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.)