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Overnight Open Thread 01/24/2024 [Roger Ball]

Totally Random

Ahoy, HORDE! I hope everyone had a great and civil Christmas. In a completely random line of thought, the banner picture may be of interest to aviation nerds and history aficionados. It is one of the few surviving, and only flying, British Royal Navy MkI Swordfish W5856 torpedo carrier aircraft. Affectionately called the 'Stringbag", it looks like it should have flown in WWI, but it is a mid-1930s design.

Technically, the craft was obsolete by the time World War II arrived, having been bypassed by sleeker, more powerful all-metal combat aircraft. But the Swordfish's sturdiness and versatility--as well as its ability to take off and land from the early British carriers--made the biplane still useful to the war effort. With the addition of an auxiliary fuel tank, the Swordfish could range some 1,030 miles, nearly double its usual range.

Maximum speed was 120 knots but cruise speed with a torpedo was closer to 100 knots. Hmm, 1000 miles at 100 knots...better bring some snacks. Most significantly, her sister aircraft took part in sinking Italian Navy ships at Taranto in 1940 and sinking the Bismark in the spring of 1941. The WARFARE HISTORY NETWORK has a nice post about the airplane and engagements. Here's a pretty cool video of the Swordfish operating on the aircraft carrier.
But what really caught my eye in the banner picture was the torpedo. I have been reading about the Pacific war in Ian Toll's fantastic trilogy about the PTO. He spends many pages on our submarine war and how very awful and dangerous our Mark 14 torpedoes were. Those torpedoes would porpoise, circle, run deep, fail to detonate, or simply sink. The early British torpedoes had their issues, but at least they went boom, as the Italian and German navies found to their chagrin. Our problems were solved by the introduction of the Mk18 electric torpedo, but that's a story for another day.

Speaking of "boom," I don't mean to offend TESLA owners, but I couldn't resist:

Speaking of fire, I have been thinking for quite a while that 2024 is going to be "lit".
Apparently Catherine Herridge agrees. (Right Funny)

"This is a national security event with high impact that's very hard to predict."

Well, Catherine, I'd have to agree with you right there. 10 or 20 million military age males with an axe to grind being invited into our country at the behest of the dimokkkrats might bring up some issues.

Look, I'm not trying to rush headlong into 2024. You know, "one day at a time" and all that. But it seems to be a subject of discussion. MTG posted this one (via catturd): New York, New York! I love this town!"

"The New York Police Department is responding to a level three mobilization, with level four being the worst, after clashes erupted between police and pro-Palestine protesters..."

You wonder why no Arab nation will touch anything associated with "Palestinian"?
Christmas Event Supporting Blind Children Disrupted By Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators

Multiculturalism means you can't enjoy Christmas with your family anymore...Deport these people now." (via End Wokeness)

As previously noted, I highly recommend Ian Toll's trilogy of the Pacific war. The third book dedicates several chapters to life in Japan. The parallels between 1944 Japan and our current state are quite remarkable. By 1944, Japanese no longer believed the government "story" that they were "winning" the war or inflicting "devastating losses on the evil Americans". They did, however, go along with the "story" because disagreeing or questioning it guaranteed an immediate unpleasant conversation with the Kempeitai. (Substitute FBI for Kempeitai, as desired.)

The NAZIs dehumanized the Jews, and the Allies dehumanized the NAZIs and the Japanese dehumanized Americans. It's the way of war and always has been. But what changes is the plausibility of the "story". At some point, the "story tellers" will jump the shark and the listeners will start to question the narrative.

For example, Joe Biden or BarryHO being called "uniters" by the propagandists, but then calling half of US citizen voters "ultra-MAGA extremists" or "bitter clingers." Heh. Way to bring us all together, Sparky. This approach works for the simple minded, "low information voter" [thank you, Rush] but anyone with average cognitive ability will immediately question that story.

There is more involved, of course. Studies in mass formation psychosis really hit the interwebs with the advent of COVID. They were flooding the zone with disinformation to the point where you couldn't believe anything. [Side bar: it took me searching in BRAVE to find that link. The google search, was mostly links to lefty sites talking about the "mass hysteria" resisting the clot shots and the danger posed by anti-vaxxers and "disinformation terrorists". Careful with your clicks!]

"The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them."

That's a great quote by Elena Gorokhova, but I think Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's is better:

"We know that they are lying, they know that they are lying, they even know that we know they are lying, we also know that they know we know they are lying too, they of course know that we certainly know they know we know they are lying too as well, but they are still lying. In our country, the lie has become not just moral category, but the pillar industry of this country."

"...Doing Your Own Research" Will Make You A Conspiracy Theorist" (Not the Bee)

"...U.S. faces engineered famine as COVID lockdowns and vax mandates could lead to widespread hunger, unrest this winter," which the study rated false...when supply chains had left grocery shelves all but empty, and people were literally going hungry."

As Ian Toll writes about life in 1944-45 Japan: "hunger is one thing. Famine is something else."

So here we are...and 2024, here we come.

[Roger.Ball.OK at protonmail dot com]