"If I had a boat I'd go out on the ocean"

"and if I had a pony, I'd ride him on my boat and we could all together go out on the ocean, I said me upon my pony on my boat" - (with apologies and nods of the head to Mr. Lyle Lovett)

Roughly 70 years ago, give or take a day or two, the "war" ended - most folk just call it "the war" and everybody else knows which one they mean - people the world over cheered, danced in the streets and in Britain (they being British, did that typically "British" thing) held street parties, sharing what little surplus food-stuffs they had, drank stale ale and generally behaved like folk no longer ducking bombs.

"Ding dong old Hitler's dead, pip, pip and all that rot"

Strange how now, some 70 years later, credit for ending said 'war' is being parcelled out like so much confetti, with only the "good guys" getting 'credit'

Funny that

I have no deep admiration for the Soviet State, nor do I have Putin's face plastered on my wall, or Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Malenkov, Andropov, Krushchev or 'Uncle Joe' Stalin either.

(Or for that matter Maria Sharapova or Anna Kournikova)

But facts are facts and history is history and so, when I hear/read that credit for defeating the dreaded Huns, er, Nazis belongs primarily with the mighty armed forces of the U.S. of A. and a little bit to her "western" allies (including those "'surrender-monkey' French") as well. And no, to very little, acknowledgement proffered on the survivors of Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad, I have to ask:

Why??

Today, while thinking of taking the train up to Sacramento, accepting the invitation She relented and offered, I wandered over to the Oakland waterfront marina, where the above photo was taken.

The USS Potomac -AKA- "The Floating White House" was the personal/presidential yacht of Franklin Roosevelt, president thru the "War" years and leader of the 'free world' back when that title actually meant what it said

Peace, what a concept