Now that the excitement of Christmas and New Years is over and the dull dreariness of January has set in, you’ll be proud to know that your entertainment dollar is fixing to stretch further.

The former White House communications director has privately told friends and associates that the president and other members of the Trump family, including White House adviser and first daughter Ivanka Trump, miss him and want him back in the West Wing. Three sources close to Scaramucci have independently told The Daily Beast that the Mooch continues to brag that he and President Donald Trump talk on the phone, and that the Mooch believes his resurrection in Trump-world could be imminent.

It sounds like a great teevee series – The Mooch is Back!  Watch Anthony call other staff members vulgar names, hit on every woman in the room, and strut his way down the White House sidewalk.

Sadly, nobody who is anybody believes The Mooch.  They think he’s just shooting off his mouth.  Yu know, like he always does.  But, there’s always hope that we get another round with Scaramucci.

Yesterday, it was reported by several news agencies that the airline industry reported their safest year ever, with no fatal jet airline accidents anywhere in the world.  Among other commercial aircraft such as turboprops and cargo planes there were approximately 44 on planes and 33 on the ground, including 12 killed on December 31 in Costa Rica.  This is a remarkable achievement for commercial airlines, which have been steadily improving safety over a number of years.  The fatality rate for commercial airlines is .06, or 1 death per 16 million flights.

As we’ve come to expect, Trump took credit for the record, falsely claiming that he’s “been very strict” on global l commercial aviation in 2017 directly affecting the outcome.  This laughable lie provoked the response you would expect.  Here’s the tweet and some entertaining responses:

And delusion marches into 2018.

Remember Republican Secretary of State and WannaBe Governor Kris Kobach and the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity that Trump appointed to prove that he lost the popular vote due to widespread voter fraud?

Yeah, well, everybody else forgot about it, too.

Trump’s election integrity panel has been unable to meet for months due to several lawsuits against the panel.

There ya go.  The Election Integrity Panel has problems with integrity.

How Trumpian!

Thanks to Deb for the heads up.

I cannot think of any better way to open the New Year than to be as tacky as possible.

So, there’s New Year’s Eve on the town.

Louise Linton models the latest from the Swiffer Duster Collection while Steve Mnuchin dazzles in a vintage Country Club Waiter ensemble.

And. who wore it better?

It’s swell to be back.  I’ll be taking it slowly and I deeply appreciate your emails.  However, please don’t overwhelm me right now because I’m only about 50%, and please don’t send me a link with nothing about what it is.

Thanks for the heads up to the Hoarse Whisperer.

The New Yorker has published a depressing piece by Evan Osnos, about how Trump has stupidly ceded global leadership and how China has rushed in to fill the vacuum.  Trump can very likely become our version of Gorbachev, who, you will recall, oversaw the unraveling of the Soviet Union into a loose amalgamation of oligarchies and totalitarian states dominated by Russia.  From the very first moment of his term, Trump has set about unraveling our country’s generations-old leadership position in the world, and China has gladly Hoovered up every opportunity to exercise its new found world position.
One notable of example of this phenomenon was the World Trade Organization conference in Marakesh last October, convened to update international trade rules.  We’ll let Osnos tell this sorry tale:

“The Trump Administration, which has been critical of the W.T.O., sent an official who delivered a speech and departed early. ‘For two days of meetings, there were no Americans,’ a former U.S. official told me. ‘And the Chinese were going into every session and chortling about how they were now guarantors of the trading system.’”

Trump continually boasts about “Making America Great Again”, and “Putting America First.”  The problem is that he simply doesn’t understand what that means and has made idiotic decisions that has diminished our country, and creating opportunities for other countries, especially China and Russia to jump into the breach.  Exiting the TPP was stupid.  Now American beef comes second to other beef producing countries like Australia.  Withdrawing from the Paris climate accords has damaged our reputation and stature throughout the world.  China is also negotiating to create the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which will form a 16 country free trade zone.  The US is NOT one of the 16 countries.

The damage that Trump has inflicted and continues to inflict will be multi-generational.  Some of the damage may never be repaired.  The US’s unilateral surrender of its prominent position as world leader has emboldened other countries to take over that prominence.  Protectionism and isolation never works, especially in the new, interconnected global market.

The Washington Post has published their quotes of the year based on reader opinions.  Here they are in order of popularity:

“Alternative Facts” – Kellyanne Conway

“Nevertheless, she persisted” – Mitch McConnell

Honorable mentions:

“Covfefe” – Trump

“Me Too” – A lot of women

“Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” – Trump

“Reclaiming my time.” – Maxine Waters

“I think there’s blame on both sides.” – Trump

The post is still taking votes and you can participate by clicking here.

Happy New Year!