5/11/2022

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            It’s clear that you need some help with getting the word out about what you are up to!

I say that because your meeting with Italy PM Mario Draghi (MD) wasn’t mentioned on the WH Twitter feed. I can understand why the NYT didn’t mention it, but your people control your twitter feed. The 4 posts from yesterday were all about inflation, which is an important topic, don’t get me wrong, but you also met a world leader yesterday. Surely that’s worth a mention!!!! At least it was mentioned on the @POTUS feed, but I would expect to see it on both sites.

            Perhaps your folks did not want to call attention to the fact that Italians would like to see more negotiations & are reluctant to continue fueling the war by sending armaments to VZ. While that may be the case, the WP quoted MD as saying, ““The ties between our two countries will always be strong. And if anything, this war in Ukraine has made them stronger.” A Tweet with that quote would be nice to see.

            Do you send your own tweets or does someone else do it for you? If so, please tweet about Myanmar. Today’s “ThePrint” had a piece about how China is bribing the drug lords of the Shan region to keep their projects going. The article started with a mention of Olive Yang, a fascinating woman who at one point led an ethnic army of 1000. After being imprisoned by the government in the 60s for receiving weapons from the CIA, she became a peace broker in 1989.

            You need someone like Uncle Olive (as she liked to be called) to help you broker peace with VVP. She thought outside the box & did not let societal norms hem her in. We need that kind of creativity to release us from this stalemate between VVP & VZ. Myanmar needs that kind of thinking too.

            Enjoy your visit to Kankakee & Chicago today. I hope you get plenty of press.

            BYBS,