#american inauguration

[here-a-lee-there-a-lee]

James Madison at his Inaugural Ball in 1809

#margaret bayard smith #dolley payne todd #dolley madison #james madison #founding fathers #shitpost #thomas jefferson #inaugural ball #presidency #american presidents #colonial america #1809 #inauguration day #scrumptious meals

[fictionadventurer]

Good news! The channel that plays only old History Channel documentaries had a day entirely devoted to American presidents, so I have a lot more president facts to share with you!

(Important note that I have fact-checked nothing. I am only spouting off trivia the way I would if you were here for me to info-dump at).

Andrew Jackson's wife died soon after he was elected president, and he believed her death was caused by the vicious attacks against her during the election. Because he apparently lived his life as though he were a Shakespeare character, he said something along the lines of, "On the grave of this saint, I forgive all my political and personal enemies, but as for those who slandered her, they must look to God for mercy."

When William Jennings Bryan ran against William McKinley in 1896, he went on an epic nationwide whistle-stop campaign. Though he never drank alcohol, he reeked of liquor throughout his tour--because he was using gin as a deodorant! Instead of stopping to bathe, he would wipe himself down with gin to mask his body odor.

After Harry Truman, it became the practice for both presidential nominees to get security briefings months before the election, so when they came into office they'd be up-to-date on world events--with the understanding that all this info was strictly confidential. When Richard Nixon heard that LBJ's administration was putting together peace talks to end the Vietnam War, he went to the South Vietnamese and told them to refuse to go to the table, because if they waited until he was in office, they'd get a better deal. LBJ found out and told the head of the Republican Party to tell Nixon to stop it, because this was treason. Nixon called LBJ back and said this story was untrue and he had nothing to do with any such actions. LBJ knew he was lying, but only because he'd been secretly recording sessions with the South Vietnamese, so he couldn't do anything without exposing his own actions. Because of this, South Vietnam never came to the bargaining table, and the war dragged on more than five years longer.

When Ronald Reagan was shot by an assassin, Soviet submarine activity increased near US shores, and people thought this might be part of a Soviet attack. George Bush, the vice president, was (I think) in Texas at the time, and immediately started flying back to Washington, but his plane didn't have a secure phone line, so he couldn't be in charge of the country, and people weren't sure who was next in line. Both the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense believed that they should be in charge. The press also wanted to know who was in charge, but the press secretary was doing a terrible job at the press briefing, essentially saying that they didn't know who was in command. The Secretary of State then sprinted into the briefing room, took the microphone, and assured everyone that there was a clear chain of command, and he was in charge. The only problem was that he was wrong--he'd completely forgotten that both the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate ranked ahead of him.

At the time this documentary was made (2016), Dick Cheney held the record for the shortest presidency. The president is allowed to temporarily hand over power to the vice president if he's going to be incapacitated. George W. Bush made use of this rule twice when he was going in for colonoscopies, so Dick Cheney served as president for a total of four hours.

#history is awesome #presidential talk #i was babysitting the nephew who was very very fussy #so i was stuck in one room for hours with tv on in the background #this happy coincidence made it rather enjoyable and nephew now has a good grounding in american history #only trouble was that once i finally got a reprieve from babysitting i wanted to keep watching the documentary about elections #they were just about to start lincoln! #i watched through lincoln and mckinley's elections and then even i'd had enough #the lincoln stuff lined up well with what i've read #and i was very glad to have read it because i wouldn't have followed their telling if i didn't have background #i had a minor issue with a line about 'a series of weak presidents had appeased the south for years with compromises' #when zachary taylor's face showed up in that line-up i yelled at the tv 'zachary taylor never compromised on anything in his life!' #the slander! #it's also interesting to see old documentaries and how history changes #the one about early presidents was from 1996 and pushed the 'harrison died of pneumonia after his long inaugural address' narrative #jefferson's slave mistress story was only 'many historians believe this to be true' and not 'tear-down-his-statues settled fact' #among other things this experience made me more appreciative of the merits of broadcast tv #even if these things were available on streaming i'd never pick '1996 presidential elections documentary' on my own #i need some guy desperate to fill airtime to curate this for me

[justarandomgirly]

#my gifs #lady gaga #anthem #star spangled banner #american anthem #sing #singing #inauguration

[banned-library]

THE HILL WE CLIMB by Amanda Gorman. (New York: Penguin, 2021) Introduction by Oprah Winfrey.

