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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: October 5th, 2023

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  • That take on Pearl Harbor is not historically accurate though. US Naval command had Japanese radio transmissions as well. It was more hubris and incompetence than some secret desire for an excuse to join the war. The US was already preparing for war with Japan. And Japan was crazy enough to skip straight to attacking US Naval command in Hawaii head-on as an opening move. Whereas US command assumed they’d take smaller targets first and try to stretch the fleet across defending many locations.

    Japan ironically was both more and less successful than intended because of US mistakes. US carrier groups were sent west out near Wake Island and the Marshall Islands to cut off the attack that was thought to be coming. But Japan sailed around Midway approaching Hawaii from the North. They even had their planes loop around to fly in from the East to cause extra confusion until it was too late. What they found was less resistance than expected because the carriers weren’t there. It didn’t end up being the kinda suicidal knock out blow Yamamoto was going for.

    Congress demanded multiple investigations over the years after. They all bore out a similar conclusion that US command and intelligence fucked up. They went looking for the fight in the wrong place. Assuming the attack on Hawaii intelligence had to be a ruse.







  • He fired his PR team a few years ago. That’s been the difference.

    He said plenty of dumb shit prior with people cleaning it up. One of my favorites was probably 10 years ago now. He claimed Model 3 assembly line automation would move so fast they’d have to worry about wind resistance.

    My friends and co-workers still laugh about that one now. It’s such an absurd “business” mentality of go fast = good. So go crazy fast = more good. With a technology that doesn’t exist and kinda doesn’t need to. It makes more sense to increase system capacity (multiple lines) when you’re chasing throughput like that. But what makes even more sense is accurately forecasting your production so you don’t have to slap a full car together in 30 minutes to keep up with demand.








  • Russia’s air defense had a backbone of Cold War era tech before the war started. Ukraine has been consistently plinking away at it. Most of it is naturally positioned near borders to prevent penetration. If you sneak past the coverage thins out quickly. Russia is a huge country so it’s also understandable to not have high density coverage throughout.

    At one point Russia had a great setup. But that time was long ago. And oil money going to modernization efforts means less yacht money. Air defense also isn’t that critical when you’re mostly concerned about beating up on small countries like Georgia and Chechnya that can’t fight back.