Welcome to the Metaverse

It’s poised to be the next stop on your online migration, more immersive and multi-dimensional than the linear experiences you’ve had to date.

Your identity is your avatar. Virtual reality tools like glasses and gloves are under development to provide a richer, deeper digital life. 

What the metaverse represents is everyman’s version of the space travel favored by today’s billionaires. The first Japanese billionaire has just returned from his space voyage, having followed Musk and Bezos on their test runs to escape Earth in the age of catastrophic climate change.

Most of us are not and will never be billionaires, nor will we visit outer space, but all of can go to the metaverse. Think of it as a sort of Wally’s World from “National Lampoon Vacation” right at your fingertips. 

Facebook is counting on you doing just that, as it transforms itself into “Meta.” The giant social network is buying up companies that can aid this transition, and also shutting down pages like that of an artist who had been using the term “metaverse” for a decade. (Zuckerberg’s spaceship later apologized and reinstated her page.)

Virtual living has received a huge boost during the pandemic, of course, as we’ve all been more or less locked down and isolated from each other in real life. I couldn’t do what I do, for example — publish daily essays and collated headlines to an audience without the existing web, including good old Facebook, and I’m grateful for that access. 

But soon I’ll apparently be coming to you via my avatar, which I assure you will be younger and handsomer than its namesake.

And it won’t have wispy white hair either.

Then again, each new step as we edge ourselves further into simulated reality and away from the physical world gives me pause. There is still — and always will be — advantages to the actual sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch of the real world that technology, no matter how advanced, cannot replicate.

At least not for me.

Then again, the metaverse could be the thing that changes my mind, so bring it on!

TODAY’s NEWS:

• Most of the World’s Vaccines Likely Won’t Prevent Infection From Omicron — They do seem to offer significant protection against severe illness, but the consequences of rapidly spreading infection worry many public health experts. (NYT)

• New York City seeks federal help as U.S. braces for record amount of cases with omicron wave (WP)

• Most Covid Infections May Soon Be Breakthroughs. Here’s What That Means. — Omicron means many more people will soon test positive.  (NYT)

• Dow plunges 600 points as omicron fears seize global markets (WP)

• Moderna booster shot should provide ‘good level of protection’ against omicron, vaccine-maker says (NYT)

• Stocks, Oil Prices Fall on New Covid-19 Curbs (WSJ)

• Israel to ban travel to US, Canada over omicron variant (AP)

• U.S. health officials urged Americans to get booster shots, wear masks and be careful if they travel over the winter holidays, as the Omicron variant raged across the world and was set to take over as the dominant strain in the United States. (Reuters)

• U.K. Weighing Lockdown Amid an Omicron Wave and Political Turmoil (NYT)

• With Christmas in the balance, nations eye UK omicron surge (AP)

• Omicron may be less risky for each of us — but more risky for all of us. (Vox)

• Lawmakers, business leaders raise alarms about federal aid as omicron cases rise (WP)

• NHL stops cross-border games, shuts down 7th team (AP)

• ‘A Lot of Uncertainty’: Covid Surge Puts Many Americans on Edge About Traveling (NYT)

• Sarah Palin, who had COVID earlier this year, says she'll get vaccinated "over my dead body." (HuffPost)

• Whiplash on U.S. Vaccine Mandate Leaves Employers ‘Totally Confused’ (NYT)

• ‘It is embarrassing’: CDC struggles to track Covid cases as Omicron looms (Politico)

• Humanity should not test whether Antarctica’s ice will hold out (Edit Bd/WP)

• Inflation squeezes holiday budgets for low-income shoppers (AP)

• The Dubai World Trade Center will become a crypto zone and regulator for cryptocurrencies and other virtual assets, the Dubai Media Office said, part of efforts to attract new business as regional economic competition heats up. (Reuters)

• Egypt jails regime critic and hero of revolution for 5 years (Financial Times)

• Three retired generals warned that rogue military units may follow Trump or a Trump-like figure if there's another insurrection, which could provoke an all-out civil war. [HuffPost] 

