Steve Villarreal

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

Here is crazy that pretty much every F500 CEO is complicit in

1. They self insure - good thing
2. They hire a third party administrator that is owned by a Too Big To Care insurance company. - Really Bad
3. They allow that TPA to deny care determined by the doctors that the TPA selected to be in network - Horrifically bad
4. They don’t tell the CEOs about the denied care , when it’s their money and ultimately their decision as to whether they should pay for care - more horrific
5. Employees and their families get sicker while the denial is appealed. Again, when the ceo has no clue. Even if the cost to help the patient could a small amount. - insane

Big self insured companies do dumb shit that makes the cost of care in this country far higher than it should be.

It’s not their core competency and they often listen to consultants whose interests are not aligned with theirs.

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

Actually it means that we have run out of time believing Ideology is a Strategy.

We have to take steps that are not based on slogans.

We have to drive down spending and drive up revenues with preparation, facts and realization that there things that can be done.

Remove regulation is not a strategy. More government is not a strategy.

The math is the math. We have to reduce the deficit and spending.

We need to raise taxes on the wealthy without diminishing investment that creates jobs,raises and improved productivity

Take the top tax bracket to 44 pct for earned income.

Increase the top corporate income taxes and add an AMT.

increase the min wage for any company with more than some threshold in sales and or ebitda, to $20, indexed by dma

Pay social security tax on earnings from 1m to 5m.

Require across the board spending reductions for all federal agencies of 1pct a year for the next 5 years

Increase the buy back tax to 4 pct for any public company that doesn't pay at least $25 an hour. Incest the money if you don't like it

Pass the break up big medicine bill. Check my timeline for all the other healthcare recommendations

Hate on this all you want.

IMO, The midterms were not a confirmation or rebuke of Dems or Republicans. It was a rebuke of the way we do politics and run this country.

We need to be honest. Transparent. And stop pushing ideology

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

You obviously didn't read all my posts. Zero copay <> Zero Cost. The difference is that premiums are paid to Treasury, not Insurance companies who already get 73 pct of their revenues from taxpayers.

As far as payment for the people who do the work and take the risk, unlike other suggestions for universal care, you must have missed the part of including all stakeholders into a commission that allows them to represent their interests and doesnt default to government decision making.

What's more. The big vertically integrated Insurance carriers, and dominant hospitals have reached a level of scale and regulatory capture that the people of this country have little to no say in their own care, because of healthcare economics.

It's a downward spiral, or worse outcomes, for anyone not already wealthy. That is not sustainable. It leads to societal disruption when people with fewer resources can't get the care they need.

For my fellow capitalists - healthy people are good for business. Sick people are bad for business. Particularly when anyone can walk into an emergency room and get the stabilizing care they need, at taxpayer expense.

The economics say it's better to keep all of us healthy.

The hard part isn't figuring out the goal. The challenge is how do we put together an implementable plan that gets all stakeholders in the care chain what they need, but not all that they want.

Moving to universal care can't and won't be about replicating a menu of items from what other countries do.
To your point, we dominate investment in health care. The world depends on us for innovation. Americans depend on our medical innovators. We see people with n of 1 diseases raising money in hopes of finding a unique therapy. Much of which is developed in the USA. Along with other medical innovations

We can't dismantle that effort, just to pretend we can copy what other countries do with universal care.

And as far as who is who. Put me in the category of people who don't give a shit what you think. I'll do what I think is right every time. Call it the virtue of selfishness. It makes me happy to fuck up abusive systems that prevent people from receiving the health care they need.

That's what entrepreneurs do.

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

For care that FQHCs can’t handle, it’s time to standardize what non profit hospitals are required to do.

They are all required to offer Financial Assistance Plans to patients. As part of this alternative to reinstating the PTC, it’s time to require them to standardize those plans in a manner that supports those who lost the PTCs.

1st is pricing that is set at 150% of Medicare. Along with other pricing considerations for Jcode and hospital administered meds and standardized pricing for extended hospital stays. .

2nd is a financing plan that is also standardized. Make it the same for every hospital so that it is easy for everyone to understand and to know what to expect.

3. The patient financial thresholds should be standardized as well. It shouldn’t be different by hospital.

Notice I have not mentioned insurance premiums at all.

I don’t know the exact dollars that would be spent if the PTC was reinstated. So it’s hard to set numbers for everything right here. Plus there is a lot I’m sure the CBO would want to say.

