2020: More Strange To Come

“So the other shoe drops, and crushes us all.” – The Boys

Bad news – 2022 is going to be the same as 2020, because it’s 2020, too.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the biggest surprises, the biggest events of 2020 haven’t yet happened.  I’m kidding, of course.  I love being the bearer of bad news.

I’ll fully admit that 2020 has been the most crisis-filled year of the United States, at least as long as I have been living.  Each month a new, explosive event.

And, it’s still 41 shopping days until the election.

In August and September the press has been focused on the presidential race.  For the last month, there has been a “major” story every week attacking the President.  By my reckoning, at this point Trump hates babies, troops, and burns thousands of gallons of diesel fuel in an open pit behind the White House to increase Global Warming as fast as he can.

You’d think that she’d be in favor of Global Warming, given how much she hates ICE.

On the Biden side, his painfully obvious quickly progressing dementia has been explained as . . . well, it’s just been ignored.  Biden’s primary advantage to the Left is that he’s not Trump.  His other advantage is, well, you know.  You know the thing.

They fail to talk about his biggest positive, his mind.  Biden’s mind is as sharp as my computer’s browser when I have 23 tabs open:  21 tabs are frozen, and I have no idea where the music is coming from.

In October I’m expecting some new mainstream news media attack against Trump every day.  Here are a few from my top 10 attacks that I expect Trump will see:

  • Sources say Trump to personally use Social Security checks stolen from elderly widows to buy new golf clubs for smashing bald eagle eggs while humming the Soviet anthem.
  • Rumors indicate that Trump to give paper cuts to caged illegal immigrant orphans, pour lemon juice in wounds, sell video to YouTube®.
  • Washington Post® reports that Trump “uses stairs” to taunt disabled veterans.
  • New York Times™ exclusive that Trump demands his taco salad be made from freshly ground kitten.

I tried to use “snowflake” as a password, but after I typed it a second time, my computer told me, “Sorry, your passwords are not alike.”

  • Trump criticized for debate performance – “Why should he talk when Joe is interrupting him?”
  • News that people of Botswana are upset and no longer think the United States is leader of the free world because of Trump’s insistence of turning into a werewolf and killing the cattle during droughts.
  • California Governor Gavin Newsome accuses President Trump of being able to control the weather and intentionally starting the fires on the West Coast using only his mind, later admits it was really Drew Barrymore.
  • Exclusive to MSNBC® – “Trump is the reincarnation of that dude who shot that Austrian royal guy with the big mustache, and this started World War I, so all of that is on him.”
  • Outrage builds as Trump receives three scoops of ice cream at dinner, rather than the two given to other guests. Nancy Pelosi incensed, because Trumps scoops looked bigger, as well.
  • Russians are interfering in the election, according to CNN©, by blocking the Chinese working to get Biden elected.

In any other year, I’d say that the election would be over by Election Day or the day after, and we could move forward.  It won’t be.  Why?

It’s 2020.

What’s the difference between the Green New Deal and a dumpster fire?  A dumpster fire produces affordable light and heat.

There will be mail in ballots “found” a week or more later in just the right numbers to offset leads in crucial states.  A Federal court will rule that, “ballots are valid only if they favor Biden, because his name is first in the alphabet.”

The very best case is that the election nonsense is finished a week later.  But has anything about 2020 been best case?  The good thing is that it should be cold enough to discourage riots in most places.

I think that people are hoping that once 2020 is over, that 2021 will be a magical year of rebirth.  In reality, the tension has been building for four years.  In 2020 we built outrageous amounts of debt.  We also lost tens of thousands of businesses.

And when the pizza place goes bankrupt, you know they’re out of dough.

In terms of being Antifragile® (Fragility, Resilience, or Antifragility) we are spending all of the cash we can, which makes us vulnerable.  This is at the same time that businesses all across the country are finally giving up and closing up for good.   This combination of spending all the cash while losing the ability to have a productive economy reinforces into a downward spiral.  I’m expecting the President elected in 2028 to use the slogan, “Screw it, we’ll spend all the tax money on lottery tickets.”

