The unfortunate year of 2021 is almost at its close, and I wish to recount many of the goings-on which have made it so unfortunate.  From shortly after the new year made its appearance, and through the entire year, the populace in America has been subjected to unrelenting tyranny, from both the political and medical establishments.  Both elected state, local, and national officials; and unelected bureaucrats have wrought their havoc on Society in our America, and subjected the People to constant, never-ending regulation of everyday life, up to and including their persons and homes.  State and local Health Nazis have turned neighbor against neighbor, bringing to America a whiff of the East German Stasi, the secret police which ran constant surveillance of all citizens.  Listed below will be as many of the horrid events of 2021, which has made everyday life in America difficult, as I can summon.  Destructive events will have a (D); tyrannical events will have a (T); and losses will have an (L).

(D) The first destructive event of 2021 happened when the year was brand new. A crowd of Americans in Washington DC had assembled on January 6, to hear and react to the announcement, by Congress, of the final results of the 2020 presidential election.  Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump had given a speech, urging his many followers to make their voices heard, and peacefully protest the fraudulent election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the presidency and vice-presidency.  Numerous Trump followers made their way to the Capitol Building to peacefully protest.  Before they arrived, there were already crowds of people there, many of whom were infiltrators from the anarchist group AntiFa, and even FBI agents.  Many people forcefully broke into the building, and video shows a few “demonstrators” breaking windows, knocking down barricades, and making mischief.  Other video showed peaceful crowds being invited into the building by Capitol Police officers, and simply walking down hallways and sitting in seats, making no mayhem at all.  One of those Capitol Police officers shot and killed a demonstrator, who was doing absolutely nothing worse than “trespassing” in what used to be known as the “People’s House”.  The policeman was black; the demonstrator was white.

Many members of Congress that day became hysterical, deeming the demonstration an “insurrection”, and immediately the hammers came down on hundreds of demonstrators.  They were thrown into the DC Jail, in horrendous conditions, where many of them still languish today, nearly a year later.  More than one demonstrator has been sentenced to years in prison for mostly minor crimes.  And even the Republicans in Congress refuse to speak up for them.

(D) The next destructive events started on January 20, when Biden was inaugurated. On that Day of Infamy, he began the thorough destruction of as much of President Trump’s legacy as he could, with a series of executive orders. These orders were promulgated with no good reason, other than the cancellation of every Trump initiative, with the intent of ruining the former president, and taking down the man, his associates, and anyone in his administration.  Here is a list of some of the actions Biden has taken to destroy President Trump and his legacy:

• Cancelled the Keystone XL Pipeline, ensuring higher gas prices for everyone
• Froze Trump’s regulatory review
• Re-entered the Paris “Climate Agreement”
• Re-entered the corrupt WHO
• Ended Trump “travel bans”
• Ended Border Wall building, essentially opened southern border to unlimited illegal immigration
• Re-instated DACA, giving legal status to thousands of illegal immigrant children
• Revision of civil immigration priorities
• Halted Census questions regarding immigration status
• Protecting Homosexuals and “transgenders” against “discrimination”
• Modernizing regulatory review (allowing more regulations)
• Paused federal student loan repayment (still paused today, costing the Treasury millions of dollars)
• Reinstating deferred departure for Liberians
• Many orders federalizing the response to the Covid pandemic, including mask mandate on all airlines and public transportation
• Memorandum condemning and combating racism, xenophobia, and intolerance against Asian and Pacific Islander Americans
• Elimination of private federal prisons
• Rebuilding and enhancing programs to resettle refugees, and assess effects of “climate change” on migration
• Revoked Trump executive order expanding apprenticeships in America
• Revoked Trump Proclamation 10014 (Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Present a Risk to the United States Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak)
• Instituted nationwide “eviction ban”, preventing tenants from being evicted from rental property for inability to pay due to Covid job losses. [This was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court]

The Biden administration has prosecuted dozens of Trump associates for minor crimes, and encouraged itself and New York to demand the former President’s tax returns, including from years before he was even elected president.  The DemocRat party is bound and determined to destroy the former president, with the assistance of their henchmen in Social Media.  Never has a tech company shut down a sitting President’s communications with supporters like Google, Facebook, and Twitter did.

