The week began with us wondering if a handshake is inflammatory. We were discussing the cover, which Art Director Zeke Barbaro had originally designed for our Election issue – a "let's get to work," cautiously optimistic illustration of totems of democracy being rebuilt. Regular readers will recall that we landed instead on an apocalyptic image for that first cover in November – a picture of ruin that anticipated Trump and his faithfuls' apparent determination to reduce America to rubble. Leading up to the inauguration, we dusted off Zeke's discarded cover, thinking, now – now is the time we get to be cautiously optimistic! And then rioters laid waste to the U.S. Capitol, egged on by the president, his allies, and a political machine that's been piping toxic lies about a stolen election into the air ducts for months. They shattered glass, ransacked offices, smeared shit on the walls. As repair work began on the Capitol building, our cover's figurative concept –