JEFFREY ST. CLAIR – Diamond Dogs: Clinton Family Jewels

In southwestern Arkansas, deep in the humid foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, you’ll find one of the oddest little state parks in the country. On first glance the park seems to be little more than a plowed field edged by scraggly forest, featuring a big public swimming pool and a hulking barn-like structure sheathed in rusty tin siding. You’d likely …

ROB URIE – Why Bill Clinton is Full of Shit

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has been making the rounds to defend his policies while in office to support his wife’s run for President. The close working relationship that he and Hillary Clinton have infers a symbiosis that other ‘First Couples’ wouldn’t be jointly held accountable for. And in contrast to the oft offered argument that Mrs. Clinton isn’t responsible …

ALEXANDER REID ROSS – 2,500 Years of Class Hatred

Class struggle never existed without hatred of the poor. And neither has racism. Boots Riley’s recent article, posted in The Guardian, systematically dispels the myth of black-on-black crime advocated by Bill Clinton. Rather than pointing the image of failure at black people in the US, Riley insists, the mirror should be redirected to class war and the failure of liberal democracy. The condition of black …

Jeff Guo – Death predicts whether people vote for Donald Trump

A few weeks ago, following the Republican Iowa caucuses, I pointed out an eerie correlation in the voting data. It seems that Donald Trump performed the best in places where middle-aged whites are dying the fastest. That wasn’t a fluke. The relationship between white mortality and Trump support is real, as the fresh results from Super Tuesday confirmed. Here are scatter charts to visualize this connection in nine of the 11 Super …

Leid Stories – 03.01.16

Election 2016: On Super Tuesday, An Alternative to the Quadrennial Charade

It’s The Big Day in the 2016 presidential election. Bipartisan primaries and caucuses in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming largely will determine which candidates are likely to capture their respective party’s nomination for the general election in November. Leid Stories listeners offer their ideas about a progressive alternative to the duopoly’s quadrennial charade.

Leid Stories – 02.01.16

Starting in Iowa: It’s Open Season, and Hapless Voters Are the Quarry
All eyes are on Iowa, where voting in the 2016 presidential race gets off to a high-pitched start, and by night’s end will be fodder for political analysts’ predictions about who the next occupant of the White House might be. No run-of-the-mill runoff, it’s a history-making contest—though not for the reasons most often cited. For, behind the media-manufactured excitement is a sordid truth, says Leid Stories: Voters are merely the quarry in a well-organized, big-money hunt for power among self-appointed guardians of America’s Old World Order.

Phillip Schneider – Government Criminalizing Rainwater Collection In All Out War On Self Sufficiency

Collecting rainwater is classically seen as a safe and sustainable way of supplying your household with an off-the-grid water supply. Some people collect rainwater only for a backup reservoir, while others prefer to go all the way and maintain their household with pure off-the-grid rainwater collection. This method ensures water during emergencies, can help control floods, saves money and liberates …

Fearless Parent Radio – Vaccine Exemption Rights in Schools – 11.04.15

All fifty states provide for medical exemptions to mandatory vaccination for day care and school admission. Forty-eight offer a religious exemption and 20 have a personal belief or philosophical opt-out provision…

Until July 1, 2016, anyway… when SB277 takes effect and California joins Mississippi and West Virginia as the three states in this country to deny the option for a parent-directed vaccine exemption.

More states may follow California’s lead; they are surely trying.

On the heels of this legislative offensive and irrespective of state statutes, schools across the country have been putting the pressure on parents this fall.

Can a school choose not to follow state law?
Can a school exclude a child based on vaccination status?
Do I have to explain my religious beliefs to obtain an exemption? Is this constitutional?
What happens when a private day care or school won’t honor a religious vaccine exemption?
What can we do to protect our rights?

Leid Stories – 10.06.15

Puerto Rico: U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Case on Political Status
Ferguson, Missouri, Being Readied for Forced Bankruptcy
Among 13 new cases the U.S. Supreme Court will review in its current term is Puerto Rico v. Valle. The case asks whether a person tried, acquitted or convicted under U.S. federal law can be prosecuted for the same crime under Puerto Rico law. The case seemingly is about constitutional protections against double jeopardy. But at the heart of it is the long-simmering—and unresolved–issue: What is the political relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico?
Lyle Denniston, legal historian and constitutional literacy adviser to the Philadelphia-based National Constitution Center, and Dr. Victor M. Rodriguez, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at California State University of Long Beach, tackle both issues.
In a commentary Leid Stories reveals that the City of Ferguson, Missouri, is being readied for a forced bankruptcy.