But when someone says, oh, you know, a friend of mine,
Speaker 2: you know, passed away of whatever, you understand that. But
Speaker 2: mental illness is sometimes even more serious than physical illness.
Speaker 2: So I will let I will let all of that
Speaker 2: in in terms of conversations but this guy was smart enough,
Speaker 2: this guy being Mangioni, he was smart enough. He was
Speaker 2: shrewd enough to basically attract his target. He picked this
Speaker 2: guy as his target. I think that's going to come
Speaker 2: out clearly. This was not a random Let me shoot
Speaker 2: the first guy who was walking into this conference, who
Speaker 2: looks like he might be an executive. No, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: no no. He knew exactly who he was killing. He
Speaker 2: didn't have the courage to face him front on. He
Speaker 2: didn't have the courage to go up to him and
Speaker 2: punch him in the nose. He was a coward. He
Speaker 2: sat across the streets, stood across the street. He knew
Speaker 2: what this guy looked like. He obviously had done his homework.
Speaker 2: He had been in New York City for ten days
Speaker 2: from Thanksgiving on. He planned his escape. Didn't really work
Speaker 2: because he was found out and arrested for the alleged murder,
Speaker 2: cold blood, cowardly murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Now,
Speaker 2: I don't have any great sympathy for people who are
Speaker 2: making millions of dollars in whatever field, But I mean,
Speaker 2: if all of a sudden, you know someone who all
Speaker 2: of us would know I mean Kobe Bryant, for example,
Speaker 2: how can you not feel horrific about Kobe Bryant's plane
Speaker 2: crash in his death. And there have been other you know, figures, celebrities, entertainers.
Speaker 2: So this guy had a different form of work. He
Speaker 2: was a healthcare executive. Uh and if if he did
Speaker 2: something illegal as a healthcare executive, should have been punished
Speaker 2: for it. I have no indication that he did. Whatever
Speaker 2: the rules for healthcare reimbursing. I'm as frustrated with healthcare
Speaker 2: companies as anyone is. We all want everything to be
Speaker 2: covered of. That's not the time to discuss that, Nor
Speaker 2: is it the time to do what Elizabeth Warren did yesterday,
Speaker 2: our senior senator, who is, as she certainly has tried
Speaker 2: to suggest to all of us for many years, amongst
Speaker 2: one of the smartest people in the world. She released
Speaker 2: a statement which she then had to retract. The statement
Speaker 2: was and again this is a combination of out of
Speaker 2: the Herald and The Globe. The Globe's headline with Senator
Speaker 2: Warren says, visceral response to killing of insurance CEO should
Speaker 2: be warning to healthcare system. I mean, you know, assassination
Speaker 2: attempt on the life of President Trump should be warning
Speaker 2: to all politicians. I don't think so how do you
Speaker 2: make that connection. I mean, there are people, there are
Speaker 2: wacky people on both ends of the political spectrum who
Speaker 2: would engage in that sort of behavior if, particularly if
Speaker 2: they thought that somehow they could become foll heroes. So
Speaker 2: Warren wrote, the visceral response from people across the country
Speaker 2: who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile
Speaker 2: practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to
Speaker 2: everyone in the healthcare system. People can only be pushed
Speaker 2: so far now. She amended the statement and said yesterday,
Speaker 2: violence is never the answer, period. She said, I should
Speaker 2: have been much clearer that there is never a justification
Speaker 2: for murder. Okay. Bernie Sanders phrased it a little differently.
Speaker 2: Senator Sanders from Vermont said, I think that the outpouring
Speaker 2: of anger at the healthcare industry tells us that millions
Speaker 2: of people understand the healthcare understand that healthcare is a
Speaker 2: human right, and that you cannot have people in the
Speaker 2: insurance industry rejecting needed healthcare for people while they make
Speaker 2: billions of dollars. This looks like a misprint here and
Speaker 2: I assume it means profit. But Republican senators reacted pretty quickly,
Speaker 2: and as they say, Warrant amended her statement. But I
Speaker 2: don't know if she would have amended her statement now.
Speaker 2: Seth Moulton, another Democrat who who has come out under
Speaker 2: fire recently for a different issue, said, I know, Senator Warren,
Speaker 2: she's not condoning murder. She's against murders, just like all
Speaker 2: the rest of us. That's not what she's saying. What
Speaker 2: she's saying is that we have a problem, we have
Speaker 2: problems in our health care industry that needs to be addressed. Well,
Speaker 2: you know that's fine, But to link the shooting with
Speaker 2: the problems, it almost provides a quasi justification for the shooting. Now,
Speaker 2: we don't know what this guy went through. We don't know,
Speaker 2: and it probably come out that he lost a friend
Speaker 2: or but but maybe his his grief, his his gripe
Speaker 2: should have been with the medical community, not the healthcare system.
