It's over. Not the election. That's been over for a while—the sixty lost court cases and what felt like 60,000 presidential tweets notwithstanding. The post election threats to the election. Those are over. They're over because Mitch McConnell said they're over. Trump is still tweeting like he doesn't know it's over (or he just wants to dupe more people out of "stop the steal" money). But it was over the second McConnell congratulated Biden and Harris on their win. Axios: Mitch, the muscle. "Trump's power persists, and will live on post-presidency. But McConnell — in his cunningly quiet but methodical way — is flexing his authority. It's a taste of a tension that will help define the next four years." (For me, the tension will taste the way it always tastes. Like the Tums I'm chewing on.)

+ Meanwhile, Congress is close to finally passing a new stimulus package, in large part because Mitch says they are. NBC News: Direct cash payments likely as lawmakers near Covid aid deal.

"There are multiple adverse outcomes that result from political sectarianism, according to the authors. It 'incentivizes politicians to adopt antidemocratic tactics when pursuing electoral or political victories' since their supporters will justify such norm violation because 'the consequences of having the vile opposition win the election are catastrophic.'" Thomas B. Edsall in the NYT on the political sectarianism that is driving us apart (and friggin nuts). We Have a Problem.

+ "While it's impossible to pin down the scope of such beliefs, analysts say, the numbers are staggering if even a fraction of President Trump's more than 74 million voters support bogus claims that say, for example, the election was rigged, the coronavirus is a hoax, and liberals are hatching a socialist takeover." NPR: Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn.

+ Tim Alberta in Politico Magazine: 20 Americans Who Explain the 2020 Election. "We have very little in common except our fear of each other."

"Around the world, climate change is becoming an epochal crisis, a nightmare of drought, desertification, flooding and unbearable heat, threatening to make vast regions less habitable and drive the greatest migration of refugees in history. But for a few nations, climate change will present an unparalleled opportunity, as the planet's coldest regions become more temperate. There is plenty of reason to think that those places will also receive an extraordinary influx of people displaced from the hottest parts of the world as the climate warms. Human migration, historically, has been driven by the pursuit of prosperity even more so than it has by environmental strife. With climate change, prosperity and habitability — haven and economic opportunity — will soon become one and the same. And no country may be better positioned to capitalize on climate change than Russia." The Big Thaw: How Russia Could Dominate a Warming World.

"More than any event in memory, the pandemic has been a global event. On every continent, households have felt its devastation — joblessness and lockdowns, infirmity and death. And an abiding, relentless fear." AP: A pandemic atlas: How COVID-19 took over the world in 2020.

+ Covid traveled the globe without playing favorites. The vaccine rollout may not be so egalitarian. One-quarter of the world may not get a Covid-19 vaccine until 2022.

+ While we're waiting for the vaccine, we're stressed. Anxiety and depression are following a remarkably similar curve to Covid-19 cases. It will be remarkably interesting to see what the world looks like when we exit the pandemic. We could be in for a new dose of the roaring 20s.

"Facebook told employees on Tuesday that it's developing a tool to summarize news articles so users won't have to read them. It also laid out early plans for a neural sensor to detect people's thoughts and translate them into action." (Well, I'm glad they learned their lesson.) Buzzfeed: Facebook Said It's Developing A Tool To Read Your Brain. Adrienne LaFrance was kind enough save them the effort and just tell them what she thinks: Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine.

"Message was formally delivered Tuesday morning in a demand letter delivered to the town of Palm Beach and also addressed to the U.S. Secret Service asserting that Trump lost his legal right to live at Mar-a-Lago because of an agreement he signed in the early 1990s when he converted the storied estate from his private residence to a private club." WaPo: Mar-a-Lago neighbors to Trump: Spend your post-presidency elsewhere. (Rest of Planet Earth: "Same.") One of the most undertold parts of the Trump story is that he's not welcome in NYC. So much of his life was dedicated to being loved in the Bigly Apple. He even briefly planned to run his presidency out of Trump Tower.

+ 900 guests were invited to one of Mike Pompeo's indoor holiday parties. 70 RSVP'd. Fewer attended. It was all for the best. Pompeo himself is currently quarantining.

"She described the coronavirus pandemic as 'a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,' and noted it has been worse for women, people of color and those living in poverty. 'Meanwhile ... it has substantially increased the wealth of billionaires.'" Over the past four months, MacKenzie Scott has given away $4.1 billion to 384 organizations.

"German leader Angela Merkel has been urged by the Thai opposition to expel him, and Heiko Maas, Germany's foreign minister, has warned the king that he'll face "immediate consequences" if he's found to be unlawfully carrying out government business on German soil." King of Thailand Allegedly Ruling His Nation From German Ski Resort With a Retinue of Concubines.

"If there's one statistic that demonstrates the way TikTok has become entwined in our lives in 2020, it's this: in March, as the UK and the rest of the world locked down, users worldwide spent 2.8 billion hours on TikTok. That number is far greater than the previous year, when it was a comparatively stingy 726 million hours. It's difficult to get a grasp on just how big 2.8 billion hours is, until you realise it's as long as there's been between today and the Stone Age." (That's also how long it will take me to pry my iPhone out of my 12 year-old daughter's hands...)

"Invented by a microbiologist in 1988, Dippin' Dots' self-proclaimed 'Ice Cream of the Future' maintains its characteristic beaded form only if stored at -49 degrees Fahrenheit. Slipping even a few degrees in the wrong direction can jeopardize the quality of a batch." What the Dippin' Dots ‘cold chain' can teach us about COVID-19 vaccines.

+ Are Fake Christmas Trees Actually More Eco-Friendly? (Being Jewish is the most eco-friendly, even if you consider the off-gassing of the menorah candles...)