A note to 2020

Jan 23, 2021
Jan 23, 2021 Updated Apr 13, 2025
21

Editor,

You were definitely unique. I have never experienced a year like you before, and I hope I never do again. You were not the kindest, but I want to thank you.

(21) comments

Ray Fowler Jan 23, 2021 8:40am

Wow, Kira!

What a great LTE. Soon, hopefully, we will look from a peak in 2021 back to the valley of 2020, and reflect on what we have learned. Then, move forward with hope.

Tafhdyd Jan 23, 2021 9:50am

Kira,

I am not as early a riser as Ray but I certainly want to echo his thoughts on your LTE. As you have seen, real life is what we have to deal with every day. Education is not just classrooms and books. You have a great attitude and bright future.

Terence Y Jan 23, 2021 10:55am

Unfortunately, Ms. Cory, Biden’s bonehead blunders in his first three days may try your patience even more than COVID. To wit, Biden has already killed over 50k jobs, eliminated women’s sports, invaded Syria, admitted he has no idea how to fight COVID, broken his own mask mandate, and has been locked out of the White House. More Biden blunders are in our immediate future, so practice your patience techniques.

Ray Fowler Jan 23, 2021 11:18am

Hey, Terence

I'm not sure the new administration's first steps were part Kira's letter... her LTE may have been submitted before the inauguration. I still think we can benefit from Kira's perspective.

That being said... I also have some misgivings about the administration's first steps. What do you think about writing an LTE re: just what has happened in DC since Wednesday?

Terence Y Jan 24, 2021 8:55am

Hi Ray, a delay in Ms. Cory’s letter may be true, but it doesn’t distract from Biden’s betrayals. In regards to an LTE about the administration’s first steps, I’ll let other folks handle that task. I’d prefer to keep the Biden bonehead list fresh as much as possible. Speaking of which, I see idiot leftists targeted the federal ICE facility in Portland. And in other news, I see Instagram is forcing people to follow Biden’s White House account even after unfollowing the page. BTW, did you ever get your COVID vaccine? First, and/or second dose?

Ray Fowler Jan 24, 2021 1:24pm

Hey, Terence

And the last shall be first... no vaccine, yet. I'm not old enough. So, even though I have a couple of risk factors, I'll have to wait. I have some surgery scheduled in about three weeks... hopefully, that will take care of one of the factors.

Don't know if Kira's letter was submitted before the inauguration, but I wanted to leave all possibilities open. Regardless, I like her overall message.

Joe's first steps... a couple of missteps, I think. I want to try to keep my commentary focused largely on positions and not personalities as much as possible. So... I'll check the rancor at the door. Here we go... Keystone XL pipeline. Barack unilaterally rejected the pipeline project... Donald unilaterally approved the project... Joe has now cancelled it. Does this look like building unity or does it look like cancelling a project approved by Joe's predecessor just because it was Joe's predecessor? I think the latter.

Joe's signature will cost jobs... a lot of jobs. It will mean that oil will be transported by other means which could lead to serious and negative environmental impacts. It IS causing strain between the US and Canada. If Joe wants to cancel the pipeline and it is within his authority to do so... OK. But shouldn't that cancellation come with an explanation WHY he has decided to cancel the project? Where is the transparency? Or is it simply the cancellation of a project favored by Joe's predecessor just because Joe can sign his name to a piece of paper?

That's not the only misstep, but that's all for now, folks!

Tafhdyd Jan 24, 2021 3:24pm

Ray,

Are you just trying to humor us by bringing up transparency in the 5 day old Biden administration after 4 years of the most opaque presidency the modern era? I may have to tip a single malt alone.

Ray Fowler Jan 24, 2021 4:38pm

Tafhdyd...

Skrrrrip! (again) Yeah... doggone that Trump administration... hiding all that Russian collusion... so darned opaque. Tsk-tsk. The Dems were a real Schiff show for 4+ years. Hey, Adam... we're the evidence you promised? An easier one... Hey, Adam... where's Waldo?

Transparency... have we seen transparency re: Burisma or CECP? Not Hunter's complicity but Joe's involvement BEFORE the election... and the MSM trying to squelch the story... that's transparent. You don't think there is any real collusion between Joe and Big Tech, do you? The left believes Joe is transparent. I guess they can advance that argument with flip flops like fracking made BEFORE the election. Because if Joe proffers support for both sides of an issue, he can righteously say he is transparent at least 50% of the time. C'mon, man!

