Covid-19's global impact (2020-2021). An outbreak of the Coronavirus in Wuhan China in December of 2019 soon spread to the rest of the world in early 2020. When first Italy and Spain were hit particularly hard, they underwent a "lockdown" – keeping people in their homes, allowing them out only for such "essential services" as food shopping. Soon the idea was taken up by other countries … and by the different states in America. Restaurants, schools, churches, were shut down by governmental order … and the streets became deserted. But even then, by March, both Italy and America had overtaken China in the number of deaths reported from the virus. Due to the similarity to previous Coronavirus outbreaks – the SARS virus (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2002-2004 and the MERS virus (Middle East respiratory syndrome) in 2012-2015 – vaccines to fight the virus were finally brought to production … notably first in America, then Britain (early spring of 2021) and by mid-2021 the Euro area and Canada. According to the best estimates, these vaccines ultimately saved the lives of anywhere from 15 to 20 million deaths globally. But even then, as of October 2021, it was reported that some five million people globally had died from the virus. Hardest hit – in terms of population percentages – tended to be Latin American and East European societies.1 The reopening of that closed-off existence was very gradual – crashing the economies of the world's societies as work came to a halt during those days of lockdown. America's economy declined by 9 percent in the second quarter of 2020. But for other industrial societies, the figures were worse: In the same quarter, Britain's economy declined by 21.4 percent; in the larger Euro area the figure was 12.4 percent, Canada 12.4 Percent, and Mexico 19 percent. Needless to say, the economic decline was at least as bad, if not worse – though precise figures are hard to come by – in the Third World. However … China actually benefited greatly economically from all this, pulling out of its Covid-induced economic downturn very quickly … thanks to its government's infrastructure spending. In fact, because of the huge demand for Chinese goods still being produced while the rest of the world remained in its economic shutdown stage, China's economic growth reached nearly 30 percent in 2020! But this then allowed the Chinese government to slow its economic support for its industry in 2021, slowing the country's economic growth somewhat. At the same time, massive inflation hit the world as markets reopened … and prices skyrocketed for the small amount of production available for sale at that point. 1For America, that number was 827,000 deaths. Globally the 5 million count probably is rather low, as Third World countries did not collect data adequately. In fact, it is speculated that in India alone, over 4 million people may have died of the virus. The Wuhan wet market It is widely believed that the horrible corona-virus epidemic that cut across the world began in this wet market in Wuhan China.   Others speculated that it may have started in a Chinese biological  research lab ... and got carried to that market.  Others have different theories on the origins.  Chinese were even to claim that it got started by American agents! In any case, as with the rest of the world, the virus hit America hard! New York City for instance As the virus spread westward hitting Europe hard and then heading towards America, Trump shut down flights into the country from China, and put deep restrictions on other flights into the country.  Democrats immediately complained that Trump's actions were entirely imperious.  Then later, as the virus did indeed hit America, he was criticized bitterly by the same voices "for not having acted soon enough."  Indeed, his discussions at press conferences (typical of the times) turned political ... as the media made what it wanted of his explanations, either supporting his efforts to act against the virus or attacking him for the way he said this or that.   In any case, this national crisis did not bring the country together ... but once again seemed only to give political opportunists yet another cause to go against their ideological opponents. The Philadelphia Inquirer – March 11, 2020 Another casualty of the corona-virus crisis was the Stock Market, which tumbled as the country's businesses were forced to close down on a "stay-at-home" order imposed by state after state as the panic spread. THE POLITICAL OUTFALL IN AMERICA Congress gets in on the act In early March, Trump authorized $8.3 billion in emergency funding for hospital care and medical research. But by mid-March it was very apparent that this hardly addressed the depth of the crisis – and thus Trump requested of Congress $1.2 trillion … not only for medical support but also to help keep struggling businesses alive. But Congress's House Majority Party (Democrat) leader Nancy Pelosi responded with a call for $2.5 trillion instead … which included funding for Democratic Party goals of educational programming, environmental support, and other items – items that had nothing to do with the virus outbreak. Furthermore, her program involved a cutback in support for the deeply suffering American business world. But she was going to hold the Coronavirus spending hostage until she got Trump and the Republicans to move things in her direction. Finally she got the Republicans to accept a $2.2 trillion spending bill … which included a $1200 or $2400 grant to every American household (depending on single or double adult status) … for whatever reasons. All of this added enormously to the country's national debt.   