• Himalayan Glaciers Melting at Furious Rate, Study Shows (WSJ)

• Joe Manchin Kills the Build Back Better Bill — How will the country ever address the enduring market failures, glaring inequality, and big social-safety-net gaps that the plan was designed to tackle? (New Yorker)

• How Biden’s fragile alliance with Manchin unraveled (WP)

• A bid by the White House to dramatically boost electric vehicle tax credits also hit a major roadblock when Manchin said he would not support the $1.75 trillion domestic investment bill. (Reuters)

• The White House ripped Sen. Joe Manchin in an uncharacteristically sharp statement after the West Virginia Democrat went on Fox News to say he wouldn't support President Joe Biden's Build Back Better social spending legislation. Manchin's rejection appears to doom the measure and Biden's White House wasn't having it, accusing Manchin of breaking his word. Fellow Dems are furious. Progressives say "told you." [HuffPost]

• Manchin Rejects Landmark Legislation, Putting Biden’s Climate Goals at Risk (NYT)

• Manchin's biggest public gripes about Build Back Better focus on cost. But in private, he moaned to Democratic colleagues that parents may waste their child tax credit money on drugs. [HuffPost]

• Manchin pitches health reforms into uncertainty (Politico)

• Millions to lose child benefit as Biden social spending bill in doubt (Financial Times)

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate will move ahead with a vote on the Build Back Better planearly next year despite opposition from the Democratic senator, and will also take up voting rights legislation. (Reuters)

• Nuclear Power Has a Second Chance to Prove Itself (WSJ)

• Tortured to death: Myanmar mass killings revealed (BBC)

• ‘Nothing will help’: Tunisians trapped in poverty lose hope (Guardian)

• Afghan music students escaped the Taliban and are beginning their new lives abroad (NPR)

• With hunger, poverty growing in Afghanistan, Biden pressured to ease sanctions (WP)

• The Afghans America Left Behind — The U.S. promised protection to the locals it relied on during the war. When it withdrew, it abandoned thousands to the Taliban. (New Yorker)

• Afghan evacuees ponder future as U.S. empties camp sites (Politico)

• Islamic countries are pledging to launch a humanitarian trust fund for Afghanistan (NPR)

• Along Afghanistan’s ‘highway of death,’ the bombs are gone but suffering has deepened (WP)

• What is the metaverse? — From virtual versions of ourselves to augmented reality, big brands like Meta (formerly Facebook) and Microsoft are creating technology to develop the metaverse. But what actually is it? (BBC)

• White House Warns Supply Chain Shortages Could Lead Americans To Discover True Meaning Of Christmas (The Onion)

TODAY’S LYRICS

“Pick Me Up on Your Way Down”

Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard

Songwriter: Harlan Howard

You were mine for just a while

Now your putting on the style

And you never once looked back

To your home across the track

You're the gossip of the town

But my heart can still be found

Where you tossed it on the ground

Pick me up on your way down

Pick me up on your way down

When your blue and all alone

When their glamor starts to bore you

Come back where you belong

When you learn these things are true

I'll be waiting here for you

When you tumble to the ground

Pick me up on your way down

They have changed your attitude

Made you haughty and so rude

Your new friends can take the blame

Underneath you're still the same

You may be their pride and joy

But they'll find another toy

When your new love can't be found

Pick me up on your way down

Pick me up on your way down

When your blue and all alone

When their glamor starts to bore you

Come back where you belong

When you learn these things are true

I'll be waiting here for you

When you tumble to the ground

Pick me up on your way down 

Did You Notice?

 Today’s top analytical story comes, fittingly, from The Onion: “Everything Slightly Worse Than Yesterday.” 

As for the particulars, over the past few days it’s become clear that Omicron is going to mess with the hoped-for scenario of putting Covid behind us this winter. It’s just too contagious and too many people remain unvaccinated for any hope of that.

So far, Omicron is exploding mainly in Europe, although New York City appears to be the main entry point in the U.S., even though the first recorded case was in San Francisco.

