Liberally Lean From The Land Of Dairy Queen

1.22.2025

The time Tiger Woods had a tooth knocked out.

Trump and his clan attended the traditional inaugural prayer service yesterday morning and heard a sermon of compassion. Watching them all squirm was pretty entertaining.

You are either going to care about this story or you won't, but this is pretty wild. He was serving a life sentence for creating the Amazon of drug trafficking stores (and probably hired a hitman or two):

I've written about this book before and it is absolutely fantastic.
When I visited the now-closed Newseum in D.C. a few years back and went through an FBI exhibit, they were so proud of the case they even had his seized laptop on display. I snapped this picture.
Trump, in his announcement, could have a least spelled his name right. (By the way, the "scum" Trump is referring to is the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. Strange times.)

New this morning: U.S. Attorneys will be keeping an eye on local police departments and sheriff's offices.
Hey, what happened to this promise?
Random Insurrection Pardon notes:

Rep. Lauren Boebert went to the federal prison in D.C. yesterday:
"Granbury-native Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers extremist group, was released from federal custody three years into his 18-year sentence for seditious conspiracy after being commuted." As expected, he showed no remorse.
It's really no surprise how basically every Republican lawmaker wouldn't condemn the pardons yesterday. That's because they fear Trump and his mob. No one will stop him this time.

As we gear up for mass deportations, Trump held a press conference yesterday and showed he had no idea what that the H1-B visas are: "I know the program very well. I use the program, maître d's, wine experts, even waiters, high quality waiters. You got to get the best people." Video. Sheesh.
The Business Second™. Netflix prices are going up again.
I didn't mention President Biden pardoning five family members yesterday because it made perfect sense to me. He had to protect them against a madman who is capable of doing anything to anyone for no reason.

Ten years ago I wondered if the Wise County's Sheriff's employee who was wanted for murder would ever be caught. I think he's still out there.

In an afront to rule of law, decency and all things good and holy, Trump followed though on his campaign promise to pardon the January 6th Insurrectionists yesterday. This is now who we are. This is now America. And make no mistake, another insurrection will occur. If you don't like an election's results, you've been given permission to overthrow the government in the future because there will be no consequences. Political violence has been given the green light.

Everyone was pardoned with the exception of 14 "commutations" - those who had there sentences terminated but not pardoned. But Trump left open the possibility of a full pardon for them.
And a little noticed aspect of the executive order is that Trump "directed" his acting Attorney General to dismiss all pending cases for those who have not yet been convicted. So he is already telling an "independent" AG who to prosecute.
The Proud Boys were back in D.C. yesterday. Trump now has his Stormtroopers. They no longer have to "Stand back and stand by." And with the pardons for their leaders, the group is now unconstrained to commit violence

And moments after swearing to protect and defend the constitution, Trump signed an executive order deleting a portion of the 14th Amendment. And for all those saying, "He can't do that", just watch. No one will stop him this time around.
Deep breath. Scenes from yesterday:
Trump's rare kiss of his wife was blocked by her hat.
Bezo's girlfriend forgot her top
Elon went all Nazi with a salute. Video,

The Mavs owner had a front row seat

Barron is a strange bird
Weather news distraction: It's snowing in Houston right now and on the beach in Galveston.
It's about to get much worse. And I'm not talking about the weather . . .

This story even made its way to the Drudge Report.

Today's the day. Moment of silence, please.
Big breaking news: A highly unusual act just happened in response to a highly dangerous man and his movement. It is only shocking in that it had to be done in the United States.

In the back, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook (partially obscured), and Jeff Bezos were sitting together. And that's the CEO of Google behind Zuckerberg.

As you've heard, the Inauguration will be moved inside the Capitol today presumably due to the weather. Thoughts and prayers to the folks who put up all those chairs and then had to take them all down again again.
TikTok summary:

Last year Congress, with Democrats and Republicans agreeing, passed a law to ban TikTok because it is owned by the Chinese and the U.S. fears data collection.
The Supreme Court upheld the law on Friday.
TikTok, in a political stunt, went "dark" on Saturday earlier than yesterday's deadline to divest.
Then Trump, who has no power to do so, says he will suspend the law for 90 days. His reason? He likes TikTok because he believes it helped him get elected.
Underreported side note: He thinks the U.S. government, which he will now control, should own 50% of the company.
TikTok goes live again yesterday, and the CEO will be by Trump's side at the inauguration today.

Trump just saying he won't enforce a duly enacted law should send shock waves through everyone, but it won't. But this is just the beginning. He will do whatever he wants and there is no one in place to stop him this time.
The government owning 50% of TikTok and taking it by force? Hey, what's it called when the government nationalizes a company and "seizes the means of production"?
Flashback from five years ago:

Trump started the worst kind of grift over the weekend. And then his grifter wife followed suit.
Trump has an odd pre-inaugural rally yesterday at the basketball arena in D.C.

Afterwards, he had the Village People on stage.
But the only person he invited on stage with him during the speech was . . . you guessed it.

There was some good news in the Israel/Hamas saga yesterday as the first part of the prison exchange went off without a hitch: