Today national politics is seen from the hegemonic perspective of the federal government. In this context, the upcoming Georgia Senate run-off election is a powerful reminder of the importance of the state in the balance of power in Congress. The Electoral College is an important brick in the edifice of federalism.

Archaic as this procedure is, it represented American democracy in action. After all of Trump’s assaults and provocations over the past month, that alone was something to celebrate. And, with the result not in any doubt, there was an unexpected pleasure in watching the vote tallies mount.

The Electoral College has been a defining feature of our political system for more than 220 years, and it likely will be with us far into the future. But there are innovative legal options available that can tilt the balance in favor of the winner of the national popular vote.

Barr has been reportedly on the outs with Trump ever since he broke with the president last month on the issue of widespread voter fraud. Trump insisted that the presidential election was stolen and that a massive voter conspiracy was to blame. Barr not only refused to do as the president asked and appoint a special counsel to investigate Trump’s allegations; he also denied that there was any evidence to support Trump’s theory at all.

Even though they had done so much to advance the president’s cause, they were ultimately loyal to their own politics and not, as he demanded, to him personally. It is tempting to say that Sessions and Barr were both Trumpists avant la lettre, but their eventual conflicts with him show there was no such thing: Trumpism is a cult of personality, and policy is always an afterthought.

Barr as Trump’s attorney general went so much further than his conservative convictions would have required. He became not only the defender of the presidency but also the defender of this president. He radically mischaracterized the conclusions of the Mueller report before its public release. He took extraordinary measures, stepping in to overrule career prosecutors, to shield Trump associates such as Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Biden had the vision, set the tone and topped the ticket. But he also recognized what he could not offer on his own, what a 78-year-old white man could never provide: generational change, a fresh perspective, and an embodiment of America’s diversity. For that, he needed Kamala Harris: California Senator, former district attorney and state attorney general, a biracial child of immigrants whose charisma and tough questioning of Trump Administration officials electrified millions of Democrats.

Thousands of doctors, nurses, physician assistants, techs, administrators, ambulance drivers, EMTs, firefighters, right down to those keeping medical facilities as clean as possible, have died since this unprecedented, horrific pandemic began. But Time went with Biden and Harris, who in any other year would be the default choice given the election — but this isn’t any other year.

Whatever it might once have been, Person of the Year is now a tedious self-referential gimmick that exists for the sole purpose of getting people to care about Time. (What a shame that the editors of Newsweek did not invent some equally beloved annual or semi-annual competition — “Salad Topping of the Decade” — during the Coolidge administration.)

…only a few weeks ago the United States supported resuming the U.N. forces mandate in Western Sahara. Now, in a move contrary to international law and the international community’s decisions, Trump has traded this precious recognition for Morocco in exchange for direct flights for Israelis, who have already been flying to Morocco freely without his help.

Trump was wrong to abandon thirty years of US policy on Western Sahara just to score a fast foreign policy victory. An Israel-Morocco deal was possible without abandoning US commitment to Sahrawi referendum on WS future, as Sen. Jim Inhofe rightly said.

This is being represented by Trump’s critics as a grievous concession to tyranny and imperialism, as well as an insult to the United Nations. It’s also a recognition of reality… Much of the international community still supports the myth that the Polisario represents the territory.

What would advanced, shape-shifting, space-time-bending cultures who have done away with war and the corporeal form want with dinky idiots like us? It turns out it has less to do with our intellect than what we’re sitting on. Eshed says that nine aliens representing the Galactic Federation have signed a contract with “us” to conduct experiments. Earth has precious resources: water, biodiversity and, one can assume, that same “us.”

…it is possible that Eshed and his ilk are deliberately lying; certainly, he has a financial incentive to do so, as he is promoting a book about UFOs. “He has already garnered much attention by his claims,” French mused. “He will no doubt become the latest ‘darling’ of the UFO community and be invited to address UFO conferences, not to mention appearances on talk shows, and so on. Maybe it’s all a practical joke and he is laughing all the way to the bank?”

Eshed’s claims just don’t add up. Even a nonspacefaring species like us should be able to understand that research into the fabric of the universe can be conducted anywhere—that’s why they call it the universe! There would be no need for these supposed universe-fabric researchers to pay any attention to our insignificant little planet or its plentiful reserves of nitrogen and cobalt, much less establish diplomatic relations with a lesser species. As for Eshed’s so-called Galactic Federation, how likely is it that an alien government would have a structure that humans like you or me would be able to understand?

A Recipe for Seduction wears its transactions on its (short, tight) sleeve. And that feels oddly—if sadly—refreshing. This is a moment, after all, when deceptions are in the air: when the American president and many others in positions of power are lying, shamelessly and daily, to the public… there’s honesty, in the end, in a work of advertising that is so open about its ends.

Perfect. 2020. Gift. (Not to mention an interesting departure from Lopez’s current star turn as A.C. Slater in Peacock’s acclaimed revival of “Saved by the Bell.”) Lopez as Sanders is — what’s the word — epic? Awkward? Odd? A poor use of spray-on gray on a fake Van Dyke hairstyle? There’s a new chef in town, ma’am, and he has what ingenue Jessica calls “a secret recipe that’s gonna change the world.”

KFC has tried several strategies to make the stodgy Colonel, who sold tires and managed a gas station before selling fried chicken, more relevant to modern burger-buyers over the years. He has been played in commercials by comedian Jim Gaffigan, country singer Reba McEntire, and even the actor best known for portraying “The Mountain” on HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

And the Lifetime mini-movie is not the first time the fast-food chain has cast the Colonel as a Casanova.