Inauguration Day 2021: Celebrate!
Not much content going into this post apart from an observation of key landmarks:
— First woman vice president
— First Black and Asian vice president
— First Jewish Second Spouse
— First Catholic president sworn in by a Catholic Chief Justice
— First cabinet in which there is a greater percentage of Black appointees compared to percentage of Black population
— Oldest president sworn into office
— First Democratic control of Senate since 2011
President Biden will sign executive orders today which include returning to the Paris Agreement on climate change:
New: Here’s a breakdown of the 17 executive actions President Biden will sign this afternoon in the Oval. Many directly undo Trump’s touted accomplishments. @cbsnews pic.twitter.com/oQSVK5MYWr
— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) January 20, 2021
Vice President Harris will swear in Georgia’s new senators Jon Ossoff and Rafael Warnock, and her replacement for California, Alex Padilla.
Let’s celebrate the moral universe’s arc shifting toward justice again.
If you have a landmark you believe we should note, please share it in comments.
~ ~ ~
UPDATE-1 — 3:50 P.M. ET —
Biden has named new acting leadership in departments; this should counteract some of the hangers on left behind by the Trump administration until more permanent personnel changes can be made including the approval of Biden’s nominees.
Biden admin announces acting agency heads “to assist in the next phase of the transition of government,” per WH official. Nearly all are career civil servants who “will temporarily lead federal agencies while Cabinet nominees continue moving through the confirmation process.” pic.twitter.com/NznOUYH6OS
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) January 20, 2021
Hope network access and security clearance has been removed from a few folks whose status is questionable going forward. The cost to put them into special assignments would be much less than the cost of remediating a security threat.
Blown away by Ms. Amanda Gordon.
Her words matter.
YES! Wow!
Stacey Abrams just posted this:
https://twitter.com/staceyabrams/status/1351948067872894979
Amanda Gorman and Lin-Manuel Miranda conversation screenshot here:
https://twitter.com/stevemullis/status/1351961270141018116
She’s making John Lewis dance in heaven.
“i feel like Mike Pence might get honorary membership in the President’s club just for the two last weeks of work”
Really sticking my neck out here, saying “are you kidding?” to Dr. emptywheel, quoting from her twitter feed.
My emotional side agrees that he has stepped into the “presidential” vacancy. But, history, and motivation being the preservation of the reprehensible Republican party.
Perhaps I’m giddy after watching the inauguration of President Biden. (And the champagne I imbibed while watching.)
Empty chair is a better representative than Pence.
Touche’ Remember no more nice kitty. I am not unreasonable, but i have tried for years to make people see, what harm you do to the whole you are doing to yourself. Yeah, a somewhat quote from i believe Chief Seattle.
I don’t think of myself as a particularly emotional person, but my eyes welled up multiple times. Justice Sotomayor administering the oath to VP Harris. Biden’s appeal to the goodness in Americans. The stirring words of Amanda Gorman. Garth Brooks echoing Obama’s singing of Amazing Grace, then stopping to shake hands or hug leaders from both parties.
The whole thing really tugged on my heartstrings.
Lady Gaga isn’t my kind of musician but she did a fantastic job with that notorious demolisher of singers, The Star Spangled Banner.
Biden’s speech was really good. I finally read someone at 538 who laid out the options why Biden is talking about unity and picked the best possible one. He’s talking about unity because that is the most practical path, not because he is being a starry eyed dreamer.
The pseudo-savvy types in the political press are too cynical to propose that a Democrat might actually have a deft approach, and they want to set up a really stupid “hopes dashed” narrative when the first fight comes. It’s going to grind their gears if he doesn’t follow the story they’ve already written and they have to come back months later and give him some credit.
Aside from the Cabinet nominations (and I note Hawley is trying to question the credentials of the DHS pick) I think the real test is when Biden nominates some judges to the federal bench. I don’t think McConnell got them all filled.
When they try blocking, remind them of what they said four years ago: the President should get the people he wants.
I had heard OF Lady Gaga, but had never heard her singing until the Oscars in 2015. I heard this singer with a powerful, theatric voice and didn’t know who it was. It was when Julie Andrews came on and thanked “Lady Gaga” that I knew who it was.
I’m not surprised that she nailed Stars and Stripes Forever. She’s got the voice for it.
