Episodes
Thursday Jun 15, 2017
Leid Stories—Virginia, San Francisco Shootings Are No ‘Ordinary’ Crimes—06.15.17
Thursday Jun 15, 2017
Thursday Jun 15, 2017
A practice baseball game yesterday in Alexandria, Va., was to have been a warmup for the real thing today at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. The bipartisan charity event will go on as scheduled, even though James Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old Illinois man, could have scuttled the game entirely. Hodgkins, said to be an avowed Trump critic, turned up at the practice session yesterday and shot at several people, wounding them. Capitol Police officers returned fire, killing him.
In San Francisco yesterday, United Parcel Service employee Jimmy Lam, 38, went to the UPS warehouse armed with an assault pistol and killed three coworkers and wounded two others before turning the gun on himself. Three months ago, Lam filed a complaint that he was being made to work an excessive amount of overtime.
These two cases may seem to be totally different and disconnected from each other, but in fact are not, says Leid Stories.
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Leid Stories—Parsing Bernie Sanders’ Entreaty to the Democratic Party—06.14.17
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
In an op-ed piece appearing yesterday in nytimes.com, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the longest-serving Independent in Congress (although he caucuses with the Senate’s Democrats), took on the Democrats’ losing streak. The piece, titled “How Democrats Can Stop Losing Elections,” argued that the 2016 elections were “a clear manifestation of a failed political strategy by the party,” and that “for the sake of our country and the world, the Democratic Party in a very fundamental way must change direction.”
Sanders points to several heard-many-times-before reasons the party could bolster its appeal to voters if it acted aggressively on critical issues —including widespread disappointment with President Trump, income inequality, an unfair tax system, health-care coverage for all, criminal-justice reform, immigration, student debt, and climate change. But the party’s lackluster effort at pushing such issues is pushing people away, Sanders says.
Leid Stories questions why Sanders won’t say why the Democrats really are losing elections.
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Leid Stories—Chaos and Crisis: American Democracy in the Age of Trump (Part 2)—06.13.17
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
Leid Stories continues yesterday’s discussion on President Donald Trump’s approaches to governing that are anything but “normal” in our experience. In the chaos- and crisis-driven Age of Trump, how do we cope?
Monday Jun 12, 2017
Monday Jun 12, 2017
No question, things have changed, and are changing, dramatically in the Age of Trump, and the changes are all-encompassing—from the very definition of democracy and national identity to a recalibration where and how America interacts with the world.
Approaching the end of the second quarter of his brand-new administration, it is fair to say that President Trump is proceeding with his plan to substantially, if not totally, change the existing social, political and economic order. But it’s already taken a toll, his impetuous, not-well-thought actions and policies creating havoc and anxiety for Americans and unnecessary rifts within the world community of nations, even with allies.
Against the backdrop of the most recent crisis the nation is dealing with—the White House-caused political upheaval in Washington—Leid Stories listeners discuss Trump’s role in “making America great again” with his different approaches to governing.
Friday Jun 09, 2017
Friday Jun 09, 2017
Yet another week that the propaganda machine was in overdrive, trying to steal your mind. Yet another week that you gave it no victory.
Share your thoughts—and defensive tactics—with likeminded Leid Stories listeners on “Free Your Mind Friday,” the best peer-to-peer education system that focuses on what matters to you. Call 888-874-4888.
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Leid Stories—Comey’s Turn at Bat. Home Run or Strike Out?—06.08.17
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Thursday Jun 08, 2017
Former FBI Director James Comey appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee today in a two-part marathon session—one public, the other behind closed doors—to answer an array of questions. Publicly, Comey will testify about his challenges working with an out-of-control president who very often skirted standing policies yet expected him, out of “loyalty” to turn a blind eye to his actions. Privately, Comey will discuss the details of investigations he initiated into Trump’s ties to Russia, whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to assure Trump’s victory, and whether associates and representatives of Trump are continuing to benefit from under-the-radar ties to Russia.
Whatever the outcome of Comey’s testimony today, some politicians have already drawn their own conclusions. They say Trump should be impeached. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) announced yesterday that he’s begun drawing articles of impeachment against the president, with fellow Democrat Brad Sherman joining him.
Meanwhile, it’s Comey’s turn at bat, and he says he’s batting for himself, his reputation and his career. Will he hit a home run, or will he strike out?
Wednesday Jun 07, 2017
Wednesday Jun 07, 2017
To blunt vigorous student and community protest against Hillary Clinton at Medgar Evers College’s 45th commencement ceremony tomorrow, Myrlie Evers-Wiliams, widow of the assassinated civil-rights leader after whom the college is named, will introduce her “dear friend,” who is to deliver the commencement address and receive an honorary doctorate
Former FBI director James Comey, fired May 9 by President Donald Trump, appears before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee tomorrow, a day after the president announced Comey’s replacement. Comey will command rapt attention as he testifies, but will he be asked the right questions?
Tuesday Jun 06, 2017
Tuesday Jun 06, 2017
Former FBI director James Comey on Thursday makes his third appearance before a congressional committee looking into how he did his job.
In March, Comey and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers told the House Intelligence Committee they were investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to rig the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor. In May, just prior to being fired by Trump, Comey told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the Trump-Russia probe was continuing, though it had not yet yielded concrete evidence, and he defended his handling of the Hillary Clinton email debacle. On Thursday, Comey again appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee to be grilled about matters related to his firing by Trump, and whether he did indeed find evidence of a Trump-Russia campaign collaboration but chose to cover it up.
For many reasons, a lot is resting on Comey’s testimony on Thursday. Leid Stories listeners discuss what those reasons might be.
Monday Jun 05, 2017
Monday Jun 05, 2017
Historian and prolific author Gerald Horne, Ph.D., looks at a few contemporary issues and events through the lens of history.
Horne, the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, has written more than 30 books and 100 scholarly papers on globalstruggles against imperialism, colonialism, fascism and racism. His most recent books include Paul Robeson: The Artist As Revolutionary (2016); Confronting Black Jacobins: The U.S., the Haitian Revolution, and the Origins of the Dominican Republic (2015); Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba During Slavery and Jim Crow (2014); and The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America. NYU Press (2014).
Monday Jun 05, 2017
Leid Stories—Think Out Loud and Free Your Mind!—06.02.17
Monday Jun 05, 2017
Monday Jun 05, 2017
Start a brand-new conversation of your own or add your two cents to someone else’s. It’s up to you. Either way, it’s all about what you think, and that’s what “Free Your Mind Friday” is all about.
Call 888-874-4888 and think out loud!