And if we’ve learned anything during the pandemic, it’s that local and regional surges will soon easily overwhelm our hospital system, overworking doctors and nurses in the process.

As a result, many front-line healthcare workers have been quitting, burned-out and very much casualties of Covid-19, along with the hundreds of millions who have been sickened and millions who have died.

Before it is “over,” i.e., consigned to a seasonal status much like the flu, Covid-19 will probably rank as the most consequential pandemic in history. Historians will argue that point, but we now have more people than ever before on the planet and they are inter-connected in ways previously unimaginable through trade, travel and other results of globalization.

Therefore the level of disruption exceeds all previous pandemic. You could say that this is the first truly global epidemic.

Accordingly, the global economy is going through another volatile stretch as markets and central banks react to Omicron. I’m not sure that economists can pinpoint a single cause for the inflation that has arisen during the pandemic but government stimulus payments certainly have played a role.

Meanwhile, the environmental impacts of Covid are difficult to quantify. With climate change already advancing in the form of rising sea levels, higher temperatures and extreme weather events, Covid has required national and international resources that could otherwise have been devoted to confronting the climate challenge.

If nothing else, we’ve lost valuable time in that battle.

Politically, as I’ve noted previously, the pandemic has intensified the divisions in many countries, accelerating tendencies toward extremism. A group of retired U.S. military generals are the latest to warn that the U.S. remains at risk of an authoritarian turn as soon as 2024, and that is not hyperbole.

Finally, there is the unspeakable tragedy that is Afghanistan.

These are grim times. As those of us who celebrate Christmas prepare to exchange gifts and gather for holiday meals, there is a palpable sense of exhaustion, a deep melancholy hanging over our homes and our families.

As much as we might wish for peace on earth at this season, we do not live in a time when that is possible.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Report: Everything Slightly Worse Than Yesterday (The Onion)

• As Covid Surges, Experts Say U.S. Booster Effort Is Far Behind — The C.D.C. now recommends that all adults get a booster. But only one in six Americans has received that shot, worrying health officials. (NYT)

• VIDEO: The Netherlands Locks Down to Combat Omicron Variant — Dutch leaders ordered all nonessential shops, bars, restaurants, gyms, schools, and cultural and outdoor-sports venues to close from Sunday until at least mid-January. (Reuters)

• U.S. could see 1 million cases per day, warns departing NIH director Francis Collins (NPR)

• Omicron may sideline two leading drugs against COVID-19 (AP)

• Covid-19’s Omicron Variant Starts to Take Its Toll on Business (WSJ)

• N.Y. cases hit record high for second straight day, upending holiday plans

  — The rapidly climbing numbers have sparked concern that the state’s outbreak could spell a sign of what’s to come elsewhere. Citing the omicron variant, SNL said it would go on without a live audience, joining the Rockettes and Broadway shows in altering plans. (WP)

• Omicron threat looms over winter holidays in Europe and U.S. (Reuters)

• Central Banks Worry Omicron Could Sustain Inflation (WSJ)

• Why Los Angeles Delayed Enforcing Its Student Vaccine Mandate — As the deadline for compliance approached, the school board faced a difficult question: What would happen to the tens of thousands of students who were still not vaccinated? (NYT)

• VIDEO: London Declares a ‘Major Incident’ as Omicron Surges — The declaration, which indicated that emergency services and hospitals could not guarantee their normal level of response, came as London faced a steep rise in coronavirus cases driven by the Omicron variant. (Reuters)

• Covid boosters in rich countries outnumber all jabs among poor nations (Financial Times)

• Don’t Panic About Omicron. But Don’t Be Indifferent, Either. — The next wave of the pandemic requires charting a middle course between dismay and dismissal. (Atlantic)

• Congress Ends ‘Horrible Year’ With Divisions as Bitter as Ever (NYT)

• Kinzinger says January 6 panel is investigating Trump's involvement in insurrection (CNN)

• Disney and YouTube TV Reach Deal (YouTube)

