After setting my phone notifications to Do Not Disturb for the next four years, I spent Inauguration Day watching nonstop sports. All of the teams and individuals I was rooting for lost. (I guess you can run, but you can't hide.) Since I worked hard to avoid the proceedings, I don't want to pile on with coverage of them. Instead, I'll focus on one American splitscreen. On the way out, Joe Biden offered preemptive pardons for members of the House Committee that investigated Jan 6th, and other individuals including Gen. Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and Liz Cheney. As these patriots, truth-tellers, and life-savers were being pardoned because of threats of revenge, America’s richest CEOs locked arms with the guy making the threats. It doesn't get much more stark than that.
2Using the Pen as a SwordIt was a busy first day of a executive orders highlighted by a series of immigration directives (including declaring an immigration emergency and plans to end birthright citizenship), plans to pull out of the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreements, the rolling back DEI and protections for transgender people, and granting TikTok a 75 ban reprieve. Also, "Trump planned to sign an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico, making it the Gulf of America. The highest mountain in North America, now known as Denali, will revert back to Mount McKinley." 3Whiplashes to Ashes"As air warms, its capacity to hold moisture rises, and the increase is not linear but exponential. Higher temperatures thus boost evaporation, with two apparently opposing results—fiercer rains and deeper droughts. Southern California has experienced both extremes in recent years: the past two winters were exceptionally wet; the summer and fall of 2024 were exceptionally dry. During the wet periods, grasses and shrubs on L.A.’s ridges and canyons thrived. In the dry seasons, the brush withered into kindling waiting to ignite. In a paper published earlier this month, a group of researchers led by Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the California Institute for Water Resources, dubbed such swings from wet to dry 'hydroclimate whiplash.' The phenomenon, the paper demonstrated, is on the rise worldwide. 'I don’t see this as a failure of firefighting,' Swain said of the devastation in L.A. 'I see it as a tragic lesson in the limits of what firefighting can achieve under conditions that are this extreme.'" Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker: Climate Whiplash and Fire Come to L.A. 4What a Difference a Day Makes"Fifty-one days ago, Ryan Day stood frozen as the victorious (again) Michigan Wolverines planted a flag in the middle of Ohio Stadium. All around him were tears and jeers and calls for his job. Players fought. Pepper spray wafted through the air. It felt apoplectic then." It probably feels better now. Day's Ohio State team are national champs after a win against a game Notre Dame team. 5Extra, ExtraCease and Release: "In an Instagram story, which was shared by Israeli media, Damari thanked her family and the large protest movement that coalesced to advocate for the release of the hostages. 'Thank you thank you thank you I’m the happiest in the world,' she said." The much-anticipated beginning of the Gaza ceasefire has held and the first three hostages were released over the weekend. Another four are expected to be freed this weekend. 6Bottom of the NewsCanadian man's home security camera captures the sight and sound of a meteorite strike. (It was either that or a really aggressive DoorDash delivery...)
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