Year: 2017
Lawmakers in Five States Introduced Legislation to Criminalize Peaceful Protests
5
Number of states where Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to criminalize peaceful protests. The Intercept: “On Saturday, the Women’s March on Washington will kick off what opponents of the incoming administration hope will be a new era of demonstrations against the Republican agenda. But in some states, nonviolent demonstrating may soon carry increased legal risks — including punishing fines and significant prison terms — for people who participate in protests involving civil disobedience. Over the past few weeks, Republican legislators across the country have quietly introduced a number of proposals to criminalize and discourage peaceful protest.”
The Con Man Has Reached the ‘Maximal Limits of His Strategy’
The methods of a skilled con artist have worked just barely well enough to deliver the presidency to Trump. But what happens when his grandiose promises fail to materialize? And when the aspects of his program that he never mentioned in his speech — tax cuts for the rich, stripping away health insurance from millions, massive graft — do take place? A con artist who always escaped his old victims and found new ones has reached the maximal limits of his strategy. What happens when the marks are demanding that the promises he made be redeemed, and there is nowhere for him to go, and he commands the powers of the state?
— Jonathan Chait
Trump Lives ‘Down to Expectations’
Twenty minutes into his presidency, Donald Trump, who is always claiming to have made, or to be about to make, astonishing history, had done so. Living down to expectations, he had delivered the most dreadful inaugural address in history.
— George Will
There’s No ‘Alternative’
Our new prez is notorious for his Twitter attacks,
And his disdain for the press as libelous hacks.
But veracity’s the victim
When he pulls statistics from his rectum,
But wait — they’re not lies — they’re “alternative facts.”
Americans Believe Nation’s Divisions Will Persist
86%
Of Americans describe the country as more politically divided today than in the past, while just 12% say the country is no more divided, a new Pew Research survey finds. “The nature of the country’s political divisions is a rare point of partisan agreement: Comparable majorities of Democrats and Democratic leaners (88%) and Republicans and Republican leaners (84%) say the country is more divided these days than in the past.”
A Demagogue Crowned
The inauguration — it’s hard to ignore.
There’s pomp, there’s circumstance galore!
In the drizzly gloom,
Some read portents of doom,
But really, we can’t imagine what Trump has in store.
Russian Nationalists Celebrate Trump Inauguration
Washington will be ours.
— Konstantin Rykov, a former pro-Putin lawmaker and one of the promoters of an all-night party for Russian nationalists at what used to be the main Soviet-era post office in Moscow to celebrate Donald Trump’s inauguration, Reuters reports. Rykov said on social media it was right to celebrate the first phase of the “New World Order.”
It’s Donald’s Inauguration Day …
Donald Trump’s inauguration by the numbers, according to Reuters
- 900,000: The number of people expected to attend, including protesters; about half the amount of President Obama’s inauguration.
- 20: The expected duration, in minutes, of Trump’s inauguration speech.
- 105: The longest inaugural speech, in minutes. It was delivered by William Henry Harrison in 1841 in a snowstorm. He wasn’t wearing a hat or coat. He died of pneumonia a month later.
- 270,000: The number of protesters expected to converge on Washington.
