On Thursday my colleague at sister site Hot Air, Karen Townsend, wrote a piece about the upcoming Joe Biden-Kamala Harris inauguration with a rhetorical (and cheeky) headline: “Can Tom Hanks Bring America Together For Biden’s Inauguration?” Along with some inconvenient facts about exactly which companies are helping to foot the bill for the event through hefty donations to Biden’s Inauguration Committee (think: Big Tech), it also gave a comprehensive outline of the star-studded prime time event coming up next Wednesday after the swearing-in ceremony.

Hanks is Hollywood’s idea of an actor with a non-partisan appeal. He’s been chosen to host a 90-minute primetime Inauguration Day Special titled Celebrating America.

[…]

The special program will be shown everywhere – ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and MSNBC. It will also be streamed on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch on January 20 at 8:30 p.m. It will be seen on Amazon Prime Video, Microsoft Bing, NewsNOW from Fox, and AT&T DIRECTV and U-verse as well as the Presidential Inaugural Committee’s social media feed.

Variety reports that the President-elect and Vice President-elect will also take part:

President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will also give remarks during the primetime special, touching on the diversity and talent of America. The musical performances will take place throughout the broadcast.

Likely, many RedState readers will conveniently have other plans that night… just like Karen, who mentions in her article she’s all set with a line-up of Hallmark channel fare instead. But there’s news we’re going to be “treated” to five nights of this sham calling for national unity under a Joe Biden administration not just on Wednesday. It’s starting up Saturday.

Entertainment industry magazine Deadline reports that the festivities kick off with a “welcome event”: (emphasis added)

The Biden/Harris Presidential Inaugural Committee announced additional programming in advance of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on January 20. The theme of the now five consecutive nights of events is “America United.”

On Saturday, January 16 is America United: An Inauguration Welcome Event Celebrating America’s Changemakers. The event will “celebrate America, reflect and honor our history, and highlight the incredible diversity of the nation” and kick off the five days of programming.

Whoopi Goldberg, actor Nik Dodani, comedienne and actress Cristela Alonzo, musician Darren Criss, Representative Grace Meng, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Resistance Revival Choir will participate. The Welcome Event will feature a special performance by the Grammy-nominated Black Pumas. It will stream live from 7:00-8:30 PM ET at bideninaugural.org and on Presidential Inaugural Committee social media pages.

That’s followed by an event Sunday that the Inaugural Committee’s calling a “We the People Concert,” but which appears to be little more than a covert fundraiser for ActBlue, the organization that helps funnel dollars to the Democrat Party’s activist wing.

On January 17th, we’re coming together for a special “We the People Concert” 🎶

Hosted by @KeeganMKey and @DebraMessing, join us for this pre-inaugural event with @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris.

— Biden Inaugural Committee (@BidenInaugural) January 14, 2021

Monday brings another chance to unify, but take a look at the list of names below. Do you see any Republicans among them? (emphasis added)

Also announced today is United We Serve: A Celebration of the National MLK Day of Service on Monday, January 18. According to the release, thousands of volunteers across the country will participate in the National Day of Service, which will then be celebrated by entertainers and inspiring speakers such as Aloe Blacc, Rev. Dr. Bernice King, Martin Luther King III, Chesca, Rep. Sharice Davids, Rosario Dawson, Andra Day, Yo-Yo Ma, Rev. Al Sharpton, Sean Patrick Thomas, Diane Warren, Lynn Whitfield and Bebe Winans. The event will stream live from 8:00-9:00 PM ET at bideninaugural.org and on the inaugural committee’s social media pages.

And rounding out the events before Inauguration Day, on Tuesday we have a much more sedate affair called “Memorial and Nationwide Tribute to Remember and Honor the Lives Lost to Covid-19”:

At 5:30 p.m. ET, a D.C. ceremony will feature a lighting around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The inaugural committee has invited cities and towns around the country to join in illuminating buildings and ringing church bells.

Oh, and Deadline has an update tonight: there are even more additions to the Inauguration and the prime time event from our friends in Hollywood on Jan. 20:

Lady Gaga may be belting out the National Anthem at Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ inauguration on January 20, but the Boss [Bruce Springsteen] will be hitting the stage for the new Commander in Chief in primetime that very night.

[…]

The long time Democratic supporter will be joined by John Legend and the Foo Fighters.

[…]

….Celebrating America will see Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington somewhat reprise their duties from last summer’s semi-virtual Democratic National Convention, which had the same producers. The Desperate Housewives and Scandal vets will introduce segments in the 2-hour special that starts at 8:30 PM ET on the 20th.

However, dear readers, there is a silver lining in all this: except for the ninety-minute extravaganza that Longoria, Washington, and Hanks are co-hosting on the day itself, all of the other ‘unity’ programming Hollywood wants to shove down our throats will only be streamed via the Biden Inaugural Committee website and its associated social media accounts. So, you’ll likely be able to miss stuff like Billy Porter’s “performance” that closed out the Democratic National Convention — since this “show” is apparently being produced by the same people who put on that farce.