I watched and enjoyed the second season of The Diplomat (the review for the first season is here, which I wasn't sure I would, given that back in the day when we all thought it couldn't come worse than the Bush administration (insert hollow laughter here), I found myself unable to marathan The West Wing and had to wait for the Obama era to watch it; the divergence from reality being too great. Welll, the divergence in the case of The Diplomat still is enormous - it's not that the poliictians on either side of the Atlantic aren't also capable of dastardly deeds, that's what drama consists of, after all. It's that humanity itself is by and large better in this show. (As it was in The West Wing, for which showrunner Deborah Cahn used to write back in the day.) I don't just mean the fact that most people in public service (again, on either side of the Atlantic), independent of political persuasion, are really dedicated to the public good - of course they're also ambitious, but the show doesn't treat this as an either/or thing, which I like - , and even the villains are 100% convinced to act in the general best interest and are workoholics. It's that I don't think the US electorate in showverse would ever vote for the Orange Menace, twice. He probably would not even have gotten through the primaries, and since so many more people with spines and ethics exist in showverse, there would not have been the transformation of his party into an authoritarian personality cult. You know, showverse might be uncomfortably close to WW3 at times, but I'd still rather live there. (Showverse does have a past questionable US president who was terrible, but not to the same degree.)

Anyway: the second season picks off where the first left off and and contiinues with its mixture of pulpy political thrillerness, walk and talk intrigue and confrontations and personal relationship drama, with the later not getting as much room as in season 1 due to this season being two eps shorter. The cast is the same as last year, minus the people who died in the s1 finale and plus Alison Janney as Vice President Grace Penn in the last few episodes, which was awesome. In terms of personal relationships, I continue to wonder if Keri Russell starring media can now guarantee me messed up, complex marriages designed to prove wrong the old tv assumption that people are only interested in the UST and the getting together part and as soon as a pairing actually is together, they lose interest. I mean, Elizabeth and Philipp in The Americans are very different form Kate and Hal in The Diplomat, but it's true for both relationships that the audience gets introduced to them as already existing, and it's one of the core emotional axis' on which the entire show revolves. (Meanwhile, Kate's UST ridden relationship with the British Foreign Secretary, alas, is much less interesting than in s1, but that fits with what happens, plot wise.)

Having just seen Ali Ahn as Alice in Agatha All Along and Rory Kinnear as Tom Bombadil in Rings of Power made it a bit odd to return to them as the London CIA station chief and the Not Boris Johnson British PM, respectively, but of course they're great in their parts. ( Spoilery remarks to follow. )

In conclusion, perhaps not despite but because of its increasing lack of a resemblance to rl marathoning the second season of this show provided me with good entertainment, and I look forward to the third.

I just finished marathoning this nine episode miniseries from 2020, which takes place in the 1970s and covers, using the fight for and against the Equal Rights Amendment during that decade as a narrative red thread, both the rise of the far right in the Republican party and Second Wave feminism in the US. It's also an incredibly female centric ensemble story with a fantastic cast - Cate Blanchett as anti feminist activist Phyllis Schlafly, Uzo Aduba whom I recalled as Suzanne in Orange is the new Black as Shirley Chisholm, the first black and the first female Democratic candidate for President, Rose Byrne as Gloria Steinem, Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug, Tracy Ullman as Betty Friedan, Elizabeth Banks as Jill Brocklehouse, Sarah Paulsen as one of the few fictional characters, Alice, Melanie Lynskey as Rosemary Thomson, and, and, and. Now googling for reviews in between episodes tells me by far the most controversial aspect of the show was to use Phyllis Schlafly as the villain protagonist throughout the show while each of the other episodes after the pilot, except for the finale, focuses on a different woman. (Hence the titles - "Gloria", "Shirley", "Betty", "Jill" etc. ) For me, that narrative decision paid off. Giving the spotlight to different women each episode emphasized not just the characters' complexity but also got across the interweaving of different agendas even within similar larger goals, and of the feminist political activism as a democratic work in progress where you have debates, where what one generation wants isn't the end game for the next anymore but they're still connected, where no one is a perfect heroine but has their own flaws and blind spots. (see, for example, Gloria Steinem utterly surprised when the sole black member of her editing team at Ms first gets shot down when talking about tokenism and then quits). Not coincidentally, the anti-ERA movement Phyllis Schlafley creates while also coming into being via grassroots organizing isn't just more and more hierarchical, with people expected to fall in line behind Phyllis, but it's not until the penultimate episode that one of Phyllis' followers gets the narrative spotliight (and it's the sole important fictional character of the show, very well played by Sarah Paulsen who until then had to convey her mixture of admiration and fear of Phyllis and the first stirring of doubts via reaction shots.

