News Stories

[GDB]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Revealed: The House GOP’s Debt-Ceiling Plan
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...onathan-strong
Do they remember than they lost the last election? The GOP really show how crazy they are.

But they have enough power that, if they continue to act as stubborn mules, they can shut the government down. And when it happens, they can blame it on the democrats because "they're in power". No one who isn't already a brainwashed zealot would believe them, but that's their aim.

[MrTerrorist]

The number of Americans giving up their citizenship has rocketed this year - partly, it's thought, because of a new tax law that is frustrating many expats.

[ganbaru]

Pfeiffer: White House is not ‘negotiating with people with a bomb strapped to their chest'
http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09...o-their-chest/

"It is not a negotiation if I show up at your house and say, 'Give me everything inside or I'm going to burn it down.' The Republicans have provided a laundry list of essentially ransom demands," he noted.

[SeijiSensei]

I just cashed out the US mutual funds in my IRA until we get past yet another round of stupid Republican budget hijinks. If the US really does default, the result could be horrendous, not just here but around the world as well.

I also hold a couple of foreign mutual funds; the Japanese one is doing quite well at the moment. I also have an emerging markets fund. I ran a few charts the other day to see how different regional funds performed. Surprisingly, despite what have been quite varied local economic conditions in East Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, the funds for these regions all move more or less in lockstep (except for LA which plunged starting late last year). It looks like the actions of the US Fed have as much if not more influence on stock market movements in Brazil or South Africa as do the local economic conditions in these countries.

I'm still keeping my foreign funds, though.

If we somehow do arrive at October 17th without a debt ceiling resolution, my bet is that President Obama invokes the Fourteenth Amendment and continues paying our debts anyway. (Remember that the debt ceiling applies to spending the Congress has already committed to, not spending in the future.) We haven't had a good impeachment fight since Clinton, but I can see one looming on the horizon, even if there is no chance the Democrats in the Senate would vote to convict. I'm not even sure that a majority of the House would vote to impeach, but it's pretty much impossible to predict how the House will behave these days.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I just cashed out the US mutual funds in my IRA until we get past yet another round of stupid Republican budget hijinks. If the US really does default, the result could be horrendous, not just here but around the world as well.

I hold a couple of foreign mutual funds as well; the Japanese one is doing quite well at the moment. I also have an emerging markets fund. I ran a few charts the other day to see how different regional funds performed. Surprisingly, despite what have been quite varied local economic conditions in East Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, the funds for these regions all move more or less in lockstep. It looks like the actions of the US Fed have more influence on stock market movements in Brazil or South Africa than do the local economic conditions in these countries.

I'm still keeping my foreign funds, though.

Admist all these fiasco, I am actually suspecting that the Reps and their interests have been hedging against HMOs; usually the interest groups are "pro-freedom" wingers (liberals or neo-liberals in the mix), hedge funds, insurance companies, big Pharma, etc.

On a more humourous take :

Gold, oil and government shutdowns

And an even more silly one :

Will Obamacare hurt job creation and marriage?

[Vallen Chaos Valiant]

Originally Posted by GDB

But they have enough power that, if they continue to act as stubborn mules, they can shut the government down. And when it happens, they can blame it on the democrats because "they're in power". No one who isn't already a brainwashed zealot would believe them, but that's their aim.

At this point it is time for Obama to put his foot down. Give them the shutdown they want, and just spend the next few weeks planning to deal with the consequences. This debt ceiling argument can only end once the shutdown actually occurs, and not before.

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by Vallen Chaos Valiant

At this point it is time for Obama to put his foot down. Give them the shutdown they want, and just spend the next few weeks planning to deal with the consequences. This debt ceiling argument can only end once the shutdown actually occurs, and not before.

Bill Clinton comes to mind.

[ganbaru]

Shutdown impact: Tourists, homebuyers hit quickly
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-27-17-34-14

Philippines says rebel standoff is over
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/phili...-standoff-over

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Philippines says rebel standoff is over
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/phili...-standoff-over

The last stronghold of the rebels was taken yesterday among the marshes of Sumatra in Sta. Catalina. Actually a stupid move which led them to be corner by both air ( attack helicopters and fighter planes), water (naval ships) and land ( combined Marine and police).