Banned because one woman in Florida mistakenly believed that Oprah was the author and that the poem might contain racist material.

#book blog #books #banned books #book cover #books books books #bookaholic #african american #black americans #inaugural poem #amanda gorman #poetry

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“CROWD OF 200,000 SEE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AT WASHINGTON,” Kingston Whig-Standard. March 7, 1933. Page 10.   ---- A crowd of 200,000 flocked to Washington on Saturday to see the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States. (1) Herbert Hoover, the retiring president, clasping the hand of President-elect Roosevelt, as the former steps into the car for the parade to the Capitol (2) After the inauguration President Roosevelt gives the crowd the old handshake, as he and Mrs. Roosevelt leave the scene of the ceremony (3) A view in front of the Capiol as Mr. Roosevelt takes the oath of office administered by Charles Evans Hughes, chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court (4) From a glass-encased stand, the President reviews trim ranks of bluejackets, filing past in salute. To his right is General Douglas MacArthur, chief of staff of the army.

#washington dc #presidential inauguration #1932 american presidential election #president of the united states #fdr #franklin delano roosevelt #united states history #united states politics #the great depression

[obtener2]

"There is really no crisis except an artificial one...If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the trouble will come to an end." Abraham Lincoln, 2-15-1861, en-route to his inauguration

A Family and Nation Under Fire #iBooks https://goo.gl/SAVc8A #nook https://goo.gl/DSQXGu #Amazon: https://goo.gl/A3brGd KSU Press http://goo.gl/Z3z4Xs

"The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they have referred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The people themselves can do this if also they choose, but the Executive as such has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present Government as it came to his hands and to transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor." Lincoln First Inaugural address 1861

#president #lincoln #inauguration #1861 #american civil war #photooftheday

[likeabxrdinflight]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it's actually a bit disingenuous to say that america, as it exists today, is not in any way a christian nation. it's true that it is not legally a christian nation, that its political bodies were not intended to be theocratic and that the concept of religious freedom and separation of church and state are intrinsic to the constitution. it should never have an official religion, least of all christianity.

but I mean. let's be honest with ourselves. there is no religion more thoroughly baked into american culture than christianity. it's everywhere, and has been everywhere since the colonial period. you see it in our music, you see it in our literature and films, it's in our holidays and customs and cultural practices. and it is in politics, whether we like it or not (and trust me, I do not.)

this is what people mean when they talk about cultural christianity in the us. there's no way around it- even if you yourself are not christian and/or have never been christian, you're surrounded by it. you're going to encounter it, you're going to see it, you might even be influenced by it. if nothing else, you will have to contend with it and you will have to contend with its influence on broader american culture. you just will.

I don't think it helps discourse to deny reality. separation of church and state is essential to maintain and religious freedom must be preserved and protected, religion should have no place in government as the founders intended, and...america is predominantly a culturally christian nation.

#...this post was inspired by of all things an instagram reel parodying battle hymn of the republic #but that particular song is a perfect microcosm of my point here #the song was written in the context of the american civil war #it's a patriotic song #written by an abolitionist #it's about a very specific historical and cultural time period and yet it has survived in the american cultural lexicon to this day #the song is referenced in the title of grapes of wrath which is a seminal piece of american literature #you've seen and heard it parodied and referenced a thousand times #it's played at inaugurations and important political events and sometimes sports games #it's used in movies and tv #I promise you that you know battle hymn of the republic if you grew up here #and what is the most famous lyric that isn't the refrain? #“as he died to make men holy let us die to make men free” #it's a fucking reference to jesus #I mean the whole song is religious #that is the definition of cultural christianity

[rachelspoetrycorner]

Praise Song For The Day (2009) by Elizabeth Alexander

In Episode 270, Rachel shares another inaugural poem!

Rachel: Like, I love being hopeful.

Griffin: Sure!

