There has been an overwhelming reaction to President Obama’s press conference that was reported on this blog, Press Reacts At Obama’s Concession Press Conference.

Most of the reaction was along the lines of this comment on Facebook:

Now that the President has given in to all the demands, you’d think that the House would respond quickly to end the shutdown.  What else could they possibly want now?

Others who paid specific attention to Helen Thomas’ question commented:

You mean the Republicans have been pulling the wool over our eyes all this time?  You really can’t trust those Republicans to tell it to us straight.  I am not going to listen to anything they have to say about the debt ceiling.

There were even a few who had the reaction:

Are you kidding me?  How could anybody be fooled by the Republicans’ puerile attempt to change people’s opinions just by calling the “ACA” “Obamacare?”

All the people who responded to Jimmy Kimmel’s survey, threatened to sue him for exposing their ignorance on national TV.

The assembled press reacted to the startling news at the press conference that had been announced on this blog, Breaking News: Obama Concedes Everything.

When the President announced that he would totally give up on the idea of Obamacare if the Republicans would only agree to fund the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the first question that arose came from Helen Thomas.

Mr. President, don’t you realize that ACA and Obamacare are the same thing?

To which the President replied:

I can’t hear you.  Can you shout that a little louder?  Could you be sure to repeat that question on your news shows?

When the press kept on insisting that the ACA and Obamacare were the same thing, the President asked:

Where the heck have you people been while the Republicans tried to turn the public against the ACA by calling it Obamacare?  You were certainly ready to constantly use the word Obamacare.  Only now do you want the people to know that you are really talking about the Affordable Care Act?

Where was your hankering for the truth before?

By reading this blog, the Republicans got wind of the story Breaking News: Obama Concedes Everything.

There have been numerous reactions from the Republicans and from the Tea Party devotees.

Speaker Boner was heard to say, “Well, I guess we have been hoist upon our own petard.  We kept focusing on Obamacare, and let the people form their own opinions of ACA.”

When told about the President’s intentions, Ted Cruz was heard to say, “How could the American people not know that the ACA and Obamacare are the same thing? We never should have introduced the pejorative term Obamacare.”

Commentators on Faux Noise said that “Obama has really out-foxed us by turning our own propaganda against us.  I guess Obama is a lot smarter than we gave him credit for.”

President Obama has just announced a press conference where he will concede everything the Tea Party wants.  A recent survey by Jimmy Kimmel has proved to President Obama that, without a  doubt, the American people do not want Obamacare, but they really want the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The President will explain that he finally sees why the Tea Party is so against Obamacare, but surely they cannot disagree with the great majority of the American public who want the Affordable Care Act.

How could the Republicans possibly explain being against the Affordable Care Act?  How could they possibly defend such a position?

I’ll make another post as soon as the press conference is over to tell you what the reaction of the press was.  Maybe even before that there will be some advance reaction from the Republicans.  If there is, I will report that first.

Democracy Now has an extended interview Taking on Capitalism, U.S. Torture & Dictatorships, Costa-Gavras on Decades of Political Filmmaking.

As a big fan of his movies Z and Missing, I couldn’t resist seeing what he is up to now. His latest film, Capital, looks to be a film worth seeing.(If nothing else, the scenery is very interesting.) (If Sharon were looking over my shoulder right now, she would say “I knew you would say that.”)

Jimmy Kimmel did a Person On The Street segment – Six of One – Obamacare vs. The Affordable Care Act.

I think Obama should compromise. Agree to postpone Obamacare and let’s first see if the Affordable Care Act works. If it does, than we can forgo Obamacare altogether.

No, seriously. If this is what people want, then just give it to them.

Thanks to RichardH for bringing this scientific poll to my attention.

The Real News Network has the video and transcript Exposed: California’s Secret Plan to Gut Public Pensions.  From the transcript with a “you know” filter applied:

A bunch of plutocrats have gotten together and decided that it’s a good time to swindle the American people yet again. And this time they’re going after public pensions. They are waging war on people whose only crime is to get up in the morning and go to work and serve their communities. It’s an audacious and cynical attack on people who have no responsibility for the state budget shortfalls that some of these groups are screaming about.

You will have to do research yourself to find out what is actually in the swindle.  Taking the video at its word, we have to realize that it is not only government “entitlements” like social security that these people are after.

Just think that since the 401k and IRA were introduced, the private pension has all but disappeared.  Even worse than that, the 401k has been turned into a corporate profit center because the company gives the contract to manage your 401K to a management company.  And by “gives” I don’t mean for free.

Since the top 1% of the country has most of the income and assets, you wonder what there is left to squeeze out of the bottom 99%.  I guess they make it up in volume.  Then again, the top 0.5% can start taking  from the next 0.5%.  Does this increasing concentration of wealth at the top have a happy outcome for the rest of us?  What do you think?

USA Today used the silly headline Physics Nobel Prize goes to ‘God particle’ scientists for this article.

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to Britain’s Peter W. Higgs and Belgium’s Francois Englert, the Nobel Committee announced in Stockholm on Tuesday.

They were jointly awarded the prize for their work on a theory that offers an explanation for how the fundamental particles of the Universe acquire mass.

Next year the Nobel Prize in Physics will be awarded for the astrophysical notion discovered by USA Today that the Universe does not revolve around the US Government shutdown.

USA Today has the brief article Obama calls Boehner, will speak at 2 p.m.

President Obama called House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday, again telling the Ohio Republican he will not negotiate on budget items until the GOP-run House ends the shutdown and raises the debt ceiling.

Gee, you’d almost think that the White House read my blog post White House open to short-term increase in debt ceiling.  This is where I suggested the wording:

“Congress, just do your job.  Keep the government running.  Call me after you have done your job, and we can talk about other issues.  There will be no further communications to you from the White House.”

Between the President and Elizabeth Warren, we might get this resolved.

If you only have 5 minutes or so, here is the edited version of Elizabeth Warren’s speech before Congress.

If you have 12 minutes or so of time, it is highly worth while to listen to the full speech below.

Elizabeth Warren for President!!!

Thanks to DonF for bringing these videos to my attention.