Hey there, fatster and all.

“David Dayen clarifies some mysteries of Medicaid Expansion.”

I’m so glad that he has pointed out that the decision of Rick Scott and others to join up was not capitulation, but naked capitalism. To be sure, that is exactly what I said in a diary three weeks ago, and what marym in Il and I subsequently clarified in comments to other FDL blogs such as your round-ups, including the likely bandwagon effect of the concession recently wrung out of the Obama adminstration by the Arkansas governor.

Now that DD is onboard maybe the point will get the attention it deserves.

The other news out of Israel is that Netanyahu has succeeded in pulling together a coalition, at least for now. The ultra-orthodox are out and Palestinian no-Home Jewish Home is in, along with the centrist Yesh Atid. The Guardian article does not explain how Tzipi Livni, previously announced as point person for reviving negotiations with the Palestinians, is supposed to function in this environment.

I wonder if it is all just for show, to have a “government” in place for O’s visit, even if it collapses the day after he leaves.

Aloha, fatster…! I just posted a new post on the upcoming dog and pony show in Israel… Obama: ‘Obviously We Don’t Want To Cut It Too Close’

Hello, E. F. Beall. There was an item in yesterday’s Roundup about the costs to employers for Medicaid Expansion/Or Not by state. I hope you saw it.

Yes, so good that David is back at work.

Aloha, CTuttle. Good on you for the post and for letting us know about it, too.

50 things you should know about Chavez.

Who is Francis I.

This is a more in-depth article than some of the fragments that were linked on the day he was appointed.

Does not argue well for ALBA. Pope’s an operative of sorts for US to undermine democratic govts of S. America.

Top Darwin Award for 2013. No matter what happens during the rest of the year, nothing could surpass this one.

That’s a good article, eCo. Here’s another that wendydavis came up with for her current diary, with a bit more detail about those two priests B evidently sold out.

I heard the dn coverage of the subject. It was less definitive than Chossudovsky, more confined to two cases than to the political motivation of the R.C. church to undermine communism no matter how many poor people were killed in the process.

BTW, Chossudovsky has been around a long time and has studied many of the darker movements of deep govt.

To go along with The Cave: Senate GOP tells Obama to tone down the attacks, and suggests if he wants Team Red to play along, he better get Dems to fall in line with putting the torch to the safety net.

Oh noes. democracynow covering Iraq War report. It was a failure. Goshohgee.

Well, it was a faliure if you’re an Iraqi. If you want to throw the ME into chaos &/or are MIiC, it is a wild success.

France & UK want to escalate their war on Asad. That’ll save lives.

In other news (snark alert), Shell announced that it did not adequately oversee drilling in Arctic.

“Japan faces combined clean up and compensation costs at Fukushima estimated to reach $500 billion. The timeline for decommissioning the ruined plant is 30-40 years. There is a $6 million robot deployed to inspect the damaged hallways that got lost in the plant and has not been seen for 17 months. And the cost estimates are just guesswork:”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/

great article which also shows the 12 near miss meltdowns in the USA in 2012

Don’t forget the budget proposal which actually creates jobs for the unemployed:

The Back To Work Budget .

Includes a financial transaction tax, repeals the Sequester cuts, creates a public option for healthcare, and creates jobs using about 250 billion a year over ten years.

The Dems, The Rs and the President are not the only voices out there folks.

Collusion betw Japanese govt & nuke power industry. They won’t come close to cleaning up anything in that amount of time. First item in link.

Tarpley’s proposal.

Thanks!

Don’t miss this analysis of the return of the MEME of the 60 foot-Atomic-Boomers by Trudy Lieberman.

Rick Scott defrauded Medicare. Now he wants to privatize Medicaid. What could possibly go wrong?

I can’t read almost anything on the economy. Knowing what I do, it’s crazy making for me to spend time on it.

Thanks for the great roundup, Fatster.

Landlord Blackstone Rushes To Capitalize On Housing Bubble By Launching First Ever REO-To-Rent Securitization

What else should we expect from billionaire Pete Peterson? After he guts Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid more and more of us will be renters.

Almost as disgusting as Obama trying his best to pimp cuts to entitlements per his 2009 promise are the Democratic commentators, pundits and strategists who act as though his efforts to cut entitlements are indicia of how reasonable he is being while Republicans stand in the way of a Grand Bargain.

As always, thanks, fatster

Okay.
Yes.It is crazy making.

It is even crazy-making for me …..

and I know only enough to know that we are being robbed.

We will, of course, never hear about that budget proposal through any Corporate Media outlet.

TomThumb, how do we move this proposal forward? I feel helpless and trapped in our own progressive echo chamber. I can’t help but believe that people would reach for this with both hands if they knew it was out there. All they hear, though, is Austerity, Austerity, Austerity.

How do we force a Hell No! Moment?

I think that an Occupy The Media is the only way to accomplish it. If we could organize enough people to surround every local newspaper office, and radio and tv station, and demand local coverage of something like the Back To Work Budget. Let people know that other options exist. I still think that large groups in front of lawmakers’s homes is another way to force them to notice that we know other options exist.

Check out the Tarpley link. He’s always exhorting people to do something and has specific suggestions. I think he might cover it at the beginning of the podcast.

Good morning, everyone.

