Thirdeye @189–
You’re likely correct about Hannity. However, what’s important was his nice dissertation and the links he used, for all those components do amount to a massive Deep State Mafia that his viewers are now aware of whereas they were previously ignorant–The cat’s out of the bag. And what’s most important is the conclusion that the Rule of Law isn’t being evenly applied when it is imperative. There’s a reason why I invoked the failure to prosecute the Golpistas of the 1933 coup attempt (There was also a concerted effort by the day’s media to cover it all up, perhaps at FDR’s behest; Wikipedia’s article on subject) since it represents a failure of the law to be equally applied then, and been repeated numerous times since.
Law ought to be apolitical and openly supportive and protective of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and thus favor nobody, yet everybody. Since its inception, the United States has been involved in a series of moral and legal quandaries that have led to its current Outlaw status–the illegalities and immoral actions related to those quandaries have built on themselves over the years to the point where much of what’s done in Washington DC is illegal and immoral, yet is almost never remarked upon by media or greatly protested by the citizenry. Trump’s illegalities and the illegalities aimed at Trump seem to be awakening the public at long last to this very big, longstanding problem that too many aren’t willing to admit exists. Given the USA’s rhetoric used against many nations, the USA would have to bomb itself back to the Stone Age if it were ever able to recognize itself for what it’s become.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2018 22:48 utc | 204

NYT are say Mattis wanted congress to decide on the Syria strike.
What would have resulted the issue had gone to congress?
Both parties in congress and senate are near unanimous in passing sanction after sanction on Russia. Most want to see the Syrian government destroyed and Syria turned into another Libya. None that I know of had any problems with Obama’s strike on Deir Ezzor.

Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Apr 18 2018 23:06 utc | 206

Peter AU 1 @204–
Yes, the unilateral breaking of International and Domestic Law is a bipartisan guilt bordering on madness that’s been ongoing since the nation’s inception and is seemingly without end. Imagine a Hitlerian figure running rampant since 1776 whose genocidal focus was on the native inhabitants and imported African slaves instead of Jews with the dream of global rule for his Chosen by God Exceptional white Protestant people with that figure’s image evolving over time, but not his deeds. Or am I being too harsh?

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 18 2018 23:29 utc | 208

@157 karlof1
Fox puzzles me too. I assume none of it could happen without Murdoch’s permission. And Murdoch is quintessentially a tabloid seller in the marketplace, so I don’t look for any high philosophy there. He may, as some have suggested, simply see how the wind blows for his audience, and has set full sail accordingly. A kind of populism? Don’t know. War between oligarchs? Don’t quite get it.
Thanks for the history of Wallace and the era. It’s a very workable perspective to date this modern age as launching during WWII. You ended your comment with the enemy defined as Corporatism.
That’s a more realistic enemy than the enemy theorized by liberal and conservative against each other. On reflection I do think that leanings to liberal or conservative are identifiable positions, but they give us different results as the pendulum swings, so they’re not enduring terms for the real struggle.
I find it valuable to see the real struggle as rich against poor. Corporatism against the Common Man. Predator and prey but within the farming situation of modern “civilization” rather more than the wild, jungle setting that we see emerge when the privileged don’t get their way. When Russia defies them, or when China’s socialist revolution persists in blazing its own trail, or when Cuba refuses to be subjugated.
Or when their control slips and their shoddy tools of propaganda and subterfuge are shown to be mere rags, that the emperor thought he was wearing.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 19 2018 0:10 utc | 210

peter @204
not sure obama approved the deir ezzor attack
Pat Lang says it was Centcom
As for Mattis and Congress, I am glad if he wanted to actually followed what is required by the Constitution.
The result might have been approval as you say, but that would have taken a couple days and in that time OPCW would have been there inspecting. That would have been a lot better than the premature bombing which greatly complicated the inspection and gave iFUKUS the opportunity to destroy evidence.
A vote in Congress would have also given voters a chance to know who the warmongers and peacemakers are.

Posted by: mauisurfer | Apr 19 2018 0:25 utc | 212

@27 fx
That’s an utterly brilliant news clip in your YouTube link – thank you! I recommend it to all. 5 minutes of enormous satisfaction, what fun those Russian news people were having with the fact that the UK sub couldn’t launch its 20 cruise missiles because it was being dogged by 2 Russian subs – practically silent “black hole” submarines that generate 30 dB of noise, less than the lady commentator was making in her presentation, as she said.
It was Crazy Eddie meets Crazy Ivan.
And the Australian news report is so saturated in bullshit that it was difficult to scan but I got enough to see the propaganda denials and the fear underneath it.
~~
And I didn’t read the French piece linked earlier, but did I understand it right that the French couldn’t fire because of malfunction? And now this, that the Brits couldn’t fire because the Russians wouldn’t let them?
One day the book will be written detailing the hidden battles and silent failures of these days. I will probably buy that book, with some of my hard-earned Yuan.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 19 2018 0:29 utc | 214

Can b, or whoever, remove my last comment from spam purgatory?

Posted by: Jesrad | Apr 19 2018 0:45 utc | 216

Someone earlier mentioned the carrier group entering the Med. That group is led by the USS Harry S. Truman and it was scheduled to depart the week before whatever happened. BUT it was scheduled and announced to the crews a year ago and departed on time.
I have a good friend who daughter is on one of those ships and she and all of the others were in Norfolk for almost two years while that ship was retrofitted and modernized but again, they were told a year prior to departure when they were leaving and their final destination is the Persian Gulf.

Posted by: Foggy World | Apr 19 2018 2:12 utc | 218

“The delay for the OPCW’s FFM team to enter #Duma & commence their investigation, is at the request of The United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS).”
Great thread here: https://mobile.twitter.com/halajaber/status/986685220282863616
Just as they were getting ready to investigate, the UNDSS who must clear the sites beforehand gets shot at..

Posted by: Lozion | Apr 19 2018 3:23 utc | 220

@ karorf1 157
In my opinon a very precise analasys of the current US and Russian political systems.
Well written and thought out.

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Apr 19 2018 5:01 utc | 222

ben 179. I doubt -US retiring hegemony- will happen though.
Thierry Meyssan’s latest piece, title: “Washington forces its allies to accept a bi-polar world.”
TM imputes more agency and smart calculation to DT than I would. I see the present situation (US PTB and its various / other factions) as very indeterminate and chaotic, which gives rise to unexpected results. Ex.: Did DT predict that the ‘strikes’ on Syria would not work out as planned? Probably not. But bang off (sic) after them he floats another version of US go home – come home from his pov -, coopting suppletive Arab forces (good luck with that btw), and refusing to sanction Russia further / extra. He keeps returning to his ‘basic instincts’, probably to the scornful despair (or worse moves) of those around him.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article200729.html
WJ 184, Russia quixotic. to convince the international community that the Skripal hoax was in fact a hoax perpetrated by the U.K was indeed out of character and unexpected (imho). (Usual: request enquiry, etc. then .. ignore.) So there must be something going on that we can’t see. The Russians are extremely angry, understandably so, Putin as Hitler…that may go down in history as the ultimate insult, but not a (proximal) reason for Lavrov’s statements re. BZ/ Spiez/ etc.

Posted by: Noirette | Apr 19 2018 14:51 utc | 224

The DNC has filed a lawsuit against Trump and Russia for conspiring against Hillary Clinton. Words fail me.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-20/democratic-party-sues-russia-trump-wikileaks-conspiring-hurt-hillary-2016-election

Posted by: Timothy Hagios | Apr 20 2018 16:24 utc | 226