Speaker 2: So if your family goes to a doctor, a family
Speaker 2: member goes to a doctor. And we've had doctors shot
Speaker 2: and killed here in Boston. We had a doctor at
Speaker 2: MGH ten years ago shot and killed in the middle
Speaker 2: of the day. I mean this, this stuff has to end.
Speaker 2: And I know that we can get into a whole
Speaker 2: conversation about guns, ghost guns and all of that. No,
Speaker 2: I don't. We don't need to go that far tonight.
Speaker 2: The fact of the matter is that we have people
Speaker 2: in this country who are imbalanced, whether it's Ted Kazinski,
Speaker 2: the late Ted Kazinski, or this guy Luigi Manginoni. Uh
Speaker 2: Mangioni uh, both Ivy League college graduates and for them self,
Speaker 2: help was the answer. I want to open up the
Speaker 2: phone lines. Maybe someone can explain it to me. But
Speaker 2: you just cannot in any way, shape or form, rationalize
Speaker 2: or have empathy for this guy. Now this is Warren.
Speaker 2: I think it's Warren yesterday. So let me have Rob
Speaker 2: play it so you can hear in her own words
Speaker 2: what she said. And then well, here it is. This
Speaker 2: has cut number twenty. Rob, go right ahead.
Speaker 3: So look terrible for individuals, but stop and think overall
Speaker 3: about the social contract.
Speaker 2: Get a part.
Speaker 3: Of the deal in how we've kept this democracy, this economy,
Speaker 3: this country on a fairly steady path for more than
Speaker 3: two hundred years has been that those at the top
Speaker 3: pay a little more in taxes, are a little less
Speaker 3: rich than they otherwise might be, and everybody else at
Speaker 3: least gets a chance. And what happens when you turn
Speaker 3: this into the billionaires run at all is they get
Speaker 3: the opportunity to squeeze every last penny. And look, we'll
Speaker 3: say it over and over, violence is never the answer
Speaker 3: of This guy gets a trial who's allegedly killed the
Speaker 3: CEO of United Health. But you can only push people
Speaker 3: so far and then they start to take matters into
Speaker 3: their own hands. Yeah, we need regulation in part to
Speaker 3: wring those guys in.
Speaker 2: This is total rationalization, justification. It's like saying, I'm a
Speaker 2: Red Sox fan, I hate the Yankees and that's why
Speaker 2: I decided that I had to shoot the Yankee player.
Speaker 2: I mean, where does it stop? Where does it stop?
Speaker 2: This is insanity for Elizabeth Warren to even link the
Speaker 2: for political reasons. Basically, allegedly, Luigi MENGIONI shot and killed
Speaker 2: Brian Thompson, and he maybe with schizophrenic, maybe he was
Speaker 2: just totally nuts, maybe he was blinded by his rage.
Speaker 2: I don't know. We'll figure that out, the courts will
Speaker 2: figure that out. But to link this murder, this cold
Speaker 2: blooded shoot him in the back murder, by Elizabeth Warren
Speaker 2: or any politician is unconscionable, absolutely unconscionable. And she should
Speaker 2: apologize profusely to the Thompson family, and she should apologize
Speaker 2: profusely to her constituents because she doesn't represent me, and
Speaker 2: she doesn't represent most people in Massachusetts who were appalled
Speaker 2: by that. And she could have emphasized anything she wanted to.
Speaker 2: She's not stupid, but she has some pretty stupid ideas.
Speaker 2: We'll be back on Nightside. Only couple of lines open
Speaker 2: right now, and of course when the line start to
Speaker 2: drop off, six, one, seven, two, ten, thirty Nights Out
Speaker 2: with Dan Ray. We got a lot to talk about tonight.
Speaker 2: Stay with us.
Speaker 1: Now, back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: to night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Let's go to the phone. It's gonna start off with
Speaker 2: Steve in Delaware. Steve, you were next, are your first
Speaker 2: tonight on night Side? Welcome?
Speaker 4: Are you doing?
Speaker 2: Welcome?
Speaker 1: Sir.
Speaker 5: I'll trace it back to.
Speaker 4: George Bush nineteen ninety and you guests.
Speaker 2: Did we loose in here? I'm listening.
Speaker 4: I'm here.
Speaker 2: Well that's I just keep talking until I can figure
Speaker 2: out what you're saying, right, ahead.
Speaker 4: Okay, I traced it back to George Bush nineteen ninety.
Speaker 2: What do you trace back the shooting of Brian Thompson, No. No.
Speaker 4: Nineteen ninety the American with Disabilities Act.
Speaker 2: Feel need to expand in your thoughts ahead.
