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Mortabis posted:For one thing, it lets senior officers not promote junior ones purely on the basis of "he is an rear end in a top hat and nobody likes him." Which is a totally legitimate reason.
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Apr 4, 2016 05:40
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Warbadger posted:It may be both him and a bunch of his buddies. More names keep coming out. I only just skimmed the article about it in the Eastern Europe thread but it sounds like there's something for everyone in there, scandal-wise anyway.
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Apr 4, 2016 06:46
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Ruh roh.
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Apr 4, 2016 10:27
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I think it's safe to say that the DOPMA problem has been acknowledged by the OSD. It's essentially the subtext of Carter's Force of the Future initiative, and I think he's serious about it. One of the more substantive changes in the pipe is changing the detailing system from black magic + "who you know" to a LinkedIn style system that lets commanders shop for the officer they want but that may not be in their social network. Now, okay, and this is just my pet theory: you've gotta remember that DOPMA became law back when the most likely conflict scenario involved us losing a significant percentage of the officer corps by D+60. In that way, having O-5+ who were essentially interchangeable cogs within their services and to an extent even in joint billets made sense, because you could not guarantee that any one, or even any one of 100 officers who had experience specifically in X, Y, or Z Pentagon shop would be alive. Dead Reckoning posted:Unfortunately, that discretion is used to not promote people on the basis of "she doesn't know her place" or "he's black" as often as not, and frankly some of the best aircrew I've worked with were assholes who chose not to moderate their personalities for others' approval. I forget which Gipper it was who said it, but he was an Army guardsman in the South and said that a lot of the companies seemed to magically have an all black platoon.
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Apr 4, 2016 11:19
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Why would you disguise a tender as a fishing boat? I don’t think Vietnam likes fishing boats hanging out in their waters, either. Because it’s a more valuable target? I guess if you seize the tender, you put who‐knows‐how‐many fishing boats out of commission. Still, it seems like an unusual precaution to take unless Vietnam has already made a habit of seizing Chinese tenders.
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Apr 4, 2016 11:28
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Platystemon posted:Because it’s a more valuable target? I guess if you seize the tender, you put who‐knows‐how‐many fishing boats out of commission.
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Apr 4, 2016 12:03
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Probably won't hear a peep out of China, either. Score one for the Vietnamese.
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Apr 4, 2016 15:09
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Man as I read more of this document leak thing it is going to be one hell of an international political mess. I think it is not a matter of if any leaders get knocked out by this, but how many. China's president is also popping up in there, Iceland's PM is hosed. Edit: Oil industry is thrilled something is taking the fire off them.
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Apr 4, 2016 16:56
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Alaan posted:Man as I read more of this document leak thing it is going to be one hell of an international political mess. I think it is not a matter of if any leaders get knocked out by this, but how many. China's president is also popping up in there, Iceland's PM is hosed. good My only real question here is was this one brave leaker and the work of journalists, or was this an intelligence inspired expose to put the scare into Putin/China
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Apr 4, 2016 18:47
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Way too much splash damage to make any western intelligence agency a likely suspect to me. Bunch of people that are ostensibly our allies are going to get hit too like the king of Saudi Arabia.
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Apr 4, 2016 18:56
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Alaan posted:Way too much splash damage to make any western intelligence agency a likely suspect to me. Bunch of people that are ostensibly our allies are going to get hit too like the king of Saudi Arabia. Too much of it is, "So and so has an off-shore account" without actually saying what laws they may have violated which makes it seem like rather annoying sensationalism. Sure some of it is really damning (like the Putin stuff or politicians not declaring their possible conflict-of-interest connections formally) but, saying, "Saudi billionaire owned London mansion through off-shore account" isn't actually illegal, as long as the appropriate taxes were paid, or even surprising.
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Apr 4, 2016 19:28
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Nebakenezzer posted:My only real question here is was this one brave leaker and the work of journalists, or was this an intelligence inspired expose to put the scare into Putin/China Looking at past leaks of large scale, it seems to be anonymous whistleblowers who are upset at something going on in whatever company or agency they work for and deciding to just copy a bunch of poo poo and throw it at the media to see if it sticks. The newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung actually received the info over a year ago, and they turned to data indexing companies and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to help them parse the 2.6 TB of poo poo.
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Apr 4, 2016 19:53
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chitoryu12 posted:Looking at past leaks of large scale, it seems to be anonymous whistleblowers who are upset at something going on in whatever company or agency they work for and deciding to just copy a bunch of poo poo and throw it at the media to see if it sticks. The newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung actually received the info over a year ago, and they turned to data indexing companies and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists to help them parse the 2.6 TB of poo poo. And the sense I get is that this is just the initial wave. There are (I assume) more pieces to follow on specific threads of this.
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Apr 4, 2016 20:06
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Veritek83 posted:And the sense I get is that this is just the initial wave. There are (I assume) more pieces to follow on specific threads of this. They've been working to connect all the threads for over a year, so it's a matter of waiting for more info to be confirmed.
