Hey everyone, John Heilman here and welcome to Helen Highwater, my podcast about politics and culture

on the edge of Armageddon.

It's a determined, if dubious, committed if cuckoo for cocoa puffs, often wrong but rarely

in doubt exercise in elevated gas baggery that neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night,

nor the toxic rantings of the Nuthouse right,

a president attempting to invalidate a legitimate election and stage an auto coup, complete with

an armed insurrection at the United States Capitol, nor, more broadly and arguably even more

disturbingly, the capture of a decent-sized chunk of our political, social, and civic spheres

by a cadre of incoherent, insidious, conspiracy-sized chunk of our political, social, and civic spheres by a cadre of

incoherent, insidious, conspiracy addled, autocracy craving, authoritarian-worshipping lunatics,

hustlers, grifters, nihilists, and income poops, none of it, none of it has kept us from

our duly sworn duty and obligations, giving you, our listeners, a fresh episode of this podcast week

after week after week, after week.

Maybe not without fail, because, you know, hashtag epic fail is one of our many

mottoes around here, but certainly without a pause.

We've been doing that for more than two years, haven't had a break.

All of which is to say that I am plum shagged out and desperately in need of some R&R.

And with the midterm election now comfortably in the rearview mirror in our democracy, amazingly,

if I will admit, a little unexpectedly,

still intact. It seems like a suitable time for the Hell and High Water Home Office to give itself

a fucking break. And so for the next few weeks, that is exactly what we are going to do.

And we'll see you back here on the other side of the holidays. Tanned, rested, refreshed, revitalized, and raring to go.

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