The Generation After the Storm: The Art of the (Un)Spend; The Protection Racket; Gaza DCZ; Altered at the Altar

August 29, AD2025

Albert Russell Thompson

Aug 30, 2025

Dramatic black and white painting of a hurricane

Presidential ‘rescissions’ vs. Congress’s power of the purse: what can a president actually cancel?

What does it mean to declare a city a ‘dangerous combat zone’?

Security norms for ex-officials: who gets protection, when, and why it matters for democratic transitions.

A Very High Church, The Acid Test of Anglicanism

But first, it has been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005 and, in a way, it never left, the legacy runs deep in the South. The storm reshaped the Gulf Coast’s economy and culture—and its memory still weighs heavy two decades on. It began as a tropical depression over the Bahamas on August 23 and strengthened fast: tropical storm by the 24th, Category 1 by the 25th with 75-mile-per-hour winds as it closed in on Miami. Katrina made its first landfall that day between Miami and Hollywood. Crossing Florida knocked it down to a tropical storm, but warm Gulf waters rebuilt it—Category 2 by August 26, Category 3 by August 27. The Bahamas and Cuba were spared the onslaught. The United States was not.

A generation has now grown up having never known New Orleans before Katrina. One that has come of age with the legacy and the burden, who have had to think about what takes to build resilience and what happens when you wait too long.

By the morning of August 28, Katrina had exploded into a Category 5 with winds over 160 mph, threatening Louisiana, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. Hours later it ranked among the most powerful Atlantic storms on record, with winds topping 170 mph. The surge told the story. More than 26 feet of water slammed Gulfport and Biloxi.

It ripped through, Lake Borgne and Lake Pontchartrain, overwhelming New Orleans’s levees. Ten inches of rain and that surge proved too much. Initial failures flooded roughly a fifth of the city; by August 30, about 80 percent of New Orleans lay underwater. Many residents evacuated. Tens of thousands did not. They crowded into the Superdome and the Convention Center when the city’s support systems failed. By September 1, some 30,000 people were sheltering under the torn Superdome roof and another 25,000 at the convention center. Food and water ran short. Sanitation collapsed. Bacteria-laden floodwater turned a natural disaster into a public health disaster.

Nearly 1,400 people died. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished pumping the city dry on October 11—forty-three days after landfall. Damage exceeded $125 billion, the highest for any American natural disaster. Between 2005 and 2011, New Orleans’s population fell by 29 percent. Katrina was the storm. The aftermath was the lingering disaster. Some problems are too big for localities and too big for states. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coordinates the United States response to disasters that overwhelm state and local resources. Weakening it when you are a great and large nation with many needs is leaving tools in the shed when fixing needs to happen.

U.S. politics & economy

White House vs. Congress: President Trump moved to block $4.9–$5B in already-approved foreign aid, escalating a spending fight with Congress that may not be much of a fight as the Republicans in Congress have shown little independence of mind or character.1 Expect lawfare over “rescission” powers. POTUS is asking the Supreme Court to issue a ruling saying he does not have to cut checks.2 Rescission means the revocation, cancellation, or repeal of a law, order, or agreement. A big word for presidents putting a stop on checks authorized by Congress. The Trump administration and the Supreme Court are producing a confused matrix of policies and decisions. They cannot say they are moving against the administrative state and also allow the president practice rescission and make tariffs unilaterally.

Security precedent for the Exes: President Donald John Trump revoked Secret Service protection for his 2024 opponent former Vice President Kamala Devi Harris, ending an extension granted in 2024.3 Normally Vice Presidents are covered for six months after leaving office, presidents may grant extensions and Biden did so before leaving office. This is another example of what I have argued is the problem with many optional and discretionary powers, they presume normal times of fair play and those are the times in which we find ourselves. The implication of the decision is threatening opponents’ safety with procedural plausible deniability. A potential Democrat controlled Congress may have something to say about that.

Markets & rates: Core inflation and Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) is roughly in line with what you would expect for a profligate and irresponsible nation that refuses to make taxes and spending line up, meaning inflation rose again. Stocks are down, and traders still hope that they will see a Fed cut next month.45 However, attacks on the government accounting and statistics staff mean that discerning market watchers are wary of trusting official stats from the Trump Administration after POTUS fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because POTUS did not like the numbers.6 When economic data becomes politicized and harder to trust you have something closer to Sovietism than Americanism.

