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Not Quite Communist
by Gerald Farinas
Welcome to Not Quite Communist podcast. I am Gerald Farinas and I talk about social justice, empire and colonialism, and current events from the perspective of a Hawaii-born Ilocano Presbyterian Church (USA) elder commissioner here in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Find me IRL at GeraldFarinas.com. gerfarinas.substack.com
Episodes
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Podcast: Anti-trans attacks come from Catholic bishops and new bill in Congress
Photo: Ted Eytan via Wikimedia Commons. I decided to focus my message today on trans issues because it’s what made me the most angry this week. And it’s only Tuesday night. A major fight is happening right now over gender-affirming care. Or actually, it has been attacked over and over this past...
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Podcast: If we don't uphold due process, precedent could take away due process for all
The digital public square, whether it’s Facebook or X, often becomes a stage for what can only be described as armchair constitutional experts. They are quick to spew definitive statements, often about sensitive legal matters like immigration, and lately, the loudest nonsense has been about how...
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Podcast: 'Why can't we have nice' immigrants, President asks
The statement, “Why can’t we have nice people from Norway?” might sound harmless at first. However, when President Donald Trump made this statement recently, while discussing his rabid immigration policy, it becomes a deeply damaging message. The comment is inappropriate, not just because it’s so...
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Podcast: The comedy of cringe, reclaiming the Asian American narrative
The air in the auditorium is thick with anticipation. On stage, an Asian American comedian is winding up a joke, one that starts with a recognizable accent and a familiar parental expectation—the relentless push toward medicine or law. The punchline lands, and the entire room erupts in laughter....
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Podcast: Immigrant poet Carlos Bulosan's words remain true 69 years after death
We often talk about freedom as if it is a destination. We treat it like a statue carved in stone or a document sealed in glass. We think that once we have it, it sits there, unmoving and permanent. But that is not the reality of liberty. Liberty is organic. It breathes. It needs sustenance. And...
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Podcast: Administration demands ‘remigration’; another word for ethnic cleansing
The stakes have never been higher, and the goal has never been more clear. That is the caption the U.S. Department of Homeland Security chose to accompany a single, terrifying command, “Remigration now.” It looks like a simple policy update, perhaps a bureaucratic shuffling of papers. But if you...
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Podcast: The real cost of Black Friday
When I hear the name “Black Friday,” I think about how it perfectly shows what capitalism is really about. The name comes from accounting. Red ink means a store is losing money, while black ink means they are making a profit. So, this holiday is named after the moment businesses start making…
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Podcast: The Thanksgiving table is not overwhelmingly turkey and mashed potatoes
When most Americans picture Thanksgiving, their minds drift almost automatically to Norman Rockwell. We all know the image. It is the famous painting titled Freedom from Want, featuring a matriarch placing a perfectly roasted turkey onto a table surrounded by smiling faces. The table is set with...
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Podcast: Hateful rhetoric fans the flames, leads to violence; all of it has to stop
Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Today marks a dark stain on our national conscience. The news that two National Guardsmen from West Virginia were shot while patrolling Washington, D.C. is a horrifying realization of our worst fears. These are individuals with families, lives, and dreams who were…
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Podcast: When doing good is called fake, performative, virtue signaling
I was pumping gas on Peterson Ave. near the Metra Station today when I overheard a conversation at the next pump. Two people, one in the Ford pickup and the other fueling up, were talking about local queer volunteers who help feed our neighbors. The tone was nasty. One of them laughed and called...
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Podcast: Making Native American policy without Native American input
Did you miss me? After two weeks in my native Honolulu, I’m back in my Edgewater home. And I’m glad to be back. But after traveling across tribal lands on my way home, it got me thinking about our indigenous friends and the progress they’ve made, or rather erasure of progress. The history of the...
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Podcast: The tragic betrayal of Americans against King Kalakaua and Hawaii
King David Kalakaua. Photo: Hawaii State Archives. The moment is always the same. As the wheels of my Delta jetliner touch ground at Honolulu International Airport, my heart stops a moment. Flying into Honolulu is a sacred act for me, a spiritual experience returning to the land of my birth and...
