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.

NH Primary Results as of 11PM

With 75% of the vote in Donald Trump has 92,000 votes.  Bernie Sanders has 58,000.  Pet e Buttigieg is right behind Bernie with 52,000.  The rest of the Democrats are way down from the two front runners. 

Learning the Hard Stuff

To drink that is.  We are talking distilled liquors which are sold at 80 to 90 proof.  For those just getting into drinking hard stuff, a proof point is one half a percent of the alcohol content.  100 proof is 50-50 grain alcohol (ethanol) and water.  A jigger of the hard stuff has the kick of a 12 ounce can of beer or a small glass of wine. 
   Of the hard liquors my favorite is whiskey, which comes from four important places, Scotch from Scotland, Canadian from Canada, Bourbon from Bourbon county Kentucky, and Irish from Ireland.  They are all good.  When you first try them the fierce bite of the alcohol will numb your taste buds and you won't notice much difference between them.  With some experience you will find Scotch has a sharper tang to it, Bourbon is sweeter, Canadian is somewhere in between, and good Irish whiskey is just very very smooth. 
    I drink my whiskey with ice and club soda (Scotch and soda).  A jigger (or two if you are hard core), an 8 to 12 ounce glass filled with ice, and fill it up with club soda, and you have a very nice drink.  If you are hard core, you can drink your whiskey straight, just ice, no club soda.  If you are really hard core you can drink your whiskey neat, no ice. 
   You can buy quite decent whiskey for $15 a "half gallon" (actually 1.75 liters today). And you can pay a good deal more.  In the quite decent class is Old Crow bourbon, Canadian Club, and Clan McGregor Scotch.   A notch up is maybe Ballantine Scotch, Wild Turkey bourbon ,and Seagram's VO Canadian.  My sainted (and now deceased) mother drank little else  besides VO.  I can enjoy the pricier whiskeys but I don't normally spend the money to buy them.   

Cannon Mountain Ski Weather

We got 8 inches of fresh snow on Friday.  That will make all the trails super good.  I wanted to post this earlier on Friday but the cable went down, knocking out my broadband and my TV.  Cable just came back.