-
-
Daniel Hodges, DC police officer who was crushed by the mob on Jan 6, reacts to news of Trump's blanket pardons for violent rioters by noting he was on duty protecting his inauguration today:
Just worked about 14 hours making sure Trump's inauguration was secure and peaceful, got home, read this.
"Trump pardons about 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants"
Thanks America.
Party of Law and Order indeed!!
Last edited by Hareeba!; 01-20-25, 09:31 PM.Comment -
Wasting no time in setting out to challenge his all time record of lies told by a President in office:
JAKE TAPPER: Let’s bring in Daniel Dale. And Daniel Dale I know there’s a lot of familiar lies that we’re just told, but bring us up to speed on what you think the biggest ones were.
DANIEL DALE: There were a bunch, Jake. I thought it was interesting that the president gave a scripted inaugural address in which, honestly, there was not a ton to fact-check, I’d say a smattering of falsehoods.
And then immediately after, in this unscripted speech, he returned to his familiar lie-a-minute style.
So he said the 2020 election was totally rigged. We know that’s a lie.
He said his opponents tried to rig it this time. That’s more nonsense.
He said California Democrats tried to cheat and that he thinks he would have won the state this time if it were not rigged.
Well, it was a free and fair election in that state as well. He lost by more than 3 million votes.
He claimed he won Alabama this time by 48 points, more like between 30 and 31.
And then on immigration, he spoke of the jails of every country in the world being emptied into this country. He has never provided any evidence for his familiar claim that foreign countries are deliberately emptying prisons to send people here as migrants.
He boasted of building 571 miles of border wall. Official statistics show it was actually 458 miles.
And then he turned to January 6th. He spoke at length about he said the committee deleted all evidence, almost everything.
It simply did not. That did not happen, although there is a dispute about the preservation of some data and some video interviews that the committee conducted.
And he repeated this claim that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has admitted that she rejected a Trump offer of 10,000 National Guard troops on January 6th, 2021.
First of all, there is no basis for the claim Trump even made her such an offer. It wouldn’t even have made sense, given that he, the president, is the commander of the D.C. National Guard. The Speaker of the House has no no authority to deploy them or thwart a deployment.
And second of all, she never admitted that such an offer was made. She has steadfastly rejected that. She is on tape on January expression, expressing frustration with the security failure that day and saying that I take responsibility for not having them better prepared.
But that kind of vague assertion that I could have done more here is not an admission that she turned down any specific security offer. She has never made such an admission whatsoever, Jake.Comment -
you are probably correct. I just googled Elon Musk drinking water and there are tons of pics of him drinking water. Just out of morbid curiosity, I also Googled Hitler drinking water and I was shocked that Hitler also drank water. I don't know how to feel about this revelation.
Comment -
This is NOT how you go about making America respected on the world stage:
Withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord joining only Iran, Libya and Yemen - a real F U to so many countries which have been hard hit already and those Pacific Island nations whose waves are lapping at their doors.
Withdrawing from the WHO to join Liechtenstein as the only country not a member.
Comment -
Comment -
Another executive order Trump just signed gives the White House counsel the full authority to give interim, top secret security clearances to whomever the president wants for up to 6 months!
Yep, the same guy who stole classified documents and hid them in bathroom, so he obviously doesn’t give a shit about any of this national security stuff.
But people didn’t care about all that because it was all just a "witch hunt" and he’s allowed to steal whatever he wants.Comment -
Now he's just rescinded President Biden’s Executive Order to lower prescription drug costs for Americans on Medicare and Medicaid.
Another large number of disadvantaged folk now join the voter regret brigade.
This is going wellComment -
Trump let 1500 criminals back out on the street, many of them violent but hey, at least they’re white Americans…am I right?
William Lewis
"stood on the West Plaza of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and sprayed at law enforcement officers with a type of wasp and hornet spray"
Trump just pardoned him.
Lewis Wayne Snoots:
"Snoots can later be seen on video, court records state, grabbing a police officer and restraining him while others assaulted the officer."
Trump just pardoned him.