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Podcast: The tragic betrayal of America against Chief Seattle
I’m spending my Tuesday in Seattle before getting on a Delta flight to visit my parents. Each time I fly over the vibrant city, with its coffee shops and skyscrapers, I am reminded, as someone who writes and podcasts about the shadows of empire, of the sad story of Chief Seattle. His story is a...
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Podcast: The sandhill cranes arrived in Chicago today; a powerful spiritual symbol
Today everything stopped when the sandhill cranes arrived. Not on a nature preserve, not out in the suburbs, but right along the downtown Chicago lakefront. Can you believe that? Against the backdrop of our towering skyline, these ancient, graceful birds descended for their brief layover, pausing...
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Podcast: SNAP beneficiaries aren't lazy people who won't get a job; let's break down the numbers
It drives me crazy to hear the same tired arguments wheeled out every time we talk about social safety nets. You hear it constantly: people claiming there are too many SNAP beneficiaries, that they’re all lazy, and that they just need to get jobs to support themselves. It’s a simplistic view that...
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Podcast: Solidarity not charity; mutual aid emerges when the system fails
Today, I wanted to talk about some unsung heroes working at food pantries, some makeshift pantries in particular, across the country. The recent halt of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, driven by political disputes over contingency funds during a government shutdown, has...
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Podcast: What’s the deal with all those European political parties with ‘Christian’ in their names?
If you’ve ever looked at European politics and noticed how many parties have the word Christian in their names, you might wonder what’s going on. There are Christian Democrats, Christian Socialists, Christian People’s Parties, and more. It sounds like the churches decided to start their own...
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Podcast: Shutting down ‘DEI’ programs in schools, colleges is degrading the intellectual rigor that built our nation
Texas Christian University, a private school, is closing its departments for Women and Gender Studies and Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies. They are combining these programs into the English department. While the school said it was due to low enrollment, this decision is happening as a clear...
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Podcast: The Penny Auctions of the Great Depression and resistance in Chicago today
The story of the 1936 penny auction in Michigan is not just history. It is a powerful blueprint for community resistance that resonates deeply with the struggles we face right here, right now, in Edgewater and across Chicago. The Great Depression farmers resisted economic disparity. The banks…
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Podcast: It’s time we feed every child at no cost up front; invest in human capital
Here at The Edgewater Podcast, I talk a lot about progressive politics and the history of colonization, which is really a history of power and who gets to eat. Today, I want to talk about how a simple meal in a Chicago school cafeteria is a powerful act of justice and a smart investment in our...
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Podcast: Evanston Nouveau Rotary Club thanks you for supporting Purple Pinkie beer, polio campaign
This week, I just want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who made the Evanston Nouveau Rotary Club’s Purple Pinkie fundraiser such a success. To the incredible folks at Sketchbook Brewing Co., you have once again proven that you are more than a brewery. You are a force for good. You craft…
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Podcast: Doubling down on Asian American Pacific Islander posts
I had a quick powwow recently with my friend Randy Kim, host of the podcast Bánh Mì Bites, going over some names. It got me thinking about why I’ve been posting more Asian American Pacific Islander content these few months. And the truth is, it’s not just content. It’s conviction. Because right...
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Podcast: Eric Trump says they're saving God; amazingly, their followers agree
Eric Trump claimed his father is “Saving God.” Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons. When Eric Trump said on a podcast that his father’s administration was “saving God,” I froze for a moment. Because as absurd as it sounds, there are millions of Americans who truly believe that. They…
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Podcast: Chicago Public Schools lunchroom workers deserve wages that can feed their own children
Chicago Public School lunchroom workers are struggling to pay for the most basic necessities, even as they fight tooth and nail for better wages, fully staffed kitchens, and something as simple as respect and dignity on the job. Let that sink in—this is Chicago, the birthplace of the labor...
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Podcast: They tried to intimidate, flash guns at Ill. Rep. Hoan Huynh
Today’s raids in Edgewater, Andersonville, Uptown, Rogers Park, and the City of Evanston have shaken the core of our communities. These are not just neighborhoods on a map. These are places where families work, where children walk to school, where small restaurants serve breakfast before the...
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Podcast: Indigenous and Two-Spirit communities can be classified as 'terrorists' in new national security rule
Bay Area Native American Two-Spirits in 2022 San Francisco Pride Parade. Photo: Gabriel Classon via Wikimedia Commons. When Donald Trump issued NSPM-7 in late September 2025, he called it a measure to fight domestic terrorism and organized political violence. On paper, it sounded like a national...
