Seems an apropos time to remind my Minnesota friends here that we have our own Bari Weiss running the Star Tribune currently as a Silicon Valley import and he is killing columns all the time (with the help of the Opinion editor) @cbsnews.com @startribune.com captimes.com/opinion/paul...

happy bday artist/poet Jean-Michel Basquiat, b.1960, NYC, died way too young at 27 of overdose. “Art is how we decorate space; Music is how we decorate time.”

happy bday artist/writer Kenneth Rexroth, b.1905, South Bend, IN. “Love slays what we have been, That we may be what we were not.” The earth turns towards the sun. Summer comes to the mountains. Blue grouse drum in the red fir woods All the bright long days.

Bravo to her for speaking out

I know Sharyn Alfonsi, i worked with Sharyn Alfonsi (at ABC News), Bari Weiss you are no Sharyn Alfonsi. Sharyn is as good as a journalist as you will ever find, and she has more integrity in her little toe than Weiss has in her entire body.

Sharyn Alfonsi, a “60 Minutes” correspondent, criticized the network’s decision to remove her reporting from Sunday’s edition of the show.

Good morning/afternoon, Matthew. I love that you are celebrating Christmas in the Cotswolds. We lived there for several years and part of me will always consider it home. 🎄🫶

Wishing you a blessed Winter Solstice and Fourth Sunday of Advent. May the light returning dispel the darkness of our world with the light of love.💫💜💫

Happy Winter Solstice and Fourth Sunday of Advent. It is early here in England and the church bells just rang across the street in this small town in the Cotswolds. And the candle today is for Love. Wishing you each light and love in times of the dark.

happy bday British writer Anthony Powell, b.1905. “Books do furnish a room.” “But, in a sense, nothing in life is planned—or everything is—because in the dance every step is ultimately the corollary of the step before; the consequence of being the kind of person one chances to be.”

Went to the Dickens home and museum in London today with my daughter. She wants to be a writer and loved it. Such a special place at this time of year to see his writing desk. "There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast."

Elise Stefanik, I would like you to meet Karma.

i have no problem if Trump wants to put his name on this building, and it is much more fitting for him and what he has done in office. He can call it the Donald J. Trump White House of the Confederacy. Trump has done far more damage to America than Jefferson Davis ever hoped.

happy bday writer/disability rights activist Marta Russell, b.1951. “There is no Death with Dignity when people choose to die because health care economics and the social services system prevent life with dignity.”

happy bday French educator Ferdinand-Édouard Buisson, b.1841, awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1927. "A human society obeys the dictates of reason and is guided and governed by a respect for justice."

RIP British writer Emily Brontë, died this day 1848. "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire". "Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree".

On this day in 1843 A Christmas Carol by Dickens, published for first time. “I will honor Christmas in my heart, & try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

it turns out that people like Puka Nucua are evidence that there is a definite need for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training in America. Maybe people wouldn't make obvious hurtful remarks if they were trained on biases and prejudices.

happy bday abolitionist/poet John Greenleaf Whittier, b.1807, Haverhill, MA. "Peace hath higher tests of manhood, than battle ever knew." "To worship rightly is to love each other." "For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'"

Happy bday Spanish philosopher/writer George Santayana, b. 1863. “The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly,...

Merry Christmas, Matthew. We will miss your uplifting poetry posts and other comments

happy bday English writer Jane Austen, b.1775. “There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.” "We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.”

good morning sisters/brothers. here in england with my daughter for a few weeks, and my postings will be hit and miss till the new year. wishing you each peace and joy at this Christmas and holiday time. much love.

It's the GUNS #EndGunViolence with sensible gun laws. #BanAssaultWeapons

Happy Third Sunday of Advent or what is also known as Gaudete Sunday, from latin "rejoice". The lighting of the rose candle today is for "joy". Sisters/brothers in times of sadness or tragedy may you find moments that bring you joy especially in the most simple things.

happy bday French poet Paul Éluard, b.1895. “Your eyes in which I travel Have given to signs along the roads A meaning alien to the earth.” “She is always unwilling to understand, to listen, She laughs to hide her fear of herself. She has always walked beneath the arches of nights...

on this day in 2012, 20 children and 6 adults are killed in mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. And with the awful shooting at Brown University yesterday, we still haven't done anything on meaningful national gun laws. Enough is enough.

happy bday Danish writer/feminist Mathilde Fibiger, b.1830. “I believe that God in every human-being, is expressing a divine idea, and a different in each.” "But only what is true and free is truly beautiful."

happy bday German writer Heinrich Heine, b.1797. "Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings." "When the heroes go off the stage, the clowns come on."

Foresight on so many things facing our country right now…from Matthew Dowd @matthewjdowd.bsky.social in February 2017: “The health of a Democracy is based on our ability to come together for the common good, and only way to do that is with common set of facts.” -- Matthew Dowd #Democracy

I haven’t bought any yet this season. Thanks for the reminder!

Thanks Matthew! The first quote sounds like something the wonderful U Toronto historian Timothy Snyder would say! Jim

happy bday artist Helen Frankenthaler, b.1928 in NYC. “Every canvas is a journey all its own.There are no rules. Let the picture lead you where it must go.”

happy bday French writer Gustave Flaubert, b. 1821. "Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times. "Travel makes one modest; you see what a tiny place you occupy in the world." “There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it”.

Today is National Poinsettia Day. The beautiful flower is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, who died this day 1851. He was a physician/botanist and the first American Ambassador to Mexico. He sent the samples back to South Carolina from Mexico. This flower has a long history in Aztec culture.

Michigan AD Ward Manuel should be fired immediately. How much stuff has gone on his watch: hockey coach, basketball coach, football coach, Stallions, etc.

Good morning.

This Colorado native applauds!

Today is International Mountain Day and the theme this year is "Glaciers matter for water, food and livelihoods in mountains and beyond”.

Happy birthday Naguib Mahfouz. 🎂

happy bday Indian poet/composer Subramania Bharati, b.1882. "A society's strength is measured in how it uplifts its weakest link." "The world widens when minds refuse to accept narrow chains." "The world will prosper when men and women walk as equals."

Happy bday Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz, b.1911, first Arabic writer to receive Nobel Prize in Lit. "It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat."

Nancy Mace is running for Governor of South Carolina. In latest polling, among potential GOP primary voters, she is in fourth place, and her net favorability rating is -19! She has managed to unite Democrats, Republicans and Independents all of whom despise her.

RIP Trappist monk/mystic, one of my favs, Thomas Merton, died today 1968. "Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business." “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another.”

on this day in 1909, Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf is first woman to receive Nobel Prize in Literature. "Around us sorrow swells like a heaving ocean; we can see how the hungry waves lick the ship's sides, how they climb to board her. No safe anchorage, no solid ground, no steady ship,...

HBD 🎂 Emily Dickenson

Thank you, Matthew. Such a timely poem. We need that hope more than ever.

I love "Hope is the thing with feathers". I quote it sometimes just because it gives me pleasure. Also, her poem: "Because I could not stop for Death –".

happy bday English mathematician Ada Lovelace, b.1815, considered to be first computer programmer. "I never am really satisfied that I understand anything; because, understand it well as I may, my comprehension can only be an infinitesimal fraction of all I want to understand."

happy bday one of my favs Emily Dickinson, b.1830, Amherst, MA. "Not knowing when the dawn will come I open every door". “Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all.”