Episodes
Thursday Jan 30, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/30/14
Thursday Jan 30, 2014
Thursday Jan 30, 2014
Unheard and Unseen: The American Way of Poverty
“Poverty” or “the poor” are words President Obama doesn’t use frequently – unless he’s referring to the “extreme poverty” U.S. foreign aid is helping to alleviate in other nations. At home, though, the president says his focus is on “income inequality.”
But 50 million Americans have little or no income; they are poor. And an estimated equal number depend on government-subsidized food programs to sustain themselves and their families. Poverty is epidemic in America.
Leid Stories presents a briefing on poverty in America by way of author Sasha Abramsky, who has written several books, articles and papers on the subject. His current work, The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives, serves as an update on the misery index on the large and growing segment of America that, 50 years after President Lyndon B. Johnson’s declaration of a “war on poverty,” remains largely unheard and unseen, despite vigorous advocacy and intervention.
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/29/14
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
What’s Behind the Emergency Management and Forced Bankruptcy of Detroit?
Continuing our coverage of Detroit’s mammoth bankruptcy saga, Leid Stories provides a primer on the hidden motives behind the appointment by Gov. Rick Snyder of an emergency manager to take charge of the city’s fiscal and related operational decisions while choreographing its forced descent into bankruptcy.
A special presentation is given by Abayomi Azikiwe, who regularly contributes reports to Leid Stories on the battles in bankruptcy court and on the growing tide of opposition among Detroiters, who see themselves as victims of political machinations that in effect have placed them under autocratic rule. A Q&A follows his presentation.
Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African Newswire, a Detroit organizer for the Workers World Party, and an organizer-activist with Moratorium Now!, a grassroots group that has been seeking a halt to foreclosures, evictions and utility cutoffs for struggling Detroiters.
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/28/14
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
Wednesday Jan 29, 2014
Of Course You’re Different! You Actually Use Your Brain! It’s Tuesday, Open Forum day on Leid Stories, where great minds gather for vigorous, substantive discussion and debate about issues of the day. No “wrong” or “right” judgments here about what you have to say, but respect and appreciation for sharing your thoughts and opinions and extending the same courtesies to others. There is a lot to talk about and share since last week’s Open Forum. What’s been percolating in your brain?
Monday Jan 27, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/27/14
Monday Jan 27, 2014
Monday Jan 27, 2014
Obama’s SOTU 2014: Generous Portions of Lame Duck;
In his State of the Union address tomorrow, President Obama likely will revive his oft-repeated theme: “Last year was unnecessarily challenging, and this year will be, too, unless Republicans cooperate with me to get things done.” This will be his rationale for cutting back on big-ticket items this election year.
The truth is, the president has arrived at the first year of his second term with huge political deficits and miscalculations accrued over the last four years -- which the Republicans effectively have used to keep him in check. Obama’s SOTU 2014, therefore, will reflect the chastened president’s new reality: launching any major legislative offensives this year and leading up to 2016 is politically too risky, both for his legacy and the fortunes of the Democratic Party.
Obama will pursue an agenda that is expedient and safe. The hurting constituencies that elected him should hold out no hopes that their needs top his list.
Leid Stories listeners express their views.
Friday Jan 24, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/24/14
Friday Jan 24, 2014
Friday Jan 24, 2014
Apocalypse Now: Detroit’s Engineered Collapse As the New Urban Paradigm
It’s a story unfolding before our eyes, but we’re encouraged not to see it for what it really is. Detroit’s gone bankrupt, the media and the political establishment tell us, because its mainstay auto industry tanked, its population and tax rolls dwindled, its political leadership was inept and corrupt, and the city can’t meet its operational costs and pension payouts to city workers.
But Leid Stories’ guests over the past few months have made credible arguments that Detroit’s bankruptcy was not inevitable; it was engineered. And long before the city got the green light from the governor to declare bankruptcy, there was a grand plan re-imagining its rebirth – with a “different” population.
