Thar’ she blows

4. Thanks to his breakthroughs in male grooming, American men have been introduced to a year-round shade of microwave tan previously unknown in humans. The barbering industry was thrown for a loop, though, by the president’s revolutionary coiffure and dye job, a tornado-like creation a shade between Dijon mustard and iridescent baby poop. Researchers at L’Oreal laboratories are amazed. Meanwhile, sales of Gorilla Glue Spray Adhesive, which he uses to hold that confection in place—most of the time—have soared. 

5. Thanks to American world leadership under Trump, representative government has taken a dive throughout the globe, particularly in places run by paladins of democratic government—and Trump bros—Duterte (Philippines); Putin (Russia); Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud (Saudi Arabia); Erdogan (Turkey); al-Sisi (Egypt) and North Korea’s ruling meatball, who has his own bizarre haircut, and with whom Trump has developed a bromance of sorts.  

Hello bro’

6. Transparency and honesty in government entered a new phase, one that observers have tentatively called the Post-Truth Era, during which Americans are discovering that up is down, down is up and two and two equals nine. President Trump, by his incessant, indiscriminate—and often pointless—lies, becomes the undisputed practitioner of a new and intriguing branch of science known as Alternative Facts.

7. Internally, the Dear Leader has done an amazing job of undermining the traditional American concepts of “e pluribus unum,” tolerance for people different from ourselves, and respect for immigrants from all over the world. So Mexican immigrants have become rapists and criminals; many Third World countries now appear on White House maps as “shitholes”; Muslims are an undifferentiated, unwashed mob of closet terrorists, while some Neo-Nazis have been born again as “very fine people.” As of 2018, the number of hate-crime violence had risen to a 16-year high.

Fine people with tiki-torches.

8. The Dear Leader has used the phrase “fake news” to dismiss any news reporting that conflicts with his personal cosmology. That tactic, in turn, has been adopted by repressive governments throughout the world, such as Egypt, and the freedom-loving hacienda of Cuba, to use the rubric “fake news” to justify the stifling press freedoms and harassment of journalists. 

Hmm.

9. Under the “grab-’em-by-the-pussy” Trump reign, misogyny and other verbal attacks against women have become a new normal. Women voters, outside the hard-core evangelical circles, understandably have reacted negatively to this gusher of abuse, polls show, eroding Trump’s base of support. That’s a silver lining.

10. The most auspicious development, though, despite the bright economic news, is that Trump’s approval ratings seem stuck around 43 percent, and a majority of Americans support his impeachment and removal from office. Even Fox News aired that alarming bit of news. 

And that, dear readers, may be the best news yet as we enter the new year. Have a good one.