Another year, another recap of the year that's ending. Let's go!
Two years removed from his Presidency and still believing he won the 2020 election, Donald Trump is still making headlines whether we want him to or not. The House committee examining the events of January 6, 2021 trotted out witness after witness before handing its findings to the Justice Department, pointing the finger at Trump for encouraging the mob scene at the U.S. Capitol that day and recommending that Trump never again holds office. The FBI unearths evidence of classified documents scattered all over Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida that he wasn't supposed to possess now that he isn't President. Lawsuits involving him are clogging up the courts. And we are about to see the tax returns that Trump has been hiding for a long time. So what does he do? Why, announce his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, of course. You really think they're gonna convict the once and future(?) President of the United States?
Russia invades Ukraine, insisting that the land is theirs and has been since the Soviet Union was in existence. Even though the country is being bombed to hell, Ukrainans and their plucky leader Volodymyr Zelensky have surprised the world by hanging in there and going toe to toe against an obviously superior opponent. Worldwide sanctions aimed at Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin have so far resulted in Putin being hurt less than his own people. The next year will decide whether Ukraine emerges from the rubble victorious, or go under Russia's boot. So long as nobody gets nuked in the process.
The Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, to the surprise and shock of abortion rights supporters who had been covered by the law for nearly 50 years. Now, if you are a woman living in a state that restricts abortion, you are running scared, looking at options to get to the nearest state that still allows the procedure to be performed. Congress may or may not want to revisit that law so they could codify it. But they sure didn't waste time in the lame duck session making same-sex and interracial marriage legal, unless the Court finds a way around it.
The Court, now having a 6-3 conservative advantage, did throw a bone to the liberal/moderate minority with the addition of associate justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the bench. She replaced the retiring Stephen Breyer. It won't stop the complaints that the Court has been running amuck with unpopular rulings and less-than-civil behavior among some of the justices. But it's a start.
Democracy survived another round when voters went to the polls in November, voting out many of the charlatans who thought Trump should be President and losing the election would result in recounts and lawsuits. But some of those same folks were re-elected, thanks to gerrymandered districts. So the 118th Congress will be divided for the next two years, both by slim margins: Republicans controlling the House and Democrats hanging on to the Senate. This will result in President Joe Biden's policies getting less traction in Congress than they did when Democrats ran the show, and that seems to suit the GOP fine..
In Minnesota, Democratic Governor Tim Walz won a second term over Republican Scott Jensen. The DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) party had a great night, retaining all of the state offices and both houses of the Legislature.
COVID-19 remains a threat to the health and safety of the world, though it seems we've gotten a better handle on it than we used to with vaccines and prevention. It's vax deniers and others who don't think they should be wearing masks in public that's keeping the disease front and center with their lies and misinformation, resulting in millions of lives lost around the world. So it's still a good idea to be careful out there.
Queen Elizabeth II, who had been ruling Great Britain and its commonwealth for most of our lives (actually since 1952), died in September at age 96. She left behind King Charles III, who had been waiting for most of his life to assume the throne until he finally did at 73, and a bickering family that's the source of many a tabloid headline or gossipy TV special. Oh, and England has had three Prime Ministers in the span of a few weeks. Seems the new King isn't the only thing that needs saving in England.
Brittney Griner is back in the United States after spending several months in a Russian prison, traded to the U.S. government for an arms dealer. The pro basketball player made the mistake of trying to get her marijuana-based oil supplement past customs, for which she was accused of violating Russia's drug laws. The fact that this incident just happened to coincide with Putin's invasion of Ukraine was no coincidence. Griner might return to playing for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury this summer--if she's up to it, but she and other players will certainly think twice before going abroad to play basketball, even if the countries they play in pay much better than the WNBA ever could. That goes double if, like Griner, you're young, Black and LGTBQ.
Elon Musk is no longer the richest man in the world. He spent some of his cash on Twitter, the social media giant he's currently running into the ground by making it less friendly to those who don't espouse his right ring views or believe in anything but facts. Maybe Musk would be better off running an electric car company or giving rides in space to billionaires--which is what he had done before. He's probably thinking that over right now.
We all learned about the term sportswashing during the past year. It's when repressive governments with questionable human rights records host major sporting events aimed to make themselves look good in front of the world, while its propaganda guilts everyone watching on TV. We've already had the Winter Olympics in China, soccer's World Cup in Qatar, and the Saudi Arabia -funded LIV pro golf tour. There's been a backlash over sportswashing, but who's gonna argue with the billions of dollars these countries spend on state-of-the-art facilities to impress organizations--possibly done on the backs of immigrant labor? Or the countries who try to get in the good political and economic graces of those who supply the oil or have nuclear weapons? It's a slippery slope.
Besides all the victims of mass shootings, natural disasters and wars around the world, here's a not-so-complete list of those you may have heard of who died this year.. Cue Sarah McLaughlin's "I Will Remember You":
Peter Bogdanovich, Sidney Poitier, Bob Saget, Meat Loaf, Louie Anderson, William Hurt, Taylor Hawkins, Estelle Harris, Bobby Rydell, Gilbert Gottfried, Naomi Judd, Mickey Gilley, Vangelis, Ray Liotta, Mark Shields, James Caan, Claes Oldenburg, Paul Sorvino, Tony Dow, Olivia Newton-John, Anne Heche, Ramsey Lewis, Jean-Luc Godard, Coolio, Sacheen Littlefeather, Loretta Lynn, Angela Lansbury, Leslie Jordan, Jerry Lee Lewis, Gallagher, Irene Cara, Christine McVie, Kirstie Alley, Diane McBain, Ian Tyson, Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Russell, Madeleine Albright, Ivana Trump, Vin Scully, Kathy Whitworth, Thom Bell, Franco Harris, Stuart Margolin, Curt Simmons, Mike Leach, Paul Silas, Nick Bolliteri, Gaylord Perry, John Y. Brown, Robert Clary, Fred Hickman, Ray Guy, Vince Dooley, Bruce Sutter, Art Laboe, Anita Kerr, Judy Tenuta, Bill Plante, Louise Fletcher, Maury Wills, Ken Starr, Bernard Shaw, Anne Garrels, Moon Landreau, Earnie Shavers, Barbara Ehrenreich, Len Dawson, Tom Weiskopf, Pete Carril, Nicholas Evans, Judith Durham, Lamont Dozier, David McCullough, Clu Gulager, Pat Carroll, Nichelle Nicholas, Mary Alice, Bob Rafelson, Larry Storch, Marlin Briscoe, Hugh McElhenny, Ken Bode, Jim Seals, Marion Barber III, Ronnie Hawkins, Roger Angell, Gino Cappelletti, Bob Lanier, Ron Galella, David Birney, Jim Hartz, Orrin Hatch, Guy Lafluer, Daryle Lamonica, Robert Morse, Liz Sheridan, Mike Bossy, Rayfield Wright, Nehemiah Persoff, Tommy Davis, Gene Shue, John Clayton, Jean Potvin, Timmy Thomas, Johnny Grier, Tim Considine, Alan Ladd Jr., Sally Kellerman, Emile Francis, Ian McDonald, P.J. O'Rourke, Ivan Reitman, Bill Fitch, Yvette Mimieux, Joe B. Hall, Clyde Bellecourt, Ronnie Spector, Don Maynard, Dwayne Hickman, Lani Guinier, Dan Reeves, Stephen Boss. Pele, Barbara Walters, Pope Benedict XVI.
Time to turn the page. See you in 2023.
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