“The challenge here is an unprecedented one, without factual foundation or a valid legal basis.” That’s how Michigan is responding to a Texas lawsuit to invalidate millions of votes that have been cast, counted, and certified in several states that aren’t Texas. That sums up the Trump transition so far: No effin’ facts and no effin’ legal basis. Why am-i-cus-sing so much? Because this isn’t just one crazy, legally challenged attorney general. It’s 18 state attorneys general, 106 Republican members of Congress who signed an amicus brief on behalf of this frivolous nonsense, and a sea of GOP Senators and House members who have refused to acknowledge Biden’s win in an election that wasn’t close. This isn’t just the last gasp of a canceled reality show or the final rantings of a sociopathic narcissist. This is a movement to overturn an election, an international humiliation, and an American tragedy. And believe me, I’m as sick of writing about it as you are of reading about it. But this is happening. The Atlantic: The GOP Abandons Democracy. “Instead of Republican officeholders waiting out Trump’s postelection tantrum, he is waiting them out, and slowly bringing the party around to his side. In this way, Trump is ending his presidency just the way he won it: by correctly recognizing what Republican voters want and giving it to them, and gradually forcing the party’s purported leaders to follow along.”

+ “In filing so many lawsuits and having so many courts across the country reject them, Trump has produced an unintended result: a resounding judicial affirmation of the integrity of our system. Trump appointees have rejected his cases; Obama appointees have rejected his cases. State courts have rejected them. The Supreme Court has, too. But is that what we will remember of this covid-and-constitutional-crisis season? I’m quite sure we will remember that Donald Trump is a sore loser; the sorest loser, in fact, who ever was President. But what about the Republican Party—is this the moment when the G.O.P. abandons its belief in democracy and the simple nonnegotiable principle that the losing party must accept the results of an election?” Susan B. Glasser in The New Yorker: It’s Not Just Trump’s War on Democracy Anymore. (I think we’ll remember an administration and its enablers who were more focused on saving hopeless attacks on democracy than they were on trying to save American lives during a pandemic.)

+ WaPo: Trump expands his cable diet to Newsmax and OAN.

+ And in related news from the NYT: For a Nation on Edge, Antacids Become Hard to Find. (Luckily, there are still plenty of barf bags.)