Is India a member of the Anglosphere?

The Anglosphere is an informal interest group that goes way back, back as far as WWI, perhaps further.  Originally the Anglosphere was Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.  All English speaking British colonies or former colonies.  There is no treaty creating the Anglosphere.  As one might imagine, Great Britain and the United States are the biggest and strongest members, but the Anglosphere takes care not to trample on the smaller members.  Much of this is arranged in informal settings.  Since all the members share culture and history, they all tend to think alike and that makes for smooth and easy negotiations.

The Anglosphere fought WWII; they crushed the Nazis (with a lot of help from the Soviets) and set up the post war world.  The Anglosphere leaned pretty hard on the Soviets to keep them in line and contain communism.  They fought several small wars, Korea, Viet Nam, and Singapore. 

   Tonight I am watching the Indians putting on a show for President Trump’s visit.  They are doing it right.  The red carpet leading out of Air Force One has a band and dancers, all wearing colorful native garb, and belting out the tunes.  A fleet of shiny black SUVs and limousines.  I wonder if they are manufactured in India.  India has a decent sized auto industry. I could see the maker’s badge on the grilles but I didn’t recognize it.  It wasn’t a Caddy badge.  Indian Prime Minister Modi was on hand.  They did a motorcade, heading for either the Taj Mahal or Gandhi’s place, both were mentioned.  The streets were lined with cheering Indians.  Clearly a warm and enthusiastic for President Trump. 

   Can we admit India to the Anglosphere?  The British ran the place for a couple of hundred years and did a lot of Anglicization during that time.  We certainly have more in common with, and good feelings about, India than we do toward China or Russia.  Since the Anglosphere is informal, we would have to watch and see what happens.  If India supports the Anglosphere, and the other members talk with the Indians and gain their support before doing things then India is a working member.  Which would be good, India is an important country.  Indian science and industry are strong enough to launch a Mars orbiter.  India is a big place both in land area and population.  Many Indians speak English.  They have a lot of good engineers, many of whom work in US firms.  They have a fine national cuisine. 

Nevada can count. We have prelim results.

Looks like they know how to count in Nevada. The TV is giving early returns at 5 PM. Say 20 % of the vote is in. Saunders is doing well, 45%, with Biden trailing at maybe 19%. Not bad Nevada. Here in NH we don't give results until after the polls close at 7 PM. If this keeps up, Saunders has it knocked.

Airbus fesses up to bribery to sell aircraft

From this week's Aviation Week.  Airbus has agreed to pay a fine of 3.6 billion Euros to French, British and American authorities over a number of cases of bribing overseas government officials to buy Airbus aircraft.  Airbus is not admitting guilt and the case never went to court.  No Airbus employees are facing charges.  Airbus is paying up to get every one off their case.  The fine is substantial, Airbus annual revenues are 64 billion Euros  for 2018, of which 5 billion Euros are earnings.  So Airbus will notice those 3.6 billion Euros.  It will hurt.  The bribery acts occurred between 2008 and 2015. 
   One scam was a 5 million Euro bribe to Ghana to clinch the sale of C295 turboprop airlifters.  At a guess the C295 is a bit smaller than our C130 Hercules and costs maybe 45 million Euro's each.  Other bribery charges include a variety of mid east and far each airlines with names that mean nothing to me, two satellited deals and some military aircraft sales. 
   I am sure clearing this up makes Airbus' future more predictable.  They can go out and sell, sell, sell while Boeing is all wrapped around the 737 MAX axle. 

What was the worst mistake [you pick it] made in WWII?

Common question on Quora.  The worst mistake Japan made in WWII was attacking Pearl Harbor.  Prior to Pearl Harbor America was deep into isolationism, the idea that we could stand proud here in North America while the rest of the world sank into chaos.  Isolationism built on the unsatisfactory outcome of WWI and claimed that all we got out of WWI was profits for arms manufacturers (merchants of death they were called).  Japan had been agressing against China, and was running Korea and Manchuria as colonies.  We did not approve, and we had sent a lot of diplomatic nastygrams to Japan.  We finally decided to stop selling crude oil and scrap iron to Japan.  The Japanese could have replaced American sources of supply with oil from the Dutch East Indies, and scrap metal from somewhere.  The Germans had invaded and occupied the Netherlands, the Dutch colonies were on their own.  Should a Japanese task force conveyed a few Japanese bankers and their check books to the Dutch East Indies the Japanese could have acquired all the oil they needed.  We would have sent them a few more diplomatic nastygrams, but there was no way we were going to intervene militarily.  Japan could have done pretty much anything they pleased in Asia so long as they didn't attack American territory.
   After Japan sank our battle fleet at Pearl Harbor isolationism vanished, poof, within a few hours.  We were pissed off.  We had a far larger population than Japan, we had a far larger industrial base, we were a continental power, self sufficient in just about everything.  And we were mad. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto said at the time "I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve."  He had that right. 
   As it was, the Pearl Harbor attack changed the course of WWII.  We got our act together and clobbered both the Nazis and Japan.

Burning Bill Barr, Attorney General

The TV newsies have been dumping on Barr for listening to President Trump.  That's wrong.  The Dept of Justice, which the Attorney General runs, is a cabinet level department, just like State or Defense or Treasury.  They work for the President, and the President is perfectly entitled and empowered to give them orders.
   On this Stone case, where the president tweeted that 9 years was too long a sentence for a man in his 60's who had not broken any real laws, they convicted him of "lying to Congress".  That is a Mickey Mouse charge.  It just means a different of opinion between the Congress and Stone.  Lying to Congress, lying to the FBI, and lying to the police should not be crimes.  Ham sandwich nation.  They aren't like perjury, lying under oath.  And I think 9 years is entirely too long for a Mickey Mouse conviction.  So does Trump.  So does Barr.
   The four prosecutors who want off the case and out of DOJ, they are all long service snivel service, fireproof lifers.  These guys are all Democrats, and they enjoy doing anything they can to make life hard for the Republican Trump Administration.  Let 'em resign.  Good riddance to them.  
   I hear 1100 former (and perhaps current) DOJ employees have signed an anti Trump petition.  Same goes for them.  Died in the wool Democrats out to cause trouble for a Republican Administration.  Fire 'em all.  Cancel the pensions of the retired ones.

Trump goes to Daytona for the NASCAR race

They are having a wonderful time. Nice low fly over in Air Force One.  President to take a lap in the presidential limo.  And say a few words to the Yuge crowd.  Stands look full.   Continuous  live TV coverage on Fox.  What's not to like?

Boeing is hurting

Boeing has not sold a single airliner this last month.  This week's Aviation Week had two pieces on Boeing's plight.  Boeing lost $600 million on 2019.  They wrote about the "New Midmarket Aircraft"  (NMA) development of which is sorta underway with a delivery target date of 2025.  At the rate things are going Boeing will be toast by 2025.  Nothing was said about getting the 737 MAX ungrounded.  Things got so bad that Boeing stopped production of the 737-MAX, they must be running out of places to put them all.  And shutting down production has hurt/panicked/destroyed all the vendors that made parts for the 737-MAXes.  Boeing was one of the few American companies that did much exporting, and the 737-MAX grounding has done bad things for the US trade deficit. 
   As far as ungrounding the 737-MAX, the problem is the FAA people are just snivel servants who know little about flying.  They do know that if they let the 737-MAX fly and there is another accident fingers will be pointed at them, and heads may roll.  So they are shuffling papers, milling around, and demanding more and more engineering data from Boeing.  Boeing knows that it cannot press the FAA for fear of getting them more bent out of shape and less likely to ever let the 737MAX fly.