Leid Stories – 08.12.15

Media Monsters & The Monster Media: How ‘Winners’ Are Made

The backdrop to the Donald Trump-centered political soap opera is an intriguing story. It hasn’t yet been told, mainly because the people who should be telling it and the media organizations they work for are key actors (and culprits) in a sordid production that has little to do with “the public’s right to know.”

It’s about money (lots and lots of money), power, and how “winners,” whether in media or politics, are made.

Leid Stories amplifies its July 27-29 discussions on the confluence of interests and power between the media and the political duopoly, and the rightward shift in American politics.

Resistance Radio – Robert A. Williams Jr. – 08.09.15

Robert A. Williams Jr. is a member of the Lumbee Indian tribe and a professor of law at the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law Program. He is the author of numerous books and articles on indigenous peoples’ human rights, including The American Indian in Western Legal Thought and Like a Loaded Weapon. Today we talk about his book Savage Anxieties: The Invention of Western Civilization.

TISA Exposed: ‘Holy Grail’ of Leaks Reveals Detailed Plot for Corporate Takeover – Deirdre Fulton

Days ahead of another round of secret international negotiations, WikiLeaks on Wednesday released what it described as “a modern journalistic holy grail: the secret Core Text for the largest ‘trade deal’ in history.” That deal is the Trade in Services Agreement, or TISA, currently being negotiated by 52 nations that together account for two-thirds of global GDP. Those nations are the United …

Who Counts? Body Counts, Drones, and “Collateral Damage” (aka “Bug Splat”) – Tom Engelhardt

In the twenty-first-century world of drone warfare, one question with two aspects reigns supreme: Who counts? In Washington, the answers are the same: We don’t count and they don’t count. The Obama administration has adamantly refused to count. Not a body. In fact, for a long time, American officials associated with Washington’s drone assassination campaigns and “signature strikes” in the backlands of Pakistan, Afghanistan, …

The Native American Genocide and the Teaching of US History

When the term “genocide” is uttered in mainstream school environments, it usually refers to the Jewish Holocaust, or to other genocides committed in the 20th century: Turkey, Stalin’s Russia, Nanking, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina. But in many US classrooms, the United States is left out of the list of countries where genocide has occurred. And so, when the College Board decided …

The Burt Cohen Show – “Extremist” Birch Society of the 20th Century is the 21st Century Republican Party – 03.08.15

It used to be that when the word “Extremist” came up, the John Birch Society was the first thing you’d think of. Claire Conner was raised by two national leaders of the Birch Society. Her new book is “Wrapped in the Flag,” and she is a dedicated fighter for her country, trying desperately to make Americans realize that the John …

American Sniper vs. Baghdad Sniper

Chris Kyle’s story is now enshrined in celluloid, taking over $300 million at the box office, but the Islamic Army in Iraq also had its legend, “Juba” — the Baghdad Sniper. A Texas jury found former Marine Eddie Ray Routh guilty of capital murder; in 2013 he shot to death former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the man behind American Sniper …