5/17/2023

My Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Dang! It’s too bad that you had to cancel your trip to Papua New Guinea (PNG)! They had declared a national holiday so you could get a grand reception. By bagging out, the world sees that our domestic squabbles are interfering with our international relations. According to a scholar quoted in the NYT this cancelation compromises our standing in the South Pacific. She said, “Trust is the currency of the Pacific, & building trust takes consistency, it takes being reliable, being there, being present.”

PNG opposition leader, Joseph Lelang, says PNG has “a foreign policy of ‘Friends to All and Enemies to None’. (&) … should not be blinded by the dollar sign or be coerced into signing deals that may be detrimental to us, in the long run.” China can now take center stage & point out that the USA is unreliable & the folks of PNG may agree. Double dang!!!

            It’s time to put the debt limit dispute to rest so we can get on with things. Sen. Kent Conrad (ND) says “Republicans don’t want to raise revenue. Democrats don’t want to touch entitlements. The hard reality is you have to have some of both.” His group, Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on Retirement Security and Personal Savings, suggests raising the debt limit for a limited period & appointing a commission to work out the thornier issues of how to balance U.S. fiscal policy. I encourage you to stop weaponizing Social Security to give KMM a bit of breathing room.

            While you are flying off to Hiroshima please read today’s BBC article, “Myanmar Rohingya: What future for the refugee baby lucky to survive?” about a 5-year-old born as his mom was fleeing Burma. He has spent his life in the camp near Cox Bazar & is sick all the time because of the unsanitary living conditions. As you may have heard, the UN World Food Program has cut rations there & is set to cut them again in June due to lack of funding. Let’s do more to help!!!

            BYBS,