Pearl Harbor. Japan’s greater error.

 Up until Dec 7 1941 America was controlled by isolationists who believed we should stay out of any foreign wars, no matter what.  Isolationists pointed to Versailles Peace Treaty that ended World War 1.  Despite serious American participation on the Allied side, we did not get anything much from the Versailles treaty.  Mostly this was because the Versailles Treaty mostly concerned divvying up European colonies between the winners.  After suppressing the Philippine insurrection before WW1 we had little interest in obtaining more overseas colonies.   The Philippines taught us that running a colony is expensive, in lives, in money, and reputation.  There was still plenty of unsettled land in the West to settle countless farmers on. Up until Pearl Harbor the United States was solidly against any kind of military action, anywhere.  We knew that Japan was doing quite a bit of aggression in the East, gobbling up bit parts of China, Manchuria, and other tasty parts of the Far East.  We disapproved.  We send Japan a series of diplomatic notes, (nasty grams) letting them know we disapproved.  But no way were we gong to go farther than nasty grams.

Things drifted on, and we got more difficult.  We finally stopped selling crude oil and scrap steel to Japan.  Many historians said after the war that the embargoes on oil and steel forced Japan to do Pearl Harbor.  This is not true.  The Dutch East Indies had (still have) plenty of oil.  The Nazis had just invaded and occupied the Netherlands, which left the Dutch East Indies just hanging in the wind.  Japan could have sent a fleet of tankers, and some bankers with thick check books to the Indies and they could have bought all the oil Japan would need for years.   And scrap steel is easy to buy, in most places it ranks as ugly junk and people are happy to find someone to haul it away.

Instead Japan decided to declare war on America and deal us a heavy blow.  The Japanese government thought that after a solid blow the Americans would sue for peace.  Serious misunderstanding #1.  After taking a blow Americans never sue for peace, they get mad and start breaking things and enemies.  Most of Japan’s government leaders had never been to America, did not speak English, and had no idea of whom or what they were dealing with.  The one exception was Admiral Yamamoto.  He had done college at Harvard, served as Japan’s naval attaché in DC, spoke English, played poker, and traveled throughout America.  Too bad few people in Japan listened to him.  When they asked Yamamoto how the war with America would turn out he said “for the first six months we shall run wild.  But after six months I have no confidence at all.”

Yamamoto had it right.  Within 6 months of Pearl Harbor we met the Japanese navy at Midway and sank four of the Japanese carriers.  Japan never recovered from that blow.    

Why do democrats want open borders?

 Open borders gets us a flood of Mexican and South American immigrants.  Do democrats believe these immigrants will vote democrat?  Give them a majority somewhere?  How long will it take for illegal immigrants to become registered American voters?  Five years?  Ten years?  That’s a long time to wait for new democrat votes.  Are democrats that patient?  Or do the democrats have some scam to get illegal immigrants registered to vote inside of a year? 

   Or do democrats think we need a lot of low cost labor?  Employers think so, but every illegal immigrant hired puts a real American citizen out of a job.  Those losers were the dependable democrat voters.  Will they stay democrat voters while on unemployment?

   Or is there some other reason to want a flood of illegal immigrants? 

Rail Strike Coming. What does Biden do?

    Trains carry a majority of the freight in America.  Manufactured goods, spare parts, fuel oil and gasoline, coal, metal ores, smelted metals, steel, wood, darn near everything.  A rail strike would cut off all these things, and all the others I haven’t thought of.  All the factories and businesses that depend on stuff will shut down, deepening the recession.  Perhaps so deep we cannot pull out of it. 

   Trains use far less fuel to move cargo than trucks.  A truck has a 400 horsepower diesel engine to move one big 57 foot trailer.  A 100 car freight train, made up of  100 trailer train cars, flat cars built to move two truck trailers, uses 6000 horsepower to more 200 big trailers.  That’s 30 horsepower per trailer, a huge saving of fuel compared to over the road trucking. 

   Way back when the newspapers would talk about the Taft Hartley act which empowered the government to declare a “cooling off period” in the event of a economy threatening strike.  I think the Taft Hartley act is still on the books, and could be used to delay the threatened rail strike.  I have not heard a whisper about Taft Hartley and cooling off periods in any of the media.  Either the newsies are so poorly educated that they never heard of Taft Hartley, or someone, probably Biden, has demanded the msm not mention it.

   So far Biden has let the rail strike get going while he enjoys Thanksgiving on Nantucket.  If the rail strike happens it is going to be bad for all of us.  If Biden does get into the rail strike at this late date would the unions and management believe anything he might say? 

