• @POTUS President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.
• @VP Vice President Kamala Devi Harris
• @PressSec Jen Psaki
• @FLOTUS Dr. Jill Biden
• @SecondGentleman Doug Emhof

“As of noon today, this is the Republic’s last and final President. Biden is illegitimate and our Republic will not prevail under 4 years of the tyrannical, treasure-depleting, tranny-propping Globalism that he brings. Prepare to make a new Republic, centipedes. That means YOU!”

– Post from some angry man-child on TheDonald.win

#ImpeachBiden

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 20, 2021

Biden’s speech was the first time in four years when the words coming from the White House spoke of hope and unity, not spite and conspiracy.

It also marked the first time the White House held an official moment of silence for those who have died from the coronavirus.

Amanda Gorman stole the show.  The first National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States made a huge impression with a poem that struck the perfect chord of history and hope.

Well this is it. Four years of bullshit finally come to an end and a real president will be sworn in. Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, former Vice President of the United States, and Kamala Devi Harris, former Junior United States Senator from California will be inaugurated as 46th President of the United States and 48th Vice President of the United States, respectively, on January 20th, 2021. Follow us here on National Zero, starting 5:30 AM EST Wednesday for live text updates and a live video of Biden’s inaugural address via NBC, as well as Trump’s departure from Andrews Air Force base in Maryland and arrival in Florida, hopefully to crowds of no longer-adoring QAnon freaks.

“On early Wednesday, Trump issued 73 pardons and 70 commutations, including Steve Bannon, Lil Wayne, Kodak Black and Kwame Kilpatrick. However, the list issued by the White House does not include the outgoing president or any of his family members, despite earlier reports. Rapper Lil Wayne pleaded guilty in federal court in 2020 to possession of a loaded handgun. Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, was charged last year with defrauding donors of more than a million dollars to support the building of the US-Mexico border wall” – Twitter news roundup.

This is tentative from CNN. Remember Bannon was charged with ripping off Trump’s own fans by embezzling funds they donated to build a border wall before Donald was able to figure out a way to get the government to fund the monument to his glory. No word on his three co-defendants.

UPDATE 1/19/21 11:59 PM EST: Confirmed by the New York Times.

The complaint filed Monday in the US District court of Western Texas, artfully and elegantly titled “LATINOS FOR TRUMP, BLACKS FOR TRUMP, JOSHUA MACIAS v PETE SESSIONS, MITCH McCONNELL, NANCY PELOSI, MARK ZUCKERBERG, CHUCK SCHUMER, ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, ALL MEMBERS OF THE 117TH U.S. CONGRESS, et al” is a cry for help. This is Lin Wood and the Kraken on acid. Zuckerberg is named as a defendant because he “destabilized the government” with Facebook. Seriously read this shit:

“The truth of the allegations set forth herein compels the shocking conclusion that every member of currently-seated 117th U.S. Congress and the President-Elect, who is scheduled to be sworn in this coming Wednesday, January 20th, were not legitimately elected because the People of the United States were given ballots that were patently illegal under federal law, namely [Help America Vote Act]. Therefore, the entire 117th Congress is illegitimate and all actions taken since January 3, 2021, including the counting of the Electoral College votes and confirmation of Joseph Biden as President-Elect and the impeachment of President Donald J. Trump are null and void.”

“With the sitting President’s term set to expire this Wednesday, January 20th, this situation is a Constitutional Crisis of cataclysmic proportion unlike any seen since the Southern States seceded from the Republic in 1861. The only conceivable remedy is for this Honorable Court to enter an injunction to restrain all further action and to enjoin the enforcement and effect of all previous actions of the 117th Congress until trial upon the merits, and, upon a verdict for the Plaintiffs, for the Court to order the 50 states to conduct a new federal election that conforms to the minimum standards of HAVA. The 20th Amendment mandates that President Trump’s term must end at noon on January 20th, but since Congress’s act on January 6, 2021 in confirming Joseph Biden as President-Elect was clearly illegitimate, and there is effectively no lawfully existing Legislative Branch this means that the Presidential Inauguration cannot lawfully go forward on Wednesday.”

The Department of Justice announced tonight that it has dropped its investigation of Republican North Carolina Senator Richard Burr, who made a series of stock trades after closed door Senate meetings about the coronavirus, the New York Times reports.

Burr, then chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had received a number of nonpublic updates on the impact of the coronavirus in late January and early February.  He then executed a series of stock trades that became public in March.

Although he claimed that his trades were legal, Burr stepped down as chairman of the committee.  He had previously he would not seek reelection in 2022. 

Can you believe what Trump tweeted tonight?

Nothing.  And ain’t it grand?

