8/20/2022

Aug 20, 2022

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Happy Saturday! Congratulations again on your legislative victories! I’m sure you got a big smile when you read the 1st lines of Jeff Stein’s WP piece, “It’s been a big month for Bidenomics.”  

I have to hurry to write this note so I can jump on my bike & get to the Farmer’s Market before it gets too crowded. My purchases will include sweet corn, tomatoes & beans. Have I told you about my difficulties growing tomatoes this year? It’s an embarrassment so I won’t go into detail but suffice it to say, that I am grateful that my daughter’s buddies, twin brothers, Eric & Andrew, started Farmboy Organics this year & are happy to sell me their big Pineapple tomatoes.

            I might just switch to growing Amaranth which grows wild in my plot. It’s among the 5 plants featured in a G story today about a “Diet for a Hotter Climate.” I can attest to the fact that they are super drought tolerant. We steam the leaves. The seeds are edible, too, but I don’t know how to prepare them. Does the Inflation Reduction Act include $$ for agri-science to continue to develop alternatives to our monoculture ag business? If not, time to get on that!

            I am encouraged by a couple of stories related to Burma, one suggesting that Aun San Suu Kyi could serve her sentence on house arrest, the other (in CSM) noting that Chad is pursuing a transition from military rule to democracy. That gave me hope that Burma could do the same. The trick is to assure the generals that they won’t be punished for their crimes. Peacemakers in Chad managed to pull that off by gathering all of the players in Qatar for “weeks of exquisite captivity” to establish trust. Perhaps you can engineer that kind of thing for the players in Burma.

            Enjoy your time at the beach,

            BYBS,