US Politics
Often when I publish content in a particular topic, I'll copy an old post for it's technical
goop and replace its content.
Not this time. Not exactly. See, I'm using my end of year remarks from 2018 as a template,
but this time I'm keeping some of it in, in sort of a 2020-looking-back-at-2018 way. Example:
2018:
What if I'd told you that The Washington Post would publish stories like this
(emphasis mine)?
President Trump's year of lies, false statements and misleading claims started with some
morning tweets.... [T]he start of a year of unprecedented deception during which Trump
became increasingly unmoored from the truth. When 2018 began, the president had made 1,989
false and misleading claims, according to the Fact Checker's database, which tracks every
suspect statement uttered by the president. By the end of the year, Trump had accumulated
more than 7,000 untruths during his presidency — averaging more than 15 erroneous
claims a day during 2018, almost triple the rate from the year before.
1
2020 (in response): "That's cute."
2018:
A couple of years ago I posited that the election cycle that put Donald Trump in the Oval Office
could have the effect of energizing people to get involved in politics — or at least become more
aware of it and the associated issues — and stop "phoning in" their votes — if they bothered to
vote at all.
2020: Well, perhaps I was right about that. President-Elect Joe Biden won the election, though
President Trump has been kicking and screaming about it like a kid in the candy aisle of a grocery
store. The rest of his Republicans weren't exactly mature about it, either — mounting frivolous
lawsuits with the goal of excluding votes and triggering recounts. Effectively every suit that was
filed was either thrown out of court or decided in favor of the defense. 2
I'm pleased to report that I read a few books again this year — all were about Donald Trump, in
some capacity.3
Trump and Tiktok
President Trump spent a lot of time (and taxpayers' money) this year stumping for himself. The
media showed us clips of some of the awful things he said on those trips. But one event in particular
stands out: his trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Tickets for the event were going like hotcakes... except
Trumpians weren't the ones snapping them up: it was TikTokkers — users of a controversial social
media platform, mostly kids, and particularly fans of Korean pop music — who reserved massive
numbers of seats, effectively keeping them out of Trumpians' hands, and making the crowd look
anemic.
Tiktok had been troublesome anyway, because the app collected all kinds of unnecessary data from
users' phones and used a non-standard encryption algorithm that worried technology experts. Certain
employers banned the app from company phones, and the DOD did the same. Fears that the Chinese
government was intercepting the data was reason enough to ban it, but I think the fact that TikTokkers
embarrassed him at his Tulsa rally was the actual catalyst for moving to ban the app in the US. 4
The Infamous Church Photo Op
During the time of the race riots sparked by the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor
(more on these later), the president forced his way across Lafayette Square to St. John's
Church, where we posed with a bible in what was probably the most amazingly tone-deaf act of
a president EVER.5, 6
Internet justice was swift:
Presidential Pardons
By the way, Trump is now — this week — pardoning all those scumbag characters we were introduced
to over the previous few years.7 He's also reportedly exploring options he can issue presidential
pardons to his kids, even though they have not even been charged with any crimes. As an interesting
footnote to this, Michael Cohen — Trump's infamous former fixer — argues that people receiving such
pardons may be forced to testify meaningfully in related matters against Donald Trump: Cohen reasons
that, since a presidential pardon conveys immunity from prosecution in the matters they were previously
convicted for, prevention of self-incrimination via the Fifth Amendment does not apply; therefore, if
called to testify, these people cannot invoke their Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer questions.
8
Donald Trump's Taxes
I find I can't talk about Donald Trump and the year 2020 and not mention this whole thing about his
taxes. Since 2016, Donald Trump has refused to release any information regarding his taxes — not how
much he paid, not how much he owed, nothing. But the New York Times obtained copies of many
years of Donald Trump's tax records, and performed their own analysis.9
- The IRS is auditing a $72.9 million tax refund Mr. Trump received in 2010 as a function of
declaring over $1.4 billion in business losses for the preceding two years — most notably,
abandoning his stake in the Trump Atlantic City casino. He has used this enormous refund to
not pay taxes for ten of the last fifteen years. At issue is the casino abandonment: If the
IRS discovers that Mr. Trump received anything of value after Trump Atlantic City emerged
from bankruptcy (like, say, 5% ownership of the new business), his entire 2010 refund must
be repaid, with interest — a sum over $100 million.
