Catching up day. Ran various errands, replenished the larder, and went to the cemetery. Welcomed Frank-Next-Door and Barbara back; I'll go with Frank tonight to the production meeting for Blithe Spirit. Early on, after my walk, completed the three-mile at the clubhouse. As those who participate agree, the only good thing about the gruelling three-mile is that it makes the two-mile look easy.
WIDER: Jon V. sent me a remarkable essay, "Honk If You Love Cavier," by one of my favorites, Joe Bageant:
"You hear it all the time these days: The top one percent of Americans own more wealth than the bottom 45% of the rest of Americans combined.
I have seldom met an American who thought this is a good thing, and seldom met one who understood how the ruling class got so rich. Simply put, it was through constant cultivation of bigger and more labyrinthine government, creating legal and technical complexities to sluice money nationally and globally in their direction, and to cover their asses in the process. The results are such things as 3,000 page health care bills (defining which corporate elites get which parts of the cake), or the 2,000-page NAFTA and its 9,000 tariff product codes...."
But this is just a tiny snippet of the whole spell-binding piece. Read it all at Joe's site: http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/08/understanding-america.html
I remember a phrase somebody used when she contemplated her state of mind witnessing the horrors of the Bush administration. Now that we find ourselves, dazed and uncomprehending, in his next term, it seems to fit. "Helpless rage" is the phrase and clearly, Joe--and millions, if not billions, of his compatriots--is feeling the same.
Helpless rage. It's all we've got, folks, and it's not enough.