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Apr 4, 2016 20:34
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Murgos posted:Too much of it is, "So and so has an off-shore account" without actually saying what laws they may have violated which makes it seem like rather annoying sensationalism. Well isn't the issue not the use of off-shore accounts to reduce your tax liability per se, but the eventual use of shady practices to access/transfer the funds back on-shore without paying the taxes you sought to avoid?
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Apr 4, 2016 20:50
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Also the big number items are people in places of power(Putin) with reasonable cause lines pointing to those around them getting unduly enriched. A lot of people are just going to be pissed that their tax haven is a bit more public, but the big names are going to have very hard questions about how they were using their power to answer. Except Putin because he runs the media in Russia.  Also a lot of the stuff with Putin wasn't exactly a secret any way to those in the know. But this does put a lot more paper work in public.
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Apr 4, 2016 20:58
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Alaan posted:Also the big number items are people in places of power(Putin) with reasonable cause lines pointing to those around them getting unduly enriched. A lot of people are just going to be pissed that their tax haven is a bit more public, but the big names are going to have very hard questions about how they were using their power to answer. Except Putin because he runs the media in Russia. Putin's been able to deflect virtually all criticism by simply denying it until it's no longer inconvenient to admit it. The government has such solid control over Russian media that a pretty loving huge portion of the country is firmly under the thumb of propaganda. Evidence that Putin and his buddies have been engaging in dubious financial gain? "Western NATO pig dogs are lying! Even if true, it's only fair because western NATO pig dogs are even more evil and lynch black people."
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Apr 4, 2016 21:10
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chitoryu12 posted:Putin's been able to deflect virtually all criticism by simply denying it until it's no longer inconvenient to admit it. The government has such solid control over Russian media that a pretty loving huge portion of the country is firmly under the thumb of propaganda. Evidence that Putin and his buddies have been engaging in dubious financial gain? "Western NATO pig dogs are lying! Even if true, it's only fair because western NATO pig dogs are even more evil and lynch black people." http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/04/kremlin-reaction-putin-dmitry-peskov-panama-papers-putinphobia quote:The Kremlin has dismissed revelations contained in the Panama Papers as “Putinphobia” and said that journalists investigating the Russian president’s financial affairs had “found out little new”.
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Apr 4, 2016 21:33
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Thwomp posted:Well isn't the issue not the use of off-shore accounts to reduce your tax liability per se, but the eventual use of shady practices to access/transfer the funds back on-shore without paying the taxes you sought to avoid? No, your response is exactly my point. Just having an offshore account is not evidence of wrong-doing. Every company/individual that does business with more than one country probably has an off shore account. If you buy something in China and sell it in Taiwan there is no reason to bring that money into the US, Great Britain and France if you also do business in all those countries, for example. It doesn't mean you're not paying taxes, you didn't owe taxes in the first place. It's just that they are tools of the wealthy/corporations so to most people they are mysterious things used for malicious purposes. Obviously, there has been some wrong doing going on. The PM of Iceland is definitely in hot poo poo and everyone already knew Putin was probably embezzling money now it's just more obvious/almost certain. It just seems that 98% of the discoveries so far are just to rile up the public without much substance. It's not at all clear that the UK PM Cameron has done anything wrong and yet he's being found guilty by association.
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Apr 4, 2016 21:44
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Can we talk about how the UK is an international center for tax fraud? Because holy poo poo. Hong Kong at least has a good excuse, and we all knew Switzerland was Nazi Gold Country, but the UK?
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Apr 4, 2016 22:26
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Arglebargle III posted:Can we talk about how the UK is an international center for tax fraud? Because holy poo poo. Hong Kong at least has a good excuse, and we all knew Switzerland was Nazi Gold Country, but the UK? It's been an international centre for finance for ages. Where there's finance there's tax fraud
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Apr 4, 2016 22:28
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And Hong Kong was under British control until 1999, so you don't even have to blame the filthy reds.
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Apr 4, 2016 23:08
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Murgos posted:It's not at all clear that the UK PM Cameron has done anything wrong Apart from loving a pig.
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Apr 4, 2016 23:42
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Are there any recommendable books on the F-35 catastrofuck or just on Pentagon acquisition dysfunction in general? Bonus points for having a snarky tone.
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Apr 4, 2016 23:53
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Obama 2012 posted:Are there any recommendable books on the F-35 catastrofuck or just on Pentagon acquisition dysfunction in general? Bonus points for having a snarky tone. The old standby: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pentagon-Wars-Reformers-Challenge/dp/1612516009
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Apr 4, 2016 23:55
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Obama 2012 posted:Are there any recommendable books on the F-35 catastrofuck or just on Pentagon acquisition dysfunction in general? Bonus points for having a snarky tone. Traitor by Ralph Peters. It's about the dysfunctional F-35 acquisition and the rise of private military contractors and it was written in 1998. It's loving hilarious in retrospect.
