Pandemic, Week 37 (Thanksgiving)

This week Trump pardoned turkeys Corn and Cob, as well as his former national security advisor, General Michael Flynn, who had previously pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Michigan certified their election results. The GSA finally acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden's win and allowed the formal transition process to begin. Biden announced his national security team, including Anthony Blinken for Secretary of State, Alejandro Mayorkas for Secretary of Homeland Security, Avril Haines for National Intelligence Director, Jake Sullivan for National Security Advisor, Linda Thomas-Greenfield for U.N. Ambassador, and John Kerry for Presidential Envoy for Climate. Iran's top nuclear scientist was killed in an ambush outside of Tehran. Eric Clapton and Van Morrison have teamed up to record an anti-lockdown song. A 10-foot metal monolith was found in the Utah desert.

The world hit 62.6 million cases of COVID-19 and 1.5 million deaths this week while the U.S. reached 13.5 million cases and 272,000 deaths. The University of Oxford's released news of its COVID vaccine, who's 70 percent average effective rate was lower than both Pfizer and Moderna, but also unlike them is stable at refrigerator temperatures, and doesn't need to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius.

We continued our visit with Grandpa and Grandma Z, eschewing everyone else as the COVID rate in Iowa got even more intense. The kids attended school, we worked and Grandma Z started prepping for a scaled down Thanksgiving – which in Zimmerman terms means just two pies (one of which was very tired), four dozen rolls, and only a twelve pound turkey (without the side of ham). There was snow, and puzzling and even an afternoon walk through mud in order to see the Buda close up. The day itself included a lovely walk at the pond, a delicious meal, turkey cookie painting, and a post-dinner "Zoomerman" (complete with a performance of Simple Gifts by Owen and Nora). The festivities were immediately followed by Allen and I furiously packing everything so that we could leave at 5:30 am the next morning to pick up Grandpa Fawcett – because nothing says, "Happy Birthday, Grandpa" like a 14-hour drive back to DC.

The drive itself was uneventful and we arrived in DC around 8:30 pm Friday night. We quickly crashed and then spent the next day unpacking, doing laundry, and looking into scheduling COVID tests...

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 36 (Iowa, Redux)

This week, Trump continued to be unsuccessful in his legal claims of election fraud (his current record is 1 out of 30 cases, and the lone victory was later overturned by the state Supreme Court), primarily because his lawyers have admitted under oath that they have no proof fraud occurred in the election. Trump has since pivoted, inspired by the initial refusal of republicans on the Wayne County Board of Canvassers to certify ballots from Detroit, he invited Michigan GOP officials to the White House to discuss certification. The next morning, the RNC Chair and the Michigan GOP Chair issued a joint statement requesting the state board delay certification for 14 days in order to conduct a full audit, which would violate Michigan law. Meanwhile, Georgia, after a statewide recount, certified that Joe Biden won. Despite being thwarted in his transition by GSA refusing to release funds and access, President-Elect Biden  met virtually with a bipartisan group of governors to discuss how to support states during the Pandemic. Democrats were joined by two republicans to block gold-standard enthusiast's Judy Shelton's appointment to the Federal Reserve. Indian soldiers claim they were attacked by Chinese troops using microwave-based weapons. Nicaragua was struck by its second hurricane this month. Trump participated in the opening session of the G-20 Summit, but skipped the session on COVID-19 in order to play golf. Michael B. Jordan was voted People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.

The world hit 59.4 million COVID-19 cases worldwide and 1.4 million deaths. The U.S. reached 12.5 millions cases and 262,000 deaths. France was the first European country to top 2 million cases. Donald Trump Jr, Senator Chuck Grassley, and Senator Rick Scott have all tested positive. In addition, Georgia Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Purdue, who are both facing runoff elections which will decide control of the Senate, were exposed by Rick Scott at a maskless, indoor campaign rally -- Loeffler has tested positive and both are supposed to quarantine in lieu of campaigning for the January runoff. Meanwhile, Dolly Parton's $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University for COVID research helped to develop the Moderna vaccine, which studies show reduces the risk of COVID infection by 94.5 percent. Dr. Anthony Fauci said that front-line health workers are expected to receive initial doses of Covid vaccines in late December/early January with vaccines more widely available in April.

