An event that started at the end of 2019 in the city of Wuhan in central China would come to have a global impact … one far beyond Xi's wildest dreams of China's one day directing the course of the world.  A virus that possibly originated at a wet market (or was it from a biological laboratory?) in Wuhan would spread rapidly around the world, creating a pandemic not seen since the one caused by the Swine Flu of 2009, a disease that killed thousands of people worldwide.  But this new COVID-19 Coronavirus quickly outpaced the Swine Flu globally in terms of the numbers infected and the number of deaths brought on by it.

Such microorganisms can be very deadly. The 1918 Spanish Flu killed a half a million Americans, and crippled greatly another quarter of the population, lowering the American life expectancy by twelve years in the process.

But fairly early action in response to this 2020 Coronavirus, including calling on the nation to stay at home – and keeping a certain distance from others when it was absolutely necessary to leave the house (food shopping, for instance) – slowed up the spread of the virus.

However this "lockdown" of American society also had a devastating effect on the American economy – creating a level of unemployment even greater than that registered in the devastating Iran / oil / Volcker crisis of the early 1980s.

At first President Trump tried to downplay the severity of the crisis when it came to America in January (2020). But panic spread anyway as the media turned its attention away from the impeach-Trump campaign to the Coronavirus scare.  In any case, by early March the virus, devastating not only China but Italy and Spain and other countries, was spreading quickly in America.

Thus Trump began to put in place federal programs designed to support hospital care and medical research ($8.3 billion authorized on March 6th), then to subsidize unemployment insurance (UI) by supplementing the states' UI programs (March 18th) … and then finally on March 22nd, under Senator McConnell's sponsorship, a proposal for a huge $1.2 trillion package to support even more extensively America's rapidly declining businesses.

Republicans put aside their usual opposition to such Federal bail-outs, and a deal was seemingly put in place, ready for passage in the Senate … when House Speaker Pelosi intervened with a demand for a $2.5 trillion bailout, with wider applications (outright personal grants to all Americans, aid to education and other types of grants) – at the same time calling for a reduction in the amount of support offered to America's larger corporations by Trump.

A political fight seemed in the making, as competing political interests wanted to be seen as the actual "saviors" of the country in this time of crisis.  Such salvation would make good political feed in the coming November national elections.  But in the end Trump backed down and accepted a piece of legislation closer in nature to Pelosi's than his own proposal: a $2.2 trillion support program of a rather wide scope.

Of course, this did nothing but worsen considerably the picture of America's long-term economic status – as the federal deficit skyrocketed out of control. Adding $2.2 trillion to that debt (at a time when the government's tax revenues would also be declining sharply due to the crisis) would only drive America into deeper indebtedness.  But what could be done?  All the enlightenment in Washington had no good idea of how to get the American economy back to good health under these horrible circumstances.

Meanwhile the virus lockdown was having its own impact – social and psychological – as March turned into April and April turned into May.  How long was this lockdown going to last?  Tempers began to heat up as debate, even street protests, began to break out over the ongoing restrictions.

Then in Minneapolis on May 25 occurred the arrest and death of a Black man, George Floyd, by a White cop, Derek Chauvin, involving Chauvin's holding a resistant Floyd to the ground by keeping his knee on Floyd's neck – as Floyd protested "I can't breathe."  Indeed he could not, and died as a result.  All of this was caught on video and shown repeatedly across all the media, Facebook and YouTube as well as the national news media.

Black fury exploded in Minneapolis – where the incident took place – and Minneapolis quickly began to look like Los Angeles during the Rodney King riots ... and Fergusson, Missouri, during the Michael Brown riots.  Shops were broken into, then burned to the ground, with whole neighborhoods coming to look like bombed out war zones.

But the action did not stop there.  It soon spread to city after city across America as Blacks (and Whites) turned out for "peaceful" protests on behalf of the cause, "Black Lives Matter."  Unfortunately, these peaceful protests were also soon accompanied by the looting and burning in city after city across America, similar to those continuing day after day in Minneapolis.

Tragically, in St. Louis, Black retired police captain David Dom was killed defending a friend's store … and many police (Blacks among them) were wounded (some killed) during the riots.  At this point even some prominent Blacks came out in opposition to the way the demonstrations were developing, complaining that this was not the way to improve race relations in America.

Meanwhile, the cause was joined by angry, mostly-White, Antifa ("Anti-Fascist") youth who turned the matter into a grand assault on all social authority – the pandemic restrictions being big contributors to the anti-authority mood.  And the dynamic became one of physical attack on the police (called out, of course, to contain the damage caused by the rioting) – characterized by Antifa rioters (and minority voices as well) as Fascist devils.  So this dynamic became more than just one of racial tensions.  It began to look like wholesale social revolution … especially in early June when Antifa youth took control of downtown Seattle and turned six city blocks into their police-free "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" … defended by fully-armed youth.

At this point, a number of big-city mayors (Liberal Democrats) came out with the announcement that they would be cutting back funding on their police budgets … to relocate that money into more "socially sensitive" minority-support programming.  Soon this was becoming a refrain heard even more widely among America's state and urban public authorities.  Defunding the police was becoming the new thing in the world of "political correctness" … which a lot of local officials wanted to get on board with.

Needless to say, with the police on the defensive as "fascists," urban crime skyrocketed.