- October 9th reporting from The Washington Post concerns an additional tax matter, this
regarding the Trump family's 212-acre Seven Springs estate in New York. Court documents show
that Trump received a tax break of $21.1 million in exchange for a promise to preserve more
than 150 acres of woodlands on the property, based on an appraised value of $56.5 million.
The property reaches into three cities in Westchester County, none of which agree with the
$56.5 million figure. New York AG is investigating whether the Trump Organization improperly
inflated Seven Springs' value as part of the conservation easement.
- Finally, the article explores how business has been booming at Trump properties since he entered
office. Business at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., nearly doubled from
December, 2016 to May, 2018; at the Doral golf resort, credit card receipts nearly doubled
in the quarter ending August, 2015 (after he announced his candidacy) as compared to the
year before; profits at Mar-a-Lago soared tenfold from 2014 to 2016 (he then doubled the
initiation fees in 2017).
Why this is important: Trump, like his father Fred before him, loathes paying taxes. But ask Al
Capone how serious charges of tax evasion can be. Should the IRS conclude Trump was not entitled to
that tax refund, I imagine he'll have to resubmit his taxes for each of the years he used it as a
credit. Add to this the possibility of other investigations being opened into his businesses at the
state or federal level and you have a man who has been desperate to remain in the White House to
avoid prosecution.
I can't overstate my thankfulness that President Trump has been voted out of office. Despite all
of the dirty tricks he's been using to try to overturn election results in myriad states. Even now
he's operating a PAC that plainly says Trump can spend this money however he wants, and idiots are
donating millions.10 Personally, I just want him gone. I want him gone from the
White House, gone from politics, gone from the news cycle. Just... gone.
Looking ahead, I feel 2021 will be a year for the Republican Party to throttle back in some ways
and try to figure itself out. Trump basically just spent four years raping it, to put it indelicately.
I think it's possible that the hardcore conservatives who still support Trump and would
support him were he to run again in 2024 could actually fracture the party and become its own political
entity, leaving more moderate conservatives to maintain what's left of the Republican Party. And honestly,
that would be better than a civil war.
COVID-19
Botched: The Trump Administration's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Inasmuch as President Trump doesn't seem to want to share anything, he above all others seemed to share the
headlines with one other constant topic throughout 2020: COVID-19. Strangely, the Trump Administration
made a public health issue into a political one. Trump essentially told the public it was no big deal,
refusing to take simple precautions to protect himself like wearing a mask over the nose and mouth, and
practicing social distancing — a term all, at the close of 2020, should understand to mean keeping
yourself at least 6' from other people — and staying home, to help minimize the spread. As a result,
Republicans tended to adopt President Trump's position on these safe behaviors, while people of other
political inclinations tended to heed the warnings coming from the NIH and the CDC. Social media
became more rancorous than ever before, with people saying the whole COVID-19 thing is a hoax —
some would even charge the Democrats of spreading it as a vicious rumor to destroy the US economy and
to discredit the Republican Party, and destroy the president's re-election platform (touting the
success and strength of the US economy).
Even after President Trump recanted his bullshit remarks and admitted it was real and dangerous (he'd later
contract the disease), there are STILL "COVID flat earthers" who completely disbelieve the whole thing;
meanwhile hospitals are overrun with victims of the disease. The news in mid-November did their best to
send the message for people to stay home for Thanksgiving, to prevent "gifting" the disease to family
members and friends — vulnerable older people in particular. But over 1 million people still boarded
airplanes and flew to see family. It's likely the same will be true of Christmas (I started writing this
post on December 21st), and so I expect infections to SOAR beginning on or about December 30th.
[Editor's note: It has.]