Hopefully there is a way we can make premiums paid directly to the treasury.

Rather than having pre authorizations, we can use trad Medicare standards and that infrastructure to audit for fraud and abuse

Bottom line for all of this. We don’t need the big insurance companies any more. We can use FQHCs and clinics and others that are qualified and want to opt in to the same pricing (I should have included them in the previous tweet )

We can finally get value for the taxpayer subsidies that Non Profit Hospitals get. And BTW, if it were up to me, I would require them to publish every single contract they sign. It’s our money subsidizing them. Nothing they have contractually is proprietary. That’s a lie the big carriers force on the entire industry

As always, I know this is far from perfect. So all comments are welcome

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

Dear @RepJeffries, pls do not extend the PTC. That money goes directly to the big insurance companies. The law allows them to keep 15pct of the 26b as profit. But it gets worse.

They can game that number with their subsidiaries.
They will deny care and make patients fight to get the care they need.

With or without the PTC the deductibles are unaffordable, and the max patient OOP is worse. If you can't pay the deductible, all you did is give the money for free to the insurance companies that we should break up

What should we do ? See my next week for some suggestions

[Object Zero @Object_Zero_]

Last Week... I hinted that I'm not an anonymous X account and have been doing the most important civilizational thing for this post-foundation AI era.

The industrialisation of the mass manufacture of power infrastructure.

That means marshalling steel, copper, silicon, water and uranium. And it means successfully executing major capital projects in this domain. That's a lot to ask.

There aren't many people with a bankable track record here, and fewer still who think and act on civilisation scale solutions.

What does good look like? What is exceptional?

This week more people are really seeing that the old ways of deploying major infrastructure are broken and obsolete, the status quo doesn't meet the deployment ambition this moment in history demands, and it's now straining the social contract.

I've known this moment was coming, and known well enough and far enough ahead to:

1. Hire a world class team (the 1/1 people)
2. Build and test the technology (did it in stealth)
3. Make it insurable, bankable, executable... at scale.
4. Gain command of an attention surface, in the public square

Go read my timeline, you're in it, history is now follow it.

We know how to do this, because we have done it before, and will do it again.

And everyone will benefit from it.

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

That’s pretty funny. He is a genius financial engineer. The split is great for shareholders. Changes nothing for patients or anyone who pays for insurance or care.

He is posturing to be able to say “See, we broke up our company. “. Don’t fall for it @HawleyMO @SenWarren

We need to pass the bill now more than ever

[Phillip J Anderson @Phil_J_Anderson]

If you were to drop a pencil right now, does it float toward the ceiling?

No, it will fall to the ground.

I've explained the law of economic rent is to economics what gravity is to science.

I explained that in my latest podcast

https://t.co/ajBhdBmGc5

[John @CryptoGodJohn]

People are severely underestimating the fly wheel effect that can happen to Manifest. If Mani Markets generates high volume & revenue the flywheel effect is going to be massive.

$MANIFEST will be bought daily on the open market. The manifest that is bought will be burnt. A supply shock will hit the market.

The best thing is that with $MANIFEST it will operate completely co dependent of the crypto markets. It will trade directly to the use of the platform and its revenue.

Sports are everyday
Summer Olympics in 2027

Gambling & prediction markets are taking over. It will only continue to get bigger.

The snowball effect for parabolic growth is there. Prediction markets are set to be a multi trillion dollar industry by 2030

This has multi billion dollar potential if we get the revenue, volume and users. This has the potential to be one of the most epic plays in crypto at these levels.

Now it’s up for the team to continue to crush the beta & make the necessary updates for Manifest to become the FOMO of prediction markets. If the team nails it the potential here is multi billions.

Only in beta so a long way to go but the long term potential is there if you see the vision

This is a generational bid zone

[Vijay 𐤊ailash, CFA, CFP® @realvijayk]

Hey @kevinolearytv, do you want to find your next startup investment in the crypto space?

We're bringing builders and developers together for an incredible event.

We'd love to see you at the hottest crypto conference of 2027 (on a cruise). I think you'll find some worthwhile opportunities 🤝

[Vijay 𐤊ailash, CFA, CFP® @realvijayk]

Grok understands the limitations of Bitcoin

I wonder when more humans will too?

[Chef Andrew Gruel @ChefGruel]

Just keep it simple and rotate a few basics - taco night, roasted chicken with potatoes, pasta, burgers, a onepot soup or stew, and a leftover night. Switch the proteins, veggies and sauces each week. 5-6 different recipes with different protein and sauce and you’re good to go!

