Pro Tip for those who are “Hysteria Intolerant”. 
Dogs don’t really have shoulders, per se. 
We certainly do! 
+1
Aarrggh. <ThelmaLou cried weakly>
A new round of news fatigue has set in.
The political news continues to expand tsunami-like-- DACA, Mueller, Trump pretends to suck Schumer’s dick and Pelosi’s whatever, gives McConnell the finger, defunds Obamacare advertising, holds a sabre in his tiny hands and rattles it at North Korea.
Meanwhile actual tsunamis (sort of) threaten everything east of the Florida panhandle and on out to sea. Some are killed, many are displaced and homeless, others have lost everything they own. Harvey, Irma, Jose, Mexico earthquake, wildfires in the western USA. Also displaced, homeless, and in danger are refugees fleeing from one country to another all over the world…
I agree with much of what has been said here already so I won’t reiterate too much. I am a news junkie, but I go in cycles of immersion and disengagement. It takes so many of my daily minutes to stay informed, as I look at a wide variety of sources to try and achieve some kind of reasonable balance. I like to know what both sides are saying. It is mentally exhausting, so I often need a break. It is rather hard work, this business of being an informed person.
So in my rebellion to the general dumbassery of the world at present, I have started doing some writing on a set of historical fiction stories I have had in my head for over 20 years now. It is the best therapy in the world, and doing the necessary research is much more satisfying than giving myself a headache over Trump. So maybe I can even thank Trump for giving me the kick in the ass I needed to get this writing thing started?
I stopped paying attention to “the news” a long time ago. Sometimes I feel irresponsible because there’s so much going on in the world that I haven’t heard about. Then I remember I used to yell at the TV when I saw something that pissed me off… and a lot of things on the TV pissed me off, especially during election seasons. So I stopped watching TV.
I used to be fairly active on FB with stuff that appealed to me. Then my FB feed became filled with hate about someone, and anyone who supported that person. I ended up taking a couple months completely off FB; when I came back, I blocked every politically-oriented page that showed up in my feed, every page that friends had shared political things from, and unfollowed FB friends who couldn’t STFU about that person. After several months of effort, my FB feed is now mostly politics-free, and mostly shows me stuff that I like and want to see. I still see some crap show up periodically, but it’s not a deluge like it was after the election.
Those two things have gone a long way towards preserving what’s left of my sanity.
like a lot of people, I’ve not “paid attention” to the news for years. Occasionally, I will be at my parents and will catch the bit on PBS with the commentary and discussion of whatever with the liberal and conservative viewpoints represented. I have the car radio set to a local talk radio station for the local morning show and traffic reports and the afternoon local show (local topics and discussion are ok to me) and traffic reports for the commute to and from work (I don’t listen to the national shows) If something is mentioned there that seems interesting, I will look into it at my leisure. I don’t have cable/satellite tv, I haven’t watched tv at my own house in years in fact. Got tired of yelling at the tv about things I can’t do anything about
I try to avoid clickbait on news sites that begin, “One weird trick…” or “Scientists baffled by…” or ones that ask a question, since the answer usually is “No.”
I get all my news that I need from the World Affairs Brief.