COVID-19 Vaccines
In late March, the local school district closed in response to the pandemic, and only now, in late
December, have two vaccines been introduced. (I do not mean to infer that scientists have been slow to
develop the vaccines. In truth, vaccine development normally takes far longer to happen — so the fact
that we have a vaccine in December 2020 is damn near miraculous.) Immunizations started with health care
workers, and will move next to vulnerable populations, such as nursing home patients. I spent most of the
year writing about COVID-19 in international news, in national news, in local news, down to tracking and
charting infections in the local school district and in Kiddo's school. 11
Public Response: Hoarding
It was about mid-March when the hoarding began. Shoppers started buying up cleaning supplies (like
Clorox wipes) and
toilet paper (why?). Although the demand for toilet paper eased downward by late summer, well, let's
just say it should have been a Hell of a year for Purell and Clorox. But Clorox had their troubles, too
— it turned out their supply of the material they use for the wipes (they call this substrate)
could not keep pace with demand. I seem to recall Clorox was having trouble getting hold of the material —
perhaps due to labor troubles, possibly due to the pandemic (hello, irony).
Social Consequences
COVID-19 brought with it some pretty astonishing consequences. I mean, for those of us who heeded
the warnings of medical experts. It brought loneliness with it. I've basically spent nine months
closed up in my home. I think the number of times I've seen local friends I can count on one hand.
I've grown my hair out — I went from a short haircut to now being able to pull my hair back into a
pony-tail. (Apparently a lot of men have done this.)
More Politics
Along with that loneliness is probably an
overdependence on social media for connection. But the political season was poisonous for social
media, in that posts were sometimes weaponized for political purposes. Friends left Facebook for
Parler — a social media platform which apparently ignores fact-checking altogether. I fear that
Parler and similar platforms will become the Petri dishes in which ultraconservativism will breed.
We could be headed for some kind of reckoning in 2024.
In mid-June I wrote a post about how a person's politics affected their compliance with COVID-19
protective measures. By that time, numerous polls had concluded a very strong correlation between
the two; I could classify them in a range from "compliant" (people who are complying with stay-at-
home orders, using masks, washing their hands, etc.) to "hoax" (people who believe the entire
pandemic is a hoax) — still true now, at the end of December. I also wrote how this strong
correlation is why we were still in the first wave of the virus.12
2020 taught us that nature is still a greater power than man. I didn't know anything about 1918
beyond maybe a footnote in a history class or two until this year. But we can be hopeful that 2020
also showed us that man is capable of learning and of fighting back. Man and money can accomplish
almost anything.
Looking ahead, we may have a long way to go before COVID-19 is controlled. Personally, I don't
anticipate receiving the vaccine until sometime in the late spring. I'm not saying I wouldn't accept
it earlier — far from it. Also, I think we're going to find the influenza season this year will be
less of an issue than in previous years because of all of the mask-wearing and social distancing —
a terrific thing. Our society needs to become conditioned to taking these precautions like oriental
societies do.
George Floyd/Black Lives Matter
As a nation under extreme stress from quarantining, from job losses due to the pandemic, and
commonly witnessing racial injustice via mainstream media, many were especially outraged over
the separate deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the miscarriages of justice that ensued
in Minneapolis and Louisville.
13,14 Their deaths sparked unrest all across the nation — the cities
of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Memphis, NYC, Portland,
and Sacramento all come to mind — so much so there were demonstrations and even riots in some of the
major cities, and federal squads of questionable legitimacy were dispatched to hot spots and working
to incite even more violence — some even kidnapping people off the street — to help the Trump
Administration make law enforcement part of his reelection platform.
I wrote a post about some of this, called "A Closer Look at the Roles of Media and Bad Actors
in the Success of Black Lives Matter." In my post I declared my position on the early success of
the BLM movement. 15
Through the media, the whole country now has an expectation that justice must arrive
swiftly and transparently, or police precincts and local businesses will suffer destruction and
communities will be ripped apart — not necessarily by BLM participants, but by bad actors converting
protests into unrest. It's probably not what BLM wants, but, let's face it — it's the combination
of the two that is actually promoting the change.
Through the deaths of Floyd and other blacks under questionable methods, citizens of several
cities came to call for police departments to be defunded. The Republicans seized upon this
and quickly worked to associate it with liberalism; here in Texas, almost every attack ad I saw
for local races made some mention of support for organizations who wanted to defund the police.
I think Minneapolis actually moved — or considered moving — in that direction.
