Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Everybody saw this coming.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

The revolution will be supervised.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

We still have time to mess this up!

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Inauguration Day!

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Inauguration Day!

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I’m guessing there will be whole YouTube and TikTok channels of such videos and video mixes!

… Biden will also rescind the Keystone XL pipeline permit, issue a proclamation terminating the border wall emergency and send an immigration bill to Congress. It remains unclear exactly what will be in the immigration legislation. Biden’s transition declined to comment.

The new administration will also take action to protect Dreamers and improve workforce diversity and equity across the federal government. Biden will also announce a date for a climate summit hosted in the U.S.

The actions are largely grouped into buckets aimed at addressing the four crises Biden has been focused on: the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, racial equity and the economic recession.

Klain specified other actions in Saturday’s memo, including rescinding the travel ban on several majority-Muslim countries, rejoining the Paris climate accords, extending limits on student loan payments and evictions instituted during the pandemic, and issuing a mask mandate on federal properties and for interstate travel…


Reader Interactions

157Comments

  5. 5.

    rikyrah

    Today we get:∙ A Democratic President∙ A Democratic Congress∙ The first woman Vice President∙ A Black/South Asian Vice President∙ The first Jewish Senate Majority Leader∙ A Latino senator from California∙ A Black senator from Georgia∙ A Jewish senator from Georgia— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 20, 2021

  10. 10.

    J.

    2021 is about to get a whole lot better.

    I don’t normally watch TV during the day, but I plan to watch today.

  11. 11.

    mali muso

    Good morning!!!! I woke up earlier than usual and am too keyed up to try to rest. So so ready for today!!!

  12. 12.

    sanjeevs

    How many Trump appointees leave with reputation enhanced? (Not counting career people like Vindman and Fauci)
    I reckon one – Scaramucci. Always thought he was a kind of sleazy guy with a mediocre hedge fund that existed because of his infamous Vegas conference. But he was actually kind of likeable and only lasted 10 days.
    The rest can rot in hell.

  14. 14.

    Raven

    Amazingly, in his final 24 hours in office, Donald Trump found one more way to fail to live up to the ethical standard of Richard Nixon.”

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah:

    Bannon stole from Trump supporters. Trump gave him a pardon for that. Let that sink in. 

    Will it sink in while I laugh about the chumps?  Or do I have to stop?

  17. 17.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Incoming Press Secretary @jrpsaki is also set to give her first briefing at 7pm tomorrow night

    I hope she opens with, “We had the smallest inaugural crowd ever.”

  21. 21.

    Narya

    @rikyrah: lying in bed, trying to get motivated to run. It’s 15 degrees and there’s snow on the ground, so it’s not going well—but my running challenge added a one-day destination of 4.3 miles, which is the distance around the Mall. And I signed up to do it.

  23. 23.

    debbie

    Part of me would like to see Trump’s published schedule for today: “No meetings with anyone of significance other than one of no consequence with a group of sycophants…” etc.

  25. 25.

    geg6

    Today is my one day in the week that I have to go in and man the office.  Not happy about missing everything today, but I’ll be streaming the Oath at noon no matter what.  We’ll call it my lunch hour.  Then the big concert tonight.  Gotta stop and get some bubbly on my way home for that.  My heart is the lightest it’s been since 1/17 and the lump of dread in my stomach has gone.  I feel five years younger.

  28. 28.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    I really hope this is the beginning of a shift in attitude about climate change and that these deniers finally acknowledge things must change.

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    Who’s wearing pearls? ?‍♀️ Really dresses up the jammies!

  32. 32.

    debbie

    @geg6:

    I feel five years younger.

    Same here. I had the bestest night’s sleep, considering I had to wake early for work.

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    “The mind seizes trying to imagine a black man extolling the virtues of sexual assault…, immersed in multiple lawsuits for allegedly fraudulent business dealings, exhorting his followers to violence, then strolling into the White House”Ta-Nehisi Coates https://t.co/sDl4GPXPsE— Patrick Gaspard (@patrickgaspard) January 20, 2021

  34. 34.

    geg6

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ll be in the office and I inherited one of my  mom’s strings of pearls, the long one.  It will go with my outfit, so I’m pulling them out to wear today.

