Say Goodbye To 2018

The year 2018 is a few hours away from its conclusion, at which time the year 2019 will begin.  In some of my end-of-the-year posts, I've mentioned the idea of living "in interesting times".  I would certainly have to say that in 2018, the times continued to be interesting.

Here in the United States, President Donald Trump certainly had an interesting year.  He renegotiated NAFTA with Canada and Mexico, producing a new agreement known as USMCA.  He saw one of his associates plead guilty during the course of the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Muller into alleged collusion with Russia, although the nature of the collusion still hasn't been specified or proven.  The courts won't let Trump end DACA, even through it was enacted through an executive order by then-President Barack Obama.  The president has enacted tariffs on goods such as steel and aluminum, which caused some retaliation, but did not seem to have too much of an effect on the overall economy.  He met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which seems to have improved our relations with them just a bit.  In this year's midterm elections, the Democrats took back the House, but the Republicans increased their lead in the Senate.  As the year finishes, the federal government is in partial shutdown because Trump and the Democrats in Congress have come to an impasse over funding for a wall on the border with Mexico.

The most interesting event of the year involving the federal government might be the nomination and confirmation hearings of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, which involved accusations of past misconduct coming mainly from Dr. Christine Ford.  She sent a letter to Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Cal), which the Senator sat on for some time, detailing his alleged actions, which if true happened when Ford and Kavanaugh were teenagers.  (At the time, she would have been known by her maiden name Blasey.)  After both accuser and accused testified before a Senate committee, Kavanaugh was eventually confirmed.

The year included a number of interesting (at least in the sense of being ominous) events, such as a false alarm in Hawaii over what appeared to be a  ballistic missile strike, a mass shooting at a high school in Florida, more wildfires in California, a mass shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and a series of mailbombs sent to various Democrats.  Although the economy has been generally good this year, the stock markets took a nose dive in late December.  Just last week a California police officer who had legally immigrated from Fiji was killed allegedly by an illegal alien.

Over in Europe, migrants have kept pouring in as they have since 2015, often with the help of traffickers and the crews of NGO boats.  During the past week or so, migrants using dinghies have been arriving on British beaches or have been rescued by British border protection boats.  The United Nations has reacted to the continuing wave of migrants by passing the Global Compact for Migration, meeting at Marrakech, Morocco.  Some Europeans have reacted to the wave of migrants by forming or supporting political parties that oppose mass migration, such as the Vox party in Spain or the AfD in Germany.  Late during this year, people wearing yellow vests started protesting in France, starting a movement that spread to other countries.  Although the U.K. voted to leave the E.U. over two years ago, they still haven't figured out any deal that satisfies both sides.  Meanwhile here in North America, a caravan of migrants traveled from Central America through Mexico to our southern border.

In Turkey, an Arab journalist based in New York named Jamal Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi consulate.  (I also found out that Queen produced a song in 1989 named Khashoggi's Ship, the titular a ship being owned by the journalist's arms-trading uncle.)  American efforts in Syria seem to have greatly reduced the power and territory held by the terrorist group ISIS, but they still haven't been completely wiped out.  Even so, President Trump has announced that U.S. troops will pull out of that country.  During the year, Indonesia was struck by tsunamis in two different places.

As with any year, 2018 has seen the deaths of many notable people.  This year's list includes former President George H.W. Bush, his wife Barbara Bush, Senator John McCain, singer Aretha Franklin, singer Marty Balin (of Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship), journalist Charles Krauthammer, physicist Stephen Hawking, science fiction writer Ursula K. LeGuin (whose novel The Left Hand Of Darkness I read for a college class), evangelist Billy Graham, and retired Virginia Tech President Charles Steger.  One person whose passing I've noted was Danny Kirwan, an early member of Fleetwood Mac whose music, in my opinion, deserves more recognition than it has received.  One other person whom I should note was World War II veteran Richard Overton, all 112 years of him.

In my own life, 2018 could be seen as the year of letting go.  Last January, my mother passed away, which eventually led to my siblings and myself selling her house.  I had entertained some ideas about buying the house myself and keeping it in the family, but that would have been a last resort.  After driving it for 18 years, I let go of the Bigfootmobile and replaced it with a newer one.  For the first time in many years, I have gone through an entire year without taking a flight on an airplane.  My travels, mainly to Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, have been done by car.  I currently have plans to drive the new Bigfootmobile on a road trip, the details of which will be posted here in due course.

All of the above, of course, is merely what I can remember offhand or look up.  There are obviously many more things that might deserve to be mentioned, by I can only write so much.  To all who read this blog, have a Happy New Year, and hopefully it will be one in which the times are less troublesome, even if they again continue to be interesting.