Assuming the whole world is watching the U.S. during this transition of power, what is it the world is seeing?
Well, the star of the show is a bad loser who rants and raves, striking out at the system that got him into his position of power in the first place but has now rejected him. It's like a two-game set in sports. You win one, you lose one. Except he never plays a sport he could lose.
It's not like folks around the world don't have similarly flawed people occupying the power positions in their societies. In fact, many leaders worse than Trump remain in power, including those he admires the most.
By contrast, Trump's only remaining scintilla of power is to wreak havoc, light fires, create new problems here and around the world. As bad as that is, our society is capable of cleaning the mess up and that is the destiny of the Biden administration.
They will be the clean-up crew and they are on their way.
Meanwhile, the current spectacle has devolved into a bad TV show, which come to think of it is what Trump's career has been about all along.
I know many people who happily watch trashy TV; many of them feel a bit guilty about it but they continue to do so anyway. We all have our ways of finding distractions.
After all, pulling ourselves back into real life means confronting the messy details that we'd rather escape from in the first place. For me, the main vehicle is country music.
One song that captures a bit of the spirit of celebrating the present and future is Martina McBride's patriotic "Independence Day."
(Before somebody protests, I know Bruce Springsteen's song with the same title, and despite similarities about what we've lost from the old days in small-town America, I prefer Martina's.)
Give it a listen. Daddy's drinking again and Mom burns the house down. That's the gist. Sounds like patriotism to me.
The show's gotta go on. So let's get on with it.
"Let freedom ring, let the white dove sing. Let the whole world know that today is a day of reckoning. Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong. Roll the stone away, let the guilty pay. It's Independence Day."
When I go to sleep at night, I sing poems like this one to myself. But then again I'm just a journalist. You know, one of those guys who brings you "fake news."
Even so, I do have a new motto:
Let the real world sing.
I like the sound of that.
***
The real news can sing too, but it's usually out of tune.
* Trump Using Last Days to Lock In Policies and Make Biden’s Task More Difficult -- At a wide range of departments and agencies, Mr. Trump’s political appointees are going to extraordinary lengths to try to prevent Mr. Biden from rolling back the president’s legacy. (NYT)
* Trump’s attempt at unprecedented power grab runs into resistance from local and state Republicans. (WashPo)
* Along Russia’s ‘Road of Bones,’ Relics of Suffering and Despair -- The Kolyma Highway in the Russian Far East once delivered tens of thousands of prisoners to the work camps of Stalin’s gulag. The ruins of that cruel era are still visible today.(NYT)
* Startups around the country are finding Bay Area workers more open than ever to living and working outside tech’s largest hubs. (WSJ)
* As U.S. coronavirus cases soar toward 200,000 a day, holiday travel is surging. (WashPo)
* China Moon Mission Will Try To Bring Back The First Lunar Rocks In Decades (NPR)
* Protesters in Guatemala Set Fire to Congress Building Over Spending Cuts (NYT)
* Chris Christie calls the conduct of Trump’s legal team a ‘national embarrassment’ (WashPo)
* After a ‘Covid Semester,’ the University of Michigan Gets Tougher on the Virus -- Like many big state universities, it tried to open with some semblance of normalcy. Outbreaks ensued. (NYT)
* Trump administration exits Open Skies treaty meant to deter war (WashPo)
* Earth Hopes Weird Burning Sensation Nothing Serious. (The Onion)
***
Though she looked a little worried and weak.
She tried to pretend he wasn't drinkin' again
But daddy'd left the proof on her cheek.
And I was only eight years old that summer
And I always seemed to be in the way
So I took myself down to the fair in town
On Independence Day.
They said he was a dangerous man
But mama was proud and she stood her ground
But she knew she was on the losin' end.
Some folks whispered and some folks talked
But everybody looked the other way
And when time ran out there was no one about
On Independence Day.
Let the whole world know that today
Is a day of reckoning.
Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away, let the guilty pay
It's Independence Day.
By the time that the firemen come
They just put out the flames
And took down some names
And send me to the county home.
Now I ain't sayin' it's right or it's wrong
But maybe it's the only way.
Talk about your revolution
It's Independence Day.
Let the whole world know that today
Is a day of reckoning.
Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away, let the guilty pay
It's Independence Day.
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