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The eternal Pietà
I’ve been staring at Otto Dix’s Mother and Child. It is a haunting thing to look at. The longer you stare, the more it stares back. What we expect from a painting with that title—something tender, something holy—is stripped away. There are no soft halos here, no warm golds or signs of divine...
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Podcast: Blaming Democrats for SNAP benefits running out is insane after years of GOP gutting program
Edgewater Mutual Aid volunteers packing food before distribution to people in need. Photo: Gerald Farinas. I’m furious. The United States Department of Agriculture has warned that SNAP benefits—what most people know as food stamps—will run down if the government shutdown continues. But here’s…
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Podcast: Striking, killing Venezuelans on boats is extrajudicial murder; raising risk of war with South America
The United States has carried out yet another strike in the Caribbean, killing six people aboard a boat accused of carrying drugs near Venezuela. President Trump has touted this as part of his so-called campaign against “narcoterrorists.” But let’s be clear about what this really is—an...
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Podcast: Leaked texts show tsunami of hate speech by Young Republicans arm of official GOP
I don’t even know if it’s fair to call it an undercurrent anymore. What’s happening inside the Republican Party—the racism, the homophobia, the transphobia, the open embrace of white supremacy—isn’t hiding beneath the surface. It’s a towering tsunami. And it just crashed through Kansas this week....
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Podcast: Cubs' David Ross talks about when his adopted parents abandoned him
Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons. The Cubs season has come to an end after a tough loss to the Brewers in the NLDS. The final out brought that familiar ache to Chicago fans, the kind that lingers just long enough to remind us why we care so deeply. But Cubs talk hasn’t ended with the...
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Podcast: ICE agents are guilty of stolen valor
Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Public domain. There’s a growing myth in America that the people enforcing immigration laws are heroes keeping us safe. But let’s be honest, becoming an ICE agent isn’t about bravery and it isn’t about public service. It’s about power. It’s about…
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Podcast: Mental Illness Awareness Week
This week marked National Mental Illness Awareness Week, and I was honored that one of my personal essays was reprinted by the Presbyterian News Service and later shared by newsletters and websites across the country. Alongside that, my pastor and colleague, the Rev. Kristin Hutson, was…
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Podcast: Kindred Spirits, Choctaw trail of tears and the Irish famine
In the quiet of Bailick Park in Midleton, County Cork, nine tall steel feathers rise toward the night sky. Lit from below, they glow with color, their slender forms bending inward as though forming a bowl. This sculpture, called Kindred Spirits, stands as a gift of remembrance and gratitude from...
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Podcast: WGN video producer detained; just one of many press takedowns by ICE
Debbie Brockman taken down by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. Photo: Screenshot of video from X (formerly Twitter). I’m broadcasting this as ICE vehicles are patrolling my neighborhood at the moment with helicopters buzzing the lakefront condos all morning. It is surreal to be doing this with...
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Podcast: Waiting for his Reichstag Fire moment
The Reichstag fire aftermath on February 27, 1933. The Chancellor of Germany seized authoritarian control of the nation after declaring a national emergency. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. Many political watchers fear that Donald Trump and his adviser Stephen Miller are waiting for what’s called a...
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Podcast: Supreme Court heard conversion therapy arguments and they sound skeptical
This is a companion podcast. Read my original news article at GoPride.com. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that could reshape the legal status of conversion therapy bans across the country. The case out of Colorado, Chiles v. Salazar, asks...
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Podcast: They blamed immigrants for the Great Chicago Fire; we're scapegoating them again today
Photo: Public domain. This week marks the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of October 8 to 10, 1871, one of the most devastating urban disasters in American history. The inferno destroyed more than three square miles of the city, left nearly 100,000 people homeless, and killed about 300...
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Podcast: LGBTQ wary as Texas troops arrive in Chicago; Oct. 8 protest planned for downtown Chicago
A new escalation in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown arrived in Chicago today as Texas National Guard troops were deployed to the region and staged at a military training facility in Elwood, Illinois. Their arrival marks a major expansion of federal involvement in Immigration and...
