Assange may be trapped in Ecuadorian embassy permanently

It's not really clear how you get out of a water-locked country when the cops can arrest you the second you step foot out of the embassy so long as you're not inside an embassy vehicle.  Assange could be forced to remain in the embassy indefinitely.  Then it's an issue of whether the media and the public care, and which way they care, in terms of what kind of pressure it puts on Ecuador or Britain. Read the rest of this post...

US businesses paying more to CEO's than to US government

While the businesses profit enormously from the overall business environment in the US, shareholders and employees usually don't enjoy quality CEOs. There's nothing that suggests higher pay is linked to better corporate performance though you'd never know it by looking at the annual pay of the pampered class. CNBC:

Citigroup, Abbott Laboratories, and AT&T are among the 26 companies that paid more to their CEOs in 2011 than they did in U.S. federal taxes, according to a study released on Thursday.

Tax breaks on research and development, past losses, and foreign-held earnings were among those lightening the tax load for many companies on the list, said the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, D.C.

Citi, Abbott and AT&T all took issue with the institute's methodology. All three said they paid all taxes owed in 2011.

Uh huh. The issue is not whether they paid taxes or even owed taxes, which suggests they're all concerned about the study. Read the rest of this post...

Ryan jokes and laughs as 71-year-old is forced to the ground

I'm stealing Diane Sweet's headline (she posted this recently at Crooks & Liars) — because mine was far more editorial:

"VoucherCare Ryan" shows his Republican true colors:
Conscienceless & cruel (Granny, you're next)

Call this "burying the head" — I couldn't make myself put that up front.

But I swear to god, there's something really off about these people. Something do to with empathy I think. Dunno, maybe it's an anti-Christian thing.

Anyway, thanks to Diane for resurrecting this. Enjoy the full flavor of the man:



Diane's take:

This took place last fall at one of Congressman Rep. Ryan’s “Pay to Play” town hall meetings where he was discussing cutting Senior’s Social Security, and Medicare as a means of debt reduction. As you might imagine, one senior was not pleased.

Indeed.

But that's not the worst. Is Ryan Opus Dei, like Scalia and Thomas are rumored to be? If so, I could care less about your taxes, sir. Show me the marks from that torture-belt you guys wear.

That's right, Paul — I want to see what makes you think you're a Christian. Got scars? 'Cause otherwise I can't figure it out.

Your friend in you-know-who (seriously),

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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Romney will either raise taxes, or charge elderly more for Medicare

Romney is bragging about how he's going to repeal ObamaCare.  Guess what?  He's going to have to raise taxes or Medicare premiums to make up the difference.

Romney would "have to find other ways to get the cost down in the future," said economist Marilyn Moon, a former trustee overseeing Social Security and Medicare finances.

"These (Obama cuts) were all on service providers," said Moon, now director of the health program at the nonpartisan American Institutes for Research. Romney "would have three options: either cut it out of providers in a different way, ask beneficiaries to pay higher premiums in various ways, or raise taxes in order to pay for it."

Romney made his promise to restore the cuts on Tuesday at a campaign stop in Beallsville, Ohio.

Read the rest of this post...

How United Airlines lost a 10 year old girl, and didn't seem to care too much about it

Regular readers know that I'm not much of a fan of US-based airlines.

I finally got tired of paying $300 to fly on an airline that seemed almost resentful that I showed up for my flight.  And while most of my pain in the past has been caused by United, that may simply be because United was my carrier of choice, me being from Chicago and all.  I switched a while back to American, after United ate a huge number of my miles because I couldn't find the paper coupons - even though United had to know exactly how many miles I had.

American has been better, but only slightly.  Half the time I get great flight attendants, half the time I get monsters.  Like the American flight attendant who actually had the nerve to make faces at me as I was trying to juggle my scared dog and my luggage because American had falsely told me that there was no more overhead baggage space (there was, right above my seat it turned out), my carry-on wasn't too big, they simply claimed the carry-ons were full (they weren't), so I had to stow my carry on, with my computer, iPad and hundreds of dollars worth of medication, under the plane.

As you can imagine, it took a bit of time to unpack my carry on, while trying to stop the dog from freaking out.  All the while, no one at American helped me, they all kept giving me looks, telling me to hurry up (not my fault that I was in the last boarding party, that American didn't notify me until the very end that I had to stow my carry on, that American doesn't have the smarts (or care) to figure out how to stop passengers in the back of the plane from stowing bags in the front of the plane, or that American's flight attendants are apparently so stupid that they couldn't figure out that that big empty space in the overhead bin above my seat was, uh, empty), and finally another passenger noticed that one flight attendant - who wouldn't even help me lift my bag (again, I was carrying a dog and my laptop and my ipad and my medication in my hand) - started making faces at me behind my back. I found that out after we landed when the woman, seated behind me, told she was irate after watching the flight attendant mock me, behind my back, in front of all of the other passengers.