  36. 36.

    MomSense

    Going to wear my pearls to work today and try and listen to the ceremony on npr.  Still very nervous about security.

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    Sometimes I think Biden's prior runs for president, everything he's been through since, the way his candidacy always sputtered out, was maybe fate's way of saying "Not now, pal, but trust me, you're gonna be needed one day."— JJ in NH (@JustJoshinNH) January 19, 2021

  38. 38.

    Geminid

    @debbie: Even without needed impetus from the federal government, the clean energy transition is already happening, and it’s good for business.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    @rikyrah:

    “Walking constitutional crisis of a man” is the best description of Trump I’ve ever seen!

    And the ending:

    Presidents always to some extent reflect the soul of the nation during the time they lead it. In that sense, Wednesday’s transfer of power is an exorcism of sorts: the expulsion of the nation’s worst demons, in favor of a new leader who, policy debates aside, personifies the decency that resides at the heart of America — but hasn’t resided at the White House for the past four years.

    Good riddance, Donald J. Trump.

    A thousand chef’s kisses!

  43. 43.

    danielx

    @MomSense:

    Still very nervous about security.

    Fixed.

    I’ll be nervous until Biden is actually sworn in and the Worst President Ever no longer holds the office.

  49. 49.

    PST

    I don’t know if Trump wanted his pardons to steal attention from the inauguration or wanted the inauguration to shield his pardons from close scrutiny. I suspect he wanted the former but he’s getting the latter. Watching and reading this morning it seems everyone is focused on the transition.

  53. 53.

    Nicole

    @rikyrah: Good morning!  I’m not usually up this early, but today is Christmas and I’m 7 years old- I couldn’t sleep from excitement! ?

  56. 56.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Baud: I think the Biden team is being scrupulous about “one president at a time” – Jake Sullivan has said that at least once – but he has also tweeted a couple of heavy tweets to show where the administration will go. One that aid will cease to the Saudis for their war on Yemen. I’m forgetting the other one.

    And it’s no surprise that other countries have their expectations, well wishes, and requests queued up.

  58. 58.

    Patricia Kayden

    One of Biden’s first Executive Orders should be to prohibit the airing of FoxNews, Newsmax or OANN in any federally owned property or any military unit or installation, and to remove it from any cable plans that are offered in government owned business or housing complexes.— Pam Keith, Esq. (@PamKeithFL) January 19, 2021

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: DEMs have never nominated someone beyond the pale, because that person doesn’t exist. But they do have limits to what they will tolerate. GOPs used to too. That’s why Nixon resigned. They don’t anymore. That’s why we got 4 years of unhinged narcissism.

  64. 64.

    Jo Jo las Orejas

    @rikyrah:

    Estoy aquí. Preparándome para ir a mi escuela y encontrarme con mis amigos, jugar y aprender cosas. Mi mamá está muy emocionada. Dice que menearemos la cola juntos en un baile cuando llegue a casa. Oh! ¡Buenos días!

  66. 66.

    germy

    Trump wants to start a new political party.  The Patriot Party, which will surely draw votes away from the GOP.

  67. 67.

    rikyrah

    What did Clinton inherit from the GOP? A war, a financial crisis and massive debt. What did Obama inherit from the GOP? A war, a financial crisis and massive debt. What is Biden inheriting from the GOP? A pandemic, a financial crisis and massive debt.Stop electing Republicans.— Daryl Sturgis✊? (@darylsturgis) January 20, 2021

  68. 68.

    raven

    Connor believes that Trump is an antidote to the radical left, which he says increasingly dominates the mainstream media and the nation’s universities. “A lot of what we have is an educational system that has told people, ‘You’re white and you come from this background and these other people didn’t have that opportunity so we should give up something and we should feel guilty,’” he told me. “Then students think, ‘Maybe you’re right, you’re the college professor and my parents are sending me to go to school here.’ The communication is manipulative. And that’s how we have all these bleeding hearts who want to guilt white people, take their money, and give it to Black people. Now you have a generation of lazy, in debt, college graduates who work at Starbucks but still have a $1,000 iPhone and want Bernie Sanders to forgive all their debt.”