• Hidden Pentagon Records Reveal Patterns of Failure in Deadly Airstrikes — The promise was a war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs. The documents show flawed intelligence, faulty targeting, years of civilian deaths — and scant accountability. (NYT)

• Taliban recruits flood into Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan as the group works to consolidate control(WP)

• Once a Symbol of U.S. Strength, an Afghan District Now Faces Dire Times

  At the war’s end, residents of Marja are growing increasingly desperate for any kind of help, a frustration that has turned to anger that the international community has seemingly abandoned them. (NYT)

• Islamic world pitches ways to aid desperately poor Afghans (AP)

• As their homeland fell to the Taliban, these Afghan women rose to lead a DC restaurant empire (WP)

• At Every Step, Afghans Coming to America Encounter Stumbling Blocks — U.S. officials concede that the system was unprepared. (NYT)

• Cold, heat, fires, hurricanes and tornadoes: The year in weather disasters (WP)

• A Record Number of Journalists Jailed — Authoritarian leaders are waging a war against the free press. (Editorial Board/NYT)

LYRICS

“Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye”

Song by Leonard Cohen

I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm
Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm
Yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new
In city and in forest they smiled like me and you
But now it's come to distances and both of us must try
Your eyes are soft with sorrow
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye

I'm not looking for another as I wander in my time
Walk me to the corner, our steps will always rhyme
You know my love goes with you as your love stays with me
It's just the way it changes, like the shoreline and the sea
But let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie
Your eyes are soft with sorrow
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye

I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm
Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm
Yes, many loved before us, I know that we are not new
In city and in forest they smiled like me and you
But let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie
Your eyes are soft with sorrow
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye

Sunday's News

 Note: Although I try to write an essay every day, and have been doing so for a long time, increasingly there are days that I simply cannot bring myself to make any comment whatsoever. Today is one such day.

TODAY’S NEWS:

• Rising From the Antarctic, a Climate Alarm — Wilder winds are altering crucial currents. The sea is releasing ancient carbon dioxide. Vast ice shelves are melting from below. See why the experts are increasingly alarmed. (NYT)

• Climate change is shrinking the odds of a white Christmas, this year included (WP)

• Climate Change Is Going to Be Gross — The thick layer of mucilage that covered the Sea of Marmara for weeks was an unsettling glimpse of climate change’s more oozy effects. (Atlantic)

• This highly vaccinated nation says the pandemic’s toughest month is just beginning — In Denmark, which tracks the spread of coronavirus variants as closely as any in the world, the signals have never been more concerning. (WP)

• WHO: Omicron detected in 89 countries, cases doubling fast (AP)

• Omicron’s Rapid Spread Spurs Rush to Understand It — The Omicron variant appears better able to break into cells and evade immunity, and seems to replicate faster in the airways than the Delta variant of Covid-19. (WSJ)

• U.S. COVID-19 vaccine mandate revived, Supreme Court showdown looms (Reuters)

• With Omicron, U.S. Testing Capacity Faces Intense Pressure (NYT)

• Hot economy collides with huge virus surge in pandemic’s latest twist (WP)

• Surging COVID-19 cases bring a 2020 feel to the end of 2021 (AP)

• 'Tidal wave': Omicron could put U.S. COVID-19 surge into overdrive (Reuters)

• Doctors and Nurses Are ‘Living in a Constant Crisis’ as Covid Fills Hospitals

  — Hospitalizations across the country have increased 20 percent in two weeks, taxing already exhausted health care workers as the United States confronts the Omicron variant. (NYT)

• Omicron and holidays unleash scramble for coronavirus tests across the U.S. (WP)

• YouTube TV Loses Disney Channels Including ABC, ESPN — The blackout is depriving more than four million subscribers of programming as the companies battle over distribution fees. (WSJ)

• White House not budging on Feb. 1 end to student loans forgiveness (Politico)

• Afghan Taliban leaders appeal for help as migrant crisis looms (Reuters)

