The A1 Verse: Grim exits and harm

Every so often, a story published on the front page of the New York Times is so well written, meaningful, and appropriate to the Bulletin’s concerns that small snippets of it, properly chosen and arranged, produce something more than journalism, something that approaches … poetry. That blessed coincidence occurred February 1, 2021.

We suspect it’ll occur again.

How a Lie Stoked the Assault on the Capitol

(from the original by Jim Rutenberg, Jo Becker, Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Martin, Matthew Rosenberg and Michael S. Schmidt)

Concluding
that the reality
was nowhere near enough
(did not,
could not,
not by “a lot”
or even a little)
was particularly demoralizing
for a liar.