The Giuliani/Trump legal team is racking up quite a losing streak in their quixotic quest to overturn the results of the election. At this rate, they may approach the Cal Tech basketball team's legendary string of conference losses, which reached 310 games over 26 years before the Beavers beat Occidental by one point in 2011.
I'm not aware of any poll of journalists' private opinions of Trump but I'd wager something like 95 percent think it is a positive development that he will soon be banished from power. And no, this is not because journalists are liberals or Democrats or "Never-Trumpers."
It's because we have devoted our lives to gathering, analyzing and interpreting the cold hard facts, and the facts say Trump was and is a disaster for this country.
That doesn't mean every one of his policies and initiatives was awful; some have merit, and it also doesn't mean that journalists or the electorate rejects Republicanism or conservative ideas. It was a pretty good election overall or the G.O.P. and I think the description of the U.S. as a moderately conservative society is accurate, with a strong liberal streak when it comes to social values.
Yep, the country is just fine now that we dumped Trump.
***
Lately, as the pandemic rages on and the year limps toward its inevitable close, I've been obsessed with topics like identity, time, voice, memory, connection, reality and truth. It's not a minor agenda, I know.
But it's the big questions that reflect themselves into the little moments of life day after day that attract me when, as an example, I watch my two-year-old granddaughter open a children's storybook, and turn it slowly page by page repeating all of the words on each page.
Of course she can't read yet, but she is so involved in the stories when they are read to her that she easily memorizes them for later use. Memory is indeed a magical commodity, as several of you have noted in the comments section trailing behind these essays.
How the connections in our brains light up when storing and recalling memories in neurological experiments is awe-inspiring.
What blows my mind is that the people with extraordinary memories for numbers say they create characters and stories to memorize those vast sequences of numbers most of us wouldn't even try to memorize and repeat.
That connection between memory and narrative is stunning, and to me it suggests that perhaps story-telling is central to human evolution and the development of a more civilized human society.
If so, we'll need to be telling the story of this pandemic/ election year for a long time coming. we can hope it is a one and done. Because nobody wants a rerun of this one.
***
The news:
* Prominent Iranian nuclear scientist killed in attack -- Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was seen as a key figure in Iran’s former covert pursuit of an atomic weapon. There was no claim of responsibility for the apparent targeted killing outside Tehran, but Iran accused Israel and the United States in similar attacks. (WashPo)
* Midnight Ruling Exposes Rifts at a Supreme Court Transformed by Trump -- The justices issued six opinions, several of them unusually bitter, in upholding challenges from churches and synagogues to state pandemic restrictions on religious services. (NYT)
* Los Angeles County announced a new stay-home order Friday as coronavirus cases surged out of control in the nation’s most populous county, banning most gatherings but stopping short of a full shutdown on retail stores and other non-essential businesses. (AP)
* Remote school is leaving children sad and angry (WashPo)
* Market volatility is collapsing to levels not seen since February, the latest sign of optimism about a stock rally that lifted major indexes to fresh records this week. (WSJ)
* ‘Loser’: How a Lifelong Fear Bookended Trump’s Presidency -- The president’s inability to concede the election is the latest reality-denying moment in a career preoccupied with an epithet. (NYT)
* Horse-race political analysis is important — and flawed. We need more moral journalism. (WashPo)
* Type O blood linked to lower COVID risk, taking Vitamin D unlikely to help (WSJ)
* Covid Combat Fatigue: ‘I Would Come Home With Tears in My Eyes’ -- Doctors and nurses on the front lines are running on empty, under increasing duress as the pandemic surges and hospitals are overrun with patients. (NYT)
* Russia’s Putin still hasn’t congratulated Biden, referring to the president-elect as a ‘candidate’ (WashPo)
* Brexit Is Nipping at London’s Role as a Financial Powerhouse (NYT)
* South Dakota Unveils New ‘Come Die Here’ Tourism Campaign (The Onion)
***
Standin' on the edge of something much too deep
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard
Don't let your life pass you by
Weep not for the memories
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