…a year of record-low unemployment, and job opportunities for ex-prisoners and black and other minority workers…until it wasn’t.  A year of thriving small businesses, after-work drinks at our favorite Chinese restaurant, and ample overtime work due to a full order book at my aerospace job…until it wasn’t.  Quite quickly, 2020 turned into the Annus Horribilis.

January 2020 was a happy, prosperous month, beginning the fourth year of President Donald Trump’s administration, in the Asian Year of the Rat.  It didn’t take long for that happiness and prosperity to come crashing down around us, as the Wuhan Coronavirus made its way around our increasingly-connected world, from its origins in Communist China, and governments all over the planet responded in a way never before seen in human history.  The Wuhan Coronavirus hit the US at the end of prosperous January, with the first known case being found just a few miles from where I live in Western Washington State.  It was found in a man who had been to the city of Wuhan, in Communist China.  Nobody was very worried, since it was only one person with the disease, and he recovered and went home.  At the end of the month, President Trump stopped all flights to the US from Communist China, to ensure that no more carriers of the disease were admitted to the country.  Unfortunately, that was found to be too late.  It turned out that the virus had already been here for quite some time, unnoticed and undetected.  Meanwhile, the so-called “news” media were ranting and raving over how terrible it was that that nasty, xenophobic, President Trump was keeping more fine, blameless Communist Chinese people from coming to America.  Later, it was found that back in December of 2019, Communist China locked down the city of Wuhan internally, not letting Communist Chinese people travel to or from the city.  However, the Communist Chinese government were happy to let flight after flight leave Communist China for the next two months, to destinations around the world, knowingly spreading their deadly disease everywhere else.

Oh, and I almost forgot.  In January, my Hero, Rush Limbaugh, was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer, which just threw me for a loop.  In all the hoopla of the unsuccessful Impeachment of President Trump and the State of the Union speech, the President presented him with the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.  He richly deserves that honor.

All through the Very Bad Year of 2020, DemocRats and Republicans were engaged in a knockdown political campaign for President.  The field of DemocRats vying for the job was ridiculously large, with many unserious candidates, most of whom dropped out before the first primary was even held.  Senator Bernie Sanders had has crowds of kiddies, who have been indoctrinated in Leftist ideology since birth, coming out for him in droves; few other candidates had any crowds at their appearances.  As usual, President Trump drew crowds of thousands wherever he appeared, with some people waiting many hours in long lines to get into the venues.  As also usual, the so-called “news” media continued their beating up of the President and their admiring of all the DemocRat candidates, even the ones who dropped out.  Perpetual Candidate, former vice president Joe Biden, campaigned in his usual way, lacklusterly, drawing “crowds” in the tens of people.

In February, governments in Europe, where the Wuhan Coronavirus was spreading quickly and overwhelming their Government-run medical care systems; initiated the first Government Lockdowns of society.  All citizens, especially in Italy (which has been a borderline second-world country for decades), were prohibited from leaving their homes, and only “essential” workers were allowed to leave home to go to work.  Essential retail continued, but with all the people confined to their homes many smaller businesses failed.  This pattern was to be adopted all over the entire planet, in a fruitless attempt to slow or stop the spread of this new coronavirus.  The World Health Organization, all through January and February, continued to downplay the effects of the new virus, since the group had been a captive of Communist China for a long time, and the Communist Chinese were calling the shots.  Finally, the WHO got around to declaring the illness a Pandemic, which made very little difference.

In March of the Very Bad Year of 2020, the Government Lockdowns of society spread all over the world.  Most countries initiated “stay-at-home” orders for the majority of their citizens, preventing them from leaving their homes to go to work.  Schools were closed nearly everywhere, with children supposed to be engaged in “remote learning” (this turned out to be a colossal failure, and a generation of children will suffer for the rest of their lives due to the year of lost education).  Only “essential” businesses and industries were allowed to continue operations.  In the US, where the states were made responsible for anti-virus economic measures, every state had different rules and regulations, and ways of counting all the people who were infected or died of the virus.  This predictably led to chaos.  The Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention kept issuing contradictory “guidelines” about how the states and people were supposed to behave.  Guidelines were updated almost daily, making it difficult for states and people to keep up.  People were told very early that wearing masks would not be helpful, since they were too porous to keep the virus out, and should be reserved for medical personnel.  Then, a short time later, everyone was advised to wear a mask everywhere they went. People were getting whiplash from the constantly changing guidelines.

And 2020 was the year that Communist China took back Hong Kong, and the world shrugged its shoulders.  Dozens of real Freedom Fighters are imprisoned for defending what liberty they had left, and the world shrugged.

March started the Rule By Decree of State governors in the US.  Most states gave their governors near-dictatorial power, and that power was applied differently in each state.  The governors of New York, Michigan, Illinois, and California all thoroughly locked down their states.  Michigan’s governor issued long lists of “essential” and “non-essential” items that citizens were allowed or not allowed to purchase, requiring retailers to rope off entire sections of their stores.  Governors, in short, were given Absolute Power over the residents of their states, turning their people into slaves, and not Citizens. The governors of Washington, Oregon, and New Mexico soon followed with their own statewide lockdowns.  Some states had checkpoints at their borders, stopping cars from other states from entering.  And very few citizens objected to this change in status.  The lockdowns have persisted for the majority of this entire year, completely changing the relationship of the people to their governments.  On this blog, I have been writing all this year about the War of All Against All, which has continued with almost negligible pushback from the citizens. I sometimes feel that I am all alone in rejecting war against my fellow citizens.

