Chapter 1

A belated welcome to 2025

Things have change drastically in the last five years. President Joe Biden died in 2023 and was of course succeed by Vice President Harris. Covid and related variants have circled the globe with devastating results.

The Republican Party has been hit hard with the total ruin of former President Trump. Full details have been exposed of the early days of the Covid problem and how his actions led to the pandemic. Then, in late 2021, suspected Chinese hackers hit his PACS, stealing almost 100%, leaving him functionally broke. His properties were already leveraged (or as we mere mortals say, mortgaged) to the max. Seeing the writing on the wall and fighting their own battles, his moneyed friends deserted him. As soon as the money was gone, his lawyers ran out the door so fast their tail wind created a paper storm. As his lawyers exited, all the various lawsuits proceeded at full speed. The states are still proceeding with their investigations. Trump actually spent a couple of weeks as an (involuntary) guest of the State of New York. Poor man, without his spray tan and fancy comb over, he looks just like an old man. Most likely the state charges will be subordinate to Federal charges related to the January 6th insurrection, collusion with Russia and incidents of fraud.

The Republican Party was also hurt by the loss of many members who swore off face masks, social distancing and vaccines. They have about as much strength as the Libertarian party. The liberals are split between the moderate Democrats the Socialist Democrats headed by AOC. Of course they team up against the conservatives. They campaign for each other if they don’t have a strong candidate of their own.

The Republican candidate for president did not fare at all well in the election, drawing just under 30% of the vote. No Republican candidate did much better in any election. The house already had Democrat majority and picked up another 35 seats. The Senate, formerly 50/50 split, wound up with 75 Democrats to 25 Republican. With a few exceptions, most states followed similar trends. As you probably expect, states like Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wyoming, and North Dakota held on to their Republican roots. Former Georgia Governor Brian Kemp lost to former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Although it turned mostly blue, a few Georgia rural districts held on to their Republican state representatives.

Kamala Harris and Vise President Stacy Abrams were easily reelected and a somewhat subdued inauguration was yesterday.

In a case of Darwinism combined with unintended consequences, 20 million have died from Covid or its effects over the last five years. That’s just American deaths. That is 6 % of the American population. Some would just not follow the masks and distancing guidelines. We lost a lot following two consecutive spring breaks. The first in 2021 was bad enough with thousands of students partying in crowded areas spreading and picking up infections. They then took their new Covid infections back to their schools and families. That led to over 100,000 deaths in the next four months. Although Florida closed its beaches for spring break 2022, too many partiers (not all were students) went on spring break all along the gulf coast. Unfortunately, the area was rife with ocean going ship traffic and foreign sailors. The 2022 partiers returned home and to school with several new and more virulent and fatal strains of Covid. These newer strains were not contained by existing vaccines and led to massive waves of new infections and deaths. Large cities with denser population centers were hit harder than other areas. The massive die off of infected patients led to immediate cremation. No private or family services. The victims were positively identified and photographed in their deathbeds then straight to the crematorium. (Families were able to purchase edited photos with their loved ones appearing to have been made up and hair done, funeral home style.) The spread did not slowdown until people took renewed steps to quarantine. Cities and areas without the new strains closed their borders to travelers, much like Europe during the Black Death Plagues. The Covid deaths finally slowed by the end of 2023 and almost ended by the summer of 2024.