And don't even get me started on the United captain who got ticked at me on a business trip to Mexico because I asked him why he didn't explain to us what was up with the bad turbulence - he simply announced once that there might be turbulence, then the plan went into a dive, was thrown all over the place, and a lot of us thought we were going to die (people were literally screaming, I actually did my cross).  We land, flight attendants don't mention the turbulence, captain doesn't mention it, and when I ask about it, and why they didn't even mention during the announcement on landing what exactly had happened - I got a quite bitchy response from the captain, who tells me turbulence isn't his fault - I try to explain nicely that I understand that and was actually asking why no one tried to follow up with a flight full of people who thought we were all going to die.  He then made another bitchy comment, then refused to give me his name.  Specifically he said to me "I don't have to give you my name, you give me your name."

Ah, the friendly skies.

Oh, and if you bring a dog on the plane - even though you did pay $250 for the round-trip right to do so - prepare to have some flight attendant be snippy about it.  Some were nice, yes.  Some were absolutely horrible.  And hey, that was awfully sweet of American to install the wi-fi on the plane under the seat in front of you so the nearly $100 dog carrier, that was guaranteed to fit under the seat, now no longer fits!  Thanks American!

So I'm not surprised that United is so incompetent, and so uncaring, that they lost a 10 year old girl, and then ignored the girl's pleas for help, and the call from her parents.  And I'm also not surprised that United finally seemed to find Jesus when the media came calling.  It's a nasty airline with a big ole chit on its shoulder.  But then again, it's not like there's any real competition in the US airline industry - the prices are all magically the same across all the different airlines. So they figure they don't have to be nice to us, and can charge us extra for everything under the sun now, because we simply have no choice for flying across the country when we don't have a real train system.

We do have a choice when flying abroad, and I refuse to take US carrier for that.  We also have a choice with Virgin America, which I'm told has some union issues, but I have to say it was the best flying experience of my life.  And when I'm paying $300 a trip for me, and another $250 for the dog, to be abused, at some point enough's enough.

Like when they lose your kid. Read the rest of this post...

RomneyCare in a nutshell: "I AM gonna pay a lot for this muffler!"

Here's the answer to what ObamaCare does to Medicare, in just 11 seconds:



That's it.

ObamaCare didn't cut Medicare benefits one bit.  You still have exactly the same benefits you had before.  ObamaCare did however tell doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and Big Pharma that they weren't going to get the cash cow they were previously getting from Medicare recipients.

ObamaCare in essence told Medicare that they're not gonna pay a lot for this muffler.   And now they don't.

RomneyCare, on the other hand, proposes keeping Medicare benefits the same as under ObamaCare, but simply paying more for them.

RomneyCare in a nutshell: I want to pay even more for that muffler!

From AP:

Obama's cuts were not directly aimed at Medicare's 48 million beneficiaries; instead they affect hospitals, insurers, nursing homes, drug companies and other service providers. Simply undoing the cuts would restore higher payments to those service providers.

"People need to look at what these spending reductions are before they conclude that they are really eager to undo them," said Paul Van de Water, a senior budget analyst with the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "Why should Medicare beneficiaries want to pay more to providers to provide the same benefits?"

Our government is simply doing what Europe has been doing forever - using its bargaining power to get a better deal from healthcare providers, insurers and Big Pharma.  Romney calls that "ObamaCare" - I call that capitalism, and a bargain.

So to recap, RomneyCare won't provide any more services or benefits to Medicare recipients.  It will simply pay Romney's political supporters more of your money for the exact same health care you get under ObamaCare.

RomneyCare is the equivalent of the $30,000 Pentagon toilet.  Why pay a reasonable price for something when you can grease the pockets of a big Republican donor at the expense of the deficit and the taxpayer? Read the rest of this post...

The Climate series: a reference post (UPDATED)

This post lists all the pieces that make up our Climate series. I'll update this post with new links until the series is complete. The order is not quite chronological; the pieces are grouped mainly by sub-topic.

For those of you who have been following along, thanks for reading.

Posts in the Climate Catastrophe series

Introduction

• Hugging the monster: Climate scientists and the C-word
  
  
• What is "climate catastrophe"?
  
