Missive #341

Shedding light on the origins of the Second World War in Europe, Stalin’s Gamble aims to create a historical narrative of the relations of the USSR with Britain, France, the United States, Poland, Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Romania during the 1930s. The book explores the Soviet Union’s efforts to organize a defensive alliance against Nazi Germany, in effect rebuilding the anti-German Entente of the First World War.

This book was not any easier to read than the prior two histories, 1939 and Silent Conflict. It picks up where Silent Conflict left off and takes you to 1939. Most historians when writing about a period focus on country leaders; this author focuses on the country diplomats with the leaders taking a back seat. Good history but difficult reading for me.Drawing on extensive research in Soviet as well as Western archives, Michael Jabara Carley offers an in-depth account of the diplomatic manoeuvrings which surrounded the rise of Hitler and Soviet efforts to construct an alliance against future German aggression. Paying close attention to the beliefs and interactions of senior politicians and diplomats, the book seeks to replace one-sided Western histories with records from both sides. The book also offers an inside look at Soviet foreign policy making, with a focus on Stalin as foreign policy maker and his interactions with his colleagues. Told in a fascinating narrative style, Stalin’s Gamble attempts to see the European crisis of the 1930s through Soviet eyes. — Book promo @ goodreads.com

I have been using only the Zorin OS in my dual boot set up for the past few days and it appears that I’m not drawing the battery down as fast as when using POP!. I had read that would happen as reported by some people but others claimed that it made no difference which OS you used. The chance that it would be more ‘battery friendly’ was one of the things that prompted me to give it a try.

I have everything set up as I like it for now, probably make some minor changes as I use the system more. It is certainly different than POP! but I have changed OS often enough that learning a new one is not all that difficult. I’m not sure at this point that I can pass judgement about which OS is better; they are both good just different.

There appears to be some disagreement about the crash of the F-16 in Ukraine. I tend to think the Ukrainian MP probably has it right and spoke out of turn.

Ukrainian MP Maryana Bezuglaya claimed the F-16 was hit by Ukraine’s Patriot anti-aircraft missile system “due to a lack of coordination between units.”
According to US officials, the jet wasn’t shot down by the Russian military. Sources close to the Ukrainian military claim the crash’s reason is “unknown.”
The Ukrainian general staff stated that “a special commission… has been appointed to determine the causes of the crash.” — Friendly Fire or Defective Old Plane? How Ukraine Lost Its First F-16 Jet and Famed Pilot by Ekaterina Blinova, freelance journalist @ Sputnick News

I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it. — Groucho Marx (Misattributed?)

Maybe Grouch said that to his host or maybe not but James Howard Kunstler did say this “It would be ungentlemanly to bang on the particulars of Kamala Harris’s CNN interview performance, so I’ll proceed.” I like that! The rest of his posting The Significance Of The Passage Of Time, is rather good as well.

I have completed another 4 weeks virtual walking I-5. You can see where I am and where I have been by going to Google Maps and enter 32.544246, -117.029877 to start and 38.940000, -122.006136 for the destination. Making my way north.

Nothing much changed here except the Park is now full which means the Park WIFI is almost worthless. All the bandwidth gets suck up with people downloading their movie(s) for the day.

I saw a heard of maybe 20 elk yesterday morning with one bull (maybe). It was still not sunup and they were a good hundred yard away in the trees so I did not get a very good look.

There was another trip to town yesterday with breakfast at Smoky’s, the new restaurant in Reserve that is open on Monday and Tuesday when Ella’s is closed. Continuing to learn how to work with Zorin and have also been asking for help to remove the POP! OS. Not getting any responses that have helped much.