Guantanamo still plays a big part of my professional life so I read with some hope this email I received from a fellow Gitmo attorney:
From a recently-founded Washington politics newsletter called Punchbowl:
February: Restoring America’s Place in the World
Biden will sign an EO to direct agencies to “recruit and retain employees to confront 21st Century challenges, including through reskilling, professional development, and possible reserve corps to fill mission-critical gaps” … He will sign a “forever wars” executive order, which will initiate a “review of CT operations and options to [responsibly] reduce such operations; reinstates transparency measures on civilian casualties; reinstates the policy of closing GITMO; initiates a process to migrate substantial use of force operations to Title 10” … He will sign a memorandum to strengthen U.S. efforts to promote human rights of LGBTQ people overseas … He’ll hold an NSC meeting at the State Department.
Of course we had a similar promise by another president upon entering office several years ago but I still have a client there and hope dies last.
If this country were fewer moving parts, GITMO would have been closed already. But there have been too many obstructions from GOP members of Congress to states which have rejected providing resources as an alternative until all those detained have been released. Can only hope this is a higher, early priority this administration so it gets done.
OKay Ladies here”s my prayer;
Great Spirit
bring us all together
to heal our divides honestly.
Elvis has left the building.
Fat Elvis has left the building. :)
I texted exactly that to 6 friends at 12:00:30, then had to explain what that meant to my GF.
evils have left the building
goodbye, demoncracy
After recovering from the shock and depression of the presidential election four years ago, I comforted myself with the thought that the nation was strong enough to survive the worst that Trump could throw at it.
It was touch and go at times, but we made it. It is a very happy, hopeful day!
There are still fires to fight, but thankfully the arsonist in chief has had most sources of ignition taken away.
What a relief – good fucking riddance to the worst president ever, shortlisted for worst human ever.
I thought Biden’s speech hit the right tone and touched on many key points. I’m glad he pushed back pretty hard on lies and disinformation and assault on our democracy and institutions. Pence must have been squirming in his seat – although I do give him a scintilla of credit for doing the right thing in the end.
Super proud of our hometown gal Kamala Harris. I wasn’t a fan during the primaries, but she will be a good and historic VP. Our street in Berkeley had a small but festive gathering with thimbles full of champagne at 9:30 a.m. Got my loud cowbell out for that one.
(side note: As a non-follower of any religion I tend to cringe about how much of that is brought into these ceremonies; YMMV.)
Most of all we are just exhausted by the ordeal we have all been through, looking forward to some semblance of normalcy.
I’m not religious, but I find the contrast between Biden and Barr to be night and day, where one is about sincerity and aspiration and the other is about calculation and accusations.
I expect Pope Francis will offer a full embrace of Biden and his policies, and that is going to cause the Barr branch of the American Catholics to pass out from hyperventilation.
Although I agree RE Pope Francis, I’m not hopeful that the Barr branch of the RC church will do more than blink.
That branch will continue to push the shovels toward theocracy, compliments of a currently conservative SCOTUS, Pompeo’s obvious 2024 presidential aspirations, and Pence’s recent “good” behavior apparently aimed at self-rehabilitation.
The Barr branch of the Catholic church is not organized religion as much as it is criminal organization or fraternity.
Pope Francis is about aspiration and calculation. That is how he came to be the pope. He is a melding of Barr and Biden. He will embrace Biden policies that fit his aspirations (immigration) and disassociate from Biden policies that don’t fit his aspirations (abortion). He will calculate every bit along the way.
Pope Francis is his own man — most definitely not a melding of either Americans Biden or Barr. His beliefs are closer to Biden’s than Barr’s, and closer to liberation theology which annoys the fuck out of the fascists within the Catholic church like the Ratzinger faction. Barr is much closer to those fascists.
You’d also do well to read more about Francis’ sentiments about abortion because you clearly know jack.
http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html
Pope Francis’s encyclical on climate.
Biden’s actions are consistent with it.
Barr’s are not.
Thanks for that. Unsurprising to me that a Pope with a background in chemical engineering would understand the climate as part of a holistic system of which we are a part.
Unsure of the point you’re making re: Francis’ stand on abortion. (But then, I’m not sure about how to deconstruct the Vatican-speak in the second letter, below.)
In a Nov. 22 letter to group of eight women working in opposition to the Argentinian campaign to legalize abortion, Francis says the issue of abortion “…is not primarily a religious matter but a matter of human ethics, preceding any religious confession.”
