11/17/2022

Dear POTUS, JRB,

            Still no word from you on the UC strike! Apparently, the folks at the bargaining tables are still quite far apart. The strikers want an across-the-board, no-receipts-required, $250/month stipend to pay for transpo costs, while UCOP is offering $25 pending an acceptable expense report – a wide chasm to traverse.

The UAW has not coached its members about calibrating expectations. Since their union members are young, they have no experience with this sort of thing. They may hold out for a long time. Perhaps a private meeting with you & your team could move the negotiations along. Please give that some thought.

            The Compromiser in Chief! That could be your new identity. The Dems will need that for the 118th Congress. As the CSM suggests, it “must be less a pit of competing and unpardonable villains and more a den of forgiving and collaborative hearts, one where a suspension of ego and grievance can lead to equipoise in governance.”

            Don’t you love that word, “equipoise?” If you don’t know about it, ask Chiquita Brooks LaSure, your head of CMS, who was written about in the WP today. I look forward to seeing how she handles the official end of the CV emergency that’s supposed to happen in Jan 11, 2023. I share her concern about our “fragile health care system” & am wondering if I should switch my plan from an HMO to a PPO to get more flexibility to spend time out of CA. I hate that health care costs are driving my decision about whether to spend my sabbatical in KC.

            Do you think we should be celebrating the release of Victoria Bowman & Sean Turnell from Insein Prison? The junta is trying to make itself look good on Myanmar National Day, but their reputation is too far gone for a gesture like that to have much of an impact. I’m sure the families of the other 5774 released prisoners will be grateful, but their fellow citizens worry about an uptick in crime. Let’s hold them all in the Light.

            BYBS,