7/21/2024

July 21, 2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            It’s 9AM & I am back at LAS waiting for my flight back to SMF.

            Does reality need to be harsh? I wonder about this as my senses are jolted by the artificial atmosphere here at LAS, where I sit waiting for my flight back to SMF. The # of people in the terminal stretches the capacity of the building. The sounds coming from all the mouths, speakers & slot machines overwhelm my auditory canal & the blinking lights from the gaming lounge compete with the florescent bulbs to make my pupils dilate. While it is incredibly HARSH here, it doesn’t seem real to me, so I guess un-reality can be as harsh as reality.

            I am thinking about “harsh realities” this AM because your old mentee, Rep Seth Moulton (MA-6), wrote in the Boston Globe that you need to face them, noting “all the characteristics that have made (you) an irrepressible force — the energy, the vitality, the sharp, scrappy wit — are flickering.” He claims you, two, have been close in the past, but you didn’t recognize him at Normandy during the 80th anniversary of D-Day. That’s not like you.

            I need to go find my gate, so I will close with my usual request that you look into the situation in Burma. Today, the news indicates that Thai banks are facilitating arms sales to the junta. Please ask Srettha Thavisin to investigate & put a stop to that, if need be.

            BYBS,

            RCA