8/17/2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            My husband is cooking himself some pancakes. Do you ever do that?

It’s a big deal in our house because he now has a home that enables him to get to the kitchen & more importantly, the psychic energy to cook. Last year, at this time, he had neither. His challenges have taught me to appreciate my mobility & the freedom that comes with it. I am now aware that doors, curbs, & stairs can be obstacles to some folks. Let’s do all we can to make the world navigable for everyone.

            I’m reading about Ukraine’s incursion into Russia. Orysia Lutsevych writes in the G that the attack “has humiliated Putin & changed the narrative over how the war is fought.” She makes it sound like a good thing. I’m not convinced.

David French writes in the NYT that, among other things, it shows “Russia suffered a serious intelligence failure… exposing Russian vulnerability (which) changes public perception of the war, in Ukraine, in allied nations & perhaps even in Russia itself.” DF speculates VVP will respond to this humiliation with extreme violence. I understand that Russia has damaged the energy infrastructure in Ukraine so badly that they will have trouble heating their homes this winter. This incursion into Kursk won’t change that. Let’s remember that no one wins a war.

            Thanks for sending your people to speak with the Burmese opposition groups & pledging to expand support for them. I look forward to seeing what that looks like.

            BYBS,