It is finally time to say goodbye to 2020, the year with a mirrored number that looking into that mirror should ask, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, which is the worst year of them all?”
I started trying to list the most substantial and outrageous things that have happened this year but the list would be as monstrous as Trump and what’s happened.
The very, very and way too shortlist includes, of course, hundreds of thousands of unnecessary COVID-19 deaths (thanks Trump), destruction of our economy and a massive transfer of wealth to the wealthy (thanks Trump), George Floyd/BLM protests and savage assaults on peaceful protesters (thanks Trump), the sabotage of the US Postal Service that’s still being felt (thanks Trump), the traitorous attack on our elections and trying to overthrow our free and fair elections (thanks Trump) and the defeat of a tyrant on the verge of completing his takeover against our Consitution and democracy (thanks American voters!).
We vehemently bid goodbye to this nightmare of a year, the quarantines, empty shelves of toilet paper, nurses forced to wear garbage bags, and ignorant white people declaring in public places that wearing a mask and sanity is oppression.
So, to review the year that never should have been, we offer a selection of graphics that have appeared on PlanetPOV during 2020, in chronological order.
Quite an asshole of a year 2020 was but there were very bright spots including the national and global outrage against police killings and racism, many people making sacrifices and protecting themselves and their neighbors from COVID-19 and a majority of American voters throwing out the would-be-dictator and rescuing their own country from tyranny.
All of us at PlanetPOV wish all of you a very Happy New Year and a wonderful 2021 that’s so good, we just kind of forget about 2020 as, “I don’t know what in God”s name that was.”
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this collection speaks volumes and volumes, Ad Lib. What a year. (Both personally and historically for the nation.)
Cause for hope? 1.) I’m reading and seeing encouraging news in Georgia this morning. 2.) Those of us who are reading this are still alive to fight another day. (With condolences to all who have lost loved ones to COVID.) 3.) Democracy struggled through a tremendous crisis and seems to be still breathing, thanks to so many people in the lower levels of the elections process (right down to precinct presiding officers) to the court system who took that oath to uphold the Constitution seriously and to the foresight and wisdom of the founders. 4. Black voters are at last coming into their own. “It’s been a long time comin’…”
Well, clearly this optimistic post was written before today happened. However — Georgia’s election results were more than encouraging. We readers/writers are indeed still alive to fight another day. Democracy will continue to struggle through this crisis and will continue to breathe. And we owe a bigger debt than ever to Black voters. Thank you.
So true! I am constantly annoyed by the centrists like McCaskill always beating the drum for pursuing the white male Trump voters to win elections (as I’ve said, she lost exactly because she neglected black voters to chase after white Trumpers).
It was clearly black voters in GA who pushed both Warnock and Ossoff over the top and the Dem Party had better take a knee to black voters (and Stacey Abrams) as we move forward because they have been our heroes at the polls.
That’s not to diss white or other voters for risking COVID to vote in person or the many who contributed to Biden/Harris and other Dems winning around the country. But I think black voters have been taken too much for granted over the years and I hope that the Dem party holds them in high regard from now on (of course, making Stacey Abrams or a colleague of hers DNC Chairman might be a good start…though I think Abrams has her eye on and deserves to run for Gov in GA in 2022 to beat the man who stole that seat from her in 2018).
Thanks Kes! It is a bit hard to believe that all of these things happened in just one year, so much madness condensed into 365 days.
And then several days into 2021, we witness something even more horrible, an attempt to destroy our government and democracy to anoint Trump as Dear Leader for life.
It wasn’t a surprise that Trump attempted this overthrow of the U.S., folks here have been discussing this eventuality but to see it really happen was still shocking.
The coup has failed though, even if more attacks come, Trump will be booted from the WH and Dems will have unitary control in DC.
As you say though, there are still reasons to be hopeful (after we work through the shock of this president-led terrorism). GA voters did kick butt, elected a black man and a Jewish man to replace two white racists who were wholly corrupt. Dems will now control The Senate, The House and the White House. I read a post that the last president to cause the opposing party to win back all three was Hoover. So, as hard as it is to say, I suppose we owe a bit to Trump to so infuriating a majority of Americans that they took back all of government from his party.
Lastly, you’re right on the money in applauding our courts for holding the line on democracy. All of them, even Trump appointees, stood strong for our democracy and slapped down Trump, Rudy and Powell like the insects they are. There was a lot of justified concerns that Trump judges could act just as subserviently as Repub Congresspeople and help him tear up our democracy. Remember his insistence in getting Coney Barrett on the SCOTUS because he needed 9 justices to decide the election? And none of them supported his overthrow of America.
The courts were our last and final safety net to keep our democracy from falling to its death and they held up strongly. My confidence in the strength of our democracy has grown.
Now, we need this Dem controlled Congress to pass the new Voting Rights Act that the House already passed last year to put up strong walls against voter suppression and other Repub manipulation of elections. If Dems can protect elections going forward, it could be a long time until Repubs ever hold a lot of power in DC. They’ll be forced out of their RW nutjob silos and will have to appeal to at least folks in the center to get elected. That’s how we can help disinfect our politics of corrosive division and extremism.
According to our countdown clock, just 11 days until we end the Trump Era and begin a new Age of Reason in this country (though the Trump Dregs will still need to be crushed by law enforcement).
I do think there are many things to be hopeful for including Biden’s statement yesterday that he will propose a multi-trillion COVID/economic bill right away and on Day One, start wiping out Trump’s Executive Orders.
Immigration, Climate Change, COVID, Police Reform, Voting Rights, Tax Reform, health care strengthening and improvements, and so much more is being teed up for this year to be passed by a Dem Congress. Real change, Progressive change is coming and hopefully soon, the light at the end of the tunnel on COVID with a president engaged and involved in people getting vaccinated, tested and protected by PPE.
Things are shaky right now in the last days of Trump but those days will soon pass and I do think better days are just ahead.
THIS IS BRILLIANT…I HAVE COPIED THE INTRO AND PROVIDED A LINK…I AM POSTING THIS AT THREE SITES AND ON MY OWN E MAIL CORRESPONDENCE…..as follows
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FIVE MINUTES THAT CAPTURE THE NIGHTMARE THAT WAS 2020
Some 2020 Lists are Just a Cut Above the Rest…..here is one from PlanetPOV prepared by the sites publisher/editor AD LIB.
Brilliant insight. Brilliant Words. Brilliant Images.
Five minutes that sums it all up…the words and pictures will linger in your mind!
https://planetpov.com/2020/12/31/planetpov-2020-the-year-in-graphics/
Thanks so much, Murph!
2020 was like an evil Rube Goldberg machine with one outrageous event causing or followed by another without a break. It’s still finishing up over the next few weeks at least, as we wait for the mousetrap to finally drop on Trump.
Hope you’re having a very nice New Year’s Day and weekend. I think we’ve all earned it and then some!
Hi….I have had a good reception at two of the three Facebook Pages. My mailing list group has also responded very positively. You have quite an array of gifts at work in masterpieces like this one. Am I right in presuming that there is no Vox tonight?
Nice! And thanks so much for the very kind words!
You’re right, no Vox tonight but we come back fully recharged next Friday night.
I have been on the phone working to engage influencers in pumping up the Democratic turnout in GA. It’s still a long shot but I feel compelled to do what I know how to do pretty well. Best to you in t his new year. May it be free of the demons that possessed 2020.
That is great work you’re doing. The early vote has been bigger for Dem turnout than in the GE which is a great sign! And the amount of new voters who didn’t vote on Nov 3 and are voting in the run off are around 100,000.
We need to keep the momentum going so your work can pay off hugely! How has it been going?
After Trump’s attempt to extort the GA SoS into forging the election results to hand Trump the win, I think Dem turnout and outrage in GA will see a big boost.
The call was insane raging from a desperate and dangerous madman. Not to mention a violation of state and federal election law…which he needs to be prosecuted for.