Leid Stories

Leid Stories—Bernie’s All In; Election 2016: An ‘Outsider’ Sees the Big Picture—11.17.16

On May 18, as the contentious party primaries were winding down and first-time presidential candidate Bernie Sanders emerged as a real threat to the party-establishment-preferred Hillary Clinton, Sanders’ supporters boldly confronted the staid leadership of the Democratic Party for sabotaging his campaign.

In July, Sanders stunned his troops and the political world with a declaration at Democratic National Convention that he was ending his campaign and would be supporting Clinton.

Yesterday, the same day U.S. Sen. Charles “Chuck” Schumer was elected Senate minority leader by fellow Democrats, Schumer announced that Sanders has been named “chair of outreach.”

Has Bernie driven the stake in the heart of a very promising political movement?

Americans continue to grapple with the stunning election of Donald Trump as president. Opinions abound as to what his win means, both short term and long term, for the country. But one thing is certain: The world is watching, too.

British Pakistani writer, journalist, political scientist and filmmaker Tariq Ali, leftist in his political leanings, puts Trump’s triumph in global context.

Leid Stories—Funny Money: Clinton Foundation’s Financial Reports to IRS Don’t Add Up; Are 'False and Materially Misleading,' Says Wall Street Whistleblower—11.16.16

Midnight last night was the final, extended deadline for The Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation (Clinton Foundation) to file financial reports with the IRS on its operations, including the operations of its affiliated entities, for 2015.

The foundation met the deadline, but its financial filings—like those since 1998, for the foundation’s first year of operations—are “false and materially misleading,” says Charles Ortel, a former Wall Street banker who blew the whistle on stock fraud prior to the 2007-2008 market crash and is the recognized leading expert on the foundation’s financial dealings.

Ortel, who has been investigating the foundation and its operations for the past two years, says he has uncovered “the largest unprosecuted charity fraud in history.” Since May, he has been detailing on Leid Stories the highly irregular and downright illegal practices of the foundation and its multiple affiliated entities.

Continuing to follow the money trail, Ortel has examined the financial statements the foundation filed yesterday. The numbers don’t add up, he says.

Leid Stories—Reckoning with the System: How Far Along Are You, and Where Are You Headed?—11.15.16

It’s a week since Republicans captured not only the White House, the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, but 32 state legislatures and 33 governorships as well. By any definition it’s a political drubbing—and, as most believe, a dramatic political turning point for the country. The writing’s on the wall.

As the duopoly’s Trump-Clinton battle entered hyper mode nearing Election Day, Leid Stories encouraged listeners to examine the quandary many voters felt they were in: They intensely disliked and distrusted both candidates, yet felt bound, whether by “civic duty” or force of habit, to cast their lot with one of them. Believing elections to be essentially a two-party affair, they also felt that voting for a “third” party was akin to “wasting” their vote.

The election over (protests across the country seeking to reverse the outcome very likely won’t succeed) and with Trump beginning to shape his administration, it’s all about moving ahead with a new agenda—unless, of course, you have begun your “reckoning” with the system and have an agenda of your own.

Leid Stories checks with listeners on how far along they are with their “homework” assignment.

Leid Stories—In the Dumps and on the Ropes: Amid Hillary’s Post-Election Blues —11.14.16

Still reeling from a stunning and unexpected defeat, courtesy Donald Trump, ex-presidential contender Hillary Clinton finds herself this week in the crosshairs of heavy artillery aimed directly at her, her husband Bill Clinton, and the foundation they operated as a “charity” that claimed to be doing “good works” all over the world but really was a pay-to-play business enterprise that sold political favors and high-level access to individuals, corporations and governments in exchange for hefty “donations” to the foundation.

Several U.S. probes that were in play before Election Day have revved up their investigations, widening them to include donors themselves. Several foreign governments also have launched parallel probes of the Clinton foundation’s operations in their countries, and some international aid agencies are pressing for more detailed accounting of hundreds of millions of dollars that were directed to various “charitable” programs the foundation said it ran in some of the most distressed areas of the world.

Leid Stories continues its series exposing how the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Foundation and its various affiliated pseudocharities have been the hub of a what former Wall Street financial analyst and leading expert on the foundation’s operations calls “the largest unprosecuted charity fraud in history.” Ortel blew the whistle on stock fraud on Wall Street prior to the 2007-2008 crash. The extent of fraud in the Clinton Foundation, he says, is of similar magnitude in the world of philanthropy.

