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January 6, 2025
Biden Rips Efforts To 'Erase' History Of Jan. 6 Riot, Says There Won't Be A Repeat This Time
(Huff Post) President Joe Biden is decrying what he calls an “unrelenting effort” to downplay a mob of Donald Trump supporters overrunning the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to block certification of the 2020 election — seeking to contrast that day’s chaos with what he promises will be an orderly transition returning Trump to power for a second term. In an opinion piece published Sunday in The Washington Post, Biden recalled Jan. 6, 2021, writing that “violent insurrectionists attacked the Capitol.” “We should be proud that our democracy withstood this assault,” Biden wrote. “And we should be glad we will not see such a shameful attack again this year.”
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All Americans Know January 6th Was An Insurrection. Decent Ones Care.
(John Pavlovitz) We all saw it. On January 6th, 2021, many of us watched it in disbelief in real time: the almost incomprehensible sight of thousands of people breaching the very seat of our Government: smashing windows, breaking through doors, setting off tear gas canisters, crushing outnumbered and overmatched Capitol police, and parading unimpeded through the chambers of Congress.
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The New York Times On The Undeniable Success Of The Biden Presidency
(New York Times via Simon Rosenberg) To hear President-elect Donald J. Trump tell it, he is about to take over a nation ravaged by crisis, a desolate hellscape of crime, chaos and economic hardship. “Our Country is a disaster, a laughing stock all over the World!” he declared on social media last week. But by many traditional metrics, the America that Mr. Trump will inherit from President Biden when he takes the oath for a second time, two weeks from Monday, is actually in better shape than that bequeathed to any newly elected president since George W. Bush came into office in 2001.
Go to discussionBiden, in 11th Hour Move, Bans Offshore Drilling in Most Federal Waters
(Time) President Joe Biden is moving to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, a last-minute effort to block possible action by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling. Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.
Go to discussionTrump Breaks Tradition By Redirecting Inaugural Swag Funds To His PAC
(Forbes) Official merchandise sales from Donald Trump's inaugural committee may do more than celebrate his second presidency–they could ultimately be used to cover Trump’s personal expenses, including legal fees. On November 9, the president-elect launched the Trump Vance Inaugural Committee, a tax-exempt organization tasked with organizing events surrounding the inauguration; its website, t47inaugural.com, went live around that time, too.
Go to discussionLas Vegas, New Orleans, and the ugly truths America won't talk about
(Will Bunch/Inquirer) The year 2025 A.D. began for much of America less with Auld Lang Syne and more with the anxious paranoia of anticipatory dread. When fierce bolts of lightning in a freak winter storm were caught on video striking the U.S. Capitol and the Washington Monument at 5:36 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, social media posters joked, in a way, about omens. A New Jersey GOP activist, Tricia Flanagan, tweeted that the new year is “going to be Biblical.” The nervous jokes stopped just a few hours into New Year’s Day, as the political violence that the 1960s radical H. Rap Brown famously described “as American as cherry pie” arrived long before the first hungover scrambled eggs of 2025.
Go to discussionBlinken warns Russia is close to sharing advanced satellite technology with North Korea
(CNN) Russia may be close to sharing advanced satellite technology with North Korea after the isolated nation supplied troops to help bolster Moscow’s war in Ukraine, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Monday. “The DPRK is already receiving Russian military equipment and training. Now, we have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advance space and satellite technology with Pyongyang,” Blinken said from Seoul, using North Korea’s official name.
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