Trump inauguration

[FaxModem1]

Washington Post

The Trump Transition: Trump becomes president
By Elise Viebeck
January 19 at 11:00 PM
It’s Inauguration Day.

It’s happening: By noon Eastern time on Friday, Donald Trump will be president. He arrived in Washington with flair Thursday, speaking to tens of thousands of people at a concert at the Lincoln Memorial and praising his incoming Cabinet during a stop at his downtown hotel.

Trump speaks at concert at Lincoln Memorial Play Video2:19

President-elect Donald Trump attends a concert on the grounds of the Lincoln Memorial on the eve of his inauguration. (Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)
Through it all, Trump remained Trump, abandoning none of his old habits, with less than 24 hours before the inauguration. The president-elect live-tweeted his arrival. He criticized people who underestimated him during the election. And, with characteristic grandiosity, he set the stage for his incoming administration.

“We have by the far the highest IQ of any Cabinet ever assembled,” he said in remarks at the Trump International Hotel.


THE DAY

The inauguration is set to start with opening remarks at 11:30 a.m. Nearly 70 Democratic lawmakers have said they won’t attend. After Trump is sworn in and has lunch at the Capitol, the inaugural parade will be held along Pennsylvania Avenue NW. There are three official inaugural balls Friday night.

It’s unclear whether the real work of governing will begin Friday or Monday, Trump’s first full workday in the White House. He’s made a lot of promises about what he’ll do on Day One as president: Begin building a wall on the Mexican border, end the “war on coal,” label China a currency manipulator. Sean Spicer, his incoming press secretary, said to expect a few logistical executive actions Friday and more Monday.

Two or three of Trump’s nominees may be confirmed by the Senate on Friday: Democrats say they’ll vote on defense secretary pick Gen. James Mattis and homeland security secretary nominee Gen. John F. Kelly. They may also vote on Rep. Mike Pompeo’s nomination for CIA director.

PREPARING FOR PROTESTS

Of course, Trump supporters aren’t the only people coming to Washington this weekend: Tens of thousands of people are expected to stage protests in the city to voice opposition to Trump and his agenda. Law enforcement officials anticipate that more than 60 groups will demonstrate for or against Trump, including the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition, DisruptJ20 and Bikers for Trump.

Anti-Trump protesters surround 'DeploraBall' on eve of inauguration Play Video2:23
Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump and protesters clashed in downtown Washington on Jan. 19, hours before Trump is sworn into office. (Victoria Walker, Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)
DisruptJ20, for example, is planning “a series of massive direct actions that will shut down the Inauguration ceremonies and any related celebrations — the Inaugural parade, the Inaugural balls, you name it,” according to its website. Another group, DCMJ, which supports marijuana legalization in the District, plans to hand out 4,200 joints before marching to the Mall, our colleague wrote.

CAN TRUMP HEAL THE COUNTRY’S DIVISIONS?


This is the question that dominates conversation in the nation’s capital. After an election that was fought, as our colleague wrote, “over elemental questions of character, honesty, temperament and national identity” — an election in which Russia interfered and Trump lost the popular vote — powerful divisions remain. Most presidents make national healing and renewal an early theme of their administrations. It’s still unclear whether Trump, who won in part by stoking conflict, will choose to follow suit.

THE SCENE AT TRUMP’S HOTEL

It’s not just a symbol of Trump’s potential conflicts of interest: The Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW has become a round-the-clock hub for visitors, inauguration guests and Trump aides celebrating the new administration. Rates were up five times higher than normal this week, and rooms required a minimum stay of five nights. “Nobody wants to go to bed,” a Dallas investor told The Washington Post.

Today is the first day of the Trump Administration. Discuss his speech and celebration here.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Watching the coverage here in the UK, according to the analysts the "America First" spiel means isolationism. I get the feeling the Brexiteers aren't feeling quite so smug right now The whole "make America great again". I thought it was pretty great already...

