January 6, 2021. A typically boring procedural event for certifying electoral votes morphed into a violent attack on the Capitol with a noose and beatings and a death count. Guys showed up with zip ties and a plan to trap and attack congresspeople. Madness reigned in the capital and it was 50/50 whether we’d make it through the day without public executions.

January 13, 2021. After Mike Pence elected not to pursue invoking the 25th amendment the House of Representatives held a hearing and voted to impeach then-president Trump. For a second time. In his only term in office.

January 20, 2021. After two weeks of watching Washington D.C. turn into a military zone and praying there wouldn’t be another violent attack we finally saw Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris inaugurated as the president and vice-president of the United States. Praise be.

January 27, 2021. The average Joe – or, more accurately, an entire Reddit board of them – marshaled their purchase power to influence the stock market so that GameStop shares soared more than 400 percent. I won’t stumble my way through what’s sure to be a bumbling explanation. Instead I’ll leave this tidbit here. The included screenshots are the clearest explanation I’ve come across yet for what’s happening.

So. Trump rallying his violent white supremacist followers to take over the legislature, election certification under attack from without and within, Republicans who refuse to mask/walk through metal detectors/relinquish their weapons, a second Trump impeachment, Republicans talking a good accountability game on January 8th who lose their nerve within the week, a history making inauguration cloaked in please don’t let there be an attack anxiety, forty-five chickenshit Republican senators actually voting against even holding the impeachment trial because “impeachment is for removal from office, and the accused here has already left office” despite the fact that they refused to try Trump while in office because he was so close to the end of his term, the stock market is all topsy turvy with the big guns furious that regular people crowdsourced their purchase power, AND IT’S STILL JANUARY.

I’m starting to wonder if January plans to let us out alive.