“Is it fair,” he asks, “to eliminate a human life to resolve a problem? Is it fair to hire a hitman to resolve a problem?”
(That letter was transmitted to them via a member of the center-right opposition party Pro. An earlier letter from the eight women to Francis is worth looking at:
https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-americas/2020/11/pope-francis-weighs-in-on-argentinas-abortion-debate/)
And from a letter to Jose Maria “Padre Pepe” di Paola (SJ?) in December (another leading voice against the same campaign):
“For me, the deformation in the understanding of abortion is born mainly in considering it a religious issue.
“The issue of abortion is not essentially religious. It is a human problem prior to any religious option… The abortion issue must be addressed scientifically.”
n.b. In early November, Argentinian president Alberto Fernandez presented a bill to the Congress calling for “legal, safe and free” abortion.
Re-read this:
Think about the person who said this, a man with a strong background in science, who knows that most women who choose abortion have done so for reasons which have more to do with society’s refusal to provide adequate sex education and birth control; because of sinful economics which force women into hardship and deprivation; understanding pregnancy and birth come with mortal threats their inseminators never bear; and that some pregnancies born to fruition will result in horrific suffering which could be prevented in utero.
It’s not as simple as you think it is — Francis is not yielding to the fascist diktat that dogma written by men controlling women’s bodies is somehow an absolute.
seems like we’re both reading the same lines but one of us is reading far deeper and more optimistically into what they may signify, given the deeply recidivist trajectory of the church since vatican ii.
I would like to read into francis’ words the sentiments you find there…not yet, though. facta non verba.
Berkeley in the house and you want normalcy? ;D
Gorman was good. On point.
Berkeley gonna Bezerkely
Thank you Rayne.
Cried tears of joy. Going to “Celebrate Good Times” with a glass of delicious red wine.
“CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON” Kool &The Gang
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA0f7lkefww)
I poured a healthy glug of coffee liqueur into my java in celebration. Cheers!
https://youtu.be/i2FW1WJc0lg
Rayne – Cheers! Great song choice, “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now.”
Drinking and dancing – Perfect!
Very grateful for all the contributors on this site. You made the last few years not just a easier to bear, but also set an example for political and legal writers and analysts.
Your painstaking thoroughness, disciplined adherence to primary sources, and passionate defense of reality are an inspiration.
I am very grateful you’re here. :)
Thank you to all of you for being here with us!
Just to get under bmaz’s skin, I assume we now have the “all clear” to derogatorily deform 45’s name anyway we want.
tRump, Drumph, Truck Fump!
There, just had to get that out of my system. :-)
Lol!
And who’d have thought Joe Biden and Valentino Rossi had so much in common? 46 similarities!
Going the distance
I LOVE Cake !!!
Two old GOATs!
I had to look Rossi up – the last motorcycle racing guys I followed were Freddy Spencer & Kenny Roberts!
A throw back nickname for the lame duck president didn’t seem to catch on: Tricky Ducky
Ah well
bmaz, back atcha and everyone here, hosts and commenters.
Emptywheel’s commitment to truth has been a beacon of sanity in the last four years, and I’m profoundly grateful.
Thank you all.
Didn’t stack properly, in response to Dan_S
These guys got me through bush, now trump.
This group has been saving my sanity forever. I thought I was all alone until the day Google news actually linked to an article by EW back during bush.
The malignant 1776 Report rationalization for slavery that was released on Martin Luther King Day is now a 404 on the White House website.
Y.A.Y!!!
One wonders what other malignant US intelligence and foreign State initiatives of the Twitler regime are also “404ed”…
Yes, my grandkids got a patriotic education from Howard Zinn. They found the “Peoples’ History” a page turner!
Rayne, I got such a great positive vibe right now :) But my v conservative fam always drills me on this point, and black sheep catholic that I am, have never ever had any good answer back. Do know that we and modern science absolutely need to take this thing away, take this issue away from them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_AWjc9g0CI
Thanks for this, spare production brings weight and solemnity.
As I watched I felt the anxiety and stress I’ve been holding for 4 YEARS well up in my chest. I went for a run and feel a little better.
I know other people, like the children and their parents who were separated, have endured far worse, but I do feel traumatized to a degree. It’s going to take time to process.
Thanks to the EW community for providing a dose of sanity through it all. I’m only a sporadic commenter myself, but the comment section is *nearly* as valuable as the blog itself. A special thanks to the moderators who keep it that way.