The show is also brilliant at conveying the changing political climate of the 70s. When it starts, the ERA isn't controversial, it's seen as bi partisan, even Nixon is for it. Roe versus Wade is about to become law. Being pro choice and being a female Republican working in tandem with Abzug and Steinem isn't mutually exclusive (hence Jill Brocklehurst in the National Women's Political Caucus). Life is far from idyllic for women and the patriarchy is still going strong, especially for women of colour, even if they have achieved name recognition and political success - the third episode, when Shirley keeps getting told, and not just by men, that she's done her bit for symbolism and should hand over her delegates to MacGovern already makes that viscerally clear - but nonetheless, there's such a strong momentum for progress in the air....and when the series ends, Ronald Reagan has been elected, bi-partisan is increasingly a dirty word, and the conservative backslash has barely begun. Which sounds incredibly depressing - which it is, and we're sitting in the results - and yet, this isn't a depressing series, it's too vibrant and interesting and complex for that. (And extremely well costumed. Not to mention the soundtrack.)

While the dialogue has a lot of zingers - between them, Margo Martindale and Tracey Ullmann are in a neck to neck competition in oneliner delivery - , the series also excells at the quiet moments, trusting its actresses to get across what the characters are feeling and thinkng without dialogue as well. Some that come to mind: in the first episode, Phyllis realising the reason why her husband supported her last (failed) campaign as congresswoman but doesn't want to do so now is that he didn't believe she could win last time; Margaret Sloan-Hunter's expression when the (white) rest of the MS staff is aghast at the mere suggestion tokenism could be a thing; Alice (Sarah Paulsen throughout), but especially when watching Phyllis in the finale; Bella when having to decide whether or not to include support for gay rights on the schedule for the Houston conference. And of course there are some epic confrontation scenes, and that's another way the narrative structure, with a different woman highlighted in every episode, pays off. There are two scenes in which Phyllis Schafly directly debates a feminist (both, googling tells me, historical), in one case Betty Friedan, in another Brenda Feigen (Ari Graynor). ( Spoilers for history ensue. ) Which is very satisfying to watch. (Though somewhat sobering to realise that by now, if someone did that to the Orange Menace and their ilk, their audience would no longer care.)

Could a show been made that centred around solely the feminists, or solely one of them - say, Shirley? Sure, and it would have been great as well if equally well written and cast, I'm sure. But I am glad this show exists, because stories about women disagreeing with each other on a deep set political and ideological level, not a story about some personal rivalry, are stlil very rare, as are female characters with a Walter White like arc and dimension of dastardliness who still don't come across as caricatures. It's not that the seriers lets the men off the hook - for every supportive husband, like Brenda's or Bella's, or even Gloria's boyfriends, there are plenty of guys on both sides of the aisle who are at best condescending and at worst abusive controllers like the unseen Kevin, Pamela's husband. Not to mention that two of the most gut wrenching scenes come when men who have made (political) promises to our heroines sell them out. Nonetheless, when Gloria early on dismisses Phyllis as a brainwashed tool of the patriarchy who doesn't know what she's doing, she's clearly wrong; Phyllis knows exactly what she's doing, and she wants to do it. That Republicans like Jill who is fiscally conservative and militarily hawkish but, as mentioned, pro-choice, pro-social security, pro-medcare were on their way out while Republicans like Phyills would become the standard wasn't, at this point in history, inevitable. It was a conscious choice, too. (And keeps being one.)