Leid Stories—Where We Go From Here: Talking It Through—11.11.16

It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, our weekly open forum in which listeners trade information, opinions and ideas—usually on major news issues and developments, but on any subject they consider worthy of further discussion and debate.

It’s peer-to-peer education at its best!

Take your turn at the lectern. Call 888-874-4888.

Leid Stories—Where We Go From Here: Talking It Through—11.10.16

Whatever we think about the results of the presidential election, one thing’s for sure: it’s over and done with, and we’ve got to move on. But we should move on smartly, clearer about what this experience has taught us about our political system and our political selves.

In our continuing post-elections, Leid Stories asks: What has Election 2016 taught us? How does/will it affect our political outlook and/or actions? 

Leid Stories—Trump to Clinton: ‘I’m Hired, You’re Fired.’—11.09.16

The brutal presidential election is over and Donald Trump is the last person standing, having defied intimidating odds that he could/should/would be president.

Hillary Clinton’s hopes of making first-woman-president history are history. She now faces an avalanche of legal troubles that might have been kept at bay with a presidential win and with the Democrats controlling the House and Senate. The Republicans shut those doors, too.

Leid Stories continues our discussion on coming to a point of reckoning about the lopsided power equation between social, political and economic systems of control over the people and  ways in which we aid and abet them

Leid Stories—The Results Are In. We Lose, No Matter Who Wins—11.08.16

It’s The Big Day. The duopoly’s big day. The Republican and Democratic parties, after all, do dominate the orchestrated contests for the White House, the U.S. Congress, 44 state legislatures; 12 governorships, seven big-city mayoralties, and a slew of important local offices. 

The presidential race, being a national campaign and the biggest political prize of all, naturally gets the most attention. This year, the duopoly’s standard bearers got lots and lots of attention, though mostly unfavorable, mirroring voters’ distaste for both candidates. “Outsider” business tycoon Donald Trump, a new-money Republican, is seen as intellectually shallow, socially crude, politically untested, an all-category phobe, and very likely to go all-out fascist if elected. Hillary Clinton is seen as an inveterate liar, dishonest to the core, co-founder (with husband Bill) of the retooled and upgraded Democratic Party patronage and corruption mill and shadow government, queen of pay-to-play, and the Houdini of a never-ending list of criminal probes.

In the mad scramble toward today, both candidates ramped up their campaigns to fever pitch, selling their heraldic big-picture stories and astutely avoiding small-picture details about them the public already knows. Most will buy what they’ve been selling. 

Leid Stories plumbs the depths of listeners’ attitudes and feelings about Election Day 2016, the electoral choice they have (or have not) made, and where they think things will go from here.

Leid Stories—Clinton Foundation Election Eve Special—11.07.16

On the eve of one of the most contentious presidential elections in U.S. history, the nation finds itself being coaxed into barreling through a bitter contest, bringing it to a close, and moving on under a new administration. But few believe Election 2016 to be a fair fight; even fewer believe it to be an insult to the democratic process. In effect, Election 2016 has been a never-ending saga of political twists and turns, and the “star” of the show hasn’t been substantive issues the candidates differ on, but their various levels and categories of wrongdoing, including major crimes. In Election 2016, voters are actually jurors, weighing the guilt or innocence of the contestants. There’s much on their plates to consider.

Leid Stories has been has been focusing on candidate Clinton and her long and documented history of scandals, shady dealings and organized crime. And yet she seems to benefit from an extraordinary level of political protection. With what has been revealed by charity-fraud expert Charles Ortel and the WikiLeaks documents about the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Foundation and Clinton’s political history, how will the “jury” vote tomorrow? 

Leid Stories—“Free Your Mind Friday” Features A Pre-Election Q&A with Clinton Foundation Whistleblower Charles Ortel—11.04.16

Since May, Charles Ortel has been walking us through the multiple layers of fraud within the pseudocharity called the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Ortel blew the whistle on Wall Street fraud in 2007-2008, when he proved that many companies—GE, GM and AIG among them--had overvalued their stocks by hundreds of billions of dollars. 

Ortel’s self-initiated two-tear probe of the Clinton Foundation has led him to declare the juggernaut “the largest unprosecuted charity fraud in history.” The foundation and its affiliated offshoots are now the targets of dozens of U.S. and foreign-government criminal probes. 

Leid Stories holds pre-election Q&A session with Ortel, just in case listeners might want to clarify a thing or two about the foundation.

Call 888-874-4888 with your questions.