  
• Your Climate Crisis elevator speech — Addresses one prong of the five-pronged approach (below), "unconfuse the people."
  

A walk through the numbers

• McKibben's Three Numbers—Measuring the march toward climate catastrophe
  
  
• Illustrating global warming—What does "a 2°C increase" refer to?
  
  
• Hansen on 3°C: Quarter to half of species on earth may die from global warming
  
  
• We're on track for up to 7°C (12½°F) temperature rise by 2100
  
  
• IEA Director: Temps to increase 11°F by 2100; "That’s basically Miami Beach in Boston"
  
  
• How did James Hansen's 1981 global warming predictions work out?
  
  
• Koch-funded climate denier reverses: "Humans almost entirely the cause" of global warming
  
  
• Climate report: "Almost no chance" of less than 3½°F (2°C) rise; 50-50 chance of 5½°F (3°C); headed for 9°F
  
  
• Thoughts on climate crisis speed — My personal climate model [NEW]

Two recent phenomena

• The epic heat wave: "Of course it's about climate change"
  
  
• Radical decline in Arctic ice "at least 70 percent" man-made
  
  
• New satellite data: Arctic ocean losing 50% more summer ice than predicted
  

Toward a solution: Preface

• McKibben 2—Climate strategies that don't work
  
  
• Who is the enemy leading us to climate catastrophe? (plus reflections on the nature of corporations)
  
  
• McKibben 3—Is Carbon Tax the answer to climate catastrophe?
  
  
• Why all of the current "solutions" deepen the crisis
  
  
• U.S. says drop the "2°C guarantee" from the global warming deal, calls for "flexibility"
  

Toward a solution: Suggestions

• Solving the climate crisis — Picking goals, targets and tactics — Introduces the five-pronged approach to a solution
  
  
• Solving the climate crisis — Goals, targets and tactics (a summary) — Introduces the five-pronged approach to a solution in summary form
  
  
• Solving the climate crisis — How to paint the possible futures — Addresses one prong of the five-pronged approach, "unconfuse the people."
  
  
• A modest proposal for dealing with climate denial "scientists" — Part of a longer post on dealing with political operatives as operatives
  
  
• "Niallism" — This is what defrocking an academic looks like (climate scientists, take note) — A "defrocking the false academic" example

Writing and interviews referenced

The following lists major writing referenced in this series (do click; all are data-rich).

The Copenhagen Diagnosis document (below) was prepared ahead of the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference, which affirmed the 2°C (3½°F) "ceiling" then adjourned with no action.

• James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Reto Ruedy, 2012: "Perceptions of Climate Change: The New Climate Dice" (pdf)
  
  
• Bill McKibben, Rolling Stone, 2012: "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math"
  
  
• Twenty-six authors, 2009: The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science
  (high-res pdf) (low-res pdf) (website)

A few helpful interviews:

• Dr. Michael Mann with Thom Hartmann (plus my comments)
• Michael Mann with Tom Levenson on Virtually Speaking Science (audio)
• "Who are the climate criminals?" — Mike Papantonio with yours truly on Ring of Fire Radio
• Naomi Klein with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now discussing the political implications of addressing the global warming crisis (and discussed at length in this post)
  

The series will close with a group of posts containing my own suggestions — thoughts on goals, targets and tactics. Thanks for giving this issue your attention.

GP

To follow or send links: @Gaius_Publius
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I guess it's now okay for foreign govts to violate the sanctity of UK embassies

So Britain is no better than Iran.  At least now we know.

What a bizarrely ignorant thing for the UK to tell Ecuador, that it's actually thinking of violating the sanctity of the Ecuadorian embassy in order to take Julian Assange into custody.

First off, it's Julian Assange, not Osama bin Laden - so let's get a little perspective here.

Second, the Brits are seriously threatening one of the most serious breaches of international law - violating the territory of a foreign embassy?  That puts British diplomats, and embassies, at serious risk in the future.  For example, if the Brits actually think that it's okay for them to raid the Ecuadorian embassy, then it's also okay for the Americans to raid British embassies in the future the next time we want to carry out one of those beloved extraordinary renditions.

From Reuters:

"Under British law we can give them a weeks' notice before entering the premises and the embassy will no longer have diplomatic protection," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "But that decision has not yet been taken. We are not going to do this overnight. We want to stress that we want a diplomatically agreeable solution."

If that's the case under British law, then I wouldn't want to be a British diplomat - because it's now fair game on Brits worldwide if their government truly takes international law this lightly. Read the rest of this post...