And hell will freeze over before the unity Trump is trying to create actually materialises.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The elephant in the room is that this is how liberty dies: with thunderous applause.

[Lagmonster]

I've ignored the coronation in favour of spending some time trying to achieve perspective. I'm re-reading stuff from 2000 and 2008, just to see if political 'losing' and 'winning' for the American public looks the same from every angle.

[Khaat]

Creepy Uncle Don shit in the speech:

An education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.

Edit: typo!

[Ralin]

"And he used the word 'God', which is something not usually done by the president."

And now begins four years of President Trump restoring integrity, compassion and the rule of law to American politics.

Watching the coverage here in the UK, according to the analysts the "America First" spiel means isolationism. I get the feeling the Brexiteers aren't feeling quite so smug right now The whole "make America great again". I thought it was pretty great already...

And hell will freeze over before the unity Trump is trying to create actually materialises.

Yeah, I don't watch much TV news but on the stream I watched that was the first thing they talked about.

Seriously, out of all that isolationism is the scariest thing they take away from it?

[Starglider]

I'm re-reading stuff from 2000 and 2008, just to see if political 'losing' and 'winning' for the American public looks the same from every angle.

A worthwhile exercise. The conservative doom-mongering from 2008 and the liberal overreaction from 2016 do share a lot of similarities. 2000, not so much. You can go right back into the 80s in Usenet archives. While heated political arguments and name-calling are a constant, the separation into almost wholly disjoint communities and worldviews has steadily increased over time, as has fear of the opposition and the consequences of losing an election.

[The Romulan Republic]

Watching the coverage here in the UK, according to the analysts the "America First" spiel means isolationism. I get the feeling the Brexiteers aren't feeling quite so smug right now The whole "make America great again". I thought it was pretty great already...

And hell will freeze over before the unity Trump is trying to create actually materialises.

I don't think he actually has any desire to try. He feeds off of divisiveness, hate, and bigotry.

He's just being his usual contradictor self I'm guessing, which I think is at least as much deliberate obfuscation as idiocy on his part.

If their's one thing Trump is good at, its manipulation. He's a con man who just pulled off the biggest con in history.

As to the inauguration- I did not watch it, I will not watch it. Instead I joined the boycott by those who don't want to give that egotist ratings. I tried to find out if their were any local protest rallies against Trump, but since I'm living in a small city in Canada right now, no luck. So I'm wearing my Hillary 2016 button one last time today, as a way of protesting an inauguration that I feel is illegitimate and undemocratic.

[Joun_Lord]

While I don't think this is the rise of Palpatine and the end of the world rolled into one I would be lying if I said I wasn't be a little panicy about the fucker becoming the President.

However while Trump is a bit different in the fact he is an extremely wealthy, former New York liberal (some might debate whether he still is or just a whore), who seemed to want the Presidency just for the fame it would bring him, ultimately I think this isn't going to be too different from any other Presidency.

There will be some shit we don't like and maybe even some shit we do, there will be some shit that causes great stress (repealing Obamacare without a suitable and hopefully superior replacement is one for me), some things that make people give grudging respect, some things that make peoples opinions go even lower, and there will be fear mongering everywhere.

That is the real thing why I'm not worried. Being a bit of political outsider being somehow who somehow, someway, supports gun rights and gay rights I've seen both sides of the aisle and the fears they have. In the 08 election it would be the end of the world, we'd be at war with Russia in days if Palin was elected (strangely I don't remember all that much fear mongering about McCain, he seemed to mostly be a non-entity and it was expected he'd die rapidly in office) and Obama would turn America into a muslim theocracy, ban all guns, and destroy America.

In the 2012 election Obama was still going to turn America into a muslim theocracy and ban all guns and destroy America but he was just waiting until he no longer needed to worry about running for President and these things take time you understand, he's gotta do them at his own pace also would you like to buy .22 ammo only 10 dollars a box and Colt AR mags for the low low price of 99 dollars. Romney was an evil gay hating extreme conservative who would sell off our monuments and national parks for a profit.

