Happy Festivus – Airing of the Grievances

As another year draws to a close and we find Festivus upon us, it is time to air our grievances. As we close the book on 2020 and bid it a good riddance, I find I could spend two weeks writing out a grievance for everything that has annoyed, irritated or just plain pissed me off during this year of suck. However, for the sake of brevity and my sanity I am going to limit to the top 10 of the scumbags, a$$ hats and events that really helped turn a year where we should have been coming together as Americans into a leading contender for worst year for the last couple of decades.

1. New Ammo Hoarders – I don’t know if everyone’s only experience with pandemics comes from playing “Oregon Trail”, but for some reason right as we began locking down everyone seemed to go crazy with clearing store shelves of toilet paper. My wife and I take a prepper’s outlook on life and have given over a large portion of our basement that contains everything we might need to go awhile without any assistance. (Including thankfully toilet paper) Now I always believe that more ammo is useful, since watching any good dystopian future movie teaches us that ammo can act as currency in a bind, so we began to purchase more ammo. We purchased the ammo to not only add to the stockpile, but keep our skills current with the various firearms that we keep in our home. Then the riots broke out nationwide and this led to a second round of panic buying of ammo. Now as we get close to the end of the year, the shelves are still empty and finding a box of .556 is akin to getting lucky on a scratcher. I always applaud new gun owners, but I worry about the current new crop who seemed to stock up on ammo that they never intend to use. I worry because every new gun owner should be taking safety classes and practicing to handle their firearm safely. Well, the pandemic has made classes a rarity and unless you live in a less restrictive area many gun ranges have been pretty much closed. I think ignorant gun owners and stockpiles of ammo might not be the best combination as we head into 2021 and what might contain another round of lockdowns and unrest.

2. Fear Porn Peddlers – This is definitely directed at one of my least favorite groups of people, the mainstream media. Every year I think to myself that they cannot get any worse, but atlas they prove me wrong each and every time. Yes, the Corona Virus should be taken seriously. Yes, we need to take some precautions. What we don’t need is an entire industry pushing the worst-case scenario every single night in order to create fear that keeps people tuned into their broadcast like morose zombies. The truth is that most people who get the Corona Virus are not going to die. (I suspect that most people who get it don’t even notice or symptoms are so mild they do not even bother to get tested.) The fact of the matter is we took a virus with a 99.6% survivability rate for most populations and treated it as if it was Captain Trips from The Stand. We have seen sky rocketing rates of depression, drug addiction, closure of small businesses and suicide. Not bad for a virus that most people don’t realize that they have. The mainstream media has seriously broken people and they will never return to normal. I know you see them as well… the people wearing masks alone in their cars, or riding bikes, gardening in their front yards or pretty much the entire time from when they leave their front door until they return home. There are people who will never go back to normal and the fear porn peddlers are to blame.

3. Petty Dictators – I am fairly certain that the word of the year for 2020 is mandates. Seems like every blue state governor (and a few red) have been issues mandates about everything. They asked for 15 days to slow the spread and reasonable people said fine. The problem is that was 10 months ago and they are still demanding more mandates. The problem is that mandates are now laws and in many cases are unconstitutional. (SCOTUS agrees with me so don’t @ me) So now we have law enforcement going after citizens at the direction of these petty tyrants, citizens mind you that have endured significant hardships to “slow the spread”. Their businesses have been closed, they have been locked in their homes, put on curfews, told who they can see, barred from attending church and told by the experts to forego funerals, visiting our families or celebrating. Meanwhile, these tyrants have been caught repeatedly violating their own rules, allowing mass protests and riots to go on unchecked and carving out special rules for their friends and family.

4. Governor Cuomo – Arguably the worst of the petty tyrants I believe he is in a category all to himself. Not only has he done pretty much everything from the previous category he has been self-aggrandizing to the extreme while doing it. Proceeding over one of the worst state responses to the pandemic this genius created a policy to place Covid positive patients in nursing homes… nursing homes where the most vulnerable population reside. He demanded more hospitals and ventilators, which were provided, and still chose the nursing home. Now you would think that a governor that was responsible for horrendous abuses of civil liberties and thousands of deaths would resign in disgrace, but not Cuomo. No, he went on to write a book about his leadership. The media instead of holding him accountable have lauded him as some kind of hero and even heaped rewards and an Emmy on him. Of all the petty tyrants he… is… the… worst.

