Author of Ghost Cities of China. Documentary filmmaker at Real Life Cinema. Journalist. Bylines: The Guardian, Forbes, etc. Traveling since 1999, 90 countries.
Joined October 2012
- Tweets4.2K
- Following744
- Followers1.8K
- Likes1.3K
I remember my ticket rep ardently trying to convince me that seats with clearly obstructed field views were not obstructed… over and over again.
I concluded that it couldn’t possibly be that bad … but starting to seem like I may have been wrong.
Wade Shepard retweeted
A major reason soccer will never supplant America’s core professional sports is because we value physical bravery above all other attributes in our sports stars.
Curt Schilling’s bloody sock.
Ronnie Lott chopping off the tip of his finger so he could stay in the game.
Mark Bavaro dragging half the 49ers’ secondary while his broken jaw was wired shut.
Michael Jordan having the best game of his life with a 103 degree fever.
Willis Reed limping onto the floor for Game 7.
Lou Gehrig playing with ALS until his body said “no more.”
Dave Dravecky pitching so hard that his arm had to be amputated.
Kirk Gibson hobbling to the plate in the 9th.
Tiger Woods winning the US Open on a knee that days later required reconstructive surgery.
Kerri Strug sticking the landing on her busted ankle for the gold.
Sure, we have our LeBron Jameses acting like little babies, but the one thing I learned about futbol during the World Cup is that acting like a little injured baby is not only not frowned upon, it is ENCOURAGED as a strategic advantage.
Americans want stoic heroes who persevere through pain. Soccer ain’t that, at least not in the day-to-day elements of the game.
That’s why soccer will never be anything other than second-rate in the USA.
Wade Shepard retweeted
The most interesting part of the red card saga isn't the ruling. It's how differently Americans and Europeans process the idea that they might have been wronged.
Europeans are fundamentally different from Americans in one particular way: they expect life to be aggravating and at times unfair. It's just a fact of moving through the world. I joke that in Europe, the customer is always wrong. You didn't read the fine print. The only pharmacy in town is closed every other Tuesday for three hours, and even if the times weren't posted, that's still your problem. Too bad if you want the bill, because the waiter's on his union-mandated half-hour smoke break, and you're just going to have to wait.
To quote the great Mark Knopfler: sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. There's something freeing in that. Things are less in your control, so there's less angst in managing your expectations.
In America, things couldn't be more different. We simply can't accept a wrong left unrighted.
The flight attendant sneezed handing you a drink on your one-hour flight? 15,000 frequent flyer miles. Didn't like your appetizer? A replacement is on the way, and the whole course comes off the bill. There's a reason our interstates are lined with trial lawyer billboards.
Europeans have turned complaining into a continental pastime with no expectation that the universe owes them a remedy for their grief. You gripe about the train being late, your friends nod solemnly and everyone goes back to their apéro. In America, we launch a full-blown investigation of the train system, sue the government (and its contractors) that allowed for the tardiness and hold a Congressional hearing on the state of national infrastructure.
So to an objective observer, the red card shouldn't have happened, and VAR was a travesty. To Americans, our star player shouldn't be unfairly banned from a match we couldn't afford to lose for a card he so obviously didn't deserve.
Who cares that FIFA used a little-used reversal to fix it. Who cares that other people are mad about it. We. Were. Wronged. It was unjust. It must be corrected. We would accept nothing less.
Europeans waxing poetic about the sanctity of the game are, of course, talking about a governing body whose last tournament host was decided via confirmed cash bribes — one that imposed dress codes on women, shrugged off widespread allegations of modern slavery and reconfigured the entire tournament calendar to suit the host country. Which is exactly the point. If you've made peace with all of that, at least enough to watch the tournament four years later, a probationary suspension isn't actually a scandal.
Maybe that's the real divide. Over millennia, Europeans have made peace with being the bug. Americans have never once considered it, and apparently, we're not about to start now.
Wade Shepard retweeted
Before the @BuffaloBlade were born, there was another group of hooligans from South Buffalo who stole the zamboni from Cazenovia ice rink and drove down to the local bar with full hockey gear on. The police escorted them back to the rink . This runs through our blood (sometime in the 90s)
#LetsGoBuffalo #NHLBruins
It’s funny that I was concerned that the China ghost city topic could die way back when I was writing the book in 2014 / 2015 but the narrative is still alive and well. Got a mention in the Sun today:
Wade Shepard retweeted
Trailer for Deadwind, our new documentary web series about the impacts of offshore wind development.
Wade Shepard retweeted
Why what happened?
