The Weekly Sift

Saturday, the government shutdown started to bite in a much more serious way: SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans failed to appear as scheduled, and the open enrollment period for 2026 ObamaCare policies started without the federal subsidies that made those policies affordable for 22 million Americans. Suddenly, it’s not just politicians finger-pointing at other politicians; it’s millions of households wondering how they’re going to afford necessities.

One featured post will describe what’s going on there, and with the shutdown in general. That still needs some work, and probably won’t be out until 10 EST or later. But I already have a second post written about Trump’s possible plans for a third term. Right now, his latest word is that a third term isn’t possible; but the idea has risen and fallen so many times that I’m sure it will be back at some point. So I thought I’d address how it might or might not work. That should be out shortly.

That still leaves the weekly summary a lot to cover: the destruction of the White House to make room for the Epstein Ballroom; tomorrow’s elections in New York City, Virginia, and New Jersey; Trump’s demand that his own Justice Department pay him $230 million; the Senate’s attempt to end Trump’s tariffs just as the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments about their legality; the NYT laying out the case for calling the Trump regime autocratic; and a few other things. That should be out by maybe noon or 1.

Once again, the government shutdown is failing to make it to the top of my list. It continues and I don’t yet see how it ends, so there’s not a lot you need to know about it.

The Gaza peace plan hasn’t fallen apart yet, and actual hostages have even been released, so it deserves attention. But I have no insight into it, so I’ll have to link to somebody else’s view.

The two featured posts this week are both Trump-centered, and I apologize in advance for that. The first looks at National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NPSM-7), which directs the government to go after some vast left-wing conspiracy that exists mainly in Trump’s mind. But it does provide justification to investigate Democratic funders like George Soros, and maybe even create show-trials around them. The interesting thing to me, though, is the amount of projection here: Trump is imagining that his enemies are doing what he knows his friends are doing. That post is just about done and should go out shortly.

The second featured post takes a step back from AG Pam Bondi’s unprecedented disrespect for the Senate in her testimony on Tuesday, and relates it to a general principle of the fascist mindset: the mystical identification of the Leader with the People. Ordinarily, a cabinet member treats a congressional committee with respect, because Congress was elected by the People and cabinet members were not. But to a fascist mindset, someone chosen by the Leader is closer to the People than any elected official, because the Leader IS the People. “Only Trump Represents the People” should be out around 10 EDT.

That leaves the weekly summary to provide that Gaza peace link, as well as covering the shutdown, the war against Chicago, new evidence of Trump’s dementia, the upcoming No Kings protests, and a few other things. I’ll try to have that out by noon.

This morning I am reminded of Lloyd Bridges’ running gag in the movie Airplane: “It looks like I picked the wrong week to …“

I took the last two Mondays off (and had a very restful trip to the Azores). But it looks like a lot of things happened while I was gone. This week I’ll try to catch up.

Shortly after my last blog posts, Charlie Kirk was murdered. Then Jimmy Kimmel was canceled. Then (in some order) a sniper shot at an ICE facility in Dallas, we found out about Tom Homan’s $50K bribe, Jim Comey got indicted, Trump and RFK Jr. declared definitively (and without any scientific evidence) that Tylenol causes autism, Trump made a bonkers speech to the UN, Kimmel came back, Trump announced an invasion of Portland, a guy sitting in my airplane aisle had a personal story to tell about the H1-B visa fiasco, all our generals and admirals have been called to a meeting in Virginia tomorrow, and I probably forgot something.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to take a vacation.

The short version of the last few weeks is that Trump’s bid for dictatorial power seems to be coming to a head. There’s a race against time to seize as much power as he can as his popularity plunges.

Anyway, I have choices to make about which stories to spin off into their own posts. I’m going to write about Kirk simply because much of what I read about him isn’t that good. He wasn’t a saint and he was more than just a collection of bigoted quotes. The Kimmel saga will get its own post, because it raises the question of a turning point. I’m not sure yet what else.

Anyway, the Kimmel post will come out first, maybe around 10. We’ll see what happens from there.

As RFK Jr. dismantles American medical research and tries to reassemble it behind his crank ideas about vaccines and other hobby horses, I’ve been surprised that one historical comparison rarely comes up: Trofim Lysenko, who gained power over Soviet biological research during the Stalin years and ruthlessly pushed his own crank notions of LeMarckian evolution. Researchers who refused to abandon the scientific consensus around Mendel’s genetic theory might find themselves in labor camps or awaiting execution. Lysenkoism was not only a disaster for Soviet science, it contributed to famines and other public catastrophes.

Asking around, it turns out that few Americans know who Lysenko was or what he did. Maybe that’s why we’re so complacent about RFK Jr.’s destruction of American science. This week’s featured post “Lysenkoism Comes to America” is my attempt to fix that. It should be out by 10 EDT.

The weekly summary has a lot to report about Trump’s push towards authoritarianism and various attempts to push back. Chicago looks unlikely to submit meekly to the kind of military occupation Washington is experiencing, and Democrats in general seem to be finding their voices on this issue, putting aside their perpetual fears of seeming “soft on crime”.

An appeals court backed two other courts in declaring Trump’s tariffs illegal, teeing up yet another test of the Supreme Court’s partisanship. Trump tried out a new way to usurp Congress’ power of the purse: a pocket rescission. He’s also testing his ability to fire governors of the Federal Reserve. Alligator Alcatraz is closing after spending large amounts of money and abusing numerous detainees in such a short time.

I am admittedly light on non-Trump news this week, but I think that’s justified: A number of struggles seem to be coming to a head. I’ll try to get the weekly summary out by noon.

Over the last few months, I’ve been feeling dissatisfied with this blog, so I’ve begun making some changes. Last week I branched out and started reposting on Substack. This week I’m changing the format of the weekly summaries.

Here’s why: Ever since Trump took office for his second term, there has really only been one political story worth telling: How Trump is trying to pervert American democracy into an autocracy, what resistance (if any) he’s been running into, and what the American people can do about it.

So, in essence, I’ve been writing the same story every week, but making it current by dressing it up in the details of that week’s particular news developments. This has been boring in some ways and frustrating in others. What I’m trying to communicate hasn’t seemed to match the format I’ve been writing in.

Thinking that through led me into a long meditation on the nature of news, which is the featured post this week.

In our culture, news has a particular timescale. News is what has changed since the last time we talked. When you meet an old buddy at a high school reunion, “I had a kid two years ago” is news. But when you take a coffee break with your officemate at work, it isn’t. If you want to talk about that in the office, you have to dress it up with a more current event, like “Bobby had his second birthday Tuesday.”

For the last seven months, then, I’ve been dressing up the Trump-wants-to-be-Putin story in the form of what happens each week. It’s a strange dance, in that you probably see what I’m doing, but I don’t actually tell you in so many words.

The point of the reformat is to make all that clear, so that the Sift will be more direct and honest. Each weekly summary will start with a “Significant Ongoing Stories” section, which will list the forest-level things I’m paying attention to, and how they connect to the trees in this week’s news. Then I’ll have a “This Week’s Developments” section, which will basically be what the old weekly summary was.

The featured post “The Timescale of News” should be out between 10 and 11 EDT. The revamped weekly summary I’ll try to get out by noon.

Consider this all a work in progress, so comment freely.