Following on your comment regarding Irak, eCAHN … Glen Ford, at Black Agenda Report, has this to say:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/us-scorched-earth-policy-ten-years-after-iraq-invasion

A dying empire, smitten with the lust for hegemony, for absolute control, and with a history of violence and repression (both at “homeland” and “abroad”), can be a very dangerous and destructive thing … in its death-throes …

My continuing appreciation, fatster, to you for your (from my perspective) “must read!” … “Roundups” … and your “Break Time” episodes have, more than once, made much difference for what remains of my equanimity and such mindfulness as I yet possess … celebrating, as they often do, these Break Times, the very best of human and humane perspective … in a world seemingly gone quite intentionally amuck.

DW

Amazing video!

I’m thinking the parrot represents Obama, and Mark Carwardine’s neck is the Bush administrations policies on government transparency/secrecy?

Or does the parrot represent the corporations/government and we, collectively, are Mark Carwardine?

We are all Mark Carwardine now!?

(I simply can’t believe not one person mentioned that amazing video)

Thank you, eCAHN, I will.

Just back from watching a damning report Documentary Exposes US Role in Iraq Sectarian Conflict
on The Real News.

Of course, it was a BBC / Guardian documentary, not our Corporate Media.

Glad to see you back. You have been missed.

Fatster, please excuse me. I was fumble-fingered with my first comment attempt and lost my greeting and thanks. Your work is important and much appreciated.

I loved it, too :)

Blackstone Group has been purchasing huge amounts of RE in the Sacramento area, which has been devastated by the economic downturn.

It’s been obvious for a while that there’s been shenanigans with housing here, but it’s more in the way of rumors and gossip. I hear from friends who are in RE about how difficult it is buy in foreclosure. I noted for quite a few years how empty homes stood vacant for years but were never for sale.

Now it appears that Blackstone, plus one or two other big investors, are snapping up huge amounts of housing at rock-bottom prices, thus driving up the RE market again in Sacramento. I’m starting to notice prices creep up to nearly ridiculous and unsustainable levels again.

Another bubble in the making? And of course, Blackstone will somehow manage to walk away with lotsa money.

“Netanyahu has succeeded in pulling together a coalition”

But there are already serious cracks in it, and it may fall apart before the government is supposed to be sworn in on Monday. As CTuttle noted in his new diary last night (see comment 2 above), the leader of Palestinian no-Home Jewish Home is balking at signing the coalition agreement over not being named Deputy Prime Minister in addition to Minister of trade and Industry. Haaretz reports that Netanyahu’s Likud is downplaying the issue, since Deputy PM is essentially a ceremonial post, but who knows the outcome when large egos are involved?

Meanwhile, the Orthodox Shas party is so angry at Netanyahu’s “betrayal” in ditching it in favor of Yesh Atid (which wants to end the Orthodox exemption from military service) that it is joining Labor in opposition. That might be even weirder than would be the 700 Club making common cause with the AFL-CIO.

Sorry it took me so long to get back here and see yr comment. We have to advertise the good work people are doing. Harkin has a bill to scrap the cap. I just linked it over at The Sixty Foot Atomic Boomers post. Thanks for reading.

Thanks again for your good links and posts.

BBC has deteriorated as much as US media. Nothing but propaganda for right wing horror show, Cameron, whose voice drips with contempt when he talks about the poor.

Remember BBC was one that played the completely false story (aprox a year ago) about Syrian govt atrocities in Homs, wh were committed by Anglo-American empires operatives. BBC had to retract about a week later, but by that time the retraction was lost. BBC is now beneath contempt.

Don’t know about Guardian. If it hasn’t already been coopted it will be soon.

HI Fatster if it’s ok with you I will put this in the next roundup as well this is just too evil, if true. No wonder it’s done in secret.

new depths of greed and hatred for humanity.

NEW YORK, MARCH 4, 2013—

As closed-door talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement resume in Singapore this week, international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on the U.S. government to end its stall tactics and revise its proposals for what otherwise promises to be the most harmful trade deal ever for access to medicines in developing countries.

The TPP negotiations, which currently involve eleven Asia-Pacific countries, are being conducted in secret,

but leaked texts reveal the most aggressive intellectual property (IP) measures ever suggested in a trade deal with developing countries.

The U.S. proposals threaten to roll back internationally-agreed public health safeguards and would put in place far-reaching monopoly protections that keep medicine prices high and out of the reach of millions in the Asia-Pacific region.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/press/release.cfm?id=6663&cat=press-release&source=ADN130301E01&utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Enewsletter&utm_campaign=201303

and nixonclinbushbama @ 23, DWBartoo @ 27, OmAli @ 31:

Thank you all! Much appreciated.

:)

:)

:)

:)

Great idea, mafr. Please do bring it forward. And . . . Good morning to you!

If you don’t mind, OmAli, I’d like to add a “Ditto”. Thnx.

Hahahahaha. Hidden meanings abound. Onward into those dark and menacing places!

Srsly (or not), my take away from the video is a fashion note: Avoid wearing green when photographing parrots.

The green shirt guy looked like he wanted a cigarette!

Hahahahaha.

Based on a true story:

A domesticated parrot watched the video with its human, and began screaming “Danger! Danger!” as the wild parrot began mounting climbing up the photographer’s arm.