Making America Forget Again

After the low bar set by the Republicans, the Democratic National Convention featured noticeably better stagecraft and organization, despite frustration among Sanders delegates and the controversy following Wikileaks’ publishing of Democratic National Committee (DNC) emails. Most of what I heard at the convention was boilerplate and nonetheless contrasted starkly with the hackneyed fear-mongering of the …

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Review: Where to Invade Next by Michael Moore

Michael Moore’s new movie, “Where to Invade Next” is not what you’d expect from Moore. It is not some jeremiad against US nefariousness somewhere around the world, nor is it an enraged assault on capitalism, our health care “system” or anything else. What it is, in reality, is a call to our highest ideals. But …

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Changing American Landscapes

Abandoned building in Youngstown, Ohio

Try traveling across the United States. Just go, with your eyes wide open, and see for yourself whether it is the ultimate measure of prosperity and stability. It is, after all, the richest country on Earth. Or, at least, so we used to say. But, in reality, traveling across the United States today evokes a …

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Consumerism in the USA: A Nation of Junkies?

Picture of a shopping mall parking lot

In the wake of the world economic crisis of 2008 much has been made, both by economists and the American government, of the need for the rest of the world to take up the “burden” of consuming that the United States had been carrying until then. As Barack Obama stated shortly before the 2009 Group …

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European Spring? Hope for the US?

Picture of Syriza election rally

The resounding electoral victory of the Radical Coalition of the Left (SYRIZA) in Greece on January 25th may mark the beginning of important changes in Europe. SYRIZA has won 36.3% of the vote and 149 seats in the 300-member Parliament, defeating the right-wing New Democracy Party of incumbent Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. SYRIZA quickly formed …

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