Leid Stories

Leid Stories—Politics: Why Do We Continue to Play Their Game? (Part 2)—10.06.16

We continue yesterday’s discussion, predicated on the idea that this stinker of an election year should be a year of reckoning about the political system. Growing dissatisfaction with it over the years has given rise to a spate of popular movements and new parties, but very few of them achieving critical mass or the political heft to beat the system at its own game. This election year, Leid Stories argues, should be a year of massive overhauling—of organization and strategy—for political movements and parties that have the potential to be credible alternatives to the two-party system. 

Leid Stories—Haiti Reels from Hurricane Matthew; Politics: Why Do We Continue to Play Their Game?—10.05.16

This election year, an absolute stinker for millions of voters who feel compelled, nonetheless, to do their “civic duty” and vote, should be a year of reckoning. It should be the year we answer the question: Why do we continue to play their game?

Leid Stories explores and debates the question with listeners.

Leid Stories—NY’s Attorney General Targets Trump Foundation; Ignores Clintons’ Charity Fraud—10.04.16

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, saying there is reason to believe there are major irregularities with the Trump Foundation’s fundraising practices and even with its legal status as a charity, on Monday banned the foundation from soliciting funds in New York (where the foundation is registered) until it complies with state charity laws.

Schneiderman, a high-profile Democrat, has not taken similar action against the Clinton Foundation, even though it has been for years the subject of multiple investigative reports centering on massive charity fraud.

Leid Stories, which has been doing an ongoing series on the Clinton Foundation, discusses Schneiderman’s interestingly timed action and the serious questions it raises. Returning as our guide through the Clinton Foundation labyrinth is Charles Ortel, who has been studying and exposing what he calls “the largest unprosecuted charity fraud” for two years. 

Leid Stories—One of These Things Is Not Like the Others, But A Godly Hillary Knows the Pain—10.03.16

She had tried to use the Sept. 20 police killing of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte, N.N., as a campaign photo op and backdrop for her proposals for “end-to-end” reforms. But Mayor Jennifer Roberts asked both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Clinton’s main opponent in the presidential race, to hold off on plans to visit Charlotte so as not to further inflame tense reactions to Scott’s death.

But Clinton went to Charlotte on Sunday, and commiserated for 20 minutes with the flock at Little Rock A.M.E. Zion Church, telling them everything they already knew about racism in America. And then she told them how she aims to fix it.

Leid Stories uses Clinton’s speech to illustrate what neoliberalism sounds like.

Leid Stories--It's “Free Your Mind Friday"on Leid Stories. Give Voice to Your Thoughts!—09.30.16

It’s the best political science course anywhere—and tuition-free!

“Free Your Mind Friday” is an unscripted open forum in which listeners’ opinions and ideas aren’t just “features” of the program, but the program itself. Callers may talk about the week’s major stories and events or any subject they choose.

Join us for a wonderful experience in peer-to-peer education. Call 888-874-4888 and free your mind. Ours, too!

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.