Back in March, when Ohio was the first state to cancel school, I don’t think a lot of people expected schools around the country to close for the rest of the year. And surely by fall we would have this whole coronavirus thing figured out, as the world’s well-governed countries more-or-less do. Well, now it’s time to make decisions about the next school year, and it’s not at all obvious what to do. And the process is made that much harder, because it can’t just be about the kids now. Trump has made reopening schools a loyalty issue for his cult, so it has to be about him too.
That’s the topic of this week’s featured post “Back to School”, which should be out around 9 EDT or so.
That’s far from all that happened this week. There were also some major new moves in the Trump Crime Family’s assault on the rule of law. Roger Stone got his payoff for not ratting out the Boss, and Consiglieri Bill Barr put out a hit on the Eastern District of New York, where Trump-related investigations might have been brewing, but now presumably are sleeping with the fishes. Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman, who violated omerta during the impeachment hearings, has been forced out of the military. The Family’s allies on the Supreme Court showed mixed loyalties: They rejected Trump’s claim to be completely above the law, but still his taxes and business records will remain hidden until after the election. Complete victory over the law will have to be a second-term project.
Meanwhile, coronavirus continues to rage out of control. By some counts, the number of new cases surged over 70,000 on Friday, up from 20,000 a few weeks ago. And the months-long decline in deaths ended, as experts had been predicting. The official word in MAGAland is that there is nothing to see here: More testing is turning up more cases, and everyone should go back to normal life as fast as possible.
I feel an obligation to report some good news too: The Washington Redskins are finally changing their name, hopefully to something not racist this time.
Anyway, that’s all in the weekly summary, which should come out around noon or so.
BTW, I don’t know what to predict about next week. My wife is having surgery on Thursday. I could imagine either being completely absorbed in that, or sitting around the hospital with an internet connection and nothing to do but wait and watch her sleep. So the Sift might or might not happen at all next week, and if it does, I can’t guess how much effort will go into it.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
Hope all goes well for your wife.
Hi Doug. Please give Deb our best wishes for a successful treatment.
–Jill Drury and Shaun Morrissey (folks she’ll know from MITRE)
Respond
Good luck on your wife’s surgery. That’s the most important thing
________________________________
Best wishes for your wife’s treatment, and please take good care of yourself too.
Good luck to your wife 🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
Best wishes, hope all goes well with your wife’s surgery!
Bro. Doug, I echo the comments above and wish you all the best. My wife died three months ago from a second bout of bowel cancer, so I trust your wife’s situation is not as serious.
All the best, Mike McPhee
Sydney, Australia
Best wishes for your wife.
Hope all the best for you and your wife.
Best wishes to your wife for a successful outcome and speedy recovery
Best wishes for a speedy recovery for your wife!
Best wishes for your wife’s surgery.
All the best to your wife for a successful surgery outcome and a quick recovery!
Doug, every good wish for a successful surgery and rapid healing for your wife. I know the First Parish folks can be a great source of support at a time like this.
Happy to join the chorus of wishing the best for your wife and yourself. Especially, a quick and painless recovery for her.
Healing thoughts sent your way and best wishes for your wife’s surgery on Thursday. I hope it is successful and she has a slow but steady recovery.
Prayers of healing for your wife… 💗💖💞
Best wishes for your wife’s surgery. Don’t worry about us, we can wait!
Hope that all goes well for your wife & her surgery.
Thanks to everybody for your good wishes. Surgery went well on Thursday and recovery is looking good so far.
I brought her home Friday around noon, considerably earlier than we had expected.