Rapid Fire Sept. 27, 2013 – Arrested Development: US Fiscal Deal Elusive At Best

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It’s not an illusionit’s GOP, er, GOB The US Senate is expected to send back to the House a “clean” continuing resolution (i.e. without Obamacare defunding) later today, but House Speaker Boehner said they will not accept it, though some Republicans seemed amenable to a short-term deal just a day ago. There is a fair […]
Picture from Netflix

It’s not an illusion
it’s GOP, er, GOB

The US Senate is expected to send back to the House a “clean” continuing resolution (i.e. without Obamacare defunding) later today, but House Speaker Boehner said they will not accept it, though some Republicans seemed amenable to a short-term deal just a day ago. There is a fair amount of dissent and even publicly-aired acrimony within the Republican ranks, which makes it hard for anyone to suss out when and how a resolution to this fiscal showdown might happen. This showdown countdown is reaching silliness of Arrested Development proportions, so please someone tell Congress they’re not working for Netflix.

* The UN’s security council has agreed to draft language that binds Syria to surrender its chemical weapons, but is otherwise rather toothless. According to intelligence assessments reported by the Washington Post, most of Syria’s stock of chemical weapons is stored as chemical precursors, which would make their destruction less daunting than initially thought. And there’s always burial.

* China will reportedly reserve the J-31 5th gen jet to exports, though it’s unclear with what engines, or what are the aircraft’s specs for that matter.

* Iran claims that the “world powers will be stunned” (no less!) when they soon unveil their Shahed 129 UCAV, supposedly built after reverse engineering the RQ-170 they “acquired” from the US in December 2011. Remember, Fars News could as well be labeled Farce News most of the time, so it would be prudent to wait till an actual aircraft is shown. Maybe China could help?

* Why the US NSA spies on Brazil – and why they believe they need to continue, even if it costs Boeing a fighter sale. A new meaning for NSA: No Sale Agora (“agora” means “now” in Portuguese).

* From a report [PDF] issued by the European Parliament on American surveillance programs: “US authorities have continuously disregarded the human right to privacy of non-Americans.” Among European countries, it is probably in Germany that public opinion is most concerned about privacy issues. Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers are calling for surveillance reform, but it’s preserving the rights of Americans that they have in mind.

* US troop levels in Afghanistan have fallen by 20% in the last 6 months, to 54,500. Close-air support sorties are dropping even more rapidly.

* The Economist: The West thought it was winning the battle against jihadist terrorism but should think again.

* From the London-based Manufacturer, a realistic assessment of the constraints uniquely hanging over the defense sector.

* Today’s video is a quick recap of the Russia Arms Expo exhibition in Nizhny Tagil, featuring the T-90MS Proryv tank and several trucks with improved mine protection:

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