Fallout

 The frothy mix that is Rick Santorum splits his time between pimping for dubious medical enterprises and sharing his wisdom with the CNN audience, and yesterday he appeared to be taking on a new job -- go-between for the failed Trump presidency and the country.  "The president is willing to concede if certain conditions are met...that this race was conducted fairly and that we've, they've pursued all of the allegations...But time is gonna be necessary for the campaign and the lawyers to run the traps."

I assume that last is some kind of vermin-extermination reference.  The thing about allegations is, you can just keep making them up until you run out of time or the judges run out of patience, especially if you're untethered from Planet Reality.  Here is our offer:  nothing.  There are no conditions.  No concession is required.  You don't have to invite the Bidens for tea and a photo-op, as the Obamas invited you and the Bushes invited them and so on into history.  Lot of gritted teeth there but sometimes adults have to do things they don't enjoy.  You also don't have to attend the inauguration.  In fact, please don't.  Jump on whatever's left of Trump Airlines and head for a country that doesn't extradite.  We won't try to stop you.  "Certain conditions"?  On January 20, we won't be your hostages anymore.

We saw the legal team in action yesterday when a press conference announced for the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia actually took place here.  It's the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, conveniently located adjacent to Fantasy Island Adult Books and Delaware Valley Cremation Center.  I'm guessing the arrangements were made by someone from the Let 'Em Freeze In the Dark transport department, still on payroll after the Omaha rally.  That's America's Mayor at the mic, demanding, "Do you think we're stupid?"  The jokes write themselves.

 

 

Laugh and the world laughs with you, I heard once, and the world is, for the most part, smiling broadly this weekend.  Reportedly Angela Merkel once told Emmanuel Macron, "I don't want to be in the room with [Trump]," so she sent congrats.  So did most of the Europeans, even a reluctant Boris Johnson.  The holdouts are China, Russia, Brazil and Mexico; I haven't heard about Turkey, which may be preoccupied with last week's earthquake/tsunami.  Some especially joyous people are in Thulasendrapuram, India, where Kamala Harris's grandfather was born, and Ballina, Ireland, where Joe Biden has a third cousin named Joe Blewitt.  It's a reminder that most of us came here from elsewhere.  One of Biden's first executive orders is expected to protect the DACA kids.  Another will return the US to the Paris accords, good news for the prime minister of Fiji, who was first past the post with his best wishes and environmental concerns.

In honor of Alex Trebek, who lost his battle with cancer today, I'll take "It's a New Day" for $1,000, please:  "She was born in Haiti, lectured at Columbia, worked for MoveOn.org and will now serve as chief of staff to the Vice President of the United States."  "Who is Karine Jean-Pierre?"  Right.  Also she's 43 and did I mention she's gay?   

Perhaps one day there will be a Netflix series about the Turnberry golf course and why its owner is locally hated, but for now there's this headline from the Ayrshire Daily News:  "South Ayrshire Golf Club Owner Loses 2020 Presidential Election."  I think that will do.