(VIETNAMESE HISTORY) Army of the "Republic of Vietnam"; organization created, funded, armed, by the US government; mostly conscripts with no motivation to kill patriotic countrymen in the countryside (which is what the "Viet Cong" really were). Extremely poor fighting force; however, fairly self-confident at staging the occasional coup d'etat.
Collapsed completely in early months of 1975. Mostly behaved as one would expect a group of brutally terrorized conscripts serving a regime they despised to behave.
Collapsed completely in early months of 1975. Mostly behaved as one would expect a group of brutally terrorized conscripts serving a regime they despised to behave.
The other definition of ARVN includes a quote from the Stanley Kubrick movie, "Full Metal Jacket." It is used as a taunt of Vietnamese "cowardice" by young US soldiers. Of course, no sane conscript would risk his life to fight for occupiers, against an "enemy" consisting of patriotic citizens of his own country. So the taunt fell flat.
by Primus Intra Pares July 25, 2010
(ECONOMICS) a shock to the industrial system caused by massive errors in investment decisions. In essence, financial crises are failures of the capital markets (stock exchanges, etc.) to do their job.
In the lead-up to a financial crisis, money entrusted to capital managers to invest is spent instead on bolstering the plutonomy. Then, when those same capital managers are overleveraged, it becomes obvious that the economy has been producing the wrong stuff; its corporations are therefore worth a lot less than everyone had supposed they were.
Then people sell their shares of stock, causing a liquidity crisis for many firms, which react by firing people and dumping anything of value at reduced prices.
This requires a lot of expensive genius to do well.
In the lead-up to a financial crisis, money entrusted to capital managers to invest is spent instead on bolstering the plutonomy. Then, when those same capital managers are overleveraged, it becomes obvious that the economy has been producing the wrong stuff; its corporations are therefore worth a lot less than everyone had supposed they were.
Then people sell their shares of stock, causing a liquidity crisis for many firms, which react by firing people and dumping anything of value at reduced prices.
This requires a lot of expensive genius to do well.
While there is little evidence so far that the 2008 financial crisis was engineered by any one perpetrator, the very same economic elites who caused it are now poised to benefit from it by imposing "disaster capitalism."
by Primus Intra Pares July 11, 2010
(VIETNAMESE HISTORY) complex network of mountain roads and trails leading from the mountain highlands west of Hanoi to the Mekong river delta. This was used by the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) between 1959 and 1975 to infiltrate the putative "Republic of Vietnam" (South Vietnam). The network had some 16,000 Km (10,000 miles) of roads.
The road was named for Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Minh and Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV); construction began on his birthday (9 May 1959).
The road was built at enormous sacrifice by the Vietnamese and their allies in the Lao & Khmer peasantry. During most of the Second Indochina War, it was a primary target of US bombing raids. After creating a puppet state in Saigon, the US military sealed off the 17th parallel between the two sectors of Vietnam; so PAVN forces bypassed the DMZ and cut through Laos and Cambodia. The US military thus intervened militarily in Laos (against the pro-Communist Pathet Lao) and in Cambodia (against the Khmer Communist Party, or Khmer Rouge).
The road was named for Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Minh and Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV); construction began on his birthday (9 May 1959).
The road was built at enormous sacrifice by the Vietnamese and their allies in the Lao & Khmer peasantry. During most of the Second Indochina War, it was a primary target of US bombing raids. After creating a puppet state in Saigon, the US military sealed off the 17th parallel between the two sectors of Vietnam; so PAVN forces bypassed the DMZ and cut through Laos and Cambodia. The US military thus intervened militarily in Laos (against the pro-Communist Pathet Lao) and in Cambodia (against the Khmer Communist Party, or Khmer Rouge).
The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a constant target for B-52 bombers, but bombing failed to stop traffic on it. As a consequence, the US organized the ouster of the Cambodian monarchy in 1970, so it could use the puppet junta to get permission for invading Cambodia.
The USA dropped an astonishing volume of high explosives on Cambodia in the hopes of shutting down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The National Liberation Front (NLF, or "Viet Cong") was supported by supplies from the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The USA dropped an astonishing volume of high explosives on Cambodia in the hopes of shutting down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The National Liberation Front (NLF, or "Viet Cong") was supported by supplies from the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
by Primus Intra Pares July 24, 2010
(US GOVERNMENT) Department of Homeland Security; cabinet level position created by the Bush Administration in 2003. One of the most costly and poorly executed reorganizations in US history, it essentially blew hundreds of billions of dollars on unrelated and pointless government projects intended to reward members of congress who sided with the president.
The DHS budget's largest line items are:
*the Customs and Border Protection (CBP)-20%;
*the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-19%;
*the Coast Guard (USCG; formerly part of the Department of Transportation {DOT})-18%;
*the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)-12%;
*Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-10%;
*Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)-5%.
