How many of you remember radio?

No, not the soothing NPR empathy/classical music kind, the mighty Rock & Roll blasts, country twang, or endless breathless rants from the right or the left.

I mean radio, the way back stuff, where our family gathered around a big shiny wooden box about the size of a small refrigerator and listened to what the guy, and it was always a guy, had to say about current events. One of the biggest stars was a guy named Walter Winchell who always began with the tag line, “Good Evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea. Let’s go to press.” Then he would hammer on with a staccato rant about current events, celebrity gossip, and other oddball stuff.

Imagine if he were still on the air today. Even with his jackhammer cadence, he would run out of air time in a New York minute.

Let’s pretend we are sitting down and listening as old Walter reviews the news that broke last week. Let’s start with POTUS, who ordered National Guard troops into Portland, that is, Oregon, not Maine, to quell lawlessness that the mayor and governor say is a myth. Then he changed his mind. Or did he?

He ordered the A.G. to indict the former FBI chief, and she did. Even a Fox legal eagle said it was a questionable move.

About the same time, MSNBC, The NY Times and the WSJ reported that an FBI sting videotaped ICE tough guy Tom Holman pocketing a $50,000 bribe. But the current Justice Department swept it under the rug. Does that mean the FBI rank-and-file agents are pushing back on White House tough attacks on J. Edgar’s once proud bureau?

POTUS jumped into the Ukraine/Russia war, calling the latter a paper tiger going broke fighting a smaller foe.

POTUS said he would not, then he said he would, meet with congressional Democrats to try to work out a measure to avert a government shutdown.

The Secretary of Defense (War) ordered all the top generals, admirals, and their senior enlisted aides to attend a meeting at Quantico, Virginia, then POTUS said he would like to go to that party, too, upstaging his SECDEF.

And, if that was not enough, POTUS ordered the Amelia Earhart files released as his GOP congressional allies tried to keep a lid on the Epstein bucket of dirty laundry.

Then, POTUS  asked the Supreme Court to rule that the Constitution’s 14th Amendment does not say what it says. Look it up. Whew!

In other news:

 A federal court ruled the My Pillow Guy defamed a voting machine company by claiming their gizmos rigged the 2020 election. The voting machine company lawyers say they will ask the judge to award them a nine-figure penalty.

On the celebrity beat, after Disney/ABC pulled late-night talk show star Jimmy Kimmel off the air, a couple of giant TV station owners, Sinclair and Nexstar, followed suit. Then, faced with big-shot celebrity protests, along with threatened customer boycotts, Disney/ABC reversed course and Jimmy the K got his old job back. As for Sinclair and Nexstar, they said they would still keep him off their stations. Then, as JK’s return drew huge audience ratings, they backed down, choosing ratings and revenue over principle.

Then, to lighten the conversation, we were flooded with the news celebrating the 50th anniversary of one of America’s strangest cult classic movies, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” How many of our wheelchair-bound seniors can remember going to a midnight show and dancing in the aisles to the “Time Warp?” And I wonder if the theater in Boothbay Harbor might consider a midnight showing of Rocky Horror? Maybe for Halloween. Would that be a sold-out performance?

The point of this silly ramble is to illustrate just how the machine-gun volume of the news has a tendency to overwhelm us all. Just think of how we all are hammered by breathless TV news talkers and phone posts on the right and left. We don’t have time to ponder one thing when the next one hits the airwaves. Yes, we have a few skinny newspapers, cable, fiber optics, and smartphones providing us with alleged news, but heaven knows if the internet posts are true or not. Do they come from Iran or Russia? Are the sobering images real or artificial? We know that most of the old editors, the men and women who kept the print reporters and TV news producers in line, are now gone, or in the home.

We are now tiptoeing into the 2026 national election season. The gaggle of high-priced political consultants is gearing up their bag of tricks to convince us to vote for their guy or gal. It is time for us all, whether you are red or blue, to be on guard.

I’ll bet it is going to get ugly, with a capital Ugg.