America’s Friends in Pakistan: “Pakistan will shoot down any U.S. drone that intrudes its air space per new directives, a senior Pakistani official told NBC News on Saturday.”
Pakistani Truckers Hate Supplying America: “Sleeping in a freezing cab, running out of money and worried about militant attacks, Ghulab Jan is one of thousands of truck drivers stranded as a result of Pakistan’s blockade of the Afghan border to NATO and U.S. war supplies.But they and the businessmen who run what has been a lucrative trade for most of the last decade say they support the decision to shut the frontier in retaliation for coalition airstrikes almost two weeks ago that killed 24 Pakistani troops in two remote border outposts.”
NATO supplies attacked in Pakistan: “More than two dozen vehicles, stranded near Quetta by Islamabad’s ban on NATO convoys using its border crossings, went up in flames after men rode motorcycles into a parking area and fired rockets.”
Pakistan Says ‘We will fight!’ — America: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani warned Dec. 9 the U.S. and its NATO allies that any future cross-border attack would meet with a “detrimental response”.
State Department says ‘we must keep giving to our friend Pakistan‘: “We believe our assistance to Pakistan still continues to provide dividends for the American people in trying to grow and strengthen Pakistan’s democratic institutions, boost its economy,” said spokesman Mark Toner.
Another Iranian facility blows up: “The situation in Iran just keeps getting weirder. An explosion apparently rocked Esfahan, the town hosting one of the Middle Eastern nation’s nuclear research facilities on Nov. 28, according to Australian and Israeli news outlets. This explosion comes only a couple of weeks after a massive explosion at a missile research facility killed the founder of Iran’s missile programs — many claimed that Western and Israeli intelligence agencies were behind that blast.”
What was the lost drone doing?: Iranian and US sources tell different stories — even with respect to each other. Bill Sweetman of Aviation Week writes:
Yet there appears to be no panic in the military or aerospace industry about any loss of stealth or advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) technology in the crash. “The Iranians don’t have the ability to reverse-engineer it, and there was no fancy [ISR] technology on board,” says a veteran intelligence specialist with insight into the program. “There could be a bit of a problem if the Russians or Chinese get the [airframe].” …
Having a virtually intact aircraft should present fewer problems for reverse engineering. However, it is a lengthy process and often means replicating a design that is already several years and at least a generation of technology behind.
Syrian Forces Fire on Funerals, Defectors: “Syrian forces fired on funeral processions and clashed with army defectors Saturday, killing at least 12 people as France called on the international community to ‘save the Syrian people’.” First, it’s ‘funeral directors’ not ‘funeral defectors’. Second, why is it that whenever France calls on the ‘international community’ to save someone it usually means the USN and the USAF will get involved?
“France is extremely concerned about information of a massive military operation being prepared by Syrian security authorities against the city of Homs,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said, echoing concerns raised in Washington, London and neighboring Turkey.
“France warns the Syrian government and will hold the Syrian authorities responsible for any action against the population.
“The entire international community must mobilize itself to save the Syrian people,” Valero added in a statement.
On Friday, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said: “It is extremely concerning that in places like Homs we have huge number of reports that they are preparing something large-scale.
“They are not going to be able to hide who’s responsible if there is a major assault on the weekend.”
Just saying. See related search: “Leading From Behind” and “Responsibility to Protect”.
Storming the Castle at Amazon Kindle for $3.99
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Ah, reverse engineering.
The USSR reverse engineered the B29 based on possession of a plane that was “interned”. When it came to fabricating one particular part, the Russian engineers were nearly driven to distraction. This part had a notch cut into one side that served no apparent purpose. Assuming the Americans knew their business the Russians dutifully reproduced this notch of no apparent use.
Years later they learned the notch was an alignment aid for the next step in machining the part.
Trouble in Pakistan?
Trouble in Pakistan?
Every time this indelicate point comes up, I think our guys in Afghanistan are going to end up like Xenophon’s Greeks in the Anabasis. That is, if our President actually lets them cut their way out at the last extreme.
There is always the possibility that this person who is our President would want an ignoble military defeat to embarrass the leadership of the Army, etc.
Never waste the opportunity to exploit a crisis.
