Miscellaneous Observations

>...I have been reading a new book called ‘Stalin’s War” by author Sean McMeekin, which relies on unclassified Russian documents released after 1990 that challenge long accepted popular histories of World War 2. Conventional histories of that war focus on Hitler’s atrocities; this book details the absolute butchery and corruption of Mr. Stalin. It details the atrocities of the Russians-the executions and expulsions to labor camps-of conquered Polish, Lithuanian and anyone else deemed “enemies” of Communism in Stalin's mind. It details the groveling…yes, that seems to be an accurate description…of then President Roosevelt's efforts to please Mr. Stalin with what was called a “Lend-Lease” policy by which millions of dollars ( billions in today's equivalent) of military and civilian materials, from tanks to butter to uranium to secret patents, were given to the Russians at no formal cost and with no formal agreements of being repaid. There were numerous Russian spies in the US government influencing policy to the point that Roosevelt sometimes favored Stalin over Churchill and America when deciding what and where war materials were sent and what battle plans would be implemented. All the while Mr. Stalin proffered lies and refused to accommodate American requests to the point of imprisoning American pilots who were forced down in Russian territory-despite American pilots risking and sometimes losing their lives to help deliver all the aforementioned materials to Russia. The reasons for Mr. Roosevelt’s years-long catering to Russian demands are not fully clear to me…He seems to have been naive to Stalin's true nature-despite people advising him-people who were replaced as not being loyal enough to his desires. His primary enabler was a Soviet friendly adviser named Harry Hopkins. The end result was the spread of Communism over much of eastern Europe and into China. It must be noted that Mr.McMeekin is a 'contrarian' historian to some other historians, and a man who argues from a succinctly anti-communist perpective. The main conclusion I learned was the utter depravity and disregard for human life that Mr. Stalin possessed, and which has been an unfortunate aspect of the Russian culture to this day. The parallels to Mr. Putin and the complicity of Mr. Trump to Russia seem obvious to me; the Russian disregard for human life in Ukraine(Putins soldiers are forced forward to be slaughtered or risk being shot by their own ‘officers’ if they refuse) and Trump's total lack of moral clarity in resisting him are similar. What really is disturbing is the depths of the infiltration of Russian influence in the 1940s and the modern day campaign of misinformation by Russia made even easier by the internet. Fortunately, the Europeans remember the destruction of the last century and are resisting the attempt by Mr. Putin to expand his empire. > ...I also just learned about algorithmic pricing that has enabled corporations to maximize profits through online Apps. by charging the most that a specific consumer will bear based on the gigabytes of data they have amassed on them over the past 20 years. They simply charge different customers-unknown to those customers- different prices for the same item when using Instacart or another app, which maximizes profit individually on each person... Capitalism at its most legally insidious…Probably explains why Walmart does not have to charge ‘pick up’ customers for the service; by charging one customer more than another they assure themselves that their service will be profitable. No doubt a profitable 'average' is applied to in-store pricing. This helps explain some of the "inflation" blamed on Co-Vid, Biden, tariffs and other excuses people use to describe simple greed. It also helps define the continuing transfer of wealth from the average Joe to the rich. Meanwhile many workers at these companies need government welfare like SNAP to survive...

Winter

I walked this road near Pittsfield, PA earlier, 1 and 1/2 miles along which a bridge has been detoured for nearly two years. The detour only affects about a dozen homes, so the priority for its replacement is low, and reflects funding, light road use and other factors that rural areas struggle with. The original bridge was a stone and concrete arch scarcely more than one car width, and the new one likely will be a concrete structure typical of modern construction. The house across the river is the dwelling most affected, although because of the nearest town's location, the occupants would rarely approach from the direction I walked. The detour is an inconvenience only when one has to travel directly south, which requires a 4 or 5 mile looping circle…It will be interesting to see how long construction takes, considering that the I-95 bridge in Philadelphia that was destroyed in June 2023 was replaced permanently by May of 2024, with a temporary bridge functioning within 12 days. The urban necessity of high volume traffic showed how efficient modern workers can be when not constrained by bureaucracy and other factors-which to me was gratifying after observing how slow the wheels usually turn....As for the pigeons, my eye naturally went to the rebel on the left who decided to turn the other way