World politics

Canada: The Trump tariffs threaten to push Canada into a recession. A recession in a major American trading partner with deep ties to the northern states will likely impact the US economy, potentially triggering economic trouble from Maine to Washington State.7

Gaza: Israel declared Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone.”8 The IDF has cancelled the daily 10-hour humanitarian pauses in their operations that had allowed aid to get through to civilians.9 It is now estimated that 60,000 people have died in Gaza since Israel launched its hunt for Hamas.10 49 hostages from the Oct 7 2023 attack on Israel remain held by Hamas.

Ukraine: There have been 220.10 24-hour periods since Donald Trump returned to the presidency and promised to end the Russia-Ukraine War aka the 7th War of the Post-Soviet. 23 Ukrainians were killed in a major Russian strike on Kyiv; Ukraine calls for more air defenses.11 The European Union denounced Russia again.

Thailand: Political instability continues. The sixth prime minister in 19 years has been removed from office in Thailand.12 The Constitutional Court removed PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra over a Cambodia border dispute. The Shinawatra family, are a billionaire Hakka Chinese family in Thailand that has produced three Thai prime ministers, all ousted from power after repeatedly clashing with the royalist-military establishment. The other three PMs ousted in recent years have been members of the Shinawatra political faction. Paetongtarn Shinawatra was accused of not sticking up for Thailand in her phone call with the former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss recent border problems. The call was leaked which led to her downfall. Her opponents attacked her as sounding overly pliant and submissive when speaking to Hun Sen which was unbefitting Thailand’s head of government.13

Faith & spirituality

Why are authorities in the State of Israel targeting a 25 year-old Anglican Palestinian woman? The Church of England bishops of Chelmsford, Gloucester, Norwich, and Southwark wrote a letter urging Israel’s Ofer Military Court not to impose another prison term on Layan Nasir, a 25-year-old Palestinian Anglican from Birzeit.14 Nasir was first arrested in 2021, held two months, then spent two years in deferred hearings; in 2024 she spent eight months in administrative detention—detention without charge or trial on security grounds.15 The court is now seeking an eight-month sentence tied to the 2021 case, citing alleged involvement with the Democratic Progressive Student Pole (DPSP), a left-wing Birzeit student bloc designated “unlawful” by Israel on 21 Oct 2020. Israeli authorities describe DPSP as the student wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine PFLP), a Palestinian militant group; rights groups dispute the linkage and say the order suppresses student organizing. Nasir’s lawyer sought a plea to avoid prison; prosecutors have refused. The bishops call a further sentence a “travesty,” say they’ve pressed UK and Israeli authorities for a fair, non-custodial outcome, and note a church briefing that warns prison conditions are extreme and Nasir would be the only Christian detainee which would put her life in danger.

Why this matters: Israel has unwisely disregarded Western principles of due process regarding Layan Nasir. As her case rises in prominence, Israel risks harming its reputation with the largest global Protestant communion. It is not too late for calmer, wiser minds to prevail.16

The Higher Calling: Rev. Hunt Priest, an Episcopal priest was defrocked over promoting psychedelics.17 After a 13 month long process of investigation and discipline, the Episcopal Bishop of Georgia, concluded that Mr. Priest was guilty of “conduct unbecoming to a member of the clergy” and “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation”. Mr. Priest started taking psychedelics in 2016 after joining a rather odd study conducted by Johns Hopkins University and New York University researchers were religious leaders were asked to try psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain species of mushrooms, often called "magic mushrooms" which has a history of use in non-Christian spiritual ceremonies and is now being studied for potential therapeutic applications. Mr. Priest left his church to start a “Christian” psychedelic society he called Ligare which the organization says is a Latin word meaning “to join, or link; classically understood as the linking of human and divine.” Whatever a Christian psychedelic society is supposed to mean, the complaint was brought by one of Mr. Priest’s former interns who alleged that Mr. Priest was not being upfront about the risks involved.

Outside the Academy w/ Prof. Thompson

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