But when he did have a Twitter account, Donald Trump vomited a slew of inane, unsophisticated insults at everyone from the ABC News to Mort Zuckerberg.  He went after friends who became enemies (Michael Cohen) , and enemies that became friends (Lindsey Graham) and friends who became enemies who became friends again (Steve Bannon).

Some poor intern at the New York Times was charged with compiling all of Trump’s Twitter insults posted from when he started his candidacy on June 15, 2016 until his account was permanently suspended January 8, 2021.  Some of the greatest hits, from K-Tel:

Philadelphia Inquirer: “Federal prosecutors have charged a Harrisburg woman with stealing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s laptop during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, an allegation FBI agents began probing based on a tip from her former romantic partner. Though authorities made those claims public over the weekend – that Riley Williams, 22, had taken the computer with the intent to sell it to the Russian security services – she was charged Sunday only with disorderly conduct and illegally entering the Capitol as they continued to investigate her purported role in the laptop theft.”

“But in Williams’ first court appearance Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Haughsby announced new charges filed later that day, including new charges of theft of government property and obstruction, felonies carrying potential sentences of up to two decades in prison. He did not say whether investigators had confirmed the claims that Williams wanted to send the stolen laptop to Russia, nor did he indicate whether the computer had been recovered.”

Huffington Post: “A member of the rap duo Insane Clown Posse said an Atlantic article that trashed the group and its fans by comparing them to Donald Trump’s presidency was ‘off the mark.’ On Tuesday, Atlantic writer Graeme Wood published a piece titled ‘What to Do With Trumpists’ in which he invoked Juggalos – the affectionate name for fans of ICP – in his commentary about the Trump administration, which he referred to as ‘the political equivalent of the Insane Clown Posse.’ Despite themes of violence in ICP’s music, multiple documentaries about Juggalos show they are less interested in the violent lyrics than in the sense of community the rap duo fosters.”

“Violent J, who formed ICP with Shaggy 2 Dope, told HuffPost in a series of texts that he found Wood’s description to be inaccurate. ‘I can’t believe TheAtlantic.com would hire a writer, presumably for his expertise in journalism who’s that off the mark, as well as an editor for his or her fact checking abilities who obviously lives within a reality separate from our own when it comes to defining who Juggalos truly are and what they’re about,’ he wrote. Unlike Trump, ICP also showed leadership in the fight against the coronavirus. The group canceled its yearly Gathering of the Juggalos the same month the president was downplaying the virus. In a follow-up text, Violent J said he was hurt to see Wood’s mischaracterization of the Juggalo community. ‘The truth is it fuckin’ hurts and [it’s] scary seeing professional adults acting like savage bullies,’ he said, noting that ICP fans make ‘easy targets because they’re so misunderstood.’ He added: ‘sad little bullshit like this makes me question the media in general!'”

“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. The White House declined to comment. It’s unclear how serious Mr. Trump is about starting a new party, which would require a significant investment of time and resources. The president has a large base of supporters, some of whom were not deeply involved in Republican politics prior to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign” – Wall Street Journal.

Environmental regulations in Los Angeles County have been lifted for crematoria as they face an increasing volume of bodies of people who died from the coronavirus, NPR reports.

At the request of the county’s medical examiner-coroner and public health department, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has lifted some restrictions on put in place to guarantee air quality in the Los Angeles valley.

“The current rate of death is more than double that of pre-pandemic years, leading to hospitals, funeral homes, and crematoriums exceeding capacity without the ability to process the backlog of cases,” officials said.

https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1351677485885362177

On the night prior to their inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, along with their spouses, paid their respects to the 400,000 Americans who have died from the coronavirus in the past eleven months.

With the reflecting pool on the National Mall lined with 400 luminaries, each marking 1,000 people who have died during the pandemic, the President-elect made brief comments which were preceded by words of remembrance from Washington, DC’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Wilton Gregory. 

Scotsman.com: “The Scottish brewers BrewDog are known for their tongue in cheek antics, and have previously trolled Donald Trump by asking fans to name a beer inspired by him. But now, co-founder of BrewDog James Watt is asking the people of Scotland to sign their petition to rename Prestwick Airport – where Trump often flies to when visiting Turnberry – ‘Joe Biden International’. Writing on his social media, James said: ‘Apparently, Donald Trump is scheduled to arrive in Scotland later this week. He always flies into Glasgow Prestwick Airport. So, @BrewDog have started a petition to rename this airport Joe Biden International.'”

Former Fox News host Shepard Smith, now an anchor at CNBC, said that he felt his role at the beleaguered conservative network was to counter the false narratives of the opinion hosts on the network, and he left when he felt that he couldn’t do it anymore.

https://youtu.be/uD9cu1aG99E

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Smith said, “Opine all you like, but if you’re going to opine, begin with the truth and opine from there, and it’s the deviation from that that’s caused me the greatest concern.”