This week in the saga

Tuesday morning, with eight days of money left, he cancels the meeting that would have kept the government open: the demands are unserious and ridiculous, so nothing could possibly be productive. Wednesday evening he files his complaint about the United Nations — not one, not two, but three very sinister events, and the first of them is an escalator that stopped under him halfway up. Ten years ago an escalator carried him down into all of this. This one stopped on a dime, and he says it was sabotage and the people who did it should be arrested. Thursday evening the grand jury in Virginia returns two felony counts against the former director of the bureau, five days after he asked for it in public, and he calls it justice in America. Friday at seven in the morning: eleven words about a dirty cop. Saturday the troops are ordered to a city on the west coast with full force authorised if necessary. And Sunday morning, with the government about to close, he says there is a real chance for greatness in the Middle East, and that they will get it done.