Expat Files – 11.19.17

#1- When Gringos and Expats kick the bucket in Latin America- Part 2: Dying, funerals and burial insurance are all very inexpensive in Latin America. Insurance is about $3 a month for individual coverage and they take care of EVERYTHING. Plus there’s a death benefit that will cover he extras like a decent plot and casket. But wait a minute. …

Steve Wasserman – Reflections on the Death of Fidel

Nearly 60 years ago, Herbert Matthews of The New York Times interviewed a rebel-with-a-cause most people thought was dead. Matthews’ scoop in the tangled jungle of Cuba’s Sierra Maestra proved that the man was alive. His name (which in its entirety was but four syllables) would soon come to be known the world over. To his followers, the first two …

Leid Stories—After Fidel, the Future of Anti-Imperialist Struggle—11.28.16

The death Nov. 25 of Fidel Castro, the revolutionary former president of Cuba, has further winnowed the already sparse ranks of leaders who were the vanguard of resistance to global imperialism and colonialism. Many of the “new” generation of leaders thought it futile to stand up to world powers or eagerly traded wholesale pillaging of their people and their nations’ resources for private, personal gain.

Bill Van Auken -Obama’s Cuba speech: “Democratic” veneer for US capitalist invasion

Barack Obama’s nationally televised speech in Havana, supposed to be the high point of the first trip by a US president to Cuba in 88 years, was overshadowed by the terrorist attacks in Brussels, part of the continuing fallout from over a decade of US imperialist interventions in the Middle East. US television networks cut from the address without a …

Homeless Given New Life after Working on a 22-Acre Organic Farm

Tackling homelessness, joblessness, and food insecurity all at once can seem like a daunting task, but Verde Farms in Miami, Florida is managing to do all three. The community farm has one saying: “For people, not for profit,” and they stay true to that credo. All money spent at the Verde Community Farmers Market and restaurant go toward hiring and …

William Boardman – Are Most Americans Still Afraid to Be Unafraid?

he Republican consensus these days comes down to this: Be Afraid. Don’t Give Peace a Chance. Ever. Pretty much all Republicans and too many Democrats buy into the notion that ISIS is a serious threat to the United States. Of course it’s not, as the president reminded us, before pretty much contradicting himself and arguing the need for the US …

Progressive Commentary Hour – 10.27.15

Prof. Laurence Shoup is a historian who has been researching the background and agendas of the Council on Foreign Relations for 40 years. He has taught history, social science and international relations at the University of Illinois, San Francisco State University and other institutions. For five decades Dr. Shoup has been active in human rights struggles, protesting the Vietnam War, marching with Martin Luther King and participating in the union movement. He holds degrees from California State University and a doctorate from Northwestern. He ran as a Green Party candidate in the city of Oakland and California state and consulted for many nonprofit organizations. Laurence has written five books, his most recent being “Wall Street’s Think Tank: The Council on Foreign Relations and the Empire of Neoliberal Geopolitics 1976-2014” His website is www.LaurenceShoup.com