6/26/2021

,JRB,

            Is everything ok? Are you hiding? I ask because your public schedule has not been published so I can’t tell what you are up to.

Are you spending the day on the telephone trying to get the Dems on board with this two-track plan to get your infrastructure plan going? Will you call Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver to assure him that the Reconciliation Bill will include $$ for housing in KC? As you know from previous letters KC has a housing crisis. The city has 111 abandoned homes in a Land Bank that they might sell for $1 each so they can be made available to folks making less than $18,000/year. I hope you can subsidize that project.

Have you talked to AMM? The G suggested he give a “masterclass in intransigence” with his brilliance in seeing 6 – 7 steps ahead to block initiatives. AMM accused you of “caving” to the progressive side of the Dems & dissed you for pulling troops from Afghanistan. According to the NY Post he said you had “chosen to abandon the fight and invite even greater terrorist threats.”

Speaking of Afghanistan, how was your meeting with President Ashraf Ghani & Chair Abdullah Abdullah? Did you develop a plan for evacuating the interpreters & their families? They need Special Immigration Visas which are only available in Kabul & most can’t get there due to Taliban roadblocks & CV. Even if they could, the process is what the CSM called, “Byzantine.” Please put all your best people on solving this problem. Those folks trusted us. We can’t let them down.  

Speaking of helping people, we need to help the people of Myanmar. It is so dangerous there, that the Kareni people who usually hunt mushrooms at this time of year are too afraid to go in the forest lest they be attacked by the Tatmadaw. They make a decent income because these mushrooms are prized by chefs. Their culture was at risk even before the coup & CV, so they really need assistance. Please see what you can do.

BYBS,