Lastly: for all the debates, one of the most endearing aspects of the show are the moments of connections (often against the odds) that keep being made and from which the majority of the women draws their strength. The phonecall between Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan (who usually have a rather tense relationship, though mostly tense on Betty's side) at the end of the fourth episode. Shirley and Bella in the finale. A drunk Alice stumbling across Flo Kennedy at the Houston convention and singing "This land belongs to you and me" together. These are the scenes that allow a viewer to believe that while, as Bella predicts after Reagan's election, much of the country goes fifty years backwards, not all of it does, and nothing is inevitable. The climate of progress, the momentum being with it and not against it, it can happen again.

Like I imagine a great many people I started my day yesterday with the good news from Georgia and ended it staring at various news sources in horror. If there is no consequence for the creature and his minions, this will only have been a prelude, so I really, really hope against every cynical bone I have that the arrest warrants are being prepared. Also, be safe, everyone, if you can.

This account from reporters who were inside the Capitol at the time is harrowing.

Firstly, congratulations re: House of Representatives in the US, and conmiserations re: Senate. But as only a third of the later was up for election, as opposed the entirety of the House, I'm choosing to regard this as a great triumph of democracy over hatemongering authoritarianism. And the over hundred new female Congresswomen are truly inspiring (says she who noted that the last few elections over here ended in fewer, not more women in parliament).

Speaking of inspiring women, I had never heard of Kitty O'Neil until reading her obituary yesterday evening, and now I'm duly in awe at this real life Wonder Woman. Definitely a case of "if fictionial, would be declared too unlikely". (Not to mention the people who'd cry "Mary Sue!" at a character who is deaf from toddlerdom and still learns to play instruments, becomes an Olympic level athlete, holds the record for speed for woman, performes incredibly dangerous stunts, beats back cancer twice before she does most of this and has a Cherokee mother who became a speech therapist because of her.)


On to vaguely Weimar Republic related things, since it is on many people's minds these days. This week isn't just the centennary of the ending of WWI, but in Germany the 100th birthday of the first German republic, ill-fated as it was (but was it always? That's currently debated among historians). Today, November 7th, is the day Bavaria had its very own revolution, kicked out its monarch and declared a republic two days before the rest of Germany did, which is a handy bit of historical trivia when the province is declared backwards by Those Prussians. (The continuation of that story is depressing, though, because our first Bavarian Ministerpräsident, Kurt Eisner, a Jewish Socialist, no less, ended up murdered by a proto Nazi who subsequently got a minimum sentence and was told by the judge he was clearly acting out of burning patriotism.) On November 9th, the German Republic was declared in Berlin (twice, once by Philip Scheidemann and once by Karl Liebknecht), which is why last week the movie I mentioned being curious about in my book fair report in October, Kaisersturz, was being broadcast. Kaisersturz is a docudrama dealing with just one aspect of the 1918 goings-on - the various schemes leading to the end of the monarchy in Germany. It's not about the political movements per se, which is a bit frustrating, because things like the mutiny of the seamen in Kiel which was absolutely key to the early November goings-on, or, well, Kurt Eisner & Co. successfully organizing a revolution in Bavaria would have been not only fascinating stories to tell with democratic heroes in them. Whereas no one comes out of Kaisersturz looking particularly well, but then the movie doesn't claim to be about more than this very specific aspect, and what it wants to tell, it tells well (with one exception, I'll get to that.)

Here's how things went down for Wilhelm II., German emperor famous for his bombast, his hang-ups about his British cousins (his mother having been Victoria's oldest daughter), his hate-mongering speeches leading up to WWII and his utter lack of smarts and judgment, according to this docudrama (in which Wilhelm was played by Sylvester Groth, whom viewers of Deutschland '83 might recall as the most prominent Stasi official):

Wilhelm: It's October 1918, and I was just told by Generals Luddendorff & Hindenburg we're losing the war. How can this be? I'm feeling depressed.

Auguste Victoria (his wife, played by Sunni Melles): Never you mind. You're chosen by destiny. Don't give up!

