Top 10 Lowlights of 2019

With 2019 almost in the history books, the time has come for me to identify the lowlights and highlights of the year.  Just like any other year, 2019 had its ups and downs.  Let’s start off with the downs:

1. The Impeachment Debacle: Just like I did with the midterm elections when compiling my lists of highlights and lowlights of 2018, I have decided to include the impeachment debacle on both lists in 2019.  The impeachment hearings amounted to nothing more than a taxpayer-funded opposition research campaign against President Trump; with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff rolling out the red carpet for permanent bureaucrats eager to air their grievances against the President on national TV. In addition to preventing Congress from conducting more important business, the wall-to-wall coverage of the impeachment hearings robbed Americans of the ability to enjoy quality cable TV. However, the impeachment fallout; specifically, President Trump’s rising approval ratings and the falling support for his impeachment and removal from office that could very well come back to bite Democrats definitely deserves a spot on my list of the top 10 highlights of 2019.
2. The passage of the Reproductive Health Act: Following the legalization of same-sex marriage in New York, liberal singer Cyndi Lauper declared “I have never be (sic) prouder to be a lifelong New Yorker than I am today with the passage of marriage equality.” For my part, I have never been more embarrassed to be a New Yorker following the passage of the so-called “Reproductive Health Act” earlier this year.  Cheers erupted at the New York State Capitol building as Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law a piece of legislation that permitted abortion “at any time when necessary to protect a woman’s life or health” and erased a part of the state’s penal code that declared it a felony to “engage in conduct which causes the death of a person or an unborn child with which a female has been pregnant for more than 24 weeks.”  The pattern of using New York City landmarks as canvasses to promote the SJW agenda that began when the Empire State Building lit up in rainbow colors to celebrate the passage of the Marriage Equality Act resurfaced when Cuomo ordered One World Trade Center, the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge (formerly known as the Tappan Zee Bridge), and the Kosciuszko Bridge to light up in pink to “celebrate this achievement and shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to follow.” Gag.
3. The harassment of the Covington kids: Just four days before the passage of the horrendous legislation, which coincided with the anniversary of one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in United States history, pro-lifers of all ages from all over the country gathered in the nation’s Capitol to participate in the March for Life.  A group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky decided to take a field trip to the March for Life, as they had done in the past without attracting any attention.  That changed when they encountered Nathan Phillips, an attendee at another event that took place simultaneously with the March for Life: the Indigenous People’s March. When Phillips came up to one of the students gathered at the Lincoln Memorial and began banging a drum in his face, the teenager stood there unsure of how to respond.  The media-and-Academia industrial complex immediately began painting Sandmann and his classmates as “racist” and portrayed them as aggressors working to antagonize the Native American protesters.  As I explained earlier this year, “Dr. Sujana Chandrasekhar, President of the American Academy of Otolaryngology, posted pictures of all of the teens in question, describing them as ‘scary faces’ and using the hashtag #CovingtonShame…Democratic Congressman John Yarmuth, who represents Louisville in Congress, called for a moratorium on teenagers wearing #MAGA hats, alleging that they ‘seem to be poisoning young minds.’  Yarmuth claimed that the ‘appalling’ conduct by the teens was a ‘direct result of the racist hatred displayed daily by the President of the United States who some, sadly, mistake for a role model.’  A writer from Vulture went so far as to hope that the students and their parents would die.”  In response to the media’s mistreatment of them, the Covington kids lawyered up and sued the worst offenders in the mainstream media and Hollywood. Now that might deserve a spot on my upcoming list of highlights of 2019.
4. The Jussie Smollett hoax: To those who haven’t figured it out, America has become an extremely divided and polarized country and recent times.  Actor Jussie Smollett claiming that he became the victim of a hate crime in the hands of Trump supporters certainly did not help bind up the nation’s wounds.  At first, everybody believed him and the mainstream media and Hollywood happily ran with the story as yet another example highlighting the bigotry of the “deplorables.”  Eventually, Smollett’s story fell apart and the Chicago Police Department concluded that Smollett made the whole thing up. As I explained earlier this year, “He coordinated with two Nigerian bodybuilders, whom he paid to assault him.  Video evidence shows the brothers buying ski masks, a red hat, and gloves the day before the attack.  The Chicago Police Department concluded that Smollett orchestrated the hate crime when a hateful letter directed at Smollett addressed to the ‘Empire’ set failed to get the media attention he hoped for. Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson also alleged that Smollett did not like his salary on ‘Empire,’ which added up to more than $1,000,000 a year. Somebody needs to file that under the hashtag #FirstWorldProblems.”  Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s bungled handling of the matter would deserve its own bullet point on my list of the top 10 lowlights of 2019 if I had more room.  Even far-left Mayor Rahm Emanuel slammed the “whitewash of justice” that led to Smollett’s failure to face any consequences for perpetuating the hoax. 
