Fans of Alternity

A recent episode of This American Life:

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/613/ok-ill-do-it

(Act II)

features a young woman who, in her mid-20s, discovered that her mother had had a really exciting secret life back when her mother was in her early 20s. She had been recruited as a college student to run guns to support the militant wing of the African National Congress in South Africa. She was a white woman, and posed as a honeymooner for a few months in Africa, along with a white man she was not romantically involved with (or interested in in any way, in fact) and they successfully ran guns for about three months, which was what they'd been recruited to do, while also going out to look at animals like they were normal honeymooners on safari.

Her reaction to find out that HER MUM (who never seemed like one of the COOL mums!) had done something this fascinating and daring reminded me of the younger Weasleys' initial reaction to the theory that their mother might be one of the Wand Smugglers.

I was thinking about how Dominic Selwyn was basically Reince Preibus: much less crazy than his boss, still evil, but you'd almost certainly rather have him in charge, and this got me pondering other Death Eater <> Current Members of Trump's Administration pairings.

(Did we have any readers who were Trump fans? I'm going to say, if so, that you somehow weirdly missed the point of this entire project...)

Lucius. Clearly the Mike Pence of the Voldemort administration: extremely influential but not in charge, and there's legitimate debate over whether putting him in charge for real would be better or worse than the original option. (On the plus side: less likely to nuke China / make his followers fight to the death in an arena for kicks. On the minus side: probably would be more effective at pursuing his agenda.)

Amycus Carrow. The Steve Bannon. No one but the Top Dog actually wants him around but there he fucking is; also, DEEPLY CREEPY and physically repugnant (not that this is the worst thing about him).

Dolores Umbridge. I know it's been popular to compare Betty DeVos to Umbridge, but I actually think KellyAnne Conway is the better comparison here.

I suppose we could also say that Selwyn's analog is Spicer: he got sent out to defend the party line bullshit on the regular, but Selwyn was a fair amount better at it, I think. Also, you kind of don't need a Spicer when you are unapologetically running a dictatorship with no pretence of a free press.

Lana Sandoval. Ivanka Trump. (Ivanka Trump has reminded me of Lana since sometime during the campaign. Something about her facial expressions.) And Jerod, obviously, is Ned. Less influential than he thinks / aspires to be.

I'm not sure whether to be glad or sorry that I can't think of anyone in Trump's administration who remotely reminds me of Dolohov.

Anyone want to discuss "Book Eight"? I finally bought a copy, read it, and have THOUGHTS.

(Warning: you can expect spoilers in the comments.)