Michael Krieger – A Look Inside Saudi Arabia’s Elaborate U.S. Propaganda Machine

Elements of the charm offensive include the launch of a pro-Saudi Arabia media portal operated by high-profile Republican campaign consultants; a special English-language website devoted to putting a positive spin on the latest developments in the Yemen war; glitzy dinners with American political and business elites; and a non-stop push to sway reporters and policymakers. That has been accompanied by a …

Leid Stories – 11.24.15

In Chicago, A Year to File Charges Against Killer Cop

Feeling the Bern? Sanders’ ‘Political Revolution’ (Part 2)

A year to the day that St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCullough announced that a grand jury found no reason to charge then-Officer Darren Wilson with any crimes related to his killing of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, Officer Jason Van Dyke is expected to be formally charged with the first-degree murder of Laquan McDonald, 17, in a similar case in Chicago.
Picking up from where we left off yesterday, listeners continue to dissect “democratic socialism,” the political philosophy extolled by presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

Ethan A. Huff – Former congressman blows whistle on how Republican party strong-armed members into approving massive prescription drug profit program for Big Pharma

Today’s Republican Party, to put it bluntly, is a joke. The so-called party of conservatism has lost its way, and former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo has decided to part ways and become an Independent, a decision that largely hinges on what he says is rampant and unapologetic corruption by Republicans in constantly pushing the special interest agenda of the pharmaceutical industry. In …

PAUL STREET – Out of the Blue: Hillary’s Sociopathy Revealed in Des Moines

Hillary Clinton said something remarkable and out of the blue during the second Democratic Party presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa, last Saturday – something that ought to lead to the suspension of her quest for the White House. The comment came in response to a CBS debate moderator and Bernie Sanders pointing out that her campaign had received millions …

Leid Stories – 11.16.15

Terrorist Attacks in Paris and the Rise of the Orwellian State;
Democratic 2016 Candidates Go Blank on Foreign Policy and Rise of ISIS
French journalist Gilbert Mercier, cofounder and editor in chief of the independent online magazine News Junkie Post, says that Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris that claimed the lives of more than 130 people will be used by France and other global powers to justify unprecedented authoritarian rule. Mercier recently published The Orwellian Empire.
The second Q&A session (not “debate”) with Democratic presidential hopefuls Saturday—featuring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley—astutely avoided making any connection between U.S. foreign policy and the rise of ISIS.

ARUN GUPTA – What Became of Occupy Wall Street?

One of the more puzzling aspects about Occupy Wall Street is not that there was a moment when millions of people hoped or feared it might overthrow the rule of the banks, but that so little is said about it four years on. Its anniversaries come and go without comment: Occupy’s founding on September 17, 2011, the high-water mark of …

GARY LEGUM – Bernie Sanders is in big trouble: You don’t have to be a neoliberal shill to see the cold, hard facts

Bernie Sanders’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination is in serious trouble. Yes, I know we still have almost three months to go before voting gets underway. Yes, I’m aware that all those unscientific click-bait Internet polls showed he “won” the Democratic debate two weeks ago. Yes, I have read all the stories about the size of the crowds he …

In Latest Obamacare Fiasco, Most Low-Income Workers Can’t Afford “Affordable Care Act”

Just ten days ago we described the latest unintended (we hope) consequence of the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare, when Colorado’s largest nonprofit co-op health insurer and participant in that state’s insurance exchange, Colorado HealthOP, announcing it was abruptly shutting down ahead of the November 1 start of enrollment for 2016, forcing 80,000 Coloradans to find a new insurer for 2016. …

Matt Taibbi – Rupert Murdoch Is Deviant Scum

t all comes back to Rupert Murdoch. As multiple recent news stories have proven, the 2016 presidential race is fast becoming a referendum on the News Corp CEO and reigning media gorgon. The two top candidates in the Republican field are a Fox News contributor (Ben Carson opened his Fox career two years ago comparing Obama to Lenin) and a onetime …

Gleb Tsipursky – The reality TV star and first-rate attention getter knows how to manipulate the media — and our emotions

Donald Trump will be the Republican presidential nominee — at least, if all the media attention paid to his candidacy has anything to do with primacy and caucus results. A recent analysis found that he has received over 50 percent of the summer media coverage of Campaign 2016. Yet Trump’s position in the polls for the Republican nomination is far lower …