As I write this, the news is just coming in from the House Ways and Means Committee -- Donald Trump's tax returns will be sent to the full House, meaning they will become public record.

I've been waiting all day to hear the outcome, and reading arguments both for and against this release in the media. And I have to say, the arguments for keeping Trump's tax returns private don't seem very convincing.

A main point in this argument is being framed as a choice between a world where taxpayers have iron-clad privacy and one where partisans in Congress could release anyone's return, willy-nilly. This is a false choice. Donald Trump is not just "any taxpayer."

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Today Donald Trump was publicly accused of four serious crimes by a unanimous vote of the House Select Committee on January 6th. The committee made referrals to the Department of Justice, and the committee will release both their final report and voluminous amounts of evidence in two days. For now, they released their "executive summary" of what the final report is going to say. This is unprecedented territory, but then so much of Trump's political career would also fit that description, so it's hardly unusual for him.

The criminal referrals do not carry legal weight. They will not force the Justice Department to do anything. That is not the role of Congress, or any subsection of it. There are already multiple active investigations into Trump and his cronies by the Justice Department, complete with a special counsel coordinating them all. None of that will change, although the over 1,000 transcripts from witnesses the Select Committee releases may shed some light on these already-open investigations.

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Welcome to the first installment of our year-end awards!

As always, we must begin with a stern warning: this is an incredibly long article. So long you likely won't make it to the end, at least not in one sitting. It is, as it always is, a marathon not a sprint.

We have tried to credit readers' nominations where we could, but writing the whole column is such a frenzied activity that we may have omitted the citations here and there -- for which we apologize. Reader suggestions make our job putting together this list a whole lot easier, and we are indeed grateful for the people who do take the time to do so (and you still have a chance to, for next week's awards, we would point out).

OK, since it is so long, let's not make it any longer and get right to it. Here are our winners for the awards categories first created on the McLaughlin Group television show, for the year that was.

   Biggest Winner Of 2022

A good case can be made for "democracy," since virtually all of the candidates in the midterm races who were running on Donald Trump's Big Lie of "stolen" elections wound up losing. Which was, no doubt, critical to the future of American democracy. When you get people running for office who will be in charge of the state's elections promising that once they do get elected, Republicans will never lose another election, that is a big sign that democracy itself has been abandoned by one of America's main political parties. Which is outrageous. Thankfully, though, the voters had other ideas.

Reader "Kick" nominated Joe Biden for his spectacularly good midterm election results -- which, by some measures, were the best first-term midterms since Franklin D. Roosevelt. Every incumbent Democratic senator was re-elected. Democrats flipped Pennsylvania, adding to their Senate majority. Democrats picked up governor's races and whole legislatures in multiple states. True, they lost control of the House of Representatives, but only just. But we've got another category in mind for Joe.

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[Program Note: This was supposed to be published yesterday, but in the year-end frenzy, I forgot to click the "Publish" button backstage, so I am publishing it now for people to make "Part 2" nominations. The "Part 1" column is imminent, the writing is done but the editing and formatting will take some time, so keep checking back later tonight.]

I am taking a break from writing tomorrow's article, which will be the first installment of our annual year-end awards, in order to throw open the nominations for the second half, which will run next week (on either Thursday or Friday, we haven't decided -- but the column will be up all of Christmas weekend, so everyone will get a chance to see it).

We are grateful for the suggestions we've already gotten, some of which we had entirely forgotten about, so once again everyone is proving that asking readers for their nominations was a really good idea (that took us a really long time to come up with, we must admit!).

As always during December, we would point out that it is a dandy time to donate to the site, as we haven't even hit halfway of our annual pledge drive target yet. So if you have the means and the time, please consider funding this site for all of next year. Click on the thermometer above and it will take you to the donation page. And thanks!

OK, without further ado, here are the categories for the second and final segment of the year-end awards. Please make nominations for any or all of them down in the comments, and see you all back here tomorrow for our first tranche of 2022 awards.

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Twelve years ago, I wrote about an obscure subject that I felt needed a lot more attention. So I was happy today to see as a lead story on the Politico site a cheerful update to that story. And since I am currently busy as a beaver reviewing the past year in preparation for my year-end awards columns, I thought it would be a good day to revisit an older column (warning: tomorrow might see a rerun column as well).

The obscure subject in question is the mining and production of rare earths. These are elements that used to only have specific uses in consumer products (making television screens that had the reddest of reds, mostly), but these days are essential in all kinds of high-tech equipment, from the phone in your pocket to military jet fighters and missiles.

Back in 2010 I wrote the following article, which pointed out that allowing China to have a worldwide monopoly on the production of rare earths might not be such a wise idea, strategically-speaking (in the geopolitical sense). Especially when America had previously dominated the market for decades.

