Cheer up, liberal America and all Epicureans, wherever you may be! It may feel like Trump will be around for ever, but the announcement by Nikki Haley that she is standing down as US representative at the UN is a clear sign that his days are indeed numbered. Haley is one of the most astute political operators on the scene today, and she wants to get out “while the getting is good”.

If the polls are correct, the Democrats will win control of the House of Representatives. This will enable them to block legislation and “torment the White House with subpoenas demanding the release of Trump’s financial records, including his tax returns”. Add the prospect of Robert Mueller filing his report on the Russian investigation, and signs that America’s booming economy may be on the turn, and the administration’s prospects do not look rosy. “Rather than languishing in depression, people opposed to Trump should follow Haley’s example and look forward. (John Cassidy, The New Yorker).

Personally, I am not counting any chickens. So many constituencies have been gerrymandered, so many shameless untruths have been told. so much power has been handed to rich elites, so much good for the common man undone (and half the common men actually applaud!), that nothing would surprise me. Take me back to ancient Greece! At least the water was pure and the air clean, and ordinary people (men, anyway) could meaningfully take a role in affairs of the polis and be listened to. There must have been corruption, but not on a modern scale.