I was “Worried” for four years.
Today’s ceremonies were very inspiring, so from now on I am “Hopeful”
To better days ahead!!
I am exhausted. But I am also buoyed up by the prospects for the future. I am also very grateful for the forum of truth and opinions and ideas here.
My daughter’s friend from college just posted this on Instagram:” I’ve been in Congress for three Wednesdays. The first, an insurrection, the second, an impeachment, and the third, an inauguration. Let’s hope next Wednesday is as inspiring as this one.”
Let’s hope she is right.
I should have said this is Sara Jacobs, 53rd District of California. She is 31.
She’s my representative. Her campaign ads were much like Biden’s message about unity, and I know she worked in the Obama administration.
It’s infuriating that I had two good Democratic candidate choices for my district, and one district over filled Duncan Hunter’s old seat with Darrell Issa, whose billboards proclaimed he was running as the Trump candidate.
Darrell Issa is poisonous and unencumbered by any intellect.
I’ll admit to being hopeful, even cautiously optimistic, but I’m just too jaded & cynical to cross the line to full celebration at the moment. Will wait & see how things go with the Biden Administration.
However, I am fully celebrating Trump’s exit and also ready to celebrate his (hopefully extremely consequence-filled) return to private life and the many lawsuits and investigations he is facing. Hurrah for schadenfreude!!
Speaking of lawsuits — ever since reading E. Jean Carroll’s account (This article appears in the June 24, 2019, issue of New York Magazine. / E. Jean Carroll: “Trump attacked me in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman.”) of Trump raping her — I thought, that reminds me of how birds mate. (On the farm observation of ducks and chickens and geese, etc.)
Read today in The New York Times it was wondrously written (description of dinosaur anatomy and behavior!).
For your consideration, Tricky Ducky:
…”Among modern animals with a cloaca, only birds have jettisoned the phallus as a sperm delivery system, opting instead for a form of fornication called a cloacal kiss, in which the male swipes his vent against the female’s while vigorously ejaculating.” …
Goodbye Tricky…
First Inauguration where regular people could not get within a mile of the Capitol to watch an historic occasion due to the threat of violent extremism. But I’m still feeling a lot more optimistic.
such a great day. and for those who enjoy a little inauguration day schadenfreude:
“Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Announces Sanctions on Pompeo and Others” https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/t1847554.shtml
Very enjoyable.
This was a start, but it should have included Trump and his spawn.
From north of the border, all my best wishes to my American friends. North America, and the world, need a stable, sane and engaged USA.
The messiness will continue as the last 4 years are addressed, but hopefully that can be grouped off to the side under “Clean Up in Aisle 3”.
Didn’t think I’d live long enough to see some of the things which happened to day. Oh, it was wonderful to see Kamal Harris sworn in. The whole swearing in ceremony was just a thing of joy to watch. All those firsts.
To have watched the Civil Rights Movement as a child. To have seen Obama become President, and now Harris as V.P. I realize I’ve lived a very long time and not just in years.
Got up at 8:30 a.m. on the west coast to watch this with yes, some booze in the coffee. It was a celebration. Congratulations to Americans.
Thank you to those who write and maintain this blog. It helped.
DEM MAJORITY!
Thank you STACEY ABRAMS!
Landmark:
https://twitter.com/Amy_Siskind/status/1352012415018348544
4:57 PM · Jan 20, 2021
WOW! Our Republic just gots its Banana’s revoked!
That feels good!
Ha, I celebrated by changing the sheets on my bed. I’m looking forward to loftier dreams and a brighter outlook. I am so grateful for all the brave people who stepped up to make this happen. And I am so proud of the work everyone has done and has yet to do. It feels good to be an American again!
Good idea—I should do that!
oh and for those of you who were wondering about the protests today BuzzFeed has this.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/state-capital-protests-inauguration-day?origin=web-hf
( i hope I am posting the link correctly)
Leaving this one for bmaz:
LOL
Yeah, she is a piece of work.
Been lurking here and reading a long while. I’d like to thank the contributors and some of the commenters for the clear-eyed discussions over the past few years. Reading the discourse here is a welcome reprieve from the court of public opinion.
Today’s events were heartening. Not much to add there.
