The lanky YouTuber in a purposefully-goofy suit might be more prescient than actual news networks — Living outside of America for the better part of a decade while being a massive critic of my home country’s politics, media, and government, I sometimes have a hard time explaining what a weird dumpster fire the US is in many ways. The marketing of the country has been banging…

With a litany of domestic issues, an empty economic ideology, and sanction-happy foreign policy, are we witnessing the beginning of the end? — America thinks it is immune to the cycle of empires. A so-called democracy and ‘dynamic’ free-market economy was thought to be able to evolve, roll with the punches, and continue to ‘benevolently’ control every corner of the globe. The fall of the Berlin Wall was thought to mark ‘the end…

Some thoughts on the upcoming completion of my eighth year without meat and my fifth year vegan — Veganism has come so far the paradigm has completely shifted. When my mom was plant-based well over a decade ago, it was difficult to find a vegan option; these days, they’re almost impossible to avoid. Every company is getting on board, most cynically but some for the right reasons. For…

Navigating divided, rural America and a case study in media manipulation — It had been three years. Three years since I’d stood on the shores of Lake Superior, staring at the ruler-straight, blue horizon in the distance, feet on round, smooth stones, numbing in the clear water. …

Whenever he opens his mouth, evil ‘conventional economic wisdom’ that will devastate working families comes out — The former US Treasury Secretary, and member of both the Clinton and Obama administrations, is as mainstream of a neoliberal economic thinker as one could ever find. Continually prophesizing bullsh*t on mainstream channels, he’s got a lot of critics who love to remind him of the million things he’s gotten…

The ACLU reports on America’s corporate neo-slavery — The American carceral state is an abomination. ‘The Land of the Free’ locks up more of its own population than any country on earth and has more than twenty percent of the global prisoners despite having only five percent of the population. The explosion of prisoners has far outpaced population…

I didn’t think the blame game would come this fast — And the NY Times had the most embarrassing podcast on the subject — Most of my recent pieces have been leaning towards media analysis. I find it fascinating how the wording, framing, and subtle inferences in headlines completely shape Americans’ and Europeans’ perspectives on any subject and then the world at large. I see it firsthand all the time.

Facing an existential energy crisis, they need ‘permission’ to import basics — When I first moved to Europe eight-odd years ago, I wasn’t super political. I was left-leaning Democrat-ish, didn’t pay much attention, embarrassingly thought John Oliver was one of the edgiest f-ers out there, and that Obama was really trying to usher in a progressive change in America. I saw Europe…

Washington is trying to cope with global dissent and the developing world attempting to secure basic essentials — When it comes to the war in Ukraine, the ‘Western’ media loves — or used to love — throwing around the expressions ‘the entire globe is united against Russia’ or ‘Putin succeeded in uniting the globe.’ …