Hoping for the Best Despite the Following:

Events come and go so thick and fast that often highly significant ones that cry out for attention are all but forgotten within a few days. Last week Washington Post columnist Katrina vanden Heuvel reported that a great number of “leaked financial records from 14 different ‘offshore’ wealth-service firms” expose how the rich, the superrich, and all varieties of big-time criminals hide their money in tax havens. Thus, the people who should be taxed the most are substantially undertaxed or aren’t taxed at all. Yet, it seems, nothing can be done, Nothing can be done; on to the next problem. Biden hasn’t performed flawlessly, but the challenges he has faced and still faces have been exceptionally rough. The entire Republican Party is dedicated to sabotaging his initiatives and bringing him down, and he has been forced to placate difficult people in his own party. I hope some good parts of his ambitious policy proposals get enacted into law. But whether they do or not, we’ll continue living in more than usual perilous times. If you think of the “civilized” world as a 19th-century sailing ship, it’s leaking from stem to stern, some of its timbers are rotten, its standing rigging is rusty, its running rigging is frayed, the crew is in a mutinous mood, and it’s on course to the tropics, where it will probably be becalmed until the hurricane season arrives.

Note: After writing the above, I read a timely posting by Robert Reich warning against sinking into cynicism and despair.and advocating resilience and constructive engagement.