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Weekly Letter to the President
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INAUGURATION,   January 20, 2009

Drunk in its stale air
For two hundred years.
Fettered in mind and body,
The soul, the safe escape

To let me breathe the cries
Of my heart singing
Tears of mel-an-choly.

The tears flow free today
Washing the stains of blood
And sweat in brotherhood.

Raise the curtain then an'
Let the world look in
On this promised land --
We breathe free today.... almost.

--- Arshad M. Khan
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.
---  Native American proverb
October 16, 2020

Mr. President:

No debates but we had matching townhalls.  THe first debate will be remembered for
Trump's persistent interruptions of his opponent.  If he had hopes of a boost in the
polls it was not to come.  He is still down in the polls but keeps predicting a 'big
beautiful red wave' on election day.

With no opponent to hector in a townhall, Trump's combative DNA made moderator
Savannah Guthrie the target.  Questions in a townhall come from the public but
Guthrie cut through Trump's usual slanting of facts.  When he went after Obamacare
promising his usual 'fantastic' healthcare she pricked that balloon fast reminding
Trump his party held both houses of Congress for his first two years and asking why
he had not passed his 'beautiful' healthcare plan then.  He quickly changed the
subject.

In the competing townhall, Biden droned on with facts and figures from notes.  Except
of course for the occasional stutter and difficulty enunciating words.  He leads in the
polls including the swing states although his lead continues to diminish.  Meanwhile a
New York Post story on son Hunter's escapades in China and the Ukraine while
Daddy was vice-president was ignored by mainstream media and blocked by
Facebook.

As Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago (that is old Boss Daley who ruled Chicago in
the 1960s) who when caught passing on $1 million worth of no-bid insurance
contracts to his son said simply, "If a man can't put his arms around his sons, then
what kind of a world are we living in?"  Of course without bids and the lowest bid
winning the contract, the public lost and the money came out of the taxpayer's
pocket.  But Daley's almost comical take had them laughing and joking about the
Daley machine; a machine which, by the way, became famous for the phrase . . . 'vote
early and often'.

If in the Hunter Biden case, the money comes from Ukraine or China, the public is
even less concerned. . . it's never a perfect world.

Then there is Kamala Harris whose Stanford professor father was from Jamaica and
whose Tamol mother was also a Ph.D.  With such illustrious parents, it is no surprise
her sister has a JD from Stanford.  If the Biden/Harris ticket wins, she will be the first
black vice-president, also the first person of Indian descent to hold that post.  Her
Wikipedia page shows her to be a tough prosecutor earning fame as California's
attorney general, and eventually winning a seat in the US Senate.

Betting odds are also favoring Biden.  At -190 you would have to put down 190 to win
100.  In Trump's case at +155, you can put down 100 to win 155.  Remember the
bookies do not want to lose which is why a bet on Biden is more expensive.  He is the
favorite to win.  If bookies odds condense opinion, it looks like Trump is going to lose
the election.  All the same, a lot can happen in two weeks.