We were told to be worried about other countries emptying their prisons into America…
We should have been worried about our own country emptying their prisons into America.Last edited by Hareeba!; 01-20-25, 10:47 PM.Comment -
cue another load of blissfully ignorant MAGAts joining the voter regret brigade:
Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans have released the proposed Trump Tax Cuts, which include a tax increase on single parents, taxing college scholarships for students, and raising taxes for homeowners.
Comment -
They're a BRICS nation, Spain? Do you know what a BRICS nation is? You will figure it out.
Well there's one who has yet to figure it out ... Spain is NOT a BRICS nation.
Comment -
Comment -
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Nearly 3 minutes straight of Democrats saying preemptive presidential pardons means you’re guilty:<br><br>Biden just preemptively pardoned Fauci, Milley, Jan 6th committee, and his family. <a href="https://t.co/Bjg0fkgvb3">pic.twitter.com/Bjg0fkgvb3</a></p>— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1881430072747589835?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" >January 20, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Comment -
One week ago:
JD Vance on January 6 pardons: "If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned, and there's a little bit of a grey area there."
POTUS and VP at odds already?
Comment -
Day 1 only and Vivek is gone!
(Scaramucci's record shattered)
Apparently not seeing eye to eye with Elon in regard to DOGE.
Suspect he's now going to vie for a Senate seat.Comment -
That's only part of what he actually said. You are committed to deception as per usual.
Also, he simply walked around the Capitol. He was escorted throughout by the Capitol police and left when they told him to. 4 years in prison plus 3 years of supervised release is insane.Comment -
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is what we want! <a href="https://t.co/V4obszmYRo">pic.twitter.com/V4obszmYRo</a></p>— Kevin Sorbo (@ksorbs) <a href="https://twitter.com/ksorbs/status/1881505141289107517?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" >January 21, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Even the lunatic Left can't be against this. Right?Last edited by DwightShrute; 01-21-25, 01:06 AM.Comment -
Both the White House Spanish language website and HHS’s reproductive rights page have been removed.
These were both on the Project2025 hit list. (you know - that document that Trump "knew nothing about")
Comment -
plutocracy - rule by the wealthy
kleptocracy - rule by corrupt thieves
kakistocracy - rule by the worst, least qualified
But when it's all 3 -- what's the word for that?Last edited by Hareeba!; 01-21-25, 02:47 AM.Comment -
Comment -
Please pal. My country has been ruled by corrupt thieves backed by deep pockets my entire life. Don’t let them kid you. They only argue with each other for theatre…
<a href="https://ibb.co/2yGpL9N"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/PNqVbLQ/IMG-8065.jpg" alt="IMG-8065" border="0"></a><br /><a target='_blank' href='https://imgbb.com/'>upload pic for free</a><br />Comment -
The tone for the inauguration of Trump as the 47th president of the United States at noon today was set on Friday, when Trump, who once trashed cryptocurrency as “based on thin air,” launched his own cryptocurrency.
By Sunday morning it had made more than $50 billion on paper. Felix Salmon of Axios reported that “a financial asset that didn’t exist on Friday afternoon—now accounts for about 89% of Donald Trump’s net worth.”
As Salmon noted, “The emoluments clause of the Constitution,” which prohibits any person holding a government office from accepting any gift or title from a foreign leader or government, “written in 1787, hardly envisaged a world where a president could conjure billions of dollars of wealth out of nowhere just by endorsing a meme.”
Salmon also pointed out that there is no way to track the purchases of this coin, meaning it will be a way for those who want something from Trump to transfer money directly to him.
Former Trump official Anthony Scaramucci posted that “anyone in the world can essentially deposit money” into the bank account of the president of the United States.
On Sunday, Trump’s wife Melania launched her own coin. It took the wind out of the sales of Trump’s coin, although both coins have disclaimers saying that the coins are “an expression of support for and engagement with the values embodied by” the Trumps, and are not intended to be “an investment opportunity, investment contract, or security of any type.”
Her cryptocurrency was worth more than $5 billion within two hours.
CNN noted that the release of the meme coin had raised “serious ethics concerns,” but those who participate in the industry were less gentle.
One wrote: “Trump’s sh*tcoin release has caused possibly the greatest overnight loss of credibility in presidential history. He made $60B.
Great for Trump family, terrible for this country and hopes we had for the Trump presidency.”