Currently, the government of my city (Zambonga City) is still on heightened alert due to humors of bombings and new attacks. Curfew is still going on at 8pm-5am in the morning.

Generally, peace, school and business is back to normal except in the devastated barangays. Barangay elections might also be postpones depending on the assessment from Comelec.

[Malkuth]

Finally, Greek neo-nazi party members are brought to justice.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24314319

[ganbaru]

Kenyan official: Troops caused mall collapse
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-27-19-56-18

Search grows bleak in India building collapse
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/searc...lding-collapse

Security tight at Miss World final in Indonesia
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-28-08-39-23

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Kenyan official: Troops caused mall collapse
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-27-19-56-18

Does Kenya have a dedicated military counter terrorism/hostage rescue unit? Cause if they sent essentially regular soldiers into that situation, this kinda outcome shouldn't be surprising. Regular troops aren't primarily trained to engage enemies in these kind of delicate close quarters battle situations. Regular grunts are trained to deal with enemy machine gun teams fortified in buildings by blasting them with explosives, due to it being the most expedient thing to do in regular combat conditions. There's a reason many countries created dedicated anti terrorism special forces teams in the 70;s.


OTOH. Even the most Elite of western special forces counter terrorism units rarely have to deal with hostage situations where there's an active gun battle going on, and the terrorists have access to heavy weapons. The most successful hostage rescue operations tend to occur against less well equipped terrorists in a prolonged siege situation that gives the hostage rescue team time to device a rescue plan.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

Does Kenya have a dedicated military counter terrorism/hostage rescue unit? Cause if they sent essentially regular soldiers into that situation, this kinda outcome shouldn't be surprising. Regular troops aren't primarily trained to engage enemies in these kind of delicate close quarters battle situations. Regular grunts are trained to deal with enemy machine gun teams fortified in buildings by blasting them with explosives, due to it being the most expedient thing to do in regular combat conditions. There's a reason many countries created dedicated anti terrorism special forces teams in the 70;s.

The Kenyan special forces aren't as proficient in FIBUA-type CI operations as they are in rural CI ones, given how they have more villages instead of urban areas for terrorists to hide.

The latter is tougher as hideouts are more sparse and require more manpower for sweeps, but there are more options; when a hut is confirmed to have enemies within, a rocket or 40mm could solve the problem as building a village house is many times cheaper than renovation a burnt out shop in a mall.

OTOH. Even the most Elite of western special forces counter terrorism units rarely have to deal with hostage situations where there's an active gun battle going on, and the terrorists have access to heavy weapons. The most successful hostage rescue operations tend to occur against less well equipped terrorists in a prolonged siege situation that gives the hostage rescue team time to device a rescue plan.

True. Beslan is a pretty good example. The Spetznaz had a crapload of issues with terrorists standing on dead-man switches and manning RPKs..

[Roger Rambo]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

The latter is tougher as hideouts are more sparse and require more manpower for sweeps, but there are more options; when a hut is confirmed to have enemies within, a rocket or 40mm could solve the problem as building a village house is many times cheaper than renovation a burnt out shop in a mall.

Well it's not just that a hut is easier to take out with explosives. It's also easier to resolve a hostage situation that happens in a hut. Terrorist takes someone hostage in a hut? Plenty of places in a fragile that can be breached with flashbangs and storming the building takes under 5 seconds. Barricade hostage situations just don't happen as easily in rural areas, especially since it'd be preferable to try to escape with the hostages to some hide out (which due to needing to be hidden, wouldn't be as easily defended if the army found it).

I could easily see the Kenyan special forces not being as familiar with this kind of operation...but regardless of that...

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

True. Beslan is a pretty good example. The Spetznaz had a crapload of issues with terrorists standing on dead-man switches and manning RPKs..

While the Spetznaz made some pretty major mistakes at Beslan, the level of opposition they faced can't be ignored.

I mean, this isn't some video game where you can easily snipe machine gun nests from afar. In real life, a machine gun in a well fortified position with a good firing arc and plenty of ammo can hold dozens of soldiers. And the most sound tactics for taking that nest out usually involve expending huge quantities of rifle/machine gun fire to suppress the nest, or blasting it with explosives. Incredibly troublesome if you're trying to rescue hostages to. Even SAS would have trouble with this kinda situation.