[Object Zero @Object_Zero_]

Mask Off Moment

This is an anonymous account I use to post a bunch of deep tech content on X covering heavy industry, light industry, technology trends, industrial bottlenecks, weird explainers and esoteric insights. iykyk.

A lot of very talented people (many of whom run amazing companies) DM me saying please keep posting “this is the best content on X”. I get DMs from VCs asking about companies, and DMs from LPs asking about industrial and economic theories. This is all very flattering, and whilst I sometimes post a bit sporadically I do try and make the effort to tap out a new post most days.

The quality of people who follow @object_zero_ is frankly phenomenal, it’s a real privilege to have this channel in my pocket. 40k followers including world leaders, centi-billionaires, serial inventors and entrepreneurs, world renowned scientists, and engineers. I would say it’s a mix, but the reality is that it’s not a mix at all, it’s an extremely high mean and median.

I have posted about shipbuilding, nuclear power, the Kroll process, silicon carbide, laser interferometry, heavy steel forging, machine learning, design engineering, CFD, manufacturing methods, power transmission and HVDC. I post about energy and commodities and industry and global macroeconomics. I post about mines and prospecting, minerals on the sea bed and drilling and producing hydrocarbon basins.

Don’t worry… I’m not leaving. I’m not ill and I’m not asking for anything.

A quick apology… I would post here more often, except I don’t have the time. I am able to post with a bit more breadth and depth because I am genuinely engaged in these things. I don’t want to be presumptive, but I think the people who have reached out to talk to me about their work would attest to this.

I simplify a lot of the posts so I don’t collapse the audience, but if you reach out in the comments or DM you can get much sharper commentary.

So what is this post?

Well, it���s time that I start talking about what I am actually doing irl, who I am, what I am engaged in. Some people on X already know some loose details, some people have met me as Object Zero.

But irl, I work about 5,000 hours a year and have done so for 20 years, I believe hard work puts you in a privileged place. It changes you.

Over the years I’ve invented and developed new industrial technologies, I’ve built big things, I’ve executed major capital projects. I feel I understand what the world needs in the 2030s and where we are falling short.

If you believe you are capable of such things, then you have an obligation to society to go and do them.

I am confident I know what it’s possible to do, and what it takes to get it done.

I intend to solve our energy infrastructure, generation and transmission and the big BTM loads that are emerging.

I’ve already hired the best people in the world for this, people who have architected $6bn assets, people who have commanded $40bn fleets. I’ve hired the best research faculty from the best university.

This isn’t a game.

We’ve already built and tested the first prototypes, we are already completing the permission processes, the licences and the permits. All the elements already exist, it just needs 21st Century system integration.

Because technology has changed, the past is already obsolete, the genie is out of the bottle, the 21st century is getting built on a Western tech stack and/or an Eastern tech stack. There is no in between, there is no middle ground. Both sides have strengths and weaknesses, but if we want freedom we’re going to have to earn it again.

We are going to build the biggest products (by mass) that have ever been manufactured, we are going to build a lot of them.

They’re going to change the world, and we’re going to get more of this…

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

I'm often asked what to pay attention to there are two big things:

First, pay attention to the bond market and the cost of money, because that is the backbone to everything. Keep an eye on the Treasury yield and the spreads in relationship to that.

Second, pay attention to the concentration that is existing in one thing right now: AI. Whether or not you think AI is in a bubble, you have to recognize the amount of concentration risk. There is a lot stuck on one thing for the economy and the markets.

Because all of that is risky, I want to have less concentration on one thing and more diversification right now.

I provide a more thorough explanation on the US bond market in my latest article. You can find it here: https://t.co/Bw6HvbIxLk

#BondMarket #AI #Investing #RayDalio

[Ricky Gervais @rickygervais]

Americans!
As you know, Dutch Barn will be available in The US from next month. Do you think I need to change my style of advertising for your country?

[Bill Ackman @BillAckman]

Premise:

Incentives drive all human behavior.

The corollary:

How to destroy a country:

A vast social security and support system that serves as a magnet for those who would rather not work.

An open immigration policy that does not screen immigrants to determine their ability and willingness to provide for themselves and their families.

An open immigration policy that does not screen for political and/or religious ideologies that are a threat to the country.

Economic incentives large enough to incentivize immigrants on the state dole to have large numbers of children, but insufficient for educated and economically productive mothers to be able to quit to raise a family.

