Leid Stories

Leid Stories—The Bloviator-in-Chief’s Big Bluff; Obama ‘Eager’ to Lead from Behind; What’s Your Meter Reading On the 2018 Midterm Elections?—08.02.18

That loud, incessant, screeching noise we’re hearing? It’s America’s bloviator-in-chief and his dimwitted legal adviser squealing that the sky is falling. And it very well may be, because President Trump is being asked to respond, in person and in writing, to specific questions from Special Counsel Robert Muller’s ongoing probe. No hype, no misstatements, no bluffs. Just hard, cold facts. Trump’s not ready to submit to scrutiny.

This being a critical election year for the Democratic Party, former President Barack Obama yesterday threw his support behind 81 candidates from 14 states running in the midterms. He’ll announce a second set of endorsements prior to the election, his office said. Obama said he’s “eager to make the case for why Democratic candidates deserve our votes this fall.” Obama has laid low since leaving office while President Donald Trump has been on the campaign trail for other candidates and the Republican Party since winning office.

Leid Stories “polls” listeners on their attitudes about the midterm elections this November.

Leid Stories—A Lawman and Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ Law—08.01.18

On July 19, security cameras outside a Clearwater, Fla., convenience store captured a violent altercation between two men—one white, one black. It appeared they had a brief but heated verbal exchange, and the black man shoved the white man, who fell to the ground.  The footage showed the white man, identified as Michael Drejka, pulling out a handgun and shooting the black man, identified as Markeis McGlocton. Mortally wounded, McGlocton staggered back into the store.

McGlocton died, but his killer has not been arrested or even charged.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri quickly became the target of public outrage. But he says that Florida law prohibits him from either arresting or charging Drejka, who has invoked Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law to defend his deadly action.

Gualtieri yesterday called a news conference to explain how the “Stand Your Ground” law applies in the case and what it allows him to do and not do, notwithstanding public opinion.

Leid Stories will be covering different aspects of this case. We begin with Sheriff Gualtieri’s perspective on the “Stand Your Ground” law.

Leid Stories: Dems Fear the ‘S’ Word More Than Losing--07.31.18

With midterm elections looming, you’d think the Democratic Party would heed the most important lesson from its last big battle in 2016, when it lost not only the House, the Senate and the White House, but 69 of 99 state legislatures as well. The lesson? Act like defeating this hateful administration really, really matters.

By now, the Democratic Party’s voter base should be electrified by a (much deeper) working relationship with Sen. Bernie Sanders and the Our Revolution movement that grew out of his first run for president. By now, the party should have extolled several of the platform positions that gave Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 28, a stunning victory over 10-term Rep. Joe Crowley in the primary election for New York’s 14^thCongressional District.

Why aren’t such things happening? Because, says Leid Stories, both Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are self-described democratic socialists, and Democratic Party leaders are more afraid of the S-word that losing elections.

Leid Stories: Are We Witnessing America’s Demise? Can We Do Anything to Change Course or Direction?--07.30.18

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?

Leid Stories—Get It Said! Free Your Mind!—07.27.18

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.

Leid Stories—Trump’s Bizarre Ways of Doing Things Continue to Confound; The Eric Garner Case: The ‘Law’ Adds Insult to Garner’s Wrongful Death (Part 2)—07.26.18

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.

Leid Stories—The Eric Garner Case: The ‘Law’ Adds Insult to Garner’s Wrongful Death—07.24.18

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.

Leid Stories— Give Yourself the Best Protection Ever. Free Your Mind!—07.20.18

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.

Leid Stories—A People’s Analysis of the Trump-Putin Helsinki ‘Summit’ (Part 3)—07.19.18

Leid Stories listeners continue our media-literacy exercise, decoding coverage of the Trump-Putin Helsinki “summit” and its aftermath.

Leid Stories—A People’s Analysis of the Trump-Putin Helsinki ‘Summit’ (Part 2)—07.18.18

Leid Stories listeners continue our media-literacy exercise, decoding coverage of the Trump-Putin Helsinki “summit” and its aftermath.