Are you merry and bright?

 The House passed the Veteran Service Recognition Act, making it easier for non-citizens who volunteer to fight our wars (among other dirty jobs) to avoid deportation when the military is done with them.  Chuck Schumer had better get it through the Senate next week, or we're going to have words.

Yay!  The World Cup is over.

Clay Higgins (R-LA) was one of a line of dim bulbs denouncing the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill which passed the House.  He had to be told that it includes his own veterans bill.  Clay don't read good.  The bill also reforms the 1887 Electoral Count Act, so Kamala Harris can't throw out the real electors and accept others in January 2025.  And you just know she would.

This is the hundredth anniversary of The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams.  Along with Ulysses and The Waste Land it makes 1922 a signal year in world literature.

I understand Junior Trump regaled his fellow snow divers with a semi-pornographic Photoshop of Volodymyr Zelensky and Nancy Pelosi.  Sorry, I don't have a link.  Try Breitbart.

Instead of paying up, Alex Jones chose to stash his assets and file bankruptcy.  He's spending the holidays in court having delightful exchanges like this:  "Q.  Could you spell your middle name?  A.  You guys know what my name is.  It's on the record.  Q.  I'm just asking for the court reporter.  A. E-M...I just so stressed out I can't even spell it for you."  The Glen Beck/Bret Kavanaugh waterworks can't be far behind.

"I know he will continue to be a leader in our party for years to come," declared Rick Scott.  He was describing Herschel Walker and he's probably right.  I suddenly find myself thinking of Toro Moreno in The Harder They Fall.  

I always open my presents on Christmas morning and there had better be a copy of The January 6 Report this year.  Meanwhile I'm making do with the excerpts that show up online, like this:  Trump considered calling up 10,000 (or maybe 20,000) National Guard troops on Putsch day -- to protect him from left-wing terrorists as he marched to the Capitol with his followers.  Christopher Miller, acting secretary of defense, discouraged this for some reason.  

It's not regifting when it was stolen in the first place:  Germany has begun returning its Benin bronzes to Nigeria more than a century after they were looted by Brits and sold on.  Many more are held by the British Museum, which is more reluctant to return its pelf.  Pope Francis is returning three sections of the Parthenon, long held in the Vatican Museums, to Greece.  No word on the so-called Elgin Marbles.

Enjoy this drawing by Hablot Knight Brown ("Phiz") for Dickens ("Boz").  It's astonishing how much Marley resembles Leo G. Carroll from the 1938 film.