Pelosi explaining the Democratic Party's much greater financial demands in the economic relief program The George Floyd tragedy ... and Black Lives Matter But there were other repercussions from the way the virus hit the American nation. In May of 2020, a Black man, George Floyd, after being reported by a store clerk to the police as having used conterfeit money, was taken down by a White cop, Derek Chauvin, and held to the ground by keeping his knee on Floyd's neck (for over nine minutes), with an already somewhat sick Floyd protesting that he couldn't breathe. Consequently, Floyd died. All of this was caught on camera … and shown across all the media, Facebook and YouTube as well as the national media.  Black protests were immediate and extensive … conducted under the theme "Black Lives Matter." But this also turned into the occasion for more Black plunder and torching of American cities across the country.  George Floyd is brought down by Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin on May 25, 2020 ... and Floyd dies as a result Minneapolis Blacks go on a rampage over the Floyd murder Then the protests spread around the country (late May and into June) "Defund the police" At the same time, a number of big-city mayors (Liberal Democrats) joined the furor by announcing that they would be helping to "defund the police" … transferring police funding to more worthy social causes. At this point "defund the police" had become a key piece in the "political correctness" followed closely by aspiring young politicians (and some of the older ones as well). But this would leave America's urban police underfunded and soon understaffed, as police retired in massive numbers in response to this new social mood. Unsurprisingly, the crime rate in America climbed rapidly as a follow-up.   Antifa But this soon inspired young, mostly White "Anti-Fascist" (or "Antifa") protesters to join the protests – the pandemic restrictions helping immensely to inspire an Antifa attack on the "Fascist" American police … called out to bring widespread rioting back under some degree of control. Indeed, it soon appeared that Antifa believed that it was conducting some kind of revolution against all social authority – especially when in June, Antifa youth were allowed to take control of downtown Seattle and turn six city blocks into their police-free "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" … defended by fully-armed youth.   Young Whites felt the strong need to affirm a co-identity with Black suffering Another of the uglier versions of the days' events took place in Seattle (May 30th) This inspired young "progressives" to take over 6 city blocks in downtown Seattle to create their "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" (CHAZ) ... succeeding after two weeks of police and National Guard units versus activist violence ... when the police were ordered to stand down by Chief Carmen Best THE AMERICAN IMMIGRATION CRISIS The massive movement of people – mostly across the Mexican-American border – is not a new thing … with as many as 1.5 million+ apprehended at that border in the year 2000, a drop in 2003 to 900 thousand, a rise to 1.2 million in 2005, then a drop in 2011 to around 400 thousand. Originally these were mostly Mexicans seeking refuge in America. But by 2014, about half of these illegal entrants were non-Mexican, principally from the three Central American or "Northern Triangle" countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. And by 2014, this number included a massive increase in the number of "unaccompanied minors" crossing the border … thanks largely to a 2008 law offering protections for just such minors – played up by smugglers to increase their businesses. During his electoral campaign in 2016, Trump promised that he was going to build a huge fence across the border with Mexico … and make Mexico cover its costs. There was no way that this was going to happen. But Trump did what he could in coming to office in doing some building – or more often, rebuilding – of that wall … some 450 miles of construction – which Mexico did not pay for! But the overall length of the border is 1,954 miles … offering illegals plenty of opportunity to find their way into America through the more remote (and more dangerous) routes. And Trump attempted to block all unregistered entry into America … requiring migrants claiming asylum rights to register at the border – and remain in Mexico until they could be processed for entry. As a consequence, by 2019, there were well over a million individuals waiting in Mexico for their cases to be heard. But with the global Coronavirus outbreak, the rate of illegal immigration across that southern border skyrocketed … and there was actually very little that Trump could do to stop that huge influx.   "Caravans" of mostly Central American migrants heading through Mexico to America - 2018 VENEZUELA In 1999, Venezuela underwent something of a Cuban-like social revolution, installing a "popular" dictatorship under Hugo Chavez, in which Chavez planned to use Venezuela's massive oil earnings to bring Venezuela under full Socialism. In 2013, Chavez died, and his place was taken by Nicolás Maduro – who basically continued the Chavez program – including its strong dislike of America. But international oil pricing had dropped considerably in those years … leaving the Venezuelan government no longer able to offer the rewards of Socialism to its people. In the meantime, huge numbers (about 4 million or 12 percent of the population) of the more entrepreneurial middle-class Venezuelans had simply abandoned their homeland … as the country sank rapidly into national poverty. Trump's response to all this was try to bring