[Peace-discuss] Quo usque tandem abutere, America, patientia nostra?

[C. G. Estabrook]

Quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit
"AUDACIA SPEI"?


On 7/22/10 2:17 PM, E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
> Glenn Greenwald:
>
> That's really the only relevant question: how much longer will Americans sit
> by passively and watch as a tiny elite become more bloated, more powerful,
> greedier, more corrupt and more unaccountable -- as the little economic
> security, privacy and freedom most citizens possess vanish further still? How
>  long can this be sustained, where more and more money is poured into Endless
>  War, a military that almost spends more than the rest of the world combined
>  <http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/01/26/defense>,
> where close to 50% of all U.S. tax revenue goes to military and intelligence
> spending
> <http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MnYI3_FRbbQ/S17GGwQ1TrI/AAAAAAAACSY/X2bs4rpZpWU/s1600-h/spending.png>,
>  where the rich-poor gap grows seemingly without end
> <http://obrag.org/?p=1758>, and the very people who virtually destroyed the
> world economy wallow in greater rewards than ever
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/18/business/18wall.html>, all while the
> public infrastructure (both figuratively
> <http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61K2I520100221> and literally
> <http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/going-backwards-say-good-bye-to.html>)
>  crumbles and the ruling class is openly collaborating on a bipartisan,
> public-private basis even to *cut* *Social Security benefits*?
>
> * * * * *
>
> The answer, unfortunately, is probably this: a lot longer. And one primary
> reason is that our media-shaped political discourse is so alternatively
> distracted and distorted that even shining light on all of this matters
> little. /The New York Times/' Peter Baker had a good article
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/weekinreview/18baker.html?partner=rss&emc=rss>
> this weekend on how totally inconsequential squabbles dominate the news more
> or less continuously: last week's riveting drama was the bickering between
> the White House and Nancy Pelosi over Robert Gibbs' warning that Democratic
> control of the House was endangered. Baker quotes Democratic strategist Chris
> Lehane as follows: "Politics in D.C. have become Seinfeldesque. *Fights about
> nothing*."
>
> http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/19/secrecy/index.html