9/3/2022

Dear Friend,

How are things at Camp David? It looks like you will have a partly cloudy day with a high of 82. That sounds delightful. Today it’ll hit a 100 here, hot but bearable compared to the 111 high predicted for Monday. Dang! We’ll have to spend our Labor Day holed up in our one air-conditioned room watching the US Open.

Speaking of which, did you see Serena’s match last night? She survived 5 match points before losing in the 3rd set. She lived up to her name, “serene” in the face of tremendous pressure. She’s an inspiration!

Did you see the piece in the G today about your speech where David Smith noted you’re on a journey from “idealist to realist” & are no longer the “apostle of bipartisanship” that you were in 2021. He claimed that you were influenced by your meeting with historians on that day in Aug when lightning struck DC. He singled out Jon Meacham as being particularly influential. I wonder what my uncle, Stephen, might have told you if he were still alive. In any case, folks are thinking that you are on a roll & don’t have to worry about someone, like my Gov. Newsom, running against you in the primary.

Speaking of elections, isn’t it great that Mary Peltola won the special election in AK for the House, beating Sarah Palin in their new ranked choice voting system? She’ll be the 1st Yup’ik to serve. She’s eager to elevate issues of ocean productivity and food security. Yeah!

In case you haven’t heard Gen Min Aung Hlaing will attend the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. He’s trying to get in good with VPP. Not what the people of Burma need now.

            Thanks for sending $65.1 million to the Central Fresno-Merced Future of Food Innovation (F3) Coalition which aims to integrate technology into the agriculture industry to improve productivity and job quality for farmworkers, while also driving a more resilient and sustainable food system. That’s a tall order & it looks like an over-promise, but I am a skeptic, in case you haven’t noticed.

            BYBS,