Day 140—Said my Our Father for our country. Every day until… Join me. Let me know. Pass this on. If it’s not your “thing”, just be kind, let it be. Christmas Eve at the Shrine of St. Anthony: May the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ shine a light and bring peace to our nation and the world.

"The woods rang with voices. The rocks echoed a festive chorus. The brothers sang praises to the Lord. The whole night seemed to leap with joy. Then the saint of God stood before the manger. His spirit trembled with love and compassion beyond words." #Celano #SaintFrancisOfAssisi #MerryChristmas.

I’m a satisfied Bukwark+ member. Great journalism by great people that believe in the Constitution and the rule of law. @thebulwark.com

Multiple envoys selected by Putin meet in warm American city to discuss future of Ukraine

LOL, literally.

"On Sunday, J. D. Vance was presented with the simplest moral test: denounce commentators who traffic in medieval blood libels, who deny the Holocaust, and who endlessly harp on evil Jewish cabals." He failed. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Day 139—Said my Our Father for our country. Every day until… Join me. Let me know. Pass this on. If it’s not your “thing”, just be kind, let it be. At the Shrine of St. Anthony on December 23, 3025. “Hatred Destroys, Love Alone Creates.”—St. Maximilian Kolbe Crib awaiting Christ Child.

Do not watch anything on @cbsnews.com and no to Kennedy Center broadcast. Kennedy Center honors has been destroyed by malignant narcissist trump. CBS is now a state controlled outlet that can’t be trusted for any news, what other stories have been killed for broadcast? #DV1 #ProudBlue

As a former New Yorker (left Staten Island in 1968 for Naval Academy, never lived in NY again), this tool is great fun. I had no idea it existed. Here is my house in Columbia, Maryland.

UPDATE I have updated my story linked below with a high-quality broadcast version of the 60 Minutes segment that was pulled by Bari Weiss. Here it is (no paywall): bit.ly/4qn6Jn5

Day 138—Said my Our Father for our country. Every day until… Join me. Let me know. Pass this on. If it’s not your “thing”, just be kind, let it be. Three days until Christmas. Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. May there be Peace on Earth and Good Will to All.

Always read @hcrichardson.bsky.social especially today on JD Vance calling us a Christian nation. She shows reason for separation of church and state. She points out it was Confederacy that misused Christianity to justify white male supremacy, slavery, and limited woman’s role to marriage.

Excellent as always....a TRUE American, Heather Cox Richardson.

Thread:

Absolutely right. AI might be able to summarize (poorly) what we currently know, but a major goal of historical research is to find the hidden surprises out there. Let me illustrate …

Again, from Michael Grynbaum, here is Sharyn Alfonsi's full email. It must be read:

Per NY Times’s Michael Grynbaum on X, this is Sharyn Alfonsi’s email to her “60 Minutes” colleagues in full:

1. BREAKING Sharyn Alfonsi, a correspondent for 60 Minutes, sent an internal email to colleagues stating that CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss “spiked our story” about the Trump administration and the transfer of deportees to a prison in El Salvador.

This @peterbakernyt.bsky.social paragraph is a perfect summary of our descent into authoritarianism. He’s not even editorializing. He’s just reporting what’s happened, and what we’ve become numb to. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/21/u...

In English we know it as “Carol of the Bells,” but the melody arises from a Ukrainian folk tradition of songs welcoming the new year and summoning the forces of nature to meet human labor and bring prosperity. Do listen. I wrote about the history here: snyder.substack.com/p/o-generous...

Day 137—Said my Our Father for our country. Every day until… Join me. Let me know. Pass this on. If it’s not your “thing”, just be kind, let it be.

December 21: The winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year as the Earth's axial tilt positions the Northern Hemisphere farthest from the Sun.

The Winter Solstice alignment at Stonehenge today. Photo credit: Nick Bull x.com/i/status/200...

to be clear, the Chicago Bears were down by 10 against the Green Bay Packers with 2:01 left in regulation.

