"Count yourself lucky if you live in exciting times"

  

  The Chinese have said, “that you should count yourself lucky if you live in exciting times.”  Hah! A lot they know.  2020 has been a year of incredible variation, a roller coaster of events political, medical astronomical and .... we ain't done yet!  Needless to say, when hundreds of thousands of Americans and people all over the world are struck down and some (way to many) die from viral infection, that it takes number one in the events of this year.  We have seen the Corona Virus (Covid-19) grow in this country from 19 in June to over 200 thousand in November. (54,805,521 cases in the world today.)   

 This is an election year, the normal, peaceful, exchange of ideas leading to the election and peaceful transition of leaders in a democratic republic, the United States of America.  What a joke!  The election of Donald Trump in 2016 was led begun by bullying and mean spirited attacks by Trump on his opponent, Hillary Clinton, on  national TV and in the digital and the Right Wing media. 

   What ensued was a series of over hundred national embarrassments, including having to pay his mistress (a porn star) compensation so that she would not testify against him in court.  He embarrassed the people of the U.S. with foreign confrontations and general incompetence, not seen in the White House in modern history.   The normal checks and balances directed in the Constitution disappeared in a flash.  

  The Executive Branch lead by Mr. Trump hired cronies and incompetents to lead cabinet and departments as long as they were loyal to the President.  The House and Senate were united as the Legislative branch of HIS government.  The Supreme Court was hanging on by a thread to maintain an impartial Judicial Branch.  It seemed as though we had gone from a democracy to an Oligarchy in the blink of an eye.  Lucky for us the House achieved  a Democratic majority in the mid-term elections.  Still the Senate dominated by a Republican Majority and a Speaker, Mitch McConnell, so enamored by Mr. Trump that no policy suggested by the Democrats, could clear the Senate and become law.  That included even laws that would provide health care for those in need during a worldwide pandemic.  

  Every time one of the President's appointees made a statement or appeared to disagree with him, he had him fired!  The President filled one after another National Judges with those that would bring his followers closer.  This group of national supporters numbered in the millions and threatened a civil ideological war.  Trump even suggested that the U.S. buy Greenland! (A surprise to the citizens and leaders of that country)  He called countries he disagreed with "shit holes" and even pushed the Prime Minister of Montenegro so that he could have a better spot for a photo shoot.  

   Then the bottom fell out!  The last warrior in the Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, died.  It seemed that the rights won by women, people of color and the Gay community would be erased in the next session of the court.  A Trump appointee was a true wing nut and it seemed all was lost.