down the Maduro government in 2017, by ending oil imports from Venezuela2 - as well as American food and medicine exports to Venezuela. And in 2018, America and the West did what it could to support the more politically centrist Juan Guaidó in his run for Venezuelan president that year. But that election was marked by much confusion and corruption … plus the full support of Maduro by the Venezuelan military. In any case, the Venezuelan National Assembly (and the West) concluded in 2019 that Guaidó was the person they would recognize as "interim president." But the political reality was that Maduro considered himself properly elected to a second term as Venezuelan president … and had China, Russia, Cuba, Iran and even Syria and Bolivia strongly supporting that claim – in an attempt to block all further American and Western influence in Venezuela … and to replace that with Chinese, Russian, etc. influence not only in Venezuela but also in the broader Central and South American world. 2Anyway, America really did not need Venezuelan oil as it was basically oil-self-sufficient by this point, thanks to American shale-oil production. Maduro greeting Salvadoran President (and other Latin America leaders) at Maduro's inauguration to his second term as Venezuelan president - February 2019 Trump and Guaido - February 2020 CHINA Meanwhile, Xi Jinping moved to make his personal rule even tighter over China, getting the Chinese National People's Congress in March of 2018 to vote (2,964 to 2!) to end the Chinese constitution's two-term limit on the presidency … that had been put in place when Deng Xiaoping brought China out of its terrible Maoist legacy in the late 1970s/early 1980s. The presumption supposedly was that putting China under ever-tighter presidential rule would guarantee the continuing move of China toward a similar ever-tighter global domination. And the world of technology factored majorly in advancing China's international program. With the help of a lot of Chinese government subsidies, China's electronics communications industries have been able to capture much of the world market by being able to offer cheaper products – often just copies of Western technological development … in complete disregard of the World Trade Organization's international patent rights. Thus China's telecommunications giant Huawei was able to move into a position of dominance in the new 5G telecommunications sector … as well as China's Alibaba and Tencent, who have achieved monopolistic status in China, move to a position of dominance abroad by buying out foreign companies. Trump tried to head off this Chinese move in March of 2018 by imposing tariffs amounting to $250 billion in Chinese goods coming into America … in order to bring Chinese pricing closer to American products. But then China retaliated with a $100 billion tariff against American goods – although the balance of trade between the two countries was already heavily in favor of China. To try to work out a compromise between the two countries, Xi and Trump met at a G-203 summit in Japan in June of 2019 … though little was actually accomplished. But at least other Western countries moved down the same trail as Trump, to end the dumping of Chinese goods into their economies – or having the Chinese subsidized companies buy their European companies. Nonetheless, as a sign of China's rising global status, in April of 2019 40 countries gathered in Beijing to celebrate the achievements of China's "Belt and Road Initiative" – started up in 2013 to integrate the world's economies with China's economy. Attending were not only Xi's new partner Putin, but also leaders of African and Middle Eastern nations. Even leaders from America's traditional partners Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and its new partners Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary – as well as America's Latin American friends Chile and Argentina – were in attendance. Even Switzerland left its long-standing neutral position in order to attend the event. 3The G-20 (Group of 20) constitutes an international forum of the world's major industrial powers (including the European Union and the new African Union), formed in 1999 to work out international economic problems at the time. It meets at least annually to take on such questions as international trade and finance, but also climate change and sustainable social development … or any other issue of timely global socio-economic importance. Xi Jinping building Chinese power around his own personal rule  ... as if he were founding a new Chinese dynasty! Trump in China - November 9, 2017 Trump presumed himself able to build better relations with China ... simply on the basis of his own personal ties with China's President Xi Jinping.  He seemed not to understand that international relations are built largely on foundations of relative national power ... and the willingess of national leaders to use that power. RUSSIA Clearly China and Russia had put aside their historic differences (border disputes in Central Asia) and had come together … for the single purpose of undercutting American international leadership – and the Western world looking to America for such leadership. Thus Russia's "President-for-Life" Putin was quick to join China in swinging to the support of any country finding itself in some form of contention with America or the West. And stupid moves by American leaders simplified that task greatly, as in the way Obama opened the door for Russia to come to the aid of Assad's Syria … and then Iran when Trump rejected Obama's treaty with Iran that had opened up Iranian oil sales to the West and Venezuela when Trump went up against Maduro. And