Episodes
Wednesday Nov 27, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/27/13
Wednesday Nov 27, 2013
Wednesday Nov 27, 2013
Coming At You: A New Kind of Warfare;
A Simple Truth: Thanks Is Giving
Last week, Leid Stories reported the militarization of police departments all over the United States through a Defense Department program that arms them with military-grade equipment used for warfare. (See Archives, Nov. 21, 2013 program.)
Today, a former State Department chief strategist on counterterrorism and guerrilla warfare says that wars in the near future will be fought largely in sprawling coastal cities and in underdeveloped areas of the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Leid Stories observes the “National Day of Mourning” (aka Thanksgiving Day) with a contemplative dialogue on recalibrating ourselves to be useful agents of change in a dog-eat-dog, I’ve-got-mine-go-get-yours world.
Tuesday Nov 26, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/26/13
Tuesday Nov 26, 2013
Tuesday Nov 26, 2013
Let’s Hear What You Have to Say! It’s Open Forum!
The world will be a far better place if you share your views on the issues of the day – and, if you’ve been keeping tabs, there’s no shortage of them.
Bring your best to “Open Forum” on Leid Stories, the gathering place for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas, and you’ll be rewarded with the respect and fellowship of deep thinkers.
Monday Nov 25, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/25/13
Monday Nov 25, 2013
Monday Nov 25, 2013
Wall Street, City Gov’t, Recession to Blame for Detroit’s Debts;
The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Obama’s Nuclear Trade Bomb;
Pardoning Injustice: The Scottsboro 9 and the Central Park 5
Wall Street bankers, inept city government and a woeful economy are responsible for Detroit’s fiscal woes, says a scathing independent report on the city’s dire fiscal crisis. The author of the report, Wallace Turbeville, a senior fellow at Demos, a Manhattan-based public-policy think tank, bares the details.
His secretly-written, corporate-sponsored Affordable Care Act imploding, President Obama is pushing to “fast-track” his completely secret Trans-Pacific Partnership trade initiative before the end of the year. He’s in for a huge fight; organizations of just about every political persuasion are united in opposition to it and are mobilizing. Elizabeth Warren, a regional organizer with Move On, talks about what is shaping up to be Obama’s epic disaster.
Leid Stories in a commentary points to two iconic cases that illustrate how the criminal-justice system routinely expunges itself and its agents of blame and corruption in race-based, wrongful-conviction cases and adamantly refuses to make its victims whole.
Friday Nov 22, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/22/13
Friday Nov 22, 2013
Friday Nov 22, 2013
Racism: A Psycho-Historical Perspective
The presidency of John F. Kennedy, assassinated 50 years ago today, was born in the crucible of dramatic change, both in the United States and all over the world.
Yet, as “liberal” as he is widely portrayed, Kennedy had to be pushed, embarrassed, even threatened, into altering in significant ways, let alone utterly destroying, America’s longstanding racial codas. Kennedy was no match for racism.
Our guest today, world-renowned scholar Dr. Joel Kovel, helps us understand why no U.S. president can “solve” racism. Integrating historical, social and psychodynamic perspectives, Kovel illustrates that racism “is not the simple delusion of a bigoted and ignorant minority, but as a set of beliefs whose structure arises from the deepest levels of our lives -- from the fabric of assumptions we make about the world, ourselves and others, and from the patterns of fundamental social activities.”
Thursday Nov 21, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/21/13
Thursday Nov 21, 2013
Thursday Nov 21, 2013
U.S. Police Departments Increasingly Going Military;
Report Skewers Detroit’s Reasons for Bankruptcy;
JP Morgan Chase: Too Big to Jail
America’s police departments increasingly are being militarized – thanks to a little-known Department of Defense program.
Elizabeth Beavers, a foreign policy program assistant with the Washington, D.C.-based Friends Committee on National Legislation, reveals that the program for years has been the conduit for arming police departments across the country with billions of dollars in heavy-duty, military-grade equipment commonly used for warfare.
Wall Street bankers, not city workers’ pension plans, are responsible for Detroit’s fiscal woes, says an independent report. Chad Livengood, with The Detroit News, discusses the details of the report and its possible impact on the court’s decision to green-light Detroit’s application for bankruptcy.
