Year: 2019

It is a continuing source of amazement and consternation that most conservatives and evangelical Christians support Trump. So many of his character features would seem to be inimical to both of these groups. We won’t list them here since that is hardly necessary.  Trump demonstrates them on a daily if --->> read more -->>

It will be no surprise to regular readers of AmericanDelusions that we are skeptical of markets and even more so claims made for markets. So, it was a pleasure to read the recent op-ed piece by Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, winners of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics, “Economic --->> read more -->>

The Visual Capitalist added another graphic example of the increasing concentration, monopolization, of markets, in this case for groceries. Even here in Hudson NY we can see the impact of Walmart locally. Two years ago we had three large supermarkets within 4 miles. Price Chopper gave up the ghost leaving --->> read more -->>

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been famous and more than a bit of an outlier in American life from the moment he came on the public stage over the summer of 1991. Today I noted an interesting book review by Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson in the October 4, 2019 --->> read more -->>

The New Yorker published “Value Meal: Impossible Foods wants to save the world by inventing a better burger” by Tad Friend in the 9/30/2019 issue. During the introductory paragraphs the following statistic was cited: Every four pounds of beef you eat contributes to as much global warming as flying from New --->> read more -->>

9/12/2019 A lecture at the Hudson Area Library tonight, Slavery and Dutch-Palatine Farmers: How did middle class farmers in Colonial New York interact with slavery?’ by Travis M. Bowman. The lecture began with the note that slavery in NY state lasted for over 200 years – from 1625 when the --->> read more -->>

Friday 9/6/2019 Over the last several months I have been working on a restatement of the fundamental characteristics of the capitalist system. In doing this I have been thinking afresh about the current crisis of global warming and the surrounding environmental disasters of species extinction and the general defacement of --->> read more -->>

We’ve written quite a bit about the US Empire. A key component of this US foreign policy is regime change. Here is a list of the posts here on this topic. Recently Democracy Now! ran a 22 minute discussion of the history of US regime change actions over the last --->> read more -->>

…nations are based as much on what people collectively agree to forget as what they wish to remember. In a visit in February 2019 to a photography exhibit, Imagined Communities by Mila Teshaieva, at the MIT Museum I came across this paraphrase from the late 19th century French historian Ernest Renan: --->> read more -->>

The recent controversies surrounding Joe Biden’s anti- school busing collaborations with racist politicians from the south has for the moment aroused new comment on segregated America. The New York Times published an excellent review of the history of school desegregation by Nikole Hannah-Jones, “It Was Never About Busing: Court-ordered desegregation worked. --->> read more -->>

Robert Reich is continuing his series of brief YouTube videos on progressive view of the economy. This is a good introduction to the arguments for re-invigorating our protections against monopolies. However, the problem is much more widespread than just the high tech industry. We’ve written about this broader phenomenon in --->> read more -->>

The May 9th NYTimes has an Op-Ed essay, It’s Time to Break Up Facebook, by Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook, calling on the government to break up that company. The essay is very thorough in describing the current monopoly behavior of Facebook, the deleterious effects on competition and vigor in --->> read more -->>

Many Americans are either blind or in denial about US militarism not to mention our empire. Recently our past President Carter took note of our long-term proclivity for empire and war in one of his Sunday school talks. Carter noted that there have only been five years in the entire --->> read more -->>

Once again we return to our comedians for information about what is going on in the world. This time more on the fraud that is our judicial system. Turns out that one of our regular sources, John Oliver, has really made a demi-career out of just this topic.  

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The Dalio Critique of Capitalism – Part One Ray Dalio, number 79 on Bloomberg’s list of the  100 wealthiest people on the planet with a net worth of 18+ billion $s, published an essay on LinkedIn, “Why and How Capitalism Needs to Be Reformed (Parts 1 & 2)” is US --->> read more -->>

We read Evicted – poverty and profit in the American city by Matthew Desmond last year in our local library book group. Recently on a visit to Washington DC to the National Building Museum (401 F St. NW – Judiciary Square Metro stop) we came on an exhibit based on --->> read more -->>

In our continuing effort to find varied sources to illustrate the power of marketing and the costs of unregulated capitalism we return to John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight for his segment on sugar in food. The food industry continues to put sugar in nearly every processed food and fights --->> read more -->>

If one is interested in helping people develop new understandings of how their society works the question of how adults learn and engage is critical. Clearly standard pedagogical approaches are inappropriate because our readers are adults not the ages typical for K-12 and college instruction. Further, standard pedagogy is top-down --->> read more -->>

Discrimination Against Women Continues – Lots of Outright Oppression Too In the NYTimes today is an article, “Why International Women’s Day Isn’t Going Away – For all the progress women have made, they are still a long way from true equality.”  by Iliana Magra. Here are a few data points from --->> read more -->>

We have written earlier (for example our article The Monopolization of America) about the increasing concentration of market power    In the hands of just a few corporations. This is a phenomenon occurring  throughout the US economy (really more broadly across the globe). Here is an 11 minute review of --->> read more -->>

AmericanDelusions does not generally comment on the day-to-day political scene. But, the behavior of the Republican Party in recent years has become so toxic to our country that we pause to take note. While attention is focused every day on the depressing narcissistic spectacle of the Trump White House one --->> read more -->>