I’m in Halifax, having spent the week driving around Nova Scotia, hiking, and watching hurricane coverage. None of that activity has provoked a thought deep enough to write a featured article about. I’m still slogging through background reading about what actually works to fight fascism. (I want to deepen the observations I made about Antifa a few weeks ago.) And hurricanes are sucking up so much of the country’s attention that I’m not sure who would read an article about anything else right now. So this week I’ll just post an extra-long weekly summary.
That said, a number of the articles the summary will link to have the kind of depth my thoughts have been lacking: getting past Trump’s secrecy to find the favor-seekers paying big bucks to join his clubs, an American’s envy of high Swedish taxes, examining how badly charter schools work in Betsy DeVos’ Michigan, seeing Trump as “the first white president”, and a few others.
I can’t compete with CNN to give you the latest on Irma or Jose, but I’ll point to a few side issues the hurricanes are raising: Should there be a Category 6? Should FEMA help rebuild churches? Did the media cover Irma differently than Harvey? How do zoos plan for hurricanes, and what are all those flamingos doing in the men’s bathroom?
Finally, there’s Trump’s deal with Schumer and Pelosi to keep the government running for the next three months, and all the make-nice he’s been aiming at Democrats this last week. What’s that about? Will it last? Is there a change here worth taking seriously? (I’m skeptical.)
Taking advantage of waking up early in the Maritime time zone, I should have the summary out by 10 EDT, if not earlier.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
I know you’ve been out of the country, but not one blip about Korea? It’s been seriously under covered since their test of a hydrogen bomb. Today, the US will bring a watered down sanctions bill to replace what we wanted to do which was force China into an oil embargo w DPRK.
Trackbacks
[…] Last week, a commenter took me to task for ignoring the North Korea situation. And then this week even more stuff happened: Last Monday, the UN Security Council approved new sanctions against North Korea. Friday, North Korea flew another missile over Japan. U.S. rhetoric remained at a high level, with National Security Advisor H. R. McMaster insisting that “There is a military option.” And yesterday, UN Ambassador Nicki Haley warned: “If North Korea keeps on with this reckless behavior, if the United States has to defend itself or defend its allies in any way, North Korea will be destroyed.” […]