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.)