11/18/2021

My Friend & POTUS, JRB,

Ready for an ideal day? When I was in grad school, one of my classmates had us write about our ideal day. She had done this activity with the young women at her school in Chicago & we analyzed their responses for our gender in education class. The exercise left a big impression on me & I continue to think about the elements of my ideal day. Lately, a letter to you is one of them, as is contact with my daughter which has already been accomplished. She texted me a photo of her new kittens.

I see that your day will include meeting with our border leaders, JPJT & AMLO. I understand you will be discussing guns, drugs & security concerns. When DJT first spoke with JPJT, he was worried about milk.

Please develop a plan to accommodate immigrants. They need our help & given that all 3 of you were raised Catholic, you can figure out a way to do what Christ suggested in welcoming the stranger.

Speaking of immigrants, I am thrilled by your nomination of Saule Omarova as comptroller of the currency. I hope the haters, who are attacking her Russian roots, don’t get her down at her Senate hearing today. It’s too bad that folks distrust a creative academic who has tried to imagine what the world would be like with different banking systems. She says she plans “to minimize systemic risk that is created when large banking institutions start aggressively growing their trading operations and feed speculative booms that may be unsustainable.” That sounds prudent to me. I tend to agree with her assessment that “the financial-services industry is the quintessential asshole industry… where self-entitled, rude, disregarding behavior becomes not only tolerated but also rewarded.”

Did you speak with XJ about Myanmar in your virtual meeting earlier in the week? I’m disappointed to see that China would like to include MAH in a meeting of SE Asian leaders. Please keep an eye on the situation.

HYITL,

RCA