Welcome to the 2011 Days of Rage.

In the past day alone, mass Occupy Wall Street actions, as chronicled here and here, give us a hint, just a hint, of what can happen when a too-mad-to-be-denied constituency hugely outnumbers the blue-clad and helmeted enforcers who are paid to subdue them.

The most eloquent statement I have yet heard from the decentralized OWS movement came from one of its New York City leaders, who said on the radio that OWS actions, spectacular and dramatic though they are, serve as but a vehicle for a kind of colossal public education on the way the American and global capitalist economy really works -- and on the massive power that can be unleashed when popular awareness merges with popular rage.

It is worth repeating again and again: although most Americans are not part of OWS, most do agree with its stated positions against income inequality and the rule of the rich. When was the last time you saw those explicit and widespread public grievances forced onto the front pages and the anchor desks of the corporate media?