8/27/2024

Aug 27, 2024

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            I know you are busy doing your POTUS thing, but I hope you go to the beach today & take a dip. According to weather.com, you’ll have a high of 80 with “plentiful sun.” The rest of the weather doesn’t look as good for the rest of the week, so you can make your phone calls & have your press briefs when it’s hot &/or rainy Wed – Sun. In the meantime, make the most of your time in Reheboth with your family.

            Did you & Modi talk about Burma when you were discussing how the QUAD squad would “contribute to peace & prosperity in the Indo-Pacific?” That’s a tall order these days with Thailand & Bangladesh in the midst of regime changes. What did he have to say about his “historic visits to Poland & Ukraine?”  

            Speaking of regime change, did you see M. Vorenberg’s piece in the NYT, “Abraham Lincoln’s (AL) Wiliest Trick Should Be a Lesson for Biden” where he claims that “like AL in 1864, you, in 2024, are the best-placed politician to protect the Union?” He describes AL’s “Blind Memorandum”  which stated that if Lincoln lost the election, he would “cooperate with the president elect, as to save the Union between the election & the inauguration.” His cabinet mocked his commitment to bipartisanship, but AL said, “at least I should have done my duty and have stood clear before my own conscience.” As fate would have it, he didn’t have to follow through on his commitment since he won the election, but, like today, the election was highly contested.

            Conscription was one of the many issues of the day in the 1864 election. It’s also a big deal in Burma right now.  Did you see that the junta is proceeding with plans to recruit men older than 35 as militia members? Just a reminder of how WINTA!

            Have fun today & BYBS,