"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you"—I had always attributed this quip to a Woody Allen character, which isn't altogether wrong, but having googled it this morning I see that Allen apparently was appropriating a passage from the Joseph Heller novel Catch-22. It seems like the underlying principle might be expanded. Just because you can't sleep at night doesn't prove you got nothing to worry about. Speaking personally, what some people call my TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) doesn't prove the current occupant isn't worthy of contempt. He hasn't done anything since Election Day to make me recant. Ever since the guy he mocked for holing up in the basement beat him, Trump's been holed up in the White House with Twitter. (I know, an exaggeration: he's gone golfing a few times.) Meanwhile, the COVID body count is accruing at the rate of about three 9/11s per week. I guess it's never gotten warm enough for the plague to "lift, like a miracle." It's almost as if there was no Plan B to wishful thinking. He gives himself an A+ while admitting that, on account of the Fake News, some people fail to perceive his genius. But just because millions can see you've failed doesn't make you a success.
Trump appears so obsessed with having lost that he can't take obvious steps, like claiming credit for the good news about vaccines. Maybe the problem is that, if vaccines are about to save us, it makes even more sense to listen to people like Fauci, in order to avoid being the last soldier killed before the armistice is signed. But Trump, bored with the crisis, tweets his private grievances, especially the fantasy about how the election was stolen. By chance, the magnitude of his Electoral College loss matches almost exactly the magnitude of his Electoral College victory four years ago—on the morning after which Clinton conceded and Obama invited him to the White House to meet about the transition. His legal maneuverings are so pathetic as to obscure somewhat his intent, which is to remain in office by disenfranchising voters and overturning the election result. I think it was just yesterday, maybe the day before, that the following exchange occurred in a Pennsylvania courtroom:
RUDY GIULIANI: In the plaintiffs' counties, they were denied the opportunity to have an unobstructed observation and ensure opacity. I'm not quite sure I know what opacity means. It probably means you can see, right?
U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE MATTHEW BRANN: It means you can't.
GIULIANI: Big words, your honor.
Just because Giuliani is as incompetent as his client doesn't prove the country hasn't been driven off a cliff.
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