Walter Schaub, former head of the Office of Government Ethics under Trump in his first administration, who left after criticizing Trump’s unwillingness to divest himself of his businesses, wrote to CNN: “America voted for corruption, and that’s what Trump is delivering…. Trump’s corruption and naked profiteering is so open, extreme and pervasive this time around that to comment on any one aspect of it would be to lose the forest for the trees. The very idea of government ethics is now a smouldering crater.”
At a rally Sunday night at the Capital One Arena in Washington, Trump highlighted the performance side of his public persona. He teased the next day’s events and let his audience in on a secret that echoed the neokayfabe” of professional wrestling by leaving people wondering if it was true or a lie.
After praising Elon Musk, he told the crowd “He was very effective. He knows those computers better than anybody. Those vote counting computers. And we ended up winning Pennsylvania like in a landslide. So it was pretty good…. Thank you to Elon.”
This morning, hours before he left office, President Joe Biden pardoned several of the targets of MAGA Republicans, including "General Mark A. Milley, Anthony S. Fauci, the Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.”
Biden clarified that the pardons “should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.” He noted, “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
But, he said, "These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong—and in fact have done the right thing—and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances." He later pardoned his siblings and their spouses to protect them from persecution by the incoming president.
Before he left office, Biden posted on social media: Scripture says: “I have been young and now I’m old yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken.” After all these years serving you, the American people, I have not seen the righteous forsaken. I love you all. May you keep the faith. And may God bless you all.”
This morning, members of the far-right paramilitary organization the Proud Boys marched through the capital carrying a banner that read “Congratulations President Trump” and chanting: “Whose streets? Our streets!”
Two days ago, Trump moved his inauguration into the Capitol Rotunda, where his supporters had rioted on January 6, 2021, because of cold temperatures expected in Washington, D.C. Even with his supporters excluded, the space was cramped, but prime spots went to billionaires: Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook, Google chief Sundar Pichai, TikTok chief executive officer Shou Zi Chew, and Tesla and SpaceX chief executive owner Elon Musk, who appeared to be stoned. Right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who launched the Fox News Channel in 1996, was there, as were popular podcaster Joe Rogan and founder of Turning Point USA Charlie Kirk.
Although foreign leaders are not normally invited to presidential inaugurations, far-right foreign leaders President Javier Milei of Argentina and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni were there, along with a close ally of Chinese president Xi Jinping.
The streets were largely empty as Trump travelled to the U.S. Capitol. Supporters watched from Capital One Arena as Trump took the oath of office, apparently forgetting to put his hand on the Bibles his wife held.
After Vice President–elect J.D. Vance had taken the oath of office, sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had sworn in Trump, the new president delivered his inaugural address.
While inaugural addresses are traditionally an attempt to put the harsh rhetoric of campaigns behind and to emphasize national unity, Trump’s inaugural address rehashed the themes of his campaign rallies.
Speaking in the low monotone he uses when he reads from a teleprompter, he delivered an address that repeated the lies on which he built his 2024 presidential campaign.
He said that the Justice Department has been “weaponized,” that Biden’s administration “cannot manage even a simple crisis at home while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalogue of catastrophic events abroad,” that the U.S. has provided “sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals,” that the government has “treated so badly” the storm victims in North Carolina,” and so on.
Fact-checkers at The Guardian noted the speech was full of “false and misleading claims.”
Trump went on to promise a series of executive orders to address the crises he claimed during his campaign.
He would “declare a national emergency at our southern border,” he said, and “begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” (Border crossings are lower now than they were at the end of Trump’s last term.)
He promised to tell his cabinet members to bring down inflation (it peaked in 2022 and is now close to the Fed’s target of 2%), bring back manufacturing (the Biden administration brought more than 700,000 new manufacturing jobs to the U.S.), end investments in green energy (which has attracted significant private investment, especially in Republican-dominated states), and make foreign countries fund the U.S. government through tariffs (which are, in fact, paid by American consumers).
He also vowed to take the Panama Canal back from Panama, prompting Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino to “fully reject the statements made by” Trump, and Panamanian protesters to burn the American flag.
