A recent NYTimes article from 10.23.2023, “New SAT Data Highlights the Deep Inequality at the Heart of American Education,” alerted me to a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, “Diversifying Society’s Leaders? The Determinants and Causal Effects of Admission to Highly Selective Private Colleges” The report begins with --->> read more -->>

The public upsurge in white supremacist politics in the last year or so has refocused my attention on the ongoing need to get our history right. To continuously struggle to challenge every assumption about how and why life is organized in the fashion that we find today. In July of --->> read more -->>

This week’s fraud trial appearances by the Trump boys, Don, Jr. and Eric, Executive VP and Executive VP of Development and Acquisitions respectively in the Trump Organization, caused me to reflect on the duties of a manager. “As he [Eric] started his testimony, he said he “never had anything to --->> read more -->>

What expectations and constraints should be placed on the development and ongoing deployment of AI systems? If one thinks about how we evaluate the merits of human sources of knowledge, we can see some useful practices that may help us develop expectations and constraints to govern AI and keep it --->> read more -->>

The NY fraud trial of Trump and his children for flagrantly overstating the valuations of properties is set to start Monday 10.2.2023 with Trump and his offspring called as witnesses. The Attorney General released this graphic showing the impact on his net worth compared to expert valuations. Keep in mind --->> read more -->>

I walk up and down Warren St., about a mile up and a mile back frequently. Sometimes, I claim it as exercise, but mostly it is an opportunity to get out and chat with people. Over the last years of the pandemic, there have been a lot of political/cultural stickers --->> read more -->>

Google turns 25 today. It has a surprisingly benign public image. Google describes its mission as: “Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Forgotten or ignored is that Google (part of the holding company Alphabet, Inc.) is just a giant advertising machine. --->> read more -->>

With four indictments and 91 charges of crimes committed one cannot help but be buoyed by the notion that Trump might spend his remaining years in jail. His crimes are so many and so manifestly obvious that this seems entirely just, even required. But MAGA America is not just going --->> read more -->>

A video version of the earlier post, “$47 Trillion – the ripoff by the rich and corporations – in two charts – maybe a few more…..” is available on YouTube:

The other day I was poking around in TikTok to see what it is all about. Came across a quote from Karl Marx that struck a chord. “There must be something rotten in the very core of a social system which increases its wealth without diminishing its misery.” Here we --->> read more -->>

I was already 31 years old when the rip-off of America began in 1979. I was busy, and the changes in American life were only occasionally to be noticed.  By the mid-1980s my management life started to feature the early signs of the financialization of the corporation. I knew of --->> read more -->>

My previous post, “$47 Trillion – the ripoff by the rich and corporations – in two charts – maybe a few more…..” raises the question of exactly what 47,000,000,000,000 amounts to. There are so many “0”s! Let’s work with a one-dollar US paper bill. So how many dollar bills do --->> read more -->>

What More Needs To Be Said? 91 Felony Crimes Charged Trump has now been indicted for 91 different felony crimes spanning his four indictments to date. 34 counts for the Stormy Daniels NY state hush-money case, 40 in the Federal classified documents case, 4 in the Federal Jan. 6th case, --->> read more -->>

insurrection ĭn″sə-rĕk′shən noun 1. The act or an instance of open revolt against civil authority or a constituted government. 2. A rising up; uprising. 3. The act of rising against civil authority or governmental restraint; specifically, the armed resistance of a number of persons to the power of the state; --->> read more -->>

Recently I came across the Summer 2023 issue of Jacobin (self-described as “a leading voice of the American left, offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture.”). The lead article is “The Iraq Invasion Twenty Years Later“. This reminded me of all the lies and posturing that led up to --->> read more -->>

I’ve been publishing my research and opinion pieces on the web for over twenty years. Since Fall 2017, here on AmericanDelusions.com. The topics have ranged from family events and local hometown matters to a wide range of topics in economics, capitalism, politics, society, the environment, and more. All of this --->> read more -->>

I ran across this letter to the editor in the July 6th edition of The Columbia Paper concerning the recent Supreme Court ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis (from NYTimes: “Supreme Court Backs Web Designer Opposed to Same-Sex Marriage“) allowing businesses to discriminate against people based on religious views. This --->> read more -->>

Recently I’ve noticed bumper stickers, mostly on pickup trucks, calling out a love for the Constitution. What do I love about the Constitution? Rural states with tiny populations automatically control the Senate. The ten least populous states have a total population of 9.6 million. California, the most populous state, has --->> read more -->>

Trump received 74 million votes in 2020. This amazed and upset me a lot. The ongoing global warming crisis and the exhaustion of earth’s resources continue to arouse my concerns about our future. I wrote a longish essay on the subject in early 2022. Here is the positioning statement from --->> read more -->>

This is a reprint from UNDARK: AI Creators Want Us to Believe AI Is an Existential Threat. Why? June 22, 2023 by Ryan Calo The warning consisted of a single sentence: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics --->> read more -->>

  By chance, I saw an exhibition titled “The Future of Money” (thru 9.9.2023) at the Art Museum of The Hague, Netherlands in May 2023. The central work is a very large drawing that illustrates the flows of money through the economy. Now there is a video tour of this --->> read more -->>

Following comments in the media that the indictment document was “a readable narrative” as opposed to a dull legal document, I downloaded it for a read-through. Here is a link to the indictment “USA vs Trump & Nauta“. The first 27 pages of 49 provide a detailed narrative. In fact --->> read more -->>