5. Fiery, but Peaceful Protests – Once again the mainstream media makes an appearance on my list of grievances, but for a very specific reason. When riots began across the country in the wake of Michael Floyd’s death, we saw destruction on a grand scale. Businesses that were barely getting by were burned to the ground, people were being beaten, cops were being assaulted and through it all the mainstream media did their best Chief Wiggum impersonation. Now I had not had much faith in our mainstream media after 8 years of President Obama and another 3 years of President Trump, but the night the tank finally hit empty was watching CNN’s reporting on the riot when they ran a chyron that read “Mostly Peaceful Protests” and showed a reporter repeating that claim while standing in front of a burning building. One thing I know for certain… a peaceful protest never includes a burning building.

6. I Got My Vaccine People – While I have only seen this pop up in the last couple of days I am already annoyed by these people. It’s bad enough that we have young and healthy congressional people jumping the line to get the vaccines ahead of the elderly and first responders, but now my social media is filled with idiots going on about getting the vaccine. I have gotten well over 3 dozen vaccinations in my life and I have never felt the need to announce to the world that I got one like it is some kind of achievement.

7. Birthday Parades – I can appreciate that people were trying to find unique ways to celebrate, but remain apart. I get that for a child or for an older person celebrating a milestone birthday, being in lockdown for it sucks. My issue is they seemed to go crazy with this idea over the summer. It seemed that nearly every other day there would be a streamer and sign decorated convey snarling traffic into our subdivision awaiting the signal to brighten someone’s day. They would then drive through our neighborhood, honking their horns and setting our dogs off. Well, when the 20^th convoy of cheer comes through you begin to think enough is enough.

8. Biden Voters – Let’s face it… sequels suck and the Obama 2.0 Presidency will be no difference if President Trump does not pull off a miracle. I just know that the same people who voted for his “fraudulentlency” are the same people who are going to be clogging up my social media timelines bitching about energy costs, unemployment or some war that the uniparty decided that the American taxpayer needed to fund. They won’t even realize that it is their fault because of the way that they voted and will probably find some way to blame President Trump if you did remind them. The media will be scripted to believe that this is a scandal free administration regardless of how many pictures of Hunter get unearthed doing crack or emails detailing their business deals with China.  

9. Transplants that bring their politics with them – The modern leftist is a lot like locusts. They vote in ridiculous policies where they live and when those policies degrade the quality of life and force companies to flee, they clear out leaving a husk. When I moved to San Diego in 1996, I watched the influx of liberals from LA and SF flood the area. In the span of two decades, San Diego went from “America’s Finest City” to another California crap hole. Rent went from reasonable to unaffordable, crime got worse every year, homelessness became rampant, the rules and laws became more restrictive and quality of life went into the toilet. Now I see liberals fleeing California and New York and it makes me wonder what will become of the places they are going because no liberal ever wonders what went wrong as their packing up their U-Haul. They spend zero time wondering if maybe, just maybe, they should let the places they move to remain as they are today. Instead, they know better and as soon as they arrive want to start implementing the same policies that they pushed for in the place they just left. They never stop to consider that maybe they are the problem and not their new homes.

10. Gym and Park Lockdowns – If we have learned anything about the Corona virus this year is one of the biggest factors in how you respond is how overweight you are. Sorry, but facts are facts. One of the best things you can do for your health in general, but especially in regards to Covid and your mental health is maintain an exercise regimen. The fact that strip clubs and big box stores are deemed essential, but parks and gyms are undergoing draconian lockdowns is doing great harm to our society. We are creating an entire generation of shut-ins who are spending their time binging Nexflix and eating hot pockets when what they really need is fresh air and exercise. I can see where gyms may need some additional precautions, but there is zero reason why parks with walking trails should ever be shut down. Getting out for an hour of exercise and sunshine will do more than people realize. If there is any advice I can give people while we head into 2021… find a way to spend more time outdoors.

While not an exhausted list of all the irritations that 2020 has brought to my door, I stand resolved to go into the next year free from their weight. Enjoy your friends and family this holiday and most importantly recharge because as we head into 2021 regardless of who wins this election, we have a hell of a fight on our hands and we need to be at the top of our game. God Bless, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and thank you to everyone who has given over your attention to read my little corner of the internet.