Kurt Hahn (future school founder, but right now young good looking idealist employed by Max von Baden as his secretary and confidant, to his employer): Clearly, this is your hour. Only you can restore Germany's international reputation and negotiate an honorable peace.

Max von Baden: Kind of you to say so, Kurt, especially since this drama represents me as a weak-willed pushover only and doesn't even mention stuff like my work for the international Red Cross to ensure prisoners of all nationalities get medical care. But since I have no political experience whatsoever, how do we go about making me a good candidate for chancellor?

Kurt Hahn: We'll offer an alliance to the Social Democrats in order to save Germany.

Friedrich Ebert (leader of the SPD): Guys, I'm willing, but you are aware everyone hates the Emperor's guts by now, aren't you?

Max von Baden: I would never conspire against my cousin the Emp...

Kurt Hahn (hastily interjecting): Details, details! Saving Germany is all that matters, right?

Wilhelm II: What's this about me accepting Cousin Max as the new chancellor? Never!

Auguste Viktoria: He's gay and a tool in the hands of his Jewish secretary. Never!

Luddendorff & Hindenburg: Your Highness, we think you should accept Max von Baden as the new Chancellor.

Wilhelm: But why?

Luddendorff: Because we need someone to blame later. Also, I'm told I have a date with Wonder Woman in a parallel universe where I'm allowed to poison all other generals, so I'm off for now. Please sign this declaration.

Wilhelm: This is so humiliating. I hate my life. Ah well, a roaring speech to munition workers about how this is all England's fault will cheer me up!

Workers: *boo and hiss*

Wilhelm: Clearly socialist plants were in the audience, but I think I'll make no more public appearances. As in, ever. *has nervous breakdown*

Philipp Scheideman: Fritz, why the hell should we join a crumbling government? We'll only be blamed after the war. Also, as Social Democrats we oppose all these aristos stand for!

Ebert: Because you don't want us to have something like the Russian Revolution complete with bloody civil war, do you? Also, we're getting two ministeries, and one of them is for you. I'm cunningly not taking one so that as leader of the party, I can maintain my independence.

Hahn: Bad news, your highness. The Americans just said they won't negotiate for peace with you, either, as long as your cousin the Emperor is still Emperor.

Ebert: Look, I'm all for preserving the monarchy, but getting rid of Willy sounds awesome. Since his sons are no better, how about making his kid grandson Emperor and you the regent?

Auguste Victoria *makes a phonecall*: Max, you evil traitor, if you as much as think of taking the throne in any way whatsoever, we'll go public about you being gay!

Max von Baden: *has a nervous breakdown*

Luddendorff: I need to work on the Dolchstoßlegende about the army remaining undefeated. Therefore, I'm performing an U-Turn. Forgot what I said earlier. We don't want peace and will continue fighting.

Max von Baden: *has even more of a nervous breakdown, and a cold which might or might not have been a case of the coming Spanish Influenza*

Seaman in Kiel: *revolt*

Bavarians: *also revolt*

Rest of Germany: *rumblings*

Wilhelm: I'm off to army headquarters, and when I get back with my loyal soldiiers, you traitorous lot will all hang! That goes for you, too, Max!

Luddendorff & Hindenburg: Sorry, no can do. Marching on Berlin is out.

Ebert: Hahn, I swear, we WILL have a Russian Revolution here if your prince doesn't finally get off his butt and does something. Starting with declaring that the Emperor has resigned.

Max von Baden: But the Emperor hasn't... fine. Here's the public declaration that the Emperor has resigned.

Wilhelm: The Germans are a nations of traitorous pigs who don't deserve me. I'm off to the Netherlands, becoming a gardener.

Philip Scheidemann: Hooray! WE HAVE A REPUBLIC! I'M TELLING EVERYONE!

Ebert: Oh, for God's sake! How anti democratic is that? We'll have a people's vote about which state they want first. *takes off to visit Max von Baden again* Okay, if you want to save the monarchy in Germany in a parliamentary monarchy fashion, this is the very last moment. Declare your regency already.

Max von Baden: No can do. Cousins Willy and Auguste Victoria told me they'll destroy me by going public about my sex life if I do that. Sorry, Ebert, it's your turn. I'm declaring you Chancellor in my last act of government.

