I'm seeing a number of posts lately about reading goals. It makes me think about how we were required to read "Silas Marner" in high school and I hated it. I picked it up again in my late 20's and loved it. The thing is, at neither point was I wrong. I was just at a different place in life.

Marjorie Greene's "pitiful me" tour is like if Ebeneezer Scrooge just went around for the rest of his life whining about how mean those ghosts were to him before he finally chose to be decent.

I made it through this year of atrocities with my mental health battered but intact, and now I've got to live the whole thing over again with a thousand lazy "Year in Review" stories in the press.

I know it's Boxing Day but I don't plan to participate. My Mom is the only other person at home today and she's got a mean left.

So I didn't win the second largest Powerball jackpot in history last night. I'm choosing to believe it's because I'm destined to win the largest one in history when it builds up again.

Mom and I had to cancel our Christmas plans to go to a family Feast of Seven Fishes when she got sick, so I ran out to Publix and grabbed what I could to improvise something. We had a Feast of Several Fishes together anyway. Hope everyone has a fine Christmas.

Class 52. Why Civics Education is the Key to Defending Democracy open.substack.com/pub/asharang...

So do I have this right? That birdbrain at CBS censored the story about CECOT in the US but let it air in Canada, and she thought nobody here would ever see it?

Just a little semantic note: information that has been redacted has not been "released," it has been withheld.

After two bouts of this bronchitis this month I'm going to have abs like a steel plate from coughing.

Being a pessimist means at least you're rarely disappointed. But expecting the worst from Republicans just means you're a realist.

Republicans always play for the most fleeting benefits in the media, and Trump does so even more than most. Sure, the zebra-striped documents they released today are an aggravation and a disappointment, but they simply aren't competent enough to keep the deception running. Keep up hope.

I don't remember reading that the bill to release those files said "Just release some of them and then dribble out everything else you want us to see at your convenience."

A plea to the corporate media: Could you please, for God's sake, stop reporting that "mathematicians say 400-500% price reductions are mathematically impossible." Math is not an opinion. If you can't, at long last, say those numbers are a lie, just say they are, without qualification, impossible.

The President does not have the power to "declare war" without Congressional action. The War Powers Act (1973) lays out exactly what the President must do, and how Congress must be involved. It's even supposed to apply to Republican Presidents although you might not know that from the media.

You know how at least 9 Republicans could be real heroes? Call for the House Speakership to be vacated, then nominate somebody competent, reasonable, and moral for the job.

I understand it's news that 4 Republicans actually did the right thing and signed on to the ACA Discharge Petition, but seeing the corporate media report that Republicans have "revolted" and enabled the petition when 214 Democrats were already signed on is only going to give the rest of them cover.

What can we do to prevent someone like Trump from gaining office again? It might help to force candidates to take the US citizenship test live on C-SPAN sometime before election day. They don't have to pass, but all of their answers and their final score should be made public and reported.

Thinking about the lost days of yore when Republicans actually criticized frivolous lawsuits. Of course, to be fair, that was usually when some little guy got maimed by a corporation.

I miss the times when we used to say, "More people get measles than [something]" and it indicated that something was quite rare.

Was just reflecting on how far we've come since the prevailing explanation for Trump's election was that some people were left behind by the economy.

When I read the news about Rob Reiner the first thing I thought about was his character Michael ("Meathead") trying every week to appeal to some better angel in Archie Bunker and mostly not finding one. That was certainly a prescient moment in television. Not that MAGA isn't much worse than Archie.

Combined with his comment on the murders at Brown University ("these things happen"), this quote should be placed in textbooks about the psychological pathology of malignant narcissism.

Most Republicans in Congress know full well that executive orders are not a way for the President to make laws unilaterally. Maybe not the semiliterate dumbasses like Markwayne and Tuberville, but most of them. And they'll go right back to believing it as soon as a Democrat becomes President again.