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Podcast: Hawaiian Night Marchers meet immigrants brought by the colonizers
Photo: Wikimedia Commons. There are places on these islands where the wind feels older than memory. Where the air hums as if it carries the heartbeat of generations. When I was young, I thought ghost stories were meant to frighten us. Now I know—they were meant to remind us. They remind us that…
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Podcast: When America tried to expel all Filipinos in the U.S.
Filipino cauliflower farmhand near Santa Maria, Calif. in 1937. Photo: Dorothea Lange. October is Filipino American History Month. For many, that means cultural pride: food, dance, music, parades. And yes, those things matter. But Filipino American History Month is also about remembering the…
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Podcast: How U.S. industry hid native remains in Hawaii burial mound, pretended it was okay
Kahi Hali’a Aloha. Photo: Mapquest. Today, I want to take you back to my homeland, my birthplace. Makemake au e kaʻana like i ka hoʻāno o nā kānaka o laila a me ka moʻolelo e pono ai ʻoe e ʻike —I want to share the sacredness of the people there and a story you should know. When we think of…
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Podcast: Banned Books Week is more apt now than before
The Evanston Nouveau Rotary Club at Bookends and Beginnings, Evanston, Ill. Photo: Gerald Farinas. This week, beginning October 5, we enter Banned Books Week—a time to honor the freedom to read, the freedom to think, and the freedom to imagine. But we do so in an era where those very freedoms are...
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Podcast: What happens after they're deported; Vietnam's grassroots Ba Lô can only help so many
Photo: Oliver Holzbauer via Wikimedia Commons. I wish more people asked what happens to a deportee after they’re sent to a destination country. So I’ll explain here. When a plane touches down in Vietnam carrying deportees from the United States, the scene is often quiet, almost invisible to the...
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Podcast: Receiving hate when posting ICIRR tips about ICE activity, locations, and hotline to report them
Photo: Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. When I share resources from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, I know I am amplifying one of the most successful networks of defense against ICE raids in the country. The Family Support Network hotline, their...
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Podcast: GOP lies saying gov't shutdown is Dems' fault; scapegoats undocumented immigrants
Photo: Mount Rainier National Park via Wikimedia Commons. Today I am watching the political theater around the government shutdown. And I cannot sit quietly while a dangerous lie gains traction. The White House and Congressional Republicans are hammering a message that this shutdown is the fault…
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Podcast: Hegseth 'War' speech was pure photo op; Trump angry at flag officers' silence during event
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in 2022. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth stood before our highest officers and made an announcement that should chill us all. This was not just another speech. This was not business as usual. This was a declaration....
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Podcast: Changing names, taking down statues isn't woke erasure of history
President William McKinley, a Manifest Destiny proponent, annexed Hawaii as part of an imperialist agenda. Painting: National Portrait Gallery. When we talk about history, we’re also talking about power—who gets remembered, who gets honored, and who gets erased. I was recently reading about how...
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Podcast: Get your damn flu and COVID vax; here's why
Instead of going to my regular Advocate doctor this year, I decided to do something different: I booked my flu shot and COVID booster through the Chicago Department of Public Health. With a quick online appointment at the Uptown community health center on Wilson Avenue near Sheridan Road, I…
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Podcast: The global courage against the Holocaust
President Manuel Quezon of the Philippine Commonwealth broadcast from Washington to Manila. For the 25 minutes he was on the air, Quezon discussed woman suffrage and urged the 10-year independence program be limited to a shorter period. April 5, 1937. Photo: Library of Congress. When we tell the...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Welcome to Not Quite Communist podcast. I am Gerald Farinas and I talk about social justice, empire and colonialism, and current events from the perspective of a Hawaii-born Ilocano Presbyterian Church (USA) elder commissioner here in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Find me IRL at GeraldFarinas.com.
gerfarinas.substack.com
HOSTED BY
Gerald Farinas
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Not Quite Communist currently has 69 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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Welcome to Not Quite Communist podcast. I am Gerald Farinas and I talk about social justice, empire and colonialism, and current events from the perspective of a Hawaii-born Ilocano Presbyterian Church (USA) elder commissioner here in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Find me IRL at...
How often does Not Quite Communist release new episodes?
Not Quite Communist has 69 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Who hosts Not Quite Communist?
Not Quite Communist is created and hosted by Gerald Farinas.
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