Sanity Sunday - Weekly Highlights and Nomadic Playlist 1

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Sanity Sunday - Weekly Highlights and Nomadic Playlist 1

by Nomad

The Week in Review

Last week, the world witnessed a happy ending when 12 Thai boys and their coach were successfully rescued after being trapped in the Tham Luang cave complex.
The boys, aged between 11 to 16, spent over two weeks in the cave after the passageways unexpectedly flooded. As Navy SEALS and teams of international experts raced against time, people around the world were riveted by the rescue.
By10 pm Tuesday local time, all thirteen had been led out of the cave.

In less heart-warming news, Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh, as his replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. If confirmed, he is expected to tilt the court to the right for the foreseeable future.

This week, Trump attended a NATO summit in Brussels and threw world leaders into a panic by threatening allies with "grave consequences" if they don't boost their military spending by January. To absolutely nobody's surprise, fact-checkers determined that Trump's NATO claims were inaccurate or exaggerated. Later, the president back-peddled on widely-reported news that he had threatened to pull the US out of NATO unless his demands were met.
Score another one for Vladimir Putin.

The president went on to the UK where he encountered widespread protests. While Mr. Trump spent Saturday in meetings with Prime Minister Theresa May and then later with Queen Elizabeth II, a blimp called "Trump Baby" was flown over Parliament Square in London.
The pomp and circumstance of his meeting with the Queen was marred by Trump's embarrassing missteps. His trip to Scotland went no better. Trump was met with close to 10000 marchers in Edinburgh. For a man who wants so badly to be if not loved then respected, Trump's visit must have been a humiliation for him.

Closer to home, it was announced that, under a new Trump administration policy, thousands of asylum seekers will be turned away before they have an opportunity to plead their case in court.

On Thursday afternoon, FBI agent Peter Strzok testified before a joint House Judiciary and Oversight Committee. Republican members accused Strzok of personal political bias. In his own defense, Strzok labeled the GOP attacks against him "another victory notch in Putin's belt and another milestone in our enemies' campaign to tear America apart."

On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has announced indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officials in connection with the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Despite that, Trump had no plans to cancel his scheduled- one on one- meeting with the Russian leader in Helsinki, Finland on July 16. As one expert on Russia said:

“what we’re gonna have before he goes to meet Putin is a divided alliance, a contentious meeting, anger and frustration on all sides . . . for Putin, this is a real win.”

By Sunday afternoon (Europe-time), the protests had spread to Helsinki in anticipation to the Trump-Putin meeting.

All in all, not an especially inspiring week, to say the least. What do you think of the most important news story of the week? Any story that you thought was under-reported?

A Musical Sanity Break

This week's Sanity Sunday is a little different and perhaps more convenient for you. The playlist is composed of 12 songs that hopefully will create an hour or so of peace and calm.