Echoes and ripples from 2020 will nearly certainly continue into 2026 – and that’s if things go well.

The consequences of this are more than academic.  In my current job, I get a few emails from salesmen a week.  I ignore most of them.  Today?  I got three calls in an hour to ignore.

Businesses are now desperate.  You can keep doors open for a while without revenue, but when the business slows down and there is too much capacity, the only solution is that the most vulnerable business collapses.  Heck, my gym went bankrupt, which allowed me to walk by and say, “Well, who’s the quitter now?”

Repeat those business losses until you reach stability.  The downside of this process is that is a negative spiral.  Investing, as I’ve tried to convey, will be chaotic – and whoever wins the presidency may very well regret it.  It’s bad enough that even governmental flows of money at the state level aren’t certain.

I hear that the pine tree is the most common California tree, followed by the Ash.

Take California.  Please.

California is taking the genius move to tax the rich so that their rate (combined with the Federal rate) might be as high as 54%.  California forgets that rich people aren’t potted plants.  The result?  The rich will move to places that don’t treat them like a rabid poodle treats a pork chop or Rosie O’Donnell treats a chocolate bar.

So, if California owes you money?  You might be in trouble.

We’re in strange times.  They haven’t peaked yet.

And I enjoyed letting you know.

Author: John

Nobel-Prize Winning, MacArthur Genius Grant Near Recipient writing to you regularly about Fitness, Wealth, and Wisdom - How to be happy and how to be healthy. Oh, and rich.

31 thoughts on “2020: More Strange To Come”

  1. I just wanna go bada-boom and do a drum rim shot. Your jokes are on fire today, John. Antifa-arsonist-in-Oregon-level on fire.

    The only other joke topping yours is that I read Bloomberg is raising $16 million to pay the outstanding fees of 32,000 Florida felons so they can all vote. As Jayne would say, ‘let me do the math here, nothing into nothing, carry the nothin” – that’s payin $500 per vote…in a swing state.

    https://nypost.com/2020/09/22/bloomberg-pays-fines-for-32k-florida-felons-so-they-can-vote/

    Well, there is another joke here – the CNN report on this is calling them “ex-felons”. You can never be an ex-felon any more than you can be an ex-rapist or and ex-murderer. The warping of reality continues.

    I think if you are gonna give rights back to felons you should start with restoring their Second Amendment right and hand them a loaded Glock 17 on their way out of the prison gate on their way to the voting booth. Let’s start a fund for THAT.

    1. Interesting article….there are 774,000 people that have already served their time? Wow. I had not idea that was so many people. That is over 3.5% of the entire population of Florida.

    2. I wonder if DoomBerg realizes that by turning them into “ex felons” in theory they can now go buy that Glock legally.
      I’m not sure about Flor-i-Duh but in most states once one can get their voting restored they get all their rights.

    3. The amusing thing is, that most of these ‘Felons’ are by definition contrary. Nothing would tickle them more than to get their fines paid by the Dems, then vote for Trump.

      Second, the vast majority of them are felons, because of Slow Joe Biden’s crime bill.

    4. Thank you! But I think Mikey is going to be disappointed – if those felons were reliable enough to remember to vote, they probably wouldn’t have been felons in the first place.

      I’ve been told that when criminals were released by Montana back in the day, they were provided with a horse and a Winchester.

  2. John – – It used to be thought that seeing 20-20 was a great thing.

    That meant you were on top of things physically, everything was focused and you were aware of what was around you…..

    However, today seeing 2020 ain’t giving me such good feelings.

    And I really don’t like seeing what is around us either.

    In fact, I object to being forced to play any part in the MAJOR HISTORICAL EVENT that is now unfolding !!

    And what do I fear is coming….??