What feels like a minor milestone for me in Harris isn’t all the firsts mentioned above. Those broken barriers are far more important than whatever affects me personally (although I’m more than interested in those barriers being shattered). I literally can’t imagine what this must feel like for women (I’ve asked friends and I literally can’t). However, I can honestly say I’m getting a small piece that feels like it’s for me. She’s one of very few Democratic leaders of my generation (Gen-X). It feels good to see this. I love it.
Hi there Elcajon64, welcome to Emptywheel, and please join in more often!
Thanks bmaz. I’ll pipe up when the convo turns to vintage Mercurys, guitars and punk rock. While I have worked in politics as a production manager for campaign collateral, and served on a school board a few terms, I always remember Eazy says, “Shut your motherfuckin mouth if you don’t know.”
Ha, well we do cars and music here. Don’t think we have really delved into guitars before, but I have a black Strat and a Fender produced acoustic.
Ha! As a drummer, I have a ton of guitars.
Anyway, thanks for the warm welcome. I’ll chime in if I have something to offer.
Heh. As a drummer of sorts I wouldn’t know what to do with a guitar. I do have a bass that I picked up at a garage sale – tooling around with that would be the extent of anything beyond percussion for me…
me & my custom electric uke shaped like a fender strat wave hi!
If it’s not been obvious, I have a few guitars (including a black MIJ super-Strat) and basses and amps. In the last month I picked up my first mandolin, and another amp. Then there’s the pedals …
Bob Mould’s latest is quite punkish, and pretty good.
I have a late 60’s ES335 and a 1970 Guild D-40… owned them both for over 40 years, and they’ve both been restrung so they’re lefties (restringing done a long time ago)…
Whoever did the work on the ES-335 did a really nice job… they stripped the face to the natural walnut and plugged the holes for the right handed control knobs and that probably cut the value of the guitar to a serious collector in half… but it’s such a pretty guitar people still go ‘Ooooooo…’ when they see it…
And I played the acoustic so much at one point, I wore the varnish off the back of the neck and little pits into the fingerboard under the three high strings…
I love them both dearly…
My Strat is pretty sweet, even if might could use a tune-up after a few years. I really should upgrade the acoustic to either a cutaway Fender or Yamaha acoustic electric. Really don’t play that much, so such a move would stick out to Mrs. Bmaz.
And, by the way, have always wanted an ES-335, those are really sweet.
Yes… I’ve always liked Strats…
I actually had an old Strat that I traded, in part along w/ some cash, for the Guild… that’s all a long time ago now… I lived for music in those days…
The most fun I’ve had in this lifetime w/ my clothes on was the nights I played well… it’s such a smooth, liquid feeling… no tension in my body… nothing hurts… I just felt like I was flying, like a bird…
Wonderful moments…
Never made any money but I got a lot better at playing guitar than my friends ever wanted to admit…
The ES-335 has a neck like a baseball bat on it… it’s a big, heavy instrument… when you look at someone like Chuck Berry manhandling his guitar, or Hendrix working out on a Strat, you realize how big and strong their hands are… they make it look so easy!
Bought a Strat new in ’74, whacked away at it from time to time, but on seeing the remastered “Stones at the Marquee Club” developed an unquenchable jones for an SG like Mick Taylor played, and that’s my main ax at this point. Was lucky to acquire a mid-70s Gurian rosewood acoustic, and boy it sings. Finally, a mid-70s P-bass–my interest in bass dates from the time in the 60s that Jack Casady stole my girl and I went “I’ll show them all!!” Lucky to have these guys, they’re prime examples of solid professional instruments and they challenge me to get better. Yeah, we could do a guitar thread here any old time!
Ah, I had a Cherry SG long ago. Think I traded an Ibanez Les Paul for it. Loved the SG, but it never stayed in tune very well, despite a couple of attempts to have it tuned up. When in tune though, Jesus it was nice. And not as heavy as the Paul or Strat.
And the Stones at the Marquis Club is insanely good.
Well, FWIW, there’s a fix for that out-of-tune-ness: string the top 3 strings as high UP on the peg as possible, instead of close to the headstock; cured the tuning issues on my SG. The severe angle of the headstock is the culprit.
Huh! No one ever told me that.
Late PS: I always wondered how Mick Taylor and Buck Dharma of BOC could play them without suffering the problems I encountered with mine, even after professional adjustment and tuning. Maybe that was it!
Besides the tuning problems, I always seem to scratch the side of my hand on the bridge, and the pickups are in just the wrong place that I hit them, also.
OK, I admit, I dislike SG’s.
