10/19/2024

My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

I am in Santa Barbara for a wedding. A college friend is marrying for the second time. He lost his first wife to cancer about 17 years ago. The guests are so happy the couple found one another. The bride is on the wild side so I’m looking forward to some dancing tonight.

            Did you dance when you went to that wedding in Indiana? According to People magazine you danced with Naomi at her wedding back in 2022. Did you have fun?

Did you know that George Washington was quite a dancer? The WP indicated that in 1779,  “he reportedly danced with a fellow general’s wife “upwards of three hours without once sitting down.” The same article mentions that Louisa Catherine Addams may have engineered J. Q’s presidential victory by having all of Congress to her house where they danced “older cotillions & reels that required large groups to interact & cooperate.” Maybe that’d be a way to get folks to reach across the aisle.

            Are you still in Berlin? I saw a wonderful photo of you & your buds smiling. Perhaps you were reacting to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s statement that your visit “is a strong signal of our trans-Atlantic unity & of our friendship.”

            Did you guys talk about Burma at all? Did you hear that China’s consulate in Mandalay was attacked with an explosive device? The Irrawaddy reported a grenade was thrown at the compound. It’s shocking that their security is so ineffective.

            This may have been a response to the junta’s bombing of Nawnghkio town on Thursday during the Thadingyut festival. It’s supposed to be a time of unity & reverence celebrating Buddha’s descent from heaven. The Burmese light up their towns during the full moon of their seventh month. Not the time to be dropping bombs, if there ever is a time to drop bombs!

            WINTA!

            BYBS,