“The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied.” That was it. With one sentence, the Supreme Court denied a Republican challenge to Joe Biden’s Pennsylvania win. The Trump legal team now has a worse record than the Washington Generals. But the team, along with the Tweeter in Chief who is now openly calling for the election to be overturned, is having an impact on public opinion, in ways both troubling (just a quarter of Republicans accept election outcome) and scary (In Idaho, a Covid health order vote was postponed amid protests at the meeting, and at board members’ homes).

+ George Packer always does a great job wrapping things up. “America under Trump became less free, less equal, more divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier, meaner, sicker, and deader. It also became more delusional. No number from Trump’s years in power will be more lastingly destructive than his 25,000 false or misleading statements. Super-spread by social media and cable news, they contaminated the minds of tens of millions of people. Trump’s lies will linger for years, poisoning the atmosphere like radioactive dust.” These last few thousand misstatements will be among the most damaging. The Atlantic: A Political Obituary for Donald Trump. (This political obituary features thousands of physical obituaries as well.)