27.01/ Week twenty-seven starts here, Jan. 16-22, 2021. Last week's thread is below https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1348366032042389510
27.02/ I was just teaching my children about the wonders of my childhood toys, including the one time I got for my birthday a Lite Brite and the amazing Shrinky-dinks.
27.03/ Played "Lawyers, Guns & Money" for my 11yo daughter who thought it was hilarious & suggested we change rock, paper, scissors to those 3

rock = guns (weapon) 🔫
paper = money đź’µ
scissors = upside-down for 2 feet (lawyer is a type of person, no?) 🤦🏽
27.04/ The Metsudah translates "Eruv rav" as "riffraff" and despite my longstanding opposition to the jingoistic/bigoted pejoratives related to the group, I did suggest I would accept "scruffy looking nerf herders"

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1349089263422492673?s=20
27.05/ I'm all here for this Atari 2600 Game cartridge level art for the #TBvsNO matchup! https://twitter.com/kengfunk/status/1350950323372888067?s=20
27.06/ Thread on #MLKDay https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351156282695286784?s=20
27.07a/ Every triumph at the #TrumpCrisis endgame has been stepped on by the Abuser-in-Chief. Every abusive relationship ends this way, esp. with a malignant narcissist (see gif). We couldn't celebrate Biden's win, the GA win, and Jan 20 won't be different.
27.07b/ So we must pledge to celebrate no matter what he does. BE"H he'll be out of power, his cronies defeated, his spear & shield broken, and his war on his own country and its people will be neutralized.

We've been in a war since the golden escalator. We must enjoy a victory
27.08/ Beyond proud of my wife for being named to a new position as Associate Dean at Rutgers. Not only is she accomplished, brilliant, & possessing "unassailable integrity" but I now get to make a spree of "Dean" puns (e.g. our house is now a Beit Dean) https://www.masongross.rutgers.edu/announcing-the-new-mgsa-associate-dean-for-academic-affairs/
Announcing the New MGSA Associate Dean for Academic Affairs | Mason Gross School of the Arts

Dear members of the Mason Gross community, I am extremely pleased to share the news that Prof. Rebecca Cypess of the Music Department has agreed to serve as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at...

https://www.masongross.rutgers.edu/announcing-the-new-mgsa-associate-dean-for-academic-affairs/
27.09/ Just came back from an outdoor shiva call for a community friend who just lost her brother to COVID19. He was 31 years old, newly married, otherwise healthy.

Barukh Dayan ha-Emet. I hate this disease so much.
27.10/ I'm so glad the #Mets fired the slimeball GM. For years the cavalier re-signing of Reyes burned me up. Sports has a unique leadership role in showing no tolerance of abuse, harassment, and toxic masculinity b/c they are role models for many men. https://twitter.com/StevenACohen2/status/1351513683663450116?s=20
27.11/ I think most of the stupid/bad things I did when I was younger, despite my natural empathy, came from lack of life experience because I hadn't yet learned how my behavior would feel on the receiving end.

Here, "I was young" is an actual excuse, but I feel terrible regret.
27.12/ I'm only noticing the edges of what appears to be the new Olde Tyme music craze, this time: sea-shanties (which seems appropriate as we're all cooped up at home)

(Earlier crazes: swing, barbershop)

My wife is a world's expert in early music, so I can dig the desire
27.13/ COME ON! Does the GOP follow a manual for "how to be the absolutely worst people on earth"? Anti-vax is the 'kids in cages' for biological warfare

Stuff like this is why people dissociate & think there's an actual Devil. Sorry: it's always people https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/18/ppp-loans-anti-vaccine/
The Trump administration bailed out prominent anti-vaccine groups during a pandemic

Five groups got more than $800,000 in loans to help small businesses through the pandemic. The groups have been penalized by Facebook for spreading misinformation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/18/ppp-loans-anti-vaccine/
27.14/ For the pedants who gripe about the redundancy and/or ignorance in saying "chai tea" or "naan bread" wait until you find out that challah is actually removed from plaited Shabbat bread & burned. Yup, the challah of challah isn't real challah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymological_fallacy
27.15/ One of the best moments during the #TrumpCrisis was when he was booed at the World Series, Oct 27 2019. A special bonus now: disgraced ex-Senator David Perdue (GA-R) was there too!

