Some will probably admit to feeling a sense of relief, maybe satisfaction, over Alec Baldwin’s manslaughter charge, i.e. it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. And a fair question has to be why live ammunition was on the set in the first place!

I hope the charge isn’t because “someone needs to be held accountable,” regardless of whether or not it was a tragic accident. By now, though, one might think that an investigation has been done and the findings have led to this development. Baldwin was not only an actor on set, but also a producer, so his level of responsibility and accountability was increased. One news report suggests this might have something to do with the charge.

In any event, it’ll be a developing story, something to take our minds off the fifty other more consequential things going on in the country and world. Maybe George Santos will somehow lay claim to exonerating Baldwin and emerge as a hero of his own imagining. That could happen.

The digging in of heels around the debt limit discussion is a political stunt by Republicans, plain and simple. They can try to operate in the public eye and paint themselves the guardians of fiscal sanity, but a true treatment of our debt issues with actual results is something that will take much more time and negotiation than simply addressing it at the 11th hour and trying to make the Democrats the fall guys.

I’ve never understood how, year after year, raising the debt ceiling comes across as a good idea, a pro forma, automatic thing, even as our debt grows ever more mind-bogglingly worse. But the Republicans demanding a balanced budget is pie-in-the-sky silliness, especially with everything else that’s hitting consumers in the face. It’s a convenient bargaining tool, but not much more.

And threatening to reduce funding for Social Security and Medicare? They really are soulless hostage takers, though I guess they do have brinkmanship skills and know how to get a rise out of pretty much everybody.

We should recognize the progression. Wars often unfold this way.

More and advanced weaponry is offered and accepted. “Advisors” train.

Many already know where this is heading, that it will soon be too late to reverse course.

Always the irony of fighting for peace, because a microscopic minority continues to thrive on visions of domination and never seems to be able to remove both feet from the past.

Why do whole armies not simply look at motives and rationales and the toll war takes and decide that the people at the top are full of shit?

Whether or not Tom Brady plays again next season is not or shouldn’t be at all important to anyone. We all have much bigger things to worry about. But, since it seems to be a topic for discussion following the Bucs’ loss to Dallas, I’ll add my two cents’.

He should retire and open a spot for someone else to have a chance to play. Set aside whatever “competitive fire” Brady still has in his belly. Set aside his apparent love for hanging with the guys or whatever else still drives him. He appears not to be able to handle life apart from the routines of football.

It long ago became something sad for me, something that started looking like he was hiding, or avoiding things. He has a lucrative (to say the least) contract awaiting him at Fox Sports. He’s got children to help raise. It seems as though he enjoys the fruits of the reputation that always precedes him, as if he knows he’s a living legend to many, and he just needs to keep drinking that in.

I’d like to think that I would feel the same way if he was still playing for the Pats, and I think maybe I would. In any event, Tom is going to do what’s best for Tom. Maybe he’d be a Hall of Fame sportscaster, if he could just make the break.

Amidst the usual avalanche of sad and disturbing news is at least a bit of a bright spot—all the rain in California is actually mitigating drought conditions there. It’ll take a lot more rain to really make a dent, I guess, but these latest inundations are having an effect. The more astounding turnaround would be if Lakes Powell and Mead begin to refill.

As for the sad and disturbing—it seems Joe Biden was aware he was holding onto classified documents.

Great. We’re never going to hear the end of it now. False equivalencies will be flying off the shelves and out of the mouths of Fox News pundits and Republicans everywhere. Coverage of this will be breathless and non-stop even as it already feels like old news. Is there anyone else in violation of the Espionage Act– you, your neighbor down the street?

It hasn’t taken long for this new year to feel familiarly ominous.

-Playing fast and loose—that’s how I see many Republicans in Congress. Irresponsible, immature, uncaring pretenders.

-Wow, Georgia. Holy shit. Machine-like precision from Bennett. Totally relentless.

65-7!