That said, I have a Gibson American which is essentially an LP, Jr. with not-quite-as pointy bouts on its flat SG-shaped body, P-90’s, that I quite love.
As for 335’s, the Epiphone Sheraton II (MIK) is quite close, altho’ the pups are a little dark … at 1/4 the price. And the Epi Wildkat (MIK) is like a double cutaway 325, a sort of 3/4 body of the 335, standard with P-90’s and a Bigsby, very sweet.
Yeah, I have looked hard at the Epiphone 335. It is actually really sweet. I don’t play enough, or well enough at this point, to need it, but kind of want it.
You could justify it by how purty it looks on a stand, or hanging on the wall.
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but my late straight arrow Grandpa sold (acoustic, of course) guitars to Jack Casady and Jorma Kakonen out of his living room at a retirement community in Walnut Creek (CA), early 70s I think.
GTFO!!
True story. Hot Tuna in da house.
Awesome! I had the pleasure of seeing Hot Tuna at a small club, standing room only, in early 80’s. Absolutely fantastic.
Here’s a thought / question: what do we do about all the knuckleheads who bought Trump’s lies, hook-line-sinker and will continue to be a drag on civil society? Short of rounding them up for re-education camps (uh, no…) what can be done to bring some sanity back to their worlds?
Run thorough investigations.
It is hard to believe that they won’t have some rough spots hearing about how Trump is absolutely, in no possible way, a successful businessman. Help them grasp what it means that his business model appears to have been laundering money, while they were paying 18% on credit card debt (or whatever they were paying).
If people really got their heads around the characters in Trump’s cabinet and administration — starting with Mark Meadows, former sandwich shop owner turned Tea Partier then head of staff for Trump… and then on to the somnambulant former-co-chair-of-Cyprus Bank Wilbur Ross… well, give the American public time to adjust to the implications of the story, and embed some kind of civics course into it all, and it might help.
Help them understand what a 501(c)4 is, and why having one bankrolling Robocalls for incitement to riot, is not a good thing.
Find someone with the talent to tell the story in which people mistook the Joker for Batman, and then help them come to their senses, see the Joker as he is, and move on with lessons learned.
Touché!
The heads are one part of the problem, but the majority of knuckling of their heads comes from Fox Propaganda channel and they way they are taught how to lie to themselves about the real world. What should be done about Fox and their ilk? We can’t turn the lights on with someone pulling out the plug all the time.
(I hope I used the same name this time! I rarely comment although I am a very grateful, frequent reader, seeking relief from the confusion.)
I feel like the ship of state has been scraping bottom over the reef for four years, on a course no competent captain would have charted. The relief team — officers and chiefs — is now aboard and we’re finally free and afloat, but holed in several places and there is flooding. Damage control teams are patching and pumping, though there are some spaces below the waterline that they are just getting access to.
Sure — just another day at sea, but we can’t head back to the yards for repairs. The new captain needs to trust the engineers below to keep things running, and work with the new operations officer, navigator, and first lieutenant to set the operational priorities, get on course, and prepare to carry out the missions. Don’t count on a lot of sleep, and get used to lunches of bologna sandwiches and “bug juice”.
Not a “today” landmark, but another for the proposed Biden admin ~ along the lines of Deb Haaland to head Interior and his general approach to representativeness:
Biden yesterday named Dr. Rachel Levine to be assistant secretary for health — she will be the highest-ranking openly transgendered government official, if senate-confirmed.
I don’t know how public a role she’ll have in the Biden admin, but as Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Levine has been the face of the state’s coronavirus response to the delight of competence aficionados (while also being the target of hateful maga trolls: my relief at some of them being deplatformed is matched only by regret that twitter didn’t whack those accounts devoted to relentless hate much sooner).
Bruce opens the night!! And it is spectacular.
YES! made my evening.
Tom Hanks and Kerry Washington were good choices to M.C. When they sang, Let the Sun Shine In, made me feel so good!. Yes, I’m that old I remember that song and it always made me feel better. All the entertainers were great. Loved the fire works at the end, with the Bidens in the W.H. Nice shot of the President with the youngest family member and Harris and Second Gentleman. It looked normal, safe.
Having 3 former Presidents speaking was well can’t think of what to say about that, but it just was……………….yes, it was so civilized..
Bush looks pretty good. O.K. Obama is always going to be the best looking President.
