Loser's Circle

In 2020, the COVID crisis led me to eschew making a winners and losers list for the year, since  I saw no example of anyone being a winner in a pandemic.  Even Joe Biden, who won the Presidency, couldn't be viewed as a winner because he was chosen to assume the office in the most disastrous period of American history since the time of Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860.

The year 2021 has only been marginally better. Sure, we don't have to wear face coverings outdoors (except at open-air events in Oregon), we had the Olympics all right, and some of us have been able to resume working outside the home.  But the delta corona has pushed back a good deal of the progress made in fighting COVID, the economy is still stuck in neutral, we're being battered by climate-change-fueled storms, the Republicans are setting the stage for der Amerikaner Reich to take over in 2025, and the Democrats don't know what the hell to do about it.  

And Peugeot announced it will not return to the U.S. market after all.

Okay, that last sentence was a joke, but I'm not joking when I say America and the world are in deep trouble.  Who's winning? Who can really say they won anything? I mean, apart from Katie Ledecky? Right now, no one. I'd be hard pressed to find anyone, anything or any place that's coming out ahead.  Least of all Afghanistan. 

So, while I haven't made a final decision yet, chances are that  I will not be making a winners and losers list for 2021 at the end of the year.  Remember, the year began with an insurrection against the U.S. government that hasn't really ended.  It started out bad and, while it hasn't worsened generally, we still have four months to go, and I have no hope for the rest of 2021 as it is.  The year 2021 is not as bad as 2020 was, though, but that's like saying Cleopatra was not as bad as Heaven's Gate.

One other thing: Don't be surprised if, even after the pandemic is over, I never make a year-end winners and losers list ever again.