There are too many dissonant elements in RQ-170 story, leading me to believe there is more than meets the eye here. Those spooks and special ops types never do anything without some purpose in mind, however opaque to us AP and Reuters reading public. Add in weird explosions at strategic locations around Iran and it certainly is a strange brew. If any of us had inside information as to what might actually be happening, it wouldn’t be a good idea to post about here, but speculating away about it is great sport. Would Obama really be satisfied with an entirely covert operation to take out Iranian nukes? Probably only if it could be completely denied if things went south. Perhaps its revelation will be 2012 “October surprise.”
Whoever put all those troops in Afghanistan obviously cannot read a map. It is the war we fought because it wasn’t the one George W Bush was fighting. We cannot win it and couldn’t tell the difference if we did win it. A fools errand concocted by a fool for foolish and wholly political reasons. Pit the mother who sent her son to die there.
We abandon Iraq, a place that actually matters and as sure as God made little green apples we will spend more blood and treasure to reconquer the same territory we conquered twice already. That is a sorry waste of resources. Never die twice for the same real estate.
Steve C #1:
The Soviets dismantled one B-29 to use in copying the aircraft and told Stalin “We can copy it and make it better.” Stalin replied that he did not want it “better” – the US was far ahead of the USSR – so make it exactly the same.
They complied with Stalin’s orders. The airplane they copied had been hit in the fin of the vertical tail by flak, and the damage had been repaired in the usual way for holes of that size in non structural areas – by trimming the jagged metal away and applying a fabric patch over i. And so all Soviet TU-4 copies of the B-29 had a hole in the vertical fin in that same spot with a fabric patch over it.
But those lost B-29′s cost the US billion$. Even a copy of the B-29 could reach the USA with early nuclear weapons if used on one way missions. Later development of the TU-4 led to the Bear bomber, still in use today.
I’m glad Wretchard puts up these news round up posts.
that 2nd iranian site to explode keeps getting re-reported (as above) so it seems like a new site is getting hit every week.
The Iranians are in bed with the Russians. For sure, Russian aeronautical engineers are going over the RQ-170 with vernier calipers and digital cameras. Likewise the Russians will receive samples of the anti-radar surface coatings for their chemists to study and have access to the electronics. Whether the Russians can make sense out of the electronics is another question. I like to think that the electronics is designed to be difficult to reverse engineer. I’ve played at reverse engineering automobile powertrain control modules and know from experience it’s hard to do, e.g. the software PROM is part of the CPU chip and deliberately inaccessible.
There’s a basic screwup with the RQ-170 that I do not understand. It should have had a self destruct mechanism. Also, as a stealth vehicle, it should have been statically unstable in its aerodynamics. The only way I can explain what happened, is the vehicle had a power failure and its guidance computer crapped out before going into a self destruct sequence. However without the guidance computer, the vehicle should have immediately gone into a flat spin and crashed at high speed. The fact that the vehicle landed intact tells me it went into a gentle downward glide flying at trim angle-of-attack. How is that possible if it is statically unstable?
2+2=5 I’m confused, this does not add up.
One thing for sure, the Russians are smiling like the cat who ate the canary.
Concerning Pakistan, looks like the situation there is about as screwed up as it can be. Obviously from the beginning, the Pakistanis were misbehaving since they were providing a safe haven for Osama bin Laden. It’s also obvious that they are providing support for the Taliban. The Pakistan government can now openly behave as an enemy rather that pretend they are allies. So can we turn a lemon into lemonade? As almost always, the answer is:
Not while Obama is president.
Things will continue to be as screwed up as possible while Obama remains as president. Right now, we’re in a gentle downward glide flying at trim angle-of-attack with the autopilot malfunctioning. The interesting question is whether another guy can become president before this thing whacks into the ground. Of course, our enemies are laughing at us. What amazing fools we were to have elected a moonbat as President! You can thank our feckless MSM for this!!
The Military leadership and MOST former Military people will not let this happen. The result of that type of action would have consequences that no sane person would risk.
“Every time this indelicate point comes up, I think our guys in Afghanistan are going to end up like Xenophon’s Greeks in the Anabasis. That is, if our President actually lets them cut their way out at the last extreme.”
Eggplant, I question whether there is a viable civilian government in Pakistan. The place seems to be run by the military and the ISI, and they do indeed seem to be our enemies.
sirius @ 11 said:
“I question whether there is a viable civilian government in Pakistan. The place seems to be run by the military and the ISI, and they do indeed seem to be our enemies.”
