It's a fitting end to a crappy year: White House officials are calling us in a panic about President Trump’s erratic behavior. England is panicking about a possible super-spreading virus strain. And vaccine distribution is hitting bumps.

• Why it matters: My friends joke that I'm a hopelessly optimistic guy. So, I could spin it: You need to hit rock bottom before you bound out of bed better than ever! But the reality is that incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain was right when he warned of a "very, very, very dark winter."

Winter technically starts tomorrow. But it's already clear that in the 31 days until the inauguration, American institutions will be tested like never before.

• Axios yesterday sent two alerts with Jonathan Swan's jaw-dropping reporting from Trump's inner circle, with diehard loyalists now telling us they're alarmed about what Trump might try over the next month.

On top of loose Oval Office talk about martial law first reported by the N.Y. Times' Maggie Haberman and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Trump tweeted yesterday that the cyberhack "is well under control."

• Top administration officials tell me it's anything but — that the damage may take months and billions to detect and repair.

After Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned yesterday of a coronavirus strain that is 70% more transmissible, England finds itself increasingly cut off:

• Italy, the Netherlands and Austria banned flights from the U.K., and Eurostar trains between London, Brussels and Amsterdam are being canceled.
• The virus is out of control, regardless of any new variant.

With governors around the country complaining that they're being shorted on vaccines they've been promised, a government official yesterday did something rare — admitted there was a problem, and took total blame.

• Army four-star Gen. Gus Perna, COO of Operation Warp Speed, apologized for "miscommunication" with states and told reporters: "I failed. I'm adjusting."

The bottom line: In these times, even an optimist has no choice but to become a realist.

• Go deeper, with Swan's living-history dispatches: "Officials increasingly alarmed about Trump’s power grab" ... "Giuliani asks DHS about seizing voting machines."

President Trump's closest confidants no longer expect him to imminently announce he's running in 2024, Jonathan Swan is told by three sources who've recently discussed the matter with the president.

Between the lines: Trump doesn't want to announce a run before January 20 — an idea he had initially toyed with — because it would show his base he’s given up his fight to overturn the election.

• While Trump definitely wants to hold out the possibility of running, he is not sure he wants to go through the official FEC process anytime soon, a person familiar with Trump’s thinking said.

There were "raised voice levels and animated conversation" during a chaotic Friday night meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office, a source familiar with the meeting tells Jonathan Swan.

• As the N.Y. Times first reported yesterday, the meeting included — at various times — Rudy Giuliani, Gen. Michael Flynn and conspiracy-minded election lawyer Sidney Powell.
• Chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Pat Cipollone pushed back strenuously on some of the more far-out ideas, including impounding voting machines and making Powell special counsel for election fraud.

"It's basically Sidney versus everybody," the source told Swan. "That is why voices were raised. There is literally not one motherf—r in the president’s entire orbit — his staunchest group of supporters and allies — who doesn't think that Sidney Powell should be on that first rocket to Mars."

• "These are the hardcore defenders. This is the one thing that has united people."

Between the lines: With the obvious exception, of course, of the president of the United States.

States are the new battleground in a growing national movement to protect people of color from hairstyle discrimination, Axios race and justice reporter Russell Contreras writes.

• Legislation in Congress has stalled so advocates are taking the fight local, gaining state-by-state workplace and school rights for people who wear Afros, braids, cornrows, dreadlocks, and headwraps.

Seven states have passed hair anti-discrimination laws since 2019 — California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, and Colorado.

• Lawmakers in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Texas, and Tennessee are pushing for similar state laws in their upcoming sessions.

The big picture: Nationwide demonstrations this year over systemic racism brought new commitments by corporations and universities to rethink policies.

• Keep reading.

Introducing his energy and environment team in Wilmington, President-elect Biden called climate change "an existential threat of our time":

When we think about climate change, we think "jobs." Good-paying union jobs. A key plank of our Build Back Better economic plan is building a modern, climate-resilient infrastructure and clean energy future.

Go deeper: Biden remarks ... Vice President-elect Harris remarks ... Remarks by climate nominees and appointees.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in an address to the U.K.: "It is with a very heavy heart, I must tell you: We cannot continue with Christmas as planned."

• "Johnson imposed an effective lockdown on over 16 million people in England and reversed plans to ease curbs over Christmas," Reuters reports.

Instacart is asking public health authorities to include its workers as part of the essential workers who will get COVID vaccines, Kia Kokalitcheva reports.

• Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash recently made similar requests.

Between the lines: Getting workers vaccinated early could help the companies' bottom lines if more drivers feel comfortable giving rides and doing deliveries, and if it makes passengers more comfortable.

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California's ban on spectators during the pandemic has moved the Rose Bowl from Pasadena to Arlington, Texas, AP's Ralph Russo writes.

• "The Granddaddy" of bowl games has been played every year since 1916.

The last time the Rose Bowl game was played on the road was 1942, when the West Coast was deemed unsafe after Pearl Harbor.

• L.A. Times front-page teaser: "'GRANDDADDY' SACKED."

Tiger Woods, 44, and his son Charlie, 11, on the 14th fairway during the first round of the PNC Championship golf tournament in Orlando yesterday.

Charlie carried his dad, Golfweek's Adam Schupak writes:

• "He did," Tiger said with a big smile.

"Father and son teamed for a score of 10-under 62 in the scramble format, offsetting a bogey at the par-4 15th with nine birdies and an eagle at the par-5 third hole."

• "Until this week, Charlie’s golf exploits had mostly been guarded like state secrets. Occasionally, video of his swing would surface on social media from one of his appearances at a junior tournament and dissected as if it was the Zapruder Film."

Keep reading.

On the last "Saturday Night Live" before the inauguration, cast member Alex Moffatt (age 38) replaced Jim Carrey (58) as Joe Biden (78), hobbling onstage with a cane, then tossing it aside and somersaulting (in boot cast) to center stage.

• Beck Bennett as Vice President Pence: "You look different, somehow."
• "Biden" replied: "There's a good chance that this time next year, I'm gonna be Mario Lo-pez. Now where're the vaccines at?"

Watch the YouTube.