11/12/2022

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I’m sorry that you mixed up Cambodia & Colombia during the ASEAN gathering yesterday. Reuters’ article on the gaffe noted that the GOP latches on to your slip-ups to show you are too old to be POTUS. I continue to wonder about that.

Keeping names straight is a challenge so I “feel you.” In class last week I called Veronica, Victoria. This was unfortunate because Veronica is socially marginalized, & many of her classmates don’t know her name. To flub it up only amplified her isolation. Darn!

            I greatly appreciate your attendance at ASEAN. According to the NYT “showing up matters” especially in Asia. According to the WP, one of your “enduring challenges… (is) to persuade your fellow leaders that former (POTUS’) disruption of American foreign policy was an aberration, not a long-lasting shift.” The recent election should help with that.

            Now that Rupert Murdoch is depicting DJT as Humpty Dumpty, his demise might be eminent. It would be nice to get some relief from his troubling antics, but I worry that the Devil you know …

            I hope you & your guy, Jake Sullivan continue to make an effort to “coordinate more closely (with others) to continue to impose costs and raise pressure on the junta in Naypyidaw as the junta continue to repress and oppress their citizenry.”

            As I’ve told you in the past, stopping the flow of aviation fuel would go a long way in preventing the junta from using their primary approach of bombing villages. Amnesty International released a report with the details. Please take a look at it.

            Bali should be beautiful! Be sure to take a minute to go to the beach. Modeling some self-care might stimulate many frenzied, tired Americans to pause & refresh.

            BYBS,