I agree. There is a nominal government in Pakistan but real power resides with the ISI and the military. It is clear that a major faction within the Pakistani military and ISI are Islamic fascists. My guess is that faction probably has access to Pakistan’s nukes. This whole sorry business is a disaster waiting to happen. The only gleam of sunshine is the Pakistani Islamic fascists hate the Indians more than they hate use. They’ll first do something stupid with the Indians and then the Indians will clean their clock.
This seems to be a recurring theme with Islamic fascism across the globe. For example, the Egyptian Islamic fascists will probably be stupid with the Israelis first. Likewise, the Iranians will chose to be stupid with the Saudis or the Israelis before they play with us. There are advantages to being far away.
Now where this argument falls flat is the example of 9/11. Logically al Qaedia should have been flying airplanes into buildings in Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, Islamic fascism is an enemy to all of humanity and selects its targets almost at random.
Regarding Pakistan, the capital city is Islamabad, what could possibly go wrong?
It may just be that when historians look back on the events after 9/11, the cooperation that George Dubya Bush was able to get from them, may be one of the major significant factors. I wonder if we will ever learn exactly how that came about.
Not that we have seriously counted on their cooperation from day one, and certainly not since Obambus started pot-shotting them without warning or restraint. When historians look back at the disaster which is the Obamanation, the fact that he was so strong on this factor (yes as well as the bin Laden incursion) may be one of the major significant factors.
–
Obambus is just letting things run down a little bit every day, using up that old design margin, he’s the Fabian of Failure, the Elvis of Entropy, Seven Lean Years all rolled into three.
Egg, regarding the dynamically unstable batplane, just because the comm is jammed that would not affect the stability controls, those should be triple-redundant down to power supplies, and in any case it’s possible that the airframe has a failure mode that is stable if high drag, flaps locked up, whatever. Still, the whole cluster of events screams out for an explanation that I suppose we won’t hear for another twenty-five years unless Anonymous wants to perform another round of his public service.
Bryan Suits on the radio today seemed to be playing with the idea that the Iranians did manage to jam the guidance sat signals or otherwise actively interfere with and even hijack the craft, rather than simply have it land on their heads, which I think is slightly more the likely scenario, though he pointed out even toy rc aircraft are supposed to know enough to turn for home when all else fails.
1/ Nothing happens in Afghanistan in the winter and we could be out of their by spring–apart from a couple of fortress airbases.
2/ We are bound to lose some drones–the complex software is back at the flight control centers in Nevada. That said–it is surprising the drone did not have a competent self destruct capability.
3/ Syria is irrelevant to fundamental American interest–the concern is the fate of the large Christian community–that is a concern for ALL of Christian civilization.
There is always the possibility of the RQ-170 drone being an operation designed to discourage future drone and stealth operations over Iranian airspace.
Somebody, oh, I don’t know who, could’ve leaked the encrypted codes and frequencies for the drone to the Iranians, and that allowed them to jam the control frequency. And that simple little outcome will further discourage the Air Force/ Army/ whoever on our side from doing further drone missions over Iran, because we think the Iranians ACTUALLY cracked the codes or were able to jam the control frequency, thus rendering our drones (the perception) vulnerable to the Iranians over or near their airspace.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, by their own declarations, have been at war with the “Great Satan”, the United States of America, since 1979. What is the crime in giving away classified information to a hostile state? What was that called?
None dare call it treason.
Why are we still in Afghanistan? To what end? In a strict cost-benefit analysis this sounds like a losing game, especially when it consists of having to appease the Pakistanis who are engaged in an eternal process of stabbing us in the back.
If we want to make the area secure I suggest that the best way to do so is to withdraw our troops/hostages from Afghanistan and to put extreme pressure upon Pakistan. Most of their advanced military equipment is US manufactured. What will they do if the US says they won’t get any parts, or any economic aid, unless they do X, Y, and Z, and do it now?
“Winning hearts and minds” is a modern strategy that has been shown to be an utter disaster. It doesn’t work. Its time to abandon it.
Take it for what it is worth but back before 9/11 I worked with a Pakistani. He was a Punjabi from a military family. He stated that the Pakistan parliament was a fig leaf and a rubber stamp for the military. Every once in a while they would let a civilian be in charge but when they did they’d get a person who couldn’t refrain from dipping deep into corruption and would boot him out. During the Afghan/Russian war the military got access to the cash flow from the US to fund opposition to the Russians. They were upset for a number of reasons when the US presence stopped. The money decline was one of them. They where also paranoid about the US favoring India.