5. The passage of the omnibus bill: Congress has got to get out of the habit of waiting until the last minute before Christmas vacation to pass spending bills. This makes it more likely, if not certain, that members of all branches of government will support it just so they can get out of town in time for Christmas. Also, Democrats have developed a habit of using spending bills as blackmail against Republicans desperate to avoid bad press above all else. President Trump has repeatedly vowed to stop signing bills like this but he has most likely had people whispering in his ear telling him to sign them to avoid a government shutdown; which the media will blame on Republicans regardless of the circumstances.  The omnibus bill that Congress passed just last week included a path to citizenship for Liberians who have spent decades in the country on the farce of “Temporary Protected Status,” which always morphs into permanent amnesty, and plenty of funding for Planned Parenthood. Even when Republicans had complete control of the government, they still passed bills like this because the 60-vote rule in the Senate meant that budgets needed the support of Democrats in order to pass. If Republicans want to retake the majority in the House, they should promise to stop passing omnibus bills and make sure to keep that promise.
6. The Notre Dame fire: The Notre Dame cathedral has stood for centuries in the heart of Paris, France.  As the structure underwent renovations, it caught fire.  The work of art beloved by Catholics and non-Catholics in Europe and all across the globe suffered enormous damage. As I wrote this blog post, I came across a discouraging article in USA Today titled “Notre Dame Cathedral, empty for Christmas, may never recover from devastating fire.”
7. The election of Chesa Boudin as San Francisco DA: Like 2019, the 2019 election had its positives and negatives.  The election of far-left, Soros-backed Boudin to the position of District Attorney marked one of the biggest lowlights of the entire election cycle and the entire year itself.  San Francisco already has a lot of problems, including an epidemic of “smash and grab” robberies as well as sidewalks covered with human waste and needles.  The election of Boudin, a militant social justice warrior, will make these problems worse, not better.  While Soros-backed prosecutors won DA races in other parts of the country, the election of Boudin effectively put the final nail in the coffin on San Francisco; which has deteriorated considerably since the Gold Rush of 1849 first put the city on the map.
8. Antifa-related domestic terrorist attacks: Another far-left city on the west coast, Portland, has set itself up as ground zero for Antifa, the group of anti-American anarchists sanctified by the mainstream media as patriotic freedom fighters. In addition to causing citizen journalist Andy Ngo to suffer a black eye and a brain hemorrhage, Antifa thugs took out their wrath on an elderly man; beating him with weapons until he bled profusely. Just two weeks after the assault of Ngo and the aforementioned elderly man, an Antifa protester attempted to burn down a migrant detention center a little bit up the coast in Tacoma.  If not for the brave actions of the police, the Antifa thug could have very well succeeded in carrying out his domestic terror attack.
9. Other natural (and manmade) disasters: For the third year in a row, my list of lowlights includes the natural disasters, mass shootings, and terror attacks that occurred in 2019.  Over the past year, the southern United States had to deal with a major Hurricane (Dorian), the western United States had to deal with ravenous wildfires, the Midwest had to deal with substantial flooding, and people all across the eastern half of the country, including Massachusetts, had to deal with powerful tornadoes.  In terms of manmade disasters, mass shootings in Aurora, Illinois, Virginia Beach, El Paso, Dayton, Santa Clarita, Highlands Ranch, New Orleans, and Pensacola.  The epidemic of manmade disasters hit close to home this year as a deranged tenant facing the possibility of eviction shot an employee at an old folks’ home just blocks away from my house; causing schools to go on lockdown and setting off an expansive search for the perpetrator who ultimately killed himself rather than face the consequences of his actions. This shooting really put a damper on Christmas here in my home community.  Speaking of unspeakable acts of evil occurring at the holiest times of the year, explosions killed hundreds of Christians as they attended mass on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka.
10. Supreme Court ruling on the citizenship question: As I explained earlier this year, the Supreme Court decisions that came down in the most recent term gave both sides reasons to smile and reasons to frown.  The biggest blow to conservatives came in the Court’s decision in Department of Commerce v. New York, where five of the nine justices claimed that the Trump administration did not provide an “adequate justification” for including the citizenship question on the census and therefore temporarily blocked the question from appearing on the 2020 census until the administration came up with an explanation that satisfied the justices.  As I explained in my previous blog post, not including a citizenship question on the census and counting non-citizens inflates Democrats’ representation in Congress and the Electoral College. 

Stay tuned for my list of the top 10 highlights of 2019; which I will release next week.