Rachel: Which is probably not unique to me. [laughs] But I am always willing to fall for it. Like, you put the right words together, I'm like, “Yes! Yes! Things are going to be better!”

If you’d like to hear about Alexander's poem, you can do so here: Harma and Reg, from 6:00 - 18:20

#poetry #rachel mcelroy #griffin mcelroy #poem #Elizabeth Alexander #poet #Praise Song For The Day #writing #words #literature #hope #people #inaugural poem #inauguration #politics #this american life #united states of america #country #government #USA #barack obama #obama presidency #wonderful! #wonderful! podcast #rachel’s poetry corner #episode 270

[zanathan-aisling]

rewatched paranoia agent by proxy (reaction youtube), feeling emotionally akin to warm yet raw eggs again. great.

#i hate that i unlock my enlightened discourse centrist powers when this happens #like. that 'voting for biden as a practical decision because the repub candidates would all be worse on the issues he's fucking bad on alre #already' and 'jesus fucking christ this isn't democracy so why shouldn't the american minority demographics hold themselves hostage for som #NUDGING of the democratic political platform' (....the democrats will let us die though. like they won't budge. some will make concessions #but not many and not the ones with the ability to change didly dick) are both technically 'correct' viewpoints to have #and no i don't think things will get anywhere better for minorities in the united states where its headed even with a dem in the white hous #well at least BECAUSE of that. the republican followup to the last two we've had will still kill more. it'd still be GOOD to avoid that. #g-d the Dem party will let themselves die before they move meaningfully left though. #on one hand we have a rock gently sliding to crush us and on the other hand we have another rock moving much faster to do the same #and of course going out of their way to kill human beings en masse abroad #like if the democrat's pet minorities can't meaningfully withhold the vote then what the fuck is the point??? and we CAN'T. #not for president!!!! #(still get fucking involved with elections besides Presidential #pickings will still be slim in terms of 'good' but its not a fucking sham) #just. fucking. mutual aid and direct in-person organization. #join a fuckin org try reading some shit about sociology and political activism advocate for tenants rights and voting rights for criminals #& voting access for all #(those last two things wouldn't fix a presidential election but working to better democratize the rest of the system could give fucking spa #in years where there actually IS a primary maybe shit will be slightly less greusome. though i'll be fuckin rich if any presidential candid #candidate manages to stay true to their fig leaves to the progressives come inauguration #ALSO FORM A FUKIN UNION #MAKE ART!!!! #NOT JUST POLITICAL ART!!! MAKE ART IN GENERAL!!!!! APPRECIATE EACH OTHERS ART!!!!!! CONSUME LESS CORPO SLOP!!!!!!!!! LOVE EACH OTHER AND #OURSELVES!!!!! #to clarify by 'we cant meaningfully withhold our vote' that doesn't mean we have an imperative not to. i mean that if we withhold it #nothing will change about the democrats besides them getting pissy and at bwoerst they lose the election to the kill everyone now party #it WOULD continue to good!radicalize the american voterbase though possibly but that could also happen if we all voted for biden again and #he kept doing not enough (good stuff #he can do bad quite clearly)

[odinsblog]

This year’s Super Bowl was a weapon of mass distraction. If there’s any justice, future generations will remember the game not for Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, or Taylor Swift but for the US-funded attacks on Palestinian civilians that occurred while so many Americans were glued to their TVs. During the game, watched by well over 100 million people in the United States, Israel launched a bombing raid of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, the most densely populated area on earth. More than 1 million people had fled now-leveled Gaza City to the refugee camps in Rafah and surrounding areas. Palestinians who have survived previous Israeli strikes are now staving off disease, destitution, and fear.

Meanwhile, CBS granted the Israeli government space for an ad about the 130 hostages left in Gaza. This ad, meant to build public support and justify the slaughter of nearly 30,000 civilians in Gaza, spurred 10,000 people to register complaints with the FCC, because the commercial did not disclose that a foreign government had paid for it. Coupled with the Rafah raid, this looks more like military synergy than happenstance. 