Speaker 4: The American Disabilities Act was signed UH three seventy seven
Speaker 4: to twenty eight in the House ninety one to six
Speaker 4: by the Senate, and it was signed by George Bush.
Speaker 4: And it included under the Equal Opportunity RAS schizophrenia, PTSD, OCD,
Speaker 4: major depressive disorder UH, intellectual disability, bipolar disorder, add all
Speaker 4: the autism, all these things you cannot discriminate. So these
Speaker 4: people will We were taken out of mental institutions, put
Speaker 4: in society and reproduce that gene. All those are genes,
Speaker 4: Those are hereditary things. They they continued and that, and
Speaker 4: we're gonna have this forever. It's the cost of doing business.
Speaker 4: It's just gonna be accepted. It's no different. Every day
Speaker 4: in New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia. Mental patients are killing
Speaker 4: people on subways anywhere. So it's directly related to Disabilities Act.
Speaker 4: They did not take in consideration mental disabilities.
Speaker 2: Robert, here's the thing where I disagree.
Speaker 5: With you, okay, not to disagreement.
Speaker 2: I can always find something to disagree with you. Stay
Speaker 2: feel for my job is okay That the Americans with
Speaker 2: Disabilities Act I do not believe had anything to do
Speaker 2: with releasing people from institutions. There was a push in
Speaker 2: the late in the mid to late nineteen eighties before
Speaker 2: the ADA passed to basically deinstitutionalize people. We had that
Speaker 2: push here in Massachusetts when Microconstius was governor. I covered
Speaker 2: it very well. The ADA dealt with removing barriers to
Speaker 2: individuals to make sure that there were curve cuts so
Speaker 2: people with wheelchairs could easily cross the street. That's what
Speaker 2: the ADA Act was about. The ADA Act had nothing
Speaker 2: to do with leasting people who suffered from severe mental illness,
Speaker 2: no schizophrenica, et cetera, from from institutions.
Speaker 4: No, but it made it so that they will not
Speaker 4: go in institutions. Nobody is forced in the institutions. There's
Speaker 4: tons of documentaries on this.
Speaker 2: True. So they huh, that's not true. There we have
Speaker 2: people who are look who are who are forced into
Speaker 2: people who are found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Speaker 2: What do you think? At least I don't know the
Speaker 2: laws in Delaware, I know him pretty well. In Massachusetts, yeah,
Speaker 2: you go to you go. You you have found not
Speaker 2: guilty of a horrific crime by reason of insanity. You
Speaker 2: then are incarcerated, not in a prison, but in the
Speaker 2: mental health institutions. I don't know what it's like in Delaware.
Speaker 4: If there's okay, sir, if there's a if there's a
Speaker 4: person out there listening and they work in a mental
Speaker 4: institution or mental health person professional, please call in and
Speaker 4: tell him how easily they released these people. They hand
Speaker 4: them a bag of pills and they release them.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 4: If there's a profession out there, please call in and
Speaker 4: you'll get a completely different opinion.
Speaker 2: Well, we'll see if people want to call in. I'm
Speaker 2: always happy to I know a little bit about the
Speaker 2: legal system in Massachusetts, probably more than and you've you've
Speaker 2: hit me with. This goes back to George Bush and
Speaker 2: the American with Disabilities Act, which has nothing to do
Speaker 2: with with with what happened in New York. Now, whether
Speaker 2: or not this guy MINNGIONI was schizophrenic. Have you ever
Speaker 2: been in a mental institutions?
Speaker 4: If I could ask you that season, No, I've never
Speaker 4: been in a mental institution, but had to be something
Speaker 4: wrong with him mentally to do that. Okay, you're not
Speaker 4: on the same wavelength for whatever reason.
Speaker 2: Do I look, wait a second, if we can have
Speaker 2: a note of agreement. Yeah, I think that anybody who
Speaker 2: would do that was was, you know, in the in
Speaker 2: the word of street parlance, insane. But he's not insane
Speaker 2: legally because he The definition of insanity legally is not
Speaker 2: being able to separate or distinguish right from wrong. He
Speaker 2: knew what he was doing was wrong, but he had
Speaker 2: in his mind a justification for it. So he's he
Speaker 2: I believe will be found guilty because the evidence is overwhelming,
Speaker 2: and I do believe that he will not be able
Speaker 2: to plead schizophrenia. Maybe his lawyers will try, but he
Speaker 2: had he understood what he was doing. Go ahead, Steve,
Speaker 2: I'll give you a final word.
Speaker 4: Well, the thing is just because you're not dying. This
Speaker 4: is because you haven't been diagnosed, but you can. I
Speaker 4: could be walking around with the brain cancer and as
Speaker 4: someone asked me, do you have a brain in it?
Speaker 4: They're like no, because I'm not diagnosed with it. But
Speaker 4: I do, but I can still have it. You better
Speaker 4: watch out if it goes to trial. They got one
Speaker 4: sympathetic person out there, and they might find him not
Speaker 4: guilty for whatever reason. I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 4: what's gonna happen.
Speaker 5: But the men.
Speaker 2: First of all, Steve, you're wrong, You're wrong. You know.
Speaker 2: I hate to tell you this, But in order to
Speaker 2: find him not guilty by reason of insaneity, it's just
Speaker 2: not one. He's gonna need twelve, Okay, And I don't
Speaker 2: think you'll be able to find twelve jurors in my opinion,
Speaker 2: but we'll see how the trial goes through. What do
Speaker 2: you do in Delaware? I'm always interested in callers, what
Speaker 2: their background is, what what type of work do you do,
Speaker 2: What's what's your professional in social work? Okay, I would
Speaker 2: respect that. I respect that, And I think that people
Speaker 2: who have degrees in sociology social work have a different
Speaker 2: set of life experiences. And I'm not trying to any
Speaker 2: way shape of one diminish yours. But thank you for
Speaker 2: answering that question. Thank you.
Speaker 4: It's like it's like prison guards. It's like prison guards.
Speaker 4: You don't know what really goes on into prison.
Speaker 2: I've got I've had experience in prisons. Okay, I'm not
Speaker 2: a prison guard, but I know lots of prison guards,
Speaker 2: and I've had experience in prison with prison inmates, including
Speaker 2: four men who were wrongfully convicted for a murder they
Speaker 2: had nothing to do with, and I work very hard
Speaker 2: to get them released. So I know a little bit
Speaker 2: of I may know a little more about some of this.
Speaker 4: Then you realize, no, nobody knows what really goes on
Speaker 4: in any anything until you've really seen it. Okay, and
Speaker 4: it's like it's like anything. All right, Well, all let's
Speaker 4: go right. Thanks for hearing me, appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You're welcome, Thanks very much. Okay, I can find out
Speaker 2: as a reporter what goes on in a lot of
Speaker 2: different places when I have when I have trust in
Speaker 2: the person with whom i'm speaking. So yeah, I enjoyed
Speaker 2: that conversation. We'll be back on Night's side if you'd
Speaker 2: like to join the conversation and back them up, or
Speaker 2: if you'd like to disagree with him. That's what this
Speaker 2: show is all about. This is North America's back porch.
Speaker 2: All points of view are welcome. As you can see,
Speaker 2: he was a good caller. He actually engaged in a
Speaker 2: conversation with me. I hope you'll do the same coming
Speaker 2: back on Nightside six one, seven, two, five, four ten
Speaker 2: thirty six one seven, nine, ten thirty Back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: It's night Side with Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: All right, let's keep rolling here. Let's go next to
Speaker 2: Louis in Shrewsbury, a little closer to home. Lou welcome
Speaker 2: to night Side. How are you?
Speaker 4: Thank you, Dan. It's been a while since I've called,
Speaker 4: and we've engaged in a few great, great brief conversations.
Speaker 4: I just want to put one idea forward, Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 4: I just want to put one simple idea forward. I've
Speaker 4: been thinking about this quite a bit, uh, and I
Speaker 4: think there's two issues here that have kind of gotten
Speaker 4: blurred together. And and the first is the you know,
Speaker 4: and it's in conscionable, if that's the right word. It's
Speaker 4: just we can't have people shooting people in the street,
Speaker 4: you know, because of you know, a sense of vigilanteism.
Speaker 4: So that that's that's a given. But I think what
Speaker 4: we're seeing is a blurring and overlap of an issue
Speaker 4: that many any people can relate to, which is this
Speaker 4: the I think at this point, I think very real,
Speaker 4: very real observation that we've got a health insurance business
Speaker 4: that's gone beyond being broke, and it really is lapsed
Speaker 4: into corruption. And I think that's when we see some sympathy.
Speaker 4: I think it's a misguided sympathy or.
Speaker 2: Use the word corruption. What proof do you.
Speaker 5: Have of that?
Speaker 4: Well, that's a strong word.
Speaker 2: That's that's that's a strong word.
Speaker 4: Well that's what I'm saying. Yeah, it is a strong word, exactly.
