russia has announced it regrets the arab league winding down its observers work in syria and stresses a proposed peace big peacekeeping mission can be deployed only once the government and opposition forces agree to it seems fine. brussels is relieved as the greek parliament passes a new you'll start to build demanded by the e.u. and i.m.f. to secure another one hundred sets of but then bailout despite serious public opposition and waiting but the relief is likely to be the euro crisis continues with the ratings agency moody's downgrading the stay it's. as the headline next to the second part of the big picture. welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour is it

really mitt romney and rick santorum battling it out for the g.o.p. . or the koch brothers shelley and foster friess really fighting for power also tomorrow is valentine's day and men everywhere will be love to suffer through the day alone but do they really need to be working a man to get any woman he wants and obamacare may be in place for a nation with something still missing a piece of the puzzle is still out of place when we fix it. in the best of the rest of the news we turn to the campaign trail remember romney just can't seal the deal and it won the maine caucuses over the weekend edging out ron paul by a mere hundred ninety four votes but that's about where the good news for romney is for the first time ever a new national poll shows rick santorum is the leader of the pack trouncing romney

thirty eight to twenty three percent even more troubling for romney in the same poll shows santorum with a thirty nine to twenty four percent lead in michigan state where romney was born then again romney did call for letting the auto industry go bankrupt not exactly the sort of support you'd expect from a native son so maybe santorum has a chance because of that but if so he has this guy foster friess leading contributor to his red white and blue pack corporate super fund corporate super pac to thank for the center for american progress as think progress blog uncovered some interesting details on who exactly friess is for one he's in his. a lot of folks making significant donations to natori islamophobia organizations he's given millions over the last few years to several republican politicians like scott walker rick perry and newt gingrich he gave three million bucks to kickstart a consumer conservative news site and back in two thousand and two friess blamed

the columbine shooting on liberals this is the guy who's actually running for president through his surrogate rick santorum but friess is just one billionaire and there are many others like him who want to have influence over the republican race and if they have their way and free says guy santorum may not win and neither might mitt romney in fact no one in the race they may win if the millionaires and billionaires get their way or at least on the republican side to raise for more on what i'm talking about i want to welcome investigative reporter b.b.c. news contributor greg palast back to the show his latest and most brilliant book is vultures picnic in pursuit of petroleum pigs power pirates and high finance carnivores greg welcome back. glad to be with you tom politico today is quoting friess as saying quote there isn't he had just come from that meeting that the koch brothers share with all the other billionaires he said there isn't a person at the koch brothers event who would not get

a good return on their investment by investing in santorum as president and quote what i think he meant. well it just that these guys don't back candidates they make investments in candidates they don't have strong politics in fact of the big backers you know the big money behind mitt romney which is in a super pac called restore our future and that is bill koch that's paul the vulture singer that's paulson that's a billionaire is boys club. they they're not all that even that interested in romney in fact i think a very clear they withheld their money from their suppose a candidate let santorum sneak through what these guys want to do is be the brokers at a brokered convention. so what is a brokered convention lay out how that works and how could a couple of billionaires. you know make that happen to an entire political party

that's itself i you know a billion dollar national entity with tens of thousands of people in offices and all kinds of stuff. well you know mitt romney has been a money juggernaut but it seems that the us media has not asked where he's got the jugs it's been a series of billionaires who by the way originally and still consider their strongest candidate to be chris christie get of course since christie has not you know beaten gay people with a baseball bat or shot holes in condoms they can't put him through a republican primary their best bed and paul vulture singur has made it clear who is who is preferred choice is single is the number one billionaire backer of romney by the way is number one choice is christie so the way to pull that off is you make sure that your guy romney does not get the eleven hundred forty four delegates he needs he falls short santorum falls short gingrich fall short and what you end

up with the shorty showing up dead on arrival and then the billionaires pick the republican choice they'll pick your president for you think you or at least the nominee of one of the parties but romney is you know he's worth a couple hundred million dollars he's paying the fourteen percent tax rate you know the maximum tax rate the billionaires and millionaires pay well like secretaries to them pay up to thirty five percent. why would why would paul singer or the koch brothers or any of these other billionaires find chris christie any more acceptable or for that matter mitt romney any less acceptable in fact chris christie isn't even a multimillionaire it seems like romney would really be their guy. the problem is that romney's been. the english language losing the battle and fighting his own tax returns he's considered unelectable look at the poll numbers despite the massive money he's spent don't forget he spent