“Why are we still in Afghanistan? To what end? In a strict cost-benefit analysis this sounds like a losing game, especially when it consists of having to appease the Pakistanis who are engaged in an eternal process of stabbing us in the back.” Stuff it, you commie Ron Paul supporter. Endless, open ended nation building in the Islamic world is a fundamental tenet of American conservatism.
Eggplant #9:
As I have said, I found that “airplane” and RLV people are genetically incapable of understanding the need for destruct systems. They argue that airplanes don’t have destruct systems, and that unlike rockets their vehicles are not expendable. The X-33 and X-34 people were dead set against having destruct systems on board. And years before those programs came along the RLV advocates were arguing to not listen to the people at the space launch ranges because they only understood expendables (not only not true but the ranges had no real influence over the design of the vehicles thatr flew there anyway).
I managed to get our safety people to agree that instead of destruct they would be willing to consider alternatives. But no one ever came up with an alternative approach – except maybe, me. I argued you needed a multi-tier approach where you could issue Abort commands, Return to Base Commands, Thrust Termination Commands, and, finally, possibly Destruct Commands.
By all rights, heads should roll. But they won’t. Instead, they’ll argue that it was no big deal, “What me worry?”
this drone situation is just one more example of why people should not entertain fantasies of the military somehow standing up for america, or in any way acting as a bulwark of liberty. just like the wermacht, they are mindless and gutless.
that drone should have been recovered or destroyed without having to be ordered to, and in spite of being ordered not to. same with bin laden in sudan. but of course they never do the obvious right thing.
85 % + of the worlds illegal heroin comes from Afghanistan.
This heroin kills the youth of Russia, China, Iran and Europe–it is their problem–let them deal with Afghanistan.
The Heroin in US comes from Mexico and Latin America-that is our problem-we should deal with it as a public health problem–like typhoid or AIDs.
Ron Paul has the right idea
–end foreign entanglements
–end handouts to countries like Pakistan and Israel.
Welcome the current KSA purchase of $ 60 Billion of American defense products
–that creates jobs and wealth for American families.
Gen Petreaus DCI, Gen Jones CJCS, Gates SecDef, now Pinetta all say that
Israels current regime undermines American fundamental interests in MENA and beyond.
It is time to put American fundamental interests first in a very serious manner
–enough is enough.
Is this the same KSA that pays for the preachers that that incited against Christians and Jews?
Is this the same KSA that forbids Muslims to convert or become atheists?
Is this the same KSA that that blames women who get raped?
Is this the same KSA that forbids non-Muslims from becoming citizens?
Is this the same KSA that 9-11 murderers received their indoctrination from?
I could go on and on – but I’m sure you must get the point.
Our ‘favorite’ troll who never mentions the Armenian genocide by his favorite turkeys.
“Our ‘favorite’ troll who never mentions the Armenian genocide by his favorite turkeys.” Consider me the anti-Victor. Maybe he studied at the feet of old Z. Bzrezinski who always wanted to ally with the Saudis against the Russians even before Reagan did it.
One of the tragedies of N Korea is that the children are stunted in growth and brain damaged by malnutrition
East and West Germany achieved a difficult unity–they were both fed and educated.
The inevitable unity between N and S Korea will be more much difficult
-it will happen in 5 years and facilitated by the Christian Koreans-it will be painful- they will need help from all Christians
<Maybe he studied at the feet of old Z. Bzrezinski
consider – he is a proponent of Pat Buchanan and other anti-Semites, pretends to be an American First-er – pretends to be a Christian – I leave it to others to form an opinion –
Joshua 24:15
15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.
Buchanan is wildly wrong about WWII…but he is not an anti-Semite.
God looks after fools, drunks and Tim Tebow.
X @ 26: Buchanan is a famous anti-semite, it’s a reflex for him that he is sometimes able to control, and it is certainly because of his anti-semitism that he manages to be so insanely wrong about WWII.
And you may look at that for a model of how it works with some others as well.
Victor and Mr. X, maybe it’s time for you two to get your own jointly operated blog.
RWE @ 19 said:
“As I have said, I found that “airplane” and RLV people are genetically incapable of understanding the need for destruct systems.”