to further cement the Chinese-Russian connection, Xi and Putin worked together to develop China's Maritime Silk Road connecting China's economy more closely with Europe by means of a direct trade route across the now open waters of the Arctic above Russia's northern Siberia. At the same time the two countries tied their economies more closely together by means of a Russian pipeline sending much-needed natural gas to China … and extensive cooperation in the development of the new 5G technology – and other modern infrastructure development. Then too, Russia's natural gas pipeline to Europe – and Germany's dependence on that Russian gas supply to run its own economy – was designed to put Russia in a very strong economic position in the Western economies, once so very dependent on American leadership. And all of this made the Russians more than glad to have Putin continue to govern their world. The 1990s experiment in democracy had been rather disastrous. And thus they were pleased to have Putin take the responsibility of self-government out of their hands and place that responsibility solely in his own hands. That was a political pattern more understandable to the Russians. Indeed, in a poll taken by the Levada Center4 in 2019, it was revealed that 70 percent of the Russians believed that Stalin played a completely or relatively positive role in the life of the country! In short, the clear majority of the Russian people wanted no further part of whatever it was that America or the European West had to offer as political Idealism (its "democracy"). 4FP Morning Brief (Foreign Policy), January 12, 2021. Puting and Assad working closely together (May 2018) - since the Obama fiasco needlessly alienating Assad in the days of the Arab Spring (2011) Putin and Xi recognizing that they have more in common rather than deep political differences in their desire to work together against an American-dominated world - June 2018 Likewise, Putin recognizing that he has much to gain in helping Maduro stay in power in Venezuela  (February 2020) THE WORLD OF ISLAM One of the great tragedies involving American leadership was the inability of its executive officers to understand the very complex cultural underlay of the various "nations" of the Middle East. These Middle Eastern states were societies highly divided by strongly opposing religious subcommunities – plus a huge division in their societies over this matter of what to do about the intruding Western cultural challenge. Bush and Obama somehow simply supposed that the Middle East was waiting anxiously to bring Western style democracy to their societies … not realizing that this matter was already throwing Middle Eastern societies into horrible turmoil. While certainly there were those hoping for just such cultural change to come their way, this small group of Middle Easterners were more than offset by an even bigger group of Middle Easterners very, very hostile to the West and its ways. Thus 9/11. Thus Iran's "Death to the Great Satan America." Thus ISIS and the new Muslim Caliphate in the war-torn zone of Western Iraq and Eastern Syria. Thus even the long-time American NATO ally Turkey, taking on a more traditional Muslim look. We have already noted that Obama finally made the shift away from trying to overthrow Muslim dictatorships … by at least attempting to improve relations with the Ayatollah's Iran. But with Trump coming to the White House, that nuclear-development agreement was put aside – Trump being quite certain that any country whose motto was "Death to America" was not one to be trusted … particularly with Iran also drawing ever-closer to America's major international opponents, China and Russia. Trump was certain that continuing to appease Iran with this or that diplomatic reward was not likely to back Iran away from its sense that in alliance with China and Russia, Iran had a much bigger game to play internationally. At the same time, Trump was of the mindset that it was time to back America out of its very expensive involvement in Middle Eastern affairs … at least in terms of American ground troops stationed here and there in the effort to support or oppose this or that regime. Thus it was that he made the decision to withdraw American troops from Syria … and then begin negotiations in anticipation of a similar American withdrawal from Afghanistan. In this he was willing to work with even the Afghan Taliban and Afghanistan's various tribal leaders … for a scheduled withdrawal as of May 2021 (Trump presuming that he would be reelected to a second term as U.S. president at that point). By this, Trump did not mean the withdrawal of American national interest in the Middle East … only a change in strategy. Indeed, in anticipation of his Syrian withdrawal, Trump ordered a brief but highly effective step up of an American air and ground offensive directed at the Islamic Caliphate … and brought the Caliphate to collapse with a massive American bombing in January of 2019. This did not end the Islamic spirit of jihadism. But it weakened it considerably with this demonstration of American resolve. Trump then worked to strengthen the American position in the Persian Gulf region … by beefing up America's naval presence there (and irritating the Iranians majorly), by selling arms to Saudi Arabia, and by leading Arab states of the region (Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates) to come to new diplomatic agreements with Israel … strong diplomatic moves that were largely ignored by the mostly very Liberal American press – which was in no mood to acknowledge any Trump political or diplomatic achievement. THE CHAOTIC 2020 AMERICAN NATIONAL ELECTIONS The Republicans again