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From John Scalzi at Whatever:

First and always, a liar.

Then a con man, a thief, and a grifter. A man who never saw a venture he couldn’t make fail, which is why he was always starting new ones: It was easier to jump to a new ship than stay with the sinking one. A cad, a harasser, allegedly a rapist. He treated women like they were disposable vessels for anxious manhood and was loved by the “family values” contingent for it, because they see women the same way he does. A racist, a bigot, a white supremacist. He saw neo-nazis march in Charlottesville and some part of his brain knew then that he had found his shock troops for an insurrection. A bully, a boaster, a braggart. He looked up to the worst leaders in the world because he wanted what they had: To be unquestioned, feared, and obeyed.

A bad man, a bad human, a bad person. And a bad president.

Not just bad, of course: In fact, the worst. A recitation of his moral failures and actual probable crimes would have us here all day, so let’s pick just one: 400,000 dead, so far, from COVID during his presidency. He is not responsible for the virus. He is responsible for denying its seriousness; for choosing to downplay it because he thought it would make him look bad; for making something as simple and useful as wearing a mask a political issue; for bungling a national response to it and then the distribution of medical supplies and, later, vaccines; for spreading misinformation and lies about it; for, fundamentally, not caring about his fellow Americans, and viewing the pandemic through the lens of him, not us. Hundreds of thousands of Americans who are now dead would be alive under a better president. Their deaths are on his hands, and he simply doesn’t care. He never will.

If there is a silver lining to any of this, it is that he was never popular, never the choice of the majority of Americans. He lost the popular vote in 2016; his electoral win came from razor-thin margins in a few states. This was enough to legitimately make him president, thanks to an electoral system rooted in having to accommodate slaveholders, which still disadvantages the descendants of the slaves. But he was never the people’s choice. He knew it and it rankled him.

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From Max’s Dad:

When Kamala Harris took the oath from Justice Sotomayor it was apparent that for about 15 minutes, that other guy had a black woman Veep. That made me happy. When Joe Biden took the oath, the tears welled up in my eyes. We were free from the buffoonery of the past 4 years. We were free from the international disdain and the world giving us the side eye.

Joe gave the inaugural speech and it was dull to some but inspiring to those of us who actually listened. As seditionists like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham sat there, proving Republicans have no fucking shame, Biden threw his darts at them. Saying to the cynical twosome, your mobs tried to silence the people and it didn’t succeed and goddamnit it will never ever succeed. Biden may as well have turned around and flipped the finger to those two back stabbing snakes.

Then if Cruz and his minions didnt get that, a young poet named Amanda Gorman twisted the knife to kill the 2 week old insurrection once and for all. You can delay democracy but you cannot defeat it. Young Ms. Gorman is an old soul, the kind of kid wise beyond her years, and she gets it. She gets it far greater than old white Republicans and thuggish middle aged vandals do. They want to destroy, she wants to build. Kudos to the 22 year old who stole the ceremony.

The last 4 years have felt like a thousand. Being my age, we don’t have 4 years to endure, we need to live. With this incoming administration, I feel like living again and I have hope it shall happen. Joe Biden is a gift from the heavens.

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From Helen to Margaret, posted at Margaret and Helen:

The inauguration of Joseph Biden was glorious. Truly glorious.

“If we merge mercy with might

And might with right

Our legacy is love”

Our 4-year nightmare is over. Have a nice life, indeed. Wear a mask while you celebrate joyously. I mean it. Really.

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Hannity attacks Biden:
"the weak, the frail, the cognitively struggling"

Does that match up with the person you watched on TV all day long?
—-
Yes it does.
But in fairness, Hannity may have just been having a bad day.

— Burr Deming (@BurrLand01) January 21, 2021

 

From Political Irony:

Speaking of hollow things, QAnon seems to be in disarray. Perhaps their desired “Great Awakening” happened after all, except that they became woke to the fact that “We all got played”.

When one die-hard QAnon adherent posted a new theory that Biden was “part of the plan”, the responses included “This will never happen”, “Just stfu already!”, “It’s over. It is sadly, sadly over.” And ultimately “What a fraud!”, “Wake up. We’ve been had.”

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From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

It began with a downward-escalator ride (read into that all you want) to the applause of a paid audience and it ended with an ignominious and empty walk (couldn’t even get a paid audience) from the White House to Marine 1. And in between all hell broke loose, including pandemic and insurrection. DC is in lock-down and looks like they are preparing for more insurrection.

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From The Recount:

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From Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American:

America seems to have sprung up in 1776 in a form that was fine and finished. But, according to the document’s authors, trouble began in the 1890s, when “progressives” demanded that the Constitution “should constantly evolve to secure evolving rights.” It was at that moment the teaching of history took a dark turn.

The view that America was born whole, has stayed the same, and is simply a prize worth possessing reminds me of so much of the world of Trump and the people around him, characterized by acquisition: buildings, planes, yachts, clothing, bank accounts. Trump and his people seem to see the world as a zero-sum game in which the winners have the most stuff, and America is just one more thing to possess.

But there is a big difference in this world between having and doing.

America has never fully embodied equality, liberty, and justice. What it has always had was a dream of justice and equality before the law. The 1776 Report authors are right to note that was an astonishing dream in 1776, and it made this country a beacon of radical hope. It was enough to inspire people from all walks of life to try to make that dream a reality. They didn’t have an ideal America; they worked to make one.

The hard work of doing is rarely the stuff of heroic biographies of leading men. It is the story of ordinary Americans who were finally pushed far enough that they put themselves on the line for this nation’s principles.

It is the story, for example, of abolitionist newspaperman Elijah P. Lovejoy, murdered by a pro-slavery mob in 1837, and the U.S. soldiers who twenty-four years later fought to protect the government against a pro-slavery insurrection designed to destroy it. It is the story of Lakota leader Red Cloud, who negotiated with hostile government leaders on behalf of his people, and of his contemporary Booker T. Washington, who tried to find a way for Black people to rise in the heart of the South in a time of widespread lynching. It is the story of Nebraska politician William Jennings Bryan, who gave voice to suffering farmers and workers in the 1890s, and of Frances Perkins, who carried his ideas forward as FDR’s Secretary of Labor and brought us Social Security. It is the story of the American G.I.s, from all races, ethnicities, genders, and walks of life who fought in WWII. It is the story of labor organizer Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, and Fannie Lou Hamer, who faced down men bent on murdering her and became an advocate for Black voting. It is the story of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who 60 years ago this week warned us against the “military-industrial complex.”

And it is, of course, the story of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose life we celebrate today. King challenged white politicians to take on poverty as well as racism to make the promise of America come true for all of us.

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From CBS Evening News:

Gene McGehee couldn’t believe his good fortune. When the 91-year-old stepped outside his house in Vidalia, Louisiana, this week, he discovered a bunch of kids from the day care across the street who were willing and wanting to include him in their fun.

McGehee also met the day care teacher, Megan Nunez, and asked her for her name. “Every day I cross the street and we meet again,” Megan said.

Again — and again — every day for three years now, Gene has been meeting Megan for what he thinks to be the very first time. Gene has severe dementia, and can barely remember his own face.

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Lori Marie Key of Livonia, Michigan sings “Amazing Grace” during the COVID-19 memorial ceremony in Washington D.C. on Thursday, January 19, 2021.