Once again, I need your ideas. Last Friday we ran the first of our two-part year-end awards columns, so we're halfway to closing the year out here.

So put on your thinking caps and try to remember the year that was, and share your nominations for the second round with everyone. There are (as always) plenty of categories to choose from, so anyone worth noting will likely fit into one of them. It was a rollercoaster of a year, so there should be lots to choose from.

And once again, I would be remiss if I didn't urge everyone to support the site with your generous donations. The site redesign/update is on track for January or February, and your input has been helping, but it's going to be a rather big hit on the site's budget, so we're hoping we can meet this year's goal before we get there.

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Since the election, the United States Constitution has been in the news, as many seem to be dusting off obscure provisions within it and contemplating their actual use. First there was Donald Trump threatening to make "recess appointments" for any of his nominees the Senate fails to confirm, and now this week a blue state is considering withdrawing its call for a constitutional convention, while Democrats in Congress are calling on President Joe Biden to move to declare the Equal Rights Amendment ratified and part of the Constitution.

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Everybody ready? Here is the first installment of our year-end awards, with our obligatory nod to The McLaughlin Group television show for coming up with these categories.

As always, it's a marathon. It's really, really long. Don't say you weren't warned! And since it is so long, that's all the introduction we're going to bother with.

Ready?... everyone buckle up... here we go....

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This isn't a real column, just an extended program note. I am busily working on tomorrow's year-end awards column, combing through the year's events for all the forgotten stuff, so I am currently too swamped to write an new article.

Instead, I thought I would ask readers for some preferences, as I work to figure out what the design of the new site will look like. I am heavily in favor of the "KISS" principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) and so am looking to remove a whole bunch of stuff. These sorts of things were niceties way back when, in the dawn of blogging, but are all woefully outdated now.

But before I do, I thought I'd ask whether anyone still uses this stuff or not, just so people can make the case to keep things. This will be in no particular order, just random design ideas (mostly for stuff to strip out).

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It has been astonishing to watch the reactions to the cold-blooded killing of a health insurance executive. Not so much the rude reactions people have been posting online, but the reactions to those reactions, in both the media and in the political world. This inability to recognize the rage that exists towards health insurers in general is nothing more than elitism. People who simply can't understand this free-floating anger are out of touch with the struggles ordinary people face and the powerless feeling it leaves them with. Murdering someone on the street is obviously an unacceptable answer, but it has provided a catharsis of feeling that someone out there took the power into his own hands for once. It's not exactly Robin Hood, but cheering for an outlaw isn't exactly a new thing when the outlaw is seen to be fighting back against entrenched power.

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That is indeed the question right now, for President Joe Biden. Some are urging the president to issue "blanket pardons" to any and all persons who might become targets of legal harassment by the incoming Trump administration. This is an extensive list, as it includes basically everyone who has ever seriously annoyed Donald Trump at any time, for any reason. And the threat is real, as Trump proved yet again a few days ago by expressing his desire that everyone on the House January 6th Committee should go to jail. And the members of that committee aren't the only ones who could be targeted.

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Donald Trump has one favorite tactic he continually uses, mostly because it works so well. Trump regularly "floods the zone" with so many things at once that other people can't manage to keep up with it all. What is becoming evident is that this tactic is likely to continue working for him in his second term as well, if the past few weeks are any indication. Two areas in particular are worth noting: Trump's nomination picks and his interview on Meet The Press which aired yesterday.

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The Oxford English Dictionary has announced that their Word Of The Year for this year was "brain rot." Their definition: "Supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. (Also: Something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration)." Hey, we can relate to that concept....

Speaking of rotting brains (a wonderful segue if there ever was one), Donald Trump continues to fill out his administration, nominating more and more sexual predators, total incompetents, billionaires, and complete clowns (those categories are not mutually exclusive, we should point out). A "team of ribalds" for the ages, it seems.

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Before we get to the categories list for our annual year-end awards, I have one quick program note and one quick question.

Tomorrow we will have the last regular Friday Talking Points article of the year. Because the next two Fridays will be turned over to our yearly McLaughlin Awards (parts one and two). And then we'll be taking some time off (and running old columns) during the holidays (although we may pop in now and again with a new column... but no promises...). So we're preparing for next week already by throwing the nominations open for the first part of the awards (see below).

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The 2024 election is finally over. Well... the election itself was over a month ago, of course, but the final results of that election have now been announced. Democrat Adam Gray has now officially beaten incumbent Republican John Duarte in California's 13th House district -- by only 187 votes (out of over 200,000 cast). Republicans, while retaining control of the chamber, actually saw their majority shrink in 2024.

Republicans won the 2022 midterm election with a House majority of 222-213. This meant (assuming everyone was present for the vote) that they could only lose four votes in order to pass strictly party-line bills. Losing five votes across the aisle would have put them at 217, which is one below a simple majority.

Now that the 2024 election is over, Republicans will have a smaller majority in the House of Representatives. On paper, it will be 220-215. Democrats flipped one more seat than Republicans did this election cycle, and earlier they had flipped a district in a special election after the ouster of George Santos. This all means Speaker Mike Johnson (assuming he retains his leadership job) will only be able to lose two votes on any strictly partisan measure.

But for the first few months, it'll be even worse than that for Johnson. Matt Gaetz has already resigned, even though he won re-election to his district. And there are two other GOP House members who will be leaving soon as well -- because Elise Stefanik and Michael Waltz have been nominated for positions in the incoming administration of Donald Trump. Special elections won't be held to replace them for a few months after the new Congress is seated. Which will leave Johnson with only a 217-215 majority.

In the House, ties fail. There is no tie-breaking vote (as there is in the Senate). So Johnson won't be able to lose a single vote for the first two or three months of the year. This could dramatically limit what the incoming House is able to accomplish at the very start of the session.

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