Speaker 4: And it is a strong word. And and I've been
Speaker 4: making the jump looking at the looking at the number
Speaker 4: number of insurance denials that particularly United Health has, which
Speaker 4: I believe is thirty two or thirty three percent denials,
Speaker 4: most of which are coming through artificial intelligence searching programs
Speaker 4: to search for reasons to say no. And we have
Speaker 4: so many people that just about anybody you talk to
Speaker 4: as a family member, close friend who has been denied
Speaker 4: or hassled so badly to the point of desperation. And
Speaker 4: people who are younger who are able to make the
Speaker 4: phone calls fight really hard. I don't want to bore
Speaker 4: you with my own personal story, but we've had situations
Speaker 4: where emergency visits were turned around and denied and to
Speaker 4: the you know, to the big amounts of money in
Speaker 4: my books. But there's just too much going on with denials,
Speaker 4: with you know, with with a failure of an equitable
Speaker 4: business relationship between the purchaser of insurance and the companies
Speaker 4: that are that are providing it.
Speaker 2: Without getting into no but just let me jump in
Speaker 2: for a second here, without getting into the level of
Speaker 2: frustrations and problems that you have, which are probably legitimate. Okay, okay,
Speaker 2: but I said legitimate. I didn't say they were major.
Speaker 2: I said legitimate. The point is that nothing justifies what
Speaker 2: this guy did. Number one exact number two. You agree,
Speaker 2: I understand that. I just want to emphasize that because
Speaker 2: someone like Elizabeth Warren didn't emphasize that initially. Secondly, Secondly,
Speaker 2: what we should do. This problem hasn't occurred overnight. It
Speaker 2: has developed over time. Now, if the pattern and practice
Speaker 2: in the industry has changed, then we need to address
Speaker 2: that legislatively. And the way to do it is to
Speaker 2: do it at Congress. Because insurance companies are national companies,
Speaker 2: they're not local companies. So what has Congress done or
Speaker 2: what has Congress not done to address this issue? I mean,
Speaker 2: one of the things they could do is say, you know, basically,
Speaker 2: uh set up and uh an action in federal court
Speaker 2: where some of these companies could be called to task.
Speaker 2: You could have these these cases litigated. Most of us
Speaker 2: get our insurance through UH, the company we work for,
Speaker 2: and maybe the companies that we work for have to
Speaker 2: be more aggressive when they negotiate the contracts with these
Speaker 2: insurance companies. If the insurance companies have become too big,
Speaker 2: we have anti trust laws. Why haven't those anti trust
Speaker 2: laws been invoked?
Speaker 4: Well, I mean the yeah, and again when when? When?
Speaker 4: And I am I'll tell you why I start.
Speaker 2: But I'll tell you why. And you know why because
Speaker 2: the big insurance companies have lobbyists on K Street in Washington.
Speaker 4: You took the words out of my mouth. You took
Speaker 4: out of my mouth. And I think, and I think
Speaker 4: this frustration that people are feeling and they and they
Speaker 4: know it's reality. It's it's it's overshadowed this murder. And
Speaker 4: that's what I mean. This is a murder. And and
Speaker 4: you know and your characterize it's.
Speaker 2: Worse than I mean. It's a murder, but it's also
Speaker 2: it's a cold blooded, premeditated shoot him in the back
Speaker 2: at six forty five in the morning.
Speaker 4: Coward, coward, It's appalling. But this Robinhood sort of thing
Speaker 4: has come about because so many people are just at
Speaker 4: you know, they they are just out there with end.
Speaker 4: So I don't want to take up too much of
Speaker 4: your time, but you understand what I'm saying. I think
Speaker 4: there's a blurring. I think there's almost a benefit that
Speaker 4: the murderer has received.
Speaker 2: Because of Oh yeah, I've seen some stuff on the internet,
Speaker 2: and I'm sure some of our listeners have seen stuff
Speaker 2: on the internet, which, again, in a free society, people
Speaker 2: can say that. At the same time, I think that
Speaker 2: I have an obligation, and I would hope so my
Speaker 2: callers have an obligation. If not to condemn it, then
Speaker 2: challenge me and tell me why it's why it's legitimate.
Speaker 4: We have an option to spend.
Speaker 2: We have options in this society, Okay, I had. I
Speaker 2: will tell you, you know, I'm going to be very
Speaker 2: honest with you. I have at what they call a
Speaker 2: health savings account. Okay, and I've had trouble with the
Speaker 2: insurance with that that company. All it was for me
Speaker 2: was to recover the money that I had spent on
Speaker 2: medical for my myself and my and my wife.
Speaker 5: Okay, and that.
Speaker 2: Company made it so difficult for me to recover legitimate expenditures.
Speaker 2: I wasn't using my HSA card, by the way, which
Speaker 2: I'm sure you know and others know. It's money that
Speaker 2: I contributed. It's my money. Okay, I'm not using the
Speaker 2: HSA card to spend dinners at four seasons, Okay. They're
Speaker 2: all medical expenditures, legitimate meling expenditures. And this HSA company
Speaker 2: was basically questioning twenty dollars coll pays to doctors' offices,
Speaker 2: and I had to go to the doctor's office and
Speaker 2: get a letter that what was the COD paid for?