The Justice Department’s record $13-billion “settlement” with JP Morgan Chase on the bank’s mortgage-securities scam proves that the Obama administration refuses to take a tough stand against banksters. Leid Stories explains.
Wednesday Nov 20, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/20/13
Wednesday Nov 20, 2013
Wednesday Nov 20, 2013
Far From Benevolent: U.S. Interests in the Philippines
Urgently needed international aid continues to flow into the Republic of the Philippines, left utterly devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the worst storms ever to hit the country.
Since Nov. 8, when it struck, killing more than 4,000 and affecting more than 4 million people in 270 towns and cities, the United States has provided more than $37 million in humanitarian aid and 9,500 military personnel and disaster specialists to assist with logistical operations.
The United States has had a long history in the Philippines, but it has been far from benevolent.
Noted historian, political scientist and author Dr. Gerald Horne explains the 7,107-island nation’s struggles against colonialism and imperialism and its strategic value to the United States.
Dr. Horne is the chairman of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. A prolific author, he has written more than 30 books and 100 scholarly papers and reviews on struggles against imperialism, colonialism, fascism and racism.
Monday Nov 18, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/18/13
Monday Nov 18, 2013
Monday Nov 18, 2013
Moving Targets: ObamaScare, Shop-and-Frisk, and Embedded News
Twenty-one states are not expanding their Medicaid programs, and four have not yet decided. Come Jan. 1, what happens to millions of people in those states who won’t get Medicaid and cannot afford, even if subsidized, to buy health insurance?
“Shop & Frisk” points up two unpleasant issues – Black “leaders” who intentionally soften the blow against offending stores, and black consumers who have little or no understanding of their economic power.
There’s news and there’s “embedded” news – the news that reports first to the government hand that’s feeding it.
Leid Stories takes laser-beam aim at them all!
Friday Nov 15, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/15/13
Friday Nov 15, 2013
Friday Nov 15, 2013
The Zero-Sum Mind-Set: America's Most Destructive Affliction
Somebody’s got to win; somebody’s got to lose. It’s the way of life in the United States – a destructive philosophy that shapes practically every aspect of social interaction and every level of business and government. It retards progress, creates strife and suffering, and ultimately is inhumane, yet it is the “purest” expression of the American psyche and attitude.
Leid Stories takes a look at the devastating effects of zero-sum thinking in public policy, citing examples recently discussed on the program.
Thursday Nov 14, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/14/13
Thursday Nov 14, 2013
Thursday Nov 14, 2013
Post-Election Detroit Resumes Life As A U.S. Colony
A new mayor, a new City Council, but neither has the power to do much of anything in “colonial” Detroit, under direct management of a state-appointed overseer. For now, democracy is largely a ceremonial exercise – a casualty of a pitched battle between the state and the people that cannot be resolved by committee.
Detroit is $18 billion in debt and bankruptcy is the only way to get out of the hole, says Gov. Rick Snyder. While it seeks permission from the court to declare bankruptcy – it would be the largest municipal collapse in U.S. history if granted – Snyder has authorized emergency manager Kevyn Orr to call all the shots for day-to-day governance of the city.
Abayomi Azikiwe, a community organizer and editor of the Pan African News Wire, explains how post-election life is being lived in the colony.
Wednesday Nov 13, 2013
Leid Stories - 11/13/13
Wednesday Nov 13, 2013
Wednesday Nov 13, 2013
Are Dems Losing Latino Love Over Immigration?
Bill Rips Obama for Super Fumble on Hillary’s Plan
It’s not being discussed openly, but President Obama’s promise to “reform” immigration laws seems to be written with the same vanishing ink as his assurance that Obamacare enrollees can hold on to their old insurance plans.
Louis DeSapio, professor of political science and of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of California-Irvine, discusses the political state of play between the labor-Latino pro-immigration lobby and the Obama administration and what is likely to happen if there is no decisive movement on reforms soon.
Also, Leid Stories discusses the motivation behind President Clinton’s smackdown of Obama over changes Clinton said should be made to Obamacare rules so that millions can keep the insurance plans they now have.