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My morning alarm went off this morning and I initially went to turn it off to go back to sleep. But then the realization that today was the Inauguration day forced me to take my phone and check to see if there were any news alerts. Thankfully there were not. But I also went ahead and woke up. I need to see today happen.

Ajit Pai Is Officially Gone

Fuck him and his comically large coffee mug

Breaking: Trump Didn't Drain the Swamp

As part of his fight against 'the swamp' he put a ban on people from his admin moving into lobbying. Literally in the dying hours of his Presidency, he revoked that. What a piece of absolute garbage.

President Biden was not my first or second choice of the Democratic candidates but I sure am glad happy and thrilled to have him. Welcome Mr. President.

Amanda Gorman is a breath of fresh air and I need to read more by her

I will be looking for the full transcript

Who is Amanda Gorman, Biden inauguration day poet from L.A.?

Amanda Gorman Inauguration Poem Transcript, 'The Hill We Climb'

Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans, and the world,

When day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry asea we must wade. We've braved the belly of the beast. We've learned that quiet isn't always peace. In the norms and notions of what just is isn't always justice. And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow we do it. Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.

And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all. Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true. That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried that will forever be tied together victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.

Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid. If we're to live up to her own time, then victory won't lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we've made. That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare. It's because being American is more than a pride we inherit. It's the past we step into and how we repair it. We've seen a forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it. Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. This effort very nearly succeeded.

But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated. In this truth, in this faith we trust for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption. We feared it at its inception. We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour, but within it, we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves so while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?

We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be a country that is bruised, but whole, benevolent, but bold, fierce, and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation. Our blunders become their burdens. But one thing is certain, if we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children's birthright.

So let us leave behind a country better than one we were left with. Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the West. We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the Lake Rim cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it. If only we're brave enough to be it.

Biden To Send Sweeping Immigration Bill To Congress

An excellent breakdown of the problems with the 1776 Commission report

A recent chess game I played. You can explore it on lichess.org

Dr. Fauci to lead U.S. delegation at WHO meetings as Biden plans to reverse Trump withdrawal

I can't handle this logical and sane news that is flooding out of Washington D.C.

Four questions on Parler, Trump and Big Tech

So there is an easter egg jobs call out in the HTML for the new Whitehouse website. Out of curiosity (I am not looking for a career change) I went and looked and the salaries look competitive, but it requires you to be in or around Washington D.C. I wonder how much that hurts their candidates and hiring good people?

I have to admit, I knew the name Cesar Chavez but didn't actually know anything about him. I am assuming some of you are the same. He was born in Arizona in 1927 to Mexican parents. Grew up Catholic and fought for farm workers rights, founding (along with Dolores Huerta) National Farm Workers Association which has merged and morphed into the United Farm Workers Labor Union. He fought for the farm workers rights, organizing peaceful protests and strikes, inspired by Gandhi and using elements of his Roman Catholicism in their activities. Many considered him a communist subversive during his efforts. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1994.

Further reading:

• Wikipedia
• Biography.com
• History.com

He also has an autobiography, which I will be adding my pile of unread books.

Arnold Schwarzenegger on Facebook:

I said this to someone in the comments, but I think a lot of you need to hear this.

I always say you should know your strengths and listen to the experts. If you want to learn about building biceps, listen to me, because I've spent my life studying how to get the perfect peak and I have been called the greatest bodybuilder of all time. We all have different specialties.

Dr. Fauci and all of the virologists and epidemiologists and doctors have studied diseases and vaccines for their entire lives, so I listen to them and I urge you to do the same. None of us are going to learn more than them by watching a few hours of videos. It's simple: if your house in [sic] on fire, you don't go on YouTube, you call the damn fire department. If you have a heart attack, you don't check your Facebook group, you call an ambulance. If 9 doctors tell you you have cancer and need to treat it or you will die, and 1 doctor says the cancer will disappear, you should always side with the 9. In this case, virtually all of the real experts around the world are telling us the vaccine is safe and some people on Facebook are saying it isn't safe.

In general, I think if the circle of people you trust gets smaller and smaller and you find yourself more and more isolated, it should be a warning sign that you're going a rabbit hole of misinformation. Some people say it is weak to listen to experts. That's bogus. It takes strength to admit you don't know everything. Weakness is thinking you don't need expert advice and only listening to sources that confirm what you want to believe.

Joe Biden has ties to US Soccer, from the Philadelphia Union to helping pitch for the 2026 World Cup

"It's the most unusual sporting event I've ever attended, and I've attended thousands probably in my career," said Biden, who's been to three World Cups (two men's, one women's). "It's a feel, and you can feel it even before you get anywhere near the stadium. You can feel it before you even land. It's in the air. It's a palpable sense of energy that I've never quite experienced before. And it's consequential. It is the most consequential sporting event in the world, and it's amazing how not just interested, but how deeply, deeply, deeply passionate every country is about the World Cup."

But seriously I think I'm close to triple digits. I love the act of acquiring books and lack the necessary time to read them all.