I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the results of yesterday’s FAKE NEWS poll. So here it is:

WKRP won in a landslide. Who knew there were so many Les Nessman fans out there? It was the turkey episode that put him over the top, wasn’t it?

Not much love for the classics here, I’m afraid. It just goes to show the pitiable state of modern culture. There were also more fans of The Name of the Game than I would have guessed. Did 24 of you guys actually watch that show?

I asked Marian to curate today’s photo, and to my surprise she picked this one. It is, obviously, a London bus passing Trafalgar Square. That’s Nelson’s column in the background. The bus itself is the #9 that formed our primary link between downtown and our home in Kensington.

It’s worth saying that if you visit London and haven’t used the buses, you’re missing out. Not only can you see the city, especially from the upper deck, but the right bus can often get you closer to your destination than the tube. If nothing else, get to know two or three of the main bus routes that pass near your hotel or house. Or download an app like CityMapper that will figure out a bus route for you based on where you happen to be. Buses use the same Oyster card you use for the tube.

Marian was a little bit skeptical at first, but she quickly became a great fan and took the bus everywhere. They’re mostly not very crowded, even at rush hour, and if you can snag the front upper seat, you get a great view.

Chris Hayes has a question:

When was the last time the government shut down while controlled by one party?

— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 18, 2018

Probably never. But it’s worth pointing out why it’s happening now. It’s because appropriations are normally handled via reconciliation, which allows the majority party to pass them with only 51 votes. This year, however, Republicans decided to use the 2017 reconciliation bill for repealing Obamacare and the 2018 reconciliation bill for passing their tax bill. So there’s nothing left, and that means they need 60 votes in the Senate.

This is the only reason they have to negotiate with Democrats in the first place. Their top priorities were taking away health insurance from poor people and giving a big tax cut to corporations and the rich. So now they’re stuck, and they’ve got a president who changes his mind so frequently that nobody can figure out what kind of deal he’d support anyway.

Lots of people will suffer if the government shuts down because Trump is insisting on a huge increase in the military budget and a wholesale change to immigration laws. But it will mostly be the poor who suffer, and the rich already have their tax cut. So I guess it’s all good.

The 2017 temps are in, and NASA reports that 2017 was the second-hottest year on record. On a global basis, 2017 was 0.9ºC hotter than the 20th century average. More importantly, it was the hottest by far outside of El Niño years. 2017 was an astonishing 0.26°C hotter than the previous hottest non-El Niño year.

Just for a change of pace, though, let’s take a look at temperatures in the northern hemisphere, since that’s where most of us live. For the last couple of decades, the northern hemisphere has been heating up considerably more than the planet as a whole: in 2017, the northern hemisphere was a full 1.11ºC hotter than the 20th century average. Here’s the 50-year temperature record for the northern hemisphere:

And here are northern hemisphere temps solely for years without an El Niño event. 2017 was 0.28°C hotter than the previous record holder:

Just more fake news, I suppose.

The latest from President Trump:

CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2018

Sure. Let’s hold little kids hostage to our stupid political gameplaying. Just for the record, CHIP is the easiest thing in the world to pass. Everyone is in favor of it. The legislative language is ready to go. And it would cost nothing. There is literally no reason not to reauthorize CHIP unless you think that threatening health care for poor children is an appropriate way to get more leverage in your big-boy games against a party that’s vulnerable because it actually cares about people.

Then again, Trump is the guy who threatened to cut off health care for his nephew with cerebral palsy as an act of revenge. So I guess we know how he feels about this stuff.

Jay Godwin/Planet Pix via ZUMA

From Vice President Joe Biden:

I’m a hell of a good driver, man. For eight years, I wasn’t allowed to drive. But I got one chance when Jay Leno said would I drag-race out at their test track Colin Powell in his big Corvette. I actually was able to take him. Then I tried a Porsche and got it up to 182 miles per hour. Anyway, I like cars.

This is one of the most Biden things ever.

At last week’s big immigration meeting, President Trump said he’d sign whatever bill Congress sent him because he trusts them so much. A lot has changed in the past seven days:

“I am looking for something that President Trump supports. He has not yet indicated what measure he is willing to sign,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says of immigration debate https://t.co/sOwjbNTA1M pic.twitter.com/5xRYkt8QVk

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 17, 2018

I guess Trump doesn’t trust Congress anymore. What happened?

Our official foreign policy these days is not just “America First,” but “Who Cares What All Those Other Weenie Countries Think?” Given that, I suppose there’s no reason to care about the views of the rest of the planet. But just in case you do care, here is Gallup’s latest.

K.C. Alfred/San Diego Union-Tribune via ZUMA

Wut?

President Trump’s chief of staff privately told a group of Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had not been “fully informed” when promising voters a wall along the Mexican border last year, and said that he had persuaded the president it was not necessary….[John F. Kelly] told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that he had educated the president about the issue of immigration, adding that Mr. Trump had “evolved” on the wall.

The comments were an unusual instance of a White House chief of staff seeming to undercut public statements made by the president, in the process contradicting the central message of “Build the wall” that defined Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign. The president has recently begun to temper his own statements about the wall, telling a group of Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the White House last week that a 2,000-mile structure would not be needed because parts of the border would be impassible.

I have no idea what to say about this. True or not, what could possibly have prompted Kelly to say it?

If Donald Trump can turn his stupid fake news awards into a stupid fundraising poll, so can I. Except that mine won’t raise any money. But at least my stupid poll works, so vote anyway! What’s your favorite fake news outlet of all time?