1/20/2022

My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

“The year of living naively is over.” That sentence is even better than your great line from your Inauguration Address. “We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility,” Do you make those up yourself or did one of your speech writers come up with it? In any case, congratulations on a successful press conference. You managed to avoid gaffes & misstatement. Even better, you made it clear that AMM & his crew of GOP Senators are living in fear of “one man out of office.”

            I have my fingers crossed that you will be successful at persuading JM3 to back some of your climate provisions so we can CCC. Please consult with Mitt Romney about his carbon tax proposal. Your Sen, Chris Coons wrote a bill back in 2019, so he can be your point person. In 1982, I wrote a paper for my econ class about taxing air pollution, it was a bit tricky to explain because polluters can continue to spew, but it does result in lower overall emissions. I hope you’ll give a carbon tax some consideration.

            I was very sorry to see that the junta in Burma has detained 3 journalists from Dawei Watch, including a mother of 3 young children. According to “Reporting ASEAN”, a Southeast Asia media advocacy group, since the coup 115 journalists have been detained with 44 still locked up. 3 have died. Please put as much pressure on the Tatmadaw as you do on VVP.

            BYBS,