The single most cynicism-inducing fact of politics in my lifetime?

Plus: the face computer, changing the audio record, and more

Good morning! It’s Wednesday, and here are this week’s five items for you.

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1. the rest of the first item

2. the face computer

3. Billy Graham on aging

4. some recent work

5. changing the audio record

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1. A take I haven’t written elsewhere

The single most cynicism-inducing fact of politics in my lifetime?

(via)

The past nine years have seen a great deal of ink spilt and breath unspared in warning of the unique, grave, and imminent threat to our democracy that is Donald J. Trump. You know the kind of rhetoric I mean. It has flourished in much of the media, and it found an even happier climate among Democratic politicos in and out of Congress.

And there is a significant element of truth here, even if I remain unpersuaded of some more vividly imagined scenarios. The former president has been a deleterious influence on our politics and governance in many ways I feel no need to specify here and now, as—like most political opinion journalists working in America today—I have already written thousands upon thousands of words about what’s wrong with Donald Trump. Suffice it to say none of what follows is predicated on some indefensible confidence in his character or agenda.

But over those same nine years, there has also been a remarkable lack of legislative effort to forestall this much-touted threat. It is, as I commented to

Joel Mathis

the other day, perhaps the single most cynicism-inducing fact of politics in my lifetime.