Leid Stories

Bernie Sanders, the two-term Independent-Democratic U.S. senator from Vermont, yesterday announced he’ll kick off in June his campaign seeking a third six-year term. A presidential run, which many Sanders supporters were hoping for, is not in the cards, the 76-year-old progressive said. Rather, he will continue pushing a progressive agenda.

Sanders desires to continue in politics but only in a fluid relationship with the Democratic Party. Both sides lose with this arrangement, says Leid Stories, but the Democratic Party and the people’s political agenda suffers even more.

We were warned, even before his election, about unfairly judging President Donald J. Trump. Give the guy a break, they said. He’s new to the job, and it won’t be easy to “drain the swamp” with an entrenched system of bureaucrats and the “deep state” against him. Besides, he’s not a career politician, and to make good on his promises he’ll have to schmooze leaders in both parties, and he hasn’t exactly endeared himself to them.

But candidate Trump and new president Trump vowed to “make America great again.” His endless tweets avow how well he’s doing. Incredible success with everything, he says. Yuuge! And there’ll be more success, if only his critics and other impediments to progress would get out of his way.

Today, Leid Stories asks listeners: Is it still too early to judge President Trump and his administration?

Your opinions and ideas are so important, they’re the reason for “Free Your Mind Friday,” our weekly open forum.

Leid Stories listeners and fans enthusiastically debate the issues of the day, or introduce other topics they believe to be worthy of consideration and debate. It’s an exciting intellectual mashup.

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Gina Haspel, the President Donald Trump-backed acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, appears very likely to get the top job. After a week of hearings, the Senate Intelligence Committee takes a preliminary closed-session vote on her appointment today, with the full Senate then taking a final confirmation vote by week’s end.

Since May 9, when the Senate Intelligence Committee began questioning Haspel, it was clear that “national security” concerns would not allow Haspel to be specific about her CIA career and her key role in running secret prisons (called “black sites”) in several locations that specialized in “enhanced interrogation” of alleged terrorists.

Leid Stories discusses the flimsy pretend hearing that will result in Haspel’s appointment as CIA director.

Today is a great day of irony and contrast in Israel—the way it’s been since 1948. The decimated Palestinian population somberly commemorates Yawm an-Nakba, the Day of the Catastrophe, marking the anniversary of this day in 1948 when more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and forced to flee their ancestral land. It also is a festive day, for the nation today called Israel—Palestine, up until 70 years ago—was born out of war.

Today’s observances take place against a backdrop of blood and brutality, as Palestinians bury their dead—58 of them, including children, according to reports—who through protest were calling attention to the decades of suffering they have endured under apartheid Israeli rule and control.

Gilbert Mercier is the founding editor in chief of News Junkie Post. He also is an international journalist, photojournalist and filmmaker, and author of The Orwellian Empire, about the ravages of corporatism. He joins Leid Stories to discuss the larger picture of yesterday’s government-directed massacre.