Meria Heller – News of Planet of the Apes – 04.02.17

3/30/17 News of Planet of the Apes, with Meria. Nunes the storyteller; need an independent investigation;US ups wars and war dead;N.C. repeals bathroom bill;Fukushima radiation poisoning the world; latest trump horror bills;Westinghouse bankrupt;Fed.Court halts trump muslim ban indefinitely;Mexico trumps trump; tourism takes a beating under trump’s “ameriKKKa”; Phoenix makes huge deal with Mexico;trump vs. Republicans;leaders ripped off charities and towns;Ivanka in WH; 15 felonies for phony PP video makers;Brexit;no coal jobs coming back; no internet privacy-activists respond;DNC resignations;Dakota pipeline flows;More troops to Iraq,Yemen & Afghanistan;Sessions vs. sanctuary cities; lawsuit against Sessions;Bridgegate sentences;Iowa’s new ridiculous abortion bill;Canada moves to legalize cannabis;Kushner & Russia ties (lost big deal with China); trump created 35 jobs, destroyed thousands;trump/Russia/Mobs/FBI (must read); Russian protests; and more insanity.

Connect The Dots – Robert McChesney – 03.08.17

Listen to Robert McChesney, long time media analyst and author of People Get Ready, (and a co-founder of Free Press) discussing the causes and the cures for the current breakdown in the media and the dissolution of trustworthy reporting so necessary in a democracy— in conversation with Alison Rose Levy.

Alternative Visions – Trump’s Grand Strategy – 02.03.17

Jack Rasmus describes Trump’s grand strategy that is now beginning to take shape–economic, social and foreign elements, noting how the Trump strategy reveals great similarities with Nixon in the 1970s and Reagan in 1980s. Trump is Nixon-Reagan on steroids. Rasmus reviews similarities with Nixon and Reagan in Trump’s current attack on US trading partners in Europe, Mexico, Japan, Australia, Germany, Australia and soon China—comparing them with Nixon’s New Economic Program in 1971-72 and Reagan’s 1985-86 attacks on Japan and Europe with the Plaza and Louvre accords. Trump is not against Free Trade, but for bilateral free trade instead of Clinton-Obama multilateral free trade. Trump’s protectionism is tactical. The goal is to advance US corporate interests vis a vis foreign competitors, just as Nixon and Reagan did. Rasmus describes Trump Grand Strategy to date as: Congress drives deregulation of ACA and Dodd-Frank and then focuses on corporate-investor tax cuts. Trump meantime paves the way with Executive Orders, while using EOs to attack immigrants, domestic and foreign; Trump goes slow on major foreign policy changes involving Russia, middle east and Asia, while aggressively attacking immigrants, law and order, proposing election reform and advancing religious groups’ interests. Strong similarities between Nixon, Reagan, and Trump on policies involving defense spending, social program cuts, deficits, strong dollar, attacking the liberal media, undermining unions, massive deregulation, cutting pensions and social security, promoting police and law and order attacks on protestors, and domestic spying and surveillance. (Next week: France and the Future of Europe)

Black Agenda Radio – 01.30.17

Welcome, to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Glen Ford, along with my co-host, Nellie Bailey. Coming up: There’s a new version of the Reparations bill that John Conyers introduces in Congress every year; TPP is finally dead, but NAFTA is still remains among the UN-dead, like Dracula; and, a veteran Black activist in Greenville, South Carolina, makes her case against police impunity.

Expat Files – 12.30.16

#1- Driving your car from the US to Latin America(or not): Though its not normally recommended that you drive down, just in case you’re the adventurous type and want to roll the dice, here are a few tips … #2- Tips on buying a car in Latin America: mostly what NOT to do. #3 -Mexico’s complicated rules of car ownership …

Graham E. Fuller – How America Disgraces Itself

It had been an exhausting, interminable 18-20 months of presidential campaigning during which much of the business of thoughtful American governance had to yield space to the riveting follies of politics. Yet  most other countries in the world, not locked into dictators or kings for life, conduct their elections far more briskly and get on with business. Canada with its …

Expat Files – 12.11.16

#1- Part 4: Today we have our final segment on the Decameron “all inclusive” Latin beach resorts-revisited. Decamerons offer the least expensive “all inclusive” first-world style resort packages by far- and places that almost no native born American has ever heard of. Today we explain just what kind of people spend money to go to these resorts. Now being that these resorts are a totally Latin American product, there’s an ever present subtle (and not so subtle) class system ranking among the guests. That said, your Gringo advantage is super strong at these resorts. Yes, you’ll be in a class of your own in a throng of unabashed gringo wannabees.