Where was the condemnation of last summer's violence by Joe... it wasn't part of the DNC convention in August... until... wait for it... polls started showing that saying nothing was unpopular. How transparent is that? How about condemning the left wing riots this week in Portland, Seattle and Denver?

But let's go back to the issue... the Keystone XL pipeline. By all appearances, it looks like Joe cancelled it because Donald previously supported it. Wouldn't it be in the spirit of transparency to tell Americans WHY he is nixing the project?

Tafhdyd Jan 24, 2021 5:09pm

Hi Ray,

You couldn't be laughing as hard as I was at the reply to my comment by Terence.

As for the executive orders. Yes some are obviously just for spite because Trump signed them, some are probably neither here nor there and some are probably for a good cause/reason. Regarding transparency, I know you have heard the phrase "show me the money". For five years I have said show me his taxes.

BTW, did you get clearance yet? If you are really in need I guess I can still have one for you. BTW again, I wonder if Wilfred is laughing also at this back and forth?

Terence Y Jan 24, 2021 6:25pm

Taffy, here are a few more bungling Biden moves for your reading pleasure. I sure hope you don’t take insulin or need an EpiPen, since it appears Beijing Biden reversed Trump’s policy on lowering prescription costs. And now Biden the betrayer has angered Canada. I sure hope we don’t have to pay Canada $1.5 billion for canceling Keystone. Maybe we can just invade Canada… And wasn’t Biden bellyaching about Trump’s travel ban? Now Biden the xenophobe is going to impose a travel ban on a few other countries? Let's see if fellow Democrats call out Biden's xenophobic actions.

Ray Fowler Jan 24, 2021 6:32pm

Tafhdyd... amigo

Wow... I'm not so sure "spite" was involved on Joe's part... maybe. That's a strong word. But at a minimum, it is re-racking the table in the middle of the game... but it's Joe's turn to hold the cue. Even though it seems like Joe and Donald don't like each other, I would like to think Joe's orders are based, at least in part, on ideological differences. I don't support Joe's different perspective, but I understand it.

Taxes... It's to easy to say... well, Donald doesn't have to release them and let it go at that. He should have... a long time ago. We agree.

My release? Not yet. My meds keep getting switched, and right now, I'm as dry as a bone... and will be for a while.

Yeah... we won't see Wilfredo in print until later. I think he's in a different time zone... maybe the Twilight Zone.

Tafhdyd Jan 24, 2021 7:02pm

Ray,

Thumbs up on your comments. I know Wil is in a different time zone but I don't think it is the twilight zone.

Tafhdyd Jan 24, 2021 7:07pm

Terence,

I will waste a little more time with you. Trump did not lower drug prices, he just said he did. As for the travel ban, it is for the health of the nation not the ego of Trump. Trump only relaxed the ban to be a pain for Biden, not because it was for any logical reason. If you don't understand that you probably believe there was massive voter fraud in the election.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-01-19/trump-failure-drug-prices

Terence Y Jan 25, 2021 11:28am

Sorry Taffy, but your outright hypocrisy and fake news link won’t convince anyone of your position. Lick your wounds, try again, and this time, raise some facts to defend Biden’s blunders, if you can find any.

Wilfred Fernandez Jr Jan 25, 2021 5:12pm

Hello Gentleman,

Thanks for the chuckle, about my being in the Twilight Zone. How did you know? :-)

I no longer have faith in the voting process and hope it's vulnerabilities are secured, sooner than later. I don't understand how people are able to repeat what they watch and read, in the one hand, while polling they think those sources are questionable in the other hand.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=polls+about+media+credibility&form=ANNTH1&refig=534ee5c3e59a4d13a948e2b11938e090&sp=-1&ghc=1&pq=polls+about+media+credibility&sc=0-29&qs=n&sk=&cvid=534ee5c3e59a4d13a948e2b11938e090

In four very brutal years, President Trump revealed more about corruption in our political system than I imagined possible, and I am grateful for that. It remains to be seen whether or not Americans put those revelations to good use. President Biden and Vice President can lead or they can reward those who put them in office. We will know in two years.

Tafhdyd Jan 24, 2021 11:39am

Terence,

I don't know where you get your magic mushrooms but I do know that your imagination has run amok again with your conspiracy theories. The US did not invade Syria contrary to your right wing tweets and yes, Biden was locked out of the White House because of another one of Trump's childish petulant moves of sending the butlers home just before he left so no one would be there. Posts like yours are why Biden won the election. People can see through your poppycock "information" that runs rampant under your tinfoil hat.

