Monday, September 14, 2020

The year "annus horribilis"

So here we are, three-quarters of the way through the year annus horribilis. You might say 2020 has been a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Year.


The one theme Don and I (along with many friends and neighbors) keep returning to is how fast things have unraveled. Last Christmas, as we celebrated with our family, not one of us had a clue what lay ahead. It's been wacky on every front.

Here are just some of the things that have happened in 2020:

• Pandemic
• Lockdowns
• School closures
• Small business closures by the hundreds of thousands
• Economic hardship for millions
• Panic prepping
• The rise of domestic terrorism
• Cities under siege
• Loss of law and order
• Mass exodus from urban areas
• Catastrophic wildfires
• Hurricanes
• Dericho winds destroying huge swaths of crops
• The rip-the-mask-off exposure of school indoctrination
• Blatant media bias
• Blatant Big Tech censorship
• Elections (arguably this factor underlays much of the above list)

Have I missed anything? I'm sure I have. Some of these things have been going on for a long, long time and only became obvious at last; others are unprecedented. But it all rolls into one big ball of, well, 2020.

There's an old Chinese curse that says "May you live in interesting times." Well, guess what. We're living in interesting times.


And it all happened so fast. So fast.

Nor it is over. Whatever happens in November, we're in for a long, hard, ugly civil war (definitely figuratively; hopefully not literally).


Hunker down, folks. It's all we can do.

31 comments:

  1. You missed mass toilet paper craziness!

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  2. The other thing we can do is stand tall on God's promises, and trust Him with joy and confidence. We had to evacuate our little valley due to the wildfires for a few days, now back home waiting to see if evacuation will be needed again. The Holiday farm fire is only 5% contained, so we didn't unpack. But have been amazed at how God has continued to lead us and protect us. No structures have burned in our little valley despite fire getting within 4 miles. Up the Mckenzie River,entire towns and many homes have been wiped out, but even in that circumstance evidence of God's goodness is there. Fire flowed around several people's homes. I joke that I didn't have "wildfire evacuation" on my 2020 bingo card. Regardless of what it looks like in 2020, God is STILL good and He leads His people.

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  3. I suggest that on December 31, 2020 we all stay up until after midnight, in order to make sure that two things happen: (1) 2020 definitively leaves the building; and (2) 2021 does not stop 2020 when they pass each other and say, "Here, hold my beer and watch this!"

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    1. You made me laugh out loud! I think you are right!

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    2. Wonderful! If it's OK, I'm going to pass that on to family and friends - it's quite priceless

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  4. We had floods never seen in recorded history - still trying to clean up and repair the damage from Feb. on that front.

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  5. How about the Fed running the money printing presses on overtime! Debt acceleration.

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  6. This is the weirdest year ever! I have a neighbor selling her house. The realtor asked her to open the windows to freshen the place up. Well, we have so much smoke in the air in California, that I would've said let me leave the AC on. No-this crazy neighbor worries about letting the Covid virus in her house! I said, WHAT? She goes, yeah, the virus is all around us. Then, my friend was going to come up to see me from the Bay Area. I haven't seen her since January, we usually celebrate holidays together, etc. Well, I mentioned that i had a dental appointment today. She goes, oh? Is it an emergency? Um....no. I'm getting a cleaning. I'm then told that she can't come see me because you should see the dentist only in an emergency and I will probably get Covid from the dentist bending over me. Are. You.Kidding.Me???? This-from college educated women.

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  7. How about the rise in alienation of friends and family along political lines? Never seen anything like it! "If you don't believe like I do, I can't talk to you and I'm unfriending you from facebook, etc.

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    1. Yes, I've seen the best, and the worst of this so far. I think mean people are meaner, kind people are kinder. On a happy note, I play pickleball (try it you'll love it) with mostly people on the other end of the isle from me. We get along great, even when he talk a bit, about politics. My other isle friend says "because we have actual, normal conversations, You don't see that on TV or on social media" No arguing, just talking, respecting different views. God IS great.

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  8. It is frightening - and instructive - how quickly and completely things can completely change.

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  9. Recently watched a video from 09/11/19 showing the streets of NYC full of people singing "God Bless America." One year ago! It's hard to believe.

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  10. Back in early January we almost slipped into WWIII when the US killed the Iranian General in an Iraq.

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    1. Whether or not that is true, I do not know. But the fact remains - if anyone deserved death, it was him.

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    2. Anonymous, America's justice system was built on God’s natural law of 'innocence until proven guilty'. Did I miss a trial of the General?

      This concept saved Jesus and gave Him 6 more months before the cross. "Doth our law judge [any] man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?" (John 7:51 KJV)
      Montana Guy

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    3. Justice is reserved for individuals. Would it not have been better for Hitler to have been droned early on when we knew what he was planning (like Qasem Soleimani), or should he have been taken to court at the end of the war? While I'm certainly a supporter of 'innocent until proven guilty' among the citizenry, Qasem Soleimani was not a civilian, and as such, he became a casualty of war. In war, justice is only part of the equation - it is also about preventing the loss of other lives. Would you not take the life of a person planning a murderer to save the life of the one they were planning to murder? I just don't think it was wrong for David to kill Goliath.

