Cannon Moutain Ski Weather

Today (Thursday) started out raining.  Cannon decided it was too miserable to open.  It has cooled down, we are now (3 PM) below freezing.  We have had two serious snow flurries, between the two they laid down an inch, maybe inch and a half.  More snow is forecast for tonight.  Cannon was hoping for 4 to 8 more inches.  I will post again tomorrow when we know what happened.  The weather forecasters are talking about more snow in the White Mountains tonight.  Lets see if they know what they are talking about.

FISA court is a rubber stamp. Let's stamp it out.

The TV news is jubilating over Justice Department news/leaks about "improper" FBI testimony to the FISA court that caused said court to OK snooping on the Trump campaign during the election.  Bear in mind that of the thousands of requests to snoop on American citizens only a dozen are rejected.  99.9% of all requests to snoop are approved.  This is a rubber stamp.  What's worse, the FISA court is secret.  We don't know who the judge[s] are, where and when it meets, where it's records are kept, nothing.  A FISA judge can rule any old which way and we citizens will never know.  And they have rubber stamped a helova lot of snooping over the years.
  We ought to shut the whole FISA court thing down.  Intelligence and police agencies wanting to snoop will have to get their warrants from a real judge in a real court, one that tries cases and is open for business 9/5  five days a week. 

Democratic Debate. A lot of bashing.

Politicians usually don't bash or trash each other, the thinking being that they might need the guy for something in the future.  But at the last debate before the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday they figured their only chance of winning was to convince the voters not to vote for The Bern.  So The Bern had a lot lotta stuff dumped on his head this time.  A lot of it was old old old.  Some of it I didn't believe.  I'm a Republican, I don't have to vote for any of 'em.  Just between thee and me, I would love for the Democrats to select a candidate that would be easy meat for Donald Trump.  The Bern will do just fine.  Actually all of 'em look highly defeatable. 

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.