Category: Book Reviews
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New Video: The Wrong Tree
Making a video with Michael Galinsky and his family was so nice, I had to do it twice. Here is what we came up with together for The Wrong Tree: Don’t miss Michael’s new book Malls Across America! It reminds me of how nothing makes me think of death more than watching decades old sports…
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Corporate Welfare.3: Welfare Wings
Today the Real News Network, who I encourage you to support during their current drive to win a matching gift, is reporting that “the Michigan strategic fund has decided to issue $450 million in bonds for a new stadium for the Detroit Red Wings, 44% of which will be financed publicly,” while the city is…
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Corporate Welfare.1: Blackwater’s Warfare Welfare
(This is the first in a new series of posts about how corporations that claim to generate profit in the private sector are heavily subsidized by taxpayers in ways that I could only wish fields like education and healthcare were. For an overview on that, see “Free Lunch: How the Richest Americans Enrich Themselves at…
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Secrets of the Temple.2: Double Dutch
(This is a follow up to the post Secrets of the Temple.1: More Than a Doorstop, dated 1/13/13.) As I wrote in my first post on William Greider’s history of the Federal Reserve board, one of the aims of “Secrets of the Temple” is to question whether Ronald Reagan really was the primary source of…
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Secrets of the Temple.1: More Than A Doorstop
The operations of the Federal Reserve board are notoriously shrouded in mystery. Technocratic decisions on monetary policy that supposedly need to be protected from the fickle pressures of politics are carried out by an appointed board of governors who like to operate behind closed doors. William Grieder set out to demystify this institution in the…
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Ill Communication
It’s easy while thinking critically about trends in US history to fall into two traps – romanticizing a period in the past when things were supposedly better, or telling the story of past oppressions in ways that make it sound like no one spoke or acted out against it at the time. The recent book…
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Wanna read Wainaina? You should!
I’ve decided many of my posts are too long, so I’m gonna keep this short: I just started reading One Day I Will Write About This Place by Binyavanga Wainaina this morning and it’s awesome. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=3d9qlHW8_3s
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Reading Yvonne Rainer today …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK_4xoWNtZA&feature=topics http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=7Wa2ZivLWmM
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Other John Davises.1: My life as an 18th century batsman
It can be a bit strange having a ubiquitous name. But it can also be kinda fun. This post is the first in a series of characters I found on the net that have the same name as me. If you believe in previous lifetimes, you may even believe I could have lived some of…
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Debt.3: South Dakota
Ever wonder why you get so many credit card offers from banks in South Dakota? You know, those loud envelopes with low introductory APR’s that turn around and clobber you with 25% interest rates a few months later? Rates that bury folks in debt, just like the arid storms that buried much of South Dakota…
johnhdavis / inundation records 