Jaysis. I keep hoping things will settle down in my little world so I can pay attention to the larger one and it keeps not happening.

We did enjoy a respite yesterday afternoon. I got out for a two-hour ride with a neighbor who is on the road to recovery after an injury, and afterward I aired out the cats for a bit. Then it was back to business.

I took a quick swivel at the news and it all looks worse than Kellyanne Goebbels after a couple-three meth julips. A follower on Twitter described the antics at the Orange House as “a shitshow,” and I agreed, noting that while I had expected to see some splattered on the walls, I had not planned on it being up to the knees heading into Week 2 of the Bannon administration.

Meanwhile, here’s some light reading for you:

• Kevin Drum at MoJo says the immigration order “is a pinprick, just something to test the waters” for a full-on war on Islam. “Think of it as market research,” he adds. “More will be coming.”

• The architects of the New World Ordure are set to start pushing their Supreme Court nominee. If you’re expecting the second coming of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., prepare to be disappointed.

• What’s old is new again: Everybody, from Henry Giroux to Michiko Kakutani, is revisiting “1984” for reasons that should be all too obvious.

And now it’s back to work. Phone your senators and representatives and urge them to oppose every little notion these dollar-store despots dredge from the shallow depths of their tiny minds. Do it now. Later looks very unpleasant from where I’m sitting.