(D) Shortly after the January 6 mayhem, the Secretary of the Army issued a “stand down” order, in order to purge the Army of “extremists”.  There is now a political test for members of the US military, and anyone deemed too “conservative” risks being labeled an extremist and removed from the military.  Call it the “Bidenist Purges”.

(D) Perhaps the worst destruction wrought by the new administration is that on the southern border with Mexico.  Before they took office, masses of “immigrants” were waiting on the Mexican side, responding to the communications of the new regime telling them that they were welcome to break down our doors, and flood into our country with little to stop them.  And that’s exactly what has been happening all year.  Imprimis, a speech digest put out by Hillsdale College, has a great summary of what has been going on.  Illegal immigrants have been flooding across the border all year, bring with them drugs, disease, and chaos.  And the administration in Washington has been helping them to disperse all across the US heartland, even flying them and busing them to inland America at no cost to themselves (no, it’s the US taxpayer who foots the bill).  A country without a functioning border is not a country, and Biden is participating in the destruction of our country.  Have we ever had a president before who positively hated America, and wished to transform it into a socialist hellhole?  I don’t think so.

(T) The tyranny of the Health Nazis, both in the federal government, and state and local governments, has been laying the People low all year.  Biden has issued Covid Vaccine Mandates for all federal government workers and contractors, healthcare workers, and private sector workers at companies with 100 or more employees.  Fortunately, many of those mandates have been held up in court, but the Biden administration is going around some of the holdups and re-declaring mandates in some states.  This has led to many resignations of healthcare, law-enforcement, and other government workers who refuse vaccination.  And in the past few months, it has come to light that the vaccines do NOT protect a person from getting a Covid infection, nor from transmitting it!  But rather than admit that the vaccines are not protective, the Health Nazis triple-down and demand Boosters!  The worst Health Tyrant, Anthony Fauci, seems to run the country himself, continually applying more restrictions on Americans’ behavior, up to and including demanding that families require their Christmas dinner guests to be vaccinated!  They know that a cloth or paper mask cannot protect a person from a virus, yet the governments demand that all persons, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask 100% of the time while flying in an airplane or in the airport, on public transportation, or in any indoor venue like a concert hall, restaurant, or bar.  Cities like New York and Seattle have their own vaccine mandates, enlisting restaurant employees as enforcers.  And still, in spite of all their mandates, Covid continues to spread almost everywhere.

This year and last, thousands of elderly nursing-home patients were forced to sicken, and die alone, forbidden from seeing their loved-ones at the end of their lives.  The Health Nazis are guilty of torture in many cases.

And now, the discredited, corrupt CDC is recommending against cruise travel!  The reason? Covid outbreaks on cruise-ships where 100% of crew and passengers have been fully-vaccinated!  If this isn’t a perfect indication that vaccination is in no way protective, I don’t know what is.  But you know the CDC will never, ever, change their guidance, or admit failure.

Absolute Power, once gained, is rarely yielded, so I predict the tyranny will continue until the People rise up and say No More!

For myself, I have refused to wear a mask anywhere except a doctor’s office.  I ignore the mask signs at all retail stores, and when we flew to and from Nashville and Detroit I also refused to wear a mask at the airports (no luck on the planes, as the flight attendants were very strict, and we know what happens to unruly air passengers these days).  We will be driving on our future vacations.

(D) Economically, the high inflation caused by the constant money-printing by the Federal Reserve, has reduced the value of everyone’s savings, even in the face of a booming labor situation.  Jobs are going begging, because the Government made it beneficial for people not to work.  Even the wage gains for many jobs are eaten away by continually-rising prices of everything.  And a high cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security benefits just brings the program closer to insolvency.

(D) Also destructive has been the governments’ war on parents of school-age children.  Public schools, which are dominated by the far-Left teachers unions, are insisting on teaching children that the color of their skin determines their place in society-that if they are white, they are guilty of oppressing their black neighbors.  Parents themselves have been branded “domestic terrorists” for standing up against the corrosive Critical Race Theory. This war on parents has led, on the other hand, to some beneficial activities, like an increase in home-schooling, as many parents determine that the public schools have been a detriment to their children’s education, and to their mental health.  This war on parents has also led Hillsdale College to bring out their homeschooling program, and I urge parents to check it out, and Hillsdale.edu.

