A historic day

Yesterday, 4 days of counting after the US Presidential election, the Biden-Harris ticket was declared the winner with more than 270 electoral college votes and a 4 million count advantage of the popular vote. With the win in Pennsylvania, the Keystone State where I grew up, Joe Biden became President-Elect, the oldest ever at 77, the same age as my brother. Kamala Harris became the first woman and the first woman of colour to become Vice President-Elect. As the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India and married to a Jewish man becoming a stepmom to his children, she broke all kinds of ceilings. Kamala is as all-American as it gets. 

This will be an unusual Presidency, of course after all the court challenges Trump is mounting. We have a President-Elect who tried to run twice and third time was lucky. We have a majority in the house but not in the Senate, so there will be obstacles. Unless of course, the run-off in Georgia flips two seats -- or at least one to cause a tie between Republican and Democratic seats, because then Kamala will have the tiebreaker vote. Personally, I'd quite like the latter outcome.

Trump had meltdowns on Twitter as expected and Twitter vowed to treat him like any normal human being if he lost. Well, he has lost and they've been not just flagging his tweets, they've been suppressing them. Cool. Thank you, Twitter. But the second-best moment of the election was that Rudy Guiliani held a press conference at the Four Seasons Landscaping company instead of the Four Seasons Hotel in Philly. He stood in a parking lot between a sex toys shop and a crematorium. The internet has had a field day with that one. And while he was talking about the lawsuits being prepared, the Biden-Harris win was announced. He asked who announced it and the reporters responded, "They all did!" Sweet.

Jill Biden is expecting to continue teaching in college so she will become Professor FLOTUS. Of course, she already has experience as Second Lady of the US. Douglas Emhoff is the husband of U.S. Senator and vice president-elect Kamala Harris and a successful litigation attorney. He is set to become the first Second Gentleman of the United States. He will be the first Jewish person in US history to be married to a President or Vice President. He has said he will take a leave of absence from the legal firm of which he is a partner. He could have interesting conflicts.

Things are getting complicated in two-career families who hold elected office. Michelle Obama must have found it extremely difficult to give up her career for 8+ years. 

We have a divided country, a soaring pandemic, historic unemployment, a delicately balanced economy, and systemic racism -- can these people heal a country in turmoil? It certainly finally feels like someone is going to try. 

I am grateful for the lack of rioting and peaceful celebrations in the interim. I just feel so relieved that we aren't going to have to endure another 4 years of trumpism. He's fired!  

May life be interesting. 

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Sadly, yesterday was also the day that the global confirmed cases of coronavirus infection topped 50 million while America soared to 9.9 million ahead of most third world countries. God help us all.