As I am sure you know, the Space Shuttle had a range safety system, i.e. a linear explosive charge down the length of the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB). The Shuttle’s range safety system was actually used during the Challenger accident because the SRBs were flying around loose (the flight crew was already as good as dead). The Space Shuttle’s external tank originally had a range safety system but it was removed starting with STS-79. I’ve suspected that a job requirement for the Shuttle program’s range safety officer was that he have ice water for blood.
Victor is far more ‘spooky’ than I’ll ever be, Senor Equis has merely run into a few of the real deals, some the retired with sword and shield lapel pins in Moscow, and at least one lovable schleb fuzzball based in Kiev that used to email Senor Equis from Afghanistan and had all the usual ‘legends’ i.e. USAID. But I think Victor’s more the ex type than active. As others have remarked re: tall tales told here, real spooks wouldn’t waste time propagandizing at BC, nor talking about their actual work. They have DARPA bots’ for that now that can make auto comments and perhaps even pretend to be human for a few seconds if challenged with those comment filter thingees.
And the claim that Ron Paul has outraised the rest from the U.S. military comes from Ron Paul’s website, confirmed by ABC News more recently than 2008.
And nice Josh. Yes Newt I suppose is a Chateau heartiste type Alpha male in that he can bang em’ and dump em’, get Fannie and Freddie money in the ‘private sector’, and he’s the yeller dawg who ain’t Obama. I’d rather vote for Charlie Sheen than Newt against Obama. But as you may have noticed, even Whiskey’s buddy Roissy seems to like him some Ron Paul now.
Conservatives are clearly drinking the koolaid, ala McGoverniks in 1972, if they think that Obama ala Nixon is so deeply unpopular that a majority of the electorate would vote for Newt. They forgot that at least half this country is on entitlements and Obama has just enough monetary juice to keep the wheels from falling off before November 2012.
And even if Newt barely wins in a squeaker rather than what should be a landslide repudiation of The One, I predict he immediately starts ignoring his promise to fire Bernanke and/or lets the Fed continue to turn the dollar into toilet paper. I and some fellow Ron Paulers will be here to remind you mainstream sheeple cons that you sneered at the one candidate who could have drawn Dems and independents out and had a fighting chance. As it is, without a mainline successful Governor like Daniels to rally around who can actually string a sentence together (and who coincidentally left during Dubya’s 1st term, thus shaking some of the taint) the GOP is screwed anyway. The RINO Establishment will cheat and do whatever it takes to discredit Paul after he wins in Iowa with even the ‘Left’ joining in the Establishment protection action.
And responding to a comment from a previous thread, I wish Sergey well and success to the real Russian opposition, not the Demintern/Hillary stooges.
Looks like the forces of evil are getting desperate! BTW have you seen this http://tinyurl.com/79jxoto
“Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on his Facebook page Sunday that he has ordered a probe into the allegations of electoral fraud during the country’s Dec. 4 parliamentary vote.”
If suddenly the lights went out in all those places populated by evil people so they resemble North Korea at night? Excellent target dsignation one would think!
Was it only about 10 days ago Putin was a shoo-in to become the new Emperor of the re-united USSR?
One thing I’ve noticed is how generals love to fight the last war. Don’t you think the next war will be in cyberspace? What if all the evil guys’ computers suddenly became infected with a sort of super Y2K bug that caused them to sumultaneuosly shut down? Could Santa Claus screw up the bad guys’ computers at exactly 0000Z on Decemebr 25, 2011? Could that be the arrival time for the 12th Imam?
If suddenly the lights went out in all those places populated by evil people so they resemble North Korea at night? Excellent target designation one would think! It certainly would give new meaning to “the dark side”!
With all this discussion about the captured drone I wonder if anyone has ever heard of a TROJAN HORSE?
http://tinyurl.com/848hvrh
Wretchard – I know how much enjoy like music videos, here’s one you might like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veYIbxaU0A8
Bill Buckley read Pat Buchanan out of the conservative movement.
Boy this is fun!
ROFLMAO! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGNqiYmuv50
Eggy, I’m getting frustrated.
As I have posted MANY times there is no stealth secret. IT is ALL open source information. The Chemical composition of RAM isn’t a secret. A microwave browning tray is RAM. It absorbs the Microwave (RADAR) energy and gets hot, which makes the bacon crispy.
