Some topics, if there’s anyone out there at this hour:

1. The election focus turns to South Carolina — Which is a little bit terrifying, given that both parties’ nomination processes are pretty much FUBAR at this point. The WashPost is reporting How New Hampshire turned into a nightmare for the Republican establishment, and it’s no picnic over on the Democratic side, either. FYI, Hillary Clinton lost women to Bernie in New Hampshire.
2. Kelvin Washington pleads guilty to tax charges — That’s the second shoe to drop, after Brian Newman earlier. I see no mention of whether he will, you know, resign from Richland County Council. So I’m guessing the answer to that is “no.”
3. Chris Christie drops out — Earlier in the day, Carly Fiorina did, too. I’m gonna miss Christie. I was looking forward to seeing him campaign down here. Here’s what he said about dropping out, on Facebook. Presumably, Marco Rubio is still running, because he had a rally here in Columbia today.
4. Twitter Posts Loss Amid Growth Woes — Oh, yeah? Well… It’s still awesome, and Facebook still sucks. So there…
5. US will not rule out ground troops being sent into Syria — Oops, I left out a word! It’s Saudi ground troops Ashton Carter was talking about. What did you think I meant? I’m not entirely clear why Saudi troops are the SecDef’s to rule out or rule in, but that’s what the story says.
6. Should we just kill them all? — Mosquitoes, that is. Interesting piece in The Guardian about whether we should just deal with Zika, malaria, yellow fever and the whole mess by getting rid of the blood-sucking pests for good. The phrase is “editing nature,” which I find exciting, since newspapers don’t seem to be hiring editors anymore. Opportunity!

I don’t have time today for much, but here are a few topics that might interest y’all:

1. Senate finance panel weighs $400 million in tax cuts as part of roads deal — I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that anyone who thinks the first step in raising badly-needed road funding is to cut an unrelated tax by $400 million shouldn’t be allowed to serve on a finance committee.
2. One Killed in Oregon as Protest Leaders Are Arrested — I’m curious to know more about exactly what happened on that road last night, but it sounds like the cops have pretty well decapitated this movement, even if not as cleanly as they might have liked. But the other occupiers are still occupying.
3.  Zika Testing Is Urged for Some Newborns — This is the scariest thing to come from South of the Border in my lifetime. Way, way worse than Killer Bees. At least that was a threat we could laugh at.
4. Federal jury finds 2 Midlands men guilty of operating gambling ring — These guys shoulda known: State government controls all the gambling in South Carolina, and doesn’t look kindly on anyone poaching on its turf. Why couldn’t they have shown some respect and gone in for prostitution or shylocking instead?
5. Benjamin’s State of the City address — Thoughts on this? I missed it, but The State‘s story (linked) provides a bulleted list of what it covered.
6. Special anti-Trump edition of National Review — I’ve meant to blog about this for days. No, I haven’t read it, but I respect the conservatives who were willing to stand up and be counted in this way.

Anyone have any other topics?

This is weird — I would have sworn I posted this Friday. But apparently not. It wasn’t all that interesting then, but I share it now just to show I was thinking about you Friday. Apparently, it was so dull that I lost interest before hitting “Publish”:

1. It’s the end of the world as we know it — That is to say, it’s expected to snow somewhere within 200 miles of us (perhaps even closer!), and so everyone’s getting very excited. Here’s the song if you want to listen to it. But just to make you feel better as a South Carolinian, they’re going WAY more ape over the weather in New York and Washington. Of course, they’re expecting an actual blizzard, so…
2. Debate Sharpens Over Single-Payer Health Care, But What Is It Exactly? — It’s wonderful; that’s what it is. But unattainable. Kind of like Marilyn Monroe was, unless you were Joe DiMaggio.
3. Obama’s offshore drilling plan meets heavy resistance along Atlantic coast — Thoughts on this? I don’t think we’ve had a discussion of it here. As head of the Energy Party, of course, I have to be for it… although… with oil prices low, and the U.S. actually exporting the stuff again… maybe it’s not that urgent that we hunt for more right now… On the other hand, rising oil prices helped lead to a gain in the market this week, so…

OK, I’m going to stop straining. There’s just not much news out there today…

Some very quick options before I run into a meeting:

1. For The First Time Since 1938, A January Hurricane Has Formed In The Atlantic — Yeah… I don’t know about global climate change, but it sure seems to be changing in the Atlantic…
2. Senators propose 5 percent pay hike for state employees — Senators were Jackson and Courson. There were other things in the proposal too, I believe, but I guess the pay increase grabs attention.
3. 2016 Oscar Nominations Are Announced: ‘The Revenant,’ ‘Mad Max’ Get Most Nods — OK, I saw “Mad Max” in the theater. Please tell me what was so awesome about it. Maybe it was something subtle, although believe me, the folks who made this one weren’t really into subtlety…
4. Ahead of the Debate, Seven Goals for Seven Candidates — So we’ve got that coming up tonight.
5. Jakarta attacks: Islamic State says it was responsible — They mean ISIL. Those jerks will claim responsibility for anything, if it’s horrible enough.

6. Alan Rickman, Actor Known for ‘Harry Potter,’ Dies — Bryan sent me an IM via Twitter to say, “Alan Rickman died, and I’m in Court today. You should blog about this because I can’t. Consider it a guest blog that you do, yourself. Great actor.” To me, he was the one bright spot in the embarrassing “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”

And if you’ve got something else, let’s hear it…

Finally, I can type “2016” in these open thread headlines, and it’s actually right!

