All incoming presidents change the decor of the largely symbolic room to offer a sense of their personality and the type of presidency they hope to have. President Biden’s is notable for the sheer number of portraits and busts of well-known American historical figures.
The beginning of a renewed American democracy.
This will be the most dramatic change in federal policies since the early days of the FDR administration starting March 4, 1933. Biden’s new team will face the gravest national challenges of any new administration since those dark days of the Great Recession.
This is what is being reported.
The day he takes office, Biden is planning to return the United States to the Paris climate accords and repeal the ban on U.S. entry for citizens of some majority-Muslim countries. He will sign an order extending nationwide restrictions on evictions and foreclosures and implement a mask mandate on federal property.
Plans, spelled out in a memo Saturday by Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain to incoming White House advisers, will address what Klain called “four overlapping and compounding crises.”
They are the Covid-19 pandemic that has claimed close to 400,000 U.S. lives, the resulting economic downturn, climate change, and a national reckoning over racial equity in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“In his first 10 days in office, President-elect Biden will take decisive action to address these four crises, prevent other urgent and irreversible harms, and restore America’s irreversible harms, and restore America’s place in the world,” Klain wrote. “President-elect Biden will take action — not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our country forward.”
A piece of history seems appropriate.
Near dawn February 23, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly by train in Washington, D.C. at 6 a.m. because of a rumored plot to 
assassinate him as he passed through Baltimore. Lincoln was criticized for and later regretted the furtive manner of his arrival, but his advisors believed the danger was genuine. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded, and the Confederate States of America had been formally established.
Reported on Politico Nightly
Top lawmakers say they are increasingly alarmed by a rash of new threats that could once again endanger their lives. Senators received a briefing today from representatives of the Secret Service, and the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and a key group of House Democratic chairs separately met with the FBI.
“Based on today’s briefing, we have grave concerns about ongoing and violent threats to our democracy,” that group of Democratic chairs said in a cryptic statement after the meeting today. The briefing included the chairs and other top members of the House Oversight, Judiciary, Homeland Security, Armed Services and Intelligence panels. “It is clear that more must be done to preempt, penetrate, and prevent deadly and seditious assaults by domestic violent extremists in the days ahead,” the statement said.
The lawmakers voiced their concerns moments after a public FBI and Justice Department briefing revealed their belief that the Jan. 6 violence could be part of a much graver, well-organized “seditious conspiracy.” A Justice Department “strike force” is seeking to assemble a sedition case against some of those involved in last week’s riot at the Capitol.
As I posted on January 10 “Trump is not done.” I heard one rioter say he would die if need be to to ensure Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20. January 17 and January 20 are the two days that are anticipated to be the next assaults on the Capitol.
An inauguration inside a secured building viewed by the public on television seems like a likely scenario on January 20 to ensure the safety of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
See them all at Bidenism
Trump is not done. It seems obvious that he will do whatever it takes to retain the presidency. I mean there are no limits. There are rumors of another attack on the Capitol on January 17.
Is the United States of America on the verge of a second Civil War? Was the invasion of the Capitol the first act of that war?
A day before Capitol attack, pro-Trump crowd stormed meeting, threatened officials in rural California as reported in the Los Angeles Times. Dozens of people, unmasked, to vent their fury entered a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting.
“When Joe Biden’s long winter sets and the dark night comes in this country, do you think you’re going to get to see the dawn?” Timothy Fairfield, 44, of Shingletown asked the supervisors. “No, you will not. Flee now while you can. Because the days of your tyranny are drawing to a close, and the legitimacy of this government is waning. “When the ballot box is gone,” he added, “there is only the cartridge box. You have made bullets expensive. But luckily for you, ropes are reusable.”
The Washington Post reports “Police departments across the U.S. open probes into whether their own members took part in the Capitol riot.”
Concerns about more violent incidents appear to be well-founded. Calls for widespread protests on the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden have been rampant online for weeks. These demonstrations are scheduled to culminate with what organizers have dubbed a “Million Militia March” on Jan. 20 as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris are to be sworn in on the same Capitol grounds that rioters overran on Wednesday.
Is this the end of the American democracy? It appears millions of Americans are willing to follow the leadership of an autocrat.
Hello unified government! Good-bye Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. 
It was a dream that few thought would come true. The Democrats won both senate seats from the state of Georgia.
Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock’s victories delivered a crushing defeat to Republicans, stripping them of their main bastion of power in the post-Trump capitol. Ossoff won by 35,615 votes. Warnock won by 73,404 votes.
The wins means that Joe Biden’s cabinet selections will likely have much smoother approval by the Senate. With the Senate split and Vice President Kamala Harris providing the tie breaking vote the Biden agenda will have a better chance of success. Senator Chuck Schumer will now be the Senate Leader. The $2,000 relief checks for Americans are significantly more likely to become a reality.