What might be a secret is how the RAM is manufactured. RAM is a ceramic/plastic. It has to be ‘cooked’ in a kiln. The heat, time, pressure, moisture, etc are secret but those factors can be determined by trial and error.
The Soviets “invented/discovered” stealth. They just could not see any use for it. Soviet Military Doctrine was developed during the Great Patriotic War. It calls for overwhelming the enemy with numbers. That is why the Red Army had 70,000+ tanks in it’s glory years. The Soviets could and can build stealth aircraft. They just don’t see the need for them. The Socialist philosophy was 10 ten million fighters is better then 1 hundred million dollar fighter.
The USA grew up as a toll booth for commerce between the left side of Asia (Europe) and the right side of Asia (China). After the USA finished a railroad going from east to west, it was cheaper and faster to ship goods from Europe to China by going thru the USA. That led to the US Military thinking in strategic terms. That means logistics are the #1 concern of the US Military. Which is why Americans think 1 Hundred million dollar aircraft is better then 10 ten million dollar aircraft. Less fuel, spares, etc. More money for training. Better pilots in better aircraft will win over superior numbers.
So far events have proven the USA to be correct.
What is really alarming is how stooooooopid the security at Creech was.
The top secret baloney is the media attempting to drum up business. If the MSM were to give the facts and just the facts, nobody would care what happened to the RQ-170.
All this trouble with Pakistan calls to question the entire political strategy of the USA. Formed in the late 18th century, the strategy of outreach, or engagement as I believe it’s officially called, is the poor stepchild of Manifest Destiny (hereafter MD).
MD fell into disfavor after the casualty lists from the Philippines were published. Then when tales of the banana wars drifted back to the states, MD became a dirty phrase and the Isolationist movement gained steam. Then came WW2, which the MD crowd saw as an opportunity to advance American interests, or what they saw as American interests. Actually, the Globalist saw the opportunity to make money hand over fist, with the taxpayer footing the bill.
It might be time for the pendulum to swing back. Bring the troops home. Everywhere, Let them camp out on the borders and catch smugglers and illegal immigrants.
Draw down the Navy until it is just the right size to protect our coasts.
This is called Fortress America and is the Ron Paul foreign policy. That is why the Russians and Chi-Coms LOVE Ron Paul. Any one dreaming of world conquest knows they first have to account for the USA.
Ron Paul might be right about the Fortress America strategy. I know the MD crowd is wrong. The World is unhappy with the USA as a hegemony. Some time with a Russian boot on their neck would change that. A little experience with Chi-Com roadside justice would make arrogant Americans look cute and cuddly.
Give it a generation. Both sides might prefer it.
Without the spur of American technological genius, Russia and China will go back to arming their troops with cheap, primitive weapons. After all, they just use those armies against their citizens, who are unarmed.
Stealth vs. the Obvious: If it wasn’t for that fin in the swimming pool I’d dive in to avoid the guy who just padlocked the gate from the inside.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEllHMWkXEU
Mr. X “And even if Newt barely wins in a squeaker rather than what should be a landslide repudiation of The One, I predict he immediately starts ignoring his promise to fire Bernanke and/or lets the Fed continue to turn the dollar into toilet paper.”
Er, not bloody likely. It is pretty obvious now the Oligarchy/Establishment’s long knives and the heavy artillery are now out to get Newt. The battle lines have been drawn. It’s war. The Oligarchy against the rest of America. Surrendering to the Oligarchy won’t do Newt any good. They’d still butcher him if captured. He knows that.
Newt’s only way out is to lead the charge against the Oligarchy. He has no choice. He also has the guts and brain to beat ‘em.
Both Perry and Paul could have been that guy. Neither wanted to pick up the flag and the lead the fight into the teeth of the enemy’s withering fire.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/romance-risk-brought-panic-135508106.html
Remarkable story about MF Global. I can see why Corzine has not (yet) committed hari-kari. He had MF Global leveraged up to its eyeballs – on winning trades. Only regulators demands collapsed their capital structure. “Only”. Oh, and he had already scared off one of his own risk officers. But then, finally (if I read this right), he raided customer accounts to pay off demands for increased reserves caused by re-ratings by regulators. I suppose these might be covered by SIPC? In which case, when it came down to it, he tried to save his ass on the taxpayer’s dime. Which he might have considered a valid move, since it was forced by FINRA and SEC.
So, I guess a little more clarification wouldn’t hurt, but the situation is not quite black and white, at least a few whisps of grey.
