Leid Stories

Leid Stories - Cinco de Mayo: 152 Years of Misunderstood American History - 05/05/14

Say “Cinco de Mayo” to the average American and you’d probably be asked, “Where’s the party?” True, it is a celebration, but the advertising world and the mainstream media have all but erased its historical significance; most people associate Cinco de Mayo with after-work bar crawls and copious amounts of tequila and beer, and tacos and guacamole.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates this day in 1862, when an outnumbered, outgunned Mexican army repelled French invaders in the Battle of Puebla. Oddly, the event goes practically unnoticed in Mexico, and is more celebrated in the United States, particularly California and Texas.

Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, author of El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition and professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at UCLA’s School of Medicine, explains the connection between Cinco de Mayo and the abolition of slavery in the United States, the Civil War, the Declaration of Independence and, most importantly, the “Indo-Afro-Iberio Americano” sociopolitical achievements already made  long before English settlers founded Jamestown (Va.) in 1607, and Plymouth (Mass.) in 1620.

Leid Stories - Yes, You! Let’s Hear What’s On Your Mind! - 05/02/14

All week long thoughts have been percolating in your head. Some are just brilliant; it would be a crying shame not to share them.

Take a quick inventory, select your very best, and present it to an appreciative audience for discussion and debate. Be a part of the brisk trade in information, opinions and ideas on Leid Stories’ “Free Your Mind Friday.” You’ll be in very good company!

Leid Stories - The Donald Sterling-NBA Imbroglio: What It Is Not - 05/01/14

Leid Stories has contended from Day 1 that the Donald Sterling-NBA imbroglio is in fact an old sideshow skillfully being made to look like a brand-new main attraction. This revamped version quickly identifies “the problem” and assigns blame; gives us a hero (as counterpoint to the villain), who takes resolute action; gives everyone warm and fuzzy feelings about “justice” and “the right thing” being done; and, most importantly, returns life to the good old status quo.

The awful truth, though, is that it’s all a charade—a cheap, tawdry chapter in the continuing saga of racism in America. Worse, the people facilitating it, pliantly playing their roles, will be the biggest losers in this high-stakes drama. And yet another exquisite opportunity to effect meaningful, longstanding change will be lost to expediency and the unwillingness or inability to see beyond self.

Leid Stories continues its commentary. Listeners contribute their thoughts.

Leid Stories - Detroit Emergency, Nuclear 9, Players Getting Played - 04/30/14

Detroit: Emergency Manager Seeks State Legislators’ Support

Tiny Nation Charges Big ‘Nuclear 9’ with Treaty Violations

Players Got Played In NBA’s Decision on Sterling

Detroit’s governor-appointed city manager, Kevyn Orr, goes a-courtin’ for the second day in Lansing, hoping to convince state legislators to release $350 million in tax-sharing revenue Gov. Rick Snyder had promised the beleaguered city (and which, actually, it is owed). Without the money, Orr’s ambitious restructuring plan to exit bankruptcy by the fall is doomed. Correspondent Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African Newswire, discusses this and other developments as Orr faces a status conference with bankruptcy Judge Steven W. Rhodes on May 15.

The Republic of the Marshall Islands—a nation of 68,480 spread over 24 low-lying coral atolls comprising more than 1,100 islands and islets—today files legal actions in the International Court of Justice in The Hague against Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea, saying they all have violated nonproliferation treaties and have created lasting ecological disasters in areas where they have tested nuclear weapons. Rick Wayman, director of programs for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, on the legal battle.

Leid Stories follows up on yesterday’s commentary on LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s not-so-sterling character. Today, how the players allowed themselves to get played.

Leid Stories - The Sterling Truth: For Most Blacks, It’s Life on the Plantation - 04/29/14

National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver is expected to announce today what sanctions, if any, he will impose against Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who purportedly was heard on a recorded conversation with his girlfriend making racist statements about African Americans.

Leid Stories discusses the situation—but from an entirely different point of view.

The circumstances, elements and nature of the released tape were sure to ignite what has become for media a delicious furor. But the centuries-old narrative of plantation life, literal and figurative, in the United States is hardly what they would have us discuss and examine.

So, naturally, that’s exactly what the focus of our discussion is today.

Leid Stories - Obama And Ali - 04/28/14

Obama Mines Russia-Ukraine, Asia-Pacific for Global Power, Midterm Votes

Muhammad Ali Takes A Stand; Refuses to Be Drafted In the Army

Two days after Vice President Joe Biden’s return from Kiev to shore up U.S. support for Ukraine’s “democracy, unity and territorial integrity,” his boss began a big diplomatic mission of his own.