Leid Stories contends that Detroit’s engineered collapse is the new urban paradigm – one that suits corporate interests, the political establishment, and the aims and objectives of race and class warfare.
Thursday Jan 23, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/23/14
Thursday Jan 23, 2014
Thursday Jan 23, 2014
U.N. Sued for Cholera Epidemic in Haiti; Damages Sought
Detroit’s Grassroots Emboldened By Recent Victory
A lawsuit against the United Nations and operations under its command in Haiti after the devastating earthquake four years ago is seeking damages for the deaths of 8,500 people and the infection of more than 60,000 others from a cholera epidemic caused allegedly by lax sanitation practices of peacekeepers assigned there.
Dr. Jean-Ford Figaro, a public-health specialist and Brian Concannon, director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, discuss the cholera epidemic and its impact from medical and legal perspectives.
And Leid Stories returns to Detroit, where grassroots political pressure yesterday forced Gov. Rick Snyder to release $350 million to the distressed city – money widely viewed as the city’s tax-levied share to begin with.
Activists Elena Herrada and Abayomi Azikiwe discuss the growing opposition to Detroit’s old political order.
Wednesday Jan 22, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/22/14
Wednesday Jan 22, 2014
Wednesday Jan 22, 2014
Public Banking Seeks Your Interest; Open Forum Part 2
A people- and community-centered alternative banking system is looking to make greater inroads across America this year. It’s called public banking – a system “operated in the public interest via institutions owned by the people through their representative governments.” So far, North Dakota is the only state that has adopted the concept, but at least 20 other states are considering establishing public banks.
Ellen Brown, chairperson of the Public Banking Institute, explains the concept and how it works.
And because Open Forum had more traffic yesterday than we were able to accommodate, we’ll provide air space for those calls today.
Tuesday Jan 21, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/21/14
Tuesday Jan 21, 2014
Tuesday Jan 21, 2014
Are You the Brightest Bulb in the Bunch? Enlighten Us All!
It’s Tuesday, so it’s Open Forum on Leid Stories, and your insightful thoughts and considered opinions about major issues and events of the day not only are welcome, they’re greatly appreciated.
Share your unique take on what’s happening in the world. But expect to be questioned closely by some of the brightest minds on the planet -- with great respect, of course!
Monday Jan 20, 2014
Monday Jan 20, 2014
Leid Stories commemorates Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day with purposeful contemplation of a guiding principle in his life’s work: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
At a meeting in New York City of the nondenominational Clergy & Laity Concerned, Dr. King exhorted leaders in the faith community -- and people of conscience generally -- to be true advocates for the poor and oppressed by relentlessly opposing U.S. laws and policies that are morally wrong and inhumane – not only for fellow Americans, but for people all over the world.
America’s appetite for war, he said, is sated always by unimaginable hardship, suffering and sacrifices by those least able to bear them – the poor at home and in far-flung corners of the world where America introduces itself with bombs and utter destruction.
This speech was delivered at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, a year to the day of the assassination of Dr. King in Memphis, Tenn., where he was mobilizing a march in support of 1,300 African American sanitation workers striking for recognition of their union, better working conditions and a living wage.
Friday Jan 17, 2014
Leid Stories - 01/17/14
Friday Jan 17, 2014
Friday Jan 17, 2014
A Victory Over Banksters in Detroit; CNN in the Crosshairs
Detroiters who long had blamed their city’s financial crisis on predatory deals banks and other lending institutions were able to close with a corrupt previous administration felt vindicated yesterday, when the judge overseeing Detroit’s bankruptcy rejected a $169-million settlement offer from two creditor-banks as being “just too much money.”
Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan-African News Wire, discusses the court battle, Gov. Rick Snyder’s latest lackluster response to the crisis, and what lies ahead.
Listeners discuss how best to convey outrage at CNN’s “coverage” of Dennis Rodman’s recent basketball-diplomacy trip to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.