Leid Stories

That 13-city, six month, post-midterm- elections speaking tour Bill and Hillary Clinton will launch next month isn't a family reunion; it's about raising cash. The Clintons, already battling several legal actions against  them,  are bracing themselves for a veritable tsunami of legal woes, domestic and foreign,  that could cost them both serious jail time and hefty fines. Retired Wall Street banker and charity-fraud expert Charles Ortel, who for several years has played a key role in exposing the Clintons' highly irregular business dealings, joins us once again with an exclusive update.

What appeared as conjecture a bit more than  two years ago has come to be fact: An oaf of a man with no experience in government but a superinflated opinion of himself vowed he'd wrest control of the wheel of state from the Democrats and "make America great again."  Two years in, Donald J. Trump's slash-and-  burn--and racist--politics and policies have won favor with right-wing constituencies that patiently had been waiting to hear the clarion call against "unAmerican" liberal excesses and corrupt leadership that had thwarted their progress for so long. Trump became a juggernaut. But both he and his administration have made, and are making huge missteps, and many of his supporters are questioning whether Trump is using the presidency for his own gain. Leid Stories listeners address the question: Trump and his administration are wildly out of control. Who or what will stop them?

It's the best open forum in Radioland, because on "Free Your Mind Friday," we engage each other in meaningful discussion and debate on the issues of the day. Be heard! Say what you gotta say! Call 888-874-4888 and free your mind! 

Leid Stories listeners, keenly aware of the dire social, political and economic situation in the United States, present for our consideration workable ideas for Increasing authentic, sustainable power of the people.

We listened yesterday to Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's testimony before his colleagues about Brett Kavanaugh's rammed-through appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court and the conjoined efforts of the wealthy and the politically corrupt in creating and maintaining a system of governance that makes a mockery of the high ideals the nation extols.  Kavanaugh's appointment, the senator said, shows that even once-revered institutions like the U.S. Supreme Court and the presidency are more than comfortable with corruption. Leid Stories continues our discussion of Sen. Whitehouse's speech.  

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) explains President Donald Trump's controversial nomination of Circuit Court Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Since 1937, the United States has been observing Columbus Day, the federal holiday commemorating Christopher Columbus's alleged "discovery" of the Americas on Oct. 12, 1492. But Columbus perpetrated one of the greatest historical frauds of all time, world-renowned African !scholar and  pre-Columbian expert Dr. Ivan Van Sertimer said in his groundbreaking 1976 work, They Came Before Columbus: The African  Presence in the Americas. Van Sertimer unearthed volumes of evidence confirming constant contact between ancient African and pre-Colombian civilizations.  Van Sertima died in 2009 at the age of 74. World-renowned scholar Dr. Ivan van Sertimer lays bare glaring incongruities and outright lies that have propped up many myths of Columbus’s exploits while denying early and beneficial African contacts and relationships with ancient Olmec civilizations.     

Against the backdrop of chaos that surrounds Washington, D.C. circuit court judge Brett,  President Donald Trump's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Leid Stories presents a startling contrast--the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. The noted litigator and jurist was named to the nation's highest court by President Lyndon B. Johnson in October 1967 and served until October 1991. During that time, Marshall, the first African American appointed to the court, had a profound impact on the laws of the land. We listen in as journalist Juan Williams discusses his biography, Thurgood Marshall, American Revolutionary, that was eight years in the making. 

When we think about it, what defines us today? What would we say constitutes our notion of self identity? And how does self identity relate to the idea of national identity? Straightforward questions, it seems. But as we'll discuss today on Leid Stories, identity issues have been and continue to be driving forces in practically all aspects of American life. How are we dealing with this reality? Which values ultimately determine "American" identity?

Dr. Calvin Schermerhorn, a historian (Arizona State University-Tempe) of slavery, capitalism and African American inequality and the author of several authoritative books, scholarly papers and articles on the subject, discusses the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in establishing and maintaining the legal badges of slavery and white supremacy in America. Dr. Schermerhorn's presentation draws a stark contrast against the popularly held view of the U.S. Supreme Court chiefly as a dispassionate interpreter of the law. Instead, he says, the nation's highest court was born in the crucible of slavery and white supremacy and enshrined those values and attitudes in the supreme "laws" of the land.

The nation is riveted by the constantly unfolding story of Brett Kavanaugh, the Washington, D.C. circuit court judge President Donald Trump has nominated to fill s vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate Judiciary Committee has blunted Kavanaugh's hoped-for shoo-in with hearings and a pending investigation that have him at the center of sexual misconduct charges. It's a macabre reality show, with Trump in his familiar role of executive producer. But as is normal for the genre, the public won't get to see the outtakes--which is what we'll be talking about today on Leid Stories. the What's emerging The stories media's intense coverage of the It is the headline-grabbing story of the 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.

Kwame Kilpatrick, a former Democratic state representative and former mayor of the City of Detroit, currently is serving a 28-year sentence after conviction, in 2003, on 24 federal fraud and racketeering charges. He left office in 2008 after being convicted on federal perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges. Kilpatrick's political resume should make him a pariah, but activists in Detroit are urging a reconsideration of his plight. Kilpatrick, they say, was targeted for political annihilation by a racist system. Longtime activist Elena Herrada explains. We return to the Trump's U.S. Supreme Court nominee mess, which gets messier by the minute--with claims of sexual misconduct hounding nominee Brett Kavanaugh rather than  close scrutiny of his legal scholarship and his attitudes concerning sensitive matters of law. Trump, no longer a vigorous defender of his  nominee, appears to be distancing himself from Kavanaugh. Has Trump decided to save himself and leave Kavanaugh to the  wolves?

More and more, the evidence confronts us but we refuse to pay attention to it. Instead, we convince ourselves that the massive social,  political and economic aberrations we are witnessing not only are "normal," but in fact are signs of systems adjusting to the push and pull of progress and growth.  Nonsense. There are massive shifts occurring all over the world and they have little to do with progress and growth for the masses of people. Leid Stories looks at how, especially during election season, false messages are used to galvanize various segments of voters. But we should be alert to false narratives and reject them, and instead see to our collective survival, working with what we have and trusting in what we know.

A Pennsylvania judge today will decide the fate of entertainment mogul and philanthropist Bill Cosby, who was convicted in 2004 of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. Whatever sentence Justice Steven O'Neill decides, Cosby's lawyers are expected to appeal.  Meanwhile, a different legal drama is playing itself out in Washington, D.C, as hearings are being held for Brett Kavanaugh, President  Donald Trump's nominee to replace retired Associate Justice  Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Kavanaugh, a Court of Appeals judge in Washington, D.C, is being hounded by claims from his college years that he sexually  assaulted several women, including one demanding to testify against him Leid Stories discusses remarkable differences in the ways that the charges against Cosby and those against Kavanaugh have been, and are being, handled.

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