Forgetting for a moment just how remarkably desensitized to insanity the Trump era has made all of us, consider just how bonkers, under normal circumstances, what we have all just witnessed really is. The president of the United States declared himself the winner of an election, claimed it was stolen from him, and… it had no significant impact on how events transpired.

The news media, even formerly state-run news outlet Fox News, all called the race (perhaps a day later than they would have had Trump not made his claims) for Biden. Biden then immediately declared victory and began the transition of power, while almost all of the world’s major leaders embraced the outcome as if Trump had already conceded.

What is perhaps most shocking about all of this was not Trump’s total unwillingness to accept defeat/reality — a reaction he has telegraphed for at least four years — but rather how little authority Trump had to even influence events. Trump pushed the accelerator to the floor of his presidential limo, and for 95% of the media and 65% of the public… nothing changed…

Bizarrely, and quite troublingly, about 2/3 of the nation no longer takes Trump remotely seriously even when he makes the most dramatic and empathic claims imaginable, while the remainder has never viewed him with more reverence now that he somehow overcame unprecedented efforts from liberal/media elites to oust him from power and still managed to get far more votes than any incumbent president in history.