  70. 70.

    Betsy

    Last year one of the frontpagers estimated 200,000 to 500,000 American dead based on something, some authoritative or reasonable guidance, or an expert’s call.

    And that estimate or prediction stuck in my mind during the whole ensuing year.

    Since we passed 400,000 dead yesterday, I was thinking about that, and wondering which post or frontpager that was, or if I have remembered it wrong.

    Does anyone recall?

  76. 76.

    germy

    President Trump has talked in recent days with associates about forming a new political party, according to people familiar with the matter, an effort to exert continued influence after he leaves the White House.

    Mr. Trump discussed the matter with several aides and other people close to him last week, the people said. The president said he would want to call the new party the “Patriot Party,” the people said.

  77. 77.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah:  I can already imagine the GOP claim that a president should not focus on undoing the work of a predecessor.

    What I’m loving most about Biden right now is the ways he’s trying to demonstrate his awareness of and responsibility to those who put him in power.

  80. 80.

    Low Key Swagger

    Dreamer protection, please.  Today would be nice.  It’s unspeakable cruelty to deport people brought here as children.

  82. 82.

    mrmoshpotato

    @germy:

    The Patriot Party, which will surely draw votes away from the GOP. 

    Let them fight each other into extinction.

  83. 83.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @rikyrah: Happy December 51, 2020. Been a helluva long and trying month at the end of a helluva long and trying year. But it ends in (checks watch) 4 hours and 19 minutes.

  87. 87.

    Jinchi

    As a Californian, my plan was to sleep til 9 a.m. and wake up to a post-Trump world.

    Woke up at 4 a.m. instead.

  90. 90.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    One that aid will cease to the Saudis for their war on Yemen.

    That’s a mistake that goes all the way back to the Obama administration, correct? (Though Trump compounded it.)

  91. 91.

    Aleta

    @germy: Wasn’t Jr. doing that too (not Jr.s’s idea obviously).  They’re going to keep raking over and strip mining their smaller supporters for cash aren’t they.

  95. 95.

    PST

    @Baud: Yes, Secretary Pete is at his best on television. Some public figures I admire just can’t drop their podium style. He always leaves me with the feeling that I’ve had a pleasant conversation with an especially smart friend.

  98. 98.

    Zelma

    I am not an early riser and I usually check out this thread in mid-morning.  But this morning I woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I was sort of like a kid on Christmas morning.  That’s a good description of how I feel.  Anticipation and hope.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    The radicalization of folks like the historian here… someone should write a book about it???

     

    His Twitter feed has been a great source of shade

     

     

    Outgoing President — whatever his name is — is scheduled to leave White House in ten minutes.— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 20, 2021

  113. 113.

    Chyron HR

    I bet tomorrow there is going to be a viral video of some libs asking siri who the president is and then they all hoot and holler when it says Joe Biden

    Why can’t “libs” display the solemn decorum of (checks notes) Q Shaman?

  116. 116.

    Bruuuuce

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I hope she opens with, “We had the smallest inaugural crowd ever.”

    And follows that up with “But we had the best TV ratings ever, too.” That’ll shiv the Rotten Pumpkin-No-Longer-In-Chief where he lives.

  117. 117.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: I’m not going to look them all up, but Ortega was President of Nicaragua until 1990.  We had a lot of assets there and around there.  The FARC in Columbia was at it’s strongest during the 80’s and early 90’s as was the US involvement in country.  Etc.

    Adding — the Yugoslav wars started in 91….

  121. 121.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    There has almost always been some military adventure somewhere. I think it’s misleading to say that Clinton inherited a war the way Obama did.

  124. 124.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: The civil war in Yemen did begin in 2015, and ramped up though President Obama’s last year. But the most  destructive actions by the Saudi government took place after trump took office. Last year Congress passed legislation prohibiting use of American arms in Yemen, but trump’s veto was not overridden.

