Hot Ticket: New Years Day, 2013

Update: 2201 CST ... House Passes Fiscal Cliff bill from Senate. Next up, Deficit Fear Mongering (DFM*) from the right for next two months...

A problem with Obama... besides caving too soon and the deal with the drones and the total loss of privacy and an Orwellian info-culture -- that also reabsorbs what it spits back at us,

there's this (mostly) unmentioned group a national circle of civilian or private leaders of closest partners with the president who get on the central 'gov't expenditure laundry list' when Congress forces itself thru these stopgap measures like the current fiscal cliff. I am presently sitting and waiting for the fifteen minutes of this vote in the House of Republicans to come to an end. At 2156 CST Tuesday, 01 Jan 2013. Watching the live feed on CSPAN. I see now It did indeed pass.

Always watch the ones who always get paid...

Of course, it was Jane at FDL that clued me in to this basic recurrent theme. The one's that always get paid with subsidies and tax breaks like last time in 2010...

Also the biggest banks are close to another major settlement with the government for $10bn over malpractice and fraudulence cases in mishandling real estate foreclosures that have occurred since the economic collapse. It's a big one too, countering the attempt last year by a number of State AG's that will be concluding here, any day now...

Don't forget about the pharmies, they get paid too. Here's a great piece on how much the Department of Defense spent on drugs in the last decade.

Haven't heard of Kansas Rep's I like yet, but this Missouri guy has the right idea, to try to put a limit on domestic surveillance drone use.

Here's a story about the 1932 fiscal cliff by a nice Hartford, CT paper. Spoiler: The wealthiest got paid then too.

This drill rig has run aground in heavy seas off Alaska. 

*** I'll use the DFM moniker as long as it's useful. It's a new year, new tools, new forms of short-hand...