Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire is one of our best portals to reliable news sources, with postings throughout the day.  One of today’s posts reflects my own Trump/news fatigue, and Goddard’s short-term solution to it.  In a note to his readers, Goddard wrote, “Folks, I’m exhausted. The crushing amount of political news over the last three years has just about worn me out.” Noting that the next two years promise to be “even crazier,” he advised that, for the next week, Political Wire will not be updated at the normal pace.

Nick Kristof, is a two-time Pulitzer prize winning New York Times columnist whose articles often focus on international news and human rights issues. In a column called “My Biggest Duds, he reviewed those 2018  columns that “sent readers away in droves.” At the bottom of his barrel  he found those dealing with “+Me Too Goes Global,” adding human rights to North Korean negotiations,  a call for greater investment in global education. Sadly, he concluded  that “international  columns don’t get much of an audience, particularly if they aren’t about issues in the news and don’t relate to President Trump.”

Looking back at my blogs, it  seems the ones that have elicited the least reader engagement  have similarly been those dealing with international  topics. I wonder why? Please tell me. The greatest level of response  I get are those dealing with Trump and Congress— even from my readers in Australia, Thailand, Greece and France.

Like Taegan Goddard, I’m suffering from Trump fatigue   and have a sense of the onslaught of news to come. So, dear readers, I will try to take a week or ten days to avoid writing. One escape route is my plan to take a class on the poetic muse in American classical music.  Could anything be further from him who shall not be named?   And, if I fall off the wagon, it will not be for Donald Trump and his stupefying craziness.  Who knows what Elysium fields I will discover?

As always, I appreciate your reading my blog, becoming followers, and your comments on the blog itself as well as on email, Facebook, Twitter and the old social medium of face-to-face!

Best wishes for a happy and healthy New Year.  May 2019 bring you both prosperity and deep personal satisfaction.