–
X @ 30: Newt & Bernanke & Luap Nor
I think Newt is wrong about Bernanke, so *if* he changed his mind and kept Bernanke, I would be pleased. I simultaneously think Bernanke’s machinations *have* saved our bacon, *and* agree that the Fed is out of control and should arguably be eliminated. I’m very confused.
The question is when the bill for Bernankecare comes due. By anything I was ever taught, it should have come due a year ago or more. What does Newt have in mind to do instead? He may not have any more understanding of post-modern finance than does Obambus. I mean, who does? It’s being made up day by day, on the Excel models of Bernanke and probably a small staff, who so far have kept their mouths firmly shut.
The road not taken would have been no TARP, no Porkulus, no Fed printing of $3t in long-term or $7t in overnight funds. Citibank and Merrill Lynch would certainly have failed outright. Everybody’s money market funds, I’m not sure how many trillion, would have broken their dollar values. Of course GM would have shut down, disemploying at least half a million Americans. Etc. MAYBE these would have been better moves in the long term. But in the near term, probably millions of American citizens would have had their checking accounts and IRAs wiped out. Gone. FDIC broke. SIPC broke. Who knows what else.
Would Luap Nor shut down AIG? Would Luap Nor jail 1,000 wall street execs? Haven’t heard him say either. I’m not sure he isn’t a blind squirrel on all of this.
Eggplant #29:
The idea was that if they had to blow the vehicle during ascent the solids’ destruct would take out the whole stack. The Shuttle did not need destruct ordnance on board because it did not represent a greater hazard than did common aircraft.
The X-33 was a different story, and the Venturestar if built would have represented the hazard of a large aircraft – carrying a small armed nuclear weapon. But Lockheed still argued that it was an airplane. During descent that was more or less true, just like the Shuttle, but during ascent it was more hazardous than just about anything this side of a Saturn V.
But of course the destruct for a UAV would be to deny the aircraft to an enemy. In terms of hazard to people on the ground it is no more worse than any aircraft – and that is the threshold of concern.
Stoicheon #36:
Pure B.S. The theory is “open source” but the USSR did not invent stealth technology just because one of their scientists came up with the radar scatter prism concept. The B-29 theory was “open source” too, as was the Rolls Royce Nene engine, and left to their own devices the Soviets would still be trying to build something as good.
I spent a portion of this weekend reading some online survivalist apocalypse-porn (one of my guilty pleasures). It does not comfort me that the set-ups to many of the apocalypse scenarios is reflected very closely in W’s roundup above. I’m glad I don’t live in a major city these days.
Josh #39
Your comment begs a simple question.
If all of those horrors were so plainfully obvious after-the-fact why was the probability of those same horrors so unobvious before-the-fact?
What would it take to prove that macroeconomic modeling does not work? A collapse of the European economy? A 9 year Great Depression and countless subsequent recessions in the USA? A dot.com bubble burst, a housing bubble burst, a credit bubble burst? A decline in the standard of living? What does it take?
stoicheion @ 36 and RWE @ 40:
“The Soviets “invented/discovered” stealth.”
It’s my understanding that the SR-71 (actually the A-12) was the first stealth aircraft. Not that it matters, the SR-71 Wikipedia article confirms that the SR-71/A-12 was the first stealth aircraft. The SR-71 had titanium leading edges which is definitely NOT stealth technology. However the shape of the SR-71 and the paint used was supposed to make it less visible to radar.
RWE,
Concerning range safety: Years ago I was told a fun story and it might even be true. I was told that when the USAF launched an ELV, they had a second lieutenant with his finger poised over the destruct switch and standing behind him were two USAF generals. The second lieutenant did not have authority to press the button on his own and could do so only if ordered by the generals. That order was issued only after the two generals agreed that the vehicle needed to be destroyed. Supposedly, the second lieutenant was part of the process in case the generals needed to cover their asses.
Another fun story I was told: A million years ago, all low orbit satellites were controlled from the Blue Cube in Sunnyvale, California. Back in those days, the low orbit satellites used film that was returned to Earth in reentry vehicles. After the last reentry vehicle left, the low orbit satellite was essentially an empty camera and useless. The story goes that after the last reentry vehicle left, the low orbit satellite was handed over to a second lieutenant. He was told to go have fun and play with it. He then had the vehicle fly these wild maneuvers until it ran out of fuel and then dumped it in the South Pacific. The story goes that this was to keep the Soviets busy tracking this useless satellite, trying to figure out what we were trying to do with it. I’ve long thought that second lieutenant was one lucky guy to have his very own satellite to play with.
pb @ 42: If all of those horrors were so plainfully obvious after-the-fact why was the probability of those same horrors so unobvious before-the-fact?
