no end in sight

Wikileaks may be up again, but the attacks (in various forms) upon the project of making information available continue.

I myself see no cause for optimism, but only see increasing evidence that the situation in the USA (and elsewhere) is getting worse. The word "economics" has unfortunate connotations, and brings with it a variety of associations and half-thoughts or thought paths that are unhelpful. To say there is an "economic downturn" masks the urgency of the current situation, and the degree to which decisions of specific individuals are causing harm to other individuals with much less power. To parse it in terms of economics may give undeserved authority to various so-called experts and, at the same time, tends to make the problem sound more technical than it really is. If a giant kicks a midget in the stomach, the most perspicacious description of the event won't necessarily be in the language of physics.

When I try to think of parallels, I think of the Chinese Cultural Revolution because that event had sufficient power to permanently damage individual lives. Today the lives of many individuals are being ruined, permanently damaged, in order to further concentrate the power and wealth of a small minority in the USA; at the same time an enormous smoke screen is being generated to hide this fact.