I've attached a close-up of the dread & humiliation on DJT's face.
27.16/ Mr. Shaub has the depth and wisdom to understand the gravity of the moment and of the loss, except that unlike him, I don't lower my guard until 12:00.01. Until then, Trump's (ym'sh) war on America is still hot, and I'm staying frosty https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1351726710681706498?s=20
27.17/ Getting tingly for this schedule. But, again, not laying down my guard until Trump (ym'sh) no longer has his finger on the triggers. https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1351738195373944833?s=20
27.18/ I was thinking that I would want to watch Trump (ym'sh) take the walk of shame out of the White House but, instinctively, I realized I don't want to look at that bloated sack of protoplasm for one more second of my life until he's on trial.
27.19/ Two weeks ago, exactly, Trump (ym'sh) led an armed insurrection against America. One week ago, exactly, he was impeached for a second time. Today he is supposed to be stripped of power by the Constitution he declared war against and to which he hates as much as himself.
27.20/ Slinking off, not like a dog (an animal he hates, of course) but a hyena, a scavenger who spots powerful herd animals poised to beat him back.

May the rest of his life be like his afterlife: judgement for his crimes and sins.

https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351883146447478786?s=20
27.20/ Slinking off, not like a dog (an animal he hates, of course) but a hyena, a scavenger who spots powerful herd animals poised to beat him back.May the rest of his life be like his afterlife: judgement for his crimes and sins. https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351883146447478786?s=20
27.20/ Slinking off, not like a dog (an animal he hates, of course) but a hyena, a scavenger who spots powerful herd animals poised to beat him back.May the rest of his life be like his afterlife: judgement for his crimes and sins. https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351883146447478786?s=20
27.21/ Don't have the technical abilities to add a song to this silent departure video. Thinking either Mozart's "Requiem" or "Yakety Sax"

But he still has a few hours with his evil hands on the levers of power and I still haven't figured out his escape plan.
27.22/ So many people acting like "it's over" just because the criminal psychopath has left DC. I won't reply to them, rain on their joy, but that horrible man has almost 3 more hours of unfettered control of the US war machine. He can still do enormous harm.
27.23/ OK, yeah, this is correct:

"Trump already had his big crowd of supporters in DC two weeks ago. He wasn’t allowed to have another one.

That was his true farewell address." https://twitter.com/EricKleefeld/status/1351894100354674688?s=20
27.24/ The Atlanta Dream is going to be sold. What a good run, so far, for that team: two enormous championship wins - GA Senate & dumping Loeffler (twice) - in so short a time.

Back to back trophies. https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/1351736957500461057?s=20
27.25/ 100% agree. https://twitter.com/JoshuaKarp/status/1351910317836677124?s=20
27.26/ Hey, um, Scriptwriter, I like this. Nice touch.

"Eugene Goodman, the Capitol Police officer who led rioters away from the Senate chamber, will escort Kamala Harris at the inauguration as the new acting deputy House Sergeant at Arms" https://twitter.com/NorahODonnell/status/1351912291890061313
27.27/ Watching on CSPAN. Never watched the pre-show before. They just introduced the Obamas. Their confidence is helping ease my apprehension a bit. Oh! Now the Chief Justice
https://www.c-span.org/video/?507998-1/presidential-inauguration
27.27b/ I swear, I'm now watching this - and probably will in the future - like a wedding video. Have the same feeling like that to (as officiant, though, my own wedding was a blur)

Also, there's Hunter!
27.27c/ My Vice President!
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1237587917960171521
27.28/ OK, I'm starting to relax. This was my main, overarching fear, for the past four years. As a GenXer, I had terror every day that the malignant lunatic would blow us all up, like all school-shooters do https://twitter.com/mikedebonis/status/1351915019072634882?s=20
27.29/ VP Harris sworn in! This is getting real. It IS real. Thank God.
27.30/ Yes. Biden is president. It's over.
27.31/ The video. And, yes, I'm still waiting a bit until actual noon. Don't know the law, but I haven't made it this long without having one hand on the doorknob, the other on my loved ones. https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1351935220107390981?s=20
27.32/ It's noon. It's really over. Thank God. https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351936364279959554?s=20
27.33/ I do imagine what my role would be in a ceremony like this, and at different times in my life I'd imagine a speaker, a participant, saying a prayer, but to be honest with myself, I'm more the MC announcing the event as it goes along. Ah well.
27.34/ There's a moment at your own identity-changing ceremony - for me, my wedding & my doctoral defense - when your new reality is so strange, you say the new name over and over. That's now, for me, here: VP Harris. President Biden. The government works for us, again.
27.35/ From Jan 20, 2017-2021 we've had to work very hard b/c we had reverted to roles of direct democracy - especially during the first two years. I'm looking forward to trusting that the government is not actively trying to destroy the world, and we can turn to our own things.
27.36/ As an academic, a social theorist, a theologian, a rabbi, there's so much to process, analyze and digest. So much I held in check until 12:00.01. But now I'm so overwhelmed in gratitude to be alive for this day, that I'll put it off still a little longer. Thank You God.
27.37/ But I remember the cold terror of Nov 8, 2016, on the phone with my father planning out how we'd protect the family; whether to flee, fight or both. I felt in my soul every horror of the past 4 years in one instant. Except no nuclear war. Thank God for that.
27.38/ Here's that extraordinary @TheAmandaGorman poem.

