Let's All Erase 2020 From Our Memory

If there was a restart option, I would definitely use it for 2020. I can remember the excitement when we brought in 2000, with 2020 there was even more excitement only to start the year with the death of David Stern, the NBA Commissioner until 2014 when he retired after 30 years. David changed the NBA into the powerhouse entity that it is today from a league that was in DEEP financial trouble.

Then on January 26, 2020 we lost one of the biggest All-Star Basketball Players in the world. The "Black Mamba", "KB-24", "The 8th Wonder of the World", "Kobe Wan Kenobi", "Lord of the Rings", "The Dagger", "Vino"#8, #24, Mr. Kobe Bryant.

Rest in Paradise Kobe & Gianna January 26, 2020

I am sure everyone remembers exactly where they were on that foggy Sunday morning. The way he left us none of us will ever forget, just thinking about it still brings tears to my eyes. I was a true fan from his first game on November 3, 1996 until his final game on April 13, 2016 as he ended his career with 60 points against the Utah Jazz.

Kobe retired after giving Los Angeles 20 of the best years since "Showtime". Kobe mastered being that Businessman, that Everyday Dad, and that Attentive Husband only to be taken from us.

If you have not seen "Dear Basketball" click below, in a little over 5 minutes see who he was, get your tissue you will need it.

Then on February 20th something occurred that the majority of us had never experienced in our lives, we were hit with what started out being called "Coronavirus" which references the virus, later to be known as "SARS-CoV2 which identifies which SARS virus it is in chronological order , and today they have simplified it and added "Covid-19" which combines the virus within a human, and 19 references the year it was first found. This virus could not have hit us a worst time.

The World Health Organization tried to let us know how serious this virus was in February, but the President felt there was no need to scare everyone, so he decided to play it down. Over the next couple of weeks, we all were lost, is it contagious or not? How is it passed? What are the symptoms? Where do we go to get tested? Why are people dying of this virus when the President said it is not that serious?

By March 15th most states in the US were on mandatory lockdown, you could only leave your homes to go to work, to the grocery stores, and any essential activities that applied to the well-being of your household, and instantaneously everyone went into a panic. We were ordered to practice socialize distancing and had to begin to wear a mask all for something that the President was not taking seriously, and then the President caught it.

Covid-19 brought the good and the bad out of everyone, some gorged certain items to sell them at a very high profit. Researching I found Lysol for as high as $80 a can, Crush Sodas up to $45 for a 12 pack, Charmin Tissue $125 for a 12 pack, Hand Sanitizer 12oz $45. It got real out of hand stores began to put limits on items as they began to restock.

Over 11 Million people have been diagnosed positive in the last 11 months, this virus has really made 2020 hard on all of us, if you had any family members inpatient with this virus you know the stress that it caused because currently there is no visiting, having love ones have to die alone has to be the worst thing to happen, and 248,000 families have been in this situation this year. Early on families could not even have funerals for their love ones, eventually they allowed a maximum of 10 people to attend the service that had to be hard to take.

Shelves became empty, you could not find water, tissue, not even Lysol or Hand Sanitizer it was all bought out, and because people did not know how long we would be locked in people began to stock up on everything, stores became EMPTY, you could not find the all the ingredients to complete one simple meal.

For a while seems like everything was closed, leaving so many people unemployed. I do not know what the President or the Congress were thinking when they decided to give that $1200 stimulus. Most people in California pay more than that in rent, maybe they saw that because shortly after the stimulus someone in that power to be circle must have really lost their minds because out of nowhere up jumped an unemployment package that shocked everybody. They even came up with a package for Business owners that allowed them to also collect unemployment, and on top of that they added an additional $600 to the weekly amount.

I know some will say I am hating because I do believe that $2100 every two weeks was too much for many. Those that were making $12 or $13 an hour did not want to, and refused to go back to work. I have talked to several business owners who say that when they offered their staff their positions back, their staff got angry with them because if they refused the job their benefits would be cancelled.

That is what I meant by the virus bringing the bad out in some people, it really shows when we look at how much fraud that occurred this year, starting with the large corporations and the SBA loans all the way down to the homeless and incarcerated receiving unemployment checks, some even received small business grants. I even heard of people putting their children on unemployment stating they were in commercials or modeled for an agency.

Presently Congress is negotiating how much more they are going to give to the public, and the President is contemplating rather to shut everything down again because the number of people catching Covid-19 is again on the rise.

Today the US deficit is $3.3 trillion, should we be concerned? Well statically the deficit is outrageous, but because the US debt is not considered a real problem the powers that be say it is nothing to stress about because currently the U.S. is able to borrow the money needed at a very low interest rate, and because countries all over the world are borrowing to fight this Covid-19 recession definitely shows that there has to be a lot of savings laying around to allow more borrowing. The economy could use a jump start, and if it is available a lot of us could use it just to maintain a roof over our heads.

On to the most current issue at hand, the one that we all would love to make disappear. The 2020 Presidential Election. The current President says he refuses to give up the White House because there had to be voters fraud because they say he lost. Our Election has been called after 14 days and still Mr. Trump still says we must re-count a few states because he believes that none of the Republican observers were allowed into the counting locations. If he does not begin to see what is right in front of him the transition is going to cause some serious issues with the new President fighting the virus, him trying to rebuild an economy and stepping into the military issues that are occurring as I type.

When we look back to 2020, we will be reminded of so many loses, rather it was your favorite Athlete like Kobe Bryant, Joe Morgan, Bob Gibson or maybe your favorite Actor like Sean Connery or "The Black Panther" Chadwick Boseman or maybe your favorite musician like Bill Withers, King Von, Rance Allen, Eddie Van Halen, Betty Wright, Little Richard, Ellis Marsalis or Kenny Rogers, we even lost a favorite game show host Alex Trebek.

We lost so many great people this year some to the vicious virus, others by suicide, some went in an accident, and others by natural causes. Whatever took them away from us, it still hurts and those loses added to the pain that we were already experiencing makes these 365 days the worst year ever.

CANNOT WAIT UNTIL IT IS OVER IT HAS LASTED WAY TO LONG.