Leid Stories

Leid Stories—The Greening of Election 2016—08.08.16

The Green Party ended its four-day national convention in Houston, Texas, yesterday with resounding endorsements of their standard-bearers in the general election—physician Jill Stein for president, and human-rights activist Ajamu Baraka for vice president. The convention was one of the latest to be held in the current political season, just three months before Election Day. But the newly launched Stein-Baraka ticket has deep roots in nonmainstream activism and politics, Stein said; their nominations formally gave them permission to represent the party and its constituent base in an election in which an alternative to the duopoly is urgently needed.

The Greens are targeting 13 million voters who had supported Bernie Sanders’ “revolution” before he capitulated to the Democratic Party and endorsed Hillary Clinton. The Greens believe that the party’s stark contrast with mainstream politics—in ideology and practice—should give it the lift it needs to break from its also-ran, splinter-party label and earn its bona fides as a viable political contender.

Leid Stories looks at the impact of the Green Party on the 2016 presidential election, and especially on independent politics.

Leid Stories—Wanted: Your Keen Analysis of the Zillion Ways The Duopoly Drove Us Crazy This Week—08.05.16

Soooo much to talk about—a week in which just about everything and everyone in politics went off the deep end. As survivors of the madness, it falls us to put things in [proper] perspective.

Help keep the insidious mind benders at bay. Tell us what we need to know about their shenanigans. It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories. Call 888-874-4888 and let the chips fall where they may!

Leid Stories—Election 2016: For Sanders Supporters and Other Progressives, Green Party or Bust?—08.04.16

At its August 4-7 national convention in Houston, Texas, the Green Party of the United States officially will nominate its presidential candidate for the general election—all but certain to be physician Jill Stein—and tend to other vital election-year matters. Chief among them, no doubt, will be moving the party beyond its 0.36-percent share of the overall vote, when Stein headed the Green Party presidential ticket in 2012. Bernie Sanders’ full-throttled defection to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party may be Stein’s good fortune, but even if that and widespread discontent with the political process were to bring new blood and interest to the party, is the Green Party prepared to do battle with the Duopoly? 

Leid Stories—Election 2016: So, Just Where the Heck Are We?—08.03.16

Just when we thought all hell did break loose in the presidential election, continuing waves of political mayhem, mischief and insanity remind us of that the end is nowhere in sight. We dare not even hope that Election Day will bring it to an end; we know it will be, like the B.C.-A.D. division of time, a dramatic new beginning. But what kind?

Leid Stories checks the political pulse today, in the midst of extraordinary developments in Election 2016—more so to measure our recognition of how the political landscape is changing, and our attitudes and choices along with it.

Leid Stories—Debating Bernie Sanders, the ‘Revolution’ and the Democratic Party—08.02.16

Leid Stories holds an open forum/debate on yesterday’s discussion, focusing on the impact of Bernie Sanders’ recently declared allegiance to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party on his “revolution” and on progressive politics.

Leid Stories—Unfinished Business: Bernie Sanders, the ‘Revolution’ and the Democratic Party—08.01.16

We can all mark the past week as the week we got a not-to-be-forgotten political education. Bernie Sanders ended his “political revolution” with an enthusiastic embrace of the party he decried as antithetical to the interests of America’s working class, and vowed to do everything in his power to elect Hillary Clinton, the symbol and embodiment of practically everything Sanders said was wrong with American politics. His stunning capitulation at the Democratic National Convention, it was understood, also would involve the conversion of a sizable chunk of the 13-million-plus votes that brought him into orbit during the primaries.

Fifteen weeks to the general election, Sanders’ “revolution” is all but dead—its leader, the guy who pulled the trigger and killed it.

“What now?” asks Leid Stories. 

Leid Stories—Politricks and the Democratic National Convention. Free Your Mind!—07.29.16

This edition of “Free Your Mind Friday” focuses on significant outcomes of the Democratic National Convention and their likely impact on the presidential election generally, and on progressive politics in particular.

Call 888-874-4888 and share your unconventional wisdom and analysis!

Leid Stories—Obama Seals the Deal and the Show Goes On--07.28.16

President Barack Obama boosted Hillary Clinton’s—and his own—political fortunes last night with a keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention that effusively praised both the leadership credentials and accomplishments of his scandal-plagued former secretary of state and the fervor with which Americans validated and clung to his “audacity of hope” throughout his tumultuous two terms in office. He was a historic “first,” as Clinton will be as a glass-ceiling-breaking first-female president, he told the roaring crowd, but misgivings about him gave way to a trust that emboldened his desire to serve, he said. Now, as he makes his exit after eight years and with still so much more to be done, Obama said voters would be wise to give the “baton” of leadership, as he is, to Clinton.

It was a great speech. But speeches, especially of this type, are designed to throw you off guard, says Leid Stories. Which is why today’s program focuses on the key items the Democrats achieved through speeches at their national convention.   

Leid Stories—Gone Fishing in Philly: Bernie Tries to Reel ’Em In--07.26.16

And now there’s no further need to ask, “What Would Bernie Do?” In the heat of the day in Philly, Bernie Sanders went fishing. For votes. For Hillary.

 

Sanders’ prime-time speech at the Democratic National Convention was a repeat of the message he’d delivered earlier in the afternoon to his crestfallen delegates, who were clinging to the hope that the “revolution” they’d started together would not go down in flames, let alone with their leader as arsonist.

 

Leid Stories discusses Sanders’ retooled vision for the “revolution” and what we can learn from it.  

Leid Stories—Hillary Makes History with Democratic Party Nomination, and Possibly with Federal Probe of Massive Fraud by Clinton Foundation--07.27.16

Leid Stories—Hillary Makes History with Democratic Party Nomination, and Possibly with Federal Probe of Massive Fraud by Clinton Foundation--07.27.16

Hillary Clinton made history last night. With an official vote by Democratic Party delegates and superdelegates, she won the nomination as the party’s standard bearer for president in November’s general election, the first woman to head a major party ticket.

But news of a different, though familiar, kind this morning, as Clinton finds herself at the center of yet another federal investigation. The IRS has launched a probe into the operations of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation, looking into massive fraud, Leid Stories has learned. Several countries also have launched tandem investigations of the foundation’s operations in their jurisdictions.

Most recently, in the United States, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) requested that FBI Director James Comey, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, and Federal Trade Commission chairperson Edith Ramirez undertake a three-pronged investigation into what she called “a “lawless, pay-to-play enterprise that has been operating under a cloak of philanthropy for years.” The federal agencies’ probes should focus on the relationships between big-money donors to the foundation and U.S. foreign-policy decisions made during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, Blackburn said.

Charles Ortel, a former Wall Street investor who exposed General Electric’s multibillion-dollar stock fraud in 2007-2008, since February last year has been examining the Clinton Foundation’s global labyrinth of nonprofit subsidiaries. In an exclusive Leid Stories series, Ortel has charged that the Clinton Foundation is “complete and total fraud.” Ortel discusses the IRS probe and its implications for the newly minted presidential nominee.

Leid Stories continues its discussion on Bernie Sanders and what is to become of the “revolution” that more than 13 million people endorsed with their votes during the primaries. Sanders, a victim of high-level Democratic Party sabotage, says that the task now is to unite with the Democratic Party to defeat Donald Trump. Leid Stories listeners share their views.