We made it to Iowa last Saturday night, after a 13.25 hour drive. We've been a little anxious to visit Iowa, both due to its recent spike in COVID cases and the family divisions the election's revealed, but we needed to retrieve Grandpa Fawcett (and wanted to check on Grandpa and Grandma Z) and so made the trip. We've mostly laid low, but did make it out to the pond a couple of times for some socially distant meetings with Leanna and family. Otherwise, the kids are managing school from Grandpa and Grandma's (finally someone is able to utilize the country school desk Grandma Z purchased so long ago). We remembered Owen's concert attire so he could record Uptown Funk for the joint collaboration between Duke Ellington and the Eclectic Music String Ensemble (ESME). We caught the Schaumburg Park's Department virtual production of Willy Wonka, Jr starring Sam and Erin. We baked and did puzzles. And Allen was even able to participate in a Stanford symposium on climate change policy in California with special guest, Former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who told attendees, "We need to terminate pollution!"

Which Allen is totally planning to do, come January 21, 2021.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 35 (A Less than Peaceful Transition)

The Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was fired on Monday leading to the resignation of his chief of staff, the Under Secretary for Intelligence and Security and the Acting Under Secretary for Defense Policy. Leaders of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, and South Korea congratulated Joe Biden on his win. However, GSA refuses to recognize Biden as the winner and administer the Presidential Transition Act, which would release funds for the transition and allow transition teams to meet with agencies for planning purposes. Attorney General Bill Barr issued a memo allowing prosecutors to investigate voter fraud claims which prompted the Justice Department's election crimes chief to resign. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated in a press conference that, "There will be a smooth transition to the second Trump administration." Thousands of Trump supporters, including members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and other extremist groups, descended on the capitol for multiple marches on Saturday which ended in skirmishes that evening with count-protesters and at least one stabbing. The Supreme Court heard arguments on the Affordable Care Act and whether it should be vacated. Justice Alito addressed the Federalist Society and complained about abortion, same-sex marriage, COVID restrictions, and the persecution of conservatives. Jeopardy host Alex Trebek died.

The week the world recorded 54.3 million Covid-19 cases and 1.3 million deaths. The U.S. hit 11.2 million cases and 251,000 deaths after reporting more than 100,000 new cases for 12 consecutive days. More optimistically, Pfizer announced a 90 percent success rate in the third phase of their vaccine trial and clarified, after the White House announced that the vaccine was part of the public-private partnership, that they had not accepted any public funds.

We celebrated Biden's win with a Friends outing to the Underground Railroad Experience Trail followed by a socially distant lunch with the Telfair-Chas and Mom Mom in Olney, MD. Owen spent hours submitting late Algebra 2 assignments as term one of the 2020-21 school year ended. Nora filmed her DCYOP concert video and planned her science fair project. Allen participated in the annual Stanford/Snowmass climate change conference, which this year focused on Climate Change in a World of Tradeoffs and Synergies. He was also interviewed for a documentary on climate change by our friend Mia and her eighth grade class.

And then we drove to Iowa...

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 34 (We Have a Winner!)

This week, Joe Biden was elected President of the United States. Granted, the election wasn't called by most networks until Saturday, November 7th, Trump has refused to concede and is still filing lawsuits to protest the results, but Joe Biden is the President-elect of the United States and addressed the nation as such Saturday evening, along with Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris. (The Trump campaign also addressed the country on Saturday, from the parking lot of Four Seasons Total Landscaping next to an adult bookstore and cremation center. It didn't have quite the same effect.)

The election was held on Tuesday, November 3rd and the states of Florida, Ohio and Texas were called early that evening for Trump.  However, because several republican controlled legislations mandated that mail-in ballots couldn't be processed until after polls closed, and because the Pandemic resulted in a massive increase in mail-in ballots, key swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could not be called on election night. On Wednesday, the U.S. officially left the Paris Climate Agreement and Donald Trump filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan to halt the count of remaining votes (he was leading at the time) while simultaneously demanding counting continue in Arizona and Nevada (he was behind at the time).  This resulted in Trump supporters shouting either "Stop the count!" or "Count that vote!" depending on their location (and even tried to force their way inside the counting center in Detroit). Both Michigan and Wisconsin were called for Biden Wednesday afternoon.

