CERTIFIABLE: Congress meets today to certify the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, four years to the day after Trump incited an angry mob to storm the Capitol in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden and the peaceful transfer of power.

  Nevertheless, Trump continues to claim the mantle of victimhood after four years of investigation and prosecutions against him. Two days ago he posted on his Truth Social website, “There has never been a President who was so evilly and illegally treated as I. Corrupt Democrat judges and prosecutors have gone against a political opponent of a President, ME, at levels of injustice never seen before.”

  The NY Times published a lengthy story about how Trump and his supporters have “laundered” the story of the January 6^th insurrection, changing the narrative from that of a violent attempt to overthrow the government in which lawmakers and the vice president ran for their lives, and turning it into what Trump has called “a day of love.”

  About 800 participants in the insurrection pleaded guilty to crimes and 200 were convicted at trial. Trump has called them “hostages” and says he plans to grant them pardons. The Times notes that Trump will be inaugurated January 20^th at the scene of the crime.

STATUARY: The odd yet entertaining musical drama “Emilia Pérez” about a trans-sexual Mexican drug lord won four awards at the Golden Globes last night, including Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, and Best Motion Picture, Non-English Language.

  A lot of the award categories sound like multiple choice test questions.

  “The Brutalist,” about an architect who emigrates from postwar Europe, won Best Motion Picture, Drama. The picture’s star, Adrien Brody, won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama.

  Demi Moore,  won Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy for “The Substance.”

  Comedian Nikki Glaser killed as the host taking a shot at her surgically-altered Hollywood audience; “I love where you put your cheekbones!”

DRILLING BAN: With Donald Trump coming into office promising to “drill baby drill,” President Joe Biden today issued a ban on drilling for oil along 625 miles of US coast. The ban covers the entire Eastern Seaboard, the Pacific Coast along California, Oregon and Washington, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and the Northern Bering Sea.

  Biden also plans to announce tomorrow the establishment of two new national monuments, preserving 800,000 acres of natural land.

  The drilling ban is largely symbolic. There is little oil to be had in the waters covered by the ban. Oil and gas exploration off the coast of California came to a halt following the disastrous 1969 spill that turned the beaches of Santa Barbara black.

  Biden said in a statement, “The relatively minimal fossil fuel potential in the areas I am withdrawing do not justify the environmental, public health and economic risks that would come from new leasing and drilling.” 

FOR WHOM THE TOLL BELLS: New York City yesterday began charging its controversial congestion-priced toll on vehicles, $9 to enter the heart of Manhattan in prime hours. The city started on a less-travelled Sunday to work out problems.

  The toll is targeted to reduce traffic in some of the most-driven areas of the city including the theater district, Times Square, Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, and SoHo. The toll is expected to raise billions of dollars while also encouraging more people to take mass transit into the city.

   The tolls vary by time of day, with the highest from 5 am to 9 pm on weekdays, and from 9 to 9 on weekends.

   The original plan was for a $15 toll but New York Gov. Kathy Hochul dialed it back. Public workers, including firefighters who drive to the city from the suburbs, are not happy. Commuters in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have fought the toll, and president-elect Donald Trump has said he will find a way to kill it.

WINTER MOVES EAST: A major winter storm moved into the Mid-Atlantic region overnight bringing snow, sleet, ice and sliding tractor-trailers to the highways. Washington DC is a winter wonderland this morning.

  On its way east, the storm dropped 11 inches of snow on Kansas City and left the highways littered with wrecks.

THE OBIT PAGE: Jeff Baena, the director and screenwriter who co-wrote the dark comedy “I Heart Huckabees” and was the husband of popular actor Aubrey Plaza, died a suicide last Friday at home in Los Angeles. He was 47.

   Baena also directed films including “Life After Beth” in which Plaza played Beth, and “Horse Girl.” Baena’s biggest success was the 2004 “Huckabees” featuring  Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin, and Mark Wahlberg. The film, about an environmentalist who hires “existential detectives,” didn’t do great at the box office but developed a cult following of fans.

  His wife, Aubrey Plaza, rose to notoriety playing a sardonic office worker on the television series “Parks and Recreation” and has since been in a spate of movie and television roles. They married privately in 2020 after 10 years of dating. Plaza had been scheduled to be one of the presenters at the Golden Globes last night. 

THE SPIN RACK: The man who drove a truck into New Year’s Day crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans scouted the area and recorded footage of it using Meta smart glasses several months prior to his attack, according to the FBI. — Nippon Steel and US Steel sued President Joe Biden today over his decision to bar them from merging. 

BELOW THE FOLD: The Japanese like their sushi and they’re willing to pay for it.  A 608 pound Oma Pacific bluefin tuna sold  at Tokyo’s Toyosu Market for the equivalent of $1.3 million. That’s $133 an ounce before the sushi chef gets his hands on it.

-30-