Anargyros Tomaras

Girl Dad | Husband | Software Engineer | Distributed Systems @ Microsoft

[Jeremy @jeremyct]

Just got off the phone with my college roommate.

His daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in January.

He has insurance. Good insurance. The kind you feel safe having.

7 months later:
Savings: wiped out. 401k: cashed early. Penalties and all. House: refinanced to cover the gaps insurance decided weren’t their problem.

He told me he’s not the same person anymore.

Said watching your child fight for her life while simultaneously fighting an insurance company over coverage codes does something to you that doesn’t go away.

They did everything right.
Two incomes. No debt. Responsible their whole lives.

One diagnosis undid all of it in 7 months.

And somewhere a health insurance CEO is getting a $30 million bonus this quarter.

I don’t know how people defend this system with a straight face.

I really don’t.

[Kosmas Marinakis @Kos_Marinakis]

Έχει μια ώρα που ανέβηκε. Γίνεται χαμός. https://t.co/cz1KFw2aD3

[Kosmas Marinakis @Kos_Marinakis]

ΜΟΝΟ ΔΕΔΟΜΕΝΑ από διεθνείς οργανισμούς, για να βγάλεις εσύ τα συμπεράσματα. Α, και κάτι άλλο: μην περιμένεις από τις πλατφόρμες... Αν δεν ποστάρεις ΕΣΥ αυτό το βίντεο, στα ψιλά θα περάσει πάλι. https://t.co/dV6BtRVMCW

[Suhr Majesty @ULTRA_MAJESTY]

Timothy Michael Randall, 29, was killed during a traffic stop conducted by Rusk County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Shane Iverson along SH 64 E.

It took Timothy's mother around 2 years to get this bodycam footage released to the public.

[Melanie D'Arrigo @DarrigoMelanie]

$7.3 billion stolen from cancer patients — and not one criminal charge for a health insurance executive.

This is what it looks like when health insurance lobbyists pay off the politicians who write our laws.

[Anargyros Tomaras @tomahawk1187]

@EvanKail Because…money

[Alex Cole @acnewsitics]

Rich MAGA: College education is woke!

MAGA: YAY!!! We hate college!

Rich MAGA: We have to hire educated foreigners because you MFs are too dumb!

MAGA: Wait What???

[kira 👾 @kirawontmiss]

i find it so funny that companies successfully brainwashed the working class to blame customers for not tipping and not the employer for not paying livable wages

[Kareem Carr, Ph.D. @kareem_carr]

Beginning to understand why so many Americans are obsessed with trans issues and panicking about being replaced. They think there are 21x more trans people, 27x more muslims, 15x more jews, 5x more asians, 3x more black people, and 2x more immigrants than there actually are.

[Mark Cuban @mcuban]

Sometimes it feels really good to get it right @costplusdrugs

Sent: Thursday, November 21, 2024
Subject: Sincere thank you from a neurologist and his patient!

Dear Mr. Cuban, 

My name is David Klein.  I am a neurologist in Chicago at Advocate Healthcare.  I hope you don't mind; I got your contact info from my younger sister Eva Roytburg, whom you had a correspondence with for Fortune magazine.  I am emailing you to express both my and my patient's sincere gratitude for your website/pharmacy https://t.co/HSbdDXpdy9!

My patient is a 69-year-old wonderful gentleman whom I saw in the hospital just over a month ago and diagnosed a fairly rare but serious condition of hemi-chorea.  The symptoms are constant uncontrollable movement of his left arm and leg all day every day which only go away when he sleeps.  Because of this, he was unable to walk except for the use of a walker AND a one-person assist, he was unable to eat properly, he was unable to work as a truck driver and of course unable to drive.  This is a difficult condition to diagnose and to treat.  Luckily, he was able to have significant control of symptoms with a once daily pill called tetrabenazine.   Not so luckily, his insurance would not cover the medication despite over 3 appeals and constant attempts I made to demonstrate medical necessity.  Despite this, the family scraped together $1000 for a month supply, and his symptoms dramatically improved to the point that he could walk with just a cane.  I had tried all the alternatives which were all second line medications anyway, and not only were they not effective, they gave him intolerable side effects, one of which if you would believe is actually a second movement disorder.  

I called multiple charitable foundations, I scoured goodrx, I even called the government to almost intervene with his insurance plan.  I was despondent.  Finally, one of my former junior residents sent me the link to your pharmacy https://t.co/HSbdDXpdy9 and I found the medication for $25 a month.  Just in the nick of time, as he has 3 pills left. 

When I called him and his wife to tell them the good news last night, he exclaimed "God bless you and God bless this company!"

I couldn't have said it better myself.  

From the bottom of my heart, thank you! This pharmacy and this access to medication when it was not available any other way is truly a blessing!

