Got hit with a sudden $2,900 emergency room bill last month. called the hospital billing office to ask for an itemized breakdown before paying a dime.
rep on the phone said: 'sure, we can mail that out, but your account is currently coded under our uninsured hardship discount.'
two days later, the itemized bill arrives in the mail. the total jumped from $2,900 to $8,400.
i called back completely confused.
the rep calmly explained: 'requesting an itemized review removes the automatic hardship adjustment. you are now billed at our standard chargemaster rate.'
a $4,600 penalty just for asking to see what services were actually performed. healthcare pricing in this country is an extortion racket where demanding transparency triggers a financial attack.
Sylvester Stallone doesn't own Rocky. He has to ask a 95-year-old man for permission to play a character he invented, and that's who he means by "the other fellow."
The guy's name is Irwin Winkler, and the story of how he ended up owning Rocky instead of Stallone is wild.
Back in 1975, Stallone was a broke actor with $106 in his bank account. He wrote Rocky in three and a half days. Studios loved it and offered him up to $360,000 for the script, but they wanted Burt Reynolds or Ryan O'Neal in the lead. Stallone turned all of it down and took about $75,000 plus points so he could play Rocky himself.
Great call for his career. Terrible call for ownership, because the rights went to the producers, Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff.
When Rocky won Best Picture in 1977, Stallone sat in the audience and watched the two producers walk onstage to collect the Oscar for the movie he wrote.
Fifty years later the franchise is at nearly $1.8 billion across nine films, and Stallone's cut is an acting paycheck. Winkler still controls the character.
It boiled over in 2022 when a Drago spinoff got announced and nobody even told Stallone. He went off publicly, called Winkler a "parasite" picking clean the bones of characters he created, and admitted the thing that actually stings. All he ever wanted was a piece of Rocky to leave his kids, and he never got it.
So yeah, he'll do Creed 4 with Michael B. Jordan. He just refuses to work with the man who bought his life's work off him for $75,000 when he was desperate, and honestly, who would.
My neighbor's car got totaled in a hit-and-run last week, so he went to use his insurance payout of $11,000 to buy a clean, 10-year-old Honda Civic.
Every single lot he visited told him the exact same thing: they don't sell cars under $15,000 for cash anymore.
One sales rep pulled him aside and admitted:
"Our corporate managers lock all budget cars in the back unless you agree to place a $2,000 down payment and sign a 72-month loan."
When my neighbor pointed out that financing an 11-year-old car for 6 years means paying $18,000 total for an $11,000 vehicle, the rep just shrugged.
They don't want working people buying reliable transportation outright.
They want everyone locked into an inescapable monthly bill on cars that will break down before the loan even ends.
Look at the mentions under this video
People were upset with LeBron initially not wanting to play without the fans in attendance when he said this, fast forward to 2026 and those same mfs are saying the bubble ring doesn’t count because HE won
Hypocrisy at its finest lol
Looking ahead to PIT’s matchup vs. the Bucs in Week 6, Pittsburgh’s run blocking up front is going to face its toughest test yet, as Tampa has a pair of excellent run stuffing DTs in Vita Vea & A’Shawn Robinson.
Pending the results of MNF tonight, the Bucs currently have the 5th best rushing defense in the NFL per EPA/rush allowed.
They’re also known for playing man coverage on the back end (something PIT has struggled against this year) & Todd Bowles can cook up some creative pressure looks, which will stress PIT’s pass protection.
Long story short, I’m not expecting an easy walk through the park to get to 4-2 this Sunday…
#HereWeGo
@VladTheInflator This is why being a leftist is the only way foward we need dramatic worker action it needs to happen and it’s only happening through one political faction like it or not
Real America's Voice interviewed a guy at the Trump rally in Ohio who blasted Trump for peddling "lies and garbage." He went so hard on Trump and JD Vance that they cut the interview short.