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  11. There is one thing, and it is a big thing, to be happy about. All this unrest has shown that you can’t rely on your job, your health, your finances, your country, the police, or sometimes even your family. If this doesn’t open your eyes that the only thing you can rely on is Jesus, you are blind

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  12. As Doc told Marty McFly, whatever you do don't set the time machine to 2020.....

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  13. I have to add hurricane Sally smoking us upside the head here in Pensacola Florida.

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  14. Good list! “Impeachment/ Coup Attempts” is missing.

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  15. Great list! The only omission I can think of is the Impeachment/Coup attempt.

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  16. I remember after September 11 talking to my oldest daughter how this will be in history books. I just had a similar conversation with my youngest about this year.

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  17. "Have I missed anything?"

    You missed the Pentagon and DHS warnings the future of nuclear weapons, not only where they're going but also their present-day insecurity.

    Zero Hedge -- "Pentagon admits risk of 'mistakenly' firing land-based nuclear missiles in rare memo" (30 Jul 2020).

    DHS combats potential EMP attack (03 Sep 2020).

    But what the so-called "mainstream media" missed was the importance of the reduced payload W76-2 and how such weapons change the rules of engagement.

    Popular Mechanics -- "What is Trump's new nuclear weapon?" (10 Sep 2020).

    What most Westerners were propagandised to believe was that nuclear weapons were large-scale "weapons of mass destruction" that no sane person or government would ever use willingly, if at all.

    What the truth happens to be is that low-yield tactical nuclear weapons are exactly the type of munitions to be used in Clausewitzian "limited war" scenarios.

    Government and private industry experts have long been pushing the myth of nuclear deterrence without a long and honest talk about the reality of limited nuclear war.

    And so as horrible as your list happens to be, this is actually the worst stuff that needs to be on the list.

    With the W76-2 and other nuclear munitions like it, the genie is back out of the bottle and the myth of nuclear deterrence proves itself to be a big fat lie.

    Limited nuclear conflict is now inevitable.

    Putin knows this, and this is what he's referring to when he says that Russia isn't against nuclear engagements.

    But look on the bright side: as in the movie "A Boy and His Dog", politicians really will solve that problem of urban blight.

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  18. My son sent me a post of this: "Mom, is that offer to knock me into next year still on the table?" I couldn't help of course given what this year has brought us.

    Now to make matters even worse is the prospect of President Trump nominating a replacement for the now deceased RBG. Although I wish she had died earlier so that Trump would not have the political pressure NOT to nominate someone to the bench. If he doesn't and loses the Presidential election we will be in a real pickle as we all know how a President Biden will go. He'll probably nominate his running mate Kamela Harris. Nancy's too old, AOC is too young. I am sure he'll find someone equally abhorrent to nominate. Go for it DJT and Mitch McConnell! Give us what this country needs. Someone who doesn't make law fit the constitution but interprets the laws passed to conform with it.

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  19. My son sent me a post of this: "Mom, is that offer to knock me into next year still on the table?" I couldn't help of course given what this year has brought us.

    Now to make matters even worse is the prospect of President Trump nominating a replacement for the now deceased RBG. Although I wish she had died earlier so that Trump would not have the political pressure NOT to nominate someone to the bench. If he doesn't and loses the Presidential election we will be in a real pickle as we all know how a President Biden will go. He'll probably nominate his running mate Kamela Harris. Nancy's too old, AOC is too young. I am sure he'll find someone equally abhorrent to nominate. Go for it DJT and Mitch McConnell! Give us what this country needs. Someone who doesn't make law fit the constitution but interprets the laws passed to conform with it.

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  20. I live in a suburb of Houston. I haven't been able to find canned whole tomatoes or diced ones for over 2 months now. They were there at the beginning of this whole mess.

    On a separate note, I serve at the local food pantry. Pre-lockdown, we serbes on average 12 families/day and were open 4 days a week, 4 hours/day. We are now open 5 days a week and serve on average 34 families/day. We sometimes get up to 45 on a day. Most of them are first timers.

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  21. It's me again from a suburb of Houston.

    How about church closures?? Ours opened back up on June 7th but just for the worship service not Sunday School or any other activities that normally meet there during the week. Our attendance has slowly been picking up, but we are barely at 50%. I have spoken to several peoole about why they haven't come back and they are either still too scared or they have gotten used to sitting in their pjs while watching the service online. This is all so bizarre!!

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  22. Locusts, floods globally. World Food Bank estimates 45 countries will be in Famine by January with the US as a possible. Get ready. 2021 will make us all miss 2020. Gods punishments and miracle and blessings are and will be poured out without measure.

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  23. It's been fun getting to know you.

    Good luck, Patrice and Don.

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