(Percentages are of the FY 2011 DHS Budget--$57 billion
The DHS budget's largest line items are:
*the Customs and Border Protection (CBP)-20%;
*the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-19%;
*the Coast Guard (USCG; formerly part of the Department of Transportation {DOT})-18%;
*the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)-12%;
*Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-10%;
*Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS)-5%.
(Percentages are of the FY 2011 DHS Budget--$57 billion
The DHS was created to bring most federally-controlled law enforcement bodies into one single, union-free, whistle-blower-free, department. Riders to the Homeland Security Act cost taxpayers billions in useless programs.
by Primus Intra Pares June 19, 2010
(US GOVERNMENT) Agency of the Department of Homeland Security tasked with the enforcement of US border protection and with the investigation of violations.
Created in 2003 from the former US Customs Service (Homeland Security Act); accounts for approximately one-fifth of the DHS's total budget. Budget is greater than the entire defense budget of Colombia, Taiwan, or Iran. It employs 52,000 people, including 17,000 border patrol agents, 1000 air and marine agents, and 22,000 port inspectors.
Created in 2003 from the former US Customs Service (Homeland Security Act); accounts for approximately one-fifth of the DHS's total budget. Budget is greater than the entire defense budget of Colombia, Taiwan, or Iran. It employs 52,000 people, including 17,000 border patrol agents, 1000 air and marine agents, and 22,000 port inspectors.
The Villarreal investigation is among scores of corruption cases in recent years...
...Department of Homeland Security officials have reconstituted an internal affairs unit at Customs and Border Protection, one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies, overseeing both border agents and customs officers.
When the Homeland Security Department was created in 2003, the internal affairs unit was dissolved and its functions spread among other agencies...
(NY Times, "Border Agents, Lured by the Other Side"--27 May 2008)
...Department of Homeland Security officials have reconstituted an internal affairs unit at Customs and Border Protection, one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies, overseeing both border agents and customs officers.
When the Homeland Security Department was created in 2003, the internal affairs unit was dissolved and its functions spread among other agencies...
(NY Times, "Border Agents, Lured by the Other Side"--27 May 2008)
by Primus Intra Pares June 17, 2010
(ECONOMICS) an official definition of poverty, in which one third of one's income is spent on food. "Food," here, is defined as the most cost-effective way of meeting basic nutritional needs.
The definition has one advantage, which is that researchers can get comparable information about poverty for any country in the world. The disadvantage is that it's arbitrary (why one third? why food? why not shelter, health care, and heating?); the other is that the cost of living varies dramatically in different neighborhoods in different cities of different US states, yet the poverty level is the same (expressed in dollar amounts) everywhere in a given country.
A better measure is the self-sufficiency standard.
The definition has one advantage, which is that researchers can get comparable information about poverty for any country in the world. The disadvantage is that it's arbitrary (why one third? why food? why not shelter, health care, and heating?); the other is that the cost of living varies dramatically in different neighborhoods in different cities of different US states, yet the poverty level is the same (expressed in dollar amounts) everywhere in a given country.
A better measure is the self-sufficiency standard.
Living under the official poverty level can be a lot worse in affluent communities like San Francisco, where the cost of basic necessities is very high. On the other hand, it's also a lot worse in areas such as rural Mississippi, where public amenities (such as libraries equipped with computers for public use) are rare.
by Primus Intra Pares July 12, 2010
(IRANIAN HISTORY) A coup d'etat against the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, Muhammed Mossadegh (s.1951-1953). Perpetrators: the US CIA and the UK MI-6. The operation successfully replaced the constitutional monarchy of Iran with a dictatorship by Shah Muhammad Reza (August 1953). The motivation of the operation was to liquidate a genuinely popular nationalist leader who had stood up to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) (whose assets had been nationalized by Mossadegh after it had robbed Iran for 42 years).
The AIOC's reputation was so stained with evil afterward that it changed its name to British Petroleum (or BP, p.l.c.).
Operation Ajax is often blamed for poisoning the relationship between the USA and the Islamic world. It was approved by John Foster Dulles, who also embroiled the USA in the Second Indochina War.
The AIOC's reputation was so stained with evil afterward that it changed its name to British Petroleum (or BP, p.l.c.).
Operation Ajax is often blamed for poisoning the relationship between the USA and the Islamic world. It was approved by John Foster Dulles, who also embroiled the USA in the Second Indochina War.
Operation Ajax actually was launched soon after the nationalization of AOIC's assets in Iran (1951). Initially the situation was hopeless, because Mossadegh was far too popular and because the previous arrangement with AOIC made Iran nearly impossible to govern. The UK suffered a balance of payments crisis because the AOIC was the single largest source of overseas payments.
John Foster Dulles, however, was very sympathetic to the oil company's plight.
John Foster Dulles, however, was very sympathetic to the oil company's plight.
by Primus Intra Pares July 18, 2010