Ebert: ....I gess we have a Republic now. Also, I think I prefer being President.

All every well acted. As you may guess, my one problem is the presentation of Max von Baden. Not that I doubt he made his share of mistakes, but he's being presented so clueless and weak-willed that it's incomprehensible why Hahn and Ebert for the entire movie until five minutes before the ending think it's a good idea this man should rule the country in its worst crisis ever. And since he's the tale's sole declared homosexual character, with said sexuality explicitly used against him (which, btw, according to Machtan, the historian who consulted for this movie, Auguste Victoria actually did), this is doubly unfortunate. (Now you could argue that the movie doesn't let him do anything he didn't historically do, but they also don't mention, see above, things like his championing of the Red Cross (and the YMCA), which would have at least made it clear where his good reputation comes from. Also, there's a scene where he's getting a massage while the situation is getting ever more desperate which definitely falls under script and direction laying the "weak decadent" characterisation on even thicker.)

Other than that, though, I thought it was a well made docudrama focusing on an aspect in a key period of German history I hadn't known that much about, being more focused on what happened directly after the war was over. It was careful about the details (no one mentions Wilhelm's left arm, for example, but the actor never forgets Wilhelm couldn't move it). It's a story without heroes - though in terms of good intentions, Philip Scheidemann and Kurt Hahn come closest, plus Mrs. Ebert wins for sardonic comments every time her husband comes home with a new development -, but without villains, either, since the generals only show up twice very briefly and Wilhelm has already done all his damage before the war and is increasingly impotent within the chosen time frame. Otoh, no one (other than poor Max von Baden) comes across as one dimensional and you can get where everyone is coming from.

So, to summarize: after settling with 25 millions as not to be sued for fraud any longer, the Orange One next returned to his favourite past time, twitter wars, and attacks both the cast of a sold-out-into-the-next decade Broadway musical (for appealing to his designated VP to protect their rights) and Saturday Night Live for daring to make fun of him. Not to be outdone, his chief strategist Steve Bannon informs us that no, he's not a white nationalist, that's total slander. Instead: "I am Thomas Cromwell in the court of the Tudors."

(I kid you not. He truly said that, to the Hollywood Reporter. I won't link to the article, since it's essentially one long smug "ha, those clueless liberals and their betrayal of the working man" elogy, but you can easily google it.)

The best thing about this: he truly seems to be unaware of the implications of what he's saying here, from casting the Horror Clown as Henry VIII. (the temper certainly fits) to his own bloody demise after a failed plea for his life in grovelling tones ("most gracious prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy!"). Also, clearly he's got his idea of Thomas Cromwell either by pop culture osmosis of Hilary Mantel's books or directly by reading them, which answers my question as to whether readers of her Cromwell saga wouldn't be by necessessity well versed enough in history to know how itall ends. (BTW: Hilary Mantel was appalled by the election of the current most prominent multimarried orange narcissist, and wrote so in that liberal elitist rag denounced by Bannon, the New Yorker.) (Thus answering my next question, as to whom Bannon is casting as Mantel's version of Thomas More, hypocrite and martyr to the old world, to his Thomas Cromwell. Clearly, it's Mantel herself, or at least the New York based papers.)

Of course, it does make one wonder whether a few centuries onwards, a novelist hologame creator will write the saga. He, Bannon, watches as his children fall from the sky, etc. Anyway, as self identifications with historical personages go, this is clearly the winner of the week. Next up: destruction of civil rights monasteries, (re)invention of thought crime.

You may or may not know that Obama, on his farewell tour, was in Germany on Thursday and Friday. What struck me (again) was the difference in reporting in English speaking and German media, to wit:

NY Times, New Yorker (and Guardian in Britain): Obama hails Merkel as his closest international ally in these last eight years, basically hands over job as leader of the free world because nominal successor not up to job.

German media: Obama compliments Merkel with nice lie, grossly overestimates power of embattled German chancellor (again).