As I said after I heard it:
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351943088059666432?s=20
and
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351943564004126726?s=20
and especially:
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351944511543521285?s=20

Thank you Ms. Gorman https://twitter.com/MichaelSkolnik/status/1351947484298420227?s=20
27.39a/ For my part, I feel quite lucky that Biden is president because his unique history - 34 years in the Senate, 8 in the White House - allows him to quickly grab the controls & know what he's doing. It feels bashert, and I hope we'll see it as lucky as having Lincoln or FDR
27.39b/ TBH, it's the same with Merrick Garland. The AG was meant to be a grand legal expert and America's lawyer. The guy who should have been on SCOTUS, who can credibly be called a major expert in Constitutional law, is well situated to resolve the unprecedented crises.
27.39c/ Who better than someone like Garland to figure out whether the corrupt pardons count, how to prosecute armed insurrection and sedition by sitting members of Congress & Executive.

We need trials, truth & reconciliation and justice - clear, loud, solid, justice.
27.40/ Not for American Exceptionalism, but we actually did manage to prevent a fascist takeover. Our democracy survived the first Civil War and now the second. We're horribly wounded, and we need to learn the lessons of failed Reconstruction. But. We. Stopped. The. Coup.
27.41/ And, lo, it hath begun: the judges retiring so we can restock the courts with non-lunatics! https://twitter.com/davidshepardson/status/1351960347498999810
27.42/ This is what's coming to mind. The sounds of the guns stopping in World War One at the moment of armistice. Trump's (ym'sh) war was hot until the very end - and now we have so many wounded to tend to.

27.43/ My response to @catvalente
https://twitter.com/catvalente/status/1351971316740612098?s=20
here: https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351972213453447169?s=20
27.44/ Some of my comments over the past 24h.
a) last night, about how I expect to feel today (I was right)
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351598853192110080?s=20
b) not only could we not have survived Trump's (ym'sh) retaining power, but it wouldn't have been 4 years https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351881814978277376?s=20
27.45/ I do wonder why DJT didn't order another code-red this morning. Maybe Pence and/or Mitch held his leash to his face to say "do one more thing and you're yanked"? No heroism by them, it served their own needs to not remove him themselves. https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351883146447478786?s=20
27.46a/ More comments
a) The "Sopranos" vibe from playing "Don't Stop Believing" at his departure
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351885722106671104?s=20
b) I still believe DJT's rise is hard to repeat, but yet admit that the GOP was ripe for a warlord (in @joshtpm terms) to take over https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351889178066366466?s=20
27.46b/ (c) In re: "'we will be back in some form" from DJT
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351890409610424323?s=20

d) What song I was playing this morning to mark the occasion (earlier this year "Street Fighting Man", right now "Move on Up" https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351890605820047363?s=20
27.46c/ (e) In re: the deep cleaning of the White House post-Don
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351891309448089601?s=20
(f) in re: the 'note' that Don left for President Biden
https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351892449908699142?s=20
or this option https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351896587367276547?s=20
27.47/ My thanking the indefatigable @atrupar for his invaluable work.

This also goes for @ddale8 & the incredible, brave folk of @mmfa like @ParkerMolloy @revrrlewis and esp. @MattGertz (who still needs to be a error-rage-filter alter-ego for a FL rep.) https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351894702300266498?s=20
27.48/ My summary of how I understand the sadistic pleasure Trump (ym'sh) got from hurting others. He was incredibly lazy except in the only thing that brought him joy: causing pain, especially to POC and women. https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351898964061204480?s=20
27.49/ One theory for why The Big Dummy kept playing certain songs that contextually contradict everything he embodies, like "YMCA" https://twitter.com/JoshuaCypess/status/1351902307932368900?s=20
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