Leid Stories – 11.09.15

Netanyahu’s Back; This Time He’s Looking to Bag $40 Billion in Free Money

City Council of Hamtramck, Detroit, Now Majority-Muslim—A First in U.S.

Ferguson Looks to Restore Trust with ‘Old-Style’ Policing

He’d brazenly interfered in U.S. domestic affairs when he hijacked a joint session of Congress on March 3 to urge legislators to scuttle U.S. and international negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program. He and several of his senior advisers have spoken, and continue to speak, rather disparagingly of President Barack Obama and his administration. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s back in Washington today, and he’s looking for a $40-billion handout in military aid.

Hamtramck, a small city within Detroit, Michigan, made big news last week. With elections last week, it now boasts a majority-Muslim City Council—a first in the United States.

The City of Ferguson, Missouri, is trying to heal longstanding rifts between the community and cops with “old-style policing,” Interim Police Chief Andre Anderson told locals Saturday.

Stephen Lendman – House Adopts Anti-Palestinian Resolution, Sustains “Israel’s Right to commit the Highest Crimes”

 On Tuesday, a one-sided bipartisan non-binding House resolution with 71 co-sponsors was adopted by voice vote, no opposition registered. The entire process on an issue this sensitive took 30 minutes, no debate needed. Rubber-stamp approval sufficed, more proof showing Palestinians are on their own, sustained resistance their only recourse. Changing the deplorable status quo is impossible any other way. Neocon …

Leid Stories – 11.05.15

Who’s In, Who’s Out?: Debating U.S. Immigration Policy and ‘Reform’
There is no unanimity of agreement on just what U.S. immigration policy should be. There absolutely is agreement, however, that the U.S. immigration system is broken and in dire need of repair.
Immigration has become a hot-button issue in the current political season—complete with blatantly xenophobic, racist undertones—but we are no closer to sane policy and much-demanded “reform.”
Leid Stories encourages a discussion among listeners on what immigration is/should be, its impact and special challenges, and what might work as improvements to current policies.

MICHAEL D. SHEAR & DAVID M. HERSZENHORN – Government Set to Default Weeks Earlier Than Forecast

WASHINGTON — As the government nears a potentially devastating default, the White House and congressional leaders have begun bipartisan talks aimed at reaching a two-year budget deal, seizing on what could be their final chance at consensus before Speaker John A. Boehner’s exit ushers in what is expected to be more combative leadership in the House. The opening of negotiations, …

Michael Winship – Congress Is a Confederacy of Dunces

Already we’re deep into September and Congress has reconvened in Washington, prompting many commentators to compare its return after summer’s recess to that of fresh-faced students coming back to school, sharpening their pencils, ready to learn, be cooperative and prepared for something new. For this particular Congress to cooperate and do something new would require a miracle on the order …

The Great Game in Afghanistan (Twenty-First-Century Update)

Call it an irony, if you will, but as the Obama administration struggles to slow down or halt its scheduled withdrawal from Afghanistan, newly elected Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is performing a withdrawal operation of his own. He seems to be in the process of trying to sideline the country’s major patron of the last 13 years — and as happened in Iraq after …

AIPAC Busting up Peace Efforts

Early in the morning of March 3, on AIPAC’s national lobby day and just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was set to address the joint session of Congress, AIPAC President Robert Cohen, along with the group’s Policy Director and two associates, briskly approached the Congressional office of Speaker of the House John Boehner. To their horror, they found the …

Official Washington’s Delusions on Delusions

The chasm between reality and the U.S. political/media elite continues to widen with Official Washington’s actions toward Iran and Russia making “the world’s sole remaining superpower” look either like a Banana Republic (on Iran) or an Orwellian Dystopia (regarding Russia). On Iran and the international negotiations to rein in its nuclear program, the American people witnessed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu …

Leid Stories – 03.06.15

Mutually Assured Deception: Why Netanyahu’s Nuclear Arsenal Is Not Up for Debate in Congress 50 Years Later, Edmund Pettus Bridge Still Spans Two Americas, Separate and Unequal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in effect delivered a warning to the United States in his diplomacy-wrecking speech before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday: End all talks with Iran on its nuclear …

The Real Story on Iran, US, China and Russia

The real story is, and will continue to be, how Iran, the key power in Southwest Asia, is about to be positioned in the nonstop complex ballet between the US, Russia and China. That’s one of the key vectors of the New Great Game in Eurasia. The real story was never about how warmonger Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, a foreign …