Seriously though, all this "last remamaining champion of the free world" stuff got a resounding "Um..." over here, or at best "that's it, the US hasn't just voted T into office but decided for Merkel whether or not she'll run for a fourth term". Which, btw, Angela Merkel officially hasn't confirmed yet. The bitter irony is that in almost all other circumstances, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't. Four terms are too many, no matter whether you're good or bad at the job. And Angela Merkel, of all the people, has good reason to remember that even Helmut Kohl, once upon a time seemingly untouchable conservative chancellor, got to the point where people were heartily sick of him (and ultimately voted him out of office); she was the first conservative cabinet member to go up against him, that's how she first came to national attention (and Kohl never forgave her for it). Not to mention that her fellow conservatives have just spent a year relentlessly attacking her in a manner unheard of in post war German history as far as members of the CDU/CSU coalition and a sitting chancellor were concerned. Yes, then CSU head Strauß also bitched about and attacked CDU ruler Helmut Kohl, but not in public once Kohl was in office. Strauß flirted with a break of the coalition at one point, and then drew back, because he knew something that's still true - if the CSU breaks away from the CDU for good, and competes on a national German level, they'll never get their absolute majority in Bavaria again and they're just too used to that fiefdom to relinquish it. What Strauß did NOT do to Kohl, no matter how much he was convinced that he'd have been the better conservative chancellor, was what the current CSU boss, Seehofer, did to Angela Merkel last year at the annual big CSU convention. He made her listen on stage with him for a 15 minutes "the reason you suck" attack speech addressed to her (re: refugee crisis and Merkel's support for Syrian refugees), in front of a live audience of thousands plus a tv audience of millions. (This year's CSU convention didn't even invite her, because Seehofer now has the problem that he's whipped up Merkel hatred to the nth degree in his party, yet now has to sell her as the Chancellor candidate to back in next year's election.) With "friends" like these, you certainly don't need enemies. It made the "most powerful woman of Europe" accolades from US papers look a bit hollow. (Not to mention that this whole idea of Angela Merkel running Europe ignores that if she was, the rest of the EU would have accepted a refugee quota according to each country's means instead of refusing, after which Merkel made her Faustian deal with Erdogan instead.)

So given all of that, you can see why it's by no means certain Merkel would run again...or wasn't until the US elections. Because now you have the situation looking like: Britain out of commission for anything constructive, France with the even more emboldened spectre of Marine Le Pen on the horizon, Poland and Hungary compete as to who's getting rid of more civil rights in a EU member country first...and across the ocean, there's President Agent Orange. I've never voted for Angela Merkel (I'm not a conservative), but I don't doubt that she has a deep distaste for chaos and disorder, and what's often called a Protestant sense of duty. (As our papers occasionally point out, we currently have a Protestant clergyman as head of state - President Gauck - and a Protestant clergyman's daughter as head of government - Chancellor Merkel, and she got quite Lutherian in the "Hier stehe ich und kann nicht anders" - "here I stand and can do no other" - in the last year.) There isn't anyone the two conservative parties could run as chancellor instead of her (for all his ego, Seehofer hasn't forgotten what happened to the two Bavarians who did run for Chancellor, Strauß and Stoiber - they were soundly defeated, because one of the unwritten rules of post war German history seems to be that no one will ever vote for a Bavarian outside Bavaria). And while a Left-Left-Green coalition (meaning a coalition of the SPD, which is currently ruling together with the CDU and CSU, the Greens and Die Linke) could then succeed in winning a national election next year, I suspect Merkel has enough party loyalty (despite all the bashings) to wish this to happen. So she'll probably run again, yes. But will she win? I'm not sure. The T factor might affect the election either way - strengthening the radical right, or motivating moderate voters seeing her as the last stable element in world politics.

