In 24 hours or so, Joe Biden will be sworn in as President by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, with the world looking on and, for the most part, heaving a giant sigh of relief.

In 1865, Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in the parlor of a Virginia house to agree on terms of surrender that ended the Civil War.

I wanted to write about sedition and the rise of the new Confederacy. But first: predictions for 2021. Many of them will be wrong, and that's the fun. As usual, it is political and cultural in nature, national in scope with a little Vermont thrown in.

I wanted to write about sedition and the rise of the new Confederacy. But first: predictions for 2021. Many of them will be wrong, and that's the fun. As usual, it is political and cultural in nature, national in scope with a little Vermont thrown in.