December 20, 2018 --

Herewith a brief season's greeting to LPR clicksters, including a photo of the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, and a night image of Thomaston, Connecticut -- both from the LPR archives. The holiday season opens with Thanksgiving Day, and before you know it, Christmas arrives, followed rapidly by New Year's Day, the football bowl games, and then the Super Bowl -- and pitchers and catchers come next, followed by the college "March madness" basketball tournament and so on....

This holiday season saw a brief pause in our national political polarization. prompted by the death of former president George Herbart Walker Bush.

The state of political polarization is evident by the following comment printed in The New York Times, December 17, from chef and restaurateur Dan Barber, "'I don't know a chef in their right mind who would cook in this White House...". The article mentioned that chef Barber served on President Obama's fitness commission, which might explain the hostility.

LPR noted that President Trump and the first lady were greeted by former presidents Clinton and Obama, as the Trumps reached their seats for the Bush funeral service in the National Cathedral,, but Ms. Clinton stared ahead, an understandable action considering the calls to "lock her up," directed at the former first lady/secretary of state at Trump's political rallies. As Federalist No. 65 points out, by the way, a sitting president must be removed from office before indictment for criminal offenses can issue.