Strangely we aren't all wearing turbans and America is still relatively intact, Chucklefucks Norris didn't even become President of Texas or anything. And I don't think we'd be in a terrible position with a McCain presidency, Palin presidency, or even a Romney presidency. Would they be nice? Probably not, especially for some groups, especially for the economy. Thats not all that different from what we got, some groups (though different groups) got shit on and the economy was made worse.

I'm not expecting any miracles out of the Trump administration but I'm also not expecting too many horrors. It will ultimately be survivable if nothing else.

Hopefully.

[The Romulan Republic]

I don't think Trump was ever a liberal (or if he was, he was a piss-poor one- he has a pretty much life long record of racism and misogyny). Nor do I think he is a sincere Right wing ideologue.

He is, quite simply, a narcissist, egomaniac, and in all likelihood a sociopath. He cares for himself. End of story. Everything else is a con, to manipulate the people and the system by any means available. Or at the very least, any other "principles" that he may have (warped though they are) take a back seat to his ego and self-interest.

I also feel that comparing peoples' fears about Trump to those about previous politicians, particularly the obviously ridiculous and often racism-based fears about Obama, is a terrible false equivalency. Too many people are shrugging off Trump as "oh, he'll be bad, but at the end of the day he's just another President", and his critics as sore losers.

But this is not business as usual. You tell me the last President-elect who had a) been endorsed by the KKK, b) confessed to sexual assault on tape to a reporter, and c) was facing serious investigation by multiple agencies and foreign governments over the possibility that he, or at least his campaign and close associates, colluded with Russia to win the White House. Among many other examples.

No, this is unprecedented, and it should be treated as such.

[Raj Ahten]

I was very ambivalent about trekking downtown to see the inauguration first hand and finally decided to go. I didn't arrive until the speech was over but I did get a good look at the crowds and so forth. What struck me most was how white it was with at least 90 percent of the public being white people. It felt like I was at a county fair in Idaho. Also the security seems to get heavier with each inauguration. I don't remember nearly as much fencing in past events. There were various protesters moving about as well but overall things were very low key. Not that many people around either compared to years past.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, I'm glad it was peaceful and orderly. I had heard their was a group planning to block the path of the inauguration parade, so I was rather worried. As much as I loath Trump, I don't want to see violence, and the inauguration, where security is justifiably very tight, is not the place to do anything that might give Trump a pretext for a heavy-handed crackdown.

[FaxModem1]

NPR

In D.C., Group Of Protesters Breaks Windows; Police Use Pepper Spray

January 20, 201711:38 AM ET
CAMILA DOMONOSKE
Twitter

An inauguration protest in Washington, D.C., turned confrontational on Friday, as several hundred black-clad protesters broke windows and police responded with pepper spray and a concussive device.

The violence broke out in Northwest D.C., not directly along the parade route.

Patrick Madden, a reporter for member station WAMU, reports that protesters were running through streets, breaking windows with hammers and knocking over trash cans.

He says police, some wearing riot gear, chased the protesters on motorcycles and used the pepper spray and an unidentified concussive device to subdue the demonstration.


At one point, a group of protesters charged and broke the police line, Madden reports.

Video from the area, posted by veteran protest live-streamer Tim Pool, showed police tightly surrounding a group of people coughing from the pepper spray.

Several people on the video identified themselves as lawyers who were observing the protest, and said they were not participating in the protest when they were caught in the group of people being hemmed in by police.

The self-identified lawyers in the group were particularly vocal that their detainment was unjustified.

Meanwhile, at checkpoints along the parade route and sites around downtown D.C., supporters of President-elect Donald Trump gathered to celebrate the inauguration, while other anti-Trump protests continued peacefully.

