Leid Stories

Leid Stories—Trump Advances His Agenda In 9-Day Trip Abroad, But A Dismal Welcome Awaits Him At Home—05.22.17

President Donald Trump is spending two days—today and tomorrow—in Israel, seeking to broker peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinian governments. It’s his second stop on a wide-ranging nine-day tour of Middle East and European countries of strategic value to the United States, and between and among the countries themselves, regarding such matters as trade, security, terrorism and cooperation. But the tour is also a sales call, with Trump as lead salesman. Saudi Arabia, Trump’s first stop, committed to $450 billion in weapons purchases, investments and partnership in a range of projects.

Trump’s maiden voyage abroad as U.S. president is occurring at a time that members of Congress want to end his presidency. Several investigations with him and close associates are ongoing, and have escalated even to the point of threats of impeachment.

So, juxtaposing these two totally different scenarios, what picture do we get?

Leid Stories—Beat the System! Free Your Mind!—05.19.17

Another bruiser of a week, with President Chaos and several of his top administrators and advisers fending off blistering attacks both from without and within, and the nation as a whole more and more worried that the things that matter to them are now on hold.

It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, and in our open forum we talk things through. Join the session. Call 888-874-4888.

Leid Stories—The Game Plan: Destroy Trump, Claim Moral Victory, Divvy Up the Spoils, and Return to Regular Gangster Politics—05.18.17

The fever-pitch push for impeachment of President Trump is a dead giveaway that the game plan is in motion. The irony is, Chaos Man himself pulled the trigger. A series of actions simultaneously are being launched against him, essentially to shorten his stay in the White House, now at a mere 117 days.

What’s the plan? Destroy Trump, Claim Moral Victory, Divvy Up the Political Spoils, and Return to Regular Gangster Politics.

Leid Stories listeners identify elements of the plan already in play.

Leid Stories—Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis Deeply Rooted in Imperialism—05.17.17

A federal court in San Juan, Puerto Rico, today will consider the views of the island’s government, lawmakers and creditors on developing bankruptcy-like plans to deal with a $72-billion debt load and to cover a looming $50-billion shortfall in pension obligations. The hearing, coming more than two years after Puerto Rico’s debt alarm was sounded, won’t finalize anything; rather, it will help give focus to the parties’ individual arguments when the massive case comes before the federal judge appointed by the U.S. Supreme court to hear it, Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan. It’s a long way to that point, but today’s legal dealings in San Juan are seen as significant movement on the legal timeline of the largest such case in U.S. history.

What caused Puerto Rico’s unprecedented debt? Victor M. Rodriguez, professor in and former chair of Chicano and Latino studies at California State University, Long Beach, says imperialism and debt peonage create the inevitability of serious economic crises, as seen in Puerto Rico. Rodriguez gives deep background today.

Leid Stories—Hillary Wants Us to Move ‘Onward Together’—05.16.17

Hillary Clinton, bitter and embattled, as of yesterday has a new political slogan that she’s marketing to her bereft “I’m With Her” supporters and others eager to see her make a comeback: “Onward Together.”

Now, she’s teamed up with ex-Democratic National Committee chairman and former presidential candidate Howard Dean, and they’ve launched Onward Together, a political action group that will fund and support U.S. progressive causes.

That means money, donors and yet another nonprofit organization Mrs. Clinton could run like the floundering Clinton Foundation, says Leid Stories.

Leid Stories—So, What Do We Have Here?: Surveying the Carnage—05.15.17

President Chaos is living up to his Leid Stories moniker, and is at the center of several swirling political storms that have transfixed the nation—chief among them his dramatic firing of the former FBI director, James Comey; a federal investigation into Trump’s possible “collusion” with Russia to sway the 2016 presidential race in his favor and against Hillary Clinton; and whether some actions he has taken and is contemplating taking, including military action against other countries are within his sole power and authority.

A partisan mainstream media claim they’re reporting the “truth” about what’s going on, and yet their political biases and prejudices are so clear and intentional. Leid Stories elicits listeners’ views and analyses of the current political climate in the United States.

 

Leid Stories—Leave the Herd. Free Your Mind and Be Heard!—05.12.17

It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories—our weekly open forum for the exchange of information, opinions and ideas, and you decide what’s important. It’s a delicious soup, and you’re invited to add your own unique flavor.

Call 888-874-4888 and be in the mix!

Leid Stories—Questions Worth Asking About James Comey—05.11.17

Washington is still reeling from the seemingly out-of-nowhere firing Tuesday of FBI Director James Comey by President Donald Trump. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, delivered a one-two punch that knocked Comey out of his prized position. Comey had done a bad job with the Hillary Clinton email investigation, they told Trump. By implication, other major investigations currently under way could suffer the same fate in Comey’s hands and rob Trump of political victories he needs.

Did Comey mishandle the Hillary Clinton email investigation, as Trump and his advisers believe? Did he have reason to “go soft” on her and husband Bill? Despite claims of doing things by the book, was Comey a compromised lawman?

Leid Stories examines these and related questions about James Comey.

Leid Stories—Trump Serves Up A Doozie, and Gets Instant Backlash After Firing [FBI Director] James Comey—05.10.17

FBI Director James Comey was on a recruiting trip in Los Angeles yesterday when he learned that he’d been fired by President Trump and that his deputy, Andrew Mc Cabe, temporarily will head the bureau.

Trump and Justice Department officials said that Comey violated Justice Department rules and procedures by publicly discussing certain aspects of the DoJ’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server. And based on how Comey was handling the Clinton probe as a whole, his bosses (and especially Trump) said, it appeared Comey was too lenient on Clinton and her targeted associates.

Comey’s firing has become the latest, and perhaps most stunning, development in U.S. partisan politics. Leid Stories discusses key aspects of the drama that might more fully answer why Comey was fired.

Leid Stories--Behind the Flynn Hearing: The ‘I’ Word?—05.09.17

The ongoing probe into President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s alleged dealings with and unreported income he earned from high-level Russian officials is at center stage in Washington. The spillover has enmeshed the Obama administration and the former president himself, who had fired Flynn and hard warned Trump against hiring him, allegedly because Flynn was considered a security risk.

The congressional probe widens as it continues, and one thing is clear: Trump’s administration is chaotic, mirroring the president’s own style. He’s being shown as erratic and blithely dismissive of important issues, reluctant to take advice, and makes his own rules.

Leid Stories asks: Is the Flynn probe—added to Trump’s multiple infractions since taking office—making a case for Trump’s impeachment?