SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

WINSTON TO RETURN – FROM BRITAIN'S SUN:   DONALD Trump has asked Britain to send Winston Churchill’s bust back to the White House so he can return it to the Oval Office, The Sun can reveal.  The request was put to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson by the President Elect’s senior advisers during talks in New York three days ago.   Last night, Downing Street confirmed that Theresa May has agreed to a loan of the famous sculpture again.  The gesture marks a diplomatic coup for the PM in her bid to win influence over the unpredictable new US leader.  A bitter row over the bust’s location has raged for seven years since outgoing President Barack Obama replaced the wartime leader’s image with one of Martin Luther King in 2009.  Since then, it has been kept at the British Embassy in Washington DC.  Trump’s closest advisers Jared Kushner and Steven Bannon relayed the request for the bust’s return after revealing their boss was a big fan of the legendary Tory, and had even read Boris’s biography of him.  A No10 spokesman told The Sun last night: “The Prime Minister is happy to loan the Churchill bust to the White House and will be delighted to view it on display when she visits this Spring”.  There had been hints of this earlier.  I hope the placement of the piece in the Oval Office is accompanied by an appropriate ceremony.  The sculpture of King should also remain as a symbol of racial harmony. 

SORDID – FROM AP:  Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he has spoken with Donald Trump about the unsubstantiated report Wednesday claiming Russia had compromising personal and financial information about the president-elect.  Clapper said in a statement released Wednesday night that he told Trump the intelligence community “has not made any judgment that the information in this document is reliable.”  The dossier contains unproven information about close coordination between Trump’s inner circle and Russians over hacking into Democratic accounts as well as unproven claims of unusual sexual activities by Trump, among other suggestions attributed to anonymous sources. The Associated Press has not authenticated any of the claims.  Clapper also said he told Trump he does not believe any leaks from Friday’s meeting between intelligence officials and Trump came from the intelligence community.  This is a very seedy situation.  It is also suspicious, coming only a week before inauguration.  There is a real attempt to delegitimize Trump's election, and I suspect there will be other developments in the next week.   I don't have any specific evidence, but I have a gut feeling that we won't have a normal Inauguration Day.

CHICAGO HORROR – FROM AMI NEWSWIRE:   The record-setting violence in Chicago is even worse than announced as new evidence shows the city suffered 50 more homicides last year than the numbers publicly reported in the past week.  The city posted a decades-high homicide count of 812 in 2016, per the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office. That’s 15% greater than the 762 murders reported by the city's police department.  The discrepancy is largely due to the fact that the county tallies “homicides” while the police number counts “murders.” Murders are defined as violent acts subject to criminal prosecution. Homicides, according to the medical examiner, include instances “when the death of a person comes at the hand of another person. This does not imply that all homicides are murders that would be subject to criminal prosecution.”  The city police count is also lower because it excludes violent, intentional deaths if the act is deemed justified, including police killings of residents.  Per the county’s count, homicides rose 54% in 2016 over 2015 when Chicago had 528 deaths determined to be homicides.  Gun violence is the leading cause of death for victims of homicide in Chicago with 725 decedents being felled by at least one gunshot wound.  African Americans also bore the brunt of the violence in Cook County, which includes Chicago. They accounted for 710 of the county-wide total of 915 (88% of which occurred in the city). Men comprised 90% of the homicide victims in the county.  The president gave his farewell address in Chicago earlier this week.  I don't recall his mentioning this.  

January 11, 2017