Leid Stories

It’s hard to imagine our political situation getting worse, but it seems certain that it will. No matter who wins this dreadful presidential race, the people will lose. We won’t be able to say  we didn’t see it coming; there’ve been plenty of warning signs. But there’ll be lots and lots of analysis around two key questions: “How did this happen to us?” and “What do we do now?”

Of course, by then the duopoly would have chalked up another victory, and such questions would largely be innocuous, having little to no effect on the realities of life in the nation’s “new” political order.

You’d think that Bill and Hillary Clinton would be gun shy about seeking donations for their foundation’s “charitable” efforts in Haiti. But you’d be wrong.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Matthew’s Oct. 3 devastation in Haiti, they’ve cranked up the Clinton Foundation’s cash-collecting machine, asking donors to give generously to the “Clinton Foundation Community” while they keep suffering Haitians in their thoughts and prayers. It’s how the Clintons and their foundation amassed billions of dollars in “emergency aid” that was to help rebuild Haiti after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the country in 2010. Haitians are still demanding to know where the money went.

Financial analyst Charles Ortel, considered the leading expert on the Clinton Foundation—which he calls “the largest unprosecuted charity fraud in U.S. history”—discusses troubling signs that the Clintons and their foundation are continuing to operate illegally.

Really? That was a “debate” last night? No, it wasn’t, says Leid Stories. Rather, it was yet more proof that, politically speaking, we are at a point of no return.

It’s the best open forum on the planet—a free-form, unscripted hour dedicated to your thoughts, opinions and ideas. Whether on what’s in the news or what ought to be, choose your subject and opine away. But don’t be surprised if someone picks up the gauntlet you throw down.

Call 888-874-4888 and free your mind.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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!

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.

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.