This was brought home in a big way recently by two developments on the world stage: COVID disrupting the worldwide supply chains to a frightening degree, and Russia invading Ukraine, which has necessitated ramping up production of certain military hardware here at home (things like Javelin missiles that the Ukrainians are making good use of).

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President Joe Biden signed the Respect For Marriage Act at the White House today, which closes an ugly chapter in American federal law that began with the Defense Of Marriage Act (which was signed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton). But while it may close that chapter, it should not be seen as the end of the story. Because Americans still don't have a federal right to marry the person they love no matter what. At least, not one written into law.

We all do currently enjoy marriage equality due to a Supreme Court decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, which created the right of same-sex couples to get married. But what one court giveth, another can easily taketh away, as we have already seen. So Obergefell is in place right now, but it could be overturned at any time. Which would throw the issue back to the states. Which the Respect For Marriage Act wouldn't change in the least.

Just as has been happening with abortion law, conservative states could pass laws stating that marriage could only happen between "a man and a woman." Red states could outlaw gay marriage, to put it another way. If the court went further and also struck down Loving v. Virginia, states could even outlaw interracial marriages too. Nothing in the R.F.M.A. fixes any of that.

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We're about to see a rather dramatic change in the leadership of the United States House of Representatives, and I am not merely referring to the change in political control which will happen when the new Congress is seated in January -- because the more dramatic shift is going to be from one of the strongest speakers in living memory to one of the weakest. And that's only if Kevin McCarthy wins the vote to become speaker at all (which is currently in doubt -- a rather salient measure of his weakness, in fact).

When the new House convenes, the clowns will be driving the car. The inmates will be running the asylum. There will be no enforceable rules or limits on the most extreme members of the Republican caucus, other than limits self-imposed by a revolt of the GOP moderates (who still have to run in swing districts). What will be completely absent is any sort of leadership from the top, since next to Kevin McCarthy, jellyfish look like models of spinal fortitude.

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We had fully intended to begin today's column with the news from Georgia, to celebrate Senator Raphael Warnock's re-election. At some point, we would have gotten around to some snark directed at Joe Manchin, since he wouldn't be such a pivotal vote any more, given the 51-seat majority Democrats will now enjoy. And as an afterthought, we would have tossed in Kyrsten Sinema's name as well, since she deserves a heaping helping of snark as well.

But this morning, Sinema decided she didn't want to continue to play second fiddle to Manchin and inserted herself into all of today's headlines. Sinema is always looking out for number one, and she certainly eclipsed Manchin to become that in today's news cycle.

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'Tis the season once again to solicit nominations for our year-end awards. Welcome to the first round of categories!

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).

New Friday Talking Points columns will resume on the first Friday of the new year.

For the nonce, here is the list of categories for our year-end awards. If your memory needs refreshment for any reason, check out last year's awards to see previous winners.

Everybody ready? Thinking caps on? Here we go:

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There were two main lessons to be learned from last night's Senate runoff election in Georgia: electability matters, and Donald Trump is still a loser. These are really just two sides of the same coin, in this particular case. The big question left unanswered is whether Republican primary voters will learn these interrelated lessons before the next election cycle comes around in 2024 or not. To state the painfully obvious: if they do, they'll stand a much better chance of electoral success than if they don't.

Donald Trump took a personal interest in a number of Senate races this year. He did have some success with candidates he backed, such as J.D. Vance's big win in Ohio. But the number of races that were probably winnable for the GOP where Trump candidates faltered is greater. Some count just three: Herschel Walker (who just lost to incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock in Georgia), Mehmet "Dr." Oz in Pennsylvania, and Arizona's Blake Masters. Others also add in ultra-MAGA candidates Don Bolduc in New Hampshire, Nevada's Adam Laxalt, and even Alaska's Kelly Tshibaka (although Alaska's Senate seat did stay in Republican hands, due to their four-way runoff election system). But whatever number you choose, it's pretty easy to see that Trump's win/loss record this cycle was not a good one (and these are just the Senate races -- Trump-backed candidates lost in lots of other statewide races too).

Donald Trump is a proven loser. That much is beyond doubt now. He lost the popular vote for president but squeaked into office via the Electoral College, he proceeded to lose control of both the House and Senate while in office, and he lost his re-election bid for president. Then he torpedoed Republican chances of hanging on to control in the Senate by essentially telling Georgia Republicans not to even bother voting in the two runoff elections in early 2021. In both, the Democrat won, flipping control of the chamber to Chuck Schumer. This time around, Republicans could now be sitting on a majority of perhaps 51 to 53 seats, but instead Democrats beat the historical trend and actually picked up one seat -- which will allow them to fully control Senate committees for the next two years without Republican interference. All because of Donald Trump.

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