Events Aplenty: 2020

There is a word we use in legal briefing to denote a case or statute or other document that is cited so often throughout the brief that it would be too cumbersome to list in the table of authorities all the pages on which it appears: passim.  This word aptly describes the many disastrous events that repeated themselves so often throughout this tumultuous year that it would take up an inordinate amount of space to list every occurrence below.  For example:

Draconian responses to the coronavirus...........passim

Assaults on President Trump............................passim

Assaults on representative government............passim

Violent assaults on individual persons.............passim

Media whipping up panic.................................passim

Economic consequences of the coronavirus....passim

Authorities showing themselves tyrants..........passim

Church leaders colluding with tyrants.............passim

Constitutional rights trampled.........................passim

Crass stupidity prevailing................................passim

As always, I have used Wikipedia to refresh my recollection, and focused on those items which were of particular note to me.  So, if this Year in Review smacks of parochialism...oh well.

January

2: U.S. forces kill a high-ranking Iranian general in an air strike, in retaliation for attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
7: CNN settles with Nicholas Sandmann, one of the Covington Catholic school kids dragged through the mud over being confronted by Nathan Phillips in front of the Lincoln Memorial in January of 2019, who sued it and other news organizations for defamation.
8: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, “step back” as senior members of the Royal Family.
16: Beginning of the bogus impeachment trial of President Trump.
22: The Oakland Raiders officially relocate to Las Vegas.
26: A helicopter crash kills Kobe Bryant, his teenaged daughter Gianna, and seven other people.
27: 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
31: Three and a half years after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, Brexit is finally accomplished.

Deaths: Mary Higgins Clark; Fred Silverman; Marj Dusay; Kobe Bryant; Jim Lehrer; John Karlen; Terry Jones (Monty Python); Christopher Tolkien; Sir Roger Scruton; Stan Kirsch (Highlander).

February

2: An Islamic terrorist attacked two people on Streatham High Road in London with a machete before being shot dead by police.
3: Rush Limbaugh announces that he has stage 4 lung cancer.
4: President Trump awards Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the State of the Union address.  A butt-hurt Nancy Pelosi tears up her copy of the address.
5: President Trump is acquitted of the two bogus articles of impeachment against him.
12: Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation on the Amazon Synod fails to deliver the goods to modernist clerics pushing for married priests and women deacons.
18: President Trump pardons former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

20: Beginning of a major stock market crash, from which the coronavirus panic served to divert attention.
24: Sexual predator and all-around creep Harvey Weinstein is convicted of rape in New York.
26: The city of San Francisco declares a public emergency over coronavirus, before ever there has been a reported case there.  Also: murder spree, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: a fired employee opens fire at the Molson Coors brewery in Milwaukee, killing 5 before turning the gun on himself.
29: The first coronavirus death in the United States.

Deaths: Bill Britten (Bozo the Clown); Kirk Douglas; Orson Bean; Robert Conrad; Joseph Shabalala (Ladysmith Black Mambazo); Kellye Nakahara; Ja'Net DuBois; Hosni Mubarak.

March

1: During the month of March, jurisdictions all over the country begin shutdowns and stay-at-home orders and endless states of emergency.

2: An outbreak of 13 tornadoes in Tennessee kills 25 people.  Also: MSNBC host Chris Matthews is abruptly removed for complimenting women on their appearance and comparing Crazy Bernie Sanders' campaign to the Nazi invasion of France.
5: After a fourteen-year restoration, Egypt re-opens the stepped Pyramid of Djoser.
8: The Italian Bishops' Conference suspends all public Masses due to the coronavirus. Before long, all the world’s bishops will follow suit.

13: President Trump declares a state of emergency over the coronavirus.  Also: Shooting death of Breonna Taylor during police execution of a warrant.

18: A magnitude 5.7 earthquake hits Salt Lake City, Utah.

23: Colorado abolishes capital punishment.

27: Pope Francis gives a special Urbi et Orbi blessing in an empty St. Peter’s Square.  Also: discovery of Comet NEOWISE, which was visible to the naked eye through the month of July.

31: Public announcement of the Bishop of Boise’s directives to priests cracking down on traditional observances at parishes.  Also: A magnitude 6.5 earthquake strikes near Challis, Idaho, and is felt all over Idaho and into neighboring states.

Deaths: James Otis; Barbara Martin (the Supremes); Max von Sydow; Johnny Yune; Lyle Waggoner; Kenny Rogers; Curly Neal (Harlem Globetrotters); Tomie de Paola; Bill Withers.

April

7: The High Court of Australia vacates George Cardinal Pell’s child sex abuse convictions.

