Leid Stories

On the heels of a stunning defeat in the 2016 presidential election by Donald J. Trump, Hillary Clinton finds herself gearing up again for a major legal battle she can ill-afford to lose. Many Republicans in Congress are pushing to revive an investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server and her handling of classified information while she was secretary of state. Clinton also is at the center of an expansive probe of the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation focusing on whether it was a slush fund operating as a global charity.

Charles Ortel, a former Wall Street banker who uncovered massive stock fraud within the financial world just prior the 2007-2008 financial meltdown, since May has been detailing highly irregular activities and practices of the Clinton foundation—which, he says, amount to “the largest unprosecuted fraud in history.”

It’s been a long and bumpy ride to yesterday’s Electoral College vote that officially declared the winners—billionaire businessman Donald J. Trump (president) and Gov. Michael R. Pence of Indiana (vice president)—in the 2016 presidential race. But the end of the race isn’t putting an end to intense debate and dissatisfaction about the process that won them, and previous candidates going back to 1787, victory.

The president and vice president, the highest offices in the land, are elected by the Electoral College, not directly by popular vote. The merits of the 2016 final candidates—including Democrats Hillary R. Clinton, former secretary of state (president), and running mate Tim Kaine, junior U.S. senator from Virginia)—aside, they did get 2.8 million more popular votes than the Trump-Pence ticket.

Leid Stories asks: Is it time to abolish the Electoral College and let the people decide?

Five hundred and thirty-eight electors—100 from the U.S. Senate, 435 from the House of Representatives, and three representing the District of Columbia—will be meeting all over the country today to perform a quadrennial duty: selecting the next president and vice president of the United States. The rancor of the presidential election between main combatants Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is expected to spill over to the Electoral College vote, with two sore points at the root—Clinton won the popular vote while Trump won the more significant electoral vote, and Clinton has charged that Russian cyberattacks and a smear campaign against her caused her loss.

Leid Stories looks at the Electoral College vote, whether anti-Trump threats to derail the vote will succeed, and whether Clinton’s claims will be borne out by federal probes currently under way.

The second half of the program focuses on the legitimacy of the claim—now being echoed by President Obama, powerful members of Congress, the media and influential organizations—that Russia fixed the election.

It’s “Free Your Mind Friday” on Leid Stories, and you’re in the driver’s seat, taking the conversation wherever you want it to go.

Expand our minds and add new perspective on the issues of the day with the information, opinions and ideas you share in this open forum. It’s the best in peer-to-peer education!

Call in (888-874-4888) and let’s hear what you’re thinking.

Since President Barack Obama ordered a “deep-dive” probe of Russia’s alleged role in fixing the 2016 presidential election to favor Donald Trump—Hillary Clinton’s main reason for why she lost—there have been a number of demands for similar investigations by members of Congress. It’s in the interest of protecting U.S. democracy, they say, although few feign neutrality about Trump and have openly expressed a desire to torpedo his presidency.

Leid Stories, seizing the moment, contends that the current passion about “protecting the integrity” of the domestic process at home, also should trigger a slue of investigations into U.S.-directed political and electoral “interventions” in other countries.

Yesterday was the day that all 50 states and the District of Columbia must confirm the presidential election vote in their respective jurisdictions and the names of electors for each candidate who will be participating in the Electoral College on Dec. 19 that officially will select the president and vice president of the United States.

Leid Stories discusses the lead-up to yesterday, which put the Trump-Pence ticket in an unbeatable position to claim the presidency and vice presidency, having won the most electoral votes. But we also cast a light on the political flipside—embittered Democratic candidate’s Hillary Clinton’s threat to “never give up” her quest to be president, and the Green Party’s recount effort to challenge Trump’s win.

The national, media-driven obsession at the moment is that the American electoral process—in fact, democracy itself—was hijacked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who directed his cyberwarriors to technologically engineer a historic win for President-elect Donald Trump.

Russian “interference” the 2016 election—via hackers and other sophisticated cyberwar methods—has denied her victory, Hillary Clinton claims, and is a direct threat to the nation’s democratic ideals and practices.

President Barack Obama took the issue public last Friday (it has been the subject of ongoing, closed-door discussions by the administration for quite some time), when he announced that he had requested a “deep-dive” report from U.S. intelligence and security agencies about U.S. vulnerability to cyberattacks generally, and Russia’s in particular. The report is due by Jan. 20, when Obama’s term ends and President-elect Donald Trump officially is to be inaugurated. Meanwhile, Congress is bristling with bipartisan efforts to launch a slew of investigations.

Leid Stories listeners’ cool heads deconstruct the moment we’re in, doing their own “deep dive” into the orchestrated hysteria, and pinpointing what’s not being said about Russia’s alleged “interference” in the 2016 presidential election.

President Barack Obama on Friday ordered a comprehensive report from U.S. intelligence agencies on alleged attempts, especially by Russia, to influence or engineer the outcome of U.S. national elections, going back to 2008, when Obama was elected to the first of two consecutive terms.

The report, the White House said, is to be submitted before Jan. 20, when Obama’s term ends and President-elect Donald Trump officially is inaugurated.

Obama’s directive drew intense reaction in Congress. Many wondered whether it was Obama’s parting shot to Vladimir Putin, with whom Obama has had a difficult relationship, or whether would trigger war hawks would use it to escalate East-West tensions to the Cold War era.

For Hillary Clinton, though, it’s a setup for a comeback. Her political fortunes dashed by Trump in the 2016 election, she yearns for a comeback. Trump’s stunning victory, she claimed, was the result of Russia’s cyberattacks against her, the Democratic Party and the political process.

Leid Stories connects Obama’s probe to other recent political developments that suggest a coordinated effort to topple Trump by any means necessary and pave the way for a Clinton comeback.

Quite a week. Lots to say. Get it said on “Free Your Mind Friday,” the best open forum on the planet.

Add your own special flavor to this delicious intellectual soup. Call 888-874-4888 and serve it up hot!

A federal judge in Michigan last night shut down a recount of ballots cast in the presidential election, upholding a state appeals court ruling that presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, who initiated the recount action, was not an “aggrieved” candidate under Michigan law, and had no standing or valid reasons for demanding a recount.

Stein is appealing the decision, but it is likely to yield the same result as in Pennsylvania, where the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas yesterday backed up the election board’s refusal to allow Stein full access to the city’s voting machines and their programming software.

Stein’s recount push in Wisconsin so far has yielded negligible change in the final vote count, according to Wisconsin Election Commission officials.

The Green Party’s recount project has generated a great deal of discussion on Leid Stories. We make room for discussion today.