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[Ted Belmont]

It is kind of amazing how the world's foremost terrorist organization has the same problems as any mid-level corporate office.

[Brentai]

Yyyyeah, I'm gonna need you to purge the infidels on Saturdayyyy.

[Royal☭]

It'll blow your mind when you find out that drug cartels and gangs have them, too.

[Mongrel]

That sort of makes a lot more sent there though, as those are nominally "businesses".

[Brentai]

You still haven't made the connection between extremist religious groups and "business"?

[Mongrel]

I meant in the "self-identify as" sense.

[Classic]

You still haven't made the connection between extremist religious groups and "business"?

Fixed it for you.
I mean, I guess I should make some note of religious organizations that don't have any hierarchy to speak of and don't prescribe any kind of support structure (through sacrifice or tithe or the purchase of religious rites), but I'm not sure any such religions exist...

[McDohl]

Yyyyeah, I'm gonna need you to purge the infidels on Saturdayyyy.

I'm also gonna need you...on Sunday, too.  We lost some people this week, and we have to sorta play catch-up, mmmkay?

[Mongrel]

Border services consider weaponized drones

♫♪ Who's afraid of the big bad drone, the big bad drone, the big bad drone? ♫♪

[Mongrel]

Washington seems to frown on drone hunting for some reason

Everything about this story is funny.

[Mongrel]

A friend has a subscription to the current version of Gary Brecher's War Nerd feature, which is normally behind a paywall. Knowing I'm a fan, he unlocked these two recent columns on the Syrian situation for me, so read 'em while they're hot, if you're interested (they have about 1 day and 16 hours left as of this posting):

Kerry's Chem Speech: Old-School Empire
Little Kerry and the Three Bad Options

EDIT:

Now that those columns have had a bit of time to percolate, I think there are two points where Brecher misses something.

The first is that when he's talking about major powers turning a blind eye to massacres committed with conventional weapons, I think that an important cushion there is the slow speed of escalation in Syria. This looked extremely small scale at first and there were several times when most observers thought Assad would snuff the uprisings out completely, much as his father had done several times. Few world powers were about to get involved when the casualties were only measured in dozens or hundreds. Now that the Syrian army has gradually worked it way up to thousands, global news readers have had time to build their mental insulation.

That's not the whole story (I actually posted earlier in this thread about how the US and Europe would have left Assad alone if he'd avoided using taboo weapons), but it figures in there. And I think that carries possibly as much weight as the weapon-technology taboo.

The second is that I think he's off when he talks about the 99% vs the 1% outrage. I think he's largely right that the majority is not going to give two shits about another tribe, but the percentage is not THAT badly off (maybe it's 10%, maybe even more). I also think that the internet has changed the game a little as manufactured outrage and moral offence is propagated faster and wider than ever before - and he's even touched on that himself in older columns. Point being that while "let 'em kill each other" will still usually win, that minority can drive action more often than he's giving it credit for at the moment.

I mean, I largely agree with his particular stripe of cynicism, but I think once in a while he lets it drown some fringe points - even ones he's previously made himself.

[Büge]

http://www.alternet.org/iraq-war-vet-arrested-cops-rally-opposing-syria-attack

[TA]

What a terrible article. Just gonna quote someone else rather than make the effort to paraphrase, because it's right to the point:

That's like a "how not to" video on responding to being arrested. There's a reason every ACLU flier about how to handle being arrested in existence stresses not struggling and not arguing with the cops doing the arresting. The only interesting legal question in that video is whether the rangers had legal grounds to ask her to move out of that part of the park. Assuming that they did I'm reasonably confident that they are under no legal obligation to explain their reasons for closing a public park or parts thereof and they gave her every possible opportunity to leave quietly; she was intent upon getting herself arrested and, in the end, they obliged. If you struggle with officers while they're making an arrest, that's pretty much what it's going to look like; there was no evidence there of excessive force or brutality, they were simply trying to physically force an unwilling and resisting person into handcuffs.

The description of the event on her legal-fund website is pretty hilariously at variance with what the video itself actually shows. They make it sound like she was just standing around playing the banjo when a bunch of cops jumped her out of the blue.

[Mongrel]

That said, there's a pretty clear history of major world powers doing limited-intervention stuff and not calling it a war. They've had names like "Punitive expedition" and the like.

[Mongrel]

So it looks like Russia actually found Obama an escape hatch?

If this wasn't absurd before... (and it was)...

Basically, Kerry made an offhand (or "Offhand") comment this morning to the effect that the only way Syria could avoid getting cruise missle'd would be if they gave up all of their chemical weapons to international observers.

Russia took those words and ran with them, getting the Syrian foreign minister on the phone in ten minutes. Then went public to rub the US's nose in it, uh, I mean, tell the US it wanted to broker an international agreement for exactly what Kerry had mentioned. And while the Russians are clearly gloating, Obama jumped for it like a Luisitania crewmember looking for a life preserver, because the last place anyone wants to drown is in Congress.

So supposedly they're trying hammer out the details on how they arrange a ceasefire (ha), go in and scoop up all of Assad's chemical weapons (haha), perfunctorily "inspect" Assad's weapons stores (hahaha), and get the fuck out as fast as they can. Almost the exact opposite of how Iraq was handled. It's basically even more ridiculous now than it was last night, and things were already pretty stupid even then (note: genocide is not funny).

Oh and Lindsey Graham is flipping his shit because the Russians are "manipulating them" into not throwing missiles at Syria and "But I wanted to se explooosioonnnnnnnnnnns!" (that IS actually quite funny).

[Mongrel]

I mean, Obama getting saved by Putin is like the scene in the movie where the local almost-but-not-quite-corrupt cop now owes the local crime boss a big favour.

[McDohl]

tbqh:

If it keeps us from lobbing cruise missiles and risking killing even more civilians, I'm all for it.

[Zaratustra]

Russia took those words and ran with them, getting the Syrian foreign minister on the phone in ten minutes. Then went public to rub the US's nose in it, uh, I mean, tell the US it wanted to broker an international agreement for exactly what Kerry had mentioned.

So turns out the way to make peace in the Middle East was to dare Putin into doing it? Incredible!

It seems many ceasefires don't actually make the concerned countries actually cease fire. Let's see if it works.

[Zaratustra]

Also, the same republican pundits that accuse Obama of being a socialist are applauding Russia's 'strong leadership'.

It's amazing how if you say enough bullshit with a straight face, people think you're making sense.

[Mongrel]