4/13/2022

My Dear Friend, JRB,

            How was your visit to the ethanol processing plant? Did you enjoy the smell of that big mound of corn? As I recall, it can get be a bit sickly sweet. Maybe you were so excited to talk about the E15 summer waiver that you didn’t notice the odor.

            Aviation on biofuels? That’s intriguing! It might work, if we can transition Americans away from eating meat so we can divert our soybeans & corn to fuel. If we don’t, we won’t have enough water to both eat & fly. I’d love to do both, so let’s you & I set an example by eating less meat. What do you say?

            Paul Waldman, opining in today’s WP, approved of your “pandering” to the farmers. He says, “they’re looking for politicians who make them feel a particular way. So, if Biden wants to go to Iowa, shake some hands, and pay his tribute to the great corn god, he should go right ahead. If it leads a few Iowans to say, “That Joe, he gets us,” then it will have been worth the trip.” Perhaps you can convert Airforce 1 to bio-fuels so your trips to rural America don’t contribute to climate change. Then you can travel around the country guilt-free.

            I’m sure you heard that your comment during the speech about a “dictator” declaring “war” & committing “genocide a half a world away,” was covered by the NYT. Unfortunately, it was the only part of your visit that they covered, so like yesterday, you only had one mention in the Grey Lady. They had 4 different news items about the subway shooting, but nothing about your trip to Iowa. Dang!

            Folks in Burma decided to boycott the Thingyan Water Festival even though the junta tried to make it look like everything was back to normal. No one was out in the streets of Yangon spraying water everywhere. It’s too bad that kids had to miss it. Photos of previous years makes it look like a lot of fun. Please continue to think about what we can do to help restore democracy there so folks can enjoy the festival next year.

            BYBS,