How is any of this real?

Many people have posted this image of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at the inauguration yesterday. They say her expression captures how a lot of us are feeling, but it is her necklace of cowrie shells that has drawn the most commentary. In African tradition, cowries ward off evil and call in the protection of the ancestors. I'm glad to have this brilliant and courageous sentinel of justice representing us in the ring, exuding her quiet power. Don't mess with the ancestors is what I say.

Yesterday was strange for me. I didn't watch the inauguration, but I was still disturbed, not quite inside my body, not quite able to process that our nation has arrived again at this pass. It will be so much worse this time. Already we have the whiplash of trying to track what else he's done in the few minutes that we looked away. He pardoned all the January 6 insurrectionists, emptied the jails of them. He cancelled all asylum appointments, signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship, and today is launching deportation sweeps in blue cities across the country. 

In all, he signed more than forty executive orders yesterday, including reinstating the Muslim ban and having the U.S. exit the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accords. The lawsuits pushing back are already piling up. We all know what's coming. And for anyone who doesn't, tech broligarch Elon Musk's Nazi salute at the rally last night should tell you everything you need to know.