Most Australians look on sadly at the horror currently on show in the US – in large part because most of us are fond of it.  Here are two items to cheer us up.

First, the World Cup has been terrific – in spite of the glitch put on by two corrupt men who found and deserve each other.  As has been the case in my six visits there, visitors are charmed by the hospitality and the willingness to do business of the hosts in some of the world’s great cities.

Secondly, the U S press, the Fourth Estate, has excelled itself – in showing up the failures of all other estates.  I have followed Maggie Haberman for years.  She is joined by the Australian Jonathan Swan as consummate professionals in the book Regime Change.  It is a very disturbing work – that is now saluted in an editorial in The New Yorker.  (OK – they have tickets on themselves, but they have courtesy – they sent me a knockback so charming that I framed it.)  The book reminded me of the dark days of Vietnam and Nixon.  The U S has faults, but we learn about them from Americans – like Woodward and Bernstein, and Haberman and Swan.

All, then, is not lost.