JL

"Kudos on this one. Very enjoyable. I find it absolutely amazing that no one seems to find the Trump Shutdown all that terrible. Maybe the fact that the lights eventually are turned back on takes a bit of the drama away..."

That's probably because:

1) It's only affecting 1/4 of the government instead of all of it.

2) Most of the shutdown actually won't take effect until after the official government Christmas holiday is over.

3) Some state government is actually taking up a little of the slack, like New York providing funding to keep monuments like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island open.

small bone to pick with best photo op - there's a link to every runner-up, but as far as i can tell no link to the winner!

*cue music*
One of these things is not like the others
One of these things just doesn't belong
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

https://tinyurl.com/ybxdozcj

;)

What a column. Thanks CW!

I didn't put the effort in to make my own suggestions this year - really overwhelmed with life, etc., but I'd, frankly, probably have embarrassed myself.

I don't feel bad about that, because the sheer number of unusual things that have happened this year is astronomical. Who, but an expert such as CW, could keep up with all of this.

small bone to pick with best photo op - there's a link to every runner-up, but as far as i can tell no link to the winner!

JL

* Why did you include CA's "jungle primary" in the 'Enough already' list? To the "outside world", it is supposed to rein in extremes' on both ends of the political spectrum. And I haven't read anything about election chaos or fraud in its execution in 2018.

* I am perhaps woefully ignorant, but I've always understood the inclusion of hemp as a 'controlled substance' in the war on marijuana to be a great injustice - not least to the "family farms" the Republican Party use as political prop. I thought it was because the two plants are too similar in the field to be distinguished. Thus, the 'weed police' were 'compelled' to ban both, since allowing hemp to grow while wreaking havoc on pot pastures would be impossible (and would no doubt have inflamed the hemp farmers - pun intended).
Yes, the 2018 farm bill's repeal of the hemp ban is laudable,and the public reminded over and over of how unjust the ban has been. But aren't you repeating the sin by including hemp in the 'capitalist of the year'?
* Thanks for the asides that clarify puns and goofs that I hadn't caught the first time ('two dictators', for example).

It took me almost an hour to read this - I paused to laugh quite a few times - and it must have taken you days to write. Congratulations on the creation of a political masterpiece.

And thank you for helping me make it through these last two dark years. I'm holding my breath that nothing (literally) earth-shattering happens before January 3.

:-)

-CW