Oh goodness. It is starting again as the clock ticks inexorably toward the new year. The lists- you know, the significant things that define a very strange year. I can’t grapple with it all. It began with the Russia Collusion scandal- or whatever it is. There were calls for the President’s impeachment before he even took office.

Women marching all over the country the day after the swearing in- wearing distinctive empowering headgear. You can only imagine what effect the antic of the Hollywood bad boys would have been if they had known then what we all know now. Then things began to get interesting. The GOP has conducted a private civil war the rest of the year, and the Mainstream Media is sensing blood in the water. For their part, the last of the moderate Dems were deported sometime in the summer.

And speaking of politics, the endless campaign is just getting juiced up again, as if it had ever stopped.

Independent Counsel Mueller has been barking up a variety of trees all year, finding precisely zip-squat on the original reason of a non-criminal charge against Mr. Trump of colluding with Vlad Putin to steal the 2016 election from the annointed one, who is still asking the eponymous question of “What Happened?” It has all been great fun, though, and very entertaining to watch millions being spent on it. Hell, I have made a significant investment in popcorn myself.

For his part, Mr. Putin looks to extend his 18 years in the Kremlin with six more to be added shortly. He filed his paperwork to run for Czar again this morning, to the complete surprise of exactly no one.

Holiday sales are up, the tax bill may keep the economy rolling- Mr. Trump is counting on it- but the house of cards that comprises the global economic system has some systemic weaknesses that could make things change suddenly. Ask China. And between taxes and infrastructure, we are piling another $2.5 trillion onto the national debt, much of it held by….China, of course.

The Storms of Spring made us all wake up to the raw power of nature. Houston nearly drowned, and Puerto Rico still doesn’t have all the lights back on. It also looks like a hellaciously cold winter coming on.

Don’t get me started on that short fat kid with the H-bomb and a bad haircut or the Mad Mullahs of the Middle East. What will events in either place do to the value of my Bitcoins?

Terror is still with us- domestic and foreign. There are still no solid motives for the horror in Las Vegas or at the church in Texas. The reasons are clear enough to discern for the radicalized jihadis who ran amok with vehicle-borne and pipe-bomb attacks In New York. Scratch Times Square off my bucket list- there are supposed to be a million people there to observe the ball come down on Sunday night. I think I will stay in and let the amateurs have their fun.

But I think all the pundits are united in their assessment of the #1 story of chaotic 2017: 1.2 million citizens live-streamed a 40-minute video of a giraffe giving birth at Animal Adventure Park in New York. Coverage went viral back in April. Perhaps they were confused and thought they were watching C-SPAN. The process, as I understand it, is about the same in Congress.

Here’s hoping 2018 is a little less nuts, and our 401k accounts continue to mount. But really, figure those odds.

Happy New Year!

-Vic

Copyright 2017 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com