The Wrong Prince Died
Prince is dead, and Erik Prince is running around Europe and Africa, trying to earn whatever blood money he can. He even tried to make and sell his own ground attack plane from converted crop dusters. https://theintercept.com/2016/04/11/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-drive-to-build-private-air-force/ Complete, they would sell for 7 or 8 million. they would be capable of carrying IR pods for targeting artillery and air to ground missiles for close air support of ground forces. In short, he was trying to build a build an A-10 on the cheap for use in third world countries whose budgets can’t quite support purpose built ground attack aircraft. But at that price point, it’s only barely cheaper than the Embraer EMB 314 Super Tucano which is a purpose built ground attack aircraft from Brazil, and that aircraft has been produced by the hundreds and is in use by dozens of countries including the US. The only people who should even consider buying the one of Erik Prince’s bootleg bombers are people to whom the international arms market is closed, i.e. mercenaries and terrorists.
In a more recent development, Erik Prince is now under investigation for money laundering. Prince in the Hot Seat hopefully those charges will be expanded to include his violations of arms control laws.
It’s not clear to me why a person who is still rich despite having had to sell off his stake in Blackwater (now Academi) in the wake of the scandal caused by its massacre of unarmed civilians in Iraq, keeps coming back to the idea of being some kind of mercenary warlord. Evidently, he hasn’t been burned enough, or there still exist people so dazzled by his line of patter and military record that they cannot see him for the modern day privateer that he is. Evidently in Erik Prince’s mind, Colonel Kurtz was the hero of Apocalypse Now.
I’ll say the same thing I said on another website:
1) I swear to Christ that at some point in my lifetime, we’re going to end up at war with a Private Military Contractor. It’s also possible, if we continue privatizing ourselves to death the way we have been, that we (or the government or DOD at least) will end up BEING a Private Military Contractor. Maybe we’ll even do both.
2) Erik Prince is one of two people that I just can’t believe hasn’t inspired a Bond villain yet. (The other is A. Q. Khan. Prince would explain where these endless armies of disposable henchmen come from. Khan would do the same thing for all those loose nukes).
It’s not clear to me why a person who is still rich despite having had to sell off his stake in Blackwater (now Academi) in the wake of the scandal caused by its massacre of unarmed civilians in Iraq, keeps coming back to the idea of being some kind of mercenary warlord.
Remember that he’s a religious fanatic. He’s piling up the bodies for the greater glory of god.
Just another reason to despise the Bush Maladministration, which put this fucker on the map.
If only we could elect a Democratic Administration that had a decent DOJ…
~
He or she would engage voters daily on social media, with fun and flare. (Think Trump with impulse control and better spelling.)
Hello friends and suchlike…WTF, Prince Dead?!!!!!
I hope he is waterskiing down the fucking river styxx showing its insides some fucking style….
Been a bit of a rough patch here, but working back into something resembling shape. Sorry to hear the news about prince today…..yeah, today, was just thinking about the dude this morning.
Peace and loveliness to you all, hope to not be such a stranger. Miss youse guys…
K
testing…
Daphne : One does not plagiarise comments. It is not done. Stoppit.
Cerb, when I read this WaPo (!) article I was reminded of your homicidal space unicorns from the previous thread…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2016/04/22/keep-yetis-out-of-public-restrooms/
Every door with a handle is one more thing that can be yanked open by that Escaped Killer With A Hook Arm, or pushed open by a Psychopath Disguised As A Clown Statue Whom The Babysitter Just Managed To Escape.
biggest fears can come true!
He or she would engage voters daily on social media, with fun and flare. (Think Trump with impulse control and better spelling.) Stoppit [sic] dammit.
Here in the heartland, it is Orange Combover Day!
Look out Hitlery, you are going DOWN like Monica Looinsky.
Habemus Trump!
While it’s clear he means to say everything was normal, the word “positive” is an odd use of the term in medicine. Rather, it typically means that some result or finding was present—and those findings aren’t always great news (think testing positive for a disease).
Damn, the next six months are going to be weird… YUUUUUUGE, but weird. It’ll be interesting to see how Trump triangulates, and even more interesting to see how the media is going to pretend the last six months of outrages never occurred.
Damn, the next six months are going to be weird
Ya know, I just can’t bring myself to believe that he will actually become President. But, then again, I never thought it would get this far, either.
Just been reading about how trump sees his whole campaign as a joke, as if all repub primaries aren’t so. Him being besties with killary it makes sense to now treat both of them with equal disgust. I suspect they might, if she wind the dems nomination, pledge to make each other their VP.
eddie, if anything he could do would repel the tea-partiers, that would be it.
Saëz is heir to the great French singer-songwriter tradition, le chanteur, la chanteuse, heir to Charles Trenet, Jacques Brel and Leo Ferré (think Bob Dylan, Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Waits), and he’s one of the best, in my opinion.
I met Tom Waits once, daphne.