watching two half movies, half eating two half meals; watching the face of a sleeping English nurse who worked in Australia, who had been very cheery until Wade had asked her about her job; three patients had died recently of melanoma; she slept dreaming of them, looking troubled. Wade wanted her for his nurse.
Later he woke to the insistent beep of his wrist phone. “Wade Norton,” he said blurrily into it.
“Wade it’s Phil. Where are you now?”
“Somewhere over the Pacific,” Wade said, trying not to wake up fully.
“What, you’re not there yet?”
“You just told me about this what, I don’t know.” Wade checked his watch, but could not remember what time zone it was keeping.
“Have you made it past the international date line? Or am I still calling you from tomorrow.”
“I don’t know. I was asleep.”
“So was I, Wade. But then I woke up and turned onCNN, and saw Winston being interviewed, and I was so pissed off that I couldn’t get back to sleep.”
“So you called me.”
“As always.”
Wade pulled his phone headset from his briefcase and put it on, then plugged it into his wrist.
“—he did today? It’s not enough to block your Antarctic Treaty, and my debt-for-population reduction package—now he’s making noises about the CO 2 joint implementation deal, knowing that any noise and the Chinese will throw a tantrum and run. Invasion of national sovereignty, he called it. We can’t be paying for their trouble! As if global warming was their trouble! Didn’t he notice Hurricane Velma? His own damn state about a hundred miles
skinnier
than it used to be, and him on CNN saying it’s a Chinese problem? Where do they
find
these guys? They must be breaking the cloning laws down there, they keep electing the same guy over and over.”
“He’s popular,” Wade said, leaning his head against the cool smooth jet window.
“Yes but why, Wade, why? How do these people win elections? I have never understood why so many decent hardworking Americans will loyally and you have to say even pigheadedly continue to vote for people whose explicit declared project is to rip them off.”
“People don’t see it that way,” Wade said, beginning to doze again.
“But it’s so obvious! Cutting jobs, reducing wages, increasing hours, shaving benefits and retirements—all this downsizing is the downsizing of labor costs, meaning less of what companies make is given to the employees and more to the owners and shareholders. And this is the Republican program! They advocate this transfer of profits! They write and pass the laws that allow it,and oppose the laws that try to stop it! So why do people vote for them, why? Nobody making less than about seventy grand a year should ever even think of voting for them! And even the people who make more should reconsider their priorities.”
“You’re a true Democrat, Phil.” Though he had been a Green in his first term, and an independent in his second.
“That’s true, but still, how do they do it?”
“They tell people it’s Democrats ripping them off, with taxes. People see business paying them and government taking it away.”
“But business takes it away too! They take it first and they take more and then they run off with it! People are just squeaking by while their employers are zillionaires! At least if the government rips you off then they use the money to build roads and schools and airports and jails and all, they build the whole damn infrastructure! No, taxing and spending is good, that’s what I say—tax big and spend big, I say that right on the floor of the Senate.”
“We know, Phil. We watch in the office and we weep.”
“Yes you do, because government is the people! The owners just take the money and build castles in Barbados. How can they justify that, how can they
sell
that program?”
“Ideology is powerful.”
“I guess so. You must be right. Although I’ve never understood why you can’t just look the situation
Later he woke to the insistent beep of his wrist phone. “Wade Norton,” he said blurrily into it.
“Wade it’s Phil. Where are you now?”
“Somewhere over the Pacific,” Wade said, trying not to wake up fully.
“What, you’re not there yet?”
“You just told me about this what, I don’t know.” Wade checked his watch, but could not remember what time zone it was keeping.
“Have you made it past the international date line? Or am I still calling you from tomorrow.”
“I don’t know. I was asleep.”
“So was I, Wade. But then I woke up and turned onCNN, and saw Winston being interviewed, and I was so pissed off that I couldn’t get back to sleep.”
“So you called me.”
“As always.”
Wade pulled his phone headset from his briefcase and put it on, then plugged it into his wrist.
“—he did today? It’s not enough to block your Antarctic Treaty, and my debt-for-population reduction package—now he’s making noises about the CO 2 joint implementation deal, knowing that any noise and the Chinese will throw a tantrum and run. Invasion of national sovereignty, he called it. We can’t be paying for their trouble! As if global warming was their trouble! Didn’t he notice Hurricane Velma? His own damn state about a hundred miles
skinnier
than it used to be, and him on CNN saying it’s a Chinese problem? Where do they
find
these guys? They must be breaking the cloning laws down there, they keep electing the same guy over and over.”
“He’s popular,” Wade said, leaning his head against the cool smooth jet window.
“Yes but why, Wade, why? How do these people win elections? I have never understood why so many decent hardworking Americans will loyally and you have to say even pigheadedly continue to vote for people whose explicit declared project is to rip them off.”
“People don’t see it that way,” Wade said, beginning to doze again.
“But it’s so obvious! Cutting jobs, reducing wages, increasing hours, shaving benefits and retirements—all this downsizing is the downsizing of labor costs, meaning less of what companies make is given to the employees and more to the owners and shareholders. And this is the Republican program! They advocate this transfer of profits! They write and pass the laws that allow it,and oppose the laws that try to stop it! So why do people vote for them, why? Nobody making less than about seventy grand a year should ever even think of voting for them! And even the people who make more should reconsider their priorities.”
“You’re a true Democrat, Phil.” Though he had been a Green in his first term, and an independent in his second.
“That’s true, but still, how do they do it?”
“They tell people it’s Democrats ripping them off, with taxes. People see business paying them and government taking it away.”
“But business takes it away too! They take it first and they take more and then they run off with it! People are just squeaking by while their employers are zillionaires! At least if the government rips you off then they use the money to build roads and schools and airports and jails and all, they build the whole damn infrastructure! No, taxing and spending is good, that’s what I say—tax big and spend big, I say that right on the floor of the Senate.”
“We know, Phil. We watch in the office and we weep.”
“Yes you do, because government is the people! The owners just take the money and build castles in Barbados. How can they justify that, how can they
sell
that program?”
“Ideology is powerful.”
“I guess so. You must be right. Although I’ve never understood why you can’t just look the situation
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