30 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity Substitute: May is for Music”

  3. editorial board

    Opinion | ‘America First’ is America at its worst – The Washington Post

    The history of U.S. foreign policy is, in part, a story of the ebb and flow of isolationist sentiment, sometimes elaborated into an ideology of “America First.” History also confirms that “America First” was America at its worst: the slogan of pre-World War II isolationists who urged the Roosevelt administration to avoid Europe’s troubles. The United States’ postwar rise to global responsibility marginalized such ideology — until Donald Trump rode to the White House in 2016 decrying the allegedly unfair costs of U.S. security commitments and trade agreements, then governed accordingly.
    So it is no surprise that opposition to the Biden administration’s request for $40 billion in aid to Ukraine would re-emerge, mostly in Republican circles, or that the objections would boil down to “what’s in it for us?” The Democratic-led House of Representatives approved the assistance with a large bipartisan majority on Tuesday, but all 57 votes against it came from the GOP’s ranks. The measure is expected to pass the Senate; it is backed by the bulk of the GOP, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who made a surprise solidarity visit to Kyiv with three GOP colleagues on Saturday.
    Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), saying, “My oath of office is to the U.S. Constitution, not to any foreign nation,” slowed it with procedural obstacles. Mr. Paul suggests — hyperbolically — that spending less than 0.2 percent of U.S. output helping Ukraine will fuel inflation. “We cannot save Ukraine by dooming the U.S. economy,” he said. Blake Masters, a Republican Senate candidate in Arizona, says America’s leaders “are buffoons who hate you so … they’ll keep defending Ukraine’s borders while turning their backs on ours.”
    To repeat, such claims tap a deep vein in public opinion, which is why Mr. Paul and other Republicans make them. Of course our government’s first duty is to its own citizens. All the more reason to tell the America Firsters that security engagement abroad is not a zero-sum enterprise, but an investment in stabilizing situations that might otherwise spiral out of control, at much greater cost to the United States than, say, $40 billion. Russian aggression in Ukraine, which threatens not just that country but also the sanctity of international borders everywhere, represents such a situation. Not only is the U.S. investment comparatively modest, it is part of an effort to which NATO partners are also making significant contributions — and accepting what are in some cases painful sacrifices, especially by curtailing Russian energy imports. The probable applications of Finland and Sweden for NATO membership, along with Germany’s decision to ramp up defense spending, indicate that Europe is actually shouldering more of its own defense burden rather than free-riding off the United States. And that’s not to mention the burden — in combat — that Ukraine is bearing.
    U.S. and NATO efforts are working. Russia’s war has stalled, as President Vladimir Putin backhandedly acknowledged by delivering a lackluster speech on Russia’s Victory Day on May 9. He could not credibly claim success or threaten escalation. Republican isolationist opposition to proposed aid for Ukraine, however, is music to Mr. Putin’s ears. It’s not too early to wonder — and worry — how much more powerful America Firsters will be if Republicans regain control of Congress in November.

  4. BiD, I hope there’s DFW watch for Ted taking his fat ass and family to Canada for vacation- which he’ll blame on his kids. 

  5. Also, my dad, who is a musician has a birthday today. 

    Just think, it’s only mid-May and it’s already triple digits in Texas.   The real heat sets in around mid-July.

  6. One of the hottests I’ve ever been was Foat Wuff in July. Unbearable. 
    Curtailed our visit and headed for the mountains of Color-Raydo.

  8. jamie, thanks, but I worry now that it’s tornado time in the midwest and there’s no musical post awaiting from Jack on sunday morning.  also average covid rate has gone up in MO as it has been in most red states of late. 

  9. But Sturg, isn’t fortworth a dry heat, or do you have to go further west in Texas to get to the dry heat? I always laugh about that dry heat bullshit. Hottest I’ve ever been I believe was in Las Vegas in August. My East Coast friend to say well it’s a dry heat apparently I’ve never experienced that, and no, it’s just a hot heat.

  10. Yeah, I heard all about that dry heat business out there…..in the Motel in Cruces in an August they put us in a room which had a “swamp cooler” or humidifier, looks just like an A/C.  At the time, I’d never heard of such a thing and after turning it on, we stood in front of it for an inordinately long time going, “Is it cold?” “I don’t know, whadda you think, is it cold?” “Feels kinda cool, whadda you think?”
    It wasn’t the least bit cold, of course, So we finally went to the office and complained our A/C was broke.  They explained and said we would get used to it.  I said, “No we won’t because we want a room with an A/C”.
    So they moved us.

  12. I’ve about had it with the deep south humidity but I’ll never be a Son of the Desert.   I mean, unless the desert comes to me and there’s no where to run to and no where to hide.  That’ll be some kinda big deal desert if it comes to the Catskills.

  13. We had swamp coolers on our houses in Colorado.  One of those can do a lot of chilling there.  ‘course you open the house at night, temp goes down to sixty, close the house and crank on the chiler and it would stay pretty close to seventy all day, even if it was ninety-five or a hundred outside.  Living in the high plains desert had something to do with it.  Here on the Chesapeake Bay I am sure the extra humidity of a swamp cooler would be more like swamp hot, with a slight breeze.

  14. Swamp Coolers –
    Lots of memories  with dad on the roof changing the excelsior pads , and the little water pumps in the Spring . Mucking out the sand in the bottom, looking for water leaks .  Our water was hard as a 3 day biscuit, so keeping them  maintained was a real right of Spring. 
    The pads were made out of Aspen trees.  Loved that smell of new pads getting wet the first time.
    Hauled a load of that stuff once  outa Mancos , Colorado.
    They force Aspen logs through a die full of little holes , looks just like spagetti  being made.
    The absolute best a swamp cooler can do is lower the air temp by 20 degrees. And that  is in dry air, the higher the humidity the poorer they do.
     

  15. That pontoon bridge  the Russians  got chopped up on.
    Saw some footage near there  dozens of burnt up trucks , tanks etc. All jammed together .
    Reports that they lost entire  battalion  there. And it was their fifth attempt  to cross.
     

  16. I wrote a blog article quite a while back about a memory that had the following description:

    What you should know about Fresno in the summer of 1957 is that it is one of the arm pits of the western world – HOT, DUSTY, and UNBEARABLE and the only relief is under the trees because no one has air conditioning other than swamp coolers which meant HUMID and HOT.  

     

  17. A 35 MW solar power carport with 90,000 solar panels was launched the first week of May in the Netherlands. Biddinghuizen is the solar carport location, which is the same site for the annual Lowlands music festival. The festival receives tens of thousands of visitors each year, so the parking area covers 35 hectares and provides 15,000 parking spaces. Carports are typically effective sites for solar power installations because they provide flat surfaces that aren’t being used for anything else, so it is not necessary to use any additional land.

    World’s Largest Solar Power Carport Launched


     

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