Expat Files – 03.11.16

-Gringos can have business problems and difficulties in Latin America:

Today we have Captain Mango describing the amazingly complex, idiotic hoops and hurdles he has had to maneuver through in order to start and maintain his small fleet of taxis.

-It’s true that while a small percentage of Latin businesses (like the taxi business and govt contractors) are plagued with mindless over-regulation and bureaucratic BS. Surprisingly enough, Latin governments do leave the vast majority of other small businesses almost completely alone.

It seems once one has done the routine chicken-without-a-head runaround in order to obtain the proper permits (which can take about a month), the government pinheads lay off and never bother your business again.

-Today we have yet more examples of poor maintenance and lack of detail inherent in the Latin workforce. However, if you want to start a business and need to hire help don’t despair. Latins are dedicated, smart and hard-working. You only need to train and instruct them correctly and the job performance will be up to anyone’s standards

Expat Files – 03.04.16

-Today we have more emails from Canadian listeners. First, the subject is a professional couple hoping to transfer some of their first-world counseling and therapeutic skills down to Latin America. Their goal/wish is to continue working in a similar capacity once they arrive and get settled. So we’ll discuss the pros, cons, the options, availability and realities of coming down with high-level first-world skill sets. However it will be a difficult sell in a macho culture unaccustomed to modern healthcare therapies and a society that doesn’t much value one-on-one personal counseling- unless it comes from the neighborhood priest or pastor!

Again, it’s all about the lag-time effect…

– We also have a different kind of email from a well-traveled gringo an his wife who are looking to become permanent expats soon. I this case he and his wife’s concerns revolve around their handicapped daughter and the constant daily care, special training and therapy she will probably need for life. However, after some quality “boots on the ground” off the gringo tourists trail they have found some good solutions so far as they continue to make their exit plans and put the pieces together.

MICHAEL SCHULSON – TED-EVANGELISM HARKENS BACK TO A FORGOTTEN 19TH-CENTURY TRADITION

The top ten most watched TED talks are, in order, about: Creativity Confidence Motivation Vulnerability The Brain Really Cool Technology Orgasm Motivation Motivation Really Cool Science But actually the top ten TED talks are all about you. They’re about the way that ideas can transform your life. They’re about the way you feel when you watch them. They’re about all the …

Martin Shkreli Is Just One of Many Pharma A-Holes

They throw lavish boat parties while marking up life-saving medication 5,000 percent. Nancy Retzlaff is not Martin Shkreli. She won’t inspire hundreds of news articles nor will she become the subject of any Internet memes. She won’t threaten Ghostface Killah and it seems unlikely that she will ever flirt with a minor on a YouTube livestream. But the chief commercial officer for Turing Pharma …

Robert Parry – Democrats in ‘Group Think’ Land

A curious reality about Official Washington is that to have “credibility” you must accept the dominant “group thinks” whether they have any truth to them or not, a rule that applies to both the mainstream news media and the political world, even to people who deviate from the pack on other topics. For instance, Sen. Bernie Sanders may proudly declare …

Gary G. Kohls – MLK’s Warning of America’s Spiritual Death

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Riverside Church speech was titled “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” It was delivered exactly one year before his April, 4, 1968 assassination in Memphis. In the speech, King declared, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” The people …

The Gary Null Show – 01.19.16

MLK Follow Up Show

William Pepper is a New York attorney best known for representing Martin Luther King’s accused assassin, James Earl Ray, to prove his innocence. Dr. King had reached out to William in 1967 regarding an essay he had written for Ramparts magazine concerning Vietnamese victims of American napalm missions and was present at Dr. King’s famous Riverside Church speech.

William was the citizens chairman for Robert Kennedy’s run for the Senate in Westchester Country and also a counsel for Robert Kennedy’s assassin Sirhan Sirhan arguing for a second shooter. Subsequently he has been active in the 911 Truth Movement and advocating that war crimes be brought against former president George Bush. William has received degrees from Columbia, a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts and his JD from Boston College. He has written a couple books on MLK and his forthcoming book “The Plot to Kill King: The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr” will be released by the anniversary of MLK’s assassination on April 4th

MILLENNIALS HAVE GOTTEN ROYALLY SCREWED: THAT’S WHY THEY’RE VOTING FOR BERNIE SANDERS

The newest generation of adults are demonized by older generations, all the while suffering our brave new world CONOR LYNCH In recent years, it seems like a cottage industry of sorts has formed around bashing the Millennial generation as a bunch of narcissistic, lazy, entitled, coddled, uninformed digital junkies who just can’t deal with the real world. Though older generations have always complained about youngsters being in trouble, this animus towards …

Andy Bellatti – Was 2015 the Year Big Food Began to Lose Its Sway?

Today’s big food and agriculture companies work hard to protect their images. Companies like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and Monsanto spend a lot of time and money diverting attention away from negative science related to their products and associating themselves with groups that promote healthy food and families. For a long time, those tactics appeared to be working; but several of this …

Kevin Ryan – 911: Propaganda Can’t Melt Steel Beams

Eleven years ago, I initiated a discussion about the fact that jet fuel fires could not have melted steel at the World Trade Center. The government agency investigating the WTC destruction responded by holding “some of its deliberations in secret.” Although it’s not a secret that jet fuel can’t melt steel, due to propaganda from sources like The Washington Post and The Huffington Post, Americans …