Speaker 2: And then you get a thing that would say, well,
Speaker 2: you got to have the code. And whenever you tried
Speaker 2: to talk to a human being with that company, absolutely frustration.
Speaker 2: Most of the time you got someone in the Philippines.
Speaker 2: I have nothing against people in the Philippines, but I
Speaker 2: would always ask give me an Onshore representative. It was
Speaker 2: a way of saying, I want to speak to an American.
Speaker 2: Bottom line was I have decided that I would prefer
Speaker 2: to lose the tax benefit because that's one of the
Speaker 2: things you get you put away a certain amount of money,
Speaker 2: and that is pre tax income and then you can
Speaker 2: use that as a legitimate deduction. I now am prepared
Speaker 2: to give more money in federal taxes to the federal
Speaker 2: government as opposed to fighting with this company.
Speaker 4: I got a pair of I'm.
Speaker 2: Telling you that I am totally empathetic and understand what
Speaker 2: you're talking about. Let me tell you one final story.
Speaker 2: I bought relatively inexpensive prescription dark glasses for a trip
Speaker 2: I took to Italy last summer with nightside listeners. They
Speaker 2: covered everything but ninety eight cents. You know how much
Speaker 2: the glasses cost eighty two dollars in ninety eight cents.
Speaker 2: They paid for eighty two dollars, but I had to
Speaker 2: write a check to them for ninety eight cents to
Speaker 2: clear my account.
Speaker 5: Okay, so you need.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying is that I know the frustrations of
Speaker 2: dealings with this company, and I had a conversation I'm
Speaker 2: not going to give to that with my doctor and
Speaker 2: basically he said to me, he says it's not worth
Speaker 2: the money, and it isn't. I was spending more time
Speaker 2: trying to recover my own money, my own money. So
Speaker 2: I'm totally with you, But guess what I want. Elizabeth
Speaker 2: Warren as opposed to going out and trying to score
Speaker 2: political points to turn us into socialized medicine in America.
Speaker 2: Bring these countries, these companies to toe. That's my problem
Speaker 2: with Elizabeth Warren.
Speaker 4: And I think that that that makes complete sense, and
Speaker 4: it and it points in the right direction. And I'll
Speaker 4: just make one final statement and I'll let you get
Speaker 4: back to your other callers. I think that in my work,
Speaker 4: I interact over the years with a number of different
Speaker 4: companies and you know, God bless them, but you cannot
Speaker 4: count on companies to police themselves. They just won't. There's
Speaker 4: too many factors involved. That's a subject for another night.
Speaker 4: But you raise a really good look.
Speaker 2: There are there are great there were great companies out there.
Speaker 2: There are good companies, of course there are. Okay, what
Speaker 2: we have to do, just like most people are good people.
Speaker 2: What do we do with the bad people? We prosecute them.
Speaker 5: Okay, well, this is it.
Speaker 4: I mean we you know, there are great companies. The
Speaker 4: majority are wonderful, benevolent company. There are some that are
Speaker 4: disappointing to me. But having said that, the you know,
Speaker 4: the speed limits have to be set by the government,
Speaker 4: and you know, your point is a good one. Who
Speaker 4: do we look to? You know, you have to look
Speaker 4: to the institutions, the government institutions that have been put
Speaker 4: in place to monitor and do their work, whether they're influenced.
Speaker 2: You know, who's been in the US Senates, who's been
Speaker 2: in the US Senate here from Massachusetts twenty thirteen.
Speaker 4: Please Dan, right, okay, you know, all right, I gotta go,
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: I gotta go. Thanks man, appreciate the call. Okay. I
Speaker 2: didn't intend to bring my own personal experiences, but those
Speaker 2: are true, okay, and I feel I have an obligation
Speaker 2: to share them with you. We'll be back on Nightside.
Speaker 2: I want you to share with me. I'll share with
Speaker 2: you coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: nights Side Studios on w b Z News Radio.
Speaker 2: But back we go to the phone. It's gonna go
Speaker 2: to John in Dedham. John, you were next on night Side.
Speaker 5: Welcome they did. There's so so many topics to discuss, said,
Speaker 5: but I ain't be called for Elizabeth Warren. She needs
Speaker 5: to resign immediately. That that you know, these politicians that
Speaker 5: just get to, like you said, score up with political points.
Speaker 5: That's the only reason she said it. But you know
Speaker 5: what you had. You had a segment of a while
Speaker 5: back on customer service. People call and complain that they're
Speaker 5: dealing with Comcast ever source utility cell phone. So if
Speaker 5: somebody pushes me too far, I can do what that
Speaker 5: guy did and say Elizabeth won, Hey, you know, I'm
Speaker 5: paying two undred and fifty co pays, but by Orthopedi's appointment,
Speaker 5: every time might go. But illegals get free health care.
