The Amarillion is dedicated to US politics, economics and social issues and it contains analysis and judgement on those topics. It exists because of my conviction that the US is a wonderful country with unparalleled potential but also a country in a self-induced decline. It is a country that is paralyzed on the political level due to excessive lobbying and a campaign finance system that is nothing less than legalized corruption and a public discourse that is perverted by a dysfunctional media apparatus that focuses on opinion, controversy and sensationalism rather than honest research, analysis and reporting. This leaves the United States in a permanent public infight about topics of secondary importance. While the nation’s wealth gets redistributed to the top tier of its populace, its corporations are making record profits without paying their dues to the nation, unemployment is too high and poverty is increasing, its infrastructure is crumbling and the nation’s debt is at record heights.

The United States still is the world’s wealthiest nation. None of these problems are unavoidable necessities. They are the outcome of misguided policies designed to serve a few at the cost of many and the inability to reform the system to change this very purpose.

I am aware that writing a random blog on these issues is likely to achieve nothing. This might be an utterly fruitless effort but if nothing else it will give me a place to express my frustration with the failures of governance as I see them.