On Thursday, Former Presidential Advisor Steve Bannon was permanently suspended from Twitter after suggesting Dr. Anthony Fauci and Christopher Wray be beheaded as a warning to bureaucrats. Trump later addressed the nation, but most news stations cut away when Trump falsely claimed to have won the election according to "legal votes." By Friday, Biden overtook Trump in the vote tally for Georgia while the delay in reporting results from Nevada culminated in a series of memes. Armed men from Virginia were arrested near the Philadelphia vote counting location.

But on Saturday morning, Pennsylvania and Nevada were both called for Joe Biden, clinching his Electoral College victory (he's already up over 4 million in the popular vote) and making him President-elect. There was much rejoicing in the streets.

Meanwhile, the world hit 50.2 million COVID-19 cases and 1.3 million deaths. The U.S. reported over 100,000 new cases in single day twice this week, reaching a total of 10.2 million cases and 243,000 deaths. Denmark ordered the mass extermination of farmed minks owing to fears of a coronavirus mutation spreading to humans.

We largely just tried to hold it together this week. We ate lots of comfort food, did yoga, spent election night watching the Mandalorian instead of cable news, and went to bed without seeing results thanks to some Advil PM. The next morning was a bit disheartening, but as the news became more promising over the course of the week, we allowed ourselves to relax a bit, even celebrating our friend Steve's birthday on Friday night with Portillos. On Saturday, after Biden's win was announced, Allen and I briefly stood outside and listened to the neighborhood's cheers. Later, Allen biked down to Black Lives Matter Plaza by the White House, where a massive celebration was underway.

And then we met up with Mom Mom, Grandpa Don and Katherine for dinner and drinks followed by a viewing of our new President and Vice President (the first female to bear that title) addressing the nation. It was a really good way to end the week.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 33 (Tricks and Tweeting)

On Tuesday, the L.A. Dodgers won the World Series after a game six victory, during which third baseman Justin Turner was pulled in the eighth inning for testing positive for COVID (though he returned to the field for the celebration, despite MLB requesting he isolate, and now the entire team is self-quarantining). Amy Coney Barrett was sworn into the Supreme Court by Justice Clarence Thomas at another White House ceremony. Protests broke out in Philadelphia after police killed a man with a knife after family members had called police regarding a mental health crisis and domestic dispute. Keith Ranier, leaders of the cult NXIVM, was sentenced to 120 years for sex trafficking. Republicans in Wisconsin and Minnesota have successfully sued to reduce the number of days an absentee ballot can be counted if received after the election, despite what is printed on the ballot. A Biden campaign rally in Texas was cancelled due to security concerns after a "Trump Train" of trucks attempted to force the campaign bus off the highway. A North Carolina voter rally ended with police pepper spraying participants. Canada is looking to attract 401,000 new permanent residents next year to spur their economic recovery. The first nest of murder hornets has been destroyed.

This week the world hit a total of 46.5 million COVID cases and 1.2 million deaths. The U.S. hit 9.4 million case and 236,000 deaths. A Stanford University study estimates that 18 Trump rallies held between June and September have been responsible for 30,000 COVID cases and 700 deaths. The Trump campaign plans to hold 14 more rallies in the final days of the campaign. Trump's Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, told reporters that the administration was not going to control the pandemic. 

We started the week with a family dinner and concert followed by a lot of preparation for a less than traditional Halloween. While there was some trick-or-treating on the Hill, we instead opted to have a socially distant costume meet-up with some of Nora's friends and then head up to Katherine's for some "Candy Pong" (which Owen was disturbingly good at), dinner (where Allen, Lee and Don literally sucked the marrow out of life), puzzling, and general frivolity.

Before we await the fate of the world next week.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)