The foul year of 2020 has stretched out for what seems like forever. The truth is it is hard to remember a time when our primary concerns weren't COVID-19 and the insanity of Donald John Trump. It certainly wasn't during the past 12 months, at least not for a most of us. Think not? Let's take a look.
January: Mr. Trump, who had been impeached by the House earlier, is supported by every republican during his Senate trial. Utah's Mitt Romney did vote for removal on one count, but not on the second. After the President got off the hook the wildly famous law professor, Alan Dershowitz put it this way, "If a President does something that he believes will help him get elected, in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.'' In other words, a sitting President can offer a nuclear weapon to Saudi Arabia in exchange for dirt on a political opponent.
February: Covid was rearing it's ominous head overseas. Chinese manufacturing had been practically shut down in an attempt to curb the spread of the disease. Many Trump supporters dipped their toes into the conspiracy theory pool by stating the media was overplaying the seriousness of it while others began to post on media the virus already had a vaccine, but it was being reserved for the ultra rich. Meanwhile DJT blamed the democrats and media for sowing economic panic in order to hurt his re-election chances. By the end of the month one American had died of COVID-19. The President predicted few others would become infected.
March: The shit hit the fan. Covid began to spread faster than a California wild fire. The nation's governor's began shutting down non-essential businesses. All sporting events were abruptly canceled. People were told to shelter in place. Cities went dark and medical testing kits became more precious than gold. By mid month it was estimated there were only 500 of them available in the entire state of Oklahoma. By the end of March things were so dreadful and weird Trump was having the, "My pillow guy," Mike Lindell speak at COVID briefings and Joe Exotic, "The Tiger King," was a Netflix sensation. In short people had begun to go a tad self isolation buggy.
April: Anti lockdown demonstrations spread across the nation inspired by Trump's rhetoric concerning the effects they were having on the economy. Trump banners, Confederate and Nazi flags were proudly displayed at many of them. So were guns. The prevailing sentiment among the protesters seemed to be no one could tell a real, by God, American not to drink in bars, or eat out. The COVID death toll for that month was 58,960.
May: George Floyd was murdered by cops in Minneapolis and the match was lit. Demonstrations and draconian police measures followed. In more than a few instances there was video proof it was the authorities who rioted. The President threatened to call out regular U.S. military troops, but instead began to rely on unidentified para police units who were rumored to be federal prison guards and officers from ICE. Far right wing subversives infiltrated some crowds and initiated acts of vandalism and looting. Almost lost in the chaos was the appointment of Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General.
June: Donald Trump reached his limit on the self isolation shit. He announced he'd take his act on the road again. The first stop on his new tour would be Tulsa's 19,000 seat BOK Center on the weekend African Americans celebrate their freedom from slavery--and mere blocks from the site of the city's 1921 race massacre. Governor Kevin Stitt and Trump promised a sell out crowd. So many tickets were doled out on line an overflow stage was set up outside the arena. It was an internet scam pulled by a bunch of clever kids who never intended to go. To Trump's dismay the place wasn't even half full the night of the rally. Among the few there were Stitt and GOP pooh bah, Herman Cain. Within weeks Stitt would have COVID-19 and Cain would be dead of it.
July: Major League Baseball, the NHL, and NBA restarted minus fans in abbreviated fashion. Hockey and Basketball technically finished their interrupted seasons in isolation, while baseball rolled out a 60 game schedule played in empty stadiums.
August: In July 26,164 Americans died of the virus. It was a tiny, but encouraging dip which prompted more people to get out to bars and restaurants which had reopened. By the end of the month the August body count was 30,234. A poll conducted during that time frame found 57% of republicans considered the number of COVID deaths incurred to that point as, "acceptable."
September: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died and reportedly her last wish was not to be replaced until a new president was sworn in. Trump immediately labeled her wish fiction and vowed to fill her seat as quickly as possible. In addition El Donald was ratcheting up his attack on mail in voting, although it seemed to be falling on increasingly deaf ears. His old pal and the very definition of conflict of interest, Louis DeJoy took the hint and began to pull sorting machines out of post offices, primarily in swing states.
October: Early in the month Donald Trump, his wife and a gaggle of GOP bigwigs came down with the virus within days of each other. QAnon wankers began to scream that Trump and the rest had been, "targeted," with a virus they had been claiming didn't exist. The COVID, they said, had been sprayed on one of The Don's microphones. Trump's quick recovery prompted some leftists to claim he faked the whole thing in order to prove it was either no big deal, or that any real man could survive it.
November: As the early returns came in Donald Trump jumped out to a lead. So much so early the next morning he declared victory, as if that would end things. The mail in votes, however were just beginning to be counted. By Friday Joe Biden had taken the lead and The Big Orange Guy was howling a foul, massive, fraud had been perpetrated by his enemies. Nearly two months later he still is.
December: Trump's crack legal team, headed up by Rudy Giuliani hit the courts with increasingly bizarre accusations. According to them everyone from local TV stations to the late Hugo Chavez was in on rigging the election. The Georgia Secretary of State's brother, who doesn't exist, worked with the Chinese to overthrow the government. Millions of mail in ballots should be excluded because, well, they were mailed in. The courts, including that Supreme one, rejected them all.
Yes, the year has been full of disease, madness, and death. As of today, 344,877 Americans, just about one in every thousand of us, have died from a virus, Donald Trump promised would, first, be easily contained, then, second, would disappear by April. Beyond that horror, Mr. Trump has still not publicly accepted his loss in November and in truth, probably never will.
2020 ends in a scant few hours now. Speaking for tens of millions of Americans, I say, good riddance and for all our sakes, let's not do this again.
12-31-20
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