Some topics:

1. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley To Give GOP’s State Of The Union Response — Why am I only seeing this on the NPR site? Is it old news, and I just missed it?
2. Seth Rose suggests changes to penny tax program — On the same day as his fellow councilman turned himself in on tax charges. Seth continues to establish himself as a voice of accountability on Richland County Council.

You know what? This isn’t a Virtual Front Page. I’m going to stop at those two suggestions, and leave it to y’all to come up with any other topics you want to talk about. This is, after all, an open thread…

Man, the day goes by fast when you have an office Christmas party, as we did at ADCO today. But here’s some stuff for y’all to chew on. If y’all know of any better topics, please share:

1. 6 U.S. Soldiers Are Killed by Taliban Attack in Afghanistan — Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the Taliban is “close to taking” the town of Sangin in Helmand province.
2. WATCH: Obama Says Trump ‘Exploiting’ Anger, Fear Among ‘Blue-Collar Men’ — No wonder they cling so to God, guns and anti-immigrant sentiment. Don’t you love it when Obama explains the white working class to us? It’s like he’s looking at ants under a magnifying glass or something…
3. Christian conservatives coalesce around Cruz — I think The Washington Post is just leading with this at the moment because the editors are so proud of the alliteration. The copy desk chief is probably sitting at his computer working on the next story and repeating it to himself over and over in a soft chant.
4. The Risks of Long-Term Regular Drinking — Yeah, like you really wanted to know about that this particular week…
5. Graham drops out — Well, y’all already knew about this. But to see something new, here’s a “heartfelt” video tribute Slate did to the senator’s failed campaign. Check it out below. Slate notes that “Graham, by the way, was one of the only Republican candidates with an actual plan to defeat ISIS that differed from what the U.S. is already doing.”

Some quick topics:

1. Threat that closed down L.A. schools appears to be a hoax, congressman says — That’s according to the L.A. Times.
2. New SC license plate coming out next year — I think they’re an improvement, although nothing to write home about. I’d prefer the Latin: Dum Spiro Spero. Why can’t license plates be educational?
3. Fed Poised to Mark The End of an Era — Wow, the WSJ is really excited about the expected interest-rate increase.
4. Huckabee calls for greater monitoring of mosques — This is from the undercard debate. If you’d like to engage with me on the grownup-table debate later, go to @BradWarthen.

… or whatever else interests you.

Soon, I can type “2016,” as my fingers have tried to do all year, and it will be right!

Meanwhile, some possible topics:

1. 

   Bergdahl

   Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, freed in prisoner swap, to face court-martial — I thought they’d decided against that. Oh, well — this thing was always so fishy, the matter should probably be adjudicated. So if we decide swapping for him was a bad deal, do we get those Taliban guys back? No, I guess not…

2. State agency questions Richland County’s handling of penny sales tax — This is Doug’s cue to say, “I told you so!”
3. US hitting IS harder than ever, says Obama — Yeah, but “harder” is kind of a relative thing, right? Still, he’s talking tough now, telling ISIL, “You are next.” Scoff at that if you like, but remember this guy’s got a list, and no end of drones. He may not be much of one for going to the mattresses, but he’s whacked a lot of guys by remote control.
4. ICYMI: White supremacist groups see Trump bump — This story is several days old, but somehow I missed it until today. Pair this with Ross Douthat applying Umberto Eco’s definition to assert that Trump is, indeed, a fascist, and it gets really interesting.

Oh, yes… and The Force Awakens in just four days.

Just a quick one to make up for not posting all day:

1. San Bernardino Couple Spoke of Attacks in 2013, F.B.I. Says — But wait! Edward Snowden says we live in a “surveillance state” in which even our most intimate thoughts are known to Big Brother! So how come we didn’t know about this? The weird headline of the day is on the BBC version of this story: “California pair ‘plotted before dating’.” That seems unlikely. You’re going to share a secret like that with someone you haven’t even gotten to first base with?
2. The Tipping Point: Most Americans No Longer Are Middle Class — It seems that the lower and upper classes have taken share away from the middle.
3. Franklin Graham sides with Donald Trump on barring Muslim immigration to U.S. — Starting to think that he’s not the man his father was. Billy was all about the Invitation.
4. Man accused in Planned Parenthood shooting: ‘I’m a warrior for the babies’ — Yeah, right. Like that’s really going to do the unborn a lot of good. You know what he said that I do believe? “I’m guilty.”
5. The Baby Whisperer — This pediatrician has a foolproof method for calming crying newborns:

Here’s what I have:

1. 14 Die in California Rampage, Police Say — Three gunmen still at large. “Domestic terrorism” mentioned, although no one really knows yet what it was about.
2. Spurrier banner removed from Williams-Brice — And now, from the world of far-less-consequential news… But I will say, I wondered when they were going to get around to this. And I wonder how much the thing cost. A tidbit from The State‘s story: Spurrier’s won-loss record was 77-39 before the banner went up, and 9-10 after. And they say he never wanted the banner.
3. Private memo lays out how GOP would deal with Trump as nominee — From a quick scan of the story, it appears to outline a total capitulation to Trumpism. That is, going along with the guy who said today that he’d deal with ISIL by going after their families. You know, this could be the death of the Republican Party. It would certainly guarantee a Clinton victory. If there’s to be a GOP, Rubio needs to get his young behind in gear. Or Jeb!, but that ship may have sailed… I see what he’s put out lately, and it just seems weak…
4. Iraqis think the U.S. is in cahoots with the Islamic State, and it is hurting the war — The normal, grownup thing to do would be to ignore such insanity, but we can’t because of the “it is hurting the war” part. I read the story and tried to understand the reasoning of people who think this, but I can’t. There’s just no place to grab hold of it that makes sense. Wow. Just wow…