chose Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to be their candidates for the 2020 presidential race. And the Democrats chose the former Vice President and veteran DC politician Joe Biden to represent them in that race … an amazing choice considering the fact that Biden was only two years short of his 80th birthday. Biden then announced that he would be selecting a "woman of color" to be his running mate … a category rather than a particular individual being of greatest interest to him. He finally ended up selecting Kamala Harris, a U.S. Senator from California since 2017 and California Attorney General prior to that (2011-2017). Tragically, the pandemic would add to the very unusual way that the election was conducted. From the selection of the candidates to the actual voting, actual physical participation was greatly handicapped by the new public participation restrictions. Thus the conventions of both parties were conducted mostly through online participation … and the vote itself in November was done heavily by means of mail-in ballots. But that in itself would become a matter of great political debate … as the Republicans complained that mail-in voting easily led to fraud (no way to check to see who actually sent in the ballot or what actually happened to the ballots once sent out). The Democrats took the position that this made voting much easier – and more just … especially since it was well-known that the voters who did not bother to come out to vote at the local polling stations tended to be Democrats. 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. But Trump would not follow the long-standing tradition of graciously accepting the electoral verdict … but immediately went to a counterattack, claiming (without any specific evidence) that Biden had won the election strictly through voter fraud. And he would not back down from that position, even after Trump's Attorney General William Barr announced that an extensive FBI investigation into the matter found no evidence supporting the idea that Biden had won through widespread fraud. But still, Trump would not let up but did what he could to throw enough state elections into question (most notably in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania) in his effort to get the electoral vote to go in his favor. Nonetheless, on December 14th the Electoral College was called on to decide the vote … confirming Biden as the winner of the national election. Then when on January 6th, Congress convened to give official authorization to the election and its results, Trump simultaneously called for a gathering in front of the White House … where he continued to complain about the fraudulent nature of the election – and then directed this massive crowd to head over to Capitol Hill to protest the election. This they did … in the process going crazy with their protest spirit, even invading the Capital Building itself – and sending the assembled legislators scrambling for safety. In all this mayhem, 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. Once again, demands for the impeachment of Trump resulted (the third such effort) … and indeed on the 13th of the month the House successfully voted exactly that. But the 2/3rds requirement in the Senate for an actual conviction failed, with 57 Senators (including 7 Republicans) voting to convict and 43 Senators (all Republicans) voting to acquit. And Inauguration Day (January 20th) then followed … with Trump refusing to participate in the formal installation of the new president. But private-citizen Trump would not simply slip off into quiet presidential retirement … for he himself had added considerably to the resolve of his political adversaries (enemies actually at this point) to put him behind bars as a common criminal.   The vote goes in favor of Biden in the 2000 national elections ... disputed by Trump, who claims that massive fraud was involved in Biden's victory On January 6, 2021, the members of the House of Representatives gathered to certify the electoral college vote. That same day, Trump decided to hold a rally at the White House in protest of the "fraudulent" elections ... and then called on his supporters to march on Capitol Hill to protest the day's "illegal" action. This they did ... failing to merely gather in front of the Capitol Building but choosing instead to invade it ... seemingly typical of the way protests had been conducted lately. In the process, Representative stopped the vote and went into hiding The National Guard was eventually called out to help the Capitol police In the melee, one protester was shot, numerous people wounded including a policeman who later died of his wounds and others died of medical conditions that could not be attended to. It was a terrible show of a president leaving office. And it would, of course, become grounds for a new impeachment effort ... voted on by Pelosi's House on January 13th, 232-197 after a 2-day hearing And thus it was that Trump ended his presidency ... refusing to attend Biden's inauguration on January 20th However, action against Trump would continue ... even with America under a new president. This would be led by Congress's House Select Committee (created in July of 2021) charged to investigate the January 6th events ... in the effort to come up with criminal charges against Trump (fraud, criminal conspiracy). The House Committee is made up of 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans. One of the Republicans is Liz Cheney ... who clearly wants to see Trump put away ... and the other is Adam Kinzinger ... the only two Republicans willing to serve on the committee. Go on to the next section:  Biden and the World   Miles H. Hodges