Like politics, anyone can (usually) weigh in on religion. But FWIW: Harvard, where Pinker teaches, also has a divinity school. It has lots of scholars who study religion for a living. Pinker isn't one of them — in fact, they've publicly criticized him: www.commonwealmagazine.org/enlightenmen...

Winter Solstice occurs today, December 21, 2025 at 10:03 a.m. EST. As St. Francis said to those he met, “May the Lord give you peace.”

Michael Caine made this movie a classic. He acts in every scene as if he's working along side Olivier and Dame Anderson, not Kermit and Fozzy. It's brilliant and I love him for approaching this movie with such seriousness and joy.

Live long and be merry. op: omegaparticlepodcast via IG

"I know we shouldn't be surprised that he liked to move on this so fast, but it did just happen like 12 hours ago." JVL and Catherine Rampell discuss the re-naming of the Kennedy Center, as Donald Trump continues to put his name on anything he can—congressional approval or not.

Full video: lnk.thebulwark.com/44EACXQ?utm_...

Truth.

Yes, it’s a coverup by Pam Bondi. But it’s really a coverup by Donald Trump. Bondi is his agent.

Day 136—Said my Our Father for our country. Every day until… Join me. Let me know. Pass this on. If it’s not your “thing”, just be kind, let it be.

The @oversightdemocrats.house.gov have done a great job on Epstein. My only suggestion to them, and to their colleagues, is that they say, instead of “we need transparency,” “we need the truth.” “We need the truth” is simple, kind of catchy…and true.

Eucharistic Adoration at the Shrine of St. Anthony in Ellicott City, MD on December 20, 2025, Saturday of the Third Week of Advent. Two prayers shown are by St. Francis: 1) San Damiano prayer is oldest text by Francis. 2) Prayer from the Testament shows Francis’s love for Eucharist.

San Diego bishop dedicates sculpture honoring migrants and refugees at college campus www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/268605/...

The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts defaced by the illegal addition of the name of the 47th president.

What is HUBRIS? (Hubris is extreme or excessive pride or dangerous overconfidence and complacency,often in combination with (or synonymous with) arrogance.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris?...

Law Dork on the National Memorial that the Trump administration defaced today. www.lawdork.com/p/q-and-a-de...

In light of the Epstein Blackout, shouldn’t Khanna and Massie demand Johnson call the House back into session? (If he won’t, can they somehow hijack the pro forma session scheduled for Tuesday Dec. 23?) And Senators should make a similar demand of Thune.

This is flat-out illegal. Congress determines the name of the Kennedy Center. Demolition of the East Wing is irreversible. This can and must be fixed. www.cnbc.com/2025/12/19/t...

"You’re describing a dystopian hellscape. None of this could ever happen" - what every reliable Trump lickspittle would have told you if you neutrally described America in Dec. 2025 to them on the eve of Election Day in 2024. Today's Triad from @jvl.bsky.social: lnk.thebulwark.com/3MTvrwZ

This defense of the maritime killing spree boils down to the Nixon Principle: When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.

@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social "We can seek to honor the survivors by coming to grips...with what Epstein did. We can seek to build a more decent society by coming to grips, honestly and forthrightly, with the fact that we let him get away with it." open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...

Read @hcrichardson.bsky.social on Thomas Paine and The American Crisis (published 249 years ago today) and how the battles of Trenton (Christmas Night 1776) and Princeton (January 1777) saved the Revolutionary cause. open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

Day 135—Said my Our Father for our country. Every day until… Join me. Let me know. Pass this on. If it’s not your “thing”, just be kind, let it be.

Read this.

If we can't even identify our enemies then how can we fight them? Trump's National Security Strategy is the longest suicide note in American history www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

This @radiofreetom.bsky.social piece is an excellent analysis and commentary on tonight’s Trump speech by a self-identified “connoisseur of Trump’s speeches.” GIFT ARTICLE www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...