2/29/2020

My dear POTUS, DJT,

            Have you noticed the competition between the coronavirus and US/Taliban agreement on the front pages of today’s newspapers? In my look at the top 15 papers in the US, the coronavirus won by a nose. It came first in 7 papers, including: WSJ, WP, NY Daily News, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, Newsday & Dallas Morning News. The Afghan exit agreement came first in 6, specifically: the Tampa Bay Times, NY Post, NYT, Chicago Trib, LA Times & Denver Post. It was a tie in USA Today, and neither one appeared on the Houston Chronicle webpage. Do you think it has to do with the political leanings of the editorial staff?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-opium-poppy-production/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_54

            I am trying to remain hopeful that this deal with the Taliban works out. They aren’t the most trustworthy lot. Groups that base their wealth on drug money are seldom reliable. I’m worried that they will go back to oppressing women and brutal suppression of free speech and free practice of religion. So please let’s keep a close eye on them and don’t believe everything they say. It certainly is not promising that the Taliban media chief tweeted, “the defeat of the arrogance of the White House in the face of the white turban will be announced.”

            I hope you enjoy your visit with the Conservative Political Action Conference folk today. Did you know that the Gaylord where you will be meeting is built on the site of the Salubria plantation where Judah, a 14-year-old young women expressed her resistance to her enslavement by using poison to end the lives of three of her master’s children? Folks speculate that she was inspired by Nat Turner, but I like to think that she came up with the idea on her own. Her master was a doctor and she figured out which of his chemicals to use. I think her story needs to be told, don’t you?

         BYBS,