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“Today, under President Trump, begins a renaissance in this Nation,” Landry said in a written statement. “One where America and her people will always come first. In Louisiana, we think that is worthy of celebrating!”

The staunch Trump ally invited fellow Louisianans to raise MAGA flags on Inauguration Day. Landry had previously ordered flags on state buildings set at half-staff in honor of the 14 people killed in a New Year’s terror attack in New Orleans.

Trump’s inauguration fell on the day of mourning Landry initially set aside for British national Edward Pettifer, the stepson of Prince William’s former nanny. A Landry spokesperson told The Associated Press that state flags would now be lowered for Pettifer on Jan. 24.

“My son and I have been involved in a shooting, and I need some advice right away,” McMichael said in a voicemail left on District Attorney Jackie Johnson’s cellphone.

A video of the killing would ultimately lead to charges against McMichael, his adult son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan. All three white men, who used pickup trucks and guns to try to corral the 25-year-old Black man, are now serving life sentences for murder and federal hate crimes.

But all three men avoided arrest for more than two months as Greg McMichael and Johnson kept in touch by phone, court records show.

Nearly five years later, Johnson is going to trial on charges that she used her office to interfere with police investigating Arbery’s killing. Jury selection is scheduled to start Tuesday in Brunswick, a port city 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Savannah.

“I’ve never seen anything burn so quick,” said Almanza, 42, recounting the first day of the Eaton fire near Pasadena, California. “Our captains have to make the hard decisions: get yourselves killed or let the house burn.” His eyes welled up recounting the properties devoured as his crew had no choice but to retreat: “I was just so sad and emotional, because there was nothing we could do.”

Almanza is one of thousands of first responders who have put their lives on the line battling the historic windstorm-fueled fires that have ravaged LA.

Almanza is incarcerated and currently serving a state prison sentence, making up to $10.24 in daily wages fighting the wildfires, with $1 hourly bonuses while on the frontlines. Since last week, the California department of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) has deployed more than 1,100 incarcerated firefighters to the LA infernos, which have become some of the deadliest and most destructive in the region’s history.

One thing about billionaires in the US is they keep making more of them. In 1990, there were about 60. Ten years later, there were 298. Today there are almost 750, enough to fill a pair of jumbo jets (assuming some could be persuaded to travel in economy). Billionaire status is no longer enough to make you a household name. Those with the Scrooge McDuck or John D Rockefeller status of people “so rich they are famous for being rich” are more properly identified as centibillionaires: people worth more than $100bn.

Of the top 10 centibillionaires in the US, all but one (Warren Buffett) made their money in the tech sector that has boomed since the turn of the millennium. In his speech, Biden tweaked President Dwight D Eisenhower’s warning from 1961 about the “military industrial complex” to raise the alarm about a “tech-industrial complex”. Unmentioned by either was the longstanding financial-industrial complex. Over the past several decades, the revolving door in American politics spat you out in one place more often than others: Wall Street. And the overlap between the private sector and the governing class was long dominated by one investment bank in particular, Goldman Sachs.

But the more eye-catching arrivals in Washington DC are the ones from Silicon Valley. Tech figures such as venture capitalist David Sacks – tapped to be “AI and crypto tsar” in Trump’s cabinet – and Musk, slated to head the advisory “department of government efficiency”, walk the trail blazed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who placed a risky bet on supporting Trump in 2016, back when those such as Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were loudly criticising him.

Alejandra Whitney-Smith has plans for president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next week: spend a week in a cabin without technology.

“It [inauguration weekend] coincides with my birthday weekend, which I usually do spend in DC, but when the election happened, I told myself, ‘Oh, no, I can’t be here,’” said Whitney-Smith, whose mother was working at the Library of Congress during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol in 2021. “I just remember that feeling of fear for her and then also just concern for me being in the city. I just knew for me – I didn’t want to be around that sort of hostile negative energy.”

The DC resident said she will hunker down in a cabin with four friends during inauguration weekend and do some vision boarding, reflection and reconnection. As for the re-election of Trump, she says it, “represents the ugly side of America that people don’t want to acknowledge”.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/52906242

Summary

Organizers of the 2017 Women’s March are planning the "People's March" on January 18, 2025, ahead of Donald Trump’s second inauguration.

Unlike the record-breaking 2017 protest with 500,000 people, this multi-issue demonstration, addressing abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, climate change, and more, expects a smaller turnout of 50,000.

Organizers acknowledge shifting political dynamics and aim to build a sustainable movement by connecting participants with advocacy organizations.

Summary

In his farewell speech, President Joe Biden warned of a growing "oligarchy" in the U.S., where extreme wealth and power threaten democracy.

Comparing modern elites to 19th-century robber barons, he called for reforms to hold the wealthy accountable, as done in the past.

Biden also criticized a "tech-industrial complex" concentrating power and spreading disinformation, weakening democracy.

His remarks sparked a surge in Google searches for "oligarchy."

The speech comes amid rising concerns about policies favoring billionaires, like Trump’s tax cuts and potential cuts to social safety programs.

Around 30 states and nearly 50 million people could experience temperatures below minus-10 degrees.

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