We finished watching the Netflix series Dept. Q last night. British, nine episodes, set in Edinburgh. Highly reviewed. Unique handling of a hard to believe story of the disappearence of a successful prosecutor with many enemies. A number of intersecting plots, tied together by the story of the lead police detective, a surly fellow with as many enemies as the woman whose disappearance he is investigating. A little brutal and rough, as these shows tend to be, but well written and well acted. One of us recommends it highly.

You might remember a few days ago, I said I had read The White Peacock by D.H. Lawrence. Looking at Deprt. Q, I saw an uncanny resemblance between Matthew Goode, the actor who played the leading role, Inspector Carl Morck, pictured here:

and Lawrence, pictured here:

and decided that Goode should be selected to play Lawrence if there is ever a biopic of his life. I then discovered that there was a film about Lawrence, Priest of Love, released in 1981, with Ian McKellen playing the lead. What do you think?

I seem to be reading, watching, fiddling, eating, exercising, etc. Anything but concentrating on the news, which gets worse and worse. To escape this morning, we (and maybe 150 or so others) went to the Avalon for a 10:30 a.m. showing of A Room With a View, starring a very young Helen Bonham-Carter and a pretty young Daniel Day-Lewis, among many other familiar actors. A visually beautiful film directed by James Ivory with a script written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Well acted, extraordinary cinematography. No brutality, nothing rough, no murders, not one policeman. This one gets thumbs up from both of us.

A little news did seep through. I saw Brown Professor Omer Bartov, Israeli born Holocaust scholar, who has recently concluded that, in fact, Israel is now engaged in genocide in Gaza, and that by supporting Israel, arming Israel, and encouraging Israel, the United States is party to that genocide. I obviously am not as expert as he, but my decision-making process has been pretty parallel to his. I thought that the International Criminal Court was wrong when they accused Israel of war crimes and genocide last year, but that Israel has worked hard since then to help prove the ICC case. I have long expressed understanding of Israel’s frustration with Hamas, which refuses to give up and refuses to release hostages, but can think of a variety of ways Israel could have responded, other than the ways that they have.

I am also following the Epstein saga and Trump’s refusal to admit that ever really knew his best friend for more than a 15 year period. We know Trump has been labeled a sex offender by the courts, so it’s no surprise that he buddied around with Epstein. But did Trump take advantage of 16 and 17 year old like Epstein and Matt Goetz did? That we don’t know. Yet.

There were more stories of innocent people being picked up off the street and whisked away by ICE. And now there is the story of a prisoner trade with Venezuela. Nice to get our guys back, I am sure, but if we sent people whom we never should have picked up the first place, previously sent to CECOT in El Salvador, and then used them as trade bait, that would be unconscionable. And other questions are raised as well. Like I thought that once they were in El Salvador, we had no control over them? Haha, I didn’t think that for a minute. I didn’t think that for two reasons. First, because it made no sense. Second, because everything the administration says needs to be turned around 180 degrees.

And what about the Redskins? There are complicated negotiations going on about relocating the Washington area’s NFL team, the Commanders, back to Washington proper. The deal, opposed by residents who live close to the site and some affordable housing advocates but supported by most others, would put the stadium and much more on the site of the old RFK Stadium. I guess the federal government has ultimate control, or at least thinks it does, over everything that happens in DC, and our fascistic president has decided that the return may not be allowed unless the team changes its name back to the Redskins.

Of course, this team is not owned by the government, but what does that matter? And does anyone but Trump want to reopen that old naming controversy?

What may have started as a joke, or an off-hand remark, by Drumpf, now may have turned serious. And have you noticed that once Drumpf’s stand is opposed, he just clings to it more? And that he expands it, now declaring that the Cleveland MLB club should retake the name Indians?

Not back to the future, but forward to the past. Just like Drumpf undoing recent military base name changes  back to those honoring Confederates. Like Ft. Lee, now named not after Robert L., but after some random Black Union soldier of course. And the other base formerly named after a Confederate general, but now to be named after “the general’s father”. Jeez, I suppose the new Redskins won’t be named after Native Americans, but after potatoes. Go, Spuds.

Well, I believe that our president also needs a new/old name. So, Drumpf it will be. Not after his grandfather, but after Hans Drumpf, a 17th century lawyer in Kallstadt, Bavaria.

We are all in deep trouble.