  126. 126.

    JPL

    Hit the road trump, and don’t come back no more, no more.   Hit the road trump and don’t come back.

  129. 129.

    Spanky

    The smallest inauguration in my lifetime was in November of 1963. Let us speak no more of these things.

  130. 130.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m getting my first vaccine shot in about an hour, and then I have to pick up a few groceries. But after that, I’m going to watch as much as I can.

    Already you can feel Trump’s grip on the national attention weakening.

  136. 136.

    Baud

    Specifically, Psaki confirmed that Biden would move in the early days of the administration to reverse the Mexico City policy — a decades-old rule barring U.S. foreign aid from going to any organization that provides abortions, along with other health services that the Trump administration dramatically expanded — and revoke Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military.

  140. 140.

    NotMax

    @JPL

    Men, women and little children will once again be able to walk the streets, their heads held high, and say “orange” without feeling icky.
    ;)

  141. 141.

    Spanky

    Is there a “crowd” at Andrews to see him off? Sadly, it’s not nearly as breezy as I’d like for those assholes waiting on the tarmac.

  143. 143.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Baud: Didn’t Clinton inherit Somalia from Bush snr?

    It may not have been an official war, but I suspect it felt like it to the guys on the ground and in the Black Hawks.

  145. 145.

    Humanities Prof

    @Baud: Not exactly a war, but the G.H.W. Bush administration had launched the U.S. military intervention in Somalia in its last few weeks before leaving office.

    There were some legitimate humanitarian reasons that could’ve been used to justify that decision, but it was very much a ticking time bomb that Clinton inherited, and it blew up a few weeks after he entered office (this was the “Black Hawk Down” incident).

    Of course, it did give us the legendary SNL skit featuring Phil Hartman portraying Bill Clinton in a McDonald’s (for my money, a solid contender for the best skit in SNL history), so it had that going for it

     

    Edit:  Viva Bris Vegas beat me to it.

  148. 148.

    gvg

    @Baud: What was wrong with Bryan?  I googled and my reading didn’t turn anything up other than he lost 3 times. Not popular enough ideas.

    I am sure he wouldn’t match modern tastes, but I didn’t see anything criminal in the quick reading.

  149. 149.

    TS (the original)

    @Baud:

    From your link

    said two people with knowledge of the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.

    I hope the Biden administration gets on top of those who would discuss issues outside of what is released to all the press. There should be no “Maggies” attached to the Biden team.

  151. 151.

    Humanities Prof

    @gvg: There wasn’t anything really wrong with Bryan, he just wasn’t the sort of candidate who was ever going to get elected.

    There are some surface similarities between Bryan and Bernie Sanders.  Both have some genuinely interesting ideas, and both of them offered entirely legitimate criticisms of the structure of the American economic and political systems.

    At the same time, the platforms they advocated for were never supported by even a plurality of the public, and both at times seemed idealistic to the point of naivete about how their visions could come to fruition.  There was a lot of magic fairy dust in Bryan’s approach to campaigning, and to politics more generally.

  152. 152.

    Geminid

    @gvg: William Jennings Bryan ran two strong populist campaigns. He was famous for opposing the restrictive money supply created by the gold standard. His defence of creationism in the Scopes “Monkey Trial” colors his reputation. He died of a stroke soon after. Bryan’s character in the play and movie “Inherit the Wind” is what many people remember him by.

    Democrat Woodrow Wilson, on the other hand, was the most racist President since the Civil War.

  153. 153.

    Jerry

    The New Radicals sang that song? I never consciously listen to top 40 radio so I would hear that song in passing in a store here and lobby there, but never heard who it was by, or really, the name of the song. I always thought it was some surprise new song by World Party. Heh.

  155. 155.

    Woodrow/asim

    @Jerry: As I was saying here a few days ago, The New Radicals are a Whole Damn Thing. I adore this song a lot, and the band’s lead is talented as hell as his post-band songwriting shows — but even I’ll admit it’s kind of capturing lightening in a bottle in some ways.

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