• U.S. airstrikes on Taliban surged in war’s final month amid failed bid to prevent Afghan army’s collapse (WP)

• Pakistan to rally Muslim countries to help Afghanistan (AP)

• Afghanistan to Wisconsin: Refugees dream of home (BBC)

• My Son Is Not Alone. Millions of Young People Commit His Crime. — Alaa is a political prisoner in Egypt because he dared to dream of another world. (NYT)

• People pressure governments worldwide to act on inflation (AP)

• 'Avatar' director Cameron's art revealed in new book — Before he created blockbuster films, director James Cameron was an artist whose early work went on to inspire some of his most memorable onscreen characters and images. Lisa Bernhard produced this report. (Reuters)

• ‘Time We Can’t Get Back’: Stolen at Birth, Chilean Adoptees Uncover Their Past — Hundreds of Chileans adopted abroad have learned that they were trafficked. Investigators believe thousands of children may have been taken from their parents during Chile’s dictatorship. (NYT)

• The Island Paradise Near the Front Line of Tensions Over Taiwan — New missile batteries planned for the Japanese island of Ishigaki reflect a drastic shift in Japan’s views on China. (NYT)

• ‘We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,’ new study says (WP)

• San Francisco Mayor Declares State of Emergency to Fight City’s ‘Nasty Streets’ — It’s a highly unusual move by a liberal mayor in one of the country’s most liberal cities. (NYT)

• 2020 Census may have significantly undercounted Detroit, study finds (WP)

• ‘Stop the Steal’ founder told Jan. 6 committee about contacts with GOP lawmakers (Politico)

• Retired generals: The military must prepare now for a 2024 insurrection (WP)

• Will NFTs transform the art world? Are they even art? (WP)

• The Unlikely Revolutionaries Who Want to Reboot the Internet — Jack Dorsey and other members of the tech elite are banding together to bring the Web back to its idealist origins (WSJ)

• One farmer's seaweed discovery could change the world (CBS)

• FBI Demands Apple’s Assistance In Opening iPhone Packaging (The Onion)

On The Waves: Web.3

 You may have missed, overlooked, ignored or discounted it, or maybe you’d just as soon leave it for others to discuss.

But along with the various waves of Covid variants, threats to democracy, vibrations of the stock market and climate disasters, the third great iteration of the worldwide web has washed in over our anklets.

Whether we wanted or needed it to come or not, the web is mutating again, which guarantees another round of insecurity for those who depend on it — which of course means everybody who is not hiding in a cave in Tora Bora.

Of all the people who are commenting on web.3, I’m probably the last person anyone should listen to. What do I know of the metaverse, blockchain, NFTs, bitcoin, or “digital scarcity”?

The answer is, of course, next to nothing. But I do know something about waves, having spent an inordinate portion of my life on beaches.

Waves come in patterns, they build, crest and break, and in the process they deposit new things at our toes. Actually, not so much new things as old things disguised as new things, like shells, driftwood, seaglass, jobs or investment opportunities.

Most importantly not all waves are created naturally. Any old boat can cause a wave in the right body of water.

That brings me to web.3. As with dot.com and Web 2.0, this third wave is being driven by developers, many of whom are idealistic and hoping to improve on the technologies and the social outcomes of the previous models, including doing a much better job of protecting the privacy of our personal data and establishing fairer ownership standards and exchanges of value.

Accordingly, a set of more democratic outcomes appears to be the goal of those constructing web.3. None of them want to further the centralization of the Big Data monopolies (Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook — sorry, Meta, Yahoo, Twitter, Microsoft) that arose from the first two waves.

And as we enter this new digital phase, it’s also worth asking if and how it is going to affect the biggest issues we face — poverty, climate change, authoritarianism, hopelessness — beyond generating a rash of new fortunes for a few, and endlessly confusing software iterations for the many.

On the other hand, you might say, no one else has come up with much to address those universal issues, so why expect the best and the brightest of our tech geniuses to come to our rescue this time around? That isn’t exactly fair.

No it isn’t fair. 