The show was so much better than all those balls. They sang in Spanish! finally some one got it. Indigenous dancers, people of Asian descent, just like the country. This was just so much better at representing the U.S.A. than all those balls.
Best gift to Canada: stopping the Keystone Pipeline. Thank you Mr. President! The loud mouth Premier in Alberta needs to understand no one is really paying attention. It lets our P.M. off the hook. No one needs that tar. It uses too much water, pumps too many chemicals into the world. Kenny needs to get over himself. The few temporary jobs the building of that pipeline creates isn’t worth the environment. He still hasn’t understood we can live without oil, but we can not live with out clean air and water.
Its a celebration in lots of countries around the world.
I second the motion for a vote of thanks for ending the “continent spanning death-funnel, carrying the worlds dirtiest fossil fuel” (h/t C. Pierce). Now if only there were thorough investigations and retribution for the violence committed on the Stand Rock Sioux First Nation and their allies.
https://twitter.com/ZcohenCNN/status/1352059654885531653
8:05 PM · Jan 20, 2021
I just saw the White House press sec said the Biden Administration will now be holding regular Covid briefings including health experts.
Just a simple, straightforward change like that is like getting a drink of water when you’ve been out all day in the 97 degree heat. Having a press person say normal things instead of what McEnany spewed is something good too.
Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus
…combined with the….
Battle Hymn of the Republic
…..the truth is marching on….
That about describes the feelings for the day.
Yolanda Adams signing Hallelujah all day….to the core
the clip from last night they just replayed
https://twitter.com/PoliticusSarah/status/1351674597586960386
Fantastic.
All of tonight’s performances here:
Biden inauguration: “Celebrating America” event hosted by Tom Hanks | FULL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fauhEAL1x5Y
I saw a one-minute clip of the fireworks – it was very impressive!
Feels like I died and went to heaven.
Feels like what I was taught America is supposed to be while learning in a liberal Catholic school. Haven’t felt this way in a long time.
Body released so much stress.
MSNBC just reported that the WaPo says that Mike Flynn’s brother, Lt \Gen. Charles Flynn was involved with the denial of aid to Congress during the insurrection.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/flynn-national-guard-call-riot/2021/01/20/7f4f41ba-5b4c-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html
I won’t be surprised if he turns out to be a Q-fan like his sibling and nephew.
The WaPo article is paywalled, of course, but some info here:
https://twitter.com/DanLamothe/status/1352067544660770816
https://twitter.com/DanLamothe/status/1352069153688064001
at SFGate (non-paywalled)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Army-falsely-denied-Flynn-s-brother-was-involved-15886132.php
Here’s Carol Leonnig’s thread about the article:
https://twitter.com/CarolLeonnig/status/1352066474492497921
8:32 PM · Jan 20, 2021
This is the original WaPo article:
Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung efforts to call in National Guard
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/sund-riot-national-guard/2021/01/10/fc2ce7d4-5384-11eb-a817-e5e7f8a406d6_story.html
Jan. 10, 2021 1:38 p.m.
I did a timeline of it here:
https://www.emptywheel.net/2021/01/10/triage-and-impeachment/#comment-875959
About that meeting:
From the original article, following directly after that excerpt:
Was Lt. Gen. Charles Flynn [who is said to be soon expecting a promotion to Four Stars] part of that “noisy with crosstalk”?
I just want to emphasize that this conference call is taking place DURING and AFTER:
2:15 PM Senate sealed [WaPo]
2:17 PM [Boebert tweets] We were locked in the House Chambers
2:18 PM [Boebert tweets] The Speaker has been removed from the chambers.
2:20 PM Capitol is on lockdown [NOTE: I have to find a cite for this]
2:22pm Cap Police chief Sund requests Guard support
2:23 PM A dense group of protestors has shattered the windows of the Capitol. We can hear roaring chants of “USA” outside. [VIDEO]
2:24 PM [TRUMP TWEETS about PENCE / ECHOES CROWD: “USA”]
CROWD: ‘Where is Pence? Find Pence!’ ” and also “Fight for Trump!” [NYT]
AND:
Just before 12 PM Sund was monitoring Trump’s speech to the crowd on the Ellipse when he was called away by reports of two pipe bombs near the Capitol grounds.
Speaking of which, the FBI just raised the reward for this guy to $75,000.
https://twitter.com/FBIWFO/status/1352265502840795139
Have been wondering about those pipe bombs — if they weren’t merely a means to redirect attention like Sund’s, but an excuse for Team Trump to avoid being at the Capitol Building after Trump said he’d be with the insurrectionist crowd.
