Missive #77

As a novelist and reporter, Dos Passos has been deeply concerned with the struggles of people to adapt an ever-changing society to their aspirations for peace, dignity, and freedom. An inveterate champion of the underdog, he has reported crucial moments in the history of these struggles over the past three decades. Always candid in his appraisal of the means employed, he is quick to change his ideas about them when he finds them wanting, but his aim remains the same: the assurance of a life of freedom for the individual.This is a much better book than what Dos Passos produced in his early career. It may be a collection of prior articles but they fit together to make his point. It is also mild mea culpa regarding his early support of socialism and communism (I added the underlining).

In selecting the most representative of his article and reports to be included in this volume, he has written an information commentary in which he contrasts his past with his present opinions. The result is a political autobiography that is at the same time a vest-pocket history of the previous thirty years by which no reader will fail to be entertained and enlightened. — Book promo from dust cover & goodreads.com

I have made good progress on the WordPress project/experiment that I started last week. When I say good progress what I really mean is that I have a proof of concept proving that an idea is feasible. Sort of like the Wright brothers proof of sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft. There is a lot of concept development to be done but I have got the project off the ground and it is no longer an experiment. 

This is a good article that asks some of the more important questions that the Main Stream Media will not. The author also makes a good argument against the F-16s being ready for combat anytime soon and the likely success against Russian air defense.

On Friday [19 May 2023], the Biden administration paved the way for Western allies and partners to transfer their stocks of American-made F-16 Fighter jets to Ukraine and added that the U.S. would help train their pilots to fly them.…  The bigger question Americans should be asking of Biden, however, is this: to what end? What does the Administration expect the delivery of the F-16s to accomplish? What do we hope to physically accomplish? What end-state does the president envision for the war, and how would the presence of F-16s improve the chances of success? — F-16s Won’t Fundamentally Alter The Course Of Ukraine War by Daniel L. Davis Lt. Col. (Ret.), Senior Fellow for Defense Priorities