So my one simple request of the new generation of developers and evangelists is that they do a better job at using words than the vague ones blowing in todays’ wind. Be precise, specific, honest, restrained, sensitive, kind, accurate and above all inclusive.

Languages fall into one of two categories — inclusive or exclusive. The outcome unfolds accordingly.

The words you choose matter. Stop excluding people.

TODAY’S NEWS:

• Scientists Are Racing to Gauge the Threat of Omicron — The variant will spread quickly through the United States, experts say. What happens after that is less certain. (NYT)

• Omicron induces whiplash for many Americans (WP)

• Warily eyeing omicron, Christmas revelers curb celebrations (AP)

• Stocks fell as investors worried about surging Omicron cases and wrestled with this week's hawkish turn from major central banks in the fight against inflation (Reuters)

• Booster at least 80% effective against severe Omicron (BBC)

• France bans nonessential travel to Britain over the Omicron surge. (NYT)

• As omicron threatens to wipe out monoclonal antibodies, U.S. is saving up one that will work (WP)

• Pfizer and BioNTech ask FDA to approve their Covid-19 vaccine for kids as young as 12 (Politico)

• We Know Enough About Omicron to Know That We’re in Trouble (Atlantic)

• CDC recommends Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 shots over J&J’s (AP)

• Fox News Network lost its attempt to dismiss a $1.6 billion lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine company that says Fox defamed it by amplifying conspiracy theories about its technology. (Reuters)

• Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas Retired Colonel Who Shared Plan to Overturn Election (NYT)

• The US system is no match for Donald Trump — Absence of consequences for the Capitol riots makes it likelier that democracy will be subverted again (Financial Times)

• FDA ends key restriction on abortion pill as justices weigh case challenging Roe v. Wade (WP)

• A federal judge overturned a roughly $4.5 billion settlement that legally shielded members of the Sackler familywho stand accused of helping fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic, a decision that threatened to upend the bankruptcy reorganization of their company, OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma. (Reuters)

• The Year of Inflation Infamy — Maybe the real takeaway should be how little we know about where we are in this strange economic episode. (Paul Krugman/NYT)

• Supply shortages and emboldened workers: A changed economy (AP)

• CDC finds coronavirus testing of exposed children in schools can safely replace quarantine (WP)

• A millipede with 1,300 legs has been found in Australia. It's a new record by far (NPR)

• In Boeing's factory of the future, immersive 3-D engineering designs will be twinned with robots that speak to each other, while mechanics around the world will be linked by $3,500 HoloLens headsets made by Microsoft. It is a snapshot of an ambitious new strategy to unify sprawling design, production and airline services operations under a single digital ecosystem - in as little as two years. (Reuters)

• This week’s major storms pushed the Sierra Nevada snowpack from 19 percent of normal for this time of year to 83 percent. (SFGate)

• Deforestation making outdoor work unsafe for millions, says study (Guardian)

• Afghans push through snowy Alps toward new lives in Europe (AP)

• Afghan currency slides and prices surge as already battered economy worsens (NPR)

• Biden Administration Considers Sending Ukraine Military Equipment Once Bound for Afghanistan (WSJ)

• Nato powers face re-engaging with Taliban and unfreezing the financial system or watching millions starve (Financial Times)

• Afghan siblings, wounded in Kabul airport bombing, seek new life in the U.S. while mourning the one they left behind (WP)

• This new space telescope should show us what the universe looked like as a baby (NPR)

• Why Electric Mail Trucks Are the Way of the Future (Politico)

• Crews may have found 1887 time capsule in Lee statue base (AP)

• Giant natural blue sapphire unveiled in Sri Lanka (NHK)

• Somewhat Athletic Couple Gives Birth To Potential Division III Lacrosse Player (The Onion)

TODAY’s LYRICS:

“Please Don’t Tell Me…”

Kris Kristofferson

This could be our last goodnight together

We may never pass this way again

Just let me enjoy 'till its over

Or forever

Please don't tell me how the story ends

See the way our shadows come together

Softer than your fingers on my skin

Someday this may be all

That we'll remember

Of each other

Please don't tell me how the story ends

Never's just the echo of forever

Lonesome as the love that might have been

Just let me go on loving and believing

'Till it's over

Please don't tell me how the story ends

Please don't tell me how the story ends

It's Life

 "Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?" — Clark Griswold

___________________________

The holiday season brings with it the usual flood of lackluster Christmas movies presumably meant to distract us from the orgy of unrestrained consumerism. Then again, there is something about “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” that will always resonate for us former head-of-household types.

