Welcome back to the Dirt Show. Happy New Year, everybody.

Whether you think 2022 was a good year of bad year,

or somewhere in between, I think we all hope that 23 will be a

better year for everybody, for the Ukrainian people,

for people who are desperately in need of immigration

and finding new places to live for poor people around the

world, for Americans, for everybody.

We could use a better year, we could use a year of good health.

I'm still suffering the aftermath of COVID.

So I'll be drinking a little hot tea while we talk today.

This is my 14th of 15th day of COVID.

I thought it was supposed to go away more quickly,

but at age 84 these things tend to linger.

So here we are.

Because I'm a liberal Democrat and I have contributed probably

tens of thousands of dollars over the years to the Democratic

Party and to Democratic candidates.

Once in a blue moon I've contributed to Republicans,

particularly my former students, if they're running as Republicans.

I tend to send a few dollars to any one of my former students

who are running for public office.

And even because I'm on lists, I get a lot of mail from

...