(D) Starting with the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline, the Biden administration has been doing its best to destroy the domestic oil and gas industry, all in the name of “fighting climate change” (as if we can change the climate!).  From Day One, Biden and his environmental wackos have been denying new on- and offshore oil leases, closing down oil extraction in Alaska, and demanding that big US oil companies like Exxon-Mobil “transition away” from drilling for oil!  And when the inevitable happens and gasoline prices skyrocket, they beg OPEC to drill more oil!  US oil companies, already beaten down, are hesitating to increase production, knowing that they will just be vilified for it.

(D) Biden’s disastrous full withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan over a very short period in August, caused havoc, chaos, and death.  Americans were murdered by Taliban thugs, and we allowed valuable military bases and their equipment to fall into the hands of the evil Taliban.  Now, we have no presence or influence in the area, and the jihadists who wish Death to America are in charge.

(L) Perhaps the greatest loss of 2021 was my Hero, Rush Limbaugh, who died in February of the lung cancer he told us about in January of 2020.  Now, when we need him the most to help us through this dark period in America, we don’t have his wise council, and his reassurance that it’s not the end of the world.  We are without his sense of humor, and the Left who is running this country has quashed much humor.  Just writing this brings tears to my eyes, as I remember my conversation with Rush in 2005.  There is a big hole in my heart, and in my life, without Rush.

(L) We also lost a very great Ricochet member, whose handle was Boss Mongo.  He died in July of a massive heart attack.  His death was like a thunderclap, and left a very large cloud over the Ricochet membership.  Brendan Welsh had written a great tribute to Rush Limbaugh on Ricochet, and it not only made the Main Feed, it was published later in the Limbaugh Letter.  Boss Mongo was a massive presence on Ricochet, and his loss is felt by every single member.  I especially miss talking to him on the weekly Audio Meetups, where members would call in from all over the country to just get to know each other, and discuss issues of the day or just stuff happening in our lives.  I loved hearing his voice, and I especially loved knowing that he did look forward to speaking with me.  He is greatly missed by all of Ricochet.

(L) Due to the complete over-reaction to the Covid virus by all levels of government, we have lost all trust in the medical establishment in this country.  The “Public Health” establishment, which essentially shut down a growing, thriving economy, wrought untold destruction on the people of America.  Closed schools denied American children nearly two full years of in-person education which can never be made up.  When the medical establishment started sanctioning doctors for treating their Covid patients with Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin (both of which have been shown to be effective), we lost further trust.  We noticed that much of the response to the CCP Virus was political, with dissenting views on its origin shut down by social media.

(T) In 2021, we were treated to the tyranny of Big Tech Social Media, which proved themselves to be simply arms of the DemocRat party and the Leftist Media.  Google, Facebook, Twitter, GoFundMe, and many others shut down all dissent regarding many areas of interest.  Any Covid comments that disagreed with Big Government were banned, and the commenters shut down.  Dozens of conservative voices found themselves de-platformed.  Some, like General Michael Flynn, had their bank accounts cancelled, as well as all the rest of the shunning by social media.  The social media giants showed that they were simply the propaganda arm of the Biden Administration.

But, at the end of his monolog, Rush would also mention “even the good times”, and there were some good times for me this year.  In April, we flew to Nashville for a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar.  We had a wonderful visit, met Andy Ngo (the conservative chronicler of AntiFa mischief), and had a wonderful meetup at the Jack Daniel Distillery with Ricochet friends.  In July, out of the blue, I got a call from a recruiter, which led to a new temp job at a local aerospace company.  Instead of it being just one month, it lasted more than five months!  I like the people and the work, but I don’t know if I will be working in 2022.  We went to Hillsdale in September for another seminar, and had a great time there.

Looking ahead to 2022, I am wondering if Biden’s “winter of sickness and death” will come to pass.  Never have I heard a president try so hard to demoralize his own country.  Never have I heard my fellow citizens described as “domestic terrorists” for pushing back against government tyranny like we had in 2021.  But I tend to be an individual optimist, so I will welcome 2022