a lot of money already of their money. let's romney this time is not spending his own money he's relying on the what are called vulture financier as not the bain capital people the big bain capital's like girl scouts compared to the guys who are backing them and how they make their money there's no question that their issue with romney is not that they disagree with him it's just that they can't get him the white house they're trying to invest in some real estate here at sixteen hundred pennsylvania avenue and romney can't seal the deal and they think that chris christie can even you know with his. kind of william howard taft approach i guess in some ways yeah because he comes off it's not true he comes off as a regular guy he is a regular guy but he comes off as one he plays one on t.v. very well plus he doesn't carry with him of the baggage that a santorum comes with him of trying to run for pope christie would be able to

actually run for president and that would be much more acceptable to the average american plus i should note that paul singer who's the number one donor to the republican party and it's behind mitt his son wants to marry a guy and so he's not going to be too crazy about backing candidates who are against gay marriage so that's that's that's very interesting and but christie is just about to veto gay marriage in the state of new jersey. and as we speak well he's about to yeah you know that's why it has to hesitate because he knows where his money comes from but on the other hand he has to survive in the republican party it's a tough call for these guys in the end though i think singer will go follow his money rather than his then his heart and remember when i say singer it's not christie because the candidates as you said chris. the santorum romney gingrich these are the puppets and i'm glad tom that you are actually talking about guys like friesen koch the puppet tears that's who we should be looking at because those

are the guys who actually run the white house not the guy that would be on t.v. . and so are you predicting a a christie rubio ticket. i think that that is the preference of the billionaires in re store our future the so-called romney super pac they've made clear that christie's their guy but that they'll put up with romney that he certainly better than sam have way and they like the fact that gingrich keeps yeah having a standard christie at all in any way up to this point any of these guys anyone have hoax into him enough that they can say ok do this. well they are the ones that came to him and said please run for president will write whatever checks it takes no these guys. he turned them down because he can't possibly win in a republican primary. you know when you watch those debates you see what type of people are showing up at the caucuses you know there's everything right with black robes and hoods you know it's the inquisitors so it's not a christie friendly or

a normal person friendly caucus you saw it showed up in iowa and let's not forget that senator grassley a republican probably couldn't get five votes in that republican caucus their own state their own senator from that state so it's a very weird twisted crowd that comes out for these caucuses and for these primaries and a guy like christie has to come in through the side door opened by billionaires amazing greg palast thanks so much for your insights greg. you're welcome. you know the idea that millionaires and billionaires are the ones actually running for office now thanks to citizens united and not the candidates most of our founding fathers rolling over in their great. it's the good the bad and the very very. slowly ugly.

the good the state legislature of new mexico both the new mexico state house and senate passed a memorial on friday condemning the citizens united court decision and calling for a constitutional amendment while memorial lacks the force of law it is still a very strong show of sentiment and belief is one of the sponsors of the bill state senator steve fishman said voters need to know their opinions count as much as any corporate entity trade or labor association i'm proud of the new mexico's state senate is willing to stand up for this principle in mexico now joins hawaii as the second state to officially condemn the supreme court the supreme court citizens united decision in mexico clearly understands the damage citizens united is done to our political process and society and hopefully more states decide to get on board and shut it down the bad wall street back katz bonuses and profits are reportedly

drew when dealing on wall street a new report released by the center for responsive politics shows that the financial services industry is on track to shatter previous records for political spending report also states that the industry spending is in hopes of defeating president obama and putting into office a candidate who opposes the dodd frank financial regulations an act of in two thousand and eight mitt romney has already received twelve point four million dollars from financial services companies and that number is expected to become much much larger. it's quite clear that wall street wants to go back to the bush days when it was an unregulated anything goes while it was industry. all on its own corporate greed it's rearing its ugly head yet again. and the very very ugly senator roy blunt response to president obama's controversial birth control mandate is expected to offer an amendment to the affordable care act it would

basically permit any employer or insurance plan to exclude any health care no matter how essential or critical it may be if they have moral objections to it under the plan some types of health services that could not be covered include aides greens type two diabetes treatments cancer tests and basically anything else that is deemed the result of an immoral lifestyle cancer diabetes or two of the most prevalent diseases in america today affect millions of americans each year senator blunt is letting his personal religious beliefs qualities judgment is engaging in a very dangerous game of pick and choose which would put the lives of millions of americans at risk and that is very very. coming up in tonight's daily take on president obama's plan for health care system may be in place a crucial piece of the health care puzzle is still missing what is it and how does this process of obamacare rely on.