NPR's Jessica Taylor described on some of the other protests on NPR's live coverage of the inauguration:

"NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports that there were dozens of protesters chanting 'No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!' and 'We are united!' in Spanish just outside the security checkpoint at 12th and E streets NW, a block away from the Trump International Hotel. 'They're next to people waiting to be screened to enter the parade viewing area. One Trump supporter yelled back in response, "Go Trump!" ' Wang reports. ...
Black Lives Matter protesters have positioned themselves outside D.C. police headquarters, according to NPR's Joe Shapiro. Janaya Khan, pictured below, led a group of about 80 people in a chant saying, "That is not my president.' "
At around 11:30 a.m. EST, a Secret Service spokesperson said all demonstrations are "under police control," NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Riots

[The Romulan Republic]

Utterly predictable, but idiotic. And the longer it continues, the more likely Trump will do something like deploy the National Guard or his private security on protesters.

[Raj Ahten]

NPR

In D.C., Group Of Protesters Breaks Windows; Police Use Pepper Spray

January 20, 201711:38 AM ET
CAMILA DOMONOSKE
Twitter

An inauguration protest in Washington, D.C., turned confrontational on Friday, as several hundred black-clad protesters broke windows and police responded with pepper spray and a concussive device.

The violence broke out in Northwest D.C., not directly along the parade route.

Patrick Madden, a reporter for member station WAMU, reports that protesters were running through streets, breaking windows with hammers and knocking over trash cans.

He says police, some wearing riot gear, chased the protesters on motorcycles and used the pepper spray and an unidentified concussive device to subdue the demonstration.


At one point, a group of protesters charged and broke the police line, Madden reports.

Video from the area, posted by veteran protest live-streamer Tim Pool, showed police tightly surrounding a group of people coughing from the pepper spray.

Several people on the video identified themselves as lawyers who were observing the protest, and said they were not participating in the protest when they were caught in the group of people being hemmed in by police.

The self-identified lawyers in the group were particularly vocal that their detainment was unjustified.

Meanwhile, at checkpoints along the parade route and sites around downtown D.C., supporters of President-elect Donald Trump gathered to celebrate the inauguration, while other anti-Trump protests continued peacefully.

NPR's Jessica Taylor described on some of the other protests on NPR's live coverage of the inauguration:

"NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports that there were dozens of protesters chanting 'No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!' and 'We are united!' in Spanish just outside the security checkpoint at 12th and E streets NW, a block away from the Trump International Hotel. 'They're next to people waiting to be screened to enter the parade viewing area. One Trump supporter yelled back in response, "Go Trump!" ' Wang reports. ...
Black Lives Matter protesters have positioned themselves outside D.C. police headquarters, according to NPR's Joe Shapiro. Janaya Khan, pictured below, led a group of about 80 people in a chant saying, "That is not my president.' "
At around 11:30 a.m. EST, a Secret Service spokesperson said all demonstrations are "under police control," NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Riots

Give me a break. The city has less people in it than a normal Sunday right now if you don't count all the extra army troops everywhere. A couple anarchists does not equal a riot. The protest groups I saw moving around were a few hundred tops with a helicopter shadowing them overhead and a few dozen cops following them everywhere on motorcycles and police cars. Standard procedure in D.C., minus the helicopter. Looked like a standard BLM March to me which I've seen on weekdays moving around the city before with a very hands off and professional police response. I bet if you look at any footage of these riots there will be as many cops and reporters present as rioters. If anything most police I saw looked bored, except right at lefant plaza where crowds were thick exiting the secure zone to get on Metro.

[Raj Ahten]

So just a little more on what I've seen protesters doing in D.C. before and the typical police response. Previously I've encountered BLM folks making the rounds near Chinatown. They march in the street disrupting traffic and move at random with no set March route. The police respond with motorcycles at about a block perimeter around the marchers redirecting traffic and closing roads as needed so no one gets hit by a car and the actual disruption is minimal as motorists are moved around the edges of the protest. Meanwhile a group of police cars and such follows the protesters more directly in case things get dicey. It seems to be a good system for the police as they don't have to get Furgusson style bullshit going on.