The declining fertility of the most educated and productive women due to their delay to begin a family as a result of their desire and/or need to advance their careers, among other reasons, to live a life they deem consistent with their educational achievements and/or to repay their student debts.

Amnesty programs that give citizenship and voting power to illegal immigrants without consideration of their economic productivity or their threat to the country due to their religious or political ideologies.

The changing demographics and increased population due to the above factors.

The state responding to protests by increasing social support.

The continued failure to punish and hold accountable violent and looting rioters.

Government managed by a massive and growing unelected bureaucracy.

Government fraud, waste, and abuse contributed to ballooning budgets.

Anti-business legislation that makes it difficult for businesses to compete in a global marketplace being disrupted by AI, including restrictions on firing even poorly performing employees.

Overly burdensome, globally uncompetitive, corporate taxation.

Continuous increases in personal taxes to raise funds to provide for the rapidly growing welfare state.

The substantial majority of the tax burden levied on a small percentage of the population.

A growing percentage of the electorate paying no taxes and receiving welfare.

The introduction or threat of a wealth tax including the taxation of unrealized gains, i.e., taxes on paper wealth.

The flight of the most productive business builders and highest taxpayers to lower tax countries with lesser security concerns.

A growing percentage of the electorate voting for candidates that support increased welfare and laws favorable to, and/or that match the cultural and ideological needs and desires of a growing unproductive immigrant population.

The rapid rise in anti-semitism and inadequate efforts to address this hatred.

Increased borrowing by the state to fund the growing social burden.

Higher sovereign interest rates due to all of the above.

The resulting need to reduce expenditures to make the math work.

Increasingly violent protests that make life less livable for the productive and law abiding citizens leading to their accelerated departure.

And so on…

[Dr Shawn Baker 🥩 @SBakerMD]

Imagine following nearly 13 million real people for more than 10 years just to see what cholesterol level helps them live the longest. That is exactly what Korean scientists did in a giant 2019 study. They tracked 12.8 million adults who had check-ups between 2001 and 2004, and they kept watching until 2013. More than 694,000 people died during that long stretch.
The results were clear and surprising. Cholesterol and death formed a U-shape. Very low cholesterol was linked to higher death rates. So was very high cholesterol. The sweet spot for the longest life was 210 to 249 mg/dL for most adults. That is higher than many doctors call “ideal.” Younger people had a slightly lower best range, but still not the super-low numbers often pushed today.
Because the study lasted so many years, reverse causality is less likely to explain the low-cholesterol danger. Reverse causality means a hidden illness might lower your cholesterol right before it kills you. With more than a decade of follow-up, early sickness cannot easily account for the extra deaths seen in people who started with low cholesterol. The pattern held across ages and for both men and women.
The huge number of people—almost the entire adult population of a country—makes the findings hard to ignore. Smaller studies can be wrong by chance. This one is massive. It shows that moderately higher total cholesterol, not the lowest possible number, went with the best chance of living longer in this large group.
In short, the biggest study of its kind found that cholesterol levels in the low-to-mid 200s were tied to the longest lives, and the long tracking time makes it tougher to blame the higher death rates at low levels on reverse causality alone.

[Zach @CryptoZachLA]

$BONK has been counted out by most, but its an underdog currently. The potential ROI is a no brainer.

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

How dietitians fix constipation.

Step 1: eat more fibre.
Step 2: eat more fibre, but brown.
Step 3: eat the skin, the husk and the bit you used to throw away.
Step 4: stir bran into the fibre.
Step 5: drink two litres of water to move the bran.
Step 6: buy the fibre in a sachet.
Step 7: a yogurt with bacteria in it, to eat the fibre for you.
Step 8: a syrup to float the fibre.
Step 9: a stimulant, to beat the bowel until it gives the fibre up.
Step 10: a squat stool, so the fibre can leave at the correct angle.
Step 11: a specialist, who asks whether you have tried fibre.
Step 12: a tablet for the bloating caused by steps 1 to 11.

How constipation is fixed.

Step 1: stop eating fibre.
Step 2: eat fat. Butter, dripping, cream, the yolk, mince with the fat left in.
Step 3: nothing. It is finished.

Fat empties the gallbladder, and bile is the laxative the body brews for itself.

That is why the roast dinner has a reputation the muesli never earned.

It was tested in 2012, on 63 people who had been constipated for years.

The ones taken off fibre completely went from once every 3.75 days to once a day. Not one was still bloated.