[ganbaru]

Iran leader's US outreach meets praise, some anger
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-28-12-53-49

Special Report: Myanmar old guard clings to $8 billion jade empire
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNew...98S00H20130929

[Seiryuu]

Originally Posted by GDB

But they have enough power that, if they continue to act as stubborn mules, they can shut the government down. And when it happens, they can blame it on the democrats because "they're in power". No one who isn't already a brainwashed zealot would believe them, but that's their aim.

People seem to forget that the GOP members of Congress were also elected into their positions, so the fact that they're able to carry this much weight means that there's that many people who are supposedly "brainwashed" (we aren't by the way, and some could just as easily argue that the Democrats are).

Neither party is entirely right, but a large number of people support the Republican party's economic proposals because they see big risks in some of the proposals made by the Democratic party. It doesn't help that a thorough look at the economic situation shows to some one in large part brought about by bad decisions during a Democrat's term, which came crashing down during the term of a Republican president who just wasn't equipped to handle what was given to him and ended up making some bad military decisions that made things worse. And the Republican party sees the current situation as an influential jackass who insists on pursuing questionable routes and pushing the points they're most reluctant to sway on. After all, you don't get an impasse this bad without two groups of stubborn jerks who refuse to compromise.

Ultimately both sides are largely filled with fools, bigots and power-hungry manipulators who plot and backstab one another while accusing their opponents of the same. One's left trying to choose the least unsuited person. What's worst is that sometimes the people with the best heads on their shoulders, who could make the best decisions, are driven to drop out by the mudslinging of candidates who know they can't win by policy and their supporters.

[Archon_Wing]

Originally Posted by GDB

But they have enough power that, if they continue to act as stubborn mules, they can shut the government down. And when it happens, they can blame it on the democrats because "they're in power". No one who isn't already a brainwashed zealot would believe them, but that's their aim.

Yea it's quite sad how they're willing to fuck everyone else over so they can keep themselves nice and comfortable.

A shutdown should kick them to the streets; I mean who's paying for them to do nothing?

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Seiryuu

People seem to forget that the GOP members of Congress were also elected into their positions, so the fact that they're able to carry this much weight means that there's that many people who are supposedly "brainwashed" (we aren't by the way, and some could just as easily argue that the Democrats are).

Based on the popular vote, the Democrats won the House vote, too. Unfortunately, the GOP was in control during the 2010 census redrawing (Tea Party...remember?) and they were quite ruthless in the gerrymandering game.

Not to say that the Democrats won't do the same if they were in that position, but compound that with how the real demographic picture of the "American People" look quite different, and it's really a much larger distortion. Minorities, youths, redditors, immigrants, and women tend to be less acclimatized to the political norm and more likely to take up alternative political channels (activism, unionizing, etc.), if they bother at all. If and when they vote, by and large they tend to vote Democrat.

As for "compromise," don't you give me that shit. Obama already sold out repeatedly -- hell, the man's a pure establishment man, look at the fucking NSA! However, if the GOP's tactics are akin to a minority fascist party looking to sabotage a functioning democracy, then they can kindly shove off. Enough with the, what do you call it when people sabotage things, throw out angry ranting propaganda and try to make planes stop functioning?

[Ithekro]

The thing is, both sides say about the same things about each other. And I'm talkig about the voters, not the politicians.

[Yu Ominae]

Originally Posted by Roger Rambo

Does Kenya have a dedicated military counter terrorism/hostage rescue unit? Cause if they sent essentially regular soldiers into that situation, this kinda outcome shouldn't be surprising. Regular troops aren't primarily trained to engage enemies in these kind of delicate close quarters battle situations. Regular grunts are trained to deal with enemy machine gun teams fortified in buildings by blasting them with explosives, due to it being the most expedient thing to do in regular combat conditions. There's a reason many countries created dedicated anti terrorism special forces teams in the 70;s.

Kenya has the General Service Unit IIRC. It's under the police, but it has a paramilitary structure since Kenyan soldiers also get involved.

I'm not sure on Kenyan military CT units though.