Mantergeistmann
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User ID: 323
Mantergeistmann
4hr ago
Ah, a spinoff of the comic "Peanuts", was it?
Mantergeistmann
4hr ago
I just sort of laugh at retirement advice simply because if you have enough money to be able to invest a substantial sum of money, you already have enough experience with money to do okay.
There are some pretty depressing statistics on "people who just leave money in their corporate 401k as cash", even amongst smart people. A lot of people really do need that advice.
Mantergeistmann
7hr ago
there are several areas (such as submarines and orbital launch capability) where the US is ahead of China (both in quality and in scale
Submarines is an interesting one. The US is currently producing what, 1.3 Virginias/year, and they're trying (and currently failing) to get that up to 2.5 to support their own needs plus AUKUS? But then there's also the new Boomer class entering production.
I believe China is producing more subs/year, but that might also include diesels. Which are useful for them to protect their own backyard, but are not the sort of thing that would be in any way useful for America to make.
Quality-wise, though, I believe you're dead-on, that nobody can currently match US nuclear submarines, although China is narrowing the gap.
Mantergeistmann
8hr ago
There was another great quote about "When something happens, and a leader tells you they are 'not responsible', believe them. That is to say, they are correctly claiming to be irresponsible".
Mantergeistmann
8hr ago
It takes money to make money, as they say.
Mantergeistmann
8hr ago
I had no idea there were two Buffets in the investing business, so yes, apparently I was!
Mantergeistmann
10hr ago
Jimmy Buffet
I don't think he made his money from stock picking so much as guitar picking...
Mantergeistmann
11hr ago
whenever I see those sorts of "after action" reports I can't help but read between the lines and suspect that over-emphasis on $LATEST_SHINY_THINGS as the underlying culprit to these sorts of things, which is to say that when there are too many priorities, then nothing is a priority.
Too many Shiny Things, and too much "distributed responsibility". After all, "safety is everyone's responsibility", right? But to paraphrase Incredibles, when everyone is responsible for something, nobody is. And to return to a different subsection of the Navy...
"Responsibility is a unique concept; it may only reside and inhere in a single individual. You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you. You may disclaim it, but you cannot divest yourself of it. Even if you do not recognize it or admit its presence, you cannot escape it. If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, ignorance, or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible."
Mantergeistmann
12hr ago
That's basically never going to exist in any conflict. For any side. Especially involving ships at sea. I suppose "I don't know what's really happened, and neither can you" is a valid philosophical position to hold, but it does put a bit of a damper on discussions of current events.
Mantergeistmann
12hr ago
Add to that the USS Gerald Ford supercarrier out of commission for 2 years due to a "laundry fire."
Ignoring that fires do, in fact, "just happen" sometimes on aircraft carriers, where the hell are you getting "2 years" from?
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
A $500 billion defense increase makes no sense except if the US is increasing preparations to engage in a war with China. No other potential adversary even comes close to justifying such an increase. But China is not currently threatening any vital US interests other than Taiwan, and defense of Taiwan could be increased to effective levels without $500 extra billion.
"Currently" is doing some heavy lifting there. Just to support the US's AUKUS obligation, to say nothing of reaching the Navy's target force structure, how long do you think it would take to build just the infrastructure, industrial base, and skills needed to scale up shipbuilding, let alone the ships themselves?
I'm not saying that's what Trump has in mind, but the state of US shipbuilding -- military, civilian, and Coast Guard -- is pretty shambolic, and a defense budget increase would make perfect sense in that context (and also the same thing but on a lesser scale for armament stockpiles).
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
It's standard budget verbiage, and has been used by every administration since I've been alive. "Defense spending" and... "everything other than defense spending". But the latter is a lot more words than "non-defense".
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
33% German, 47% Autistic. Which is weird, because normally I score weirdly low on Autism tests.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Is the prestige of a SCOTUS clerkship enough for ideologically liberal students to still desire to clerk for a conservative judge (or vice-versa)?
I know that was true at least up through Scalia's tenure.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
“Non-defense,” spending huh? So presumably, offense?
In context of "a 10% cut in non-defense spending", it means federal/domestic programs. Research, agencies, welfare, grants, subsidies, etc.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
Regardless of how accurate the why is, I've always loved Truman's (much later) quote about it:
I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the President. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
You have to consider a) how many times Iran & the Houthis claimed (or social media claimed) to have hit/sunk aircraft carriers, and b) a lot of sailors are dumbass young men and flushing mop heads and mousetraps down the toilet is incompetence rather than sabotage (another claim I've seen bouncing around). Hell, the laboratory I work at had trouble convincing grown engineers and scientists to "please only flush toilet paper, don't put anything else in the toilet, you guys wonder why it clogs so often?"
It's not specifically laundry, but Fire at Sea: A 70-year Review of Fire-Related Mass Casualty Events on U.S. Aircraft Carriers may be of interest in this regard!
Since World War II, no attack on a large U.S. Navy capital ship has occurred during combat operations
we reviewed mass casualty events from major fires aboard large U.S. Navy aircraft carriers[1] from 1950 through 2020
Of 246 fires identified, 27 met inclusion criteria resulting in 1,634 casualties with a combined crew mortality of 23% of those injured.
The majority of major fire mishaps involved aircraft carriers[1], and none were the result of an enemy attack
[1] the reason behind this potential contradiction is inconsistent usage/definition of large-hull amphibious assault ships as "aircraft carriers" or not in the abstract vs text.
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
To calibrate, what would you require to believe that story?
Mantergeistmann
1d ago
an aircraft carrier was put out of commission ((Russian intel-aided) missiles/drones) and had to leave the theater
... you're saying a drone hit the laundry room? Or that it was a cover-up and the fire was from a drone hit elsewhere, and the US Navy suddenly has astounding Opsec and message discipline? Or is there another carrier that left for repairs recently?
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
so was, according to Trump, largest bridge in Iran.
The bridge hit is confirmed. Is Commander in Chief now picking bombing targets personally?
Liberation mode off, Genghis Khan mode on.
You say that like the Allies didn’t hit plenty of bridges during the Liberation of France, to prevent the Germans from moving troops and supplies around.
Mantergeistmann
2d ago
"Bomb them back to the stone age" is, like threatening to turn somepace in to a parking lot or unleash hell, a common phrase that is meant to be taken seriously but not literally (nobody will be replacing an entire city/nation with asphalt and parking lines, nor opening a portal to Dante's circles, after all). I'd assume that's the context here, unless I'm missing something.
Mantergeistmann
3d ago
It's a meta story: the story itself is framed as being a lost manuscript.
So is The Lord of the Rings, or Dinotopia.
Mantergeistmann
3d ago
everyone talks about Kharg, but Kharg is useless without the strait and un-needed with it
Kharg is a bargaining chip. It's only useful to Iran, iw basically vital to their long-term economy, and can be visibly taken and returned in a way "the strait" cannot.
That's the part that absolutely terrifies me when contracting otherwise sounds attractive. I don't know how people find business. Is it networking? I'm awful at that!
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