Sitting drakes
By the river Cam
Quote of the Day
“Yes, yes, Mr Burne-Jones, but what does one do with the Grail once one has found it?”
- Benjamin Jowett, inspecting the artist’s newly completed Arthurian murals in the Oxford Union.
Musical alternative to the morning’s radio news
Bob Dylan – Forever Young (Slow Version) Link
Cummings and goings
Vote Leave genius departing, with cardboard box.
And here’s how the Financial Times reported it:
Sometimes, a week really is a short time in politics.
Democracy dies in complacency
One of the things I remember about 2016 was the misplaced complacency of so many liberals about the absurdity of (a) the prospect of a Trump presidency and (b) the fact that he would pose any serious danger to the republic even if he were elected. I’m having the same feelings about the complacency surrounding the apparent absurdity of Trump’s railings against the rigged and fraudulent election that is supposedly denying him a second term.
On the one hand…
Can Trump Still Win? No. He’s Already Lost. – The New York Times
The establishment view is that Biden’s succession is secure. All that remains is some tidying up, certification of votes by states, etc. And the then the Electoral College meets and Biden’s election is formally confirmed.
On the other hand…
Why is the Republican establishment apparently supporting Trump’s nonsense and funding legal challenges to the electoral results in several states?
Trump’s big election lie pushes America toward autocracy – The Boston Globe
and
It seems unlikely that there’s something really sinister going on — if there were it would surely have been picked up. Or is there some stunt that’s being planned to delay the final results of the counts to the point where the decision on a state’s delegates to the electoral college is left to Republican governors of those states?
Long read of the Day
Kurt Vonnegut: the Paris Review interview
Unforgettable interview. He was a prisoner of war in Dresden the night the city was firebombed — which was the origin of his Slaughterhouse Five.
Vaccine hysteria: the stock market is crazy — as usual
A quote I picked up from a newsletter today — and I can’t remember which!
For the first time in forever, investors snapped up beaten down “value” stocks including airlines like American along with travel and leisure companies. The Covid-induced collapse in travel and non-homebound entertainment crushed these stocks the last nine months.
At the same time, investors dumped high-flying tech companies like Netflix, Zoom and Amazon on the theory that we will all soon evacuate our work-from-home caves and trudge to our offices, see movies in theatres and shop in real life stores.
Wait, really? Hang on. This all seems pretty nuts.
It is.
Other, hopefully, interesting links
- Why We Sigh. Link.
- One in five Covid-19 patients are diagnosed with a mental illness within three months. Which is why being blasé about younger people catching it is foolish. Link.
- Matt Drudge abandons Trump.. Seems there’s no honour among sleazebags. Link
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