Speaker 5: Our governor is okay with that, My mayor is okay,
Speaker 5: okay with that. Can I say, hey, you're pushing me
Speaker 5: too far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's a road we don't want to go down.
Speaker 2: But you're absolutely right, You're absolutely right, and she you congration. People. Look,
Speaker 2: people rationalize behavior. Most people rationalize their own behavior. When
Speaker 2: I am frustrated at a light and the light has
Speaker 2: turned green, in the car in front of me, uh
Speaker 2: is still sitting at the green light, It's like, what
Speaker 2: color do you want? It's green? Can we go? You know? Uh?
Speaker 2: And I'll if someone says to me, my wife might
Speaker 2: say to me when I'm well, you know, they maybe
Speaker 2: they're thinking about something else and maybe no, you know,
Speaker 2: that's fine, Okay, So I'm gonna but no, you're right,
Speaker 2: that's Look, she's a phony. Okay, she's been a phone
Speaker 2: afforded from day one. But she but she knows how
Speaker 2: to how to how to basically b s people. Uh
Speaker 2: and and and that's what she did there. She saw
Speaker 2: that as an opportunity to try to score some political
Speaker 2: points off off the cold blood and murder of of
Speaker 2: of a person.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry she didcit thing a couple of years ago,
Speaker 5: and it's got exactly how she put it. But she
Speaker 5: said law enforcement in this country is racist. And I
Speaker 5: want to say that. Show me the report that the
Speaker 5: study that says that. Yeah, but but these politicians that
Speaker 5: get to say what they want and have no accountability
Speaker 5: for it. Enough's enough. She needs to resign, no apology.
Speaker 5: You got to go Democrat.
Speaker 2: She won't.
Speaker 5: She won't.
Speaker 2: Basically, the voters, the voters of the mass in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: get to get a chance to judge her every six years.
Speaker 2: Where we're an overwhelmingly democratic state, the Republican Party has
Speaker 2: has not produced strong contenders. Uh, they don't have a
Speaker 2: deep bench. And and we're suffering as a result of
Speaker 2: not having a com you know, most states around the country,
Speaker 2: many states around the country have really two strong parties,
Speaker 2: and if a Democrat isn't doing the job, they'll be
Speaker 2: showing the door. Or if a Republican isn't doing this job,
Speaker 2: good job, they'll be shown.
Speaker 5: I just hope at least a reporter or somebody just
Speaker 5: what you want to say puts her on the spot,
Speaker 5: just holds her accountable for her words, and she has
Speaker 5: to fess up to it one way or Another's there's
Speaker 5: no there's no right there. She has to say how
Speaker 5: wrong she was. At the very least, like I said,
Speaker 5: enough's enough, Elizabeth Warren, you've gotta go, you gotta resign.
Speaker 2: That might be a good bumper strip, Liz. Enough is enough.
Speaker 2: Wean Hey, John, appreciate the call, Thank you much.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: Let me go next to Mike and Danvers if you
Speaker 2: want to jump on about to try to get a
Speaker 2: couple in here. Six one, seven thirty, Hey Mike, welcome
Speaker 2: next on Nightside.
Speaker 6: How are you a dan.
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 6: I have a question in my own comment, Hi, I
Speaker 6: have a question plus my own comment. Where are we
Speaker 6: right now with the trial phrase or a pre trial
Speaker 6: phrase or what I don't even know? Well, talking about the.
Speaker 2: Guy who's in custody in Pennsylvania. All right, yess oh, well,
Speaker 2: they're still in the investigation phase of this. I mean
Speaker 2: they're trying to gather as much a mindustance watching ABC
Speaker 2: night in the news tonight and maybe other networks had
Speaker 2: it as well. But apparently a whole bunch of search
Speaker 2: warrants have been there executed or of being executed tonight.
Speaker 2: They want to get into his computer. I think what
Speaker 2: their concern is is was this guy truly a lone
Speaker 2: wolf or was he acting with with anyone else in
Speaker 2: concert he had I think he had eight thousand dollars
Speaker 2: in the American cash on him US dollars, I don't
Speaker 2: know what denominations, and he had a couple of thousand
Speaker 2: dollars of European cash. There's a lot of money to
Speaker 2: be walking around with.
Speaker 6: So I don't know if his attorney's going to try this.
Speaker 6: I mean, he could maybe try it for another any defense.
Speaker 6: I think no win over near that, I'm sure, But
Speaker 6: I think that I think this kid used this guy
Speaker 6: as as a scapegoat. He was he was po about something,
Speaker 6: maybe something else, and he and he used this.