Trump condoms. What do you do, show her the picture of him on the package to prevent sexual contact? Or is the simple act of owning one sufficient?

If some fool opens up a reply with a double-down on his protest vote against Kamala Harris and criticizing me for voting for her, then doesn't understand why he got blocked, I really don't know what I can do for him.

Local news just reported a Georgia GOP official as saying that Democrats had "taken advantage of a low turnout special election" to win a GA House seat in what was believe to be a terminally-gerrymandered district. Good job, dude, you just keep on believing that.

Clearly they keep taking Trump to the hospital for cognitive/dementia tests so they can marvel over and over at how boldly he is able to "ace" them. www.mediaite.com/politics/tru...

"There should be a way to disable autoplay videos permanently in every browser and app."

Has anybody really thought about what it does to your muscles to get them all worked out and hot and then have to sit crouched in a near-fetal position in a 20-inch-wide space for 8 hours?

I don't understand commercials where the company portrays their customers as helpless imbeciles. I assume they're supposed to be funny, but all I get out of them is that you have to be a real dumbass to buy their product or service.

Got a reminder from some narcissist this morning that Democrats will face not only MAGA but also people who do not seem to understand that protest voting or not voting will give us just as much MAGA as voting Republican. If your "principles" do not include getting rid of a fascist, you have none.

I think a James Madison U Cinderella run would be kind of cool.

I'm a Georgia fan because it's my alma mater and it's where I live. Not so much so an SEC fan. While I know a lot of people probably don't like my team, I think Alabama has historically and up to the present done more than any other team to make people hate our conference.

The USS Solace, my uncle's ship at Pearl Harbor during the attack on Dec. 7, 1941. Hard to believe we're where we are now essentially only a generation removed from the people who fought so hard against fascism.

Isn't this, like, the 20th straight year that somebody had taken away the MAGAs right to say "Merry Christmas" and some Republican con man politician has won it back for them?

Going out to add to my portfolio in quest of a Peace Prize from the FIDD (Federation of International Day Drinkers). Go Dawgs.

Trump may not realize how many of his cult followers think soccer is a communist plot.

My pub trivia team is inaugurating a Peace Prize that will be awarded to one of our members each week, who will then be stuck with the bar tab for the night.

Interested to hear that they're releasing the original theater version of Star Wars. Maybe next they'll release the version of ET where the police guns haven't yet been CGI/Spielberged into walkie talkies.

FIFA sure went to a lot of trouble to do the equivalent of jingling a set of shiny car keys in front of Trump to make him happy.

Seriously, nobody has "forgotten" about the Epstein files. They're being discussed almost daily as new evidence comes out. I think it would be far worse if people were saying, "OK, they murdered people clinging to a wrecked boat, but we can't think about that now because of Epstein," don't you?

I'd just like to know how much taxpayer money is being wasted on teams of doctors and cosmetologists trying to make Trump look alert and healthy during his public appearances. Talk about a boondoggle!

Final post-op appointment for my Mom's cataract surgery yesterday, and the news was great. We've been dealing with pre and post-op's, surgery, aftercare, and thousands (seemingly) of eyedrops since September, but she came through it all like a champ.

Exclusive video of Lane Kiffin tearfully saying goodbye to his current players youtu.be/vWRlxSGf_ns?...

This tired, deeply-damaged man is so needy. He has to have references to him being president on his hat, on his shirt, and on a golf-framed placard next to his overcooked cheeseburger he's almost too-out-of-it to eat.

How many times does Trump have to lose consciousness in public in front of cameras before the corporate media will go a little farther than saying that there are "questions" about his health?

I might add, making a purchased ticket a contract rather than a gamble and acknowledging that people who travel will have luggage that ought to be considered part of the bargain.

We should probably give the sportswriters a break on their little Lane Kiffin man-crush. They've been so bereft since their Arch Manning man-crush went south back in September, they need some guy to squeal about like teenagers.

Oh, by the way, thank you, Texas!