Episodes
Monday Jul 30, 2018
Monday Jul 30, 2018
Many would contend it is both false and unpatriotic to suggest that the United States of America is in a state of crisis. Has martial law been declared? No. Is there a run on the banks? No. Is food being rationed? No. The United States, like any developed country, they say, isn’t immune to setbacks and downturns and similar effects in the global economy. And, comparatively speaking, Americans enjoy a better way of life than most people in the world.
Yet polls are showing deep divisions among Americans about the direction of the country, racial polarization, class consciousness, economic opportunity and hot-button issues such as immigration and access to strategic resources such as education, housing and health care.
President Donald Trump and his administration—and the social, political and economic tenor of our times, generally—have come to symbolize the deep divisions America is experiencing that are pushing the nation toward implosion. Leid Stories asks: Are we in fact witnessing America’s demise? Can we do anything to change course or direction?
Friday Jul 27, 2018
Leid Stories—Get It Said! Free Your Mind!—07.27.18
Friday Jul 27, 2018
Friday Jul 27, 2018
Bring your best to “the gathering place for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas” and engage with others in vigorous discussion and debate.
Add your voice, your perspective, to an unscripted, ongoing dialogue about issues and events that matter to us all. Gain new insights as you help others to do the same.
Call in (888-874-4888) and let’s hear what you have to say.
Thursday Jul 26, 2018
Thursday Jul 26, 2018
President Trump yesterday pulled a fast one that left many U.S. lawmakers and foreign-trade officials deeply puzzled. Trump, according to reports, hastily called a news conference in the Rose Garden to announce an agreement with the European Union on tariffs. Trouble was, no one seemed to know there was any such thing.
Leid Stories continues our discussion on a two-tiered system of justice—one for cops and one for the rest of us—when it comes to the crime of murder. Such is the case with NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who four years ago was a lead officer in the violent attempted arrest of Eric Garner, 43, for selling untaxed “loosie” cigarettes. Pantaleo, along with several other officers, tried to take Garner down, but succeeded only after Pantaleo placed Garner in a lethal chokehold. The maneuver was banned by the NYPD since 1983.
Leid Stories contends that the NYPD’s parallel justice system is both unconstitutional and unjust, because it is arbitrary, fraught with favoritism, subverts the law, and creates a two-tiered system of justice in which members of law enforcement are held to one standard, and the rest of us to another.
Tuesday Jul 24, 2018
Tuesday Jul 24, 2018
Four years after six New York Police Department officers were videotaped participating in the violent attempted arrest of 43-year-old Eric Garner of Staten Island allegedly for selling bootleg cigarettes, only one of them, Officer Daniel Pantaleo, will face charges.
But Pantaleo, who had placed Garner in an illegal chokehold while trying to subdue Garner, will not be appearing in a regular court. Instead, he’ll face still-undisclosed charges in a closed disciplinary proceeding before the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which gives the police commissioner, not the court system, final—and unilateral—authority to rule on a case involving police misconduct.
Leid Stories contends that the NYPD’s parallel justice system is both unconstitutional and unjust, because it is arbitrary, fraught with favoritism, subverts the law and creates a two-tiered system of justice in which members of law enforcement are held to one standard, and citizens, another.
Friday Jul 20, 2018
Friday Jul 20, 2018
What a mind-numbing week! The propaganda machine was in hyper drive, trying to make us as hapless as President Donald Trump in the clutches of some mind-altering force. Luckily, we had Leid Stories to keep us grounded.
And so, we round off the week with “Free Your Mind Friday,” our weekly antidote against mind games. We share our thoughts about the issues of the day and other subjects worthy of further discussion and debate.
Let’s hear what you’re thinking. Call 888-874-4888.
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Thursday Jul 19, 2018
Leid Stories listeners continue our media-literacy exercise, decoding coverage of the Trump-Putin Helsinki “summit” and its aftermath.
Wednesday Jul 18, 2018
Leid Stories—A People’s Analysis of the Trump-Putin Helsinki ‘Summit’ (Part 2)—07.18.18
Wednesday Jul 18, 2018
Wednesday Jul 18, 2018
Leid Stories listeners continue our media-literacy exercise, decoding coverage of the Trump-Putin Helsinki “summit” and its aftermath.
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
Leid Stories—A People’s Analysis of the Trump-Putin Helsinki ‘Summit’—07.17.18
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
Tuesday Jul 17, 2018
It didn’t go well for President Donald Trump in Helsinki yesterday. His ill-timed, ill-advised one-on-one “summit” meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin set off a series of political and policy bombs that have left Trump badly wounded and mostly himself to blame.
The major media are furiously working the story, but that doesn’t mean they’re telling what we really need to know. As yet another exercise in our ongoing series on media literacy, Leid Stories listeners decode coverage of the Trump-Putin “summit” and its aftermath.
Monday Jul 16, 2018
Monday Jul 16, 2018
Few were surprised by the resignation Saturday of Haiti’s prime minister, Jack Guy Lafontant, after widespread rebellion and a two-day general strike over the government’s foiled plan to impose steep hikes in fuel prices. Indeed, Leid Stories predicted Lafontant’s downfall. But if it is meant to appease Haitians, Lafontant’s exit is only part of their much broader demand: An entire coterie of corrupt government officials must make their exit, too.
Veteran journalist Kim Ives, a prizewinning documentarian and editor of the English edition of the news weekly Haïti Liberté, provides an update on the still-fluid situation in Haiti. He also updates his report about Haitians in Central and South America facing monumental hardships in their bid to return home.
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and U.S.A.’s Donald Trump meet today at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland. Their seconds, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, will meet separately, also at the palace. They’ll talk (we don’t know what’s on their respective agendas), then there’ll be lunch and a news conference, and everybody goes home.
Leid Stories listeners discuss what they consider to be the most unusual aspects of the superpower “summit.”
Friday Jul 13, 2018
Leid Stories—What A Week! We Really Need to Free Our Minds!—07.13.17
Friday Jul 13, 2018
Friday Jul 13, 2018
It’s been a bruiser of a week on the home front. Add what’s happening around the globe to the mix and it’s more than enough to drive you over the edge.
Don’t panic, all’s not lost. But it is time for a major mind cleanse. Leid Stories is here to help you free your mind.
Bring your best to “the gathering place for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas” and engage with others in vigorous discussion and debate. Add your voice, your perspective, to an unscripted, ongoing dialogue about issues and events that matter to us all. Gain new insights as you help others to do the same.
Call in (888-874-4888) and let’s hear what you have to say.