President Obama tomorrow wraps up an eight-day, four-nation trek through the Asia-Pacific region to accomplish the following goals with respect to Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, said the White House: “modernizing U.S. alliances, supporting democratic development, advancing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other commercial ties, investing in regional institutions, and deepening cultural ties.”

Well, how did it all go? Since diplomacy is mostly about what is not said or seen, Dr. Gerald Horne, the John J. and Rebecca Moores chair of history and African American studies and professor of diplomatic history at the University of Houston, reveals what’s behind Obama’s big sell.

On this day in 1967, heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, then a member of the Nation of Islam, refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army on the grounds that it violated his religious beliefs. 

In his own words, Ali explains his defiance of the law—a battle that would cost him dearly, even though the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971 would overturn a lower-court conviction by an all-white jury on draft-evasion charges. 

Leid Stories - There, There. Free Your Mind And You’ll Be All Right! - 04/25/14

You’ve made it through the week despite a conspiracy to drive you crazy. You’ve been told what to think about this and about that by people who don’t much about this or that.

Fortune smiles upon you. Your reward for making it through the week relatively intact is a warm welcome and genuine, good-folk fellowship at the gathering place for the exchange of information, opinions and idea.

It’s Free-Your-Mind Friday on Leid Stories. Call in (888-874-4888), share your natural brilliance, and discover the joy of a great weekend ahead.

Leid Stories - Michael Ruppert: Remembering A Fiery and Tireless Crusader - 04/24/14

Leid Stories pays humble tribute to Michael Ruppert, a former LAPD narcotics detective who first publicly exposed a CIA-run drug-trafficking operation that flooded communities of color in Los Angeles with cocaine and used the profits from drug sales to buy guns for the Nicaraguan Contras, a rebel group sponsored by the CIA. Ruppert’s exposé would lead to major investigative articles, most notably by reporter Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News, and congressional hearings that would confirm what many in these communities had been saying for years.

Ruppert then directed his attention full blast to a number of issues, including climate change and environmentalism, economic theory, human rights and governmental corruption. He wrote several prize-winning books and articles on his interests --among them Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil, A Presidential Energy Policy, and Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy and Money in a Post Peak Oil World—and was a leading authority on Peak Oil.

Ruppert hosted The Lifeboat Hour on PRN. On April 13, shortly after his broadcast, he took his own life.

Leid Stories - 04/23/14

Up South: New York’s Schools Most Segregated In The Nation

Hell On Wheels: Postal Service Targets Its Truckers and Machinists

Obama, Sharpton Seek Voting-Rights ‘Volunteers.’  No, It’s A Job! Get Paid!

“For several decades, the state has been more segregated for blacks than any Southern state, though the South has a much higher percent of African American students," said a report recently released by the University of California-Los Angeles Civil Rights Project.

Gary Orfield, professor of education, law, political science and urban planning at UCLA, details the findings of the report, which tracked trends in public-school education in New York and other East Coast cities over the past 60 years.

Leid Stories has been covering the bipartisan plan to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service with sweeping “reforms” that will cut jobs, close “unnecessary” post offices, cut back on mail delivery, sell off shuttered centers and other properties, and privatize as many postal services as possible.

Kevin Cole (California) and Greg Stinson (Oregon) discuss the pushback from truckers and machinists.

On the heels of President Obama’s vapid speech at the National Action Network’s annual convention about voting-rights violations and how important it is that African Americans vote comes an announcement by NAN’s honcho, the Rev. Al Sharpton that the organization is looking for “volunteers” in eight states to do field work (pun intended).

Leid Stories says, “It’s a job. Pay the people!”

Leid Stories - Attorney at War - 04/22/14

“Attorney at War”Alton H. Maddox Jr.: A Reality Check From the Frontlines

Midterm elections upon us, the political tempo has quickened, and with it claims and counterclaims about who did or can do what to improve the quality of life for all Americans. With all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 33 U.S. Senate seats up for grabs, and contests for 46 state and four territorial legislatures, 36 governorships and 28 key mayoral slots, it’s a bruising battle between the two dominant parties for control. Now, their fortunes are tied to constituencies routinely ignored.

“Attorney at War” Alton H. Maddox Jr., who for decades has been a stalwart defender of the defenseless, does a reality check from the frontlines, where political claims and promises have little or no relationship to the raw truth of everyday life for the vast majority.