It is the day after Christmas.  I have come into Artemis early to clean up some administrative things that were neglected during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It seems like a fine opportunity to reflect upon the year 2020 before a stake is formally driven into the heart of this withering beast.

This has been a ridiculously tough year for so many on so many fronts.  

From the most benign desires for people to socially gather (as we yearn to do thwarted by our new policies), to the economic devastation that has been the direct result of the Leviathan lurching us from one public health pronouncement to another, to the tragic loss of life that has been the result of exposure to Covid… 2020 has been an exercise in crisis management.  

Then let’s throw in a little rioting, protesting, and how about a national election with a dubious outcome?

Yeah… 2020 has been a gas.

People have asked me how I feel 2021 is going to play out.

Probably not much differently than 2020, maybe without the threat of Covid exposure being as much of an animating principle than it is now… but then again… who knows what next pathogen is getting ready to walk out of a research facility in China (or be consumed by an unsuspecting connoisseur of boiled bat)?

Then there is the damage that has been inflicted onto the body politic itself.

Notwithstanding bizarre machinations, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the the President of the United States in less than a month.  He will be largely ignored by half of the population.  

I truly believe that as was the case in 2016, very few people voted “for” President Trump as much as they voted “against” the Mandarine Class in Washington.

This time around there is a definite feel that the election was “stolen”.  Not necessarily stolen by a systemic effort on a national scale to give a victory to Biden, more of a gestalt feeling that something was not right.  From votes for Biden being “found” at two o’clock in the morning in Wisconsin, to the “dead Democrats” once again emerging from their graves to cast ballots (this time the zombies have left Louisiana and evidently become registered voters in Nevada as well), to the journalists / social media platforms telling us what is important and ignoring extremely troubling details on Biden’s “family business”… which evidently is a business about being a family?  Beyond that they seem to produce nothing of usable value to the market… but this is the “new economy”!  Who you know is far more important than what you make!

(If you have arrived here from our newsletter, continue reading here…)

There are some bright spots on the horizon though… at least bright spots for those of us who embrace freedom from collectivism.

One of which is the Supreme Court.

Soon to be President Biden is about to have his third term as a Vice President of the United States.  Before he takes office he has been inherently neutered.  He is well aware that he takes office without a mandate.  He is also aware that control of the House is by a thread.  Regardless of what takes place in the Georgia elections, the margins of dynamic control are slim.  Thus, the actions of Congress will be measured to say the least.  There is also a statistical probability that Congress will shift to Republican control in 24 months.  

He could enact sweeping changes through executive actions.  Both of his predecessors did just that.  The problem:  The Supremes.

Let’s take gun control.  

When the thought that the Supremes were going to take up New York Rifle and Pistol v New York and finally state that something akin to “strict scrutiny” must be applied to legislation to test for Constitutional validity, the gun control crowd (read most Democrats) lost their collective minds.  

Without the presence of Amy Coney Barrett on the court at that time, the balance of power shifted to Chief Justice Roberts and the case was mooted.

Now the balance of power on the Court has shifted firmly to the originalist camp.  With that, certain policy decisions are now off the table… like abrogating the Second Amendment.  

The court gets to rule on legislation… but they also get to rule on executive actions.  If Biden were to issue an executive action of firearms, the Supremes might get their case that ultimately overturns decades of meaningless and worthless gun-control laws.

In a sense it would be ironic.  

Biden might actually be the catalyst that ushers forth more Second Amendment freedoms.  

It would not be the first time this paradox has manifested.  Clinton’s so-called federal “assault weapons” ban literally created the inspiration of the ubiquitous AR-15 after the legislation went away after sunsetting.

Even President Obama is credited with driving up gun sales on a national basis.  (Nowhere near what Covid and loss of toilet paper was able to pull off though.)

Who knows… as they say…  “only Nixon could go to China”.  

2021 is going to be an interesting year.