Well, it was always going to be an odd affair.
Perhaps not as odd as some of the insane public events that preceded the election in November.
And at least the Great Saviour didn’t quote Batman villains like at his last Inauguration. It was still pretty embarrassing all-round though.
But at this point, what would you expect from the inauguration of a convicted criminal and coup plotter who’s main motive for becoming president again is probably to stay out of jail?
And who’s official presidential photo was literally a recreation of his now famous arrest mugshot from 2023. That was already a weird move, right there: but it’s always about image and narrative mythology.
So how dignified was this Inauguration Day possibly going to be?
Right off the bat, you have the President’s android trophy-wife appearing at the proceedings dressed as one of the real-life Men in Black. Which was an odd choice.
Or maybe she was meant to be Mary Poppins?
And we got Lex Luthor Elon Musk appearing to deliver an enthusiastic Nazi salute – not once, but twice, in case we didn’t notice the first time.
What on earth was he *doing*? Is Elon Musk malfunctioning? Or is he high? Actually, it seems entirely possible he might be under the chemical influence these days. There has actually been a claim he is running on ketamine every day: but who knows if that’s true.
It would explain a lot. His erratic and overly animated behaviour, for example, jumping and dancing like Tom Cruise on Oprah’s couch.
But why would he think the salute was an okay move?
Someone pointed out to me that it was less like a Nazi salute and more the Mussolini fascist salute that he would do to his troops. But whatever – it’s all the same symbolism.
Funnier still, it was also observed that Trump neglected to place his hand on the Bible during his oaths.
Maybe he fears his hand will burst into flames if he touches that thing. Or maybe it’s because it wasn’t one of his Trump Bibles.
Either way, one of the more surreal sights of recent years is watching Trump subtly avoiding touching said holy book, which is being held up to him by a female android dressed as Mary Poppins… while Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg look on from behind them.
You have to wonder what Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg talked about. Apple CEO Tim Cook was with them too.
Four Horsemen of the Techpocalypse, maybe? Actually, Google’s Sundar Pichai was there too: which makes five, so the numbers don’t work out there.
I’ve been saying that Musk is the real world Lex Luthor: but he, Bezos and Zuckerberg actually look like three different stages of Luthor.
Bezos is the classic bald Luthor from the comics.
Zuckerberg, with his new hairstyle, looks like the young, unhinged Luthor from the Batman v Superman movie.
Actually I just realised the actor that was Luthor in Batman v Superman is the same actor that played Zuckerberg in the Facebook movie. Weird.
And Musk is…
What IS Musk playing at, really? Is it a mid-life crisis?
Did he secretly Neuralink himself and it’s all gone haywire?
Anyhow, the conspicuous presence of the tech moguls/billionaires at this inauguration (and note how prominently they were placed) shows how much of a sea change has occurred.
Resistance to the pretend ‘anti establishment’ demagogue appears to have been entirely relinquished. This is a controlled, orderly transition of power back to a convicted felon, lifelong con artist, and attempted insurrectionist.
The writing was on the wall for me already when all the opposition politicians, the corporate media and the establishment entirely went along with the July 13th assassination hoax, knowing full well it was scripted to get Trump back into the White House.
This is all pantomime.
Except that the former pantomime villain is now rebranded as more of a pantomime hero.
The Tech Bros’ involvement in the proceedings also gives some credence to President Biden’s otherwise underwhelming farewell address warning about the growing power of the tech industrial complex.
Zuckerberg’s shift is particularly conspicuous, demonstrating total pragmatism and an absence of any ideological concern: but no one should be surprised these people don’t have any real ethical interests, only the propagation of their agendas.
These people are entirely apolitical: as, for that matter, are the corporate media broadcasters – the pretense of moral grandstanding is all part of the pantomime.
As for Trump the Saviour’s speeches, they were entirely predictable and wholly uninspired.
His proclamations of the “Golden Age of America” now beginning were… weird. Slightly cultish. So… business as usual, I guess.
He also predictably played the martyr routine again, and reminded everyone that God saved his life from an assassin’s bullet so that he could fulfil his destiny as America’s saviour.
Let’s not go back over the July 13th stuff again here, but that event was staged theater: moreover, it was very possibly a religious ritual being enacted to symbolically anoint Trump as a High Priest.
That’s not a joke, by the way.
What is a joke is that the same Trump who proclaims that God saved him has the nerve to sell ‘Trump Bibles‘ to his followers… in what is surely some kind of unChristian sacrilege?
Maybe that’s why he was hesitant to touch the Bible during the oath.
Not content with a half-hour Inauguration speech, he then went and gave another speech elsewhere in the Capitol building. This time he was even more predictable, including reiterating that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
You’d think that, having now won this current election – and with possible foul-play, which still hasn’t been addressed enough – he would have the grace to stop droning on about 2020.
He also used the platform to resume condemning the opposition, and even shitting on Joe Biden’s presidency some more.
This was *after* spending the morning drinking tea with Biden at the White House: and benefiting from the orderly transition of power that the 46th US President afforded him.
An orderly and cooperative transition that, you’ll recall, Trump did not offer Biden four years ago: unless that’s what you’d call the insane Capitol Riot, a potential coup, and refusing to take part in the changeover or Inauguration.
Again, you’d think it was time for a little grace and decency – especially as Biden and co have been so cooperative in the transition.
Instead, Trump literally talked about the “betrayal” of the nation that Biden and co had conducted… while Biden was sitting right there in the room!
Awkward.
Meanwhile, much is made of Biden’s preemptive pardoning of a number of people, including people from his own family and members of the January 6th Committee.
Self-serving, sure. But it was a smart move designed to protect people who the Trump camp had said they were going to seek revenge on: including, concerning the J6 committee, people who were simply doing their jobs.
And, given that Trump has already pardoned and released the January 6th rioters to much fanfare, it appears to be all balanced out: as if January 6th has been erased entirely from the books.
An odd way to run a country. But the strangeness of American society and politics these days is pretty much accepted.
Anyway, here’s to Trump 2.0. Let’s hope it tastes better than it looks. At least it was all peaceful.