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Apr 4, 2016 23:57
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Arglebargle III posted:Can we talk about how the UK is an international center for tax fraud? Because holy poo poo. Hong Kong at least has a good excuse, and we all knew Switzerland was Nazi Gold Country, but the UK? Canada is becoming an international center for white collar crime because our white collar/anti-competition law was written by a guy who believed/believes the only just authority is the market It's kinda like having drug dealers write search and seizure/ drug possession laws
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Apr 5, 2016 00:03
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Obama 2012 posted:Are there any recommendable books on the F-35 catastrofuck or just on Pentagon acquisition dysfunction in general? Bonus points for having a snarky tone.
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Apr 5, 2016 00:13
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Splode posted:It's been an international centre for finance for ages. Where there's finance there's tax fraud And a fairly rigid class system. Turns out rich people like staying rich, and don't want socialist poors knowing just how rich they are. Can't imagine why. USA Today is claiming Jackie Chan and Pedro Almodovar are listed. I'm guessing a lot of the names are going to be in the Jimmy Carr situation. Rich Person gives money to a financial advisor, has this conversation: "this method does X in 5 years at .25%, this does Y in 15 years at .75%, and Z has 0.1% but lower taxes when you withdraw it." "Ok, put it in Z." 20 years later, college socialists fresh off a sugar tax high will screech about the dollar that could have ended poverty forever was found hiding in a safe deposit box in Bermuda. Probably right next to the aborted fetus that Jesus wanted to grow up to cure cancer. Also lol at anyone caring where Saudi Arabia keeps its sock roll. But if Maduro or Roussef come up, holy poo poo.
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Apr 5, 2016 00:21
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Dead Reckoning posted:Really, dude? Just believe what you already think is true, say what you want, quote WarIsBoring any time someone who actually knows what they're talking about corrects you. It'll save you some time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f2XbOY9kcg
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Apr 5, 2016 00:23
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Obama 2012 posted:Are there any recommendable books on the F-35 catastrofuck or just on Pentagon acquisition dysfunction in general? Bonus points for having a snarky tone. Kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum you're looking for, but this came out of the aborted project to write up all of defense acquisition in exhaustive detail http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/051/51-3-1/CMH_Pub_51-3-1.pdf Long and kind of wonky but it covers all the top level fuckery
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Apr 5, 2016 00:32
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A previously unseen video of one of Britain's most infamous spies describing his career as a Soviet agent has been uncovered by the BBC.
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Apr 5, 2016 00:45
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Dead Reckoning posted:Really, dude? Just believe what you already think is true, say what you want, quote WarIsBoring any time someone who actually knows what they're talking about corrects you. It'll save you some time. Can I steal this line from you? It sums up my feelings on people who know just enough about this stuff to sound convincing to people unfamiliar with it, but don't actually know what they're talking about.
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Apr 5, 2016 02:23
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The F35 uses the wrong kind of RAM 
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Apr 5, 2016 04:24
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The key thing to understand about the F-35 is that it gets consistently bushwhacked by Sopwith Camels. Also it melts in the rain and when the -B model lands vertically it starts a Peshtigo Fire style inferno.
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Apr 5, 2016 04:36
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hobbesmaster posted:Sheep specs Red Crown posted:Can I steal this line from you? It sums up my feelings on people who know just enough about this stuff to sound convincing to people unfamiliar with it, but don't actually know what they're talking about.
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Apr 5, 2016 04:41
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Mossack Fonseca worked with 33 individuals or companies who have been placed under sanctions by the US Treasury, including companies based in Iran, Zimbabwe and North Korea. One had links to North Korea's nuclear weapons programme.
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Apr 5, 2016 04:52
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Dead Reckoning posted:Procurement is hosed up, but the dude literally came in here and posted, "Hey, can someone recommend a source that confirms my preexisting biases, preferably while assuring me that I'm better and smarter than other people?" Pentagon Wars the HBO movie is everything he wants. It even has Frasier as the villain!
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Apr 5, 2016 05:00
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  http://www.sldinfo.com/first-arrestment-of-an-f-35c-with-external-weapons-load/ Lt. Cmdr. Daniel “Tonto” Kitts posted:While test pilots are wringing out the F-35 and ignoring critics, senior officers are constantly challenged to fly top cover against know-nothing second and third order derivative critics whose only contributions are creating crossed referenced ignorant public articles written by cubical commandoes whose only real skill is creating google search interlocking fields of fire.
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Apr 5, 2016 06:48
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In fairness, if the predecessors of these senior leaders had flown a little more top cover 15 years ago for the guys in the trenches calling bullshit on the idea of concurrency and a little less top cover for idiot OSD staffers and LM snake-oil salesmen, their successors might not be in the position they find themselves in today. But if they'd done that said senior leaders wouldn't have gotten their sweetheart retirement contractor gigs. Just like how today's senior leaders won't change anything that might affect their golden parachute. Also that's a pretty baller 4xGBU-12 load....yay spiral development!
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Apr 5, 2016 07:01
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