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft also spent $7 million on an ad from his organization Foundation to Combat Anti-Semitism. It features Clarence Jones, a 93-year-old former speech writer for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Kraft and other pro-war billionaires use the memory of King so much, they should be paying his family indulgences for slandering his name. The ad failed to mention that Kraft has given $1 million to pro-war AIPAC and donated $1 million in 2016 to Donald Trump’s inauguration. Given that Kraft says that the Nazi march in Charlottesville was his motivation to start his foundation (Charlottesville was the one with “good people on both sides,” according to Trump), his hypocrisy is insidious.

Kraft and Israel want the same thing: a blank check to uproot Palestinians from Gaza and build settlements. One can also only imagine if a peace organization tried to buy an ad asking Israel and the United States the question: “How many dead children will be enough?” I suspect it would be denied faster than a public-service announcement about concussions.

(continue reading)

#politics #palestine #gaza #rafah #israel #robert kraft #super bowl massacre #super bowl #stop jewish hate #all eyes on rafah #hasbara #aipac

[tomorrowusa]

The dubious president comments on the undoubted king.

We remember Trump’s hissy fit over the meager size of the crowd at his “American Carnage” inauguration. It was one of the first of his 30,573 lies as president. 

#donald trump #inauguration crowd size #american carnage #20 january 2017 #charles iii #coronation #jimmy margulies

[justarandomgirly]

#my gifs #lady gaga #anthem #american anthem #inauguration #sing #star spangled banner

[whatisonthemoon]

Evangelicals unaware inaugural event was sponsored by Unification leader (2001)

By Todd Starnes, January 23, 2001

WASHINGTON (BP)–Evangelical leaders, including many Southern Baptists, were unaware that the Jan. 19 Inaugural Prayer Luncheon for Unity and Renewal was sponsored and by Sun Myung Moon, founder of The Washington Times and the Unification Church.

The prayer luncheon, held in Washington, featured more than 1,400 of the nation’s leading ministers, civic and political leaders. A delegation of Southern Baptist leaders was in attendance, including SBC President James Merritt, Executive Committee President and Chief Executive Officer Morris H. Chapman, and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Richard Land.

Other Southern Baptists in attendance were Paul Pressler of Houston, Houston pastor Ed Young of Second Baptist Church and Prestonwood Baptist Church pastor Jack Graham from the Dallas area.

“I was shocked to see that Sun Myung Moon was on the program and in essence, the host,” Chapman said. “I was even more surprised on the way out of the banquet hall to be given a propaganda book on the Unification Church.” Merritt, who delivered a tribute to evangelist Billy Graham, said he was stunned to learn that the event was sponsored by Moon’s church.

“We knew that it was going to be an interdenominational event, but we had no idea that the luncheon was hosted by the Moonies,” said Merritt, pastor of an Atlanta-area church. “My invitation to the event came through Doug Wead.”

Wead, a former White House senior staffer for George Bush, was one of the organizers of the luncheon. In his invitation to Merritt, no reference was made of Moon’s participation or sponsorship. Wead could not be reached for comment.

“I didn’t even see the program until I got there,” Merritt said. “I had no idea this was the nature of the meeting. I believe this incident will teach us to be a little more judicious.”

Pressler, a Baptist layman who played a key role in launching the conservative resurgence within the SBC, said he, too, was surprised.

“This was completely unanticipated,” Pressler said. “I was not pleasantly surprised by the focus of the luncheon.”

The luncheon featured such well-known evangelicals as Jerry Falwell, the Urban Alternative’s Tony Evans, and Trinity Broadcasting Network’s Paul Crouch. Former National Evangelical Associational President Don Argue also supported the event.

The luncheon included an address from Moon as well as complimentary copies of one of his books and other Unification Church materials.

Once Merritt realized the intent of the luncheon, he decided to use his time to honor Graham as an opportunity to share the gospel message.

“It did give me and several others a chance to preach and share the gospel,” Merritt said. “So hopefully, we took what could have been a bad situation and used it for good.”

Chapman said Merritt handled the situation admirably.

“The redeeming feature was the strong witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ given by Dr. Merritt and other Christian guests,” Chapman said.

Pressler, too, said he was pleased with Merritt’s handling of the event.

