The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

Cue up the spinning wheel of bad news. Simply turn on the TV or crank up the internet.

Just as we thought the hellscape of 2020 was behind us, a mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado replaces a mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, which supplants a border crisis in Texas in the never ending news loop.

Another day, another mass shooting in America, another border crisis, all fodder for the news corps. How to keep up with it all and stay sane?

As if a year of living with a global pandemic and an economic collapse were not bad enough, as well as all the ongoing crises from climate change, here we are in the hellscape of 2021 in another Hieronymus Bosch painting, another Ridley Scott film.

That is our world now. Nomadland to follow soon.

Things on the vaccine and economic front are gradually improving. There is hope for tomorrow that we may one day soon be able to socialize again, to get out of the house and go have a beer in a bar and listen to live music again.

But there are still far too many deranged people with assault rifles and other weapons set loose on our society, hell bent on getting themselves famous by contributing to the carnage and increasing our daily anarchy and chaos.

Is this really fun guys? Is it really so much better than staying safe at home playing violent video games? Lock and load and head down to the local super market, the message parlor, and bring on the blood?

We shake our heads and say, “I don’t get it.”

We call for an assault weapons ban and the bankrupt National Rife Association and the bought and paid for Republican politicians are still quoted on every channel saying leave our Second Amendment rights alone.

You know, both sides of the story, man.

What are news reporters to do? Jump to the next crisis and work like hell to keep up.

What’s the new Biden administration to do? Work like hell to find solutions and respond.

The world and the American empire were already teetering on the brink of failure before the Trump show came along and spun the wheel off the spindle, overwhelming the gears.

Like the TV news anchor character Howard Beal in the 1976 film “Network,” Trump jumped up and shouted, “I am mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore,” and got 70 million people to follow him over the cliff.

Is there any way that 78-year-old Joe Biden can keep up? The click bait news sites are already running a video of Biden falling down multiple times while boarding Air Force One. The pundits are already questioning whether Biden can sell his programs to Congress. He still has a month left in his first 100 days, and the honeymoon is already over.

Dog help us all.

We’re not running the video loop trying to ramp up the traffic to make a few more pennies from Google ads. Did it make the cable news loop? I stopped playing on that merry-go-round a long time ago.

So when I see the news go off in all these crazy directions, I just want to take the day off and go see and smell the blooming trees and flowers and watch the birds. It’s spring, after all, and a time to take a break and try to enjoy what’s left of the beauty on this heavenly planet, slowly being turned into a hell hole by the selfish, greedy bastards.

Howard Beal’s advice was not all bad.

“Turn off the damn TV right now.”

Chayefsky’s nightmare explained.