Around here, a huge collective sigh of relief went up Saturday morning when the television networks called the election. But in other parts of the country a very different emotional reaction ensued.
First it is a comment on our time that television networks play this role in our lives. At least, the actual process of gathering and counting votes is not done by TV people, thank god.
The lack of a grasp of math is palpable among newsreaders. The more self-effacing among them will emit little comments -- "I'm so bad at math" -- as they stumble to convey even simple numbers.
Luckily, data scientists are doing the number-crunching in the backrooms, but even their craft leaves a lot to be desired. The ability of smart people to disagree about how to interpret data is breath-taking.
Inside any organization, certain people emerge with the notable ability to sound convincing when they speak. This does not necessarily mean they are right, but it does mean they may have a role on camera, or worse still, in politics.
Those more attentive to the nuances and subtleties of data rarely sit at the head of the table. And they rarely are decision-makers. But it's their attention to detail that informs the organization's ability to ultimately get things right.
Beyond the data, the role of writers including code writers is to be precise and specific and accurate enough to give a media company the capacity to determine the truth of a matter.
And when you get to the concept of truth, you inevitably have to acknowledge that there are multiple truths -- what is true for one person is not the case for another. There simply are multiple truths. However, that is not the case with math.
Biden won the popular vote.
Biden won the electoral vote.
Biden is the President-elect.
Trump is flopping around like a hooked fish on a dock. He's been caught and soon he'll be suffering his fate.
Normally I am compassionate to those who have lost, but I have no sympathy for Trump. He has damaged our democracy and he continues to do so. By refusing to concede and by refusing to afford the Biden team the considerations that Obama afforded him -- and that every outgoing president has afforded every incoming president until now -- Trump has forfeited any right to our sympathy.
The tyrant is disrobed. His days when he can hide this from view are limited.
***
* Trump announced on Twitter Monday that he has fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper (CNN)
* As intemperate and reckless as many of Donald Trump’s actions as president have been, critics warn that they all took place before he faced a referendum from voters. Now, that job review is over and Trump has failed it. “He will create as much chaos as humanly possible,” said Michael Cohen, Trump’s ex-lawyer who was convicted for, in part, arranging hush money payments to keep women from revealing affairs they'd had with Trump just prior to the 2016 election. "I wouldn't be surprised if there's no concession speech at all." Meanwhile, ex-RNC chair Michael Steele said that the GOP needs a "political enema." [HuffPost]
* Trump, infuriated by an election loss he’s refusing to acknowledge, will have “meltdowns upon meltdowns” until he leaves the White House, his niece Mary Trump warned in an op-ed in The Guardian. Trump is “not going to concede. ... All he’s got now is breaking stuff, and he’s going to do that with a vengeance,” she wrote. She argued that Trump has never won anything “legitimately” in his life, but has never before lost anything either. He “thinks that even if you steal and cheat to win, you deserve to win,” said Mary Trump, a psychologist. [HuffPost]
* Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine Proves 90% Effective in Trials (WSJ)
* Financial markets applauded Biden's victory, lifting major world indexes to record highs. Investors were elated that a divided Congress would gridlock major changes, and were simply relieved that the election process was over. [Bloomberg]
* Nikkei surges after Biden win (NHK)
* U.S. Stocks Surge on Vaccine Results, Biden Win (WSJ)
* The long love affair between Fox News and Trump may be over. (WashPo)
* Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) fueled unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about voter fraud and urged Trump not to concede the election. There were “a lot of shenanigans” that took place during the election that need to be litigated, the Trump flatterer said in an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, one of the network’s loudest Trump cheerleaders. “The media doesn’t decide who becomes president. If they did, you would never have a Republican president forever. So we’re discounting them.” [HuffPost]
* A crowd danced in the streets outside Kamala Harris’s childhood home in Berkeley. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
* Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who won reelection with more than 68% of the vote in New York’s 14th District, criticized leaders and other elements of her party for being distrustful of her and other more progressive members — who, she argued, have been pivotal in winning votes and candidates for the party. She also accused Democrats of historically forgetting about grassroots movements and activists once elections are over, adding it’s to be seen whether the Biden administration will behave any differently. [HuffPost]
* 'A Vexing Decision': Calif. Governor Mulls Who Will Replace Harris In Senate (KQED)
* The pandemic is taking a toll on parents, and it’s showing in alcohol consumption rates (WashPo)
* The police chief of a small Arkansas town has resigned after writing social media posts calling for “death to all Marxist Democrats” and saying he hoped certain Democratic leaders, including former President Barack Obama, would be “drawn and quartered.” Marshall Police Chief Lang Holland resigned after it was revealed that he had posted offensive comments on right-wing social media site Parler, Mayor Kevin Elliott announced. [HuffPost]
* Alexander Hamilton, Enslaver? New Research Says Yes -- A paper by a researcher at the Schuyler Mansion finds overlooked evidence in letters and Hamilton’s own account books indicating that he bought, sold and personally owned slaves. (NYT)
* A message lost by a carrier pigeon has been found some 110 years after it was sent. Found in a field in mid-September by a couple out hiking in Ingersheim, northeastern France, the message was sent from one German military officer to another in 1910, when the area was still part of Germany, according to Dominique Jardy, curator of the nearby Linge Memorial museum. (CNN)
***
Overheard: An American explaining to an overseas visitor how America can elect a Kamala Harris on one hand and a Donald Trump on the other:
"The good news is that in America anyone can grow up to be vice-president. But the bad news is that someone can NOT grow up and be president."
Hate to admit it but
I got a heart rush
Ain't slowing down
I got it real bad
Want everything she has
That smile and that midnight laugh
She's giving you now
Yeah, 'cause they taste like you
I want to drown myself
In a bottle of her perfume
I want her long blonde hair
I want her magic touch
Yeah, 'cause maybe then
You'd want me just as much
No comments:
Post a Comment