The ones kept on the full dose were all still bloated, still straining, and still being told to add bran.

A plant cannot be digested. The advice is to fill a blocked bowel with what cannot be digested until something gives.

The only thing that has ever given is the patient.

[Justin Brave💡 @justinbrave21]

The internet is 99% garbage. But if you know where to look, it’s an absolute goldmine.
Here are 50 legendary websites that feel illegal to know and will save you thousands of hours👇

1. https://t.co/BKQKtCpfmF — Watch the world via live satellite imagery
2. https://t.co/skHM6iilRk — See every plane currently in the sky
3. https://t.co/3wHLr5Crg0 — Track all ships at sea in real time
4. https://t.co/wneZoYlvLt — Live map of winds and storms
5. https://t.co/th5qTv52O1 — Watch lightning strikes hitting Earth in real time
6. https://t.co/ugJruuAACv — Live list of recent earthquakes
7. https://t.co/KjzFm8N2Vf — Ocean cables carrying the internet
8. https://t.co/ihBKAFPTgk — Watch forests disappear from space
9. https://t.co/QO76fqlnqY — The world's statistics, second by second
10. https://t.co/6aNOFkqc0c — Current number of tweets and searches being posted
11. https://t.co/Ng5YgeP1em — Compare the true sizes of countries
12. https://t.co/8nxdhZQV3I — Maps from centuries ago
13. https://t.co/KxBUC8vSl0 — Archive of 150,000 historical maps
14. https://t.co/jCKAhsZeWZ — World map drawn by volunteers
15. https://t.co/d5QWs5nRf2 — Look out the window of a random person around the world
16. https://t.co/RKjjmyrsVb — Virtual walks through cities
17. https://t.co/foY7sok6b8 — Teleport to a random spot on Earth
18. https://t.co/ZJ889ivqJL — Catalog of the world's strangest places
19. https://t.co/wVGZkiJzPW — Interactive knowledge experiences
20. https://t.co/j1VNMfZb26 — Scale journey from atom to universe
21. https://t.co/CvOBtlatbG — Explore the solar system in 3D
22. https://t.co/RnlofaWZQo — Real sky map in your browser
23. https://t.co/1PlQgAjJCs — NASA's astronomy picture of the day
24. https://t.co/2RuTZvWLiB — NASA's entire visual archive, free
25. https://t.co/beEkHBhqUT — Visual articles told through data
26. https://t.co/RMccQyC8He — The state of the world with real data
27. https://t.co/gNH6mlA69d — What we mistakenly think we know about the world
28. https://t.co/ZrVElnZiNA — Visualizing complex data
29. https://t.co/ahtXNpoz2M — World Bank's open data
30. https://t.co/ShMYouwDwn — Turkey's official statistics database
31. https://t.co/GqEd2SxLvM — Archive of millions of books, films, and software
32. https://t.co/8ijFqv8DuN — 70,000 free books whose copyrights have expired
33. https://t.co/Gt6dp7heDe — Record of every book in the world
34. https://t.co/LogFrI5jlv — U.S. Library of Congress digital archive
35. https://t.co/O9XxbTPS1x — Europe's cultural heritage archive
36. https://t.co/lQg0HnIwh5 — America's digital library collection
37. https://t.co/TcOIZ5lCj1 — Tour museums from home
38. https://t.co/6wMBrfTIET — Download artworks in high resolution
39. https://t.co/trYjdzyr6U — Archive of 250,000 artworks
40. https://t.co/Jgz9AbgAKa — Forgotten visual treasures of history
41. https://t.co/y4axNFFkqQ — Free archive of culture and education
42. https://t.co/wkw7PgUdb9 — Met Museum's open collection
43. https://t.co/AZ98yxOTNa — Family tree of music genres
44. https://t.co/UWyCzSRkHo — Pick a country and decade to listen to that era
45. https://t.co/Q0NMpmavgo — Turn Wikipedia edits into audio
46. https://t.co/lT2YvOjIlU — Random knowledge well
47. https://t.co/tukI2JDkMX — Time, sunrises, and sky events
48. https://t.co/A8xsuxYYwL — Live stream of science news
49. https://t.co/RrqPEgxlzB — Free preprints of scientific papers
50. https://t.co/4ZyBN6HX2S — Visualize data with live code

Save this. You’ll definitely need some of these later. 🔖
Follow @justinbrave21 for more useful websites, AI tools & tech resources.