8: Joe Biden becomes the presumptive Democrat nominee when Bernie Sanders suspends his presidential campaign.

11: Eruption of Anak Krakatoa in Indonesia, a remnant of the island of Krakatoa that was destroyed in an explosive eruption in 1883.

20: President Trump announces an executive order suspending immigration into the United States.

21: Due to the rona, the city council of Pamplona cancels the July festival of San Fermin, which includes the running of the bulls.

23: Facebook removes “pseudoscience” and “conspiracy theory” as options for targeted ads on its platform, allegedly in a bid to prevent misinformation about the rona.

Deaths: Ira Einhorn; Honor Blackman; Linda Tripp; Danny Goldman; Kenny Young; Brian Dennehy.

May

7: The Department of Justice drops its prosecution of Gen. Michael Flynn for allegedly lying to the FBI; the presiding judge tries to keep the case alive notwithstanding the government’s unwillingness to press the charges. 

15: Amid the coronapanic shutdowns, J.C. Penney files for bankruptcy.  Also: The state of Nevada is hit with a magnitude 6.5 earthquake, the largest since 1954.

17: NASCAR becomes the first major sports enterprise in the U.S. to resume events since the coronapanic began.

21: The University of California system begins phasing out the use of SAT and ACT scores in making admissions determinations.

25: Death of George Floyd while being restrained by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Beginning of nationwide rioting.

28: Cancellation of the Boston Marathon due to the rona.

29: President Trump takes the United States out of the World Health Organization.

Deaths: Little Richard; Jerry Stiller; Rolf Hochhuth (author of The Deputy, the play that calumniated Pope Pius XII); Fred Willard; Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell on Leave It to Beaver); Richard Herd.

June

3: Murder by rioters of David Dorn, retired police chief, while he was protecting a pawn shop from looting.

4: The idiot governor of Virginia orders the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond.

7: The Minneapolis city council passes a resolution to abolish the city police department.

15: The U.S. Supreme Court interprets the 1964 Civil Rights Act as including sexual orientation and gender identity.

23: NASCAR determines the infamous Bubba Wallace “noose” is just a garage door pull that had been in place for many months.

28: The Mississippi legislature votes to remove the Confederate battle flag from its state flag.

Deaths: William Sessions; Tariq Aziz; Dame Vera Lynn; Sir Ian Holm (Bilbo in The Lord of the Rings); Joel Schumacher; Julian Curry (Claude Erskine-Browne in Rumpole of the Bailey); Johnny Mandel; Carl Reiner.

July

2: Arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, girlfriend of the slimy Jeffrey Epstein, on charges relating to aiding and abetting his sexual predations.

4: Black Lives Matters thugs tear down a statue of Christopher Columbus in Baltimore, Maryland and cast it into the harbor.  Two days later, private citizens hired a dive team to rescue the statue.

8: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of the Little Sisters of the Poor in their battle against the Obamacare contraception mandate.

10: Turkey turns Hagia Sophia, which started out as a church was later turned into a mosque, and was until this date a museum, back into a mosque.

11: The historic Mission San Gabriel near Los Angeles is damaged by fire.

13: The Washington Redskins announce they are going to drop the name “Redskins,” without having first come up with a substitute.  Ridicule abounds.

18: A fire, apparently arson, destroys the 400-year-old organ in the cathedral in Nantes, France.

21: In a world where allegedly free societies are pressuring their citizens into wearing face muzzles, the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg bans Islamic face coverings for all school children in the state, on the grounds that the practice is incompatible with a free society.

22: The U.S. House of Representatives votes to purge Confederate statues, as well as a bust of Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney, from the Capitol.

31: The First Circuit Court of Appeals vacates the death sentence of Boston Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev and remands for a new sentencing.  Also: Beginning of the Apple Fire in California.

Deaths: Hugh Downs; Charlie Daniels; Mary Kay Letourneau; Kelly Preston; Mike Adams; Regis Philbin; Olivia de Havilland.

August

6: The city of Los Angeles announces that power and water will be shut off to properties hosting large parties.

9: North Carolina is hit by the biggest earthquake since 1916 near the town of Sparta.

11: Kamala Harris is chosen to be the Democrat party’s vice-presidential candidate.

13: Announcement of the normalization between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, in exchange for Israel suspending West Bank annexation plans.

21: Lori Laughlin and her husband are sentenced to five months’ imprisonment for their role in the scandal of elites employing fraud and corruption to get their kids into choice colleges.  Also: Serial killer Joseph De Angelo, the Golden State Killer, receives multiple consecutive fixed life sentences for 13 counts of first-degree murder.

23: Shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, touching off riots in that city.