The Last Bettlecruiser. HMS Hood.

 Hood was laid down during World War 1.  The original design was to be another battle cruiser like the three that sank at the battle of Jutland.  After Jutland the British decided that Hood needed more armor, perhaps 6 inches more of armor plate.  When launched a couple of years after the end of World War 1 ( 1920 ) Hood was very big, and very good looking.  She became the Royal Navy’s “show off ship”.  She visited everywhere during the 1920s and 1930s.  Everyone agreed that Hood was very impressive and by extension the Royal Navy was made to seem good and strong.

    In 1940 Hood and Prince of Wales were ordered to intercept Bismark in the Denmark Strait in between Greenland and Iceland, far from England.  They encountered Bismark in the strait and after a few salvos Bismark landed a hit on Hoods after deck and it went right thru the deck armor and exploded below.  The tremendous explosion sank Hood in a few minutes.  After Hood sank the Prince of Wales was simply not ready for combat, she still had yard workmen on board working on her guns, and the crew was brand new and green and not prepared to fight Prince of Wales. She got a few shots off, no hits, and Bismark just steamed past her.

    After Hood was lost no other Navy built battlecruisers.

Calculus or statistics?

 Just read a post claiming that students need a course in statistics to major in STEM fields. Stem (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a good (abet broad) field in college, it is great for finding a job upon graduation. However, the key field, engineering, demands integral calculus. All the engineering fields, electrical, chemical, mechanical, and civil, demand integral calculus. The class lectures, the homework, the exams, and more are all phrased in calculus and if you don't have calculus you simply don't understand what the professor is talking about. Engineering is the best of the STEM courses, you get to do new design work which is the most fun. You need to take integral calculus freshman year. And that means you took trigonometry in high school, cause you need trig for calculus. I never took a course in statistics and never missed it in 40 years of engineering work.

Admiral Jackie Fisher’s battle cruisers.

Way back when, well before the First World War, Royal Navy admiral Fisher wanted vessels to find the enemy battle fleet at sea.  Battle fleets (maybe a dozen battle ships) had a screen of cruisers to shield them from enemy observation in this age before aircraft.  Since the fleet screen was cruisers, Fisher could not use destroyers for searching; the cruiser screen could easily sink any destroyers that caught up with them.  If he used cruisers, all that would happen is a bunch to ship-to-ship duels between his cruisers and the enemy cruisers and he would not find the enemy battle fleet. 

  So Fisher asked for a ship strong enough to break thru the cruiser screen and fast enough to catch the enemy battle fleet.  The result was a big as a battleship, carried the guns of a battleship, and the turbine engines that were just coming into service. In fact the battle cruisers had everything a battleship had except armor plate.  Their commanders thought they were commanding battleships.

   Come World War 1.  The British had built four of Fisher’s battle cruisers.  They were grouped into a squadron under command of the flamboyant Admiral Beatty.  Beatty wasn’t very bright, he wasn’t an experienced old sea dog; he was a member of parliament.  But, as luck would have it, Beatty encountered the German battle fleet at sea, getting ready for the battle of Jutland.  Beatty failed to get a radio message off giving German position, course, and speed, he failed to order his squadron to turn and run for it.  Instead Beatty ordered his squadron of four battle cruisers to engage the Germans.  With in a few minutes the German battleships sank three out of Beatty’s four battle cruisers, “There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.” Beatty remarked at the time. 

   Meantime the British Grand Fleet, under experienced old sea dog Admiral Jellicoe had put to sea.  Jellicoe knew the North Sea, the tides, the winds, the shoal waters, and the amount to daylight.  Using his knowledge of the sea Jellicoe figured where the Germans were going to go.  He got it right, so right that he was able to cross the German’s Tee, a battle winning maneuver in those days.  One firing pass by the British inflicted so much damage on the Germans that they used a fancy new turning maneuver and left the area.  Jellicoe maneuvered himself and about an hour later managed to cross the German’s Tee a second time, inflicting a lot more damage. 

   Next morning, the British fleet was back at Scapa Flow and reported to London that it was ready for action again.  The German fleet was so shot up that it was not ready to sail again for months.  Both sides claimed victory, but by rights the British won this one. 

The FBI today.

 I read that the FBI has been called into that dreadful 4 victim slaying in Moscow Idaho. I wonder if the FBI can still investigate crimes. Does raiding former presidents and other Republicans make good training for finding evidence of crime?