Wall Street Exec: So, what do you guys think of this plan?
Rocket Scientist #1: If your theory is right, we can charge a 1% commission and pay ourselves ten billion dollars for being so smart.
Rocket Scientist #2: If your theory is wrong, we will go bankrupt.
Wall Street Exec: Thank you, boys. I’ll have a decision for you shortly.
America’s Friends in Pakistan
Pakistani Truckers Hate Supplying America
NATO supplies attacked in Pakistan
Pakistan Says ‘We will fight!’ — America
State Department says ‘we must keep giving to our friend Pakistan
I feel like I am being slapped silly reading those lines. Obama set out to prove that Afghanistan was the important lynch pin to the Middle East and based on the rest of the what is happening with the Arab Spring, has been over taken by events and shown to be irrelevant at best but a fool should the name America be invoked. O’s morbid inflexibility shows that he was nurtured into the role of king and that he too has slipped past the control of his masters. He is winging it and doing poorly so. As others have pointed out, if he was randomly effecting events he’d have an improved success rate. He is a programmed leftist bot and is incapable to reacting to real time information. My brother, a conservative, is convinced that Obama will be reelected. I have little to stand on to argue to the contrary. The rules are based on preserving illegal voting practices and corruption. We have rolled over and allowed the game to be rigged. There is no reason to expect hope and change. The change has taken place already with teh Won.
Obama, the “Smartest President We Ever Had”, just said that if tax rates are lowered that government revenue will decrease. That is not just his opinion, he said, it is a mathematical law.
I am fairly sure that Obama got that bit of mathematical certainty from his economic advisors, who we can fairly assume are calling the shots for this adminsistration’s economic policy.
The statement is so fundamentally flawed that it borders on idiocy. I suppose that would make his economic advisers idiots too.
What makes it so wrong? Government revenues are directly proportional to the amount of income in the private sector. If private sector income increases faster than the arithmetic the lower rate would provide then government revenue would increase. That is basic math.
Obama, and all macroeconomic modeling, assume a closed universe that exists without the inputs of any thinking human beings who will operate outside the boundaries of their models. That is why these models fail to not only black swans but gray and off-white swans too.
The so called experts simply cannot be believed about the horrific consequences of not following their orders.
Hate to jump in on this thread about RQ-170 but this is too absurd. Obama says, “we’ve asked for it back.” Christ on a popsickle stick! Does he think this drone is simply like a wiffle ball hit over the neighbor’s fence? He ain’t the smartest guy in any room, anywhere, at anytime. In any aspect other than Chicago thug politics or community agitating shakedowns, he is clueless.
Does anyone else here notice that the only times he seems engaged are sporting events, White House parties or vacations?
dlsada @ 47,
Obama’s “logic” makes sense in a moonbat sort of way.
Moonbat “logic”:
Socrates is a man.
All men are mortal.
Socrates likes chocolate.
Huh? What does mortality have to do chocolate? Wait a minute, are you implying that there is something wrong with chocolate? By the way, who is this Socrates person?
2 Points:
(1) Allowing false information to fall into enemy hands has long been a staple of counter-intelligence. If only we had someone in charge whom we could trust to feed false information to our enemies, instead of precious secrets…
(2) Regarding destruct systems – Commanders of US Naval vessels for well over a century have been required to flood magazines and other compartments when there is danger of fires causing the magazines to explode. This invariably means drowning members of their own crew, who work knowing their captain may have to do this.
Growing up as a Navy brat, whose father had a career on US Navy aircraft carriers, I became aware before age 8 that naval aviation in peacetime was as lethal to aircrew as it was in combat operations.
People in civilian life generally NEVER consider things that are an everyday fact of life for folks in the military.
#47
It’s called “engaging in dialogue”. Where have you been?
(Well, except where Israel is concerned. We tell them WTF they had better do and then throw a hissy fit when they express, um, reluctance. But don’t worry: it’s all very personal. We’ll get their asses in the end. Heh.)