What Else Is News: Inauguration Edition
Today is Jan. 20, 2025. We celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. and await the first College Football Championship Game.
Oh yeah, and it’s inauguration day.
Today, Donald J. Trump is sworn in for the second time as President of the United States. This is cause for celebration for some and dread for others. As Americans, we should hope for the best but keep our eyes and ears open for concerning activity.
We have to remember that sometimes the truth is hidden. That’s true across the political spectrum.
Over the last four years, a number of so-called conspiracy theories and non-truths turned out to be real:
Hunter Biden’s laptop actually existed.
Kamala Harris was in charge of monitoring and alleviating illegal immigration at the southern border (which some people might call being a “border czar”).
Joe Biden suffered from cognitive decline during much of his time in the White House.
That last one is a real kick in the pants. For years we were told he had more energy than a teenager, that he was up to speed on everything going on in the world and that any glitches we saw were because of a life-long speech impediment. Anyone who publicly said there was something wrong was quickly chastised. It wasn’t until Biden’s one and only debate against Trump over the summer that the truth was ever-so-slowly revealed. Still, some tried to say that this wasn’t unprecedented.
Should we be angry about being duped? Absolutely. Can we make sure we’re not duped during the next administration? For sure. Undoubtedly, reports about Trump and his cronies will surface. Those who support him will dismiss the stories as lies or conspiracy theories, while those who oppose him will clutch their pearls and demand immediate justice. It’s up to us to do our research to find out the truth.
What might have been our first case to solve has already been removed: Trump’s inauguration will take place indoors, so no need to determine if the crowd size during the swearing-in ceremony will be “yuge.” Rest assured, our real work will begin the minute Trump enters the White House.
Lucky for us, a plethora of media outlets exists to help us determine the truth. We can venture from left- to right-leaning resources and those publications that land in-between, using our best judgment to determine what’s happening. Consider these tips in your critical reading journey:
Check out different newspapers, magazines, radio shows and podcasts. Locate ones that strive to tell a story with facts rather than feelings.
Find writers you trust and read their work often.
Avoid cable news at all costs. Outside of perhaps News Nation, these channels have become biased places to find what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear.
Engage in friendly discussions. Civil conversations with trusted people are a key source of discerning information.
Finally, let’s not get caught up in who’s unAmerican because they’re skipping the inauguration or singing at the ball. Instead, let’s focus on keeping our country free, making it safer and holding politicians accountable. That includes Donald J. Trump and everyone else.
The public was willfully blind and the media/politicians/Jill were deviously complicit in the deception. Any alert and honest person could see Joe Biden was not the previously energetic dynamic guy he once was during his first presidential campaign against Trump. Many pretended that he just had a stutter when his statements were incoherent.
It raises many questions including:
Who was writing the executive orders? Who was devising foreign policy? Was Obama still running the WH?
The roles of Jake Sullivan, Samuel Charap, etc. should be investigated.