From “The Morning News”, December 27, 2017, by Alicia Eler:

https://themorningnews.org/article/2017-the-year-that-was-and-wasnt

Alicia Eler
We need legislation protecting the environment, not your freakin’ tears and prayers.

Most Important: This single horrifying video by photographer Paul Nicklen of a polar bear slowly dying from starvation while wandering about on iceless land shows the startling effects of climate change. Polar bears only live in Arctic regions, so as the temperatures warm and sea levels rise, they are amongst the first creatures to feel the effects. Their ice-filled hunting grounds continue to shrink as sea ice disappears, and then they die. We need legislation protecting the environment, not your freakin’ tears and prayers. Fun fact: This video was filmed on Dec. 5, shortly after the environment took another hit after President Trump said he would shrink Bears Ears National Monument.

Least Important: Our SLOTUS, the Second Lady Karen Pence, and her daughter Charlotte Pence, formally announced that they would be making a children’s book called Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President about their Instagram-famous rabbit, Marlon Bundo, aka Bunny of the United States (BOTUS). Every day, the Trump Administration comes out with something new and terrible: an endorsement of pedophile Roy Moore for senator of Alabama, a tax bill that will greatly benefit the wealthy, or just a Twitter rampage at 3 a.m. from the imbecile president. The fact that BOTUS is getting his own book is, simply put, a distraction from reality.

Alicia Eler is the author of The Selfie Generation: How Our Self-Images Are Changing Our Notions of Privacy, Sex, Consent, and Culture. She is the visual art critic at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.