7/30/2023

JRB,

            Last week the higher power intervened & prevented us from getting internet access in Dunbar, so I spent the week doing puzzles, cleaning up brush & exploring the latest developments in our ever changing mini-lake instead of writing to you. Was it a relief to have a respite from my letters or did you miss my advice & encouragement? I have no idea what you were up, but it seems you managed.

            Today’s G suggests you are in a good spot, “Crime is down, inflation is falling & the border is quiet.” The only negative press I saw this AM related to your forgetting to sign the Executive Order about "Invent it here, make it here." I’m sure you loved the WP piece, “What 8 left-leaning columnists think about Biden’s 2024 campaign so far”. I was surprised that Perry Bacon Jr opined “Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (Mich.) as president & Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (Ga.) as vice president would be stronger electorally than Biden-Harris,” & agreed with the consensus that a primary would be a disaster, & that you may be old but are still going strong.

In the WP piece, Dionne in the WP noted you are “especially sharp” when you turn to foreign policy, so please put some effort into ameliorating the situation in Burma. The junta seems to be crumbling, so now would be the perfect time to support the NUG. Go for it!

            On your trip to Auburn Manufacturing, did you learn anything about Synthetic Amorphous Silica (SAS)? That kind of stuff can have huge environmental impacts! When you encourage folks to invest in building factories, please make sure that every endeavor is subject to a “life cycle assessment”   to model the overall impact of a process including ALL impacts arising throughout the manufacturing life cycle from raw material acquisition to closing things down. Otherwise, we’ll be back in the old days polluting the planet as we produce a bunch of consumer products.

            BYBS,