All the Plants Grow

It was pouring this morning.  A proper deluge that just simply makes you glad to be indoors.  I could ride my bike in the rain.  But certainly, there is no rush to get out and confront the elements.  Did you hear that?  Thunder, very close.  My wife comments that there sure is a lot of rain in New York State.  Compared to Beijing, there is a lot of rain most places.  But surely here we get consistent downpours in the New York spring.  And as a result all the plants grow like it’s a rain forest in the summer.

Bernie has left the race.  I was more sympathetic to his call on the domestic front and remained skeptical as it concerned international relations.  My family never took him seriously.  Many of my old chums never took anyone else seriously.  There isn't much out there I could find on foreign policy for Senator Sanders.  I read one transcript of a foreign policy address of his from two years back:  https://www.vox.com/world/2017/9/21/16345600/bernie-sanders-full-text-transcript-foreign-policy-speech-westminster

It’s fine at a high level: proceed from a place of mutual respect.  Practically though this address was thin beer and didn't clarify much.  If pushed to choose and pushed to pay for things, would Bernie have withdrawn even further from our defense commitments in East Asia and Europe?  I suspect that he would instinctively want to withdraw our global presence.  I’d enjoyed his debate performances, certainly.  Where others wilted, nothing could seem to knock Bernie down.  Like many I have been underwhelmed by Biden’s ability to cut through.  Who would ultimately perform better against the Checker-Player-in-Chief?  I suspect Bernie would have been a more unflappable opponent for Trump.  Let's hope people aren't dusting off their “Bernie would have won” buttons, if an unthinkable second term befalls us.  

And by now, the thunder and the rain have passed. It is, at last, a fine spring day.  I head north towards Rosendale on the trail.  Skunk cabbage and trout lilies and an emerging constellation of green is beginning to compete with the dull brown and grey of the forest floor.  I’ve noticed film of algae already beginning to cover certain patches of swamp, up beyond Huguenot street, passed that golf course they have there out the back of Garvin’s. 

Thursday 04/09/20