Terence Y Jan 24, 2021 1:11pm

Nice try Taffy, but anyone who fervently believes and perpetuates a Republican to Democrat party switcheroo hoax, such as you, has credibility issues. So if anyone is writing poppycock and pushing conspiracy theories, you would be at the top of the list. Looking forward to documenting more Biden bungles… BTW, Biden didn’t win the election – the election was stolen.

Ray Fowler Jan 24, 2021 2:44pm

Tafhdyd

You guys are making me laugh...

Here we go, again... missteps. Looks like Joe has signed more documents largely for the purpose of reversing Donald's policies... wait for it... just because they were Donald's policies, and again without regard for the bigger picture. This time... immigration.

OK. Most Americans support immigration to the US with a structure in place to make such immigration workable and beneficial to both people already here and those who want to come here. Americans also want a secure border. How can we implement a workable immigration program to assimilate those newcomers across a secure border WITH a sensible path to citizenship? All that can be a good thing for Americans and aspiring Americans.

Why didn't Democrats move toward such reform 12 years ago when they controlled the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate?

First steps now suggest the answer is to halt strengthening the border and enforcement efforts along the border. Skrrrrip! (sound of stylus scraping across vinyl) That's not what the American people want. Just tossing aside management of the border to pacify the progressive agenda? Sensible immigration to make us stronger... to make us better... yes. Queuing up folks like the Land Rush of 1889 to come racing across the border? No. One more comment on this topic... there's a worldwide viral infection going around. We don't need to be adding potential infected persons to the population who can stroll across the border at will.

Again, Joe... an explanation please. Some transparency. Can he explain the WHY behind immigration reversals?

Tafhdyd Jan 25, 2021 7:35pm

Wilfred,

I am not sure if something went wrong on your end or my end but the right side of your comment has been clipped off by a word or two. I think you said (I don’t understand) on the first line but all I see is (I don’t und), the same all the way down.

I am disappointed that you have little faith in the election process. Trump has complained about the process since the 2016 election and one of the first things he did was commission an investigating committee of his hand picked people on the election and they disbanded after a couple of months because they could find nothing wrong.

This year his hand picked lap dog AG said there was nothing wrong, his top Homeland Cybersecurity head, Chris Krebs, said it was the most secure, his minions claimed that the voting machines were changing votes and after three recounts in Wisconsin they did find a small error. Unfortunately the error favored Trump by about a 100 votes and after the hand recount Biden won by an additional 100 votes. He would have been better off not to complain.

As for Trump revealing corruption, I agree. I don’t know of a more corrupt administration than we have had for the past four years.

Anyway Wilfred, we won’t agree on politics but at least we can have a discussion about travel or fishing or tasting etc. Have a nice evening.

Wilfred Fernandez Jr Jan 25, 2021 10:00pm

Hi Tafhdyd,

Here is what I wrote and somehow appeared mis formatted.

I no longer have faith in the voting process and hope it's vulnerabilities are secured, sooner than later. I don't understand how people are able to repeat what they watch and read, in the one hand, while polling says they think those sources are questionable in the other hand.

In four very brutal years, President Trump revealed more about corruption in our political system than I imagined possible, and I am grateful for that. It remains to be seen whether or not Americans put those revelations to good use. President Biden and Vice President Harris can lead, or they can reward those who put them in office. We will know in two years.

Tafhdyd, people on left and right say the other side is cheating during the voting process. Voter suppression, gerrymandering, ballot harvesting, dead people, are among the many examples. That has caused me to lose faith.

Polls indicate most people do not believe the media but among them are people that come here and repeat what they learn from the media they do not trust. All sides of the political spectrum. I do not understand them.

How can President Trump be called an idiot, accused of all manner criminal activity, yet be smart and guiltless enough to be convicted of nothing? Politicians and the media contradict facts and judicial process; so what? Are we not a nation where a man is innocent until proven guilty?

As mature adults, I hope we can agree to disagree on all sorts of things including politics. I like the way you think. You have shown yourself to be very thoughtful. Give my love to your lovely wife and keep some for yourself. I think about your challenges, daily.

Wilfred Fernandez Jr Jan 25, 2021 10:04pm

I give up. The formatting still appears broken at my end. If you copy and paste the entire text, then paste into Word, you might get it correctly formatted. Sorry.

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