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the. first. so sometimes you know what you know and i you know what you don't know and sometimes the firesign theater says everything you know is wrong. i don't think you know if you want me or you're right. i'll just make. sure. you go what is wrong. tomorrow is valentine's day and of course if you don't have

a special someone to celebrate it with it can be downright depressing twenty four hours tomorrow there will be millions of men all over the world won't be able to take part in the festivities just because they think they lack the confidence and swagger to woman well if you like these men and think that being able to kiss five women in one night is impossible and an average joe dating a supermodel is absurd than maybe just maybe everything you know is wrong join me now is richard la rue in a professional pick up artist founder of training dot com and author of the new book the natural how to effortlessly attract the women you want richard welcome. thank you great to have you with us richard right hello hello richard right over here next to me on our set i don't think you can see him but he's. right here this is sitting in a chair is andrew he's twenty three years old soon to be twenty three years old sitting with a beer bottle in one hand and the other watching t.v. with his feet up on the desk. what what advice would you give him on the dating

scene. well it's kind of a bunch of things but two very quick things would be to you know find some things to try to go out and try them obviously could do some work on his impair and some things like that but really getting out there approaching women trying things and finding what was good for us that get rid of the beer in the door and in the to read those. things in your hands and especially to reach those a big ok what would you say are the main characteristics the and or any man needs to be successful. women are attracted to a guy that kind of knows what he wants he's cool a purpose in life he doesn't loads of questions he knows what she wants because he can. i read the signals and you know they say about confidence and intelligence and being funny and these are really displayed in your ability to lead and to have a good conversation and to know when to make your move you know go through the day

go through the case and things like this and sp's some of the specifics on those things. all the specifics on the conversation is the most guys cells and then the series of questions you know kind of like an interrogation so a guy that has a good conversation will make more statements he'll have interesting questions to ask or instead of the same usual boring ones and he'll have interesting aunt says to her questions you know so when she asked him what he does if he's got a boring job and say you know i do this i just do that for money but what i really love to do is x. y. and z. and talk about something he's passionate about to a certain extent are you just describing how to be yourself how to be you know really human with no no no. not at all actually because when when it's not working for you then being yourself doesn't work you need to change and improve definitely

you know that's the general advice is just be yourself just be confident just be funny but most guys start can do that some guys that just aren't doing anything on talking to so any women may be they could be themselves and have some results but the guys that try and don't get anywhere they need to actually change but if you're changing to something other than who you are and behaving like somebody other than who you are and then you get past the second or third date at some point you're going to revert back to who you are is not going to blow a ship or is this all about one night stands. well my first few relationships went wrong because i had to go so good at the early stages but then when i go into a relationship i didn't know what to do and i got dumped but then i learned about relationships and really what you ask is a good question but it. comes down to you know learning anything the first time you know you were able to show you were smooth you were thinking about things you had things on your minds but now it comes at the list so we teach guys and when they go

out they're thinking a lot they're thinking about their body language what they say but once they've done it for a few months then it is natural so it's a process like learning anything else and once they've gone through it then they will be you know the cool calm relaxed confident guy that women are attracted to so where should andrew and young men like him recent college graduates they've been busy you know getting through school and getting a job and everything and you know the word seems to be the bar scene and i guess that's the cliché where should andrew grow to find the woman of his dreams. the bar is not the place to find the woman even if your dream space the place to go and be sociable to talk to lots of women's practice having conversations have some fun to really think about what you want to meet lots of women and you know come up with your dream go might be and then you're more likely to find her in the daytime in the street in the coffee shop in the mall than you are in the bar with

a night club ok richard thanks so much for being with us tonight. thank you and we'll pass along all your recommendations to. men of the world now you have the power to go out there and get the woman of your dreams and now everything you know about the art of seduction is right. we all know republicans are hell bent on repealing obamacare we also know fox so-called news is determined to misinform americans about what they stand to gain from obamacare this election year and we know that the pro corporate activist supreme court could deliver a death blow to obamacare in the next few months but none of these are the real threats to the success of obamacare instead the real threat is

a lack of doctors particularly a lack of primary care doctors thirty two million more americans will have access to health insurance by two thousand and fifteen thanks to obamacare that means we need a lot more doctors to handle the new patients as this chart shows it's a simple supply and demand problem where about one hundred thirty thousand doctors shy where we need to be to cover all the new patients and two thousand and twenty five and by two thousand and fifteen we're going to need at least thirty thousand new primary care docs alone that's going to be tough since there's not much financial gain in being a primary care doc these days so you can see on is the internal medicine of the bottom this is primary care docs in these are surgery anesthesiology cardiology radiology and oncologists are off the scale so how do we solve this problem of these primary care docs making so little but one way is to incentivize primary care

docs so little be two hundred nineteen thousand dollars a year but since that requires money in investments that has a snowball's chance in hell of getting through a republican congress especially if it'll help obamacare be successful. another way is to import more doctors from abroad in a recent piece of business insider economist dean baker makes that argument writing the median compensation for primary care physicians is two hundred eight thousand seven hundred dollars a year there's no shortage of smart people in countries like china india mexico and elsewhere who would be happy to train to u.s. standards become hopelessly fluent in english and work for half of this wage the gap in wages between the united states in these countries is so large the doctors from these countries would be far ahead of what they could earn in their home countries even if they only made one hundred thousand dollars a year he also points out how our trade policies protect highly educated workers like doctors but let manufacturing jobs get devoured by dropping protections on domestic manufacturing industries and he makes a decent point particularly if you buy the so-called free trade argument that

america must become a country of progressively lower and lower wages as we sink to becoming the world's lowest common denominator but there's something else that nobody's talking about and that's the power of the american medical cartel doctors have it really good in america they make more money here on average than any other country in the world and one reason why is that they purposefully keep the doctor labor force low so the demand for doctors always outstrips the supply of doctors leading to higher and higher wages consider this the number of applicants to med school in america dramatically increased between two thousand and three and two thousand and eight more and more americans wanted to be doctors at and as we've discussed the country needs more doctors however during these same years the percentage of applicants accepted at med schools actually went down. that's because rather than opening up

more med school slots the american medical association and groups associated with them tightened things up and began restricting open slots cutting back on how many doctors could be trained in america today fifty seven percent of applicants to med school are turned away that stuff makes sense especially when you look at other comparable fields like lawyers since nine hundred sixty three the number of law schools in america increased almost fifty percent there are now over over two hundred law schools around the nation and no one thinks we have a shortage of lawyers with medical schools it's a different story one hundred years ago there were one hundred sixty six medical schools in our country today there's roughly one hundred thirty that's a twenty two percent decrease while the american population has increased three hundred percent. similarly the number of docs who can practice in america is limited by the number of hospital residency slots for doctors in training and most of those residents these are paid for with medicare funding and that funding has been frozen since one nine hundred ninety seven by the balanced budget act no

wonder we have a shortage of doctors and will continue to have a shorter job as long as the a.m.a. and congress limit the supply of doctors by restricting medical school openings and hospital residences but what else do you expect from a health care system that puts the profit motive ahead of healing ability. you know it's time to hand the job of healing americans back to americans back to all of us make medicine and health care part of the commons just like it is an every other developed nation on the planet how do you do that it's really simple we've already got a single payer health care program in the united states it could conceivably cover everybody in america right now and covers everybody over sixty five it's called medicare. the apparatus is there the infrastructure is there the bureaucracy is there it operates on a three percent overhead it's very very efficient their checks actually always get cashed so let's create a new medicare program we'll call it medicare part d.

e standing for everybody now is going to take a little while bring the since let's just say that every two or three years will drop the eligibility age for medicare by ten years or so over a period of maybe ten or fifteen years eventually everybody in the united states is eligible for medicare. everybody then is covered by medicare and you've got universal single payer coverage so that's that's the way that i would do medicare part d. that's the big picture for tonight for more information the stories we covered visit our website to tom hartman dot com free speech dot org and r t dot com also check out our two you tube channels there are links to thom hartmann dot com this entire show is also available as a free video podcast on i tunes and you can visit thom hartmann dot com to download the audio podcast of our daily noon to three radio show and we have a free time our but i phone and i pad out at the app store he sent us feedback at twitter at tom underscore hartman facebook tom underscore our been on our blogs

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