Cast your mind back over the whole year (which, since Trump was in charge, seemed like a much longer time period than that!) and nominate your own candidates for the following list of categories. There are a bunch of them, as always, so there should be a category that fits for most of the important people and events of the year.

The reason I held off launching this pledge drive until now is that I was feeling incredibly embarrassed and ashamed of myself because an entire year had gone by (once again) without the website being updated and rebuilt. So our big news: this is now underway! Woo hoo!

Somehow I just couldn't bring myself to ask for more money without finally making good on this long-standing promise, which is why I held off on this announcement until today. Last year, I had actually picked out a web developer and started the process, but he quickly left for foreign shores and "ghosted" me, so it wound up not going anywhere (and leaving me awfully frustrated).

It's been an eventful year, of course, so many of these categories will have multiple possible winners. Listed below are the categories for the first installment, which will run this Friday. We'll open the nominations up for the second part next week.

I apologize for this, but given the niceness of the summer day here and the choice between enjoying it fully and writing a very snarky column, I chose the former. What I would have written about was the gleeful schadenfreude those of us who live in the reality-based world have been feeling at watching those who live in the MAGA world absolutely melt down over the revelation that one of their favorite conspiracy theories has turned out to be just that -- not based in anything other than feverish swamp dreams.

I had every intent of sitting down today to write my annual humor installment reviewing the "banished words" for next year, but the kindly folks at the Lake Superior State University have let me down and it seems they won't be publishing the list today, but are instead waiting until the new year actually dawns to do so (they are inconsistent -- sometimes the list appears before the ball-drop, and sometimes afterwards). So you'll have to wait until at least tomorrow for that (or possibly Thursday, no promises...), due to circumstances beyond my control (sorry).

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.

Before we get to the list, a few words on the rest of the year's calendar. Tomorrow will be a normal Friday Talking Points day, but it will be the final one of the year. The week after, December 16th, the first year-end awards column will appear.

The following Friday, Christmas Eve Eve, so to speak, the second half of the awards will run. I probably won't be posting new columns the final week of the year, unless something noteworthy enough to demand comment happens (which can always happen).

This year, however, this column is going to be a bit different. I know, I know, everyone loves the flood of kittens each year (while dog enthusiasts protest my species-ism to no avail with "where are the puppies?!?" entreaties), but this year we're going to severely limit tugging at your collective heartstrings.

Well, not completely.

Although every week feels like a month these days (what with the constant firehose of ridiculousness emanating from the White House), we're finally approaching the end of the calendar year. Less than a year from now will be the 2020 election, and a little over a year from now, if things go well, we'll all return to some semblance of sanity. But to get from here to there together, we've got to keep the lights on here at ChrisWeigant.com.

As usual, we are throwing ourselves on the mercy of our readers to raise the necessary money to continue providing reality-based political commentary here on a daily basis. The site has been ad-free for years now, and we really would like to continue that streak (because we hate ads as much as you do). Also as usual, we are softening the blow of our blatant begging by mesmerizing you with the cuteness of Christmas kittens!