25: 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhaus shoots three rioters, killing two, in Kenosha.  Video footage shows the rioters attacking him before he opened fire.

Deaths: Wilford Brimley; Brent Scowcroft; Trini Lopez; Jack Sherman (Red Hot Chili Peppers); Tom Seaver.

September

4: A report emerges that a young priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit discovered, via videotaped evidence, that he was not in fact a priest due to his never having been baptized.  The deacon who "baptized" him 30 years earlier messed with the form of the Sacrament, rendering it invalid.  The priest was validly baptized and had all the subsequent Sacraments, including Holy Orders, properly administered.

13: Two L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies, one a mother of a six-year-old, are shot while sitting in their patrol car in Compton. 

16: A second priest in the United States, in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, discovers that he is also not really a priest due to his having been invalidly baptized.  He too properly receives all the Sacraments.

18: Death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

27: Publication of the New York Times’ claim that Donald Trump only paid $750.00 in taxes in 2016 and 2017.

Deaths: Kevin Dobson; Diana Rigg; Ed Bearss; Helen Reddy.

October

2: President Trump announces that he and the First Lady are positive for coronavirus. 

8: 13 men are charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

9: Vermont legalizes recreational marijuana.  Also: the second presidential debate is cancelled after President Trump refuses to engage in a “virtual” debate.

12: The Michigan Supreme Court puts the kibosh on coronavirus measures by Governor Whitmer.

13: Scientists determine that mountains on the planet Pluto that are apparently covered with snow are actually covered with methane frost directly condensed from the atmosphere.

19: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake strikes the Alaska Penninsula.

21: Pope Francis apparently comes out in favor of civil unions for same-sex couples.

25: Pope Francis announces the forthcoming elevation of the extremely liberal +Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C. to the college of cardinals.

26: Confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court.

29: Islamic terrorist attack at Notre Dame de Nice in Nice, France, in which three people are murdered.

Deaths: Margaret Nolan; Johnny Nash; Eddie Van Halen; Rhonda Fleming; Jerry Jeff Walker (“Mr. Bojangles”); Sean Connery.

November

3: The Election, in which news outlets, including Fox News, drop any pretense at fairness, balance, objectivity and letting their audiences decide what the truth is based on the facts. 

7: In an attempt to make news rather than report on it, the news networks call the election for Biden/Harris, despite Trump campaign challenges and widespread evidence of voter fraud in key states.

9: The Trump campaign files electoral fraud lawsuits in key battlegrounds states.

12: Israel begins the process of legalizing weed.

14: Huge crowds turn out in D.C. to protest the attempted theft of the election from Donald Trump.

18: Three Republicans in the Michigan House of Representatives introduce a resolution calling for the impeachment of Governor Whitmer over her pandemic measures.

25: The U.S. Supreme Court puts a check on Governor Cuomo's restrictions on religious observances in New York State.  Also:  President Trump pardons Gen. Michael Flynn.

Deaths: David Prowse (the guy in the actual Darth Vader costume); Abby Dalton; David Dinkins; Alex Trebek; Norm Crosby; Geoffrey Palmer; Elsa Raven (the "Save the clock tower!" lady in Back to the Future).

December

4: The U.S. House of Representatives, sensing the need to keep the restless plebes in bread and circuses, votes to legalize weed.

11: The Supreme Court rejects Texas v. Pennsylvania.  Also: Boko Haram kidnaps hundreds of boys from a boys’ secondary school in Kankara, Nigeria.

13: The Cleveland Indians announce they will be changing their name.

14: The Electoral College elects Biden.  Republican electors also show up to vote for Donald Trump, to preserve potential legal challenges.

15: Hungary bars same-sex couples from adopting children.

16: Spain decriminalized euthanasia.

18: Switzerland legalizes gay “marriage” and the changing of sex on official documents.

21: Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupts.  Also: The Great “Christmas Star” Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn.

25: Three people are injured in an RV explosion in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, which authorities believe was deliberate.  Strangely, the RV blared out a warning to evacuate for a period of time before it exploded.

29: Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard moves to Israel.

30: Argentina, the home country of Pope Francis, legalizes abortion to the frenzied acclaim of crowds of feminists.

Deaths: Walter Williams; Valery Giscard d’Estaing; Rafer Johnson; Chuck Yeager; Paul Sarbanes; David Lander (Squiggy); John Le Carre; Charley Pride; Ann Reinking; Barbara Windsor; Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett); Chad Stewart (Chad and Jeremy); Fr. Reginald Foster (renowned Latinist); Pierre Cardin; Dawn Wells.

I hope and pray 2021 turns out to be a better year.