Primus Intra Pares's definitions
(US GOVERNMENT) Immigration and Naturalization Service: former agency of the US government responsible for the enforcement of immigration law, and the processing of visa/permit requests. The INS and its successor (see below) are justly famous for treating millions of hardworking, intelligent, and creative people with the most demeaning, barbaric sort of bureaucratic cruelty imaginable.
After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Congress passed a bill creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the INS was split up into its enforcement functions (which became part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its processing functions (Citizenship and Immigration Services, or CIS).
Prior to its dissolution in 2003, the INS was part of the Department of Justice. The CIS and ICE are both part of the DHS.
After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Congress passed a bill creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the INS was split up into its enforcement functions (which became part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its processing functions (Citizenship and Immigration Services, or CIS).
Prior to its dissolution in 2003, the INS was part of the Department of Justice. The CIS and ICE are both part of the DHS.
Because of its extraordinary power over the lives of millions of US nationals and residents, the Immigration and Naturalization Service gained lasting notoriety. Seven years after it was superseded by the CIS, most people associated visa regulations with the INS.
"Brother from Another Planet" was a brilliant parody of INS agent behavior.
"Brother from Another Planet" was a brilliant parody of INS agent behavior.
by Primus Intra Pares June 17, 2010
Get the INS mug.(GOVERNMENT) seizure of power by an armed entity, usually the army but sometimes the police.
Usually coups are perpetrated in countries with very weak governments, such as in West Africa, Bolivia, or Southwest Asia. They get progressively worse (i.e., more violent, more prolonged, and more repressive) until eventually some junta builds up protection against against the next coup. This is what happened in Iraq after 1979; it happened in Syria in 1973; it also happened in Japan in 1607. In other cases, the coup accomplishes its goals (Chile 1973) and retires as a PR move.
After a coup occurs, the military leadership is known as a junta.
Usually coups are perpetrated in countries with very weak governments, such as in West Africa, Bolivia, or Southwest Asia. They get progressively worse (i.e., more violent, more prolonged, and more repressive) until eventually some junta builds up protection against against the next coup. This is what happened in Iraq after 1979; it happened in Syria in 1973; it also happened in Japan in 1607. In other cases, the coup accomplishes its goals (Chile 1973) and retires as a PR move.
After a coup occurs, the military leadership is known as a junta.
Military coups are usually motivated by the personal ambition of the perpetrator; the central figure is usually very personally corrupt, as well.
Military coups are difficult to pull off and usually are nipped in the bud. Even with foreign assistance, they are hard, because they are a form of high-speed civil war.
Inter-class violence often comes with a coup d'etat.
Military coups are difficult to pull off and usually are nipped in the bud. Even with foreign assistance, they are hard, because they are a form of high-speed civil war.
Inter-class violence often comes with a coup d'etat.
by Primus Intra Pares July 11, 2010
Get the coup d'etat mug.Tet Offensive
(VIETNAM HISTORY) Major effort by the National Liberation Front ("Viet Cong") and the PAVN to defeat the US-backed puppet regime in Saigon (the putative Republic of Vietnam"). The Tet Offensive began 31 January 1968 and was suppressed around 24 February.
In Saigon, NLF forces attacked the presidential palace, the airport, the ARVN headquarters, and US Embassy. The US and ARVN forces, who were caught off guard, quickly responded and within a week had recouped most of the lost territory. The NLF held out the longest in the pre-colonial capital of Hue, fighting back with great tenacity.
(VIETNAM HISTORY) Major effort by the National Liberation Front ("Viet Cong") and the PAVN to defeat the US-backed puppet regime in Saigon (the putative Republic of Vietnam"). The Tet Offensive began 31 January 1968 and was suppressed around 24 February.
In Saigon, NLF forces attacked the presidential palace, the airport, the ARVN headquarters, and US Embassy. The US and ARVN forces, who were caught off guard, quickly responded and within a week had recouped most of the lost territory. The NLF held out the longest in the pre-colonial capital of Hue, fighting back with great tenacity.
Prior to the Tet Offensive, the US military could claim it was well on its way to winning the war. Afterward, Gen. William Westmoreland admitted 200,000 more troops would be required to win the war, and US opposition to the war ballooned.
However, the NLF was nearly annihilated in the Offensive, with almost 60,000 killed.
However, the NLF was nearly annihilated in the Offensive, with almost 60,000 killed.
by Primus Intra Pares July 25, 2010
Get the Tet Offensive mug.(US GOVERNMENT) Former agency of the US government responsible for the enforcement of immigration law, and the processing of visa/permit requests. After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Congress passed a bill creating the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the INS was split up into its enforcement functions (which became part of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its processing functions (Citizenship and Immigration Services, or CIS).
Prior to its dissolution in 2003, the INS was part of the Department of Justice. The CIS and ICE are both part of the DHS.
Prior to its dissolution in 2003, the INS was part of the Department of Justice. The CIS and ICE are both part of the DHS.
Because of its extraordinary power over the lives of millions of US nationals and residents, the Immigration and Naturalization Service gained lasting notoriety. Seven years after it was superseded by the CIS, most people associated visa regulations with the INS.
"Brother from Another Planet" was a brilliant parody of INS agent behavior.
"Brother from Another Planet" was a brilliant parody of INS agent behavior.
by Primus Intra Pares June 17, 2010
Get the Immigration and Naturalization Service mug.(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
Get the financial crisis mug.(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 21, 2010
Get the DHS mug.(VIETNAMESE HISTORY) artificial state created by the 1954 Geneva Agreement (to end the First Indochina War). Parties to the agreement were the People's Republic of China, the USSR, and France; the Vietnamese were stuck with an agreement that perpetuated colonial rule over the majority of their population.
ROVN expected to be a clone of Republic of Korea; however, in ROK, there were a lot of nationalist leaders with a broad popular following, whereas in South Vietnam there weren't; instead, Vietnamese loyalties lay with Vietnamese nation created in May 1945 (by the Viet Minh). This had little to do with Communism, and more to do with the fact that there was nothing Vietnamese about the ROVN. It was not a republic, because there was no legitimate system of choosing the ruler, and no accountability to the people. And it wasn't Vietnamese.
Political opponents of the regime were routinely executed.
Eventually, US withdrew its support because there was an irrepressible conflict between the "realists" in the Pentagon, who understood that the approach to the war had to address widespread peonage, and the neoconservatives, who were ideological fanatics. The ROVN instantly collapsed, because it had no base of support left in the Vietnamese population.
ROVN expected to be a clone of Republic of Korea; however, in ROK, there were a lot of nationalist leaders with a broad popular following, whereas in South Vietnam there weren't; instead, Vietnamese loyalties lay with Vietnamese nation created in May 1945 (by the Viet Minh). This had little to do with Communism, and more to do with the fact that there was nothing Vietnamese about the ROVN. It was not a republic, because there was no legitimate system of choosing the ruler, and no accountability to the people. And it wasn't Vietnamese.
Political opponents of the regime were routinely executed.
Eventually, US withdrew its support because there was an irrepressible conflict between the "realists" in the Pentagon, who understood that the approach to the war had to address widespread peonage, and the neoconservatives, who were ideological fanatics. The ROVN instantly collapsed, because it had no base of support left in the Vietnamese population.
The "Republic of Vietnam" was a comic opera creation, with no legitimacy, no law, no legitimacy; no Vietnamese loved it, its army would not fight for it, its generals mainly sought power of money, and the US military was completely deceived by the whole imposture.
by Primus Intra Pares July 25, 2010
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