【Poland】

As we crawl to the finish line of 2017 while Trump plays golf behind a white truck,Poland it's still hard to grasp how this year managed to be even more surreal than the tire fire that was 2016.

And, yet, here we are, at the end of a year that felt like ten.

Remember when James Comey testified before a congressional committee in what was a must-see television event? That was in June.

Now, in the frozen grip of late December, Axioshas published the below chart, using search data made available from Google Labs, that proves it wasn't just you. 2017 really did go on forever.

As you can see, there was literally always something going on with Trump that generated huge interest, starting with the inauguration crowd size in January and lasting all the way until this month when Michael Flynn was indicted and Trump attacked the FBI on Twitter.

Looking at this chart, it's easy to see how we forgot some of the crazier moments, like Trump staring at the eclipse or the short, brightly burning supernova that was Anthony Scaramucci.

Also notable: the general year-long interest in the allegations of sexual harassment made against the president with a spike in the later months as the reckoning against abusive men in multiple industries gained steam.

Nothing about Trump's behavior throughout the last 12 months reflects any kind of genuine, thoughtful strategy of deflection and distraction and this chart proves it. Rather, it confirms that the Trump Presidency is much more akin to that famous scene in Boogie Nights where a guy wanders around flinging lit fireworks while a coked-out drug dealer waves around a loaded gun and we all barrel on to the next thing while chaos and noise swirl around us and we all start to lose our minds as we become numb to the catastrophe that is slowly unfolding.

Happy New Year!

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