Speaker 2: I think that's yeah, no, no, no, And you're right.
Speaker 2: I think you're right on the money. And obviously when
Speaker 2: you talk about this, you talk about means, opportunity and
Speaker 2: motive what they call in criminal defense work. What was
Speaker 2: his back? You know what the means was it was
Speaker 2: a gun that he actually took with him from New York.
Speaker 2: Apparently they've been able to link the gun to the
Speaker 2: to the bullet casings that were on the ground, so
Speaker 2: that's a problem for the kid. Opportunity, Yeah, the opportunity
Speaker 2: was he got the guy shot him in the back
Speaker 2: from fifteen twenty feet away. Coward that he was, you know,
Speaker 2: and motive. Now, the question is what's the motive? Is
Speaker 2: he they're saying that he's had all sorts of medical issues.
Speaker 2: Does he feel that that the insurance companies didn't cover
Speaker 2: some of his bills? I don't know, they'll find out
Speaker 2: about that. But then the other thing the investigation is
Speaker 2: looking at right now is was there anybody who helped
Speaker 2: him in advance or anyone who helped him after it?
Speaker 6: I mean this guy, yeah, yeah, he's.
Speaker 2: He's what he's not immnsa candidate for him to basically,
Speaker 2: I guess he was still wearing the same clothes or
Speaker 2: or or similar clothes, and.
Speaker 5: That's what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, no, no, no, no, you're you're you're
Speaker 2: right on that. And the next part that they got
Speaker 2: to they have to, you know, extradite him back to
Speaker 2: New York. That's not a problem. All you do is
Speaker 2: they they develop enough evidence, they have the Governor of
Speaker 2: New York sign of governor's warrant that served on the
Speaker 2: governor of Pennsylvania, and then he will instruct the district
Speaker 2: attorney to turn this guy over physically to He could
Speaker 2: have waived his rights and could have gone back on
Speaker 2: his own, but he's just making it more more difficult.
Speaker 2: I mean, no, the problem is that he's he's nuts.
Speaker 2: But when you have someone like Elizabeth Warren, are you
Speaker 2: United States senator who either thinks she's so smart that
Speaker 2: she somehow can link this and score political points off
Speaker 2: of it, and people aren't gonna notice. I mean, that's
Speaker 2: what's frustrating. She is our one of our two United
Speaker 2: States senators and she's laughing stock tonight across the nation,
Speaker 2: as are her voters. That people who voted for her.
Speaker 6: I didn't see her speech, but I've heard her in
Speaker 6: the past.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you what I can play it for
Speaker 2: you right now. I got enough time. Here we go.
Speaker 2: Rob just played this, so you know anybody's listening. This
Speaker 2: is what she said about this yesterday. And then she
Speaker 2: eventually backtracked on her she was on where else MSNBC
Speaker 2: cut twenty rub.
Speaker 3: So look terrible for individuals, but stop and think overall
Speaker 3: about the social contract. Get a part of the deal
Speaker 3: in how we've kept this democracy, this economy, this country
Speaker 3: on a fairly steady path for more than two hundred
Speaker 3: years has been that those at the top pay a
Speaker 3: little more in taxes, are a little less rich than
Speaker 3: they otherwise might be, and everybody else at least gets
Speaker 3: a chance. And what happens when you turn this into
Speaker 3: the billionaires run at all is they get the opportunity
Speaker 3: to squeeze every last penny. Yeah, and look, we'll say
Speaker 3: it over and over. Violence is never the answer of
Speaker 3: this guy gets a trial who's allegedly killed the CEO
Speaker 3: of United Health. But you can only push people so
Speaker 3: far and then they start to take matters into their
Speaker 3: own hands. Yeah, we need regulation in part to win
Speaker 3: those guys in.
Speaker 2: And then on Wednesday, basically she walked that back a
Speaker 2: little bit.
Speaker 6: And yeah, she did walk them back to lightly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, a little bit. So remember yeah, next time
Speaker 2: she's up for reelection.
Speaker 6: Yeah, have a good night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike, thanks very much, appreciate you call. All right,
Speaker 2: we come back. We're going to talk with eight. Thanks Mike.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk with a criminologist. He's been a
Speaker 2: guest on this show before, the same as doctor Scott Bond.
Speaker 2: He focuses on some of the worst serial killers, imagine,
Speaker 2: but I wanted to get him to talk about a
Speaker 2: little bit about Luigi Mangioni as well. In this case,
Speaker 2: we'll talk about both. He's a really interesting guest, and
Speaker 2: then later on tonight we'll talk about those drones of
Speaker 2: in New Jersey. I wonder why coming back on the Nightside.