[Wild Zontargs]

Trump just Baneposted in his inauguration speech!

[K. A. Pital]

Considering that Trump is the Joker, I have expected more of him.

But let us see his first days in office. Crash NATO, destroy free trade, make America ... uh... America again!

[Raj Ahten]

Apparently I was on the wrong side of the mall for the most part to see where the protests got a bit heated. Still that tells you how localized and small scale any disorder is that unless you are right on top of it you don't even know it's happening without checking live news. From what it sounds like over 90 arrests have been made and police easily outnumber the protesters destroying property. Local news reports have it that after the window smashing started a few hundred cops showed up and completely surrounded the group causing problems and arrested them all.

[Joun_Lord]

I don't think Trump was ever a liberal (or if he was, he was a piss-poor one- he has a pretty much life long record of racism and misogyny). Nor do I think he is a sincere Right wing ideologue.

He is, quite simply, a narcissist, egomaniac, and in all likelihood a sociopath. He cares for himself. End of story. Everything else is a con, to manipulate the people and the system by any means available. Or at the very least, any other "principles" that he may have (warped though they are) take a back seat to his ego and self-interest.

I also feel that comparing peoples' fears about Trump to those about previous politicians, particularly the obviously ridiculous and often racism-based fears about Obama, is a terrible false equivalency. Too many people are shrugging off Trump as "oh, he'll be bad, but at the end of the day he's just another President", and his critics as sore losers.

But this is not business as usual. You tell me the last President-elect who had a) been endorsed by the KKK, b) confessed to sexual assault on tape to a reporter, and c) was facing serious investigation by multiple agencies and foreign governments over the possibility that he, or at least his campaign and close associates, colluded with Russia to win the White House. Among many other examples.

No, this is unprecedented, and it should be treated as such.

Trump has always been a whore. He was very liberals, even friends with the Clintons until around 08ish when he jumped on the birther bandwagon. He jumps on whatever is popular, whatever he thinks can make him come out on top and appealing to right wing morons who don't know their asses from elbows because thats part of sex ed and they preach abstinence only.

I have no doubt he's a narcissist and egomaniac being a businessman but is he really a sociopath or is that media distortion or even your own dislike of him trying to paint him as worse then he is? Don't get me wrong, he's bad, he is as far as I'm concerned a terrible human being (and not only for bringing the Apprentice to life) but he isn't this puppy kicking Patrick Bateman psycho. He's a massive bastard, he isn't evil.......well no more evil then any other politician though he is a triple threat of evil, actor, businessman, and politician. Making him into a cartoon villain creates the problems we have now where people can't believe anything said about him because there was so much hyperbole about the Oompa Loompa fuck.

Peoples fears now are the same as they were previously. All kinds of overblown fears based on exaggerations and outright lies. The same sort of response too, people saying they are going to leave the country, people saying "not my president", the fear, the anger, the hate of anyone who voted differently then them, the blame game, apocalyptic predictions, and the whining, oh Nod the whining. People did that for Shrub, did that for Obungler, did that for all the losers, and will do that for President Dwayne The Rock Johnson in 4 or 8 years. And El Trumpo's critics who continue to use the same fear mongering tactics the assholes did against Obama, and they no doubt whined about, ARE sore losers. Being critical of the fucker is one thing, a good thing, an easy thing with Trump never learning to shut the hell up, making shit up and engaging in fear mongering because they lost is childish, vindictive, and stupid. Also very Fox News-ish.

The last endorsement was Ronald Raygun and like Trump did not accept it. Plus a bunch of inbred backwoods cousin fucking snaggletoothed rednecks morons from the backwoods of places like West Virginia endorsing the white guy over the woman who was besties with the evil muslim black guy during a contentious election when they know they can throw even more fuel on the dumpster fire that was the election shouldn't actually surprise anyone. Plus plus Hillary Clinton got an endorsement from the KKK too. Should we use that endorsement as evidence Clinton was in bed with the KKK or a racist?

