9/4/2023

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Happy Labor Day! Did you really take an airplane to get to Philly? Please reconsider your travel options!!!

Will you be marching in the Tri-State Labor Day Parade? If so, which t-shirt will you wear? Sheet Metal Workers, United Food & Commercial Workers, AFL-CIO? Perhaps SAG-AFTRA would be appropriate since it’s the biggest strike going on right now. Those starving actors could use some moral support!

            I’m sure you heard about Burning Man’s freak rainstorm. The media had a heyday speculating all hell would break loose in the Black Rock Desert. According to sociologist Zeynep Tufekci’s piece in the NYT today, those stories were grossly exaggerating. She draws on her academic knowledge to make the compelling argument that “the common belief that civilization is but a thin veneer that will fall apart when authority disappears is not only false, the false belief itself is harmful.”

As you head off to India this week, please consider adopting a new name for the sea between the Pacific & Indian Oceans. Folks in Manila would like you to call it the “West Philippine Sea” & scholars from Vietnam suggest, “Southeast Asia Sea” since those countries have much more of its coastline than China.  XJ just circulated a new map showing he owns more of it than he should, so better call it by a new name to set the record straight.

Please encourage ASEAN to negotiate with the NUG in Burma. It will solidify the alliances between the ASEAN nations & give the NUG credibility. While you are at it, you can recognize the NUG also.

BYBS,