The NFL will reportedly consider measuring first downs electronically during the 2025 season trib.al/aShbZXb
Bills fans continuing to watch the NFL after last week’s game is good proof for the existence of Stockholm Syndrome. #boycottsuperbowl
Wade Shepard retweeted
Had to represent the @buffalobills on Netflix. 🦬
Tune in now! #PaulTyson
Wade Shepard retweeted
Who else is tired of seeing Big Pharma ads dominate every other commercial?
America is truly SICK from it.
We’re committed to cleaning up our airwaves and transforming our food system for a healthier future.
MAGA +MAHA
Wade Shepard retweeted
Holy crap…
Joel Salatin, an expert on regenerative agriculture has been contacted and accepted a position in the USDA
We’re really doing it people.
Cows are making a huge comeback
Wade Shepard retweeted
Wow.
Joel Salatin, a farmer and regenerative agriculture advocate, has been offered a position within the USDA.
He will advise Thomas Massie who’s agreed to be Secretary of Agriculture.
Here’s the full message posted to his website today:
“The deplorables and garbage people won again. Can you believe it?
I've been contacted by the Trump transition team to hold some sort of position within the USDA and have accepted one of the six "Advisor to the Secretary" spots. My favorite congressman, Thomas Massie from Kentucky, has agreed to go in as Secretary of Agriculture.
He's been the sponsor of the PRIME ACT, which, if pushed through, would be the biggest shot across the bow of the entrenched industrial meat processing system we've seen in a century. Let liberty ring. Wouldn't that be a change of fortune for Big Ag?
If RFK Jr. goes in as Sec. of Health and Human Services, everything will be inverted. Talk about the coolest turn about. He'd be the boss of the Faucis and Francis Collins--the whole covid anti-science crowd. Wouldn't that be a change of fortune for Big Pharma?
And if Elon Musk goes in as a Government Waste Czar, do you think he could possibly find something?
Here's an interesting tidbit. All the income taxes in the U.S. are $2 trillion a year. Government spending and borrowing are so out of control that if we eliminated $2 trillion from the budget, it would only set us back to 2020. Does anyone think returning to government spending in 2020 would destroy things? Of course not. So all we have to do is cut federal spending to 2020 levels and we can eliminate income tax. Period. Done. How would that make you feel?
Most people don't know enough history to know that the federal government was to be financed entirely from tariffs and excise taxes. In fact, as a nation we operated just fine for nearly 150 years without an income tax. The only president who eliminated the national debt was Andrew Jackson, and he did it by eliminating the second bank of the U.S. Nearly 100 years later we got the third bank, known as the Federal Reserve, plus the income tax.
During that time, tariffs averaged 40-50 percent. After the income tax, tariffs dropped to an average of about 7 percent, where they remain today. If we went back to 40 percent, like we had for nearly 150 years, we would bring production home and free our citizens from impoverishing taxes.
Dear folks, this is a watershed moment to take a creative and serious look at the sacred cows in our nation and fry some serious burgers. We don't know history. We don't know liberty. We don't know earthworms or aquifers or immune systems. I'm hoping this election is an opening to discovery. Perhaps we could even figure out how to put negative occurrences like jails, pollution, and cancer on the nation's balance sheet, as a liability rather than an asset (Gross Domestic Product--more jails? wonderful, pour more concrete and make more jobs).
Perhaps we'll eliminate federal involvement in education, from kindergarten to college. Make every teacher accountable to performance. Eliminate ALL federal intervention in the food system, in farming, in energy. The Constitution (read it) doesn't allow for any of this and it's time to examine all of it. Shut down foreign military bases; bring them all home. Stop ALL foreign aid, from USAID to military aid. Sell stuff is fine; giving it isn't.
I think whatever taxes we pay should be able to be designated to certain departments. That way we the people could support or defund departments directly. The reason we have K street is because all our freedoms are for sale. Eliminate government manipulation and the lobbyists all go home. These are simple things. Let's do it.”
thelunaticfarmer.com/blog/11…
We have a film coming out about this now.
Because he’s not very good?
I agree with the wife. Stop being an insecure little twit.
MODERN WOMAN TRANSLATOR:
When your wife/gf dresses too revealing and you try to dial it back and she says "you're insecure"
that means:
"my body is as available to others as I want it to be, not as much as YOU want it to be, and if you don't like how available I'm choosing to be, that's YOUR problem."
Your partner should WANT to do what makes you feel good about your relationship, and what makes you feel good about your relationship should be things your partner wants to do... as often as possible.
You have to NEGOTIATE your comforts vs. your freedoms, which means AGREEING on them. If you're fighting, shit's broken.
You're only "insecure" if you stay with someone who's operating outside of your comfort level. Your comfort level is your choice, not for others to insult.