Sure would like to put a few of Team Trump under oath in a closed, secure hearing and ask why none of their team went to the Capitol.
I was living and working in central China when Trump won the 2016 election. Made sure that all of my American employees were out of country on Inauguration Day. Easy because of Chinese New Year then. But am so hopeful now for positive things to happen going forward. Don’t want to get into the details, but good things are going to happen!
BTW the Chinese thought his election was great. They would totally use him. What they did not count on was ability to turn everything he touched to shit.
Interesting.
Two people that I know, who are kinda-sorta ‘Chinese’ in the sense of Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland, told me back in Jan 2020, “just watch, China will use this virus as an excuse to grab Hong Kong.”
I’m sorry to say that I was skeptical.
No longer skeptical.
(I had not realized until summer 2020 that apparently Wuhan is the center of microwave oven production on the planet. Which could explain travel patterns, perhaps.)
I’ve sensed an overwhelming national “unclenching” over the last day or so.
By the way, for any legal types around could you please explain to us peasants about why the “Unindicted Co-conspirator” in the case which sent Michael Cohen to Federal prison is not under arrest at this time? Seems sorta like stratified justice in the land where “no one is above the law.”
P.S. I miss Avatoir’s federal practice tutorials and stories — the exquisite,
fabulous stories.
From an article from Vanity Fair entitled “Joe Biden wastes no time scrubbing the Cheeto stains out of the Nations’s collective rug”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/joe-biden-executive-orders
It’s going to take months, maybe years to clean up the shit that Donald Trump hath wrought on the nation; decades from now, new inhabitants of the Oval Office will probably still be able to point to the spot on the rug where the 45th president took a metaphorical crap, as complicit officials, aides, and family members looked on and did nothing, not even once suggesting that, at the very least, someone should take him outside. Luckily, Trump was prevented from making an even bigger, irreversible mess, and on Wednesday, and Joe Biden wasted no time strapping on a hazmat suit and getting down to the long, arduous task of cleaning up the steaming pile left by his predecessor
I did want to add a delicious cover image from a local VT newspaper. Not sure it is a non-sequitor but the theme of this weekly paper is “The Wellness Issue” and the image is a discarded Cheeto bad.
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/imager/b/story/32140708/eb9a/cover012021.jpg
To Mme. punaise’s relief I was finally able to remove our “#Not Normal: RESIST” bumper sticker.
I’ll have to check with my brother to see if he removed the “Dump Trump” sticker from that back of his — wait for it — Subaru. That sticker has been there for a few years.
Lol, I never put bumper stickers on my car, even if I would like to. In the summer heat of Arizona, they pretty much melt into the paint. Learned that very long ago.
It was hardly a daring act of defiance here in the liberal bastion of the Bay Area. Not sure I would have been brave enough to troll through Bakersfield with that, however… plus, the heat there does nearly reach AZ numbers.
I used to have written with vinyl letters on the back window of my van: “Honk If You’re A Secular Humanist”.
That was in the DC area, and I did get some “honks” and a few thumbs-up. I also got some pretty cold glares that certainly didn’t seem like something Jesus would do.
Around the time of the Iraq War I printed a large “Buck Fush” sign and taped in in my rear window or a long while.
I miss my old group of secular humanists from the DC area. And the Washington Ethical Society. My home was Frederick MD where the RW was (probably still is) entrenched.
The gift that keeps on taking…
WaPo: “Trump extended Secret Service protection to his adult children and three top officials as he left office”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-extended-secret-service-protection-for-13-members-of-his-family-as-he-left-office/2021/01/20/31ef3e9e-5b3c-11eb-b8bd-ee36b1cd18bf_story.html
Not sure they really want high credibility witnesses around who aren’t on their payroll and won’t sign NDAs.
Six months, and they really should be able to pay for their own security – if they can afford multi-million-dollar estates in extremely private developments, they have the money for guards. (At least they’ll have to pay for their own travel now.)
Quote from FB seen elseweb:
The Republicans don’t want unity, they want immUNITY.
This was linked in an email Senator Merkley (D-OR) sent out.
S1,THE FOR THE PEOPLE ACT OF 2021…Overview of the sections of the bill:
https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SIMPLE-SECTION-BY-SECTION_S.-1%20Final.pdf