Trivia: Something else Merkel has an instinctive distaste for, btw, as our papers noted in their retrospective of the Obama & Merkel relationship, are charismatic saviour figures drawing huge crowds. (And yes, it's a historical thing.) It made her a bit cool at the start re: Obama until, as her advisors noted, they actually met and it turned out that in person Obama was the cerebral distant type (which she also is), not the huggy, chummy, backslapping type that Dubya was. Given that at the time she also had to deal with Berlusconi in Italy and Sarkozy in France, it must have made quite the "at last, another adult!" sensation. And of course she got on famously with Hillary Clinton from the get go for just that reason. Then there was the NSA interlude, which made the nation cool off Obama in a hurry, but not Merkel, who made a token protest and sent the CIA chief in Germany packing but then went back to business as usual while the rest of the nation still seethed. And in the last two years, I can well believe the two got to regard each other as beacons of sanity in an increasingly mad world.

The British writer Robert Harris wondered whether Obama's "closest international ally" phrase was a snub of Cameron, and honestly, I don't think so, not least because I doubt Obama bothers much with thinking about Cameron one way or the other these days, not with the presidency of T on the horizon. Aside from wanting to be nice to Angela M on his farewell visit, I can't imagine another motivation than it being the truth as he sees it. And well, the "special relationship" seems to have been existing mostly in the head of British PMs for a good while now anyway.

Though it did occur to me that Angela Merkel might be following a very British precedent, because I can imagine her saying "Adventures, nasty things" as Bilbo does at the start of The Hobbit. Conservative person to the point of complacency, determinedly unglamorous, suddenly whisked out of her comfort zone and forced to step up in a world where the big folk around her fail? Tolkien help us, Merkel is a hobbit. (I should have known when that guy whom Edogan promptly sued proved that Erdogan = Gollum.)

Lastly, on a non-German note, re: the American past and future, and Drumpf as well as various minions apparantly regarding the US interning Japanese-Americans as the sole Roosevelt policy they want to emulate:

George Takei: They interned my family. Don't let them do it to Muslims.

I also thought that "Hallelujah" was played out for at least a decade. Wrong on both counts.

Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton sings Hallelujah

Because the horror of what Drumpf's ascendancy means to all of us is so great, I haven't really processed yet the "sadness for Hillary" part of my emotional spectrum, which is there, not least while not always agreeing with her, I've liked HRC since the very first Clinton campaign and "two for the price of one". I wasn't just rooting for Not Trump, I was rooting for her, specifically.

It is weird not to have a current show on the air during the entire week. Penny Dreadful, I miss you already. When does Doctor Who start again, August? I've heard there were leaked scripts, and can only hope everyone who does like to get spoiled will discuss them below a cut, because I really don't want to know anything.

Meanwhile, there's always that farcical soap, reality. Seems we've arrested our second American spy today. This one wasn't working for the BND but he did work for the German defense ministry. Meanwhile, the US press has started to notice there might be a problem but assures us Obama didn't know a thing about the first spy. (Presumably even less about the second.) This, strangely enough, is not reassuring. Spare some pity for Hillary Clinton who is currently in Europe promoting her book and had all her interviews both on tv and with the papers circling not said book but about the US spying on minions allies instead. (At least she didn't use the same lame Casablanca quote which everyone, from Obama downwards, used when discussing the previous American-German disaster.)

Deliberately amusing instead of farcical: JKR wrote a Rita Skeeter gossip columm on Harry Potter and friends showing up at the World Quidditch Cup, and it's a hoot. I've always suspect she had great fun spoofing the tabloid style for the Rita articles quoted in the later Potter novels (and of course for the excerpts of Rita's scandalous tell-all Dumbledore biography), and here she's doing it again ("Does Hermione Granger prove that a witch really can have it all? (No – look at her hair.)"), complete with Rita insinuating Harry's forbidden love for...no, not Draco: As their devoted fans and followers will remember, Potter and Krum competed against each other in the controversial Triwizard Tournament, but apparently there are no hard feelings, as they embraced upon meeting (what really happened in that maze? Speculation is unlikely to be quelled by the warmth of their greeting).

Harry/Victor: surely someone has written that already?

...and I do loathe Putin, but still, when the media offered this quote from John Kerry, Secretary of State of the US, I had a gigantic coughing fit. Along with, I suppose, much of the rest of the globe and maybe even some Americans. Because really:


"It is not appropriate to invade a country and at the end of a barrel of a gun dictate what you are trying to achieve."


Really? REALLY? YOU THINK?