bundesebene

A special convention of 1 260 electors—majority of whom are politicians but also some important members of the community from different constituencies and éminence grises—designated Frank-Walter Steinmeyer, off-and-on Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2005 and member of the right-leaning (relatively) Social Democratic Party (SPD) will convene to select a replacement for Germany’s ceremonial president (DE/EN) Joachim Gauck, who will retire in March.
Previously, I’ve advocated that the titular head of state could be handed over to one of the dethroned dynastic royal families, not necessarily be recreated Germany as constitutional monarchy, but such pedigreed individuals could probably discharge those duties just as well, and would be willing to do it for the honour of servicing and would at least partially satisfy the Germans fascination with monarchy that’s now fully directed at the Battenbergs. At this juncture, however, I think it’s important and more than a little impressive that the government was able to cross party lines and elevate one whose opposed—but possibly more compliments the Chancellor, deputised as leader of the free world.

a for effort

Following that timeless adage—those who can, do; those who can’t, become the new Education Secretary—Bob Canada’s Blogworld commemorates (read bemoans) the contentious appointment of Amway-heiress and enemy of public schools Betsy DeVos to the White House cabinet, for whom the vice-president had to intervene in the senate and cast the tie-breaking vote (yet another first for this administration), by grading one of her recent missives. I realise that we are all prone to gaffs and typos and fugue states and the obligatory platforms and the preferred method of communicating within the regime is not quite the most conducive format for cultivating the best diction and style, but Ms DeVos doesn’t seem like she’s even trying, which is pretty paradoxically since she looks like the one in the crowd to implore, “Won’t someone think of the children.” Show your work, Betsy.

semi-legendary

Although his Christian affiliation made him stop short of fully tracing back the lineage of revolutionary general and first president of the Republic George Washington to the Norse pantheon of gods, late nineteenth century genealogist and theologian Albert Welles, taking a cue from saga writer and fellow Christian Snorri Sturluson who demoted the gods to larger-than-life versions of good marshals and stewards of the tribe, essentially linked the individual also romanticised as Roman statesman and embodiment of civil virtue Cincinnatus, across thirty-two generations of Viking ancestors to Odin. Of course these myth-making sessions are important for the cohesion of a people and serve to legitimise leaders and their actions, and while this claim garnered no significant traction nor created pretensions of divine and ordained right, such Teutonic twists have in other milieu led to catastrophic conclusions.

sessio plebis

Significantly, the Friday before the US Presidents’ Day holiday weekend (read more about that contentious and politically-loaded apostrophe here) organisers all across the country and beyond are calling for a general strike, during which no work is accomplished (though judging from the way that Dear Leader regards his bureaucratic workforce, it shouldn’t matter one way or the other) and that economic activity is driven to a stand-still. This is primarily an organic movement and we’ll see how it’s pulled off and how it’s received, but there are five common demands: disclose and divest, women’s reproductive rights and health globally, respect for the environment and accords already party to, the preservation of universal health care, and freedom of movement for all. One has to choose one’s battles carefully and we don’t all have the means to be insufferably galling or petulantly dashing off to the next catastrophe and have the audacity to call that victory, but we can all walk that picket-line in our own ways.