    Seeing 20-20 in 2021 !!

  4. We’re heading into a civil war in a nation that can’t produce its own lead to make bullets with. This economy is weird.

    1. I recently discovered that copper bullets are the future. They are loaded into a new custom cartridge made for the new FK BRNO SDP, a European pistol costing $7500 (!!!). This thing hits targets a football field away with a greater impact force than a .45 1911 at point blank range.

      https://gunnewsdaily.com/fk-brno-field-pistol-review/

      https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/11/22/fk-brno-field-pistol/

      I first heard about this pistol in this week’s episode of God, Family and Guns…I like that guy and watch him regularly. He called the FK BRNO SDP “The Best Gun Ever Made”.

    2. A post pokkyclipse novel series I read, one of the characters carries a LeMat revolver and will sometimes load the shot barrel with a mix of gold and lead.

  6. As bad as business has been due to COVID shut down occurring this year, tax revenue collections must be hurting as well. So that next year, there will be far less funds for services and essential functions. I don’t see any politicians bringing this up. Still many promises of ‘Glorious New Factory’ will be finished soon because of November elections.

    1. Don’t forget, too, that charities are hit both from the loss of income of their benefactors, and the increase in the standard deduction, so most people won’t get a larger tax refund by itemizing their deductions. So, just when the needs for private charity increase, the means are diminishing. It’s almost as though the circulation of money is slowing, slowing, slowing…

      But it’s ALWAYS a good time to raise the legal minimum wage, right? It keeps people without work from bidding down the wages of those still working (even if that would allow some businesses to stay in operation).

    2. I’m seeing that businesses are having problems getting (for instance) parts in. Need to have your car fixed? That may not be possible. Shortages of stuff, and shortages of jobs.

      Tough times.

  7. Pingback: 24 September 2020 – Dark Brightness

  8. Things I never considered for my apocalypse bingo card.

    1. Murder hornets
    2. Arsonists burning down forests to fight racism and climate change.
    3. Noam Chomsky signs open letter to lefties: You’re too Marxist!

    Plague, fires, meteor strike (it missed) and riots, sure… It’s been an odd year.

    Any things that surprised you?

    1. Really, that we haven’t had a bear market in the stock market. That must have taken trillions in direct investment. Didn’t think there was that much panic.

      But there is. When it breaks, I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t break to a DJIA of half or less.

  9. In Victoria, Australia they’re passing a law where people can be arrested before breaching quarantine / lock down rules (I stress rules. they’re not laws). So if the Police *THINK* you *MIGHT* breach those rules they can arrest them. But wait, it gets better. Not only can the Victorian Police arrest someone they *THINK* *MIGHT* breach the rules so can unspecified public servants.

    Clown state indeed

    1. Yeah, that’s not something I’d have expected – at all. And who is fighting back? The Governor-General? Anyone?

      Nonesense. I’ve spent less than 15 minutes in a mask in the last month.

  10. I put in for vacation the week of election. If Trump wins, and I believe he will win with a margin beyond any legitimate dispute, the Left could lose-their-marbles beyond anything yet seen. I want to be tucked away for at least a few days afterwards. It’s something everyone should consider.

    1. That’s a fantastic suggestion.
      I wish I could do that very thing.
      At minimum I do presume this could be the last actual election we get to vote in, at least in current form.

    2. Good call, depending on where you are. Me? I may take Wednesday off, just so I can stay up as late as I wish . . . things *should* be safe here.

  11. If 2020 has taught me anything, it’s that I need to learn how to better embrace the absurdity. I thought I was better at it, but sometimes I feel like Roberto Duran in the ring with 2020, getting punched by one thing after another until I throw my hands up and shout “No mas! No mas!”

    1. I think that’s part of the plan – if you are forced to treat the absurd as real, you’re halfway down the Left-hand path.

  12. “I hear that the pine tree is the most common California tree, followed by the Ash.”

    Solid burn.

Comments are closed.