“Dr. Merritt was superb,” Pressler said. “He was able to use his time on the platform to not only honor Billy Graham, but share the gospel.”

Chapman said the experience “will serve to remind evangelical Christians that the world increasingly is filled with wolves in sheep’s clothing.”

https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/evangelicals-unaware-inaugural-event-was-sponsored-by-unification-leader/

#national prayer breakfast #billy graham #doug wead #unification church in the usa #american church #unification church in the united states #unification church in the united states of america #Unification Church #Sun Myung Moon #politics #us politics #southern baptist convention #evangelicalism #Inaugural Prayer Luncheon for Unity and Renewal

[communist-ojou-sama]

I really do have an honest question for libshit voteblues, and it seems like it isn't an honest question because that's what I call them but it's merely an honest descriptor:

Anyway, two questions.

Question the first: If Republicans have managed to game the formal structure of the democratic system so that they threaten to end it each and every election cycle, and the proximate consequence is transition to a fascist dictatorship under God Emperor Trump and his Project 2025, then what the FUCK is the appeal of democracy supposed to be? Why are we supposed to fight to keep this system in place instead of inaugurating some other system that categorically excludes fascists from access to political power?

And closely related question the second: if you really believe, if you really, really believe that the Republicans are getting ready to send my family and me back to the plantations and open up death camps for every central American immigrant and Muslim in the country, then why aren't you moving to make the Republican party fucking illegal? Why aren't you firebombing their offices or assassinating their ideologues? Because that's what people have done in the past in similar situations and your insistence on simply forestaying their sweep into power until 4 years later is not commensurate with the seriousness of the consequences in imminent loss of life that you're claiming to believe is at stake.

#idk what tags to add so that libshits would see this but i genuinely want them to try to answer this #because I am genuinely asking it seriously #2024 elections

[steveyockey]

Measuring purely by confirmed kills, the worst mass murderer ever executed by the United States was the white supremacist terrorist Timothy McVeigh. On April 19, 1995, McVeigh detonated a massive bomb at the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, including 19 children. The government killed McVeigh by lethal injection in June 2001. Whatever hesitation a state execution provokes, even over a man such as McVeigh — necessary questions about the legitimacy of killing even an unrepentant soldier of white supremacy — his death provided a measure of closure to the mother of one of his victims. “It’s a period at the end of a sentence,” said Kathleen Treanor, whose 4-year old McVeigh killed.

McVeigh, who in his own psychotic way thought he was saving America, never remotely killed on the scale of Kissinger, the most revered American grand strategist of the second half of the 20th century.

The Yale University historian Greg Grandin, author of the biography Kissinger’s Shadow, estimates that Kissinger’s actions from 1969 through 1976, a period of eight brief years when Kissinger made Richard Nixon’s and then Gerald Ford’s foreign policy as national security adviser and secretary of state, meant the end of between three and four million people. That includes “crimes of commission,” he explained, as in Cambodia and Chile, and omission, like greenlighting Indonesia’s bloodshed in East Timor; Pakistan’s bloodshed in Bangladesh; and the inauguration of an American tradition of using and then abandoning the Kurds.

No infamy will find Kissinger on a day like today. Instead, in a demonstration of why he was able to kill so many people and get away with it, the day of his passage will be a solemn one in Congress and — shamefully, since Kissinger had reporters like CBS’ Marvin Kalb and The New York Times’ Hendrick Smith wiretapped — newsrooms. Kissinger, a refugee from the Nazis who became a pedigreed member of the “Eastern Establishment” Nixon hated, was a practitioner of American greatness, and so the press lionized him as the cold-blooded genius who restored America’s prestige from the agony of Vietnam.

Not once in the half-century that followed Kissinger’s departure from power did the millions the United States killed matter for his reputation, except to confirm a ruthlessness that pundits occasionally find thrilling. America, like every empire, champions its state murderers. The only time I was ever in the same room as Henry Kissinger was at a 2015 national-security conference at West Point. He was surrounded by fawning Army officers and ex-officials basking in the presence of a statesman.

#THANK YOU ACKERMAN VERY COOL #worth reading the whole thing obviously