The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

CATOCTIN MOUNTAIN, Md. — The drizzling rain has stopped outside the camper van window for now, although more rain from Tropical Storm Fred is on the way to the mid-Atlantic region after making landfall along the Florida panhandle.

Fred Hits the Southeast: Possible Tornado Leaves Damage in Southwest Georgia; Thousands Lose Power in Florida

Rain is better than heat in this situation, however, as long as it doesn’t crash another canopy. So far so good.

It looks like we may avert another disaster from Tropical Storm Grace, which now appears headed for Mexico (sorry to my friends in Central America).

Tropical Storm Grace to Strengthen in the Caribbean; Hurricane Watch Posted in Mexico’s Yucatan

But the deluge of OTHER NEWS is almost overwhelming now, as we predictably lurch from one disaster to the next. That is the state of the world these days, and it is doubtful it will get any better any time soon, if ever. This is our new normal, and it is far from normal.

COVID-19

In May, June and July, we caught a short break and breathed a short-lived sign of relief as the coronavirus vaccination rate climbed and the infection and hospitalization rates declined. It appeared as though we might avert more of a disaster on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic front.

But Nooo!

Human ignorance intervened again, with millions of people still refusing to get the free vaccination shots or wear masks in public simply for political reasons, mostly. Thank you once again Donald Trump for screwing up this country and the world for the sake of your own selfish vanity.

The latest figures show that 169 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated, only about 52 percent of the population. There are now about 48,000 people in the hospital with COVID-19, a 22 percent increase in the past seven days.

CDC COVID Tracker

Afghanistan

But for the past five days, that news has been overshadowed by the news out of Afghanistan, where the Taliban managed to retake over most of the country as American troops get ready to pull out by Sept. 11, 2021 — 20 years after 9/11 — while President Joe Biden was trying to catch a break at Camp David near here for a few days of vacation over the weekend.

Washington Post: 72 hours at Camp David: Inside Biden’s lagging response to the fall of Afghanistan

It didn’t take long for The New York Times editorial board to put the international disaster into context.

NYT: The Tragedy of Afghanistan

All I could really do is sit back and watch the crises unfold, and share links on Facebook. We do not have a correspondent in Afghanistan.

Climate Change

Last week we were all watching coverage of the massive wildfires out West, and talking about global warming and climate change, an ongoing disaster with world wide, long-term implications for human survival on planet Earth. That’s a story I can cover, since I’ve been on the environment beat since 1989, when the first big books and science warnings hit the mainstream media.

NAJ: July 2021: The Hottest Month In Recorded Human History

NAJ: Code Red for Humanity: UN Report Warns of ‘Unprecedented’ and ‘Catastrophic’ Climate Change

Capitol Insurrection

The Capitol insurrection story is still making the rounds, as more domestic terrorists of the right-wing, fascist variety are arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced.

As many readers on Facebook have pointed out, it does appear that they are getting off with light sentences, even if judges make a point of scolding them like they were little school children out on a field trip to see the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

NAJ: Federal Judges Scold Capitol Insurrectionists During Sentencing Hearings

News Views

Many people stopped paying attention to the news back in May, as news traffic and circulation numbers declined. But they are back up now, as people are reading and watching the news again. There are too many sensational disaster stories to ignore.

We do the best we can to help people keep up with the facts, not just the sensational clickbait and nonsensical comments on social media. But sometimes this business seems like an out of control glacier snowball picking up more material and speed and rolling down the world’s tallest mountain.

How big and bad will it be, and where will it crash next?

I’ll be damned if I know. Stay tuned.