Leid Stories

Leid Stories—The ‘Big Debate’ Yet Another Reminder That the Two-Party-Dominated Political System Must End. But How? (Part 2)—09.29.16

Despite widespread voter disaffection with politics in general, and “the two-party system” in particular, the Democratic and Republican parties continue to dominate and control the political machinery of the United States. They wage bruising battles to control local, state and national government, and except from each other, neither party really fears a challenge to its power and dominance.

There’s no change to the political matrix this election year; the Democratic and Republican parties still dominate the field of political choices. But polls have been showing intense voter dissatisfaction with the duopoly’s business-as-usual politics, a growing interest in other political parties and movements, and even outright rejection of the current political model.

We continue yesterday’s discussion on how these trends might be fertile soil for nonmainstream political parties and movements to plant (or re-plant) new seeds.

Leid Stories—The ‘Big Debate’ Yet Another Reminder That the Two-Party-Dominated Political System Must End. But How?—09.28.16

Monday night’s overhyped, corporate-media-hosted “Big Debate” between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is yet another reason the duopoly’s stranglehold on electoral politics must end.

Is that likely to happen? When? How? Leid Stories advance their own ideas on how widespread voter disaffection with status-quo politics might provide an excellent opportunity for “third” parties and movements to plant new seeds in fertile political soil.

Leid Stories—Haiti’s Catastrophic 2010 Earthquake A Seismic Boost to the Clintons’ Political Ambitions—09.27.16

Americans continue to hold the view, according to major polls, that Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is “untrustworthy.” Most Haitians—in the United States, Haiti and the Haitian diaspora—would say that characterization is an understatement. For, Hillary and husband Bill have done Haiti grievous wrongs, they’d say, and have done grievous wrongs in Haiti.

Hillary’s all-out campaign to win the U.S. presidency has hit some major bumps, almost all of them pointing to her (and Bill’s) alleged untrustworthiness and unethical conduct and practices. At the center of it all is the recurring question: Where and how did this once-cash-strapped couple get their money?

Journalist, author (most recently We Have Dared to Be Free: Haiti’s Struggle Against Occupation) and academician Dady Chery, who has written extensively on developments in Haiti, explains that Haiti has been, and continues to be, a key element in the Clintons’ personal and political ambitions.

Leid Stories—Obama Leaves and Shuts the Door on Police ‘Reforms’; The Clinton-Trump ‘Debate’ Won’t Fix the Fix We’re In—09.26.16

President Barack Obama’s imminent departure from office after eight years will be marked, no doubt, with much pomp and ceremony. He’ll recite a laundry list of his administration’s accomplishments, and point to high-priority items the clock ran out on. Police killings will be on the next president’s to-do list.

The spate of recent killings by police points up not only the persistence of the problem, but the Obama administration’s inability to solve it.

The first of three Q&A sessions (they’re not “debates”) between the duopoly’s presidential candidates takes place tonight at Hofstra University in New York. It’s being hyped like the Muhammad Ali-George Forman superfight of 1974 in Kinshasa, Zaire, but neither Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump comes to the bout as a true people’s champion; polls consistently show them to be despised and distrusted by voters.

In 42 days, just the same, there’ll be a winner, a new president, and it will be one of the despised and distrusted candidates. Will tonight’s “debate” and the two others to follow fix the fix we’re in?

Leid Stories—Not Enough Said About This Calamitous Week. Say Your Piece on “Free Your Mind Friday!—09.23.16

It’s been a week from hell--a concatenation of catastrophies, it seemed. With your help, we can wade through the thick fog of misinformation, disinformation and no information about what really matters.

Free your mind—and ours, too—by sharing your thoughts about the week’s major issues and news events. It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, and your turn at the mic awaits at 888-874-4888.

Leid Stories—Memo to Obama: The ‘Other’ America Is Still Here—09.22.16

The day before President Barack Obama delivered his arrogant speech at the Congressional Black Caucus telling black America he’ll consider it an “insult” to him and his legacy if they don’t vote at all or don’t for Hillary Clinton on Nov. 8, Terence Crutcher, a 40-year-old black man, was killed by police on a lonely stretch of Tulsa, Okla., road. Three days later, Keith Lamont Scott, a 43-year-old black man, was cut down by police in Charlotte, N.C., touching off a violent reaction that still rages.

President Obama, obsessed now with his “legacy,” is reminded that it includes a dismal record on “police reform.”

Leid Stories—Bad Medicine, Big Money: Bombshell Congressional Report Says Clinton Foundation-09.21.16

A blistering, just-concluded congressional report on the operations of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI)—the highest-revenue-generating project of The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation that was spun off as its own nonprofit in 2010—charges that the former president’s much-vaunted global HIV/AIDS relief program distributed “watered down” and “adulterated” medications to patients in sub-Saharan Africa and in cash-strapped countries where the CHAI program was welcomed as a godsend for treating people with HIV/AIDS.

The 78-page report, initiated by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and endorsed by 64 members of Congress, was delivered to the inspectors general of the Health and Human Services Department and the Department of State, asking for further probes into CHAI, the Clinton foundation, and how former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department helped to facilitate highly questionable business dealings to benefit the Clinton philanthropic conglomerate.

Leid Stories—Lots to Talk About? Talk About It on “Free Your Mind Friday!”—09.16.16

It’s our weekly gathering for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas. It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, and what you have to say—about the news and issues of the day or about anything—is the “star” of the show.

Call 888-874-4888 and free your mind!

Leid Stories—The Clinton Global Initiative, Under Heavy Fire, Prepares for Shutdown—Though, More Likely, A Shift—09.15.16

The Clinton Global Initiative, the jewel in the crown of The Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation described as an incubator of ideas for tackling major issues and problems all over the world, officially will shut down after its last annual meeting (Sept. 19-21) in Manhattan.

Hillary Clinton, not surprisingly, will not be attending.

Charles Ortel, our expert guide on the CGI, the Clinton Foundation and several offshoot pseudophilanthropic programs, returns to explain the significance of the CGI “voluntary” shutdown and why it may just be a symbolic gesture to keep a massive gathering storm of investigation at bay.  

Leid Stories—Election 2016: What’s Shaping/Shaped Your Political Choice? (Part 3)—09.14.16

It’s the third day of “polling” listeners’ attitudes about the 2016 presidential race, the issues driving it, and the combined effect on individual political decisions on Election Day and beyond.

The topic has generated vigorous discussion and more calls than could be accommodated in a single program. Hence, Leid Stories proudly presents Day 3 of peer-to-peer political science.