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2016: The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year
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2016: The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year

 

“What’s past is prologue.” ― William Shakespeare, TheTempest

What a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year this has been.

Endless wars. Toxic politics. Violence. Hunger. Police shootings. Mass shootings. Economic downturns. Political circuses. Senseless tragedies. Loss. Heartache. Intolerance. Prejudice. Hatred. Apathy. Meanness. Cruelty. Poverty. Inhumanity. Greed.

Here’s just a small sampling of what we’ve suffered through in 2016.

Afterthreeyearsofincreasinglytoxicpolitics, therulingoligarchywonandwethepeoplelost. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the election. Donald Trump won the White House while the American people lost any hope of ending the corporate elite’s grip on the government.

Thegovernmentdeclaredwaronso-calledfakenewswhilecontinuingtopeddleitsownbrandofpropaganda. President Obama quietly re-upped the National Defense Authorization Act, including a provision that establishes a government agency to purportedly counter propaganda and disinformation.

Morepeoplediedatthehandsofthepolice. Shootings of unarmed citizens (especially African-Americans) by police claimed more lives than previously estimated, reinforcing concerns about police misconduct and the use of excessive force. Police in Baton Rouge shot Alton Sterling. Police in St. Paul shot Philando Castile during a traffic stop. Ohio police shot 13-year-old Tyre King after the boy pulls out a BB gun. Wisconsin was locked down after protests erupt over a police shooting of a fleeing man. Oklahoma police shot and killed Terence Crutcher during a traffic stop while the man’s hands were raised in the air. North Carolina police killed Keith Lamont Scott, spurring two nights of violent protests. San Diego police killed Alfred Olango after he removed a vape smoking device from his pocket. Los Angeles police shot Carnell Snell Jr. after he fled a vehicle with a paper license plate.

Welostsomebrightstarsthisyear. Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia’s death left the court deadlocked and his successor up for grabs. Joining the ranks of the notable deceased were Muhammad Ali, David Bowie, Fidel Castro, Leonard Cohen, Carrie Fisher, John Glenn, Merle Haggard, Harper Lee, George Michael, Prince, Nancy Reagan, Janet Reno, Elie Wiesel, and Gene Wilder.

Diseasesclaimedmorelives. The deadly Zika virus spread outwards from Latin America and into the U.S.

Therichgotricher. The Panama Papers leak pulled back the curtain on schemes by the wealthy to hide their funds in shell companies.

Freespeechwasdealtoneknock-outpunchafteranother. First Amendment activities were pummeled, punched, kicked, choked, chained and generally gagged all across the country.

Thedebateoverequalitytookmanyforms. North Carolina’s debate over transgender bathrooms ignited a nationwide fury. Meanwhile, the U.S. military opened its doors to transgender individuals. A unanimous Supreme Court affirmed a Texas law that counts everyone, not just eligible voters, in determining legislative districts. The nation’s highest court also upheld affirmative action, while declaring a Texas law on abortion clinics to be an unnecessary burden on women.

Environmentalconcernsweredownplayedinfavorofcorporateinterests. Flint, Michigan’s contaminated water was declared a state and federal emergency, while thousands protested the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on water sources.

TechnologyrenderedAmericansvulnerabletothreatsfromgovernmentspies, police, hackersandpowerfailures. The Justice Department battled Apple in court over access to its customers’ locked, encrypted iPhones. Microsoft sued the U.S. government over its access to customers’ emails and files without their knowledge. Yahoo confirmed that over half a billion user accounts had been hacked. Police departments across the country used Stingray devices to collect cellphone data in real time, often without a warrant.

Policebecameevenmoremilitarizedandweaponized. Despite concerns about the government’s steady transformation of local police into a standing military army, local police agencies continued to acquire weaponry, training and equipment suited for the battlefield.

Childrenwerehurt.Police resource officers made schools less safe, with students being arrested, tasered and severely disciplined for minor infractions.

Computersassertedtheirsuperiorityovertheirhumancounterparts, whowereeasilycontrolledbybreadandcircuses. Google’s artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, defeated its human opponent in a DeepMind Challenge Match. Pokemon Go took the world by storm and turned users into mindless entertainment zombies.

Terrorismtookmanyforms.Brussels was locked down in the wake of terrorist attacks that killed dozens and wounded hundreds. A shootout between a gunman and police wrought havoc on a gay nightclub in Orlando. Terrorists armed with explosives and guns opened fire in Istanbul Airport. Syria was ravaged by bomb strikes, terrorism and international conflict.

Sciencecrossedintonewfrontiers. Doctors announced the birth of the first healthy three-parent baby created with DNA from three separate people. Elon Musk outlined his plan to populate Mars.

Tragediesabounded. An Amtrak train derailed outside of Philadelphia. A commuter train crashed through a barrier in New Jersey. Heatwaves swept the southwest, fueling wildfires. Flash floods and heavy rain devastated parts of Maryland and Louisiana.

Thenannystatewentintooverdrive. Philadelphia gave the green light to a tax on sugary drinks. The FDA issued guidelines to urge food manufacturers and chain restaurants to reduce salt use.

Thegovernmentwagedawaroncash. The government’s war on cash is a concerted campaign to do away with large bills such as $20s, $50s, $100s and shift consumers towards a digital mode of commerce that can easily be monitored, tracked, tabulated, mined for data, hacked, hijacked and confiscated when convenient.

TheDeepStatereareditsuglyhead. Comprised of unelected government bureaucrats, corporations, contractors, paper-pushers, and button-pushers who are actually calling the shots behind the scenes, this government within a government is the hidden face of the American police state that has continued past Election Day.

TheU.S. militaryindustrialcomplexaidedbytheObamaadministrationarmedtheworldwhilepaddingitsownpockets. According to the Center for International Policy, President Obama has brokered more arms deals than any administration since World War II.

Now that’s not to say that 2016 didn’t have its high points, as well, but it’s awfully hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel right now.

Indeed, I frequently receive emails from people urging me to leave the country before the “hammer falls.” However, as I make clear in my book BattlefieldAmerica: TheWarontheAmericanPeople, there is nowhere in the world to escape from the injustice of tyrants, bullies and petty dictators.

So let’s not take the mistakes of 2016 into a new year with us. The election is over. The oligarchs remain in power. The police state is marching forward, more powerful than ever. All signs point to business as usual. The game continues to be rigged.

The lesson for those of us in the American police state is simply this: if there is to be any hope for freedom in 2017, it rests with “we the people” engaging in local, grassroots activism that transforms our communities and our government from the ground up.

Let’s get started.

-John W. Whitehead

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at Amazon. 

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