Merry Christmas everyone!

I'm spending the day at Ms. TL kids' parents, with the TL kids and my new grandaughter Karter (now 6 weeks old, she sends her best regards)

Please fill us in on your day and your thoughts. What was your favorite gift?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I wish all of our readers a happy holiday eve. May it be free of thoughts about Donald Trump.

If you are looking for TV, I'll suggest El Cartel I and II (called "Cartel de los Sapos")-- both seasons are now available with subtitles on Amazon Prime. It's the story of the Norte del Valle cartel in Colombia and its takedown and prosecution in the U.S., written by a former member of the cartel while in prison in Miami. It really launched the whole narco-drama series phenomenon and has terrific, now well-known actors. I've probably watched the full series three times or more. The Norte del Valle cartel was the successor to the Cali Cartel. The series is a far more accurate portrayal of real life characters and events and much better done in my opinion than American shows like Narcos which pay DEA agents to be consultants. It focuses on the corruption as well as the drug dealing.

Two Twitter feeds I'm recently added: Calorie Fixes and Tasty. Check out Tasty's five best egg hacks, you'll be a fan.

Again, Happy Xmas Eve, and please let us know what you're cooking and how you are celebrating and anything else on your mind.

I've got clients this afternoon, the jail tomorrow and court on Friday-- then some Xmas shopping.

I'll be online periodically, but for right now, it's time for a new open thread, all topics welcome.

On T.J. Miller, I'm on his side. I've known him since he was 5 years old. I drove him to school for many years on my carpool days. He's always been friends with the TL kid. His parents are the most gracious, generous couple with a beautiful home they always opened up on holidays for parties for the entire class or group. The alleged incident is totally out of character for the T.J. I knew.

Here's TJ and his wife Kate's statement. [More...]

Bon Jovi finally makes it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I'm glad that Richie Sambora (who left the band a few years ago) is included.

What's my favorite Bon Jovi song? This one, by miles.

In other news, I refuse to get distracted by the Republicans' ploy to bloviate about Mueller bias during the House testimony of Rod Rosenstein today. I watched a few minutes during which Rosenstein said he has faith in Mueller, the investigation isn't biased, and he's in charge and would step in if warranted, but it's not warranted. Shorter version: There's no "there" there.

Minn. Lt. Gov. Tina F. Smith has been named by the Gov. to replace Al Franken — she will have to run for the office in November.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm sure there's news to discuss today. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'm running around for work and not online today, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are officially engaged. I always enjoy seeing photos of them even though I lost interest in Suits after the second season. Good luck and a happy life to both of them.

The Bali volcano is about to blow.

Did anyone get any great deals on Black Friday or Cyber Monday? I did not find anything that I just had to have.

I spent most of my reading time this weekend on ISIS and the Middle East. It is such a mess over there. ISIS has lost so much territory in Iraq and Syria, it no longer has a "state" to govern, but it certainly is not dead. It is regrouping in other countries and causing and threatening more mayhem along the way. Al Baghdadi has issued a "text message" calling for attacks on the media, including Al Jazeera. ISIS released videos of new "wiliyats" this week, some in places I had to look up where they were. In Syria, HTS, a coalition rebel group that included what was left of al Nusra, which had been affiliated with Al Qaida, has just turned on al Qaida arresting some top former leaders of Nusra. The Taliban and ISIS, while enemies, are both fighting hard in Afghanistan. Like I said, it's a mess in the Middle East, but also in Africa and places in South Asia.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

My Thanksgiving has begun with the great Thanksgiving tradition of hearing the 18 minute version of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant, recorded in 1967 on the radio. This year is the 50th anniversary! If you miss it on your local radio, you can listen here at noon and again at 6:00 p.m. MT.

If you're wondering where Alice is, she's here. Does anyone besides me still have a hardcover edition of her 1969 Alice's Restaurant cookbook in their kitchen? (Photo here.) It's filled with tasty recipes and very easy instructions. Her red chili recipe is still my favorite. And she uses ingredients you'll already have in your kitchen.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! If you haven't already told us, what's on your menu and who are you spending the day with. This is an open thread.

Thanks to all who donated to TalkLeft yesterday -- please keep the contributions coming, they are a huge help!

Articles I recommend reading:

• Reuters: Ivanka and Fugitive From Panama

  Exclusive: How an alleged fraudster in Panama, working with Donald Trump's daughter, helped make Trump's first international hotel venture a success. The broker was in business with a money-launderer and two criminals from the former Soviet Union. Then he fled.

• The ramped up security and forced removal of beggars in Hyderabad, India in preparation for Ivanka's visit next week, where she will resume her role as the Administration's spokeswoman for empowering female entrepreneurs.

  A US Secret Service team has made several rounds of visits to the hotels and the GES venue and reviewed security arrangements for Ivanka. They would bring their own bullet-proof vehicles for Ivanka to travel within Hyderabad, besides carrying their own specialised weapons and bringing squads of trained sniffer dogs.

It's been days since our last open thread, and my next thread will be next one. It's right around the corner. This one got so long and specific, I am limiting comments to the topic under discussion. For those of you who view Talkeft site as a little community of sane people trying to accomodate themselves to life in an insane world, the news will be expecially pertinent to you.

Ok, here goes. I think I'm about ready to switch TalkLeft to Wordpress. Readers may remember I started the project in 2013, intending for it to be a "premium access" version of TalkLeft. I abandoned that idea pretty quickly, deciding to keep it free instead, and I have been tinkering with the design and other tweeks ever since. Depite WP's thousands of designs and plugins,
most of which I've read or tested out, the truth is, Wordpress is deliberatly made with some features off limits. An uber-coder could change it, but not a mere mortal like me, with only html training and not even css) under my belt. But take a look, I've tweeked it a lot.
And after trying out hundreds of new themes.
I confident that the one I have, which is the same as this one, only bigger and with bigger text, is all the change I need. [More...]

From Tina Brown's memoir: Donald once poured red wine down the back of a gown worn by Vanity Fair journalist Marie Brenner (and told another journalist he had done the same to Leona Helmsley.)

In news worth reading: An investigation by the BBC uncovers a deal to let ISIS members leave Raqqa as it was falling. The Washington Post reports on Russia using video game images on the topic of the U.S. colluding with ISIS. Bellingcat's report is here.

A new report commissioned by Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee addresses how much land the U.S. could seize under eminent domain to build Trump's border wall. The Trump Administration has not disclosed what this might cost: [More...]

Bill Gates is investing $50 million in Alzheimer's research. He says men in his family have suffered from the disease.

I switched from iPhone5s to a Samsung Galaxy 8 last month and I'm still struggling to adjust to the differences. One thing that's great is AT&T (and maybe others) are offering Direct TV Now for $10 a month with no contract (including live and local channels) and HBO for life. With one click of your phone, and no Apple TV or other gadget needed, it mirrors to you big TV. Only downside: You can't change the language of the closed captions -- if the show is in Spanish, the captions will be too. Other downside: There's no recorder. Still, I'm not sure it's worth keeping Comcast at $200 a month for internet and TV. But I do miss my iPhone.

I'm not seeing any other news to report on at the moment.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.