Joe Biden has more than 1,200 jobs to fill that require Senate confirmation. And he’s going to do that much more quickly thanks to Democrats’ victories in Georgia.
A Joe Biden agenda will be easier to accomplish. Mr. Biden wants to rebuild roads and bridges and address climate change. Not long after taking the oath of office he is likely to issue orders to rejoin the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, and to reinstate the program that allows young immigrants known as “Dreamers” to remain in the United States.
There are many other things that need addressing including health care, liveable wages, and criminal justice reform.
I’m rooting for you Mr. Biden. Please don’t disappoint me!
Cambridge English dictionary definition: A ruler with unlimited power, or someone who demands that people completely obey them. Google 
definition: Someone who insists on complete obedience from others; an imperious or domineering person.
Do these definitions remind you of anyone? How about Donald Trump?
Vice President Mike Pence proffered four years of loyalty to everything Trump said and did. He kept his mouth shut and praised Trump frequently. Then Pence decided to do his duty in counting the electoral ballots. Pence did the right thing. Trump attacked Pence for not having the ‘courage’ to overturn the election as the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol.
Trump has demanded total loyalty from everyone in his cabinet and others like the director of the FBI. If they dared to contradict him they were fired.
Trump fired Chris Krebs, director of CISA, after the agency released a statement that called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”
Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Twitter and replaced him with National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller.
Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, fired via tweet. Tillerson had called Trump a moron.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions was replaced with a loyalist who has echoed the president’s complaints about the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and would take charge of the inquiry.
The list is much longer but you get the idea.
With 80 million Tweet followers Donald Trump is in his glory. Those people believe that despite his faults he deserves the admiration they give him. That is what is frightening about today.
This Time magazine cover was meant to be a joke. Donald Trump is serious about retaining power forever.
All 10 living former US defense secretaries — both Republicans and Democrats — wrote a Washington Post op-ed article urging President Donald Trump to refrain from using the military to interfere in the 2020 election.
The signatories stressed that involving the military in election disputes could result in criminal charges.
Trump has repeatedly suggested there may not be a peaceful transfer of power and is said to have entertained suggestions that the military step in to help him dispute the election.
The article, titled “Involving the military in election disputes would cross into dangerous territory,” was signed by all 10 living former US defense secretaries, including two — Mark Esper and James Mattis — who served under President Donald Trump.
The other signees were Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, and Ashton Carter, who served under Barack Obama; Robert Gates, who served under Obama and George W. Bush; William Cohen and William Perry, who served under Bill Clinton; Dick Cheney, who served under George H.W. Bush; and Donald Rumsfeld, who served first under Gerald Ford in 1975 and was later tapped for the role under George W. Bush.
“American elections and the peaceful transfers of power that result are hallmarks of our democracy,” they wrote in The Post, adding that the administration should “refrain from any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”
“The time for questioning the results has passed; the time for the formal counting of the electoral college votes, as prescribed in the Constitution and statute, has arrived,” the letter continued.
General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked by Congress what, if any, role the military should have in the election. “I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical US military,” Milley said. “In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law, US courts and the US Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the US military. I foresee no role for the US armed forces in this process.”
It appears Donald Trump will not accept that advice. He is more likely to refuse to physically resist leaving the White House. Who will escort him out?
Is it treason for senators and representatives to question the legitimacy of an election? No! However, you do need provable facts.
No one likes losing an election. There is always a winner. All the losers have to accept the results. That is the way our democracy functions. If every loser claims fraud and cheating our country will fall into chaos where the ultimate winner is the person with the most power to control the results.
After a judge tossed Republican Congressman Louie Gohmert’s baseless lawsuit that challenged President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, the Trump sycophant responded by suggesting that those who live in a MAGA reality should “go to the streets” and be “violent.”
Gohmert made the dangerous remarks on the Trump-friendly “news” network Newsmax on Saturday morning while discussing his lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence that U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle dismissed on Friday.
Could Trump use the military to enforce his control? On Friday December 18, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville reiterated in a joint statement that there “is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
It appears that the GOP has become a circular firing squad after L. Lin Wood, a conservative attorney and Trump ally, has rejected questions about his sanity after he tweeted that Vice President Mike Pence should face a firing squad.
This Washington article explains why Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20.
Why January 6 Is a Key Date for Trump’s Election Gripes – The Washington Post
If Trump is inaugurated for a second term on January 20 it won’t be a military coup. It will be a bloodless coup. That would signify that elections don’t count. That would be the end of the greatest democracy the world has ever known.
I will be holding my breath for the next 17 days. Won’t you?
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