Maybe we should think about sending the Americans a special peace envoy.
his week, the US special envoy to Northern Ireland, the Trump-appointed Mick Mulvaney, threw in the towel. Not on account of anything we'd done (for a change), but because of his President's lunatic rabble-rousing.
Donald Trump, having refused to recognise the results of an election, incited a mob to storm the US seat of government in order to keep himself illegally in the White House.
This is the sort of thing you expect from dictators of small nations you'd be hard pressed to find on a map.
And you wouldn't put it past the current (and possibly lifetime) Russian president - a man notorious for fixing elections and for the brutal dispatch of opposition.
What we saw this week was Donald Trump looking like he was only a syringe short of Vladimir Putin.
Five people lost their lives in the mayhem he stirred up, elected representatives were terrorised, Americans horrified and America shamed in the eyes of the world.
The scenes were shocking and hard to credit (even for the US). The obvious deficiencies in the Capitol's security for a start. Police officers were trading punches with protesters who, in some cases, looked better tooled-up than the US Marine Corps. Those who weren't kitted out in camouflage wore flags. A few women were dressed as the Statue of Liberty. One guy was wearing a buffalo headdress of the type once favoured by Comanche warriors. It was part circus, part armed insurrection.
And even as the violence unfolded Trump was still hammering on about the election having been stolen as he belatedly asked his followers to be "peaceful".
For many of his fellow Republicans, like Mick Mulvaney, this was the day Donald Trump finally and irrevocably overshot the runway. Way past the point of no return.
Much of what we witnessed this week is sadly familiar here. We've seen what happens when demagogues stir up crowds for their own ends. On both sides.
Contested elections? Allegations of vote-rigging? We've had experience of that, too. On both sides.
A deeply divided populace and a simplistic interpretation of the factors that led to this? Again, tick.
Stitching America back together again will be a mammoth task. It won't be helped by stereotyping all Trump supporters as loons. Over 74 million people voted for him. Very many of those people are surely dismayed by what happened this week.
But this doesn't mean that very many won't also remain convinced that the election was "stolen" - and not just because Trump has told them so.
The complicated and unco-ordinated US election process gives rise to a perception that it's open to abuse. And sometimes perception is everything.
Trump lost the election fair and square. But many of his followers have entirely lost trust in the system - and in the American media, too.
Switch on the likes of US channels such as CNN and Fox News and it's like listening to party election broadcasts. Who to believe?
Twitter reprimanded Trump this week by suspending his account for 12 hours (that'll larn him, eh?) But the same Twitter created Trump. It unleashed the Rottweiler it now attempts to put a lead on.
As he leaves office, he continues to have a massive support base. It's hard to see how he can be reined in.
Trump's enemies threaten to impeach him and to prosecute him. But that could backfire by turning him into a martyr in the eyes of millions.
Hubris has trounced Trump. The last thing America needs now is Don of Arc.
Give doom and gloom a rest
I think we are all agreed that lockdown in bleak January is hard enough to tolerate. So, can we ease up on the predictions of doom from the experts - who I'm still not convinced are any wiser about what's coming down the line than the rest of us.
This could happen, that may happen, it'll be with us for months, years, maybe, perhaps, who knows? This endless dire speculation isn't helping. We know things are bad.
Do we have to be told, over and over and over, how they may, could, perhaps, get even worse?
Wicks with a lesson for schools
Many businesses and professions will be transformed utterly by Covid. Will teaching be among them?
Obviously, there are classes where pupils need to be in situ for hands-on experience - science and art, for example.
But in the case of languages, maths and so on, you can see how a "remote" teacher could well take the place of the classroom-based version.
Joe Wicks gives his PE "lessons" to millions online. Could education chiefs see a similar means of cutting staff in schools in future?
Has anyone seen my jumper?
The hotel chain Travelodge has compiled a list of odd items which are left behind by some of its guests.
There was a marriage proposal in a bottle. And a Cartier engagement ring. That one maybe hadn't ended well.
In one hotel, a group of six life-size nutcracker soldiers was discovered by a cleaner.
The question isn't why they were forgotten. It's how the guest got them past reception and up to the room in the first place.
Also, no sign of my good jumper which I left behind in 2017?