DAMN YOU, JAY INSLEE

One of the industries most affected by the Government Lockdowns was the aerospace industry, as international travel ceased completely, and air travel within the US was curtailed everywhere.  My own employer, a supplier to the aircraft builders, was declared “essential”, so I kept going to work every day.  But customers canceled orders right and left, and employees could see that layoffs were coming.  On the last working day of March, we were informed that the company would shut down completely for the first two weeks of April.  We had exactly four hours’ notice of the plant shutdown, so we had very little time to inform all of our suppliers.  I was lucky to have a large amount of vacation time saved up, so I could use that and not suffer any losses; but others with fewer hours saved up were forced to take leave without pay.  While on shutdown, I was sent a “voluntary separation” package, which gave me five days to accept or reject.  I knew if I rejected the package, I would be laid off immediately.  When I returned to work, I spoke with my boss, and was given one extra month, so I accepted the package, with separation at the end of May.  When someone else in my department quit, I was able to stay until the end of August, when I finally retired.  As of today, the aerospace industry is still in a state of recession, with many more layoffs all over the industry.

All through the summer of 2020, the restrictions remained, and into the autumn and winter.  Our governments are ruling us, determining most of what we can do with our own lives.  Government and the so-called “news” media have instilled such a high level of fear in all Americans that they willingly participate in their own slavery.  My husband and I have remained healthy, and we don’t know anyone who has gotten sick this year.  We used to love going shopping; now it’s just an awful chore, with masks required in all retail stores. My husband’s athletic club has been closed since November, and he is bereft since he can’t play his favorite sport of squash.  We are both gaining weight, and getting on each others’ nerves.  And we see no end in sight, as the slaves of Washington State re-elected their Dictator to an unprecedented third term in office.  He is nearly as stupid as our Senator Patty Murray, who has been described as the stupidest senator.

DAMN YOU, JAY INSLEE

Due to the Wuhan Coronavirus, all activities that require assemblies of people have been prohibited.  All concerts, professional sports, and schools have been closed.  Churches have been closed, and held services online.  Most restaurants have been closed to inside dining for months, throwing employees out of work, and causing mass disappearance of independent cafes.  The big chains survive on takeout, but smaller ones have gone out of business.  All tourism has been curtailed, destroying the cruise industry and hotels everywhere.  As I have written about all year, Society itself is being ruined.  Colleges, too, have been failing, as students are sent home and activities cease on campus.

The Summer of 2020 was taken up by riots, demonstrations, and looting of big, DemocRat-run cities all over America.  Funny, nobody from the Health Nazi establishment issued decrees against all that destruction.  Millions of small, black-owned businesses were burned down by demonstrators ostensibly raging against the deaths of black men at the hands of racist police.  The “Defund the Police” movement gained traction, with many police officers shot or otherwise injured by “demonstrators”.

Part of central Seattle was taken over by the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement for some weeks, and a police precinct was trashed; black youths were shot in or near that zone, with no outcry by the BLM occupiers.  The radicals of Antifa basically took over and trashed much of downtown Portland.  With many residents fleeing central cities for less-dense suburbs, those central cities now sit empty, with little hope for revival while the government virus restrictions remain.

And on top of all this, the presidential election was a total farce.  With all of President Trump’s accomplishments buried by the so-called “news” media for four years, the public was treated to candidate Joe Biden’s “campaign”, basically from his basement all summer.  He rarely gave any personal appearances, and the huge story of his son Hunter’s corruption was buried by both the mainstream “news” media, and the internet giants Google, Facebook, and Twitter.  Facebook and Twitter engaged in vast public censorship of news stories, with next to no pushback.  Together, they all stole the presidential election from President Trump in November.  Here it is, December 31, and the election is still undecided.  Numerous states were shown to have had massive election fraud, but the courts and media have turned down all attempts to reveal the actual fraud.  Many lawsuits have been filed, and dumped by courts with no resolution.  Hundreds of thousands of votes were shown to have been cast fraudulently; no one notices or cares.  We Conservatives have shown that this Country is being destroyed from within by the Left.  No one cares.

Together, the Left and the Communist Chinese, have acted this year to eat away at the heart of America all year.  Just recently, it was revealed that dozens of US companies, academic institutions, and government agencies have been infiltrated by the Chinese Communist Party.  But the “media” are burying those stories, so the American Public will never know what is happening.  I wonder if the majority of my fellow Americans will even notice the destruction of their Liberty while it is happening.  But we will notice.  And we will not forget.

For us, the best part of this year was our September vacation drive to South Dakota, to meet with our friends from Ricochet.com.  We had a wonderful drive across the country, and got to experience some Liberty, driving through states with no “mask mandates” or restaurant restrictions.  We saw gorgeous sights, mountains and rivers and wildlife.  We drove through part of Glacier National Park, and admired its wonders.  It was pleasant to feel free again, even for a short time.  Crossing back into Washington State felt like going back to prison.

DAMN YOU, JAY INSLEE

2020 has been a very depressing year for us.  And we are not really looking forward to 2021 either, since a Biden administration will usher in even more destruction of our Liberty.  But this year I will become a Hillsdale Associate, promoting the College that is doing the most to Teach and Defend Liberty in this country.  We are going to a National Leadership Seminar in February, in Phoenix, where we will meet again with our friends from the college, and hear valuable lectures from the likes of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Sheryl Attkisson, both women who have experienced the destruction of the Left first-hand.

So, on this New Year’s Eve of 2020, I bid a welcome farewell to the Worst Year I can remember, in all of my 71 years on Earth.  I pray fervently that all of my readers and followers will have a better year of 2021 than this year was.  And I ask all my readers to pay very close attention to what their own governments have in store for them, and resist if you can.  Best Wishes to All.