Hold on a second while I swallow down my vomit for having to explain Trump's behavior towards women, okay. Trumps grab them by the pussy talk can be construed as stupid ass manly talk to show how large his penis is to his fellow male. Trump is such a jock wannabe meathead thats kinda what he does. He's no different then some handegg player with his bros boozing it up and talking about how they totally score with that cheerleader, how they just bent them over in the locker room and slapped their bottoms red, and gave them the whole girth, and how they totally don't have a shriveled baby penis and an attraction to their bros which you can tell because they totally scored with a woman it totally wasn't macho bravado.

The difference between them and Trump is Trump is not some 16 year old boy and even 16 year old boys usually have the common sense to no record their penis talk. And thats not to say Trump didn't assault women but he's such a piece of shit bastard he could have easily committed actual sexual assault rather then Trump talking about how he is such a stud, there are the numerous allegations by numerous accusers, the allegations he raped his wife. Unfortunately most of those allegations are not provable, timed in such a manner that it appears to be a political smear job even if true, and is all mostly he said she said bullshit. The worse people can prove is Trump saying horribly insensitive crap to a Shrub. That despite there supposedly being tapes of Trump using the n-word (wouldn't surprise me one bit) and Tom Arnold saying he has tapes of Trump saying every foul thing imaginable. No releases though.

To put it plainly I'm not defending Trump alleged and actual misconduct, not saying the allegations are without merit, not saying Trump is a rapey fuck but I am saying is there is little proof, its mostly just allegations

And while not a candidate at the time, Bill Clinton had plenty of allegations too and actual confirmed instances of sleeping with his employees which might not be sexual assault but was certainly hinky with the most powerful man in the world using his power to get into panties. So nothing new about a rapey Commander in Chief and like Trump most of the crap against Billy was allegations unable to be proven

His campaign colluding with the Commies is just allegations, nothing concrete, nothing factual. He did get investigated and nothing. Hillary Clinton got investigated by multiple agencies too and nothing. Getting investigated doesn't mean shit. Clinton did do some underhanded shit to win her the Democratic election, that was far more confirmed then Trump being in bed with the Ruskies.

Again, anything Trump has done is nothing new, it all had precedent. Trump is a piece of shit that should not be President but we've had plenty of candidates who were pieces of shit who shouldn't be President (though usually we don't have two during the same election) and plenty of Presidents who shouldn't have been President. Trump is more of the same.

Now I'm not saying there is no reason to fear him. There is especially for groups that Trump dislikes. But there was reason for some people to fear Obama, reason for some to fear McCain, some to fear Romney, several entire nations to fear Bush, and probably reasons to fear Gore. Also John Kerry existed. But people (mostly) survived those fucks, the nation (mostly) survived.

[Elfdart]

I know I'm a bad person for laughing til my ribs ached as neo-Nazi Richard Spencer got suckerpunched to the tune of the Yes song Roundabout, but it was the tiniest ray of sunshine on a day which shall live in infamy.

[Dragon Angel]

Richard Spencer gets a violin so small from me that it has already left my hand via quantum teleportation to someone infinitely more deserving of it.

I shall shed nary a tear.

[Darth Lucifer]

I only caught bits and pieces on the radio at work, but the thing I remember most was the spiel about foreign aid, blah blah murica furst etc. Trump made it sound like so much money is going to other countries but many people don't know it's less than one percent of our overall federal spending. The link from NPR above breaks it down pretty well.

[Lost Soal]

Anyone in the world who didn't already know how much Trump needed his own self worth reinforced will now be shown as this is the WH briefing room.


"I had big crowds, yuge crowds. I'm popular"

[MKSheppard]

Also the security seems to get heavier with each inauguration. I don't remember nearly as much fencing in past events.

Same here. They basically cut DC in half for people on foot with the parade route. If you wanted to go to the mall, you had to do a circuitous route to get there.