1/25/2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            What are you reading these days? In preparation for teaching my Intro to Schools course, I am reading “Civics for the World to Come: Committing to Democracy in Every Classroom.” The authors recommend “speculative civic education that centers the building of new kinds of public relationships rather than adherence to formal institutions,” & suggest we include imagination in our curriculum.

My reading affirmed my fantasy of deconstructing the military-industrial complex. Students at U.W-Madison share this dream & occupied the area outside of Chancellor Mnookin’s office demanding the university divest from BlackRock. Selling F-16 fighter jets to Erdogan (RTE) does not fit into this fantasy!

            I have cautioned you before about selling weapons to leaders who could use them against their own people. RTE is near the top of that list. I know you were trying to persuade him to allow Sweden into NATO & that he is working with Ebrahim Raisi to keep the lid on things in the MidEast, but RTE suffers from the same anger/fear complex as VVP, MAH & 45. They tend to lash out against one-time friends. Not good!

            Speaking of lashing out at one-time friends, did you see in the BBC that a prominent monk, Pauk Ko Taw (PKT), in Burma has done that to MAH? PKT gave his speech in Pyin Oo Lwin, “the one-time British colonial hill-station (which) is now home to the prestigious Defence Services Academy, where the army's top brass are trained. They could hardly miss the thinly-veiled warning: that they are running out of friends.”

            I hope your trip to Superior, WI, goes well today. I love the idea of spotlighting the $1 billion in new funding to replace the 60-year-old Blatnik Bridge on Interstate 535 but am less excited about your visit to a brewery. Alcohol kills more people than opioids. Best not to advertise it!

            BYBS,