And there is that exceptional, odd Frank Capra film, "It's a Wonderful Life." Until I read Zachary D. Carter's excellent essay in The Huffington Post (2018), there were many things I didn't know about that film or the Sicilian immigrant who made it.

Hoping to revive a career that had been disrupted by the war, Capra produced the film in 1946, but when it was released just before Christmas it bombed, losing a half million dollars at the box office. Critics panned it and Capra lost the rights and control of the film’s negatives.

His personal fortunes then proceeded to nose-dive, accelerated by the anti-Communist furor of the early 1950s. (His crime — like that of many thoughtful people — was he had briefly flirted with Marxism when he was younger.) 

His decline was such that he eventually reached a hopeless state and attempted suicide on a number of occasions. Rather like George Bailey.

Later, when he looked back on making the film that had helped ruin his career, he said: “I can’t begin to describe my sense of loneliness in making (it), a loneliness that was laced by the fear of failure. I had no one to talk to, or argue with.” 

As an aside, that probably describes what these holidays are like for many people, but for now let’s return to Capra’s story.

The Wonderful Life negatives lay forgotten and unvisited for almost three decades, by which time the film, considered worthless, had slipped into the public domain and was free for the taking. In the mid-1970s, the Public Broadcasting System did just that, becoming the first to air it since 1946. The commercial networks soon followed.

With that, a not-so-instant classic was (re)born. It’s now every bit as much a part of the season as Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol.”

Happily, Capra lived long enough to see this all come to pass before he joined the angels himself at the robust age of 94 in 1991. He had always maintained that “Wonderful Life" was the greatest film he ever made.

The main actors in the piece — James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore — are long since dead, of course. But recently, two surviving members among the children cast in the movie confirmed that Capra indeed controlled every detail of the filming down to the slightest detail of their expressions and movements.

The main point of the film — that each life matters — is always worth revisiting at this time of year when for so many, life feels considerably less than wonderful.

Depression is a widespread mental condition. And suicidal thoughts are no stranger to one who is deeply depressed. But as in the story, there could be hidden value in holding on a little longer, perhaps helped along by an angel or two. 

Of course the inequalities of wealth displayed in the film are worse today in the world than they were in the America of post-World-War-Two, and the only way out of thatmess would be a radical redistribution of wealth, a la Marxism perhaps, which certainly isn’t going to be happening around here anytime soon.

So for now this is roughly as wonderful a life as we can make of it, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. And in any event, it wouldn’t be what it is if we were no longer a part of it.

Wit that, bring on Christmas! And maybe listen for someone’s bell to ring out there somewhere.

TODAY’S HEADLINES:

• Meadows and the Band of Loyalists: How They Fought to Keep Trump in Power— A small circle of Republican lawmakers, working closely with President Donald J. Trump’s chief of staff, took on an outsize role in pressuring the Justice Department, amplifying conspiracy theories and flooding the courts in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election. (NYT)

• Role as Trump’s gatekeeper puts Meadows in legal peril — and at odds with Trump — Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has veered between steps aimed at bolstering his former boss and actions that, intentionally or not, have undermined him. (WP)

• How the January 6 committee finally exposed Trump's empire of lies (CNN)

• Election reviews persist despite no evidence of rigged vote (AP)

• Putin and Xi Show United Front Amid Rising Tensions With U.S. — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China, meeting in a video summit, sought mutual support in their conflicts with the West but have not yet declared a formal alliance. (NYT)