You know, I've used these images of fires for this topic for the past few years. But in 2020,
fires like these actually happened in the racial justice unrest in June. Some cities burned for
a week or more. The president yelled at governors and mayors, tweeting that if they didn't get
control of their cities, he'd send in troops.
As you can see, with the major topics I've covered here, there's no clean separation of any of
them from the Trump Administration.
Hon. Ruth Bader Ginsberg
The world and its Internet work in mysterious ways. Because of the Internet, people like Chuck
Norris and Betty White have ravenous fans — it's as if they've been knighted by Americans on the
Internet and therefore are sacred to all American Netizens. And there's probably none more
(suprisingly) popular than RBG — Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the first woman to sit on the US Supreme
Court. There were action figures made of her in her robes, and even a movie was filmed, telling
her story. And when she passed in October of this year, it was as if a piece of every woman's
heart died with her. RBG was an icon to so many, for the glass ceilings she shattered. My wife
cried; I imagine so many did.
As expected, the Republicans — particularly in the Senate, where they outnumbered Democrats
and Independents — pounced at the opportunity to get a conservative on the bench before the
presidential election on November 3, and the Democrats cried foul. But I think it's important to
understand that, had the Democrats held the majority of seats in the Senate instead, they could
probably be counted on to have done exactly the same thing the Republicans did.
President Trump selected a woman to succeed RBG — a white woman, who appears about as conservative
as possible: she's got loads of kids, she's strong in her faith — these are things that abortion
rights people do not want to hear, as Roe v. Wade could be redecided.
Ironically, many believe that it was the nomination ceremony at the White House Rose Garden
where President Trump caught the COVID-19 disease.
Isn't it amazing, how interconnected everything seems to be?
Other News
We needed a lot of encouragement and humor to get through this year — particularly with so many out of
work and businesses closing. Witty netizens have posted their thoughts on how 2020 has been for them.
This year, I had a lot of time on my hands:
my client ghosted me and my company starting in July, and I've earned pretty much nothing since then.
I even went and got a second job — I've been an employee there since September and haven't made any
money because my background investigation got held up by incompetence and COVID.
So I used part of that time getting into Windows Forms programming, and programming using the
Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel interop assemblies. Hell, I even wrote a program to vote in a
contest. 16
The greatest thing that happened to me this year was learning about my birth parents, because I
got closure on a mystery that has been with me for over fifty years. I have learned that my father
was KIA in South Vietnam, and have petitioned the national records archive for information on him.
My world is SO much larger now. I'm hoping for some great news coming from the archives next year.
The coolest thing I did all year was probably buying my Wolfgang Special guitar, and using it to
learn (or perhaps more properly, "to play at") some really great music from historic artists.
17, 18
Chief among them: music from early 1980's Van Halen albums. This became particularly true when Eddie
Van Halen passed away.
The worst thing this year has been how much Kiddo has suffered. She's experiencing crippling
anxiety traceable back to awful events that happened when she was away, and it's created friction
between us and the school. But if there's good news here, it's that there is now a legal aspect to
the events that transpired, and we are hopeful that Kiddo will receive justice in the coming year.
Conclusion
Not everything that happened in 2020 was bad, but there sure was a lot of bad going around. COVID-19
and its politicization was by far the worst. Over 330,000 Americans have died from the disease so far,
but there is a light at the end of the tunnel: Vaccines have been developed, and President Biden will
replace President Trump in the White House in less than a month. These give me hope for 2021 — and
I even feel somewhat confident 2021 won't be as bad as recent years.
Personally, 2020 was a mixture of good and bad. I didn't work for half the year, but I learned
about my birth parents and learned new things. I guess the world hasn't beaten me down so far as
to make me believe that 2021 will be just as bad as 2020. But for now — right now — COVID infections
are through the roof. On a national news broadcast this morning it was mentioned that over a million
Americans still took to the skies despite the urging of medical experts to stay at home to minimize
the spread of the disease. And I know Texans to be a particularly stubborn lot.
Still, there's a lot of potential for 2021 to be a real shitshow, particularly if our people
still can't get their shit together on fighting COVID-19. I also think our economy will probably
suffer some effects throughout the year, given the multiple attempts at economic stimulus in 2020.
*sigh* So, here we are: