Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018 (Life as we know it, or the end of life as we know it.)

Everyone seems to be reflecting on the year that was, the celebrities who have died, or even the ones who’ve self-destructed.  It is quiet in the house; the sun is not yet up and I just told the cat he couldn’t sit on my keyboard -- so I’ll spend a moment or two reflecting on this past year as well.

It seems, thanks to social media and the press, we continue to drift into a bi-polar state where each segment attempts to define their own reality, independent of the facts before them.  Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, has an interesting theory on why this is in "Scott Adams' Blog".  He believes President Trump has exceptional persuasion skills, but the disconnect between what he says, and what the opposition hears is so great they cannot understand him.  Adams suggests when the President talks what the liberals hear is akin to the sounds of adults talking on the Charlie Brown TV movies.  All they hear is wah, wah, woh, wah, and absolutely no communication takes place.  While I wonder why this is, I’ve come to accept it won’t change until something dramatic happens to totally destroy one sides reality.

2017 began with the changing of the guard at the White House and the rioting of those Clinton supporters who were so upset when Candidate Trump in one of the debates refused to say he would accept, without question, the results of the election.  The term “not my President” became fashionable among the urban elite, media celebrities, and mainstream news people.

I expected to see February news filled with reports of the mass migration to Canada of all the A-list celebrities who had threatened to move if Candidate Trump were elected.  Alas, if they moved, they moved so quietly as to not be noticed.  Apparently, their threats to move were not enough to overcome candidate Trump’s persuasion skills for enough voters to make a difference for their candidate.

The New York Stock Exchange’s Dow Jones Industrials average began the year at 19,942 and ended the year at 24,719.  To add some context for this, when Barrack Obama assumed office, after the crash in 2008, the market was at 7,689 (almost at its nadir from the crash) and just before the election it had climbed to 17,888, gaining a little over 10 thousand points in almost eight years.  It closed election day at 18,847.66 and hasn’t looked back.  This despite the professional opinion of what would happen from no less than the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.  Which brings me to my next point.

The reality of the opposition this year seems to be anything, and everything, the President, and the GOP do will cause people to die.  If we change the PP/ACA (Obamacare) – people will die, if the Congress passes a new tax law – people will die, if the President doesn’t stop calling the mainstream media “fake news” – people will die, if he confronts North Korea – people will die.  Well, that last one may actually cause people to die, but it gets lost in the “little boy who cried wolf” syndrome that seems to be so popular by the victims of the left.

The GOP and the DNC failed the American people again this year through their arrogance and negativity.  They both demonstrated a lack of concern with the poor and lower middle-class by holding pretty rigidly to party lines, although the GOP has always had a problem with that concept and lost a couple of key votes when some Republican senators chose not to follow the party direction.  The DNC, on the other hand, was pretty much in universal agreement to not support any Republican legislation, period.  We will see how that plays out in 2018 with the mid-term elections.

2017 saw the fall of some powerful men in entertainment, media, news, and politics.  They were called to task for their abuse of power and the harassment and sexual demands of women whose lives they controlled or affected.  This was not a bad thing, but it quickly grew into a mob mentality with the #metoo social justice warrior movement.  Of course, the feminist movement that so closely identifies with the DNC as their political organization of choice was quick to climb on board, until such time as some of their favorite politicians started to be identified as sexual predators.  Then they had to make a choice as to the value of the politician over the need to believe the accuser.  While I wasn’t keeping real close score, it appeared to me that more Democrats then Republicans were swallowed up by the mob, but the numbers were pretty close.  Does anyone think this will change the sexual dynamic between men and women?  If morality is relative to a society, then once the hyper-sensitivity calms down I expect we will return to the idea the powerful dominate the less powerful and that is okay until the next round of victims comes forth.

Well, the sun is up, and it is time to prepare for church so I will draw this to a close.  I expect 2018 will be pretty similar to 2017, at least until the left is able to gain enough traction on some scandal to attempt to impeach the President, but they won’t control the house until 2019 (best case) so that will probably have to wait.

I will note a couple of milestones for my blog.  I have passed the 1,000-post milestone, and in December I had over 10,000 visitors.  For those who’ve stopped by and read my posts.  Thank you. 

May this next year be filled with joy and happiness.  Have a great New Year!