With a declaration about the Pennsylvania shooting that bloodied his ear, Trump declared that he believes he is on a divine mission. “I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
After his inaugural address, former president Biden and former first lady Dr. Jill Biden left, and Trump delivered a much more animated speech to prominent supporters in which CNN’s Daniel Dale said he returned to his “lie-a-minute style.” He rehashed the events of January 6, 2021, and claimed that then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi is “guilty as hell…that’s a criminal offense.”
But the bigger story came in the afternoon, when Trump held a rally at the Capitol One Arena in place of the traditional presidential parade.
Supporters there had watched the inauguration on a jumbotron screen, booing Biden and jumping to their feet to cheer at Trump’s declaration that he had been saved by God. In the afternoon, Elon Musk spoke to the crowd, throwing two salutes that right-wing extremists, including neo-Nazis, interpreted as Nazi salutes.
Trump and his family arrived after 5:00 for the inaugural parade. The new president spoke again in rally mode after six, and then staged a demonstration that he was changing the country by holding a public signing of executive orders. Those appeared to be designed, as he promised, to retaliate against those he feels have wronged him. Among other executive orders, he withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, drawing approving roars from the crowd.
As Jonathan Swan of the New York Times noted, “Signing executive orders and pardons are two of the parts of the job that Trump loves most. They are unilateral, instantaneous displays of power and authority.”
After signing a few executive orders for the crowd, Trump threw the signing sharpies into the crowd, and then he and his family left abruptly.
Back at the White House, retaliation continued. Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of the January 6 rioters who had been convicted of crimes related to the attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election, including Enrico Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys who was serving 22 years for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States.
His pardon also included Daniel Rodriguez, who was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to tasing Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who suffered cardiac arrest and a traumatic brain injury. “Omg I did so much f---ing s--- r[ight] n[ow] and got away,” he texted to his gang. “Tazzed the f--- out of the blue[.]”
Trump signed an executive order that withdraws the U.S. from the World Health Organization, another that tries to establish that there are only two sexes in the United States, and yet another that seeks to end the birthright citizenship established by the Fourteenth Amendment.
He signed one intending to strip the security clearances from 51 people whom he accuses of election interference related to Hunter Biden’s laptop, and has ordered that an undisclosed list of Trump appointees immediately be granted the highest levels of security clearance without undergoing background checks. He also signed one ordering officials “to deliver emergency price relief.”
Behind the scenes today, officials in the Trump administration fired the acting head of the U.S. immigration court system as well as other leaders of that system, and cancelled the CBP One app, an online lottery system through which asylum seekers could schedule appointments with border agents, leaving asylum seekers who had scheduled appointments three weeks ago stranded.
Trump officials have also taken down a government website that helped women find health care and understand their rights. They have also removed the official portrait of former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley from the hallway with the portraits of all the former chairs…now all minus one.
But for all their claims to be hitting the ground running, lawyers noted that some of the executive orders were poorly crafted to accomplish what they claimed—an observer called one “bizarre legal fanfic not really intended for judicial interpretation”—and lawsuits challenging them are already being filed. Others are purely performative, like ordering officials to lower prices.
Further, CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand reported that almost an hour after Trump became president, “current and former Pentagon officials say they don’t know who is currently in charge of the Defence Department,” a key position to maintain U.S. security against adversaries who might take advantage of transition moments to push against American defences.
Bertrand reported that the Trump transition team had trouble finding someone to serve as acting secretary until the Senate confirms a replacement for Biden’s Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Trump’s nominee, former Fox News Channel weekend host Pete Hegseth has had trouble getting the votes he needs, although tonight the Senate Armed Services Committee approved him by a straight party line vote.
Bertrand notes that two senior department officials declined to take on the position. The Trump administration swore in Robert Salesses, deputy director of the branch of the Pentagon that focuses on human resources, facilities, and resource management—who has already been confirmed by the Senate in that position—as acting Defence Secretary.
Beginning tomorrow, the Republicans will have to deal with the fact that the Treasury will hit the debt ceiling and will have to use extraordinary measures to pay the obligations of the United States government.Last edited by Hareeba!; 01-21-25, 04:41 AM.Comment -
We're having some serious cold around here.
And my friend said. "Is this what they mean when they say when hell freezes over?
I think she nailed it!Comment