All the best,

Dr. Klein

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

GM just announced a round of layoffs, impacting 1,000 workers.

But the company reported Q3 earnings that put it on track for record profits this year.

Its CEO received $27M in compensation in 2023.

And GM announced $6B in stock buybacks this June.

Textbook corporate greed.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Why don't we discuss the fact that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos & Larry Ellison own more wealth than the bottom HALF of Americans?

Part of the answer is that the people who own the media are doing phenomenally well. They aren't interested in highlighting massive levels of inequality.

[Arnold Schwarzenegger @Schwarzenegger]

I don’t really do endorsements. I’m not shy about sharing my views, but I hate politics and don’t trust most politicians.

I also understand that people want to hear from me because I am not just a celebrity, I am a former Republican Governor.

My time as Governor taught me to love policy and ignore politics. I’m proud of the work I did to help clean up our air, create jobs, balance the budget, make the biggest infrastructure investment in state history, and take power from the politicians and give it back to the people when it comes to our redistricting process and our primaries in California.

That’s policy. It requires working with the other side, not insulting them to win your next election, and I know it isn’t sexy to most people, but I love it when I can help make people’s lives better with policies, like I still do through my institute at USC, where we fight for clean air and stripping the power from the politicians who rig the system against the people.

Let me be honest with you: I don’t like either party right now. My Republicans have forgotten the beauty of the free market, driven up deficits, and rejected election results. Democrats aren’t any better at dealing with deficits, and I worry about their local policies hurting our cities with increased crime.

It is probably not a surprise that I hate politics more than ever, which, if you are a normal person who isn’t addicted to this crap, you probably understand.

I want to tune out.

But I can’t. Because rejecting the results of an election is as un-American as it gets. To someone like me who talks to people all over the world and still knows America is the shining city on a hill, calling America is a trash can for the world is so unpatriotic, it makes me furious.

And I will always be an American before I am a Republican.

That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.

I’m sharing it with all of you because I think there are a lot of you who feel like I do. You don’t recognize our country. And you are right to be furious.

For decades, we’ve talked about the national debt. For decades, we’ve talked about comprehensive immigration reform that secures the border while fixing our broken immigration system. And Washington does nothing.

The problems just keep rolling, and we all keep getting angrier, because the only people that benefit from problems aren’t you, the people. The only people that benefit from this crap are the politicians who prefer having talking points to win elections to the public service that will make Americans’ lives better.

It is a just game to them. But it is life for my fellow Americans. We should be pissed!

But a candidate who won’t respect your vote unless it is for him, a candidate who will send his followers to storm the Capitol while he watches with a Diet Coke, a candidate who has shown no ability to work to pass any policy besides a tax cut that helped his donors and other rich people like me but helped no one else else, a candidate who thinks Americans who disagree with him are the bigger enemies than China, Russia, or North Korea - that won’t solve our problems.

It will just be four more years of bullshit with no results that makes us angrier and angrier, more divided, and more hateful.

We need to close the door on this chapter of American history, and I know that former President Trump won’t do that. He will divide, he will insult, he will find new ways to be more un-American than he already has been, and we, the people, will get nothing but more anger.

That’s enough reason for me to share my vote with all of you. I want to move forward as a country, and even though I have plenty of disagreements with their platform, I think the only way to do that is with Harris and Walz.

Vote this week. Turn the page and put this junk behind us.

And even if you disagree with me, vote, because that’s what we do as Americans. https://t.co/eHFZ723I4H

[Anargyros Tomaras @tomahawk1187]

@PYLBuzz Those are the exact numbers he used though right? Except of enrollment he used the real actual count of kids that showed up. Where is the lie?

[Lina Khan @linamkhan]

As of today, @FTC's final rule banning fake online reviews and testimonials has come into effect.

If you encounter any of these prohibited practices, you can report them to @FTC at: https://t.co/k0O6juZImU

[Lina Khan @linamkhan]

1. People rely on online reviews to make informed purchases and compare products.

When companies use fake reviews, consumers get misled and honest businesses lose out.

Today @FTC finalized a rule to prohibit fake reviews.

https://t.co/llOOBvPRHY

[President Biden Archived @POTUS46Archive]

For years there’s been no check on how high or how fast Big Pharma can raise drug prices.

Let’s call this for what it is: a rip-off.

That's why @VP and I finally beat Big Pharma with the first 10 drugs selected for Medicare price negotiation – and we'll continue fighting back.

[Anargyros Tomaras @tomahawk1187]

@petereliaskraft https://t.co/uJnLOoVoDf

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

Pete Buttigieg is so fucking good at this. 🎯🎯🎯🙌🙏🌊🇺🇸