Commentary Despite the problems, this was a pretty good year for California. Here’s a review. Surviving COVID. January 2021 began with the continued resurgence of COVID-19, mainly the Delta Variant. It soared to more than 100,000 new cases a day in the state, before dropping quickly in March. Fall saw a smaller rise in cases. Yours truly got a mild case in mid-November. Another surge is occurring now, but of the Omicron Variant, which is much more contagious, but seems to be milder. The doom and gloom that descended on the country in early 2020 lifted in mid-2021 and does not seem to be returning, despite the Omicron scare. Economic resurgence. The state’s economy roared back with a massive recovery, led as usual in recent decades by Silicon Valley. The top companies in the world by market capitalization are: Apple, $2.9 trillion. Microsoft (big presence in Silicon Valley), $2.7 trillion. …