• EU Leaders to Warn Russia to Stay Out of Ukraine (WSJ)

• US imposes sanctions against China over abuse of Uyghurs (AP)

• The Turkish lira plunged as much as 5.6% to a record low against the dollar after the central bank slashed its policy rate in line with an unorthodox economic program set out by President Tayyip Erdogan. (Reuters)

• Water leaders in California, Arizona and Nevada signed an agreement to reduce intake from the Colorado River to stave off mandatory cuts. (AP)

• The California State University system is set to drop the SAT or the ACT as an admission requirement, a major step by the college system to expand access to higher education amid criticism that the standardized tests are biased against low-income people and students of color. [HuffPost]

• Colleges go back to drawing board — again — to fight COVID (AP)

• Thousands of students across California meet the requirements for the state’s top public universities but are struggling to gain admittance. (LAT)

• Colleges move exams online, urge boosters as coronavirus cases rise and omicron fears grow (WP)

• US sports leagues cope with COVID-19 outbreaks amid variants (AP)

• Universities canceled events, the National Football League reported a record number of cases, and long lines formed at New York City testing clinics as a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and concern over the Omicron variant disrupted American life anew. (Reuters)

• Vaccine skeptics in Eastern Europe having change of heart (AP)

• California is exempting San Francisco from its new indoor masking mandate. (Cal Today)

• A vaccine specifically targeting the coronavirus omicron variant is not needed so long as individuals are entirely caught up on their vaccines, including their booster shot, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, citing recent data. [HuffPost]

• A new generation of flu vaccines may soon emerge, based on the same mRNA technology in Covid-19 vaccines. (Cal Today)

• From blood clots to infected neurons, how COVID threatens the brain — The virus that causes COVID-19 can cause strokes, inflammation, oxygen deprivation and infection in the brain. And each of these may lead to long term neurological problems. (NPR)

• Omicron’s Surge Is Changing the Rules of Travel (WSJ)

• Afghan central bank moves to stabilise collapsing currency (Al-Jazeera)

• A Refugee Crisis Runs Into a Housing Crisis — Thousands of Afghan refugees are being released from military bases to U.S. cities to rebuild their lives. Settling them into homes amid a rental shortage is proving to be a challenge. (NYT)

• Afghanistan: What humanitarian aid is getting in? (BBC)

• Afghanistan’s health care system on the brink of collapse (AP)

• Reddit, known for its message boards that became the go-to destination for day traders during this year's meme stock frenzy, said it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering with U.S. securities regulators. Founded in 2005 by Steve Huffman and entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian, Reddit was valued at $10 billion in a private fundraising round earlier this year. (Reuters)

• In a Texas Border Town, Armed Groups Arrive to Look for Migrants (WSJ)

• A new executive order from President Biden is designed to streamline the process for things like contacting the IRS, enrolling in Social Security online and, yes, renewing your passport. (NPR)

• Bird songs bump stars off Australian music chart (BBC)

• U.S. Facing Santa Shortage (The Onion)

LYRICS

“The Older I Get”

Alan Jackson

Songwriters: Adam Wright / Hailey Whitters / Sarah Turner

The older I get

The more I think

You only get a minute, better live while you're in it

'Cause it's gone in a blink

And the older I get

The truer it is

It's the people you love, not the money and stuff

That makes you rich

And if they found a fountain of youth

I wouldn't drink a drop and that's the truth

Funny how it feels I'm just getting to my best years yet

The older I get

The fewer friends I have

But you don't need a lot when the ones that you got

Have always got your back

And the older I get

The better I am

At knowing when to give

And when to just not give a damn

And if they found a fountain of youth

I wouldn't drink a drop and that's the truth

Funny how it feels I'm just getting to my best years yet

The older I get

And I don't mind all the lines

From all the times I've laughed and cried

Souvenirs and little signs of the life I've lived

The older I get

The longer I pray

I don't know why, I guess that I've

Got more to say

And the older I get

The more thankful I feel

For the life I've had and all the life I'm living still