Don't expect 2017 to bring much relief from the miseries that gathered in 2016. It's not all about President-elect Donald Trump but, alas, he is the unpredictable joker in the pack. Remember all those Trumpkins reassuring us that Trump as president would not be the spiteful bozo he seemed to be while running for office? Judging from his cascade of pugnacious tweets, that upbeat scenario of him growing into the job just doesn't seem to have panned out. He has surrounded himself with a cast of neoconservatives and misfits who seem ready to facilitate his transition to war president. He glories in being an iconoclast, but only because he is eager to irk everyone by doing things his way without considering the consequences.

By following this script, the sad truth is that he is highly likely to propel America careening back into the deep hole dug by former President George W. Bush, reviled by most of the world and an embarrassment to friendly nations.

The good news for Asia's despots, kleptocrats, tin-pot tyrants and deranged demagogues is that Trump has lowered the bar on what constitutes acceptable leadership. His Cabinet looks like he's selected it from central casting for a third-world movie ranting about American imperialism. For critics who charge that the U.S. government's foreign policy is all about helping the military industrial complex get fat, Trump has delivered the jackpot. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned back in 1961 that U.S. democracy was at risk of being hijacked by this military industrial complex and now must be rolling in his grave at seeing such a lightweight brazenly making that happen.