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| gromit |
 Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 1:11 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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In a perverse way, I'm quite interested in how they chose a heavy metal concert for the main attack. I suppose they just wanted a theater in the same vicinity. And maybe the noise and random weirdness of a rock concert would serve to cover the initial attack.
Will be interesting to see how France responds.
One thing that has been bugging me is how it is well-known where ISIS gets ts revenue from, as they run a couple of refineries and sell the oil at a discount rate. It seems easy enough to drop leaflets saying that any trucks coming or going from the ISIS refinery will be blown up. Reportedly the trucks line up for about a month waiting to fuel up. Drivers go back to their villages and come back on the weekend to check on their trucks, etc. Shouldn't be hard to monitor and destroy any vehicles going in or out of two refineries. Boom, instantly the main ISIS cash flow is cut off. We're talking like $1M - $3M a day. End their funding and you can start ending their reign.
Sign on to some Syrian transition plan, like the one Russia has broached. Map out a transition from Assad to some unity gov't. Then everyone goes in and wipes out ISIS. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 1:16 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| A few months ago I read an interview with a female Middle Eastern fighter who said that Muslim men believed that they wouldn't enter heaven if they were killed by a woman. If that's true, we should be deploying some good female soldiers over there--or at least spreading a rumor that all U.S. snipers are women... |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 1:58 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: In a perverse way, I'm quite interested in how they chose a heavy metal concert for the main attack.
Interestingly, apparently Eagles of Death Metal is not a metal band. It got its name because someone said they'd be interested in how a band could sound like Eagles and a death metal band. Eagles of Death Metal liked the concept and called themselves that, but they're reportedly just a more typical rock band, and wildly popular. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 10:55 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6950
Location: Black Hills
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Huh, I was just going to mention that they are a blues rock group, in a largely 70s mode.
Looks like the club was targeted partly due to Jewish owners and being a venue for Jewish groups to have meetings. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Nov 14, 2015 11:03 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Today's Times has a couple of obituaries that struck me as fascinating. One is for a fellow named Andy White who was on drums for several early Beatles recordings, although Ringo was already the established drummer at the time. The other was for a man named Jack Yufe, born in 1930 and separated from his identical twin brother Oskar when his German mother left his Jewish father and took his brother to Germany. He grew up in Trinidad with a totally different life from his brother, who at one point was a member of the Hitler Youth, but many years later they were reintroduced by a study that matched up twins who had been separated to examine the ways in which they were alike. They had odd habits in common--like flushing the toilet both before and after they used it, and scratching their heads with the middle finger. And the photo of them together in middle age shows them both with receding hairlines and glasses--natural enough--but also with mustaches. They still looked almost identical. Worth reading. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2015 2:22 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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| Thinking about it further, a rock venue would probably offer fairly lax security. But more than that, it would be a very easy place for young ME Muslims to case. Could easily go to a show, hang around outside, learn all the security, exits, etc, without attracting attention. Much easier than going to or hanging around the opera for instance. I'm assuming these were males ranging from 18 -28. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 5:35 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Seems 18-31 was the age range. Some brothers. Which seems typical. And seems to be why you can trust an 18-21 year old with such a mission.
As I suspected, at least one suicide bomber tried to get into the football stadium, but was noticed and blew himself up escaping. The other two probably heard the explosion and detonated nearby instead of trying to get in. Blowing up outside the stadium at bars and fast food joints doesn't seem like what they intended. Contingency targets most likely.
Really tough to protect soft targets against suicide bombings/shootings.
Seems like the stadium security did a good job and saved lives. A stadium has a lot more security than a theater, and with the President in attendance, no doubt security was beefed up some. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 9:43 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I think I'm on the Al Gore plan.
Redraw the borders in the ME.
- Assad's rump Syria becomes new Syria with a democratic transition that Assad can participate in. Give them an oil field in ex-Syria to keep the smaller new Syria viable.
Sunniland or Anbar or whatever they want to call it -- a Sunni country spanning the north and west of Iraq and Eastern Syria. Basically the territory ISIS controls minus Kurd or other minority villages. The catch is that ISIS is branded a terrorist organization and disbanded. It's largely the ex-Iraq Baathist running the war and operations for ISIS anyway.
Baghdad and Shiite southern Iraq becomes either rump Iraq, or make a deal and let it merge with Iran. In exchange, maybe get Iran to give up it's Kurdish territory and its nuclear program.
Kurdistan becomes an independent country, combining Iraq and Syria Kurdish lands, and maybe the small area of Iranian Kurd lands (in exchange for Iran annexing southern Iraq.
I'd give the Shiites Baghdad, the Kurds Kirkuk, and the Sunnis Mosul.
At least such a plan separates the factions, attempts to weed out the worst actors (ISIS,Al Q) and hopefully offers political solutions within the new ethnically segregated borders.
Basically it would just be recognizing the present status quo, with conditions, while trying to marginalize the baddies. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 11:23 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Sounds good, but I don't think the U.S. should be involved in the ME at all or be involved in suggesting how borders are redrawn. Because that's an important part of why so many people there hate us. We should learn to cut our petro needs and simply not have a stake in what goes on in the ME. Otherwise it will always be a quagmire (and, it being mostly desert, I guess that metaphor is kinda ironic) where we end up looking like meddling bullies. Or just foolish. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2015 12:11 pm |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 2:54 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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An interesting article on the origins/history of the NY subway system, and all the myriad contradictory projects to upgrade the system. The author says his intent was initially simply to find out why the F Train stations don't have Arrival Time Clocks. And then things got complicated.
This was quite interesting:
Quote: New York’s subways were initially built by two different companies, the IRT and the BMT, with different-sized cars and tunnels. Today there are still two systems that run more or less independently, in the sense that trains from one can’t run on tracks from another. These form the A division (the numbered lines) and B division (the lettered lines) respectively.
I should also note that The Atlantic is pretty damn good and is filled with lots of intelligent long-form essay writing (such as this NY subway piece).. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 10:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Reminds me that when I moved to NYC in 1968, there were three subway lines, the IRT and the BMT and the IND. One day when I was working for a book publisher, one of the other copy editors came straggling in a couple of hours late, having had problems with his usual commute; his one comment: "Now I know why they call that subway the Independent." |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 12:54 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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The original IRT was built and operated by a private company for almost 40 years. The initial line ran from City Hall to Grand Central Station (the lower 4-5-6 line), then zagged over to Times Square (which had a different name back then) and then went north on the current 1-2-3 line to 145th/B'way. Prior to that first subway opening in 1904, it was all elevated trains.
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was purchased by the City in June 1940. |
Last edited by gromit on Fri Nov 20, 2015 1:12 am; edited 1 time in total
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 12:59 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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| When they dismantled most of the Elevated train lines in NYC in the early 30's, the Japanese bought most of the scrap metal, which they needed to make guns and bullets and other military equipment for their conquest of Manchuria. |
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