So, I watched most of the inauguration today and it was pretty awesome. Just thought I'd post a thread of a few of the highlights.
There were about 800,000 people at Trump's inauguration, which is an average turnout for one of these events, and that only included people who were in the nearby area. Much of the area had been blocked off the day before in anticipation of possible problems from anti-Trump protestors so that some people who wanted to be around at least for the parade weren't able to attend. Turns out their caution was well-grounded as some protestors caused some damage and criminal acts and arson in the surrounding area. Overall, there were an extra 200,000 people or so in the surrounding area including the protestors, and others such as the women who were there for the Women's March to be held tomorrow. Interesting fact, it was originally going to be called The Million Woman March until they were accused of 'cultural appropriation' and had to change it, because a phrase can now be culture and therefor somehow taboo.
Just before noon, Vice President Pence was sworn in followed by President Trump at noon (I hear the program was trimmed a bit just to be sure to hit the time exactly). Trump gave a very decent inaugural speech, imo. Here is a link to the ceremony itself for anyone who might have missed it and be interested:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/ ... story.html
TLDW: Some nice crowd shots around 8:20 followed by Obama and the VPs parading in, with Trump arriving at 15:45. Roy Blunt gave a short speech on how awesome it is that we've managed to elect a president every 4 years for two centuries now without a coup. At 21:00 Biblical readings and the invocation, which I'm glad they still have in the ceremony. At 30:35, there's a very impressive shot of just how many people were packed in and lined down the streets and mall to be there. Wow. Chuck Schumer gave an excellent optimistic speech at 31:50 about how great we are capable of being. Pence is sworn in at 37:00 followed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the US Marine Band singing America, which was quite beautiful. Trump was then sworn in at 43:30 and cannons! Nice. Trump's speech starts at 46:00. After the speech, at 1:03:00 there were more readings, a closing benediction, and the national anthem, and then they all filed out.
TLDR: Important part starts at 37:00.
Some parts of Trump's speech that stood out for me were his emphasis on his intention to actually listen to the people who elected him, his intention to focus on building our military and infrastructure and economy back up rather than focus so much on other countries (I'm all for helping other nations, but when our cities can't afford to replace 100+ year old gas lines until they are leaking so badly they are an actual explosive hazard, that's a problem), his intention to get people off welfare and back to work, to let us be patriotic and proud of our country again. I know I, for one, am getting sick of being told by liberals that I ought to be ashamed of myself for being American or being white or whatever other thing I'm supposed to be apologizing for today. I like that he spoke of God in his speech. I like that he encouraged people to think of themselves as just American, rather than of some particular race or creed. And I like how little he used the word "I".
There was a great deal more, of course. Obama and family leaving for Florida one last time on the taxpayers' money. Trump signing a bunch of documents with commemorative pens. Hordes of children. I didn't know he had that many grandchildren. And of course the parade and they're still attending balls. I also hear he signed several executive orders but not sure which ones, exactly. I search Google and get a bunch of speculative stuff from last week. :/