In the meantime, America was so caught up in the street rioting occurring across the American political map, that it almost missed the importance of the decision that the Supreme Court came to in the case of Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  On June 15th (2020) the Supreme Court announced that the 1965 Civil Rights Act included also protection of transgender sex … in deciding 6-3 that the Michigan Funeral Home had violated the law when it refused to allow one of its employees to cross-dress when meeting with grieving family members – in violation of the business's dress standards.  Interestingly, on the majority side was the supposedly conservative "originalist" Justice Gorsuch … who explained that Title VII of the 1965 Act did not include exactly the wording of transgender rights, but it certainly could be understood to have intended that in the category of "sex" discrimination outlawed by the Act.

Complaints from the Right were that this was simply judicial legislation … as if this were some new development.  But as we have seen repeatedly, there is nothing new about such "legislative" self-empowerment of the Supreme Court.  It has been going on since the beginning of the 1800s under Marshall.  But hopes were that Gorsuch would bring "originalist" scope to the bench.  But judicial power is very seductive.  Indeed, Gorsuch was already sliding to the Liberal "center."

Actually also, although Kavanaugh joined Thomas and Samuel Alito in dissenting, he did so out of the strictest of originalist principles … whereas he expressed himself extensively personally in favor of all the progress happening elsewhere in LGBTQ rights.  But the Left paid no attention to his efforts to put himself on the Progressive side of politics … and attacked him for his vote nonetheless.

Thus little by little, traditional Christian understanding of the nature and requirements of Godly sexuality are being set aside by the courts … to a point that any refusal to go along with the new or "progressive" sexual standards would find itself in deep trouble with the law – as the courts amplify the intent of the nation's laws, laws that the federal courts dictate ... without restraint or even hesitation.

On November 3rd the nation "went to the polls" (the group that had not already voted by mail before that date).  Because of the new voting dynamics, it would take several days before a fully clear picture of the outcome could be discerned … and that only when the close Pennsylvania vote was finally confirmed.

Ultimately, over 81 million votes went to Biden and over 74 million votes went to Trump.  This was the largest number ever of votes cast in an American presidential election, with both candidates (even Trump) receiving more votes than any previous candidate.  Both won 25 states each in the electoral college vote (Biden naturally also winning unfailingly Democratic D.C.'s 3 electoral votes), though Biden's strength in both New England and the Pacific Coast put the actual electoral vote strongly in his favor, 306 to 232.  And surprisingly Biden's vote included (very narrowly) Georgia and Arizona, both Republican-leaning since the 1990s … and a matter of great interest to Trump.

There had been much previous speculation as to whether or not Trump would offer a graceful turnover of power to his opponent, should he lose the election.  As it turned out, the transition was indeed far from graceful.

Rather than concede when it was clear to all (including even the conservative Fox News) that Biden had won the election fairly enough, Trump claimed that Biden had done so only through extensive voter fraud, illegal ballots having given Biden his victory.  Trump – despite Attorney General William Barr's announcement that an extensive FBI inquiry into the matter found no evidence pointing to extensive fraud – was going to challenge the results in court in a number of instances (a strategy he had learned years earlier as a businessman).

Despite the assurance of the state authorities that the voting had been amazingly clean, Trump pressed his case (most notably in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania) … not able to actually demonstrate any true amount of fraud he assured everyone was key to the illegal outcome.

It was simply Trump being Trump … using his own reasoning (notably with the help of a band of lawyers) to press his case, by whatever means possible.  Ultimately the day of the vote of the Electoral College arrived (December 14th) and the earlier count in favor of Biden was reaffirmed.

Tragically for the Republican Party, Trump's pressure on Georgia to reexamine the vote (and declare a Republican win) – not once but three times – did not play well in Georgia's runoff elections held on January 5th.  In the November elections, Republican incumbent Senator James Perdue had failed to receive the 50% required by the state to be returned to Washington as the state's senatorial representative.  Perdue had gained only 49.4% of the vote … with his Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff gaining 47.9% of the vote.  But Trump's behavior had created such ill feeling among Georgian independents, that when the runoff was held, the vote switched entirely, even with a smaller turnout: Ossoff with 50.6% and Perdue with 49.4%.  Thus the Republicans lost a vital seat (and consequently its majority) in the Senate, largely because of all the Trump antics.  The Senate was now tied, 50 Republicans (even some of those rather "independent-leaning") and 50 Democrats, with the new Democrat Vice President Harris able to vote to break any voting ties that might occur.

Then on the following day … just to make the transition even uglier, Trump called for a rally in front of the White House … and challenged a huge and very hyped-up gathering to march on the Capitol Building – and demonstrate to Congress (which had gathered that day to give official authorization to the Electoral College vote) their anger over the supposedly fraudulent elections.  This they did … but not stopping merely on the lawn in front of the Capitol Building, but instead storming it … thus producing a very violent confrontation with the Capitol police – and the retreat in fear of the gathered Congressional members.  In the melee, a female Trump supporter was shot and killed, several protesters died, presumably from medical emergencies, and numerous officers were hurt badly, one dying from his wounds, before they could be cleared out.  Many of the participants would later be identified and arrested for what was clearly a federal crime.

Immediately calls were issued for the impeachment of Trump (the third attempt) … and indeed on the 13th of the month the House successfully voted exactly that. But of course this action would then have to go to the U.S. Senate … where, even with some Republicans switching to the side to convict, the necessary 2/3rds vote would not be forthcoming.  57 Senators (including 7 Republicans) voted to convict; 43 (all Republicans) voted to acquit.  But almost immediately speculation arose as to the possibility of the Democrats finding another way to take Trump down … permanently, so that he would be unable to run again for the presidency.