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.)