10/09/2024

My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

Do you think Hurricane Milton will be an inflection point, when those climate change deniers will finally acknowledge it’s time to act? That would be a silver lining to the catastrophic cloud descending upon FL.

I see from your schedule that the storm is interfering with your plans this week. No trip to Germany or Angola. No party in the Rose Garden for Taoiseach Simon Harris (SH). I think you are making the right decision to clear the calendar, given the forecasts. Time to focus on helping.

My daughter’s in-laws have evacuated their home which is supposed to get a direct hit. They did their best with sandbags to prevent water from coming in, but that won’t hold back a 15-foot storm surge. They have evacuated to Orlando & are joking about naming a hurricane after the author of Paradise Lost.

What’s up with these kids becoming PMs recently? Today I learned that SH is only 37 & Thailand’s new PM is 38. Neither is expected to last long or to be able to accomplish much. Reuters says, SH faces “a severe shortage of affordable housing & unease at record numbers of asylum seekers.” Thailand's PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra (PS) “inherits a complex economic & political situation,” including what to do about a digital wallet system where “Thais aged 16 & over would receive a one-time payment of 10,000 baht (260 euros) in digital currency.”

PS came up when I looked for news about Burma. She “said on Monday the regional bloc ASEAN must play a key role in ending the protracted civil war in Myanmar.” I hope she has the special sauce needed to get ASEAN to come up with something beyond the 5-point Consensus they reached in April 2021. Please encourage Sec. Blinken to push for a bold new plan.

Are you savoring the last months’ work before retiring? As Karine Jean-Pierre said yesterday, “Three months is not a long time... That’s going to fly by,” Just remember to repeat the mantra, Now, Now, Now, so you can relish every minute.

BYBS,