From Owen Gleiberman‘s “The Melting Down of Donald Trump,” posted this morning: “Trump may still try to stage some sort of legal-electoral ‘coup,’ but to anyone tethered to the real world, his protests will increasingly sound like the face-saving whine of someone who can’t admit, or even compute, the prospect of his own defeat.

“On the deepest level, ‘The mail-in votes in Pennsylvania don’t count!’ is a fascist version of ‘The dog ate my homework!’ It’s Trump clinging to the presidency and trashing the rule of law, but mostly it’s Trump doing all he can to refuse his comeuppance, to deny that he’s now the loser he has spent his whole life running from being.

“[Classic villain comeuppance is] what happens, most spectacularly, in The Wizard of Oz, when the Wicked Witch of the West is destroyed before our eyes in a catharsis of long-finger-nailed rage. ‘Look what you’ve done!’ she screams. ‘I’m melting, melting!’ And then, with a touch of despair that can almost be called tragic, she says, ‘Oh, what a world, what a world’! She’s talking about a world that has taken away her power. She then crumples like a melted crayon, a humiliated mass of thwarted ambition.

“That’s what just happened to Donald Trump. He wasn’t simply defeated, given the boot by the American people. He got melted down. And that’s why he’ll never admit it. He’s holding the entire American democratic process hostage to prop up what’s left of his broken ego.

“There’s a lot of talk about how even though Trump lost, ‘Trumpism’ is here to stay. It will be standing on the sidelines, waiting in the wings, warming up for a comeback. But what does Donald Trump stand for, as a political figure, once you take away his power? He’ll be just another fulminating talk-radio host. And, of course, the cornerstone of his brand will now become the very notion that the presidency was stolen from him. He’ll make that the centerpiece of every rally, every Fox News appearance, every talk-radio hour he presides over.

“But it will all be Trump spinning his brokenness, licking his wounds. The Trump faithful, the true believers — the cult — will tune in. But I suspect that for most of America, Trump will simply sound like the sore loser he is. So let him spin away. It’s time to say goodnight to the bad guy.”

Dave Chappelle did a 16-minute standup routine at the start of last night’s SNL. And he smoked cigarettes all through it. For my money it was deep-down substantive on a Lenny Bruce level. Way more thoughtful and nutritious than the usual usual.

“Some people [in Ohio] make more money from stimulus checks than they do if they work, so a lot of people don’t wanna work. You know what that reminded me of? Ronald Reagan. What did Ronald Reagan say about black people? Welfare people, drug addicts…hoo, does that sound like now. Continue with the checks, the heroin. The rest of the country is tryin’ to move forward and these white bigots keep holdin’ us back.”

Herewith my favorite Russian dishes.

In first place are cheesecakes (syrniki), otherwise known as hot crisp with sour cream. This is one of three dishes that I know how to cook really well. My way of doing it is to roll them in peeled seed kernels and oatmeal before frying.

Cottage cheese in the United States is delicious, but completely unsuitable for cooking cheesecakes. You can buy the right kind of crumbly cottage cheese only in Russian stores. I will tell you about one of them below.

I’ve had a weakness for cottage cheese since childhood. Cottage cheese, sour cream and a little salt with a crust of fresh warm bread. This is what my parents and grandparents did in Moldova. By the way, if you put a warm crispy baguette in front of me, after five minutes only the pulp will remain on the table, and the crust will be gone. I remember as a child how my mother sent me to the grocery store for bread, milk, kefir; on the way back, almost all the crust was eaten. Aahh, my memories of Soviet grocer stores, and especially the bread department!

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As I understand it, despite Biden’s electoral victory Donald Trump is doubling down on his Deep State conspiracy claims. Harumphing and blustering his way through the belligerency of denial, he’s insisting all the more that “they” have stolen the election. Will he eventually settle down and go “okay, fine…if they want to play it that way I’ll simply become the president-in-exile while I create Trump TV and monetize my loyalist empire,” etc.? How could 71 million Trump supporters be wrong…right?

Anthony Scaramucci believes that deep down Trump is all bullshit and no real action, but if I were Trump — if I was an arrogant, no-class grifter and denialist and strutting asshole who doesn’t care about anything or anyone other than my own financial fortunes and that of my immediate family — if I were Trump I would go hardcore.

I would not only refuse to acknowledge Biden’s victory from here to eternity, but I wouldn’t greet Biden at the White House on Inauguration Day (1.20.21) or attend the swearing-in ceremony or anything. Because I would vacate the White House on 1.19.21 and fly to Mar a Lago or New York in a show of titanic, hard-headed defiance.

If you’re going to self-humiliate by showing the world what a colossally out-of-touch and obstinate dickhead you are, do it big….do it in a way that history will never forget.

Former President George W. Bush has said that the American people “can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear.”

In a prepared statement he said that Trump “has the right to request recounts and pursue legal challenges, with any unresolved issues to be properly adjudicated.” And that “no matter how you voted, your vote counted.” And yet “now is the time when we must come together for the sake of our families and neighbors, and for our nation and its future.”

Bush said that while he and Biden “have political differences”, he knows Biden “to be good man who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.”

Due respect and condolences to family, fans and friends of longtime Jeopardy host Alex Trebek, 80, who passed this morning from pancreatic cancer.

The Canadian-born Trebek was a widely admired professional, mentally agile and fast on his feet and always “a true gentleman”, as the saying goes. And he showed real steel and cosmic resolve as he grappled with cancer over the last couple of years.

That said, I never felt a profound kinship with Trebek — no offense. I may have watched two or three episodes of Jeopardy over the last 35 or 36 years, but that’s all.

Should we now condemn Sting‘s harshness and cruelty for having written “you could say I’d lost my belief in our politicians…they all seem like game show hosts to me”?

Or should we ease up and let it go, understanding that Trebek and others in his professional realm have a certain role to play in our culture, and that as shallow and appalling and angled at the mob as many game shows are (Jeopardy was at least amusing and informative) they bring no particular harm?

Trebek’s parents were George Edward Trebek (originally Terebeychuk), a chef who had emigrated from Ukraine as a child, and Lucille Lagacé, a French-speaking Ontario native. I had always presumed that Trebek was a Czech name.

Parisian church bells allegedly celebrating Donald Trump‘s defeat at the hands of Biden-Harris — that’s a fairly startling reaction when you think about it. Trump is truly reviled worldwide. Anyway, the person who took this panning shot was somewhere in Montmartre. Wouldn’t you think someone closer to one of the churches or cathedrals might have captured some better smartphone footage? Searching around as we speak.