Usually, teams run up the score so they can make a statement and turn heads in the run-up to the play-offs. This was just pure in-your-face smackdown in the final game of the season. What could be interesting is if somehow the same teams face each other again at the end of next season. Memories can be long among athletes, especially football players.

-Top 10 Best Places to Live in the U.S.? Top 10 Best anything? Not for long.

-Precipitation amounts that are 400%-600% above normal, and what are the chances we’ll hear that all this rain (and snow in the mountains) is nice—well, apart from the damage and heartache it’s causing—but it’s not really putting a dent in the drought? Too much too quick, they’ll probably say.

California can’t win for losing. Remember when it used to be the place to be? Seems much less so, anymore. Just a yearly cycle of natural disasters for a while now. A welcomed development would be news of the Hollywood sign eroded loose from its moorings, as reservoirs and the underground water table are recharged.

I happened to catch a bit of the interview Anderson Cooper did with Prince Harry (Does he have a last name? Is he a Prince anymore?).

Despite the bully pulpit he had for the interview, Harry did make a good point about the British media. Or is it tabloid media? Is there a distinction to be made there, or is news coverage in Great Britain all thrown into one pot?

In any event, British media are relentless, for sure, but at times terribly boorish, trying to “get a rise’ and elicit anger, a ruthless pursuit of the lurid, bottom-of-the-barrel cheap, trivial, and salacious. The line of questioning often seems sophomoric and overly personal.

There’s the inherent uselessness and breathless coverage of the royal family and its constant sappy drama, but this mindset and nature of questioning seems to seep into stories one might think would have more real-world impact and consequence. With some exceptions, it seems like they don’t know how to ask good questions. It’s only slightly more weighty and informative than the 30-second sideline updates and brief halftime questioning of head coaches that we suffer during NFL broadcasts.

First of all, are the documents recently discovered by, apparently, one or more of Biden’s lawyers, and dating back to when Biden was VP, of any real significance? And… why now? Why all of a sudden do these emerge? Is the timing suspect, is there any connection with the recent changeover to a Republican majority in the House? Or is it mere coincidence? What the hell is this all about?

Second, what is wrong with Ron DeSantis and the state of Florida? Jair Bolsonaro just happens to find a place to hide out near Disney World? One has to figure that both DeSantis and Donald Trump have known about this and not only condone it but probably had something to do with making it happen.

Come to Florida, the land of sun and sand and washed up, low life autocrats! Vagrants of a different stripe.

Bolsonaro supporters look to be taking a page out of the Trump playbook. Trump probably takes this as a compliment. Putin violates a supposed “Christmas cease-fire.” Water, water everywhere in California. Too bad they couldn’t hold on to some of it. Elsewhere, there’s hardly a snow pack worth shoveling, except in Buffalo.

New normals all over the blue marble, and the universe is indifferent.

Sorry to harp on this, but what do people think the next two years are going to look like on the political landscape? With a waffling, entitled weakling wielding the gavel, and Republicans in somewhat tenuous control of the House, how are people placing their bets with regard to what gets done? Or should I say with regard to what is lost.

What goes away, what gets axed or weakened or compromised? Are Republicans actually going to show a willingness to work with Democrats on meaningful legislation, or will it be all about taking things away, a cold-hearted, frightening crusade to undo what many consider progress, with the passage of the infrastructure bill and other items?

Will Republicans prove they are simply hell-bent on revenge, pouring energy and time into vendettas and fruitless investigations of “wrongdoing” by Hunter Biden and President Biden and the January 6 Committee?

What the hell is their agenda, anyway? What do they stand for? Because at first glance and on closer inspection, it seems all they want is the power. They are intoxicated and blinded by it, many sounding like they want to disown Trump yet still behaving like him, and in the end having no vision, no sense of purpose beyond wanting to possess mere bragging rights.

When I think of the Republican Party, all I can muster is a heavy sigh